KR20220137511A - Apparatus and method for extended signal field - Google Patents

Abstract

A wireless communication method by a first device comprises the following steps of: receiving a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a second device; extracting a first field from a first signal field included in the first PPDU; and identifying the number of symbols of a second signal field included in the first PPDU based on a value of the first field, wherein the step of identifying the number of symbols of the second signal field may include a step of identifying that the number of symbols of the second signal field is greater than or equal to a first number when the first field has a first value.

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EXTENDED SIGNAL FIELD

The technical idea of the present disclosure relates to wireless communication, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for an extended signal field.

As an example of wireless communication, a wireless local area network (WLAN) is a technology for connecting two or more devices to each other using a wireless signal transmission method, and the WLAN technology may be based on an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. The 802.11 standard has evolved into 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, and 802.11ax. can support

In 802.11ac, data may be simultaneously transmitted to multiple users through a multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) technique. In 802.11ax, referred to as high efficiency (HE), not only MU-MIMO but also orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) technology is applied to provide multiple access by dividing available subcarriers to users. are implementing Through this, the WLAN system to which 802.11ax is applied can effectively support communication in dense areas and outdoors.

In 802.11be, which is referred to as extremely high throughput (EHT), 6GHz unlicensed frequency band support, bandwidth utilization of up to 320MHz per channel, hybrid automatic repeat and request (HARQ) introduction, up to 16X16 MIMO support, etc. are to be implemented. Through this, the next-generation WLAN system is expected to effectively support low latency and high-speed transmission like NR (new radio), a 5G technology.

The technical idea of the present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for accurately and efficiently delivering the number of symbols of an extended signal field.

In order to achieve the above object, a wireless communication method by a first device according to an aspect of the technical idea of the present disclosure includes the steps of receiving a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a second device, a first extracting the first field from the first signal field included in the PPDU, and identifying the number of symbols of the second signal field included in the first PPDU based on the value of the first field, The step of identifying the number of symbols in the second signal field may include identifying that the number of symbols in the second signal field is equal to or greater than the first number when the first field has a first value.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for wireless communication by a first device includes: receiving a first PPDU from a second device; extracting a first field from a first signal field included in the first PPDU; , extracting the first subfield from the second signal field included in the first PPDU, and identifying the number of symbols in the second signal field based on the value of the first field and the value of the first subfield. may include

According to an aspect of the technical concept of the present disclosure, a method for wireless communication by a first device includes receiving a first PPDU from a second device, a first field and a second field from a first signal field included in the first PPDU and extracting the third field, based on the value of the first field, identifying a mode of the first PPDU, based on the value of the second field, identifying a punctured pattern, and the first PPDU and identifying the number of symbols of the second signal field included in and identifying the number of symbols in the second signal field based on the third field.

According to the apparatus and method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the number of symbols of the extended signal field can be accurately identified.

In addition, according to the apparatus and method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, transmission and reception of an extended signal field may be possible, and thus the efficiency of a wireless communication system may be increased.

In addition, according to the apparatus and method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, decoding can be efficiently performed at the receiving side due to the number of symbols of the correctly identified signal field.

Effects that can be obtained in the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-mentioned effects, and other effects not mentioned are common knowledge in the art to which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure pertain from the following description. It can be clearly derived and understood by those who have That is, unintended effects of carrying out the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may also be derived by those of ordinary skill in the art from the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

1 is a diagram illustrating a wireless communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
2 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
3 is a diagram illustrating a PPDU according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
4 is a diagram illustrating a U-SIG field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
5 is a diagram illustrating encoding of a PPDU type and compression mode field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
6 is a diagram illustrating encoding of a punctured channel information field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
7A to 7F are diagrams illustrating examples of an EHT-SIG content channel according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
8A to 8C are diagrams illustrating examples of a common field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
9A and 9B are diagrams illustrating examples of a block including a user field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating examples of a user field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
11A-11D are diagrams illustrating examples of an EHT-SIG content channel for transmission to multiple users according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure;
12A to 12D are diagrams illustrating examples of an EHT-SIG content channel for transmitting or sounding NDP for a single user according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
13 is a message diagram illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
14 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
15 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
16 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
17A and 17B are diagrams illustrating examples of a U-SIG field and an EHT-SIG field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
18 is a diagram illustrating encoding of an EHT-SIG number of symbols field and an EHT-SIG number of symbols extension field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
19 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
20 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
21 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
22 is a message diagram illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
23A and 23B are diagrams illustrating an HE physical capability information field and an EHT physical capability information field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
24 is a diagram illustrating examples of an apparatus for wireless communication according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

1 is a diagram illustrating a wireless communication system 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 1 shows a wireless local area network (WLAN) system as an example of a wireless communication system 10 .

In describing embodiments of the present disclosure in detail, OFDM or OFDMA-based wireless communication systems, in particular, IEEE 802.11 standards will be mainly targeted, but the main subject matter of the present disclosure is other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds and channel types. A system (eg, long term evolution (LTE), LTE-advanced (LTE-A), new radio (NR), wireless broadband (WiBro), global system for mobile communication (GSM), such as a cellular (cellular) communication system Or Bluetooth (Bluetooth), NFC (near field communication, such as short-distance communication system) can be applied with a slight modification within a range that does not significantly depart from the scope of the present disclosure, which is a technical knowledge skilled in the technical field of the present disclosure. It will be possible at the discretion of those who have it.

In addition, various functions described below may be implemented or supported by artificial intelligence technology or one or more computer programs, each of which is composed of computer readable program code and implemented in a computer readable medium. do. The terms "application" and "program" refer to one or more computer programs, software components, sets of instructions, procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or portions thereof suitable for implementation of suitable computer readable program code. The term "computer readable program code" includes computer code of any type, including source code, object code, and executable code. The term "computer readable medium" means a computer, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), hard disk drive, compact disk (CD), digital video disk (DVD), or any other type of memory. It includes all types of media that can be accessed by A “non-transitory” computer-readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical, or other communication links that transmit transitory electrical or other signals. Non-transitory computer-readable media includes media in which data can be permanently stored, and media in which data can be stored and later overwritten, such as a rewritable optical disk or a removable memory device.

In various embodiments of the present disclosure described below, a hardware approach is described as an example. However, since various embodiments of the present disclosure include a technology using both hardware and software, the various embodiments of the present disclosure do not exclude a software-based approach.

