KR20160012900A - Method for transmitting and receiving frame in wireless local area network and apparatus for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for transceiving a frame in a wireless local area network (LAN) are disclosed. The method for transmitting a frame comprises the following steps: determining a frame to be transmitted from a first communications protocol-based frame and a second communications protocol-based frame on the basis of at least one from a transmission priority order by a type of a frame, and a resource occupy ratio for each communications protocol; and transmitting the determined frame based on a corresponding communications protocol. Accordingly, a performance of the wireless LAN can be increased.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting / receiving frames in a wireless LAN,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless LAN technology, and more particularly, to a technology for coexistence between a wireless LAN technology and other communication technologies.

With the development of information and communication technology, various wireless communication technologies are being developed. Among them, a wireless local area network (WLAN) may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a portable multimedia player (PMP), a smart phone A smart phone, a tablet PC, or the like, to wirelessly connect to the Internet in a home, an enterprise, or a specific service providing area.

The standard for wireless LAN technology is being developed as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. As the spread of wireless LANs is activated and applications using the wireless LANs are diversified, there is a growing need for new wireless LAN technologies that support higher throughput than existing wireless LAN technologies. Very high throughput (VHT) Wireless LAN technology is a proposed technology to support data rates of over 1Gbps. Among them, the wireless LAN technology according to the IEEE 802.11ac standard is a technology for providing an ultra high throughput in a band below 6 GHz, and the wireless LAN technology according to the IEEE 802.11ad standard is a technology for providing an ultra high throughput in a 60 GHz band.

In addition, standards for various wireless LAN technologies have been defined and technology development is under way. Typically, the wireless LAN technology according to the IEEE 802.11af standard is a technology defined for operation of a wireless LAN in a TV idle band, and the wireless LAN technology according to the IEEE 802.11ah standard operates at a low power in a band below 1 GHz The wireless LAN technology according to the IEEE 802.11ai standard is a technology defined for fast initial link setup (FILS) in a wireless LAN system. Recently, IEEE 802.11ax standardization for the purpose of improving frequency efficiency in a dense environment in which a plurality of base stations and terminals exist is proceeding.

In addition to the wireless LAN, bluetooth, long term evolution-unlicensed (LTE-U), zigbee, etc., can operate in the industrial scientific medical (ISM) band. Since the wireless LAN technology operates with different protocols from other communication technologies, frames transmitted and received based on the wireless LAN technology may collide with frames transmitted and received based on other communication technologies. The collision between these frames can degrade the performance of the wireless LAN.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for frame transmission / reception for coexistence between wireless LAN technology and other communication technologies.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a frame transmission method performed in a station supporting a plurality of communication protocols according to an embodiment of the present invention. The frame transmission method includes: Determining a frame to be transmitted among the frames based on the communication protocol, and transmitting a frame determined based on the communication protocol corresponding to the determined frame.

Here, the determining of the frame may determine a frame to be transmitted having a higher transmission priority among the frames based on the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol.

Here, the determining of the frame may determine a frame to be transmitted based on a resource occupation ratio of each communication protocol when the frame of the first communication protocol based frame and the frame of the second communication protocol based frame have the same transmission priority.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a frame transmission method performed by a station supporting a plurality of communication protocols, the method comprising: receiving a frame based on a first communication protocol and a second communication Determining a frame to be transmitted among the protocol-based frames, and transmitting the determined frame based on the communication protocol corresponding to the determined frame.

Here, the resource occupation ratio may be a channel occupancy ratio or an occupation ratio of an RF processing unit included in the station.

Here, the determining of the frame may determine a frame to be transmitted based on a communication protocol based on a resource occupancy ratio of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol satisfying a predetermined criterion.

The determining of the frame may determine a frame to be transmitted based on a transmission priority according to a frame type when resource occupancy ratios of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol are the same.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a scheduler module for determining a frame to be transmitted among frames of a first communication protocol based frame and a second communication protocol based on a transmission priority according to a frame type, A first communication module that transmits / receives a frame based on the first communication protocol based on an instruction of the scheduler module, and a second communication module that transmits / receives a frame based on the second communication protocol based on an instruction of the scheduler module .

Here, the scheduler module may determine a frame having a high transmission priority among the frames based on the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol as a frame to be transmitted.

Here, the scheduler module may determine a frame to be transmitted based on a resource occupation ratio for each communication protocol when the transmission priority of the frame based on the first communication protocol and the frame based on the second communication protocol are the same.

