EP4631304A1

EP4631304A1 - Uncoordinated spatial reuse pathloss estimation

Info

Publication number: EP4631304A1
Application number: EP23900083.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Li-Hsiang Sun; Pochun FANG; Yonggang Fang; James Chih-Shi Yee
Original assignee: Mediatek Inc; MediaTek Inc
Current assignee: Mediatek Inc; MediaTek Inc
Priority date: 2022-12-09
Filing date: 2023-12-08
Publication date: 2025-10-15
Also published as: CN120092487A; WO2024120515A1

Abstract

Techniques pertaining to uncoordinated spatial reuse pathloss estimation are described. The apparatus stores, in a physical (PHY) header of an ongoing physical protocol data unit (PPDU), information that includes at least one estimated interference value of at least one interference to one or more wireless communication devices that results from a transmission link, and a tolerable interference value for an interference that is tolerable by a receiving wireless communication device. The apparatus then transmits the ongoing PPDU to at least a receiving wireless communication device. The various interference values may be derived using a pathloss estimation protocol.

Description

UNCOORDINATED SPATIAL REUSE PATHLOSS ESTIMATION

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION
The present disclosure is part of a non-provisional patent application claiming the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/386,692, filed 09 December 2022, the content of which herein being incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is generally related to wireless communications and, more particularly, to Spatial Reuse (SR) to maximize the use of parallel communications in Wi-Fi communications.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.
Coordinated Spatial Reuse (SR) is currently a main topic for Wi-Fi 8, the next generation of Wi-Fi and a successor to the IEEE 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) standard. Coordinated SR is directed to the coordination of SR between two access points (APs) for packet transmission. Uncoordinated SR encompasses SR operations that fall under IEEE 802.11ax. Generally speaking, there are two main ideas in uncoordinated SR. One concept in uncoordinated SR is the reduction of transmission power level based on Overlapping BSSs (OBSS/Preamble-Detection (OBSS-PD) ) . For example, when a second device detects that a first device is transmitting a signal, the second device may reduce its transmission power level, in which the reduction may be at least in the amount of OBSS_PD_level –OBSS_PD_min, in which the transmission power level will be below in the OBSS-PD detection threshold. Another concept in uncoordinated SR is Parametrized Spatial Reuse (PSR) , which is based on the received power level at an access point (AP) . PSR enables the reduction of transmission power level such that the received interference power level at an AP is less than an “acceptable receiver interference level_AP” after the estimated pathloss to the interfered AP. For example, in IEEE 802.11ax, an AP may send a trigger message that causes a station to in turn send an uplink transmission. If an additional transmitter wants to transmit on top of such an uplink transmission, the additional transmitter will also receive the trigger message. Accordingly, the additional transmitter may also use the power level of the trigger message to determine how much power to send on top of the uplink transmission so as not to interfere with the AP. However, there are some factors that these concepts do not take into consideration for the purpose of uncoordinated SR. Therefore, there is a need for improvements to the implementation of uncoordinated SR in wireless communications.