In addition, terms that refer to control information, terms that refer to entries, terms that refer to network entities, terms that refer to messages, and terms that refer to components of devices used in the description to be described below are It is illustrated for convenience of description. Accordingly, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms described below, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may be used.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the wireless communication system 10 includes first and second access points AP1 and AP2, a first station STA1, a second station STA2, a third station STA3, and a fourth station. (STA4) may be included. The first and second access points AP1 and AP2 may connect to the network 13 including the Internet, an Internet protocol (IP) network, or any other network. The first access point AP1 provides access to the network 13 within the first coverage area 11 to the first station STA1, the second station STA2, the third station STA3, and the fourth station ( STA4 ), and the second access point AP2 may also provide the third and fourth stations STA3 and STA4 with access to the network 13 within the second coverage area 12 . In some embodiments, the first and second access points AP1 , AP2 connect to the first station STA1 , the second station STA2 , the third based on wireless fidelity (WiFi) or any other WLAN access technology. It may communicate with at least one of the station STA3 and the fourth station STA4.

An access point may be referred to as a router, a gateway, or the like, and the station is a mobile station, a subscriber station, a terminal, a mobile terminal, a wireless terminal, user equipment, and a user. and the like. The station may be a mobile device, such as a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a wearable device, or the like, or a stationary device, such as a desktop computer, a smart TV, or the like. In this specification, a station may be referred to as a first apparatus, and an access point may be referred to as a second apparatus. Examples of an access point and station will be described below with reference to FIG. 24 .

The access point may allocate at least one resource unit (RU) to at least one station. The access point may transmit data through at least one allocated resource unit, and at least one station may receive data through at least one allocated resource unit. In 802.11ax (hereafter HE), the access point can allocate only a single resource unit to at least one station, while in 802.11be (hereafter EHT) or next-generation IEEE 802.11 standards (hereafter EHT+), the access point allocates two or more resource units. The included multi-resource unit (MRU) may be allocated to at least one station. For example, the first access point AP1 may allocate multiple resource units to at least one of the first station STA1, the second station STA2, the third station STA3, and the fourth station STA4. and may transmit data through the allocated multiple resource units.

In some embodiments, the access point (or station) may transmit an extended signal field to the station (or access point). For example, as described below with reference to FIG. 3 , the EHT-SIG field among the signal fields included in the EHT multi-user (MU) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) is the number of stations (or users). may have a variable length according to , and accordingly, the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field may vary. The number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field can be identified by the receiver based on the value included in the U-SIG field preceding the EHT-SIG field, but due to the length of the field having the corresponding value, the symbols of the EHT-SIG field There may be limitations in indicating the number. For example, as described below with reference to FIG. 4 , the U-SIG may include a 5-bit EHT-SIG number of symbols field indicating the number of 1 to 32 symbols, and thus the number of EHT-SIG symbols. The field may not be able to indicate the number of symbols of the extended signal field, eg, the number of symbols greater than 32 included in the EHT-SIG.

Hereinafter, as will be described later with reference to the drawings, the number of symbols of the extended signal field can be accurately identified at the receiving side. Accordingly, transmission and reception of the extended signal field may be possible, and thus the efficiency of the wireless communication system may be increased. In addition, due to the number of symbols of the correctly identified signal field, decoding can be efficiently performed at the receiving side. In the following, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be mainly described with reference to EHT, but it will be understood that exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other protocol standards, such as EHT+.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a wireless communication system 20 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the block diagram of FIG. 2 shows a first wireless communication device 21 and a second wireless communication device 22 that communicate with each other in the wireless communication system 20 . Each of the first wireless communication device 21 and the second wireless communication device 22 of FIG. 2 may be any device that communicates in the wireless communication system 20 and may be referred to as a device for wireless communication. In some embodiments, each of the first wireless communication device 21 and the second wireless communication device 22 may be an access point or station of a WLAN system.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the first wireless communication device 21 may include an antenna 21_2 , a transceiver 21_4 , and a processing circuit 21_6 . In some embodiments, the antenna 21_2, the transceiver 21_4, and the processing circuit 21_6 may be included in one package, or may be included in different packages, respectively. The second wireless communication device 22 may also include an antenna 22_2 , a transceiver 22_4 , and a processing circuit 22_6 . Hereinafter, redundant descriptions of the first wireless communication device 21 and the second wireless communication device 22 will be omitted.

The antenna 21_2 may receive a signal from the second wireless communication device 22 and provide it to the transceiver 21_4 , and may transmit the signal provided from the transceiver 21_4 to the second wireless communication device 22 . In some embodiments, the antenna 21_2 may include a plurality of antennas for multiple input multiple output (MIMO). Also, in some embodiments, the antenna 21_2 may include a phased array for beamforming.

The transceiver 21_4 may process a signal received from the second wireless communication device 22 through the antenna 21_2 and provide the processed signal to the processing circuit 21_6 . In addition, the transceiver 21_4 may process the signal provided from the processing circuit 21_6 and output the processed signal through the antenna 21_2 . In some embodiments, the transceiver 21_4 may include an analog circuit such as a low noise amplifier, a mixer, a filter, a power amplifier, an oscillator, and the like. In some embodiments, the transceiver 21_4 may process a signal received from the antenna 21_2 and/or a signal received from the processing circuit 21_6 based on the control of the processing circuit 21_6 .

The processing circuit 21_6 may extract information transmitted by the second wireless communication device 22 by processing the signal received from the transceiver 21_4 . For example, the processing circuit 21_6 may extract information by demodulating and/or decoding a signal received from the transceiver 21_4 . In addition, a signal including information to be transmitted to the second wireless communication device 22 may be generated and provided to the transceiver 21_4 . For example, the processing circuit 21_6 may provide a signal generated by encoding and/or modulating data to be transmitted to the second wireless communication device 22 to the transceiver 21_4 . In some embodiments, the processing circuit 21_6 may include a programmable component, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), etc., such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or the like. It may include a reconfigurable component, and may include a component that provides a fixed function, such as an intellectual property (IP) core. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 21_6 may include or access memory that stores data and/or a series of instructions.

In this specification, the transceiver 21_4 and/or the processing circuit 21_6 performing the operations may simply be referred to as the first wireless communication device 21 performing the corresponding operations. Accordingly, operations performed by the access point may be performed by the transceiver and/or processing circuitry included in the access point, and operations performed by the station may be performed by the transceiver and/or processing circuitry included in the station. can

3 is a diagram illustrating a PPDU according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, Figure 3 shows the structure of the EHT MU PPDU. HE defines HE MU PPDU and HE SU (single user) PPDU, while EHT may not define EHT SU PPDU, and may transmit EHT MU PPDU to a single user. The EHT MU PPDU may be configured in a compressed mode or a non-compressed mode, and may include OFDM symbols in the uncompressed mode.