Here, the scheduler module may determine a frame to be transmitted based on a transmission priority according to a frame type when resource occupancy ratios of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol are the same.

Here, the first communication module and the second communication module may be configured as one integrated circuit.

Here, the scheduler module may transmit a frame transmission stop message to the second communication module when the frame is determined to be a frame to which the first communication protocol based frame is to be transmitted, A frame transmission stop message may be transmitted to the first communication module.

According to the present invention, a combo chip supporting a plurality of communication protocols (e.g., WLAN, Bluetooth, LTE-U, ZigBee, etc.) has a transmission priority and a resource occupancy ratio Or channel occupancy rate) based on each of the communication protocols.

This allows traffic based on one communication protocol to be prevented from over-occupying resources, so that fairness between communication protocols can be ensured in terms of resource occupancy. In addition, timely transmission of frames with higher transmission priorities than other frames can be guaranteed, and interference between communication protocols can be minimized. In addition, a resource occupation rate per communication protocol required by a user or an application can be guaranteed.

1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a wireless LAN device.
2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a transmission signal processing unit in a wireless LAN.
3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a received signal processing unit in a wireless LAN.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between frames. FIG.
5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a frame transmission procedure according to the CSMA / CA scheme for avoiding collision between frames in a channel.
6 is a block diagram illustrating a station supporting a plurality of communication protocols according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a flowchart illustrating a frame transmission method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
8 is a timing diagram illustrating a frame transmission / reception method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and like parts are denoted by similar reference numerals throughout the specification.

A basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) (hereinafter referred to as "wireless LAN") includes a plurality of wireless LAN devices. The WLAN device may include a medium access control (MAC) layer and a physical (PHY) layer according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. At least one of the plurality of wireless LAN devices may be an access point (AP), and the remaining wireless LAN device may be a non-AP station (non-AP STA). Or ad-hoc networking, a plurality of wireless LAN devices may all be non-AP stations. In general, a station (STA) is also used when collectively referred to as an access point (AP) and a non-AP station, but for simplicity, the non-AP station is also abbreviated as a station (STA).

1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a wireless LAN device.

1, a wireless LAN device 1 includes a baseband processor 10, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 20, an antenna unit 30, a memory 40, an input interface unit 50, An output interface unit 60, and a bus 70, The baseband processor 10 performs the baseband related signal processing described herein, and may include a MAC processor 11, a PHY processor 15, and the like.

In one embodiment, the MAC processor 11 may include a MAC software processing unit 12 and a MAC hardware processing unit 13. At this time, the memory 40 includes software (hereinafter referred to as "MAC software") including some functions of the MAC layer, and the MAC software processing unit 12 implements some functions of the MAC by driving the MAC software , The MAC hardware processing unit 13 may implement the remaining functions of the MAC layer as hardware (MAC hardware), but the present invention is not limited thereto. The PHY processor 15 may include a transmission signal processing unit 100 and a reception signal processing unit 200.

The baseband processor 10, the memory 40, the input interface unit 50 and the output interface unit 60 can communicate with each other via the bus 70. [ The RF transceiver 20 may include an RF transmitter 21 and an RF receiver 22. In addition to the MAC software, the memory 40 may store an operating system, an application, etc., and the input interface unit 50 acquires information from the user, and the output interface unit 60 acquires information from the user Output.

The antenna unit 30 may include one or more antennas. When using multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), the antenna unit 30 may include a plurality of antennas.

2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a transmission signal processing unit in a wireless LAN.

2, the transmission signal processing unit 100 includes an encoder 110, an interleaver 120, a mapper 130, an inverse Fourier transformer 140, and a guard interval (GI) inserter 150 can do.

Encoder 110 encodes the input data and may be, for example, a forward error correction (FEC) encoder. The FEC encoder may include a binary convolutional code (BCC) encoder, in which case a puncturing device may be included. Alternatively, the FEC encoder may include a low-density parity-check (LDPC) encoder.

The transmission signal processing unit 100 may further include a scrambler scrambling the input data before encoding the input data to reduce the probability that a long same sequence of 0's or 1's occurs. If a plurality of BCC encoders are used as the encoder 110, the transmission signal processing unit 100 may further include an encoder parser for demultiplexing the scrambled bits into a plurality of BCC encoders. When an LDPC encoder is used as the encoder 110, the transmission signal processing unit 100 may not use the encoder parser.