SUMMARY

The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce concepts, highlights, benefits and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. Select implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Thus, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An objective of the present disclosure is to provide schemes, concepts, designs, techniques, methods, and apparatuses pertaining to improvements in the implementation of uncoordinated SR in wireless communications. For example, under IEEE 802.11ax, a first station (STAx) may be sending an uplink transmission to an access point (APx) that includes ongoing physical protocol data units (PPDUs) , and a second station (STAy) that is communicating with a second AP (APy) may attempt to not interfere with STAx. However, STAy may not be aware of how much APy is being interfered with by the uplink transmission from STAx to APx. As a result, even if STAy attempts to perform SR with APy by sending an SR PPDU to APy, APy may be unable to successfully receive the SR transmission (SR PPDU) from STAy due to the interference from the ongoing PPDU of the uplink transmission from STAx to APx. Additionally, APy may be busy communicating with an additional station besides STAy. In such a scenario, such a communication may also interfere with the SR transmission from STAy to APy, resulting in APy being unable to receive the SR transmission from STAy. Thus, since a station that is attempting SR under IEEE 802.11ax may lack input from an AP that it is in communication with, the SR may not be optimal. Furthermore, there is a lack of quality of service (QoS) information in PPDUs. For example, a station may operate under the assumption that PPDUs its transmissions may interfere with are generally best effort PPDUs that are not latency sensitive. As a result, the station may assume that such PPDUs may simply be re-transmitted by another station if they are interfered with by the station’s transmission. However, the PPDUs that are transmitted by the other station may in fact be latency-sensitive PPDUs. In some additional instances, there may be multiple stations (e.g., STAy1 –STAyn) that attempt to perform SR when STAx is sending an uplink transmission to APx by simultaneously sending SR transmissions to APy. However, such simultaneous SR transmission may cause interference to the uplink transmission from STAx to APx to exceed an acceptable amount and cause failure of the uplink transmission.
Lastly, in another scenario, STAx and STAy may be in different basic service sets (BSSs) . Since BSSs are using the same primary channel (P-ch) in such a scenario, STAx and STAy may be communicating with APx and APy, respectively, via the same P-ch. However, if STAy determines that the P-ch is busy, then STAy may switch to a secondary channel (S-ch) to communicate with APy. In some instances, APy may not be expecting such a switch to the S-ch by STAy because APy normally monitors communication on the P-ch. Thus, the switching of communication from the P-ch to the S-ch by STAy may not be detected by APy. Furthermore, the transmission by STAy on the S-ch may still cause adjacent channel interference to the communication between APx and STAx on the P-ch if the transmission power level of STAy on the S-sch is too high. Additionally, when STAx is located relatively close to APy, the interference from any transmission of STAx on the P-ch may nevertheless spill over to the S-ch used by STAy. Accordingly, when STAy wants to perform SR, it should ideally use a transmission power level that is sufficiently high to overcome the spillover interference from the P-sch but should not interfere with the P-sch itself. In other words, an SR mechanism is needed to handle interference on adjacent channels as well as on the same channel. Thus, it is believed that various schemes proposed herein may address or otherwise alleviate these aforementioned issue (s) .
In one aspect, a method may include storing, in a physical (PHY) header of an ongoing physical protocol data unit (PPDU) , information that includes at least one estimated interference value of at least one interference to one or more wireless communication devices that results from a transmission link, and a tolerable interference value for an interference that is tolerable by a receiving wireless communication device. The method may also include transmitting, from a transmitting wireless communication device, the ongoing PPDU to at least the receiving wireless communication device.
In another aspect, an apparatus may include a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor may store, in a PHY header of an ongoing physical protocol data unit (PPDU) , information that includes at least one estimated interference value of at least one interference to one or more wireless communication devices that results from a transmission link, and a tolerable interference value for an interference that is tolerable by a receiving wireless communication device. The processor may also transmit the ongoing PPDU to at least the receiving wireless communication device.
It is noteworthy that, although the description provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies, networks and network topologies such as, Wi-Fi, the proposed concepts, schemes and any variation (s) /derivative (s) thereof may be implemented in, for and by other types of radio access technologies, networks and network topologies such as, for example and without limitation, Bluetooth, ZigBee, 5^th Generation (5G) /New Radio (NR) , Long-Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, Internet-of-Things (IoT) , Industrial IoT (IIoT) and narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) . Thus, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the present disclosure. The drawings illustrate implementations of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is appreciable that the drawings are not necessarily in scale as some components may be shown to be out of proportion than the size in actual implementation to clearly illustrate the concept of the present disclosure.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example network environment in which various solutions and schemes in accordance with the present disclosure may be implemented.
FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example scenario for implementing a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example scenario for implementing a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
FIG. 4 is a diagram of an example scenario for implementing a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
FIG. 5 is a diagram of a mechanism for performing pathloss estimation when a station receives response messages simultaneously from multiple access points (APs) .
FIG. 6 is a diagram of the use of implicit power control via pathloss estimation.
FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example scenario for implementing a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
FIG. 8 is a diagram of an example scenario for implementing a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
FIG. 9 is a diagram of an example scenario for implementing a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example communication system in accordance with various implementations of the present disclosure.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an example process in accordance with various implementations of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matters are disclosed herein. However, it shall be understood that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely illustrative of the claimed subject matters which may be embodied in various forms. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided so that the description of the present disclosure is thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description below, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments and implementations.
Overview
Implementations in accordance with the present disclosure relate to various techniques, methods, schemes and/or solutions pertaining to improvements in the implementation of uncoordinated SR in wireless communications. According to the present disclosure, a number of possible solutions may be implemented separately or jointly. That is, although these possible solutions may be described below separately, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 in which various solutions and schemes in accordance with the present disclosure may be implemented. FIG. 1 -FIG. 11 illustrate examples of implementation of various proposed schemes in network environment 100 in accordance with the present disclosure. The following description of various proposed schemes is provided with reference to FIG. 1 -FIG. 11.
Referring to FIG. 1, network environment 100 may include at least a STAx 110 communicating wirelessly with an APx 112, and a STAy 114 communicating wirelessly with an APy 116. In some instances, STAx 110 and STAy 114 may be in the same basic service set (BSS) as described in [0036] . In other instances, The STAx 110 and STAy 114 may be in different BSSs in accordance with one or more IEEE 802.11 standards, such that STAx 110 and APx 112 are in a first BSS, and STAy 114 and APy 116 are in a second BSS. As shown in FIG. 1, STAx 110 may be sending an uplink transmission to APx 112 that includes an ongoing PPDU 118. Further, STAy 114, which is communicating with APy 116, may be attempting to minimize interference to the uplink transmission between STAx 110 and APx 112 by performing SR via the sending of an SR PPDU 120 to APy 116.
In such an instance, the PHY header 122 of the ongoing PPDU 118 of STAx 110 may be configured to contain information, such as P1 (x) , P2 (x) , and TT (x) , that assists STAy 114 in performing the SR. In various instances, P1 (x) may indicate interference to one or more known OBSS APs and/or stations (STAs) by the ongoing PPDU 118. P2 (x) may indicate the tolerable interference that can be tolerated by the receiver (e.g., APx 112) of the ongoing PPDU, and TT (x) may include a priority threshold of the ongoing PPDU 118. Thus, if another PPDU has a higher priority than the priority threshold of the ongoing PPDU 118, then the other PPDU can be transmitted on top of the ongoing PPDU 118. In some cases, the PHY header 122 of the ongoing PPDU 118 may further include a punctured resource element pattern for the PPDU. For example, not every symbol or tone of the ongoing PPDU 118 may be occupied with energy. The punctured resource element (RE) pattern may be used to show the tones and/or symbols in the ongoing PPDU 118 that contain energy as well as not contain energy. For example, a RE in the punctured RE pattern may have a tone index k and/or a symbol number n that indicates a resource is not transmitted by the ongoing PPDU 118 but is instead transmitted by another PPDU, such as an SR PPDU. Thus, a station, e.g., STAy 114, may use the punctured RE pattern to determine whether there is already an SR PPDU being transmitted.