Referring to FIG. 3 , the EHT MU PPDU may include a preamble including training fields and signaling fields and a payload including a data field. EHT MU PPDU in the preamble, L-STF (legacy-short training field), L-LTF (legacy-long training field), L-SIG (legacy-signal) field, RL-SIG (repeated legacy-signal) field, Can include a universal signal (U-SIG) field, an extremely high throughput-signal (EHT-SIG) field, an extremely high throughput-short training field (EHT-STF), and an extremely high throughput-long training field (EHT-LTF). have. In addition, the EHT MU PPDU may include a data field and a packet extension (PE) field in the payload. In this specification, the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG field may be simply referred to as U-SIG and EHT-SIG, respectively.

The L-STF may include a short training OFDM symbol and be used for frame detection, automatic gain control (AGC), diversity detection, and coarse frequency/time synchronization. can The L-LTF may include a long training OFDM symbol and may be used for fine frequency/time synchronization and channel estimation. The L-SIG field may be used for transmission of control information and may include information on a data rate and a data length. In some embodiments, the L-SIG field may be repeated in the RL-SIG field.

The U-SIG field (or U-SIG) may include control information common to at least one station receiving the EHT MU PPDU, and may correspond to HE-SIG-A of the HE. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 , the U-SIG field may include version-independent fields and version-dependent fields. In some embodiments, the U-SIG field may further include fields corresponding to a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and a tail, respectively, and reserved bits. Version independent fields may have static positions and bit definitions in different generations and/or physical versions. In some embodiments, the U-SIG field may be modulated based on a single modulation scheme, eg, binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), differently from the EHT-SIG field described below. An example of the U-SIG field will be described later with reference to FIG. 4 .

The EHT-SIG field may have a variable MCS and length, and may correspond to HE-SIG-B of HE. For example, when an EHT MU PPDU is transmitted to multiple users, the EHT-SIG field includes a common field including common control information and a user-specific field including user-dependent control information, as shown in FIG. 3 . may include As shown in FIG. 3 , the U-SIG field may have a fixed length (eg, 8 μs), while the EHT-SIG field may have a variable length. The common field may include a U-SIG overflow, the total number of non-OFDMA users, and an RU allocation subfield (RUA). The user-specific field for non-MU MIMO may include an STA-ID subfield, an MCS subfield, an N _STS subfield, a Beamformed subfield, and a coding subfield, and the user-specific field for MU-MIMO is It may include an STA-ID subfield, an MCS subfield, a coding subfield, and a spatial configuration subfield. In some embodiments, the EHT-SIG field may be modulated based on one of two or more modulation schemes, such as BPSK, quadrature binary phase shift keying (QBPSK), or the like.

4 is a diagram illustrating a U-SIG field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 4 shows the U-SIG field included in the EHT MU PPDU, and as described above with reference to FIG. 3 , the EHT-SIG field may follow the U-SIG field.

Referring to FIG. 4 , the U-SIG field may include U-SIG-1 and U-SIG-2. U-SIG-1 and U-SIG-2 may respectively correspond to two OFDM symbols, and may respectively correspond to 26 bits, as shown in FIG. 4 . U-SIG-1 is a version-independent field, which is a 3-bit physical version identifier field, 3-bit bandwidth field, 1-bit UL/DL field, 6-bit BSS color field, 7-bit TXOP field and 1 bit. may include a validate field of In addition, U-SIG-2 is version-dependent fields, including a 2-bit PPDU type and compression mode field, a 5-bit punctured channel information field, a 2-bit EHT-SIG MCS field, and a 5-bit The EHT-SIG symbol number field may include a 4-bit CRC field and a 6-bit tail field. The PPDU type and compression mode fields will be described later with reference to FIG. 5, and the punctured channel information field will be described later with reference to FIG. 6 .

Among the fields included in U-SIG-2, the EHT-SIG symbol number field may have a value indicating the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field following the U-SIG field. For example, as shown in FIG. 4 , when the EHT-SIG number of symbols field has 5-bits, the value of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field may represent one of 1 to 32. However, the EHT-SIG field may contain more than 32 symbols. For example, in the 320 MHz bandwidth, the EHT-SIG field may include 8 resource unit allocation subfields (RU allocation subfields), and each of the 8 resource unit allocation subfields is 9 users (ie, stations). can represent Accordingly, the user specific field of the EHT-SIG field may include 72 user fields, and more than 32 symbols may be used for the EHT-SIG field of several hundred bits. Hereinafter, examples for indicating the number of symbols exceeding the number defined by the EHT-SIG symbol number field will be described.

5 is a diagram illustrating encoding of a PPDU type and compression mode field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the table of FIG. 5 shows the UL/DL field included in U-SIG1 of the U-SIG field together with the PPDU type and compression mode fields included in U-SIG2 of the U-SIG field. As described above with reference to FIG. 4 , the UL/DL field may have a length of 1 bit, and the PPDU type and compression mode fields may have a length of 2 bits.

Referring to FIG. 5 , the UL/DL field may indicate uplink or downlink, and the PPDU type and compression mode fields may indicate which mode the PPDU supports. As shown in FIG. 5 , when the values of the PPDU type and compression mode fields are 0, the PPDU may be based on orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA). In addition, when the value of the PPDU type and compression mode fields is 1, the PPDU may be for a single user (SU) or a null data packet (NDP). In addition, when the value of the PPDU type and compression mode fields in the downlink is 2, the PPDU is for multi-user (MU)-multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) based on non-OFDMA (non-OFDMA). it could be That is, when the values of the PPDU type and compression mode fields are 0, the PPDU may be based on OFDMA, while if the values of the PPDU type and compression mode fields are other values than 0, the PPDU may be based on OFDM. As will be described later with reference to FIG. 19, at least one bit of the punctured channel information field may not be used according to the values of the PPDU type and compression mode fields.

6 is a diagram illustrating encoding of a punctured channel information field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the table of FIG. 6 shows puncturing patterns indicated by the punctured channel information field in non-OFDMA. As described above with reference to FIG. 4 , the punctured channel information field may be included in U-SIG-2 of the U-SIG field and may have a length of 5 bits.