The interleaver 120 interleaves the bits of the stream output from the encoder 110 to change the order. Interleaving may be applied only when a BCC encoder is used as the encoder 110. [ The mapper 130 maps the bit stream output from the interleaver 120 to constellation points. When an LDPC encoder is used as the encoder 110, the mapper 130 may perform LDPC tone mapping in addition to the property store mapping.

When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the transmission signal processing unit 100 may use a plurality of interleavers 120 and a plurality of mappers 130 corresponding to the number of spatial streams N _SS . The transmission signal processing unit 100 may further include a stream parser that divides outputs of a plurality of BCC encoders or LDPC encoders into a plurality of blocks to be provided to different interleavers 120 or a mapper 130. In addition, the transmission signal processing unit 100 includes a space-time block code (STBC) encoder for spreading a property point from N _SS spatial streams to N _STS space-time streams, and a spatial mapper for mapping the received signals to transmit chains. The spatial mapper can use direct mapping, spatial expansion, beamforming, or the like.

The inverse Fourier transformer 140 transforms a sex store block output from the mapper 130 or the spatial mapper into an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) or an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) Domain block, that is, a symbol. When the STBC encoder and the spatial mapper are used, the inverse Fourier transformer 140 may be provided for each transmission chain.

When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the transmission signal processing unit 100 may insert a cyclic shift diversity (CSD) before or after the inverse Fourier transform to prevent unintended beamforming. The CSD may be specified for each transport chain or for each space-time stream. Or CSD may be applied as part of a spatial mapper. Further, when using MU-MIMO, some blocks before the space mapper may be provided for each user.

The GI inserter 150 inserts a GI in front of the symbol. The transmission signal processing unit 100 can smoothly window the edge of the symbol after inserting the GI. The RF transmitter 21 converts the symbol into an RF signal and transmits it via the antenna. When MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, the GI inserter 150 and the RF transmitter 21 can be provided for each transmission chain.

3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a received signal processing unit in a wireless LAN.

3, the received signal processing unit 200 may include a GI eliminator 220, a Fourier transformer 230, a demapper 240, a deinterleaver 250, and a decoder 260. The RF receiver 22 receives the RF signal through the antenna and converts it into a symbol, and the GI remover 220 removes the GI from the symbol. When using MIMO or MU-MIMO, the RF receiver 22 and the GI remover 220 may be provided for each receive chain.

The Fourier transformer 230 transforms symbols, i.e., time domain blocks, into discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs) or fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) into frequency domain ghost points. Fourier transformer 230 may be provided for each receive chain. If MIMO or MU-MIMO is used, it may include a spatial demapper that transforms the Fourier transformed reception chain into a spatiotemporal stream, and an STBC decoder that despreads the span stream from the space-time stream to the spatial stream. have.

The dem mapper 240 demaps the block of the sex store output from the Fourier transformer 230 or the STBC decoder into a bit stream. If the received signal is LDPC encoded, demapper 240 may perform further LDPC tone demapping before property demapping. The deinterleaver 250 deinterleaves the bits of the stream output from the demapper 240. Deinterleaving can be applied only when the received signal is BCC encoded.

In case of using MIMO or MU-MIMO, the received signal processing unit 200 may use a plurality of demapper 240 and a plurality of deinterleavers 250 corresponding to the number of spatial streams. At this time, the received signal processing unit 200 may further include a stream deparser that combines the streams output from the plurality of deinterleavers 250.

The decoder 260 decodes the stream output from the deinterleaver 250 or the stream decoder, and may be, for example, an FEC decoder. The FEC decoder may include a BCC decoder or an LDPC decoder. The received signal processing unit 200 may further include a descrambler for descrambling the decoded data by the decoder 260. When a plurality of BCC decoders are used as the decoder 260, the received signal processing unit 200 may further include an encoder deparser for multiplexing the decoded data. When the LDPC decoder is used as the decoder 260, the received signal processing unit 200 may not use the encoder de-parser.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an interframe space (IFS) relationship. FIG.

Referring to FIG. 4, a data frame, a control frame, and a management frame may be exchanged between the wireless LAN devices. A data frame is a frame used for transmission of data forwarded to an upper layer. The data frame is transmitted after performing a backoff after a distributed coordination function IFS (DIFS) from when the medium becomes idle.

The management frame is used for exchange of management information that is not forwarded to the upper layer, and is transmitted after backoff after IFS such as DIFS or PIFS (point coordination function IFS). The subtype frame of the management frame includes Beacon, Association request / response, probe request / response, and authentication request / response. A control frame is a frame used for controlling access to a medium. Subtype frames of the control frame include RTS, CTS, and ACK. The control frame is transmitted after backoff after DIFS elapses when it is not a response frame of another frame, and is transmitted without backoff after SIFS (short IFS) if it is a response frame of another frame. The type and subtype of the frame can be identified by a type field and a subtype field in the frame control field.