As a result, if the station (e.g., STAy 114) detects that there is energy in the tones and/or symbols of the ongoing PPDU 118 that are not supposed to contain energy, then the other station can assume that an additional station may be already performing SR because an SR PPDU is already being transmitted, and cease performing SR to avoid having multiple stations simultaneously trying to perform SR.
In this way, a station (e.g., the STAy 114) is only permitted to send an SR PPDU if its priority is higher than the priority threshold of the ongoing PPDU 118 and interference from sending of the SR PPDU 120 does not exceed (i.e., is less than or equal to) the tolerable interference value of the interference that can be tolerated by the receiver (e.g., APx 112) of the ongoing PPDU 118, as indicated in P2 (x) . Nevertheless, even if these conditions are satisfied, the station may nevertheless cease sending the SR PPDU if the punctured RE pattern of the ongoing PPDU 118 indicates that another station is already transmitting an SR PPDU.
Thus, based on information contained in the PHY header 122, STAy 114 may determine whether a particular power level at which the transmission of the SR PPDU 120 to APy 116, taking into account pathloss (PL) and noise, is sufficient to overcome the interference causing by the uplink transmission from STAx 110 to APx 112 while not causing interference to APx 112 to exceed an interference threshold, exists. For example, if STAy 114 is able to ascertain such a transmission power level, and the priority of the SR PPDU 120 is higher than the priority threshold of the ongoing PPDU 118, STAy 114 may proceed with the transmission of the SR PPDU 120 at the particular transmission power level. In another example, if STAy 114 is able to ascertain such a transmission power level, the priority of the SR PPDU 120 is higher than the priority threshold of the ongoing PPDU 118, and no SR PPDU is already being transmitted by another station, STAy 114 may proceed with the transmission of the SR PPDU 120 at the particular transmission power level.
For STAx 110 to provide P1 (x) and P2 (x) in the PHY header 122 of the ongoing PPDU 118, STAx 110 may need to determine the pathloss between itself and APx 112 and APy 116 via a pathloss estimation protocol. As shown in FIG. 2, STAx 110 may send a trigger message 210 to APx 112 to request a reply from APx 112, in which the trigger message 210 may also request APy 116 to reply to the trigger message. The trigger message 210 may notify APy 116 to reply on a single channel, such as the P-ch, and notify APx 112 to reply on multiple channels, such as in both the P-ch and the S-ch. Based on the reply from both APx 112 and APy 116, STAx 110 may estimate the pathloss from both APs and use the pathloss information to derive the values for P1 (x) and P2 (x) and populate the values of the P1 (x) and P2 (x) into the PHY header 122 of the ongoing PPDU 118.
Furthermore, while both APx 112 and APy 116 are transmitting response messages, i.e., response messages 212 and 214, respectively, in reply to the trigger message 210, both STAx 110 and STAy 114 may estimate the pathloss towards both APx 112 and APy 116. In this way, STAy 114 on the S-ch may use the information in the PHY header 122 of the ongoing PPDU 118 to determine that it should not exceed on the P-ch used by APx 112 the value of P2 (x) in its transmission. Additionally, because STAy 114 is transmitting on an adjacent channel, STAy 114 may also add the pathloss value that it estimated from the response messages to a power spectral density (PSD) mask value, i.e., TX mask value, of the adjacent channel (e.g., S-ch) as an effective pathloss to the adjacent channel receiver APx 112 before determining that it should not exceed the value of P2 (x) . Furthermore, STAy 114 may determine an effective interference from STAx 110 to APy 116 from the the value of P1 (x) the amount of the interference APy 116 may receive on the P-ch, and determine based on the PSD mask the interference APy 116 may receive on the S-ch. Accordingly, STAy 114 may determine, after its pathloss value estimate to APy 116 is completed, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) associated with one or more transmission power levels, and then select a transmission power level to transmit the SR PPDU 120.
Accordingly, the SR PPDU 120 may be power controlled based on pathloss estimates derived from a response message (e.g., a clear-to-send (CTS) frame) . For example, if the power level is too high, P-ch (ongoing PPDU 118) is interfered, P_tx-PL (STAy, APx) -M<P2 (x) . On the other hand, if the power level is too low, S-ch (SR-PPDU 120) is interfered, P_tx-PL (STAy, APy) ≥ P1 (x) -M+target SNR, in which PL = estimated PL (dB) , and M is the absolute value of transmission (TX) mask at a neighbor channel in dB. The power of shaded portion of PPDU 214 P_y>0 indicates to STAy 114 that APy 116 listens at S-ch. The method of determining the shaded portion of power is described in [0041] . Alternatively, P1 (x) -M, P2 (x) +M are indicated as the value P1 (x) and P2 (x) fields directly if it has been agreed that the STAy utilizes these fields for S-ch access.
In various instances, the P2 (x) may be derived by STAx 110 based on an implicit input from APx 112. The input may include a signal-to-Interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) at the APx 112, in which theand SNR is an estimation without SR interference from STAx 110. Assuming I is interference from the SR PPDU 118, n is noise/safety margin (e.g., to account for interference and other losses not generated by SR PPDU) known by APx 112, thenI=Kn, in which K is related to a target modulation and coding scheme (MCS) adjustment to a baseline MCS that is used without SR interference, and the SNR is used to select a baseline MCS. For example, K>0 corresponds to a lower MCS than a baseline and a larger interference at APx 112. Thus, K may act as an upper bound on the transmission power level of STAy 114. For example, if K is set to a smaller value, then STAy 114 may have less opportunity to transmit, and the SR opportunity of STAy 114 is likewise reduced. Conversely, if K is set to a larger value, then STAy 114 may have more opportunity to transmit, and the SR opportunity of STAy 114 is likewise increased. In this way, I may be signaled as P2 (x) in the PHY header 122 by STAx 110.
It will be appreciated that while the group 216 of SR PPDU and block acknowledgments (BAs) is illustrated in FIG. 2 as being sent via the S-ch, the group 216 may be sent on a third neighboring channel which previously did not carry the trigger and response messages in other embodiments without affecting the use of the trigger and response messages on the S-Ch and/or the P-ch to perform pathloss estimation and power control.
FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example scenario that is a variation of the scenario shown in FIG. 2. While FIG. 2 illustrates a scenario in which two stations (STAx 110 and STAy 114) are transmitting to two separate APs (APx 112 and APy 116) , FIG. 3 illustrates the application of the SR techniques described in FIGS. 1 and 2 to a scenario in which the two stations (e.g., STAx 110 and STAy 114) are transmitting to the same AP (e.g., APx 112) . In such a scenario, the SR PPDU 118 is also power controlled based on path loss estimates derived from a response message (e.g., a CTS frame) and the pathloss estimation protocol is used to prevent adjacent channel interference.
It will be appreciated that while the group 310 of the SR PPDU and the block acknowledgement (BA) is illustrated in FIG. 3 as being sent via the S-ch, the group 310 may be sent on a third neighboring channel which previously did not carry the trigger and response messages in other embodiments without affecting the use of the trigger and response messages on the S-Ch and/or the P-ch to perform pathloss estimation and power control.
Likewise, FIG. 4 illustrates the application of the SR techniques described in FIGS. 1 and 2 to a scenario in which both APs (e.g., APx 112 and APy 116) are notified to reply to the trigger message on one or both channels, i.e., P-ch and S-ch. In such a scenario, the trigger message may specify which AP sends a response message with a corresponding cyclic shift on a corresponding channel, as well as the transmission power level of the response message. For a non-co-channel SR case, the trigger message may further specify which unused S-ch (if any is available) to be used by which OBSS AP. Further, the inclusion of a TX mask value as an additional pathloss value may be eliminated for the purpose of determining the pathloss estimate for the scenario illustrated in FIG. 4.
Accordingly, for the ongoing PPDU to APx 112 as shown in FIG. 4, STAy 114 may send the SR PPDU 120 to APy 116 when: (1) there are feasible (P_r, y (y) , MCS) with P_r, y (y) -P1 (x) >SNR required by the MCS; (2) P_BA, y (y) -P_STA, x (y) >SNR is required for a control response with basic rate MCS, in which STAy 114 may solicit a lower rate BA to satisfy this condition; (3) P_r, y (x) < P2 (x) , P′_BA, y (x) <P2 (x) , in which STAy 114 may solicit a lower power BA to satisfy this condition; (4) the SR PPDU 120 has a higher priority than the priority threshold in the TT (x) ; and (5) the puncture RE of the ongoing PPDU 118 has no significant energy, i.e., no other SR PPDU is being transmitted by another station. Additionally, for similar calculation for SR in the S-ch, all power levels other than P1 (x) , P2 (x) may be reduced by an amount of TX value of the neighbor channel. In the above, P_r, y (y) is the estimated receive power of SR PPDU 120 at APy 116; P_BA, y (y) is the estimated receive power of BA sent by APy 116 at STAy 114; P_STA, x (y) is the receive power of ongoing PPDU 118 at STAy 114; P_r, y (x) is the receive power of SR PPDU 120 at APx 112; and P′_BA, y (x) is the receive power of BA sent by APy 116 at APx 112;