Referring to FIG. 6 , puncturing may not occur in the 20 MHz bandwidth and the 40 MHz bandwidth, and the value of the punctured channel information field may be zero. The value of the channel information field punctured in the 80 MHz bandwidth may have one of 1 to 4 according to the puncturing pattern, and the value of the punctured channel information field in the 160 MHz bandwidth is 0 to 12 according to the puncturing pattern. It may have one value, and the value of the channel information field punctured in the 320 MHz bandwidth may have one of 0 to 24 according to the puncturing pattern. As a result, in non-OFDMA, the punctured channel information field may have one of 0 to 24, and all 5 bits of the punctured channel information field may be used to indicate a puncturing pattern. Unlike in FIG. 6 , in the case of OFDMA, among the 5 bits of the puncturing channel information field, 4 bits each representing 4 20 MHz frequency subblocks may be used, and the other bit may not be used.

7A to 7F are diagrams illustrating examples of an EHT-SIG content channel according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 7a shows an EHT-SIG content channel format for OFDMA transmission in a 20 MHz, 40 MHz or 80 MHz bandwidth, FIG. 7b shows an EHT-SIG content channel format for OFDMA transmission in a 160 MHz bandwidth, and FIG. 7c shows a 320 MHz bandwidth represents the EHT-SIG content channel format for OFDMA transmission. In addition, Figure 7d shows the EHT-SIG content channel format for non-OFDMA transmission to multiple users, Figure 7e shows the EHT-SIG content channel format for non-OFDMA transmission to a single user, Figure 7f shows the EHT sounding NDP Indicates the EHT-SIG content channel format for

The EHT-SIG field may include information necessary for stations to decode the EHT MU PPDU together with the U-SIG field. For example, in the EHT MU PPDU, the EHT-SIG field may include U-SIG overflow bits, which are information commonly applied to all stations. In addition, the EHT-SIG field may include resource allocation information for decoding data through a resource unit (RU) or multi-RU (MRU) allocated to the user. The EHT-SIG field for the EHT MU PPDU in the 20 MHz bandwidth may have one EHT-SIG content channel, and the EHT-SIG field for the EHT MU PPDU in the 40 MHz or 80 MHz bandwidth may have two EHT-SIG content channels. And, the EHT-SIG field for the EHT MU PPDU in a bandwidth of 160 MHz or 320 MHz may have two EHT-SIG content channels per 80 MHz frequency subblock. Examples of EHT-SIG content channels according to bandwidth will be described below with reference to FIGS. 11A to 11D and 12A to 12D.

As described above with reference to FIG. 5, the EHT-SIG field is a mode defined according to the values of the UL/DL field and the PPDU type and compression mode fields of the U-SIG field, for example, DL OFDMA transmission, DL for multiple users. It may have a different structure according to non-OFDMA transmission, non-OFDMA transmission for a single user, or EHT sounding NDP.

7A to 7C , when the value of the UL/DL field is zero and the value of the PPDU type and compression mode fields are zero, a PPDU for DL OFDMA transmission may be defined. In DL OFDMA transmission, when the bandwidth of the PPDU is 40 MHz or more, user fields may be split across content channels according to a common field in each EHT-SIG content channel, which is a dynamic split ) can be referred to as

Referring to FIG. 7D , when the value of the UL/DL field is zero and the value of the PPDU type and compression mode fields are 2, a PPDU for DL non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users may be defined. In DL non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users, when the bandwidth of the PPDU is 40 MHz or more, user fields may be split across EHT-SIG content channels, which may be referred to as an equitable split.

Referring to FIG. 7E , when the value of the UL/DL field is zero or 1 and the value of the PPDU type and compression mode fields are 1, a PPDU for non-OFDMA transmission for a single user may be defined. In non-OFDMA transmission for a single user, if the bandwidth of the PPDU is 40 MHz or more, only the user field may be repeated across the EHT-SIG content channels. In FIGS. 7D and 7E , the common field and one user field may be encoded as one block, and one encoding block will be described later with reference to FIG. 9A .

Referring to FIG. 7F , when the value of the UL/DL field is zero or 1 and the value of the PPDU type and compression mode fields are 1, a PPDU for EHT sounding NDP may be defined. In the EHT sounding NDP, the user field may be omitted.

8A to 8C are diagrams illustrating examples of a common field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. As described above with reference to FIG. 3 , the common field may be included in the EHT-SIG field.

Referring to FIG. 8A, the common fields of the EHT-SIG field in the OFDMA transmission mode are a 4-bit spatial reuse subfield, a 2-bit GI+LTF size subfield, a 3-bit number of EHT-LTF symbols subfield, 1 LDPC extra symbol segment subfield of bits, Pre-FEC padding factor subfield of 2 bits, PE disambibuity subfield of 1 bit, RU allocation-1 subfield of Nx9 bits, CRC-1 subfield of 4 bits, CRC-1 subfield of 6 bits It may include a tail-1 subfield, an RU allocation-2 subfield of Mx9 bits, a CRC-2 subfield of 0 or 4 bits, and a tail-2 subfield of 0 or 6 bits.

When the value of the BW field of the U-SIG field is zero or 1, that is, when the bandwidth is 20 MHz or 40 MHz, N may be 1 (N=1), and the value of the BW field is 2, 3, 4 , or 5, that is, when the bandwidth is 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 320 MHz, N may be 2 (N=2). When the value of the BW field of the U-SIG field is 0, 1, or 2, that is, when the bandwidth is 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or 80 MHz, M may be 0 (M=0), and the RU allocation-2 subfield in the common field may be omitted. When the value of the BW field is 3, that is, when the bandwidth is 160 MHz, M can be 2 (M=2), and when the value of the BW field is 4 or 5, that is, when the bandwidth is 320 MHz, M is 6 days possible (M=6). When the RU allocation-2 subfield is omitted, each of the CRC-2 subfield and the tail-2 subfield may have 0 bits and may be omitted from the common field.

Among the subfields included in the common field, the RU allocation subfield may indicate RU allocation information for a 20 MHz subchannel (that is, information on the type of RU and the number of supported users). Accordingly, as the bandwidth increases, the number of RU allocation subfields in the common field may increase, and the same number of user fields as the number of users indicated by the RU allocation subfield may be included in the user characteristic field of the content channel.

8B, in the non-OFDMA transmission mode, the EHT-SIG common field includes a 4-bit spatial reuse subfield, a 2-bit GI+LTF size subfield, a 3-bit number of EHT-LTF symbols subfield, and 1 bit. may include an LDPC extra symbol segment subfield of , a 2-bit Pre-FEC padding factor subfield, a 1-bit PE disambibuity subfield, and a 4-bit number of non-OFDMA users subfield. In the non-OFDMA transmission mode, the user specific field of the content channel may include the number of user fields indicated by the value of the number of non-OFDMA users subfield.