Meanwhile, the QoS (Quality of Service) STA can transmit an arbitration IFS (AIFS) for an access category (AC) to which a frame belongs, i.e., a frame after the backoff after the AIFS [AC] elapses. At this time, a frame in which AIFS [AC] can be used may be a control frame, not a data frame, a management frame, and a response frame.

5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a frame transmission procedure according to a carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) / collision avoidance (CA) scheme for avoiding collision between frames in a channel.

Referring to FIG. 5, a first station STA1 denotes a transmitting station to which data is to be transmitted, and a second station STA2 denotes a receiving station that receives data transmitted from the first station STA1. The third station STA3 may be located in an area capable of receiving a frame transmitted from the first station STA1 and / or a frame transmitted from the second station STA2.

The first station STA1 can determine whether a channel is being used through carrier sensing. The first station STA1 can determine the occupation state of the channel based on the magnitude of the energy existing in the channel or the correlation of the signal or can use the NAV (network allocation vector) The occupied state can be judged.

The first station STA1 transmits a request to send (RTS) frame to the second station after performing the backoff if it is determined that the channel is not used by another station during DIFS (i.e., when the channel is idle) (STA2). When receiving the RTS frame, the second station STA2 may transmit a clear to send (CTS) frame, which is a response to the RTS frame, to the first station STA1 after SIFS.

On the other hand, when receiving the RTS frame, the third station STA3 transmits the frame transmission period (for example, SIFS + CTS frame + SIFS + data) continuously transmitted subsequently using duration information included in the RTS frame Frame + SIFS + ACK frame). Alternatively, when receiving the CTS frame, the third station STA3 may use the duration information included in the CTS frame to transmit a frame transmission period (for example, SIFS + data frame + SIFS + ACK frame) You can set the NAV timer for. The third station STA3 can update the NAV timer using the duration information included in the new frame when the new frame is received before the expiration of the NAV timer. The third station STA3 does not attempt to access the channel until the NAV timer expires.

When receiving the CTS frame from the second station STA2, the first station STA1 may transmit the data frame to the second station STA2 after SIFS from the completion of reception of the CTS frame. When the second station STA2 successfully receives the data frame, the second station STA2 can transmit an ACK frame, which is a response to the data frame, to the first station STA1 after SIFS.

The third station STA3 can determine whether the channel is being used through carrier sensing when the NAV timer expires. If the third station STA3 determines that the channel has not been used by another station during the DIFS since the expiration of the NAV timer, the third station STA3 may attempt to access the channel after the contention window CW due to the random backoff has passed.

On the other hand, in a combo chip supporting a plurality of communication protocols (e.g., wireless LAN, bluetooth, long term evolution-unlicensed, zigbee, etc.) Interference may occur between protocols. For example, if a frame transmission interval based on the first communication protocol overlaps with a frame transmission interval based on the second communication protocol, only one communication protocol based frame can be transmitted.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a station supporting a plurality of communication protocols according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a frame transmission method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

6 and 7, a station 600 supporting a plurality of communication protocols includes a scheduler module 610, a first communication module 620, a second communication module 630, an RF transceiver 20, an antenna unit 30, a memory 40, an input interface unit 50, an output interface unit 60, and a bus 70. The scheduler module 610 may comprise a scheduler SW (software) 611 and a scheduler HW (hardware) 612. The scheduler module 610 is configured to transmit the first communication module 620 and the second communication module 620 based on at least one of a transmission priority according to the type of frame and a resource occupation rate (for example, an RF occupation rate or a channel occupation rate) Module 630 can be controlled. The RF occupation rate may mean the occupation rate of the RF processing unit (e.g., RF transceiver 20, antenna unit 30, etc.) included in the station 600. [ A specific method of controlling the plurality of communication modules 620 and 630 will be described later.