In various embodiments, the use of CTS frames as the response messages is so that legacy stations that are not capable of the pathloss estimation protocol are able to recognize them. For example, in the scenario shown in FIG. 2, a legacy station will always stay on a P-ch trying to transmit to APy 116 and may attempt to perform IEEE 802.11ax SR. Thus, when APy 116 switches to the S-ch to listen, the legacy station may nevertheless still transmit to APy 116 on the P-ch even though APy 116 is not on the P-ch. However, if the response message is a CTS frame, APy 116 may transmit the CTS frame, resulting in a higher receive power at the legacy stations associated with APy 116 to stop the legacy stations from performing the IEEE 802.11ax SR and set the basic network allocation vector (NAV) , thereby preventing the legacy station from transmitting on the P-ch. The CTS frame may also notify a new station that is capable of the pathloss estimate protocol that the APy 116 is ready and has switched to the S-ch. The new station may recognize the APy 116 transmitting the CTS frame via the method described in [0041] .
FIG. 5 illustrates a mechanism for performing pathloss estimation when a station receives response messages simultaneously from multiple APs. For example, two APs may send response messages that are on top of each other, and a station may need to determine how much transmission power is from the first AP and how much transmission power is from the second AP to perform pathloss estimation. In instances in which the response messages are CTS frames, the CTS frames may contain long training fields. In each long training field, there is an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) pilot with a specific value for each tone. Since the transmission of each tone transmits a corresponding specific value, the transmission may be converted into a time-domain sequence. Accordingly, when the OFDM pilots are used to estimate channels, the delay spread of an estimated channel will be fairly short, e.g., less than 0.8 microsecond. In comparison, an OFDM symbol is longer, such as 3.2 microsecond. In other words, the delay spread is only a fraction of the OFDM symbol. Thus, when the time-domain symbols of the time-domain sequence are cyclically shifted by half a symbol at a transmitter, the channel peaks estimated by a receiver using the unshifted sequence may be moved from their original locations to half symbol locations. Accordingly, by using these properties, a station may use the trigger message to direct each AP of the multiple APs to perform different cyclic shifts (e.g., direct APy to shift half a symbol) in order to perform the pathloss estimation. The data field of the frame is cyclic shifted by the same amount as long training field such that the channel estimated by the long training field may be used to receive data field. The data fields of the CTS frames transmitted by APx 112 and APy 116 have the same content, so no collision would happen.
For example, in the context of FIG. 5, an STAx 110 may send a trigger message to APx 112 and APy 116. The trigger message may indicate that on the P-ch, APx 112 is to send a CTS frame having cyclic shift 0 with Power P, and APy 116 is to send a CTS frame having cyclic shift >=32 with power P. The trigger message may further indicate that on the S-ch, APx 112 is to send a CTS frame having cyclic shift 0 with power P’ on I (used for pathloss estimation) , in which P’ is determined locally by APx 112, and APx 112 is to send a CTS frame having cyclic shift >=32 with remaining power P-P’ on Q. The value of P’ may be utilized by APx 112 as implicit power control as described in [0049] .
Accordingly, STAx/y may receive CTS power P_r1 on the P-ch, P_r2 on the S-ch, with estimated noise power n₁ and n₂, such that on the P-ch, the total estimated channel impulse response power is P_I1, and the total estimated channel impulse response power in delay ranges 32～63 is P_I1, 32. Furthermore, on the S-ch, the total estimated channel impulse response power is P_I2, and the total estimated channel impulse response power in delay ranges 0-31 is P_I2, 0. The STAx/y may also estimate receiving (Rx) power from APy per channel asin which the path loss (linear scale) is P/P_y, and estimate Rx power from APx per channel asin which the pathloss (linear scale) is P/P_x. In other words, the ratio of the power contribution from the two APs as determined based on the use of different cyclic shifts and the different power levels may be used by STAx 110 and STAy 114 to calculate the corresponding path loss to each of APx 112 and APy 116.
Returning to FIG. 2, STAy 114 may in some instances attempt to go to S-ch to communicate with APy 116 as a part of SR. However, STAy 114 may not be certain of whether APy 116 is currently on the P-ch or has switched to S-ch in response to a request from STAy 114. However, by observing the transmission power estimated for APy 116 on the P-ch, STAy 114 may determine whether APy 116 has responded to a request (e.g., trigger message 210) from STAx 110 to go to the S-ch. Thus, if STAy 114 determines that APy 116 has switched to the S-ch, STAy 114 may also make the transition to the S-ch. Otherwise, if STAy 114 determines that APy 116 is still on the P-ch, STAy 114 may remain on the P-ch as well. For the case that STAy 114 not able to hear the trigger message from STAx 110, APy may pre-configures its associated STAs (including STAy 114) with a receiver address of the CTS message (APx 112’s address) and the cyclic delay of APy 116 used in the message, for STAy 114 to determine S-ch switching APy 116.
FIG. 6 illustrates the use of implicit power control via pathloss estimation. Implicit power control is the use of response messages by a responder to adjust the transmission power of an initiator that is in communication with the responder. For example, the responder may be suffering from interference that causes the responder to want the initiator to increase its transmission power for an ongoing PPDU. In some instances, the initiator may be a station, and the responder may be an AP. However, in other instances, the initiator may be an AP, and the responder may be a station. At 602, the initiator may send a message 1 (trigger message) requesting that the responder respond with a message 2 (response message) that is transmitted with a specific transmission power (P dBM) , in which dBM is decibel milliwatts (dBm) . The initiator may assume that the noise/interference power experienced by the responder is n1 dBM and send message 1 with power P1 = n1 + SNR_target + PL1. In turn, the responder may send the message 2 to the initiation at the transmission power specified by message 1. The initiator receives message 2 and uses the power (P) transmitted by the responder and the actual power received by the initiator (Pr) to estimate the pathloss.
However, at block 604, if the responder wants the initiator to increase its transmission power due to the presence of noise/interference that is greater than n1 dBM, the responder may intentionally use a transmission power level that is less than the P dBM to transmit message 2. For example, when the noise/interference is n2 dBM, the responder may send message 2 with the power P=P- (n2-n1) dBM, such that the initiator receives the message with the received power Pr2=Pr- (n2-n1) dBM. In turn, the initiator may estimate the fake pathloss value as PL2=P-Pr2=PL1+ (n2-n1) , which is an overestimate, i.e., an estimated pathloss value that is higher than the actual pathloss value.
As a result, at 606, the initiator may subsequently send data to the responder with the power P2=n2+SNR_target + PL1, in which PL+ (n2-n1) is the fake pathloss estimate, and PL1 is the actual pathloss value. In this way, the responder may implicitly adjust the transmission power level of the initiator without transmitting any power adjustment information to the initiator.
In some instances, an AP (e.g., APx 112) may use the implicit power control to increase the noise/safety margin that is represented by n as described in FIG. 2, thereby providing some input to the SR performed by one or more stations (e.g., STAy 114) . For example, in a case in which the transmission power level of a station (e.g., STAx 110) is not limited and the AP is configured to increase the noise/safety margin to a×n, the AP may useIn such a case, the reduced CTS power level may potentially cause both the signal and SR interferences to be a times larger because the estimated pathloss is a times larger, in whichand APx 112’s target SINR is not changed. Nevertheless, the P2 (e.g., P2 (x) ) signaled in an ongoing PPDU is still I=Kn.
In another case in which the transmission power level of a station (e.g., STAx 110) is limited and the AP is configured to increase the noise/safety margin to a×n, the AP may useHowever, assume that STAx 110 can only increase power up to b times larger due to headroom with b<a, and for APx 112 to maintain the target SINR, which may be expressed as: Accordingly, I=zn is signaled as P2 (e.g., P2 (x) ) in the ongoing PPDU’s PHY header, and STAx may calculate the value of z, in which I=azn is the actual possible interference from SR PPDU instead of zn. Furthermore, withz can be determined by α, Kα+α-1=z>0. That is, STAx 110, not knowing APx 112’s actual transmission power P’, can determine its transmission power of ongoing PPDU 118 based on the pathloss estimated assuming APx transmission power being P, and its own power headroom constraint for a target MCS to satisfy K (as described in [0034] ) . And STAx bases on resulting transmission power deficit α (the ratio of actual transmission power of ongoing PPDU 118 to the power needed from the pathloss estimation for the MCS) to calculate and populate the value of the header field P2 (x) to indicate zn in the ongoing PPDU 118. This setting then causes potential SR interference to be adjusted to I=azn to satisfy the same target SNR with the increase of non-SR interference (a×n ) at APx 112.