8c, the EHT-SIG common field in the EHT sounding NDP mode is a 4-bit spatial reuse subfield, a 2-bit GI+LTF size subfield, a 3-bit number of EHT-LTF symbols subfield, 4 It may include a number of spatial streams (NSS) subfield of bits, a beamformed subfield of 1 bit, a CRC subfield of 4 bits, and a tail subfield of 6 bits. The value of the NSS subfield may indicate the number of spatial streams, for example, a maximum of 8 spatial streams.

9A and 9B are diagrams illustrating examples of a block including a user field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 9A shows an encoding block including a common field and a user field, and FIG. 9B shows a user block field.

The user specific field may include zero or one or more user block fields, and may have different characteristics depending on the mode. For example, in OFMDA transmission mode, each non-final user block may include two user fields containing information for the two stations used to decode the payloads. Also, in OFMDA transmission mode, the end-user block field may contain information for one or two users depending on the number of users in the EHT-SIG content channel, and the number of user fields is in the RU allocation subfields. can be indicated by In the non-OFDMA transmission mode, the user block field may be configured in the same way as the OFDMA transmission by using the remaining user fields except for the first user field. Also, in the non-OFDMA transmission mode, the first user field may constitute an encoding block together with the common field, and the number of user fields may be indicated by a number of non-OFDMA users subfield. The EHT sounding NDP may not include a user field.

Referring to FIG. 9A , a common field and a user field may be included in one encoding block. For example, as described above with reference to FIGS. 7D and 7E, in a PPDU for DL non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users or non-OFDMA transmission for single user, the common field and the first user field are in one block, that is, It may be included in the first encoding block. As shown in FIG. 9A , the encoding block may include a common field of 20 bits, a user field of 22 bits, a CRC field of 4 bits, and a tail bit of 6 bits.

Referring to FIG. 9B , the user block field may include an Nx22-bit user field, a 4-bit CRC field, and a 6-bit tail field. In FIG. 9B , N may correspond to the number of user fields. For example, if there is only one user in the End User Block field, N may be 1 (N=1), while in other cases N may be 2 (N=2).

10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating examples of a user field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 10A shows a user field in non-MU-MIMO assignment, and FIG. 10B shows a user field in MU-MIMO assignment.

Referring to FIG. 10A , in non-MU-MIMO allocation, the user field may have a length of 22 bits. As shown in FIG. 10A , in the non-MU-MIMO allocation, the user field includes an 11-bit STA-ID subfield, a 4-bit MCS subfield, a 4-bit number of space-time streams (NSTS) subfield, and 1 bit. It may include a beamformed subfield of and a 1-bit coding subfield.

Referring to FIG. 10B , in MU-MIMO allocation, the user field may have a length of 22 bits. As shown in FIG. 10B , in the MU-MIMO allocation, the user field may include an 11-bit STA-ID subfield, a 4-bit MCS subfield, a 1-bit coding subfield, and a 6-bit spatial configuration subfield. have.

11A-11D are diagrams illustrating examples of an EHT-SIG content channel for transmission to multiple users according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; Specifically, FIG. 11A shows an EHT-SIG content channel for a 20 MHz PPDU for OFDMA transmission and non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users. 11B shows an EHT-SIG content channel for a 40 MHz PPDU for OFDMA transmission and non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users. 11C shows an EHT-SIG content channel for an 80 MHz PPDU for OFDMA transmission and non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users. 11D shows an EHT-SIG content channel for a 160 MHz PPDU for OFDMA transmission and non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users.

11A to 11D, in an OFDMA transmission mode or a non-OFDMA transmission mode for multiple users, the EHT-SIG content channel may have a structure that is duplicated in the frequency axis. For example, in the OFDMA transmission mode, the EHT-SIG content channel may have different information for every 80 MHz frequency subblock. In the non-OFDMA transmission mode for multiple users, the EHT-SIG content channel may have different information for every 80 MHz frequency subblock.

12A to 12D are diagrams illustrating examples of an EHT-SIG content channel for transmitting or sounding NDP for a single user according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 12A shows an EHT-SIG content channel for a 20 MHz PPDU for non-OFDMA transmission or EHT sounding NDP for a single user. 12B shows an EHT-SIG content channel for a 40 MHz PPDU for non-OFDMA transmission or EHT sounding NDP for a single user. 12c shows an EHT-SIG content channel for 80Mz PPDU for non-OFDMA transmission or EHT sounding NDP for a single user. 12d shows an EHT-SIG content channel for a 160 MHz PPDU for non-OFDMA transmission or EHT sounding NDP for a single user.

12A to 12D, in the non-OFDMA transmission mode for a single user, the EHT-SIG content channel may have the same information for every 80 MHz frequency subblock. In addition, in the non-OFDMA transmission mode or the EHT sounding NDP mode for a single user, one EHT-SIG content channel may be overlapped for every 20 MHz frequency subblock regardless of the bandwidth.

13 is a message diagram illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 13 , the method for the extended signal field may include a plurality of steps S100 to S600 .

Referring to FIG. 13 , in step S100 , the access point 131 may determine the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field. The EHT-SIG field may have a structure as described above with reference to the drawings. The number of OFDM symbols for the EHT-SIG field may have a different structure depending on the mode, for example, DL OFDMA transmission, DL non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users, non-OFDMA transmission for single user, or EHT sounding NDP. Also, in DL OFDMA transmission and DL non-OFDMA transmission for multiple users, depending on the number of user fields included in the user-specific field, the EHT-SIG field may include several or tens of OFDM symbols. Accordingly, the access point 131 may determine the number of symbols included in the EHT-SIG field based on the above description, for example, the determined number of symbols may exceed 32.

In step S200, the access point 131 may generate a U-SIG field and an EHT-SIG field. For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 4 , the access point 131 may generate a U-SIG field including an EHT-SIG number of symbols field in U-SIG-2. Also, the access point 131 may generate an EHT-SIG field having a structure according to a mode.

In step S300, the access point 131 may transmit the PPDU to the station 132, and the station 132 may receive the PPDU. For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 3 , the access point 131 may transmit an EHT MU PPDU including a U-SIG field and an EHT-SIG field to the station 132 .

In step S400, the station 132 may extract at least one field from the PPDU. For example, the station 132 may extract the U-SIG field from the PPDU received in step S300, and may extract the EHT-SIG symbol number field from the U-SIG field. In addition, the station 132 may further extract at least one additional field from the PPDU in order to identify the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field included in the PPDU.

In step S500, the station 132 may identify the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field. For example, the station 132 may identify the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field based on the value of the at least one field extracted in step S400 . In some embodiments, station 132 may identify a number of symbols greater than 32. Examples of step S500 will be described later with reference to FIGS. 14, 16 and 19 .