The first communication module 620 may include a MAC processor 621 and a PHY processor 622 and may transmit and receive frames based on the first communication protocol. The MAC processor 621 may be composed of a MAC SW 621-1 and a MAC HW 621-2. For example, when the first communication module 620 operates based on the WLAN protocol, the MAC processor 621 may be the same as the MAC processor 11 described above with reference to FIG. 1, 622 may be the same as the PHY processor 15 described above with reference to Figs. 1-3. The second communication module 630 may include a MAC processor 631 and a PHY processor 632 and may receive frames based on a second communication protocol different from the first communication protocol supported by the first communication module 620 It can transmit and receive. The MAC processor 631 may include a MAC SW 631-1 and a MAC HW 631-2. For example, if the first communication module 620 supports the wireless LAN protocol, the second communication module 630 may support the Bluetooth protocol (or LTE-U, ZigBee, etc.). When the second communication module 630 supports the Bluetooth protocol, the MAC SW 631-1 may mean SW for baseband processing, and the MAC HW 631-2 may perform baseband processing HW < / RTI >

Here, the first communication module 620 and the second communication module 630 (or the scheduler module 610, the first communication module 620, and the second communication module 630) , IC) or in different ICs. The functions of the plurality of communication modules 620 and 630 may be implemented by one software and / or firmware, or by different software and / or firmware. The RF transceiver 20, the antenna unit 30, the memory 40, the input interface unit 50, the output interface unit 60 and the bus 70 are connected to the RF transceiver 20, The memory unit 40, the input interface unit 50, the output interface unit 60, and the bus 70, respectively.

If the first communication module 620 has a frame to be transmitted to another station, the first communication module 620 may transmit a frame transmission request message to the scheduler module 610 (S700). That is, the MAC HW 621-2 can transmit an interrupt message to the MAC SW 621-1. Upon receiving the interrupt message, the MAC SW 621-1 transmits a frame transmission request message to the scheduler SW 611). The scheduler module 610 may instruct the first communication module 620 to transmit a frame when receiving the frame transmission request message from the first communication module 620 only. For example, if the first communication module 620 fails to receive a frame transmission stop message from the scheduler module 610 within a preset period of time from the transmission end time of the frame transmission request message, . The first communication module 620 may transmit a frame to the RF transceiver 20 and the RF transceiver 20 may transmit the frame received from the first communication module 620 to the antenna unit 30, The antenna unit 30 can transmit a frame received from the RF transceiver 20 through a physical channel.

Meanwhile, if the second communication module 620 has a frame to be transmitted to another station, the second communication module 620 may transmit a frame transmission request message to the scheduler module 610 (S710). That is, the MAC HW 631-2 can transmit an interrupt message to the MAC SW 631-1. Upon receiving the interrupt message, the MAC SW 631-1 transmits a frame transmission request message to the scheduler SW 611 . When receiving the frame transmission request message from the plurality of communication modules 620 and 630, the scheduler module 610 determines whether the frame transmission interval based on the first communication protocol overlaps with the frame transmission interval based on the second communication protocol . Here, the frame transmission interval may include not only the time required for transmission of a frame but also a time required for reception of a response to the frame. If the frame transmission interval based on the first communication protocol and the frame transmission interval based on the second communication protocol do not overlap, the scheduler module 610 can instruct frame transmission to each of the plurality of communication modules 620 and 630 . That is, the scheduler module 610 may not transmit the frame transmission stop message to each of the plurality of communication modules 620 and 630. In this case, each of the plurality of communication modules 620 and 630 can transmit and receive a frame in its own transmission interval.

On the other hand, when the frame transmission interval based on the first communication protocol is overlapped with the frame transmission interval based on the second communication protocol, the scheduler module 610 transmits at least one of the transmission priority according to the frame type and the resource occupation rate for each communication protocol A frame to be transmitted among frames based on the first communication protocol and a frame based on the second communication protocol may be determined based on the received frames (S720).

The scheduler module 610 can determine two frames to be transmitted. That is, the scheduler module 610 can first determine the frame to be transmitted considering the transmission priority according to the frame type, and if the transmission priority is the same, determine the frame to be transmitted considering the resource occupation ratio for each communication protocol (Hereinafter, referred to as 'transmission priority priority consideration method'). Alternatively, the scheduler module 610 may first determine a frame to be transmitted in consideration of a resource occupation ratio for each communication protocol, and determine a frame to be transmitted in consideration of a transmission priority according to a frame type when the resource occupation ratio of each communication protocol is the same (Hereinafter, referred to as 'resource occupancy rate priority method').

In the transmission priority first consideration scheme, if the transmission priority for the first communication protocol-based frame is higher than the transmission priority for the second communication protocol-based frame, the scheduler module 610 transmits the first communication protocol- The frame to be transmitted can be determined. In the opposite case, the scheduler module 610 may determine a second communication protocol-based frame as a frame to be transmitted. If the first communication module 620 supports the wireless LAN protocol and the second communication module 630 supports the Bluetooth protocol, the transmission priority according to the frame type is shown in Table 1 below. The transmission priority is not limited to the order described in Table 1 below, and the transmission priority can be set in various ways.