In this way, APx 112 may use implicit power control to change the transmission power of STAx 110, thereby influencing the determination of the corresponding P2 (x) , and/or indirectly influencing the ability of another station (e.g., STAy) to perform SR.
FIG. 7 illustrates an implementation of the pathloss estimate protocol for uncoordinated SR in a scenario in which APx 112 is sending a transmission downlink to STAx 110 instead of STAx 110 sending a transmission uplink to APx 112 as in FIG. 2. In some instances, the trigger message may be a multi-user (MU) -RTS frame that is sent from APx 112 to STAx 110, and the ongoing PPDU from APx 112 to STAx 110 may be beamformed. The transmission of the response message (e.g., a CTS frame) and the pathloss estimation protocol used may be similar to those described with respect to the earlier scenario described in FIG. 2 in which STAx 110 sends a transmission uplink with the ongoing PPDU to APx 112. However, the differences are that APx 112 performs the functions performed by STAx 110 in the earlier scenario, and STAx 110 performs the functions performed by APx 112. For example, APx 112 and STAy 114 may estimate pathloss, in which APx 112 may use the received response message (e.g., CTS) signal with a spatial filter (e.g., precoding vector to STAx 110 for ongoing PPDU 118) for performing the pathloss estimation. Further, the SR PPDU may end-align with the ongoing PPDU and the BAs may be sent on two different channels because PL (APy, STAx) is unknown. It will be appreciated that while the response messages 710 (e.g., CTS frames) are illustrated as being sent on the P-ch and the response message 712 (e.g., CTS frame) is illustrated as being sent on the S-ch in FIG. 7, it is equally applicable that the response messages 710 are sent via the S-ch and response message 712 is sent via the P-ch in other embodiments. Furthermore, while the group 714 of SR PPDU and BA is illustrated in FIG. 7 as being sent via the S-ch, the group 714 may be sent on a third neighboring channel which previously did not carry the trigger and response messages in other embodiments without affecting the use of the trigger and response messages on the S-Ch and/or the P-ch to perform pathloss estimation and power control.
FIG. 8 illustrates the implementation of the pathloss estimate protocol for uncoordinated SR in a scenario in which APy 116 is sending an SR PPDU via a transmission downlink to STAy 114 instead of STAy 114 sending the SR PPDU via a transmission uplink to APy 116 as in FIG. 2. The transmission uplink may be on the P-ch, and the transmission downlink may be on the S-ch. In such a scenario, STAx 110 may be probing APx 112 and APy 116 with a response message (e.g., a CTS frame) similar to in [0044] , STAs associated to APy may base on the responding message 810 to determine that APy 116 has moved to S-ch. Accordingly, APy 116 may send a second probing that includes a trigger message (e.g., an RTS frame) . Assuming that the pathloss for APx 112 to APy 116 is known, the power level of the trigger message may be controlled such that the P2 (x) indicated in the ongoing PPDU is not violated. Thus, if STAy 114 on the S-ch is not severely interfered with by the ongoing PPDU on the P-ch, then STAy 114 may reply to the trigger message (e.g., RTS frame) with a response message (e.g., a CTS frame) . In turn, APy 116 may send the SR PPDU to STAy 114 to initiate SR. The power level of the CTS signal may be power controlled as the SR PPDU is power controlled in the scenario described in FIG. 2. However, if STAy 114 on the S-ch is severely interfered with by the ongoing PPDU on the P-ch, then no CTS frame is sent by STAy 114. In turn, APy 116 may not send the SR PPDU to STAy 114. It will be appreciated that while the response messages 810 (e.g., CTS frames) are illustrated as being sent on the P-ch and the response message 812 (e.g., CTS frame) is illustrated as being sent on the S-ch in FIG. 8, it is equally applicable that the response messages 810 are sent via the S-ch and response message 812 is sent via the P-ch in other embodiments. Furthermore, while the RTS frames, CTS frames, the group 814 of SR PPDU and/or BAs is illustrated in FIG. 8 as being sent via the S-ch, the RTS frames, CTS frames, and/or group 814 may be sent on a third neighboring channel which previously did not carry the trigger and response messages in other embodiments without affecting the use of the trigger and response messages on the S-Ch and/or the P-ch to perform pathloss estimation and power control.
FIG. 9 illustrates an implementation of the pathloss estimate protocol for uncoordinated SR in a scenario in which APy 116 is sending an SR PPDU via a transmission downlink to STAy 114 as in FIG. 8, but in which the transmissions are being sent simultaneously on both a P-ch and an S-ch. In such a scenario, STAx 110 116 may be probing APx 112 and APy 116 with a response message (e.g., a CTS frame) , Accordingly, APy 116 may send a second probing that includes a trigger message, e.g., a request-to-send (RTS) frame. Assuming that the pathloss for APx 112 to APy 116 is known, the power level of the trigger message (e.g., the RTS frame) may be controlled such that the P2 (x) announced in the ongoing PPDU is not violated. Thus, if STAy 114 is not severely interfered with by the ongoing PPDU, then STAy 114 may reply to the trigger message (e.g., the RTS frame) with a response message (e.g., the CTS frame) . In turn, APy 116 may send the SR PPDU to STAy 114 to initiate SR. The power level of the CTS/BA may be power controlled as the SR PPDU is power controlled in the scenarios described in FIGS. 2 and 4. However, if STAy 114 is severely interfered with by the ongoing PPDU, then no response message (e.g., CTS frame) is sent by STAy 114. In turn, APy 116 may not send the SR PPDU to STAy 114. It will be appreciated that while the response messages 910 (e.g., CTS frames) are illustrated as being sent on the P-ch and the response message 912 (e.g., CTS frame) is illustrated as being sent on the S-ch in FIG. 9, it is equally applicable that the response messages 910 are sent via the S-ch and response message 912 is sent via the P-ch in other embodiments without affecting the use of the trigger and response messages on the S-Ch and/or the P-ch to perform pathloss estimation and power control.
Additionally, it will be appreciated that the techniques described herein may be adopted by the stations and/or the APs in various communication scenarios regardless of whether the ongoing PPDU and the SR PPUD are being sent via transmission uplinks or transmission downlinks between the stations and the APs.
Illustrative Implementations
FIG. 10 illustrates an example system 1000 having at least an example apparatus 1010 and an example apparatus 1020 in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may perform various functions to implement schemes, techniques, processes and methods described herein pertaining to improvements in the implementation of uncoordinated SR in wireless communications, including the various schemes described above with respect to various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above as well as processes described below. For instance, apparatus 1010 may be implemented in STAx 110 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in APx 112, or vice versa.
Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be a part of an electronic apparatus, such as a portable or mobile apparatus, a wearable apparatus, a wireless communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. When implemented in a STA, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in a smartphone, a smart watch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing equipment such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer or a notebook computer. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may also be a part of a machine type apparatus, which may be an IoT apparatus such as an immobile or a stationary apparatus, a home apparatus, a wire communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. For instance, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart fridge, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker or a home control center. When implemented in or as a network apparatus, apparatus 1010 and/or apparatus 1020 may be implemented in a network node, such as an AP in a WLAN.
In some implementations, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips such as, for example and without limitation, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set- computing (CISC) processors. In the various schemes described above, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in or as a STA or an AP. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may include at least some of those components shown in FIG. 10 such as a processor 1012 and a processor 1022, respectively, for example. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may further include one or more other components not pertinent to the proposed scheme of the present disclosure (e.g., internal power supply, display device and/or user interface device) , and, thus, such component (s) of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 are neither shown in FIG. 10 nor described below in the interest of simplicity and brevity.
In one aspect, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more RISC processors or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though a singular term “aprocessor” is used herein to refer to processor 1012 and processor 1022, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 may include multiple processors in some implementations and a single processor in other implementations in accordance with the present disclosure. In another aspect, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 may be implemented in the form of hardware (and, optionally, firmware) with electronic components including, for example and without limitation, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more resistors, one or more inductors, one or more memristors and/or one or more varactors that are configured and arranged to achieve specific purposes in accordance with the present disclosure. In other words, in at least some implementations, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 is a special-purpose machine specifically designed, arranged and configured to perform specific tasks including those pertaining to improvements in the implementation of uncoordinated SR in wireless communications in accordance with various implementations of the present disclosure.