In step S600, the station 132 may decode the EHT-SIG field. For example, the station 132 may decode the EHT-SIG field based on the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field identified in step S500. Even if the EHT-SIG field corresponds to more than 32 symbols, the number of symbols can be accurately identified in step S500, so that the station 132 can decode the EHT-SIG field early and accurately.

14 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the flowchart of FIG. 14 shows an example of step S500 of FIG. 13 . 14 , step S500a may include a plurality of steps S510 to S540. As described above with reference to FIG. 13 , the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field may be identified in step S500a of FIG. 14 . In some embodiments, step S500a of FIG. 14 may be performed by the station 132 of FIG. 13 , which will be described below with reference to FIG. 13 .

Referring to FIG. 14 , the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field may be identified in step S510. For example, in step S400 of FIG. 13 , the EHT-SIG symbol number field may be extracted, and the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field may be identified. As described above with reference to FIG. 4 , when the EHT-SIG number of symbols field has 5-bits, the value X of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field may be one of 0 to 31.

In step S520, the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field and the first value V1 may be compared. In some embodiments, the first value V1 may be the maximum value of the value X of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field. For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 4 , when the EHT-SIG symbol number field has 5-bits, the first value V1 may be 31 . 14 , when the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field is equal to the first value V1, step S530 may be subsequently performed. On the other hand, when the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field is not equal to the first value V1, step S540 may be subsequently performed.

When the value X of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field is equal to the first value V1, it may be identified in step S530 that the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field is equal to or greater than the first number. In some embodiments, the first number may be a number indicated by the first value V1 . For example, when the EHT-SIG symbol number field has 5-bits, the first value V1 may be 31, and the first number may be 32, so that the number of EHT-SIG symbols is 32 Abnormalities can be identified. An example of step S530 will be described later with reference to FIG. 15 .

When the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field is not equal to the first value V1, the number of EHT-SIG symbols less than the first number may be identified in step S540. In some embodiments, the first number may be a number indicated by the first value V1 . For example, when the EHT-SIG number of symbols field has 5-bits, the first value V1 may be 31, and the first number may be 32, so the number of EHT-SIG symbols is 0 According to the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field, which is one of to 30, the number of EHT-SIG symbols may be identified as one of 1 to 31.

15 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the flowchart of FIG. 15 shows an example of step S530 of FIG. 14 . 15 , step S530' may include steps S531 and S532. As described above with reference to FIG. 14, when the value X of the EHT-SIG symbol number field is equal to the first value V1, it can be identified that the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field is equal to or greater than the first number in step S530'. have. In some embodiments, step S530 ′ of FIG. 15 may be performed by the station 132 of FIG. 13 , which will be described below with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14 .

Referring to FIG. 15 , the number of user fields may be identified in step S531. When the value X of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field is equal to the first value V1, the station 132 may identify the number of user fields of the EHT-SIG content channel defined by the EHT-SIG common field.

In step S532, the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field may be calculated. For example, the station 132 may calculate the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field based on the number of symbols identified in step S531. Accordingly, the EHT-SIG symbol number field included in the U-SIG field may be defined as shown in [Table 1] below.

Bit Field Number
of bits Description B11-B15 Number Of
EHT-SIG
Symbols 5 Indicates the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field:
Set to the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field minus 1 if the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is less than 32;
Set to 31 to indicate that the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is greater than or equal to 32. The exact number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG is calculated based on the number of User fields in the EHT-SIG content channel, which is indicated by EHT-SIG Common field in this case.

16 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the flowchart of FIG. 16 shows an example of step S500 of FIG. 13 . 16 , step S500b may include steps S550 and S560. As described above with reference to FIG. 13 , the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field may be identified in step S500b of FIG. 16 . In some embodiments, step S500b of FIG. 16 may be performed by the station 132 of FIG. 13 , which will be described below with reference to FIG. 13 .

Referring to FIG. 16 , the first subfield may be extracted from the EHT-SIG field in step S550 . In some embodiments, the EHT-SIG field may include an additional field for indicating a number of symbols exceeding the maximum number that the EHT-SIG number of symbols field may indicate. An additional field included in the EHT-SIG field may include at least one bit, and may be referred to herein as an EHT-SIG symbol number extension field. Examples of the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field will be described below with reference to FIGS. 17A and 17B .

In step S560, the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field may be identified. For example, the station 132 identifies the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field based on the EHT-SIG symbol number field extracted from the U-SIG field and the first subfield extracted from the EHT-SIG field in step S550. can In some embodiments, as described below with reference to FIG. 18 , the station 132 concatenates the bits of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field and at least one bit of the first subfield extracted from the EHT-SIG field ( concatenation), and the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field may be identified from the concatenated bits. For example, when the concatenated bits are 6-bits, a maximum of 64 symbols of the EHT-SIG field may be identified.

17A and 17B are diagrams illustrating examples of a U-SIG field and an EHT-SIG field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIGS. 17A and 17B show examples of the EHT-SIG field including the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field. As described above with reference to FIG. 16, the EHT-SIG field includes an additional field for indicating the number of symbols exceeding the maximum number that the EHT-SIG symbol number field can represent, that is, the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field. and the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field may include at least one bit.

Referring to FIG. 17A , in some embodiments, the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field may be included in a common field of the EHT-SIG field. As shown in FIG. 17A , the EHT-SIG field may include a common field and a user specific field, and the common information field may include an EHT-SIG symbol number extension field. The number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field can be identified based on the EHT-SIG symbol number field included in the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field included in the common field of the EHT-SIG field. may exceed the first number (eg, 32).

Referring to FIG. 17B , in some embodiments, the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field may be included in a user-specific field of the EHT-SIG field. As shown in FIG. 17B , the EHT-SIG field may include a common field and a user specific field, and the user specific field may include a special user field. In some embodiments, the special user field may be fixed at the beginning of the user specific field and may include an EHT-SIG number of symbols extension field. The number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field can be identified based on the EHT-SIG symbol number field included in the U-SIG field and the EHT-SIG symbol number extension field included in the common field of the EHT-SIG field. may exceed the first number (eg, 32).

18 is a diagram illustrating encoding of an EHT-SIG number of symbols field and an EHT-SIG number of symbols extension field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the table of FIG. 18 shows the encoding of the 5-bit EHT-SIG symbol number field and the n-bit EHT-SIG symbol number extension field (n is an integer greater than 0).