The frame types used in the Bluetooth protocol are shown in Table 2 below.

The control frame of the WLAN protocol having the first priority includes a beamforming report poll frame, a VHT NDP notification (very high throughput null data packet announcement) frame, a control wrapper frame, A frame acknowledgment request frame, a block ACK frame, a PS (power save) -Poll frame, an RTS frame, a CTS frame, an ACK frame, a contention free Frame or the like. The management frame of the WLAN protocol having the first priority includes an association request frame, an association response frame, a reassociation request frame, a reconnection response frame a reassociation response frame, a probe request frame, a probe response frame, a timing advertisement frame, an announcement traffic indication message (ATIM) frame, an authentication request frame An authentication response frame, a disassociation frame, a deauthentication frame, an action frame, and the like. The control frame of the Bluetooth protocol having the first priority may mean a null frame, a poll frame, an FHS frame, and the like belonging to segment 1.

The beacon frame of the wireless LAN protocol having the second priority can be classified into a beacon frame including a traffic indication map (TIM) and a beacon frame including a delivery traffic indication message (DTIM). Beacon frames including TIM and beacon frames including DTIM may have different transmission priorities. For example, a beacon frame that includes a DTIM may have a higher transmission priority than a beacon frame that includes a TIM.

A frame transmitted through a synchronous connection-oriented (SCO) link of a Bluetooth protocol having a third priority may mean frames belonging to segment 2 (HV1 frame, HV2 frame, HV3 frame, DV frame) .

The data frame of the WLAN protocol having the fourth priority has a structure of 'data + CF-ACK', 'data + CF-Poll', 'data + CF- ACK + CF- no data, a CF-ACK frame (no data), a CF-Poll frame (no data), a CF-ACK + CF-Poll frame, (CF-ACK) frame, 'QoS data + CF-Poll' frame, 'QoS data + CF-ACK + CF-Poll' frame, QoS null frame, QoS CF-ACK + CF-Poll 'frame (no data). A frame transmitted through an eSCO (extended SCO) link of the Bluetooth protocol having the fourth priority is divided into frames belonging to segment 2 (EV3 frame, 2-EV3 frame, 2-EV3 frame) and frames belonging to segment 3 Frame, an EV5 frame, a 2-EV5 frame, and a 3-EV5 frame). (AUX1 frame, 3-DH1 frame) belonging to segment 2, frames (DM3 frame, DH3) belonging to segment 3, a frame transmitted through an asynchronous connection- (DM5 frame, DH5 frame, 2-DH5 frame, 3-DH5 frame) belonging to segment 4 and frame 2, 3-DH3 frame and 2-DH3 frame.

Meanwhile, the scheduler module 610 determines a frame to be transmitted in consideration of a resource occupation ratio for each communication protocol when the transmission priority for the first communication protocol-based frame is equal to the transmission priority for the second communication protocol-based frame . For example, if the measured resource occupancy rate is lower (or higher) than the preset target resource occupancy rate, the scheduler module 610 determines that the use state of the specific communication module 620 or 630 is in the starvation state And determine a protocol-based frame supported by the specific communication module 620, 630 in the stabbed state as a frame to be transmitted.

If the resource occupation ratio means the RF occupation rate, the target RF occupation ratio based on the first communication protocol can be defined as Equation 1 below. The target RF usage time according to the first and second communication protocols may refer to a predetermined usage time other than the actual usage time.

In addition, the measured RF occupation ratio based on the first communication protocol can be defined as Equation (2) below.

The RF occupancy rate may be measured by the scheduler module 610 or other entity within the station 600. The RF usage time according to the first or second communication protocol means a time when the first transceiver 20 or the second communication protocol based frame is transmitted or received using the RF transceiver 20 during the entire operation period or the predetermined period of the station 600 can do. Considering equations (1), (2) and stabulation coefficient S, the stabulation state for each communication protocol can be defined as Equation (3) below.

That is, when the use state of the first communication module 620 is stabic according to Equation (3), the scheduler module 610 can determine the first communication protocol based frame as a frame to be transmitted. In the opposite case, the scheduler module 610 may determine a second communication protocol-based frame as a frame to be transmitted.