In some implementations, apparatus 1010 may also include a transceiver 1016 coupled to processor 1012. Transceiver 1016 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. In some implementations, apparatus 1020 may also include a transceiver 1026 coupled to processor 1022. Transceiver 1026 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. It is noteworthy that, although transceiver 1016 and transceiver 1026 are illustrated as being external to and separate from processor 1012 and processor 1022, respectively, in some implementations, transceiver 1016 may be an integral part of processor 1012 as a system on chip (SoC) and/or transceiver 1026 may be an integral part of processor 1022 as a SoC.
In some implementations, apparatus 1010 may further include a memory 1014 coupled to processor 1012 and capable of being accessed by processor 1012 and storing data therein. In some implementations, apparatus 1020 may further include a memory 1024 coupled to processor 1022 and capable of being accessed by processor 1022 and storing data therein. Each of memory 1014 and memory 1024 may include a type of random-access memory (RAM) such as dynamic RAM (DRAM) , static RAM (SRAM) , thyristor RAM (T-RAM) and/or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM) . Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 1014 and memory 1024 may include a type of read-only memory (ROM) such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM) , erasable programmable ROM (EPROM) and/or electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM) . Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 1014 and memory 1024 may include a type of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) such as flash memory, solid-state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) , magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) and/or phase-change memory.
Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be a communication entity capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes and without limitation, a description of capabilities of apparatus 1010 or apparatus 1020, as STAx 110, APx 112, STAy 114, and APy 116, is provided below in the context of example process 1100. It is noteworthy that, although a detailed description of capabilities, functionalities and/or technical features of either of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 is provided below, the same may be applied to the other of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 although a detailed description thereof is not provided solely in the interest of brevity. It is also noteworthy that, although the example implementations described below are provided in the context of WLAN, the same may be implemented in other types of networks.
Illustrative Processes
FIG. 11 illustrates an example process 1100 in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Process 1100 may represent an aspect of implementing various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems, and methods described above. More specifically, process 1100 may represent an aspect of the proposed concepts and schemes pertaining to improvements in the implementation of uncoordinated SR in wireless communications. Process 1100 may include one or more operations, actions, or functions as illustrated by one or more of blocks 1110 and 1120. Although illustrated as discrete blocks, various blocks of process 1100 may be divided into additional blocks, combined into fewer blocks, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. Moreover, the blocks/sub-blocks of process 1100 may be executed in the order shown in FIG. 11 or, alternatively in a different order. Furthermore, one or more of the blocks/sub-blocks of process 1100 may be executed repeatedly or iteratively. Process 1100 may be implemented by or in apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 as well as any variations thereof. Solely for illustrative purposes and without limiting the scope, process 1100 is described below in the context of apparatus 1010 and implemented in or as a station (e.g., a wireless communication device) and apparatus 1020 implemented in or as AP of a wireless network such as a WLAN in network environment 100, or vice vera, in accordance with one or more of IEEE 902.11 standards. Process 1100 may begin at block 1110.
At 1110, process 1100 may include processor 1012 of apparatus 1010 storing, in a PHY header of an ongoing physical protocol data unit (PPDU) , information that includes at least one estimated interference value of at least one interference to one or more wireless communication devices that results from a transmission link, and a tolerable interference value for an interference that is tolerable by the receiving wireless communication device. The transmission link is between a transmitting wireless communication device and a receiving wireless communication device. Process 1000 may proceed from 1010 to 1020.
At 1120, process 1100 may include processor 1012 transmitting, from the apparatus, the ongoing PPDU to at least a receiving wireless communication device. The ongoing PPDU may be further transmitted by the transmitting wireless communication device to a first additional wireless communication device. The information in the PHY header is used by the first additional wireless communication device to determine whether to send a SR PPDU to a second additional wireless communication device or to the receiving wireless communication device. In some implementations, the information may further include a priority threshold value of the ongoing PPDU, such that the SR PPDU is sent by the first additional wireless communication device to the second additional wireless communication device or the receiving wireless communication device when the SR PPDU has a higher priority value than the priority threshold value and an interference from the transmitting of the SR PPDU is less than or equal to the tolerable interference value.
In some implementations, prior to the transmitting, process 1100 may additionally include processor 1012 performing certain operations. For instance, process 1100 may include processor 1012 storing, in the PHY header of the ongoing PPDU, a punctured RE pattern for the ongoing PPDU that indicates whether another SR PPDU is already being transmitted. Moreover, process 1100 may include processor 1012 sending a trigger message to the receiving wireless communication device and an additional wireless communication device to request response messages from the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device, estimating, based at least on transmission power levels of the response messages, pathloss values for the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device, and determining the at least one estimated interference value and the tolerable interference value based at least on the pathloss values.
In some implementations, the trigger messages may cause the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device to send response messages on a particular channel with at least one of different cyclic shifts and different transmission power levels. In this way, the response messages are transmitted with a least one of different cyclic shifts and different power levels, wherein a ratio of power contribution as determined based on at least one of the different cyclic shifts and the different power levels is used to calculate the pathloss values for the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device.
In some implementations, the trigger message may include a request that a responding device responds with a response message that has a specific transmission power level, further comprising receiving the response message from the responding device at a particular transmission power level that is intentionally less than the specific transmission power level, in which the particular transmission power level causes an overestimation of a path loss value that affects a determination of at least one estimated interference value that control performance of SR by a wireless communication device.
In various embodiments, the apparatus 1010 may be a STA when the receiving wireless communication device (e.g., apparatus 1020) is an AP. Alternatively, the apparatus 1010 may be the AP when the receiving wireless communication device is the STA. Furthermore, the first additional wireless communication device may be a STA when the second additional wireless communication device is an AP. Alternatively, the first additional wireless communication device may be the AP when the second additional wireless communication device is the STA.
Additional Notes
The herein-described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively "associated" such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as "associated with" each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being "operably connected" , or "operably coupled" , to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being "operably couplable" , to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
Further, with respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
Moreover, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims, e.g., bodies of the appended claims, are generally intended as “open” terms, e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to, ” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least, ” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to, ” etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to implementations containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an, " e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more; ” the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number, e.g., the bare recitation of "two recitations, " without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations. Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc. ” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc. ” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B. ”
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various implementations of the present disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various implementations disclosed herein are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