In some embodiments, bits of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field and at least one bit of the EHT-SIG number of symbols extension field may be concatenated, and the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field may be identified based on the concatenated bits. have. For example, as shown in FIG. 18 , n bits of the EHT-SIG number of symbols extension field may be connected to the 5-bit most significant bit (MSB) side of the EHT-SIG symbol number field, and the connected bits indicate The number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the value may be identified. In the example of FIG. 18 , the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field may be calculated by adding 1 to a value of n+5 bits. As shown in FIG. 18 , the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field exceeding 32 may be encoded by adding n bits.

19 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the flowchart of FIG. 19 shows examples of steps S400 and S500 of FIG. 13 . 19 , step S500c may be performed following step S400', and step S500c may include a plurality of steps S570 to S590. As described above with reference to FIG. 19, at least one field may be extracted in step S400' of FIG. 19, and the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field may be identified in step S500c. In some embodiments, steps S400' and S500c of FIG. 19 may be performed by the station 132 of FIG. 13 , which will be described below with reference to FIG. 13 .

Referring to FIG. 19, in step S400', the PPDU type and compression mode fields, the punctured channel information field, and the EHT-SIG symbol number field may be extracted from the U-SIG field. As described above with reference to FIG. 4 , the PPDU type and compression mode fields, the punctured channel information field, and the EHT-SIG symbol number field may be included in U-SIG-2 of the U-SIG field, and the station 132 ) can extract fields included in U-SIG-2.

In step S570, the compression mode of the PPDU may be identified. For example, the station 132 may identify a mode corresponding to the value of the PPDU type and compression mode field extracted in step S400' with reference to the table of FIG. 5 .

In step S580, a punctured pattern may be identified. As described above with reference to FIG. 6 , the punctured channel information field may be encoded differently in OFDMA transmission and non-OFDMA transmission. Accordingly, the station 132 may identify the punctured pattern based on the mode identified in step S570 and the puncturing channel information field extracted in step S400'. An example of step S580 will be described later with reference to FIG. 20 .

In step S590, the number of EHT-SIG symbols may be identified based on the identified mode. The number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field may exceed 32 in OFDMA transmission, and may not exceed 32 in non-OFDMA transmission. Accordingly, the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field may be identified in different ways depending on the mode, and an example of step S590 will be described later with reference to FIG. 21 .

20 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the flowchart of FIG. 20 shows an example of step S580 of FIG. 19 . As described above with reference to FIG. 19 , a puncturing pattern may be identified in step S580 ′ of FIG. 20 . As shown in FIG. 20 , step S580 ′ may include a plurality of steps S581 to S583 . In some embodiments, step S580 ′ of FIG. 20 may be performed by the station 132 of FIG. 13 , which will be described below with reference to FIG. 13 .

Referring to FIG. 20 , it may be determined whether the mode is the first mode in step S581. For example, the station 132 may determine whether the mode identified in step S570 of FIG. 19 is a first mode, and the first mode may be an OFDMA transmission mode. As shown in FIG. 20 , when the identified mode is the first mode, step S5882 may be performed subsequently, while if the identified mode is not the first mode, step S583 may be performed subsequently.

When the identified mode is the first mode, a punctured pattern may be identified based on some of the bits of the punctured channel information field in step S582. For example, as described above with reference to FIG. 6 , the station 132 performs a puncturing pattern for four 20 MHz frequency subblocks based on 4 out of 5 bits of the punctured channel information field in OFDMA transmission mode. can be identified. Accordingly, one bit of the punctured channel information field may not be used.

When the identified mode is not the first mode, a punctured channel may be identified based on all bits of the punctured channel information field in step S583. For example, the station 132 may identify a punctured pattern corresponding to a value of 5 bits of the punctured channel information field with reference to the table of FIG. 6 in the non-OFDMA transmission mode.

21 is a flowchart illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, the flowchart of FIG. 21 shows an example of step S590 of FIG. 19 . As described above with reference to FIG. 19, the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field may be identified in step S590' of FIG. As shown in FIG. 21 , step S590 ′ may include a plurality of steps S591 to S593 . In some embodiments, step S590 ′ of FIG. 21 may be performed by the station 132 of FIG. 13 , and FIG. 21 will be described below with reference to FIG. 13 .

Referring to FIG. 21 , it may be determined whether the mode is the first mode in step S591. For example, the station 132 may determine whether the mode identified in step S570 of FIG. 19 is a first mode, and the first mode may be an OFDMA transmission mode. 21 , when the identified mode is the first mode, step S5892 may be performed subsequently, while if the identified mode is not the first mode, step S593 may be performed subsequently.

When the identified mode is the first mode, the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field may be identified from the punctured channel information field and the EHT-SIG symbol number field in step S592. As described above with reference to FIGS. 6 and 20 , in OFDMA transmission, one bit out of 5 bits of the puncturing channel information field may not be used, and accordingly, the puncturing channel information field that is not used in OFDMA transmission One bit may function as an EHT-SIG symbol number extension field. In some embodiments, the station 132 may concatenate 5 bits of the EHT-SIG number of symbols field and one bit of the punctured channel information field, with more than 32 symbols from the concatenated 6 bits of the EHT-SIG field. number can be identified.

If the identified mode is not the first mode, the number of symbols in the EHT-SIG field may be identified from the EHT-SIG number of symbols field in step S593. As described above with reference to FIG. 6, the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field in the non-OFDMA transmission mode may not exceed 32, and may be identified from the 5-bit EHT-SIG field symbol number field. Accordingly, the EHT-SIG field symbol number field included in the U-SIG field may be defined as shown in [Table 2] below.

Bit Field Number
of bits Description B11-B15 Number of
EHT-SIG
Symbols 5 Indicates the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field:
If an OFDMA case,
[B7, B11-B15] of U-SIG-2 is set to the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field minus 1;
NOTE—In an OFDMA case, B7 of Punctured Channel Information field is used to indicate the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field.

If a non-OFDMA case,
B11-B15 of U-SIG-2 is set to the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field minus 1;
NOTE—In a non-OFDMA case, B7 of Punctured Channel Information field is used to indicate the non-OFDMA puncturing pattern of the entire PPDU bandwidth.

22 is a message diagram illustrating a method for an extended signal field according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 22 , the method for the extended signal field may include a plurality of steps S010 to S040.

In some embodiments, whether the station 222 can process the EHT-SIG field corresponding to more than the first number of symbols may be reported to the access point 221 . For example, the station 222 may provide information about its own capability to the access point 221 in the process of association with the access point 221 , and the information is transmitted to the station 222 by the station 222 . It may include information indicating whether processing of the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the symbols exceeding the first number is possible.