In the resource occupancy rate priority consideration scheme, the scheduler module 610 may first determine the communication modules 620 and 630 in stabbed state based on Equation (3). The scheduler module 610 may determine a first or a second communication protocol based frame as a frame to be transmitted, respectively, when the use state of the first or second communication module 620 is in the stabbed state. The scheduler module 610 can determine a frame to be transmitted considering the transmission priority according to the frame type when the target RF occupation ratio according to Equation 1 is equal to the measured RF occupation ratio according to Equation (2).

The scheduler module 610 may transmit a frame transmission stop message to the first communication module 620 if the frame is determined to be a frame to which the second communication protocol based frame is to be transmitted (S730). That is, the scheduler SW 611 may transmit to the scheduler HW 612 a coexistence control message requesting the frame transmission stop based on the first communication protocol. Having received the coexistence control message, the scheduler HW 612 may send a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 621-2. In the opposite case, the scheduler module 610 may send a frame transmission stop message to the second communication module 630 (not shown). The meaning of the frame transmission stop message per communication protocol is shown in Table 3 below.

When the first communication module 620 receives the frame transmission stop message from the scheduler module 610 within a predetermined time, it can determine that the frame transmission is not approved and can stop the frame transmission accordingly. On the other hand, if the second communication module 630 fails to receive the frame transmission stop message from the scheduler module 610 within a preset time, the second communication module 630 can determine that the frame transmission is approved and transmit the frame to the RF transceiver 20 (S740). The RF transceiver 20 can transmit the frame received from the second communication module 630 to the antenna unit 30 in operation S750 and the antenna unit 30 converts the frame received from the RF transceiver 20 into a wireless channel Lt; / RTI > Meanwhile, the second communication module 630 may transmit a frame transmission done message to the scheduler module 610 after transmitting the frame to the RF transceiver (S760). That is, the MAC SW 631-1 can transmit a frame transmission complete message to the scheduler SW 611. [ The scheduler module 610 may determine that the frame transmission based on the second communication protocol is completed when the frame transmission complete message is received.

8 is a timing diagram illustrating a frame transmission / reception method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 8, the first communication module 620 may support a wireless LAN protocol, and the second communication module 630 may support a Bluetooth protocol. The scheduler module 610 may determine a frame to be transmitted based on at least one of a transmission priority for each frame type according to Table 1 and a resource occupation rate for each communication protocol according to Equation 3. [

In the transmission prioritized priority scheme, since the transmission priority is higher than that of the frames 800-2 and 801-2 transmitted through the ACL link, the scheduler SW 611 requests the frame transmission stop based on the second communication protocol The coexistence control message may be transmitted to the scheduler HW 612 and the scheduler HW 612 receiving the coexistence control message may transmit a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 631-2. In this case, the control frames 800-1 and 801-1 can be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [

Thereafter, since the data frames 802-1 and 803-1 are lower in transmission priority than the frames 802-2 and 803-2 transmitted over the SCO link, the scheduler SW 611 transmits the first communication protocol based To the scheduler HW 612. The scheduler HW 612 which has received the coexistence control message can transmit a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 621-2. In this case, the frames 802-2 and 803-2 transmitted via the SCO link can be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [

Thereafter, the scheduler module 610 determines that the transmission priority of the frames 804-2 and 805-2 transmitted through the eSCO link is the same as that of the data frames 804-1 and 805-1, Can be considered. The scheduler SW 611 can transmit a coexistence control message requesting the frame transmission stop based on the first communication protocol to the scheduler HW 612 and the coexistence control message The scheduler HW 612 that has received the message can send a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 621-2. In this case, frames 804-2 and 805-2 transmitted over the eSCO link may be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [

Thereafter, since the management frames 806-1 and 807-1 have higher transmission priorities than the frames 806-2 and 807-2 transmitted over the SCO link, the scheduler SW 611 transmits the second communication protocol based To the scheduler HW 612. The scheduler HW 612 receiving the coexistence control message can transmit a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 631-2. In this case, the management frames 806-1 and 807-1 can be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [

 In the resource occupancy ratio priority consideration scheme, when the scheduler SW 611 receives a request for transmission of the frames 800-1, 801-1, 800-2, and 801-2, the use state of the first communication module 620 becomes stabby State, it is possible to transmit to the scheduler HW 612 a coexistence control message requesting to stop the frame transmission based on the second communication protocol. The scheduler HW 612 receiving the coexistence control message can transmit a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 631-2. In this case, the control frames 800-1 and 801-1 can be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [ Since the RF transceiver 20 is occupied by the control frames 800-1 and 801-1, the use state of the second communication module 630 can be changed to the stabbing state.