A method, comprising:

storing, in a physical (PHY) header of an ongoing physical protocol data unit (PPDU) , information that includes at least one estimated interference value of at least one interference to one or more wireless communication devices that results from a transmission link, and a tolerable interference value for an interference that is tolerable by a receiving wireless communication device; and

transmitting, from a transmitting wireless communication device, the ongoing PPDU to at least the receiving wireless communication device.
The method of Claim 1, wherein the transmission link is between the transmitting wireless communication device and the receiving wireless communication device, and wherein the transmitting wireless communication device is a station (STA) when the receiving wireless communication device is an access point (AP) , or the transmitting wireless communication device is the AP when the receiving wireless communication device is the STA.
The method of Claim 2, further comprising transmitting, from the transmitting wireless communication device, the ongoing PPDU to a first additional wireless communication device, wherein the information in the PHY header is used by a first additional wireless communication device to determine whether to send a spatial reuse (SR) PPDU to a second additional wireless communication device or to the receiving wireless communication device.
The method of Claim 3, wherein the information further includes a priority threshold value of the ongoing PPDU, and wherein the SR PPDU is sent by the first additional wireless communication device to the second additional wireless communication device or the receiving wireless communication device when the SR PPDU has a higher priority value than the priority threshold value and an interference from the transmitting of the SR PPDU is less than or equal to the tolerable interference value.
The method of Claim 3, wherein the information further includes a priority threshold value of the ongoing PPDU and a punctured resource element (RE) pattern for the ongoing PPDU that indicates whether another SR PPDU is already being transmitted, wherein the SR PPDU is sent by the first additional wireless communication device to the second additional wireless communication device or the receiving wireless communication device when the SR PPDU has a higher priority value than the priority threshold value, an interference from the transmitting of the SR PPDU is less than or equal to the tolerable interference value, and no other SR PPDU is being transmitted.
The method of Claim 3, wherein the first additional wireless communication device is a station (STA) when the second additional wireless communication device is an access point (AP) , or the first additional wireless communication device is the AP when the second additional wireless communication device is the STA.
The method of Claim 1, further comprising:

sending, from the transmitting wireless communication device, a trigger message to the receiving wireless communication device and an additional wireless communication device to request response messages from the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device;

estimating, based at least on transmission power levels of the response messages, pathloss values for the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device; and

determining the at least one estimated interference value and the tolerable interference value based at least on the pathloss values.
The method of Claim 7, wherein the trigger message causes the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device to send response messages on a particular channel with at least one of different cyclic shifts and different transmission power levels.
The method of Claim 8, wherein a ratio of power contribution as determined based on at least one of the different cyclic shifts and the different power levels of the response messages is used to calculate the pathloss values for the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device.
The method of Claim 7, wherein the sending includes sending the trigger message via at least one of a primary channel (P-ch) or a secondary channel (S-ch) , and wherein the response message is received via at least one of the P-ch or S-ch.
The method of Claim 7, wherein the trigger message includes a request that a responding device respond with a response message that has a specific transmission power level, further comprising receiving the response message from the responding device at a particular transmission power level that is intentionally less than the specific transmission power level, in which the particular transmission power level causes an overestimation of a path loss value that affects a determination of the at least one estimated interference value that control performance of SR by a wireless communication device.
An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly; and

a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform operations comprising:

storing, in a physical (PHY) header of an ongoing physical protocol data unit (PPDU) , information that includes at least one estimated interference value of at least one interference to one or more wireless communication devices that results from a transmission link, and a tolerable interference value for an interference that is tolerable by a receiving wireless communication device; and

transmitting, from the apparatus, the ongoing PPDU to at least the receiving wireless communication device.
The apparatus of Claim 12, wherein the transmission link is between the apparatus and the receiving wireless communication device, and wherein the apparatus is a station (STA) when the receiving wireless communication device is an access point (AP) , or the apparatus is the AP when the receiving wireless communication device is the STA.
The apparatus of Claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to perform operations further comprising transmitting by the apparatus of the ongoing PPDU to a first additional wireless communication device, wherein the information in the PHY header is used by the first additional wireless communication device to determine whether to send a spatial reuse (SR) PPDU to a second additional wireless communication device or to the receiving wireless communication device.
The apparatus of Claim 14, wherein the information further includes a priority threshold value of the ongoing PPDU, and wherein the SR PPDU is sent by the first additional wireless communication device to the second additional wireless communication device or the receiving wireless communication device when the SR PPDU has a higher priority value than the priority threshold value and an interference from the transmitting of the SR PPDU is less than or equal to the tolerable interference value.
The apparatus of Claim 14, wherein the information further includes a priority threshold value of the ongoing PPDU and a punctured resource element (RE) pattern for the ongoing PPDU that indicates whether another SR PPDU is already being transmitted, wherein the SR PPDU is sent by the first additional wireless communication device to the second additional wireless communication device or the receiving wireless communication device when the SR PPDU has a higher priority value than the priority threshold value, an interference from the transmitting of the SR PPDU is less than or equal to the tolerable interference value, and no other SR PPDU is being transmitted.
The apparatus of Claim 14, wherein the first additional wireless communication device is a station (STA) when the second additional wireless communication device is an access point (AP) , or the first additional wireless communication device is the AP when the second additional wireless communication device is the STA.
The apparatus of Claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to perform further operations comprising:

sending a trigger message to the receiving wireless communication device and an additional wireless communication device to request response messages from the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device;

estimating, based at least on transmission power levels of the response messages, pathloss values for the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device; and

determining the at least one estimated interference value and the tolerable interference value based at least on the pathloss values.
The apparatus of Claim 18, wherein the trigger message causes the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device to send response messages on a particular channel with at least one of different cyclic shifts and different transmission power levels, and wherein a ratio of power contribution as determined based on at least one of the different cyclic shifts and the different power levels of the response messages is used to calculate the pathloss values for the receiving wireless communication device and the additional wireless communication device.
The apparatus of Claim 18, wherein the trigger message includes a request that a responding device respond with a response message that has a specific transmission power level, further comprising receiving the response message from the responding device at a particular transmission power level that is intentionally less than the specific transmission power level, in which the particular transmission power level causes an overestimation of a path loss value that affects a determination of the at least one estimated interference value that control performance of SR by a wireless communication device.