Thereafter, when the scheduler SW 611 receives a request to transmit the frames 802-1, 802-3, 802-2, and 802-3, the second communication module 630 is in the stabbed state, And transmit a coexistence control message requesting suspension of protocol-based frame transmission to the scheduler HW 612. The scheduler HW 612 receiving the coexistence control message can transmit a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 621-2. In this case, the frames 802-2 and 803-2 transmitted via the SCO link can be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [

Thereafter, when the scheduler SW 611 receives a request to transmit the frames 804-1, 805-1, 804-2, and 805-2, the second communication module 630 is in the stabbed state, And transmit a coexistence control message requesting suspension of protocol-based frame transmission to the scheduler HW 612. The scheduler HW 612 receiving the coexistence control message can transmit a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 621-2. In this case, frames 804-2 and 805-2 transmitted over the eSCO link may be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [ Since the RF transceiver 20 is occupied by the frames 804-2 and 805-2 transmitted over the eSCO link, the RF usage time by the first communication protocol can be equal to the RF usage time by the second communication protocol have.

Thereafter, when the scheduler module 610 receives a request to transmit the frames 806-1, 807-1, 806-2, and 807-2, the scheduler module 610 transmits an RF use time by the first communication protocol and an RF use time by the second communication protocol Since the time is the same, the transmission priority according to the frame type can be considered. Therefore, since the management frames 806-1 and 807-1 have higher transmission priorities than the frames 806-2 and 807-2 transmitted over the SCO link, the scheduler SW 611 transmits the second communication protocol based And send a coexistence control message to the scheduler HW 612 requesting to stop the frame transmission. The scheduler HW 612 receiving the coexistence control message can transmit a frame transmission stop message to the MAC HW 631-2. In this case, the management frames 806-1 and 807-1 can be transmitted and received via the RF transceiver 20. [

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be possible.

Claims (13)

A frame transmission method performed at a station supporting a plurality of communication protocols,
Determining a frame to be transmitted of a frame based on the first communication protocol and a frame based on the second communication protocol based on the transmission priority according to the frame type; And
And transmitting a frame determined based on a communication protocol corresponding to the determined frame. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein determining the frame comprises:
And determining a frame to be transmitted having a higher transmission priority among frames based on the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein determining the frame comprises:
And determines a frame to be transmitted based on a resource occupation ratio for each communication protocol when the transmission priority of the frame based on the first communication protocol and the frame based on the second communication protocol are the same. A frame transmission method performed at a station supporting a plurality of communication protocols,
Determining a frame to be transmitted of a frame based on the first communication protocol and a frame based on the second communication protocol based on the resource occupancy rate for each communication protocol; And
And transmitting a frame determined based on a communication protocol corresponding to the determined frame. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the resource occupancy rate is a channel occupancy ratio or an occupancy rate of a radio frequency (RF) processing unit included in the station. The method of claim 4,
Wherein determining the frame comprises:
Wherein a frame to be transmitted is determined as a frame based on a communication protocol in which a resource occupancy ratio among the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol satisfies a preset criterion. The method of claim 4,
Wherein determining the frame comprises:
And determines a frame to be transmitted based on a transmission priority according to a frame type when the resource occupancy ratio of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol is the same. A scheduler module for determining frames to be transmitted among the frames based on the first communication protocol and the frames based on the second communication protocol based on the transmission priority according to the frame type;
A first communication module for transmitting / receiving a frame based on the first communication protocol based on an instruction of the scheduler module; And
And a second communication module for transmitting and receiving a frame based on the second communication protocol based on an instruction of the scheduler module. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the scheduler module comprises:
Wherein the frame determining unit determines a frame to be transmitted having a higher transmission priority among frames based on the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the scheduler module comprises:
And determines a frame to be transmitted based on a resource occupation ratio for each communication protocol when the transmission priority of the frame based on the first communication protocol and the frame based on the second communication protocol are the same. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the scheduler module comprises:
And determines a frame to be transmitted based on a transmission priority according to a frame type when the resource occupancy ratio of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol is the same. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the first communication module and the second communication module comprise one integrated circuit (IC). The method of claim 8,
Wherein the scheduler module comprises:
When a frame to be transmitted is determined to be a frame to which the first communication protocol based frame is to be transmitted, the frame transmission stop message is transmitted to the second communication module, To the base station.

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