Referring to FIG. 22 , the station 222 may generate an HE physical (PHY) capability information field in step S010, and the station 222 may generate an EHT physical capability information field in step S020. In this specification, HE may be referred to as a legacy protocol, and EHT or EHT+ may be referred to as a non-legacy protocol. The HE physical capability information may include information on functions supportable by a station supporting HE, and the EHT physical capability information may include information on functions supportable by a station supporting EHT. In some embodiments, a station supporting only HE (which may be referred to as a legacy device or a legacy station) may provide only the HE physical capability information field to the access point 221 , while a station supporting EHT (which may be referred to as a non-legacy station) device or non-legacy station) may provide the HE physical capability information field as well as the EHT physical capability information field to the access point 221 .

In some embodiments, as described below with reference to FIGS. 23A and 23B , the information indicating whether processing of the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the symbols exceeding the first number is possible is the HE physical capability information field or It may be included in the EHT physical capability information field. Accordingly, the station 222 generates an HE physical capability information field including information indicating whether processing of the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the symbols exceeding the first number in step S010 is possible, or in step S020 may generate an HE physical capability information field including the corresponding information.

In step S030, the station 222 may transmit the PPDU, and the access point 221 may receive the PPDU. The PPDU may transmit a PPDU including the HE physical capability information field generated in step S010 and the EHT physical capability information field generated in step S020.

In step S040, the access point 221 may identify the processing capability of the station 222 for the EHT-SIG field. For example, the access point 221 may extract the HE physical capability information field and/or the EHT physical capability information field from the PPDU received in step S030, and based on the information included in the extracted field, the station 222 may It may be identified whether processing of the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the symbols exceeding the first number is possible. When it is identified that the station 222 is capable of processing the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the symbols exceeding the first number, the access point 221 sets the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the symbols exceeding the first number. may be generated, and at least one field (or at least one bit) including the EHT-SIG field number of symbols field may be generated to indicate the number of symbols of the EHT-SIG field.

23A and 23B are diagrams illustrating an HE physical capability information field and an EHT physical capability information field according to exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the HE physical capability information field and the EHT physical capability information field may be included in the data field of the payload. As described above with reference to FIG. 22 , the station 222 may generate an HE physical capability information field and an EHT physical capability information field. Hereinafter, FIGS. 23A and 23B will be described with reference to FIG. 22 , and content overlapping with each other in the description of FIGS. 23A and 23B will be omitted.

Referring to FIG. 23A , the HE physical capability information field may include a longer than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield. The longer than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield may have a length of 1 bit, and may have a value indicating whether the station can support more than 16 symbols of the HE-SIG-B field. For example, if the value of the longer than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield is '1', the access point 221 processes more than 16 HE-SIG-B field symbols by the HE station. You can identify what you can do. On the other hand, if the value of the longer than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield is '0', the access point 221 indicates that the HE station will process 16 or fewer symbols of the HE-SIG-B field. can identify what is possible.

In the example of FIG. 23A , the longer than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield included in the HE physical capability information field indicates whether the EHT-SIG field corresponding to the symbols exceeding the first number can be processed. can be used as For example, the access point 221 may identify whether the station is an HE station or an EHT station. When the HE station is identified, the access point 221 indicates whether the station can support symbols of the HE-SIG-B field in which the value of the HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield exceeds 16. can be judged as On the other hand, when the EHT station is identified, the access point 221 determines whether the station can support symbols of the EHT-SIG field in which the value of the longer than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield exceeds the first number. It can be determined whether or not Accordingly, when the first number is 32, the EHT-SIG symbol number field of the U-SIG field may be defined as shown in [Table 3] below.

Bit Field Number
of bits Description B11-B15 Number of
EHT-SIG
Symbols 5 Indicates the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field:
Set to the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field minus 1 if the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is less than 32;
Set to 31 to indicate that the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is equal to 32 if Longer Than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM Symbols Support subfield in the HE Capabilities element transmitted by at least one recipient STA is 0;
Set to 31 to indicate that the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is greater than or equal to 32 if the Longer Than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM Symbols Support subfield in the HE Capabilities element transmitted by all the recipient STAs are 1. The exact number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is calculated based on the number of User fields in the EHT-SIG content channel, which is indicated by EHT-SIG Common field in this case.

Referring to FIG. 23B , the HE physical capability information field may include a longer than 16 HE-SIG-B OFDM symbols support subfield, and the EHT physical capability information field may include a longer than 32 EHT-SIG OFDM symbols support subfield. can do. For example, the longer than 32 EHT-SIG OFDM symbols support subfield may have a length of 1 bit, and may have a value indicating whether the station can support more than 32 symbols of the EHT-SIG field. For example, if the value of the longer than 32 EHT-SIG OFDM symbols support subfield is '1', the access point 221 is an EHT station, that is, the station 222 has more than 32 symbols in the EHT-SIG field. You can identify those that can handle them. On the other hand, if the value of the longer than 32 EHT-SIG OFDM symbols support subfield is '0', the access point 221 indicates that the station 222 can process the symbols of the EHT-SIG field of 32 or less. can be identified Accordingly, the longer than 32 EHT-SIG OFDM symbols support subfield may be defined as shown in [Table 4] below, and the EHT-SIG number of symbols field may be defined as shown in [Table 5] below.

Subfield definition Encoding Longer Than 32
EHT-SIG OFDM
Symbols Support For a non-AP STA, indicates support for receiving a DL EHT MU PPDU where the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is greater than 32. Set to 0 if not supported.
Set to 1 if supported.

Bit Field Number
of bits Description B11-B15 Number of
EHT-SIG
Symbols 5 Indicates the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field:
Set to the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field minus 1 if the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is less than 32;
Set to 31 to indicate that the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is equal to 32 if Longer Than 32 EHT-SIG OFDM Symbols Support subfield in the EHT Capabilities element transmitted by at least one recipient STA is 0;
Set to 31 to indicate that the number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is greater than or equal to 32 if the Longer Than 32 EHT-SIG OFDM Symbols Support subfield in the EHT Capabilities element transmitted by all the recipient STAs are 1. The exact number of OFDM symbols in the EHT-SIG field is calculated based on the number of User fields in the EHT-SIG content channel, which is indicated by EHT-SIG Common field in this case.

24 is a diagram illustrating examples of an apparatus for wireless communication according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Specifically, FIG. 24 shows an Internet of Things (IoT) network system including a home appliance 241 , a home appliance 242 , an entertainment device 243 , and an access point 245 .

In some embodiments, in the apparatus for wireless communication of FIG. 24 , as described above with reference to the drawings, the extended signal field may be transmitted, and the number of symbols of the extended signal field may be accurately conveyed. Accordingly, in the WLAN system, the number of extended signal fields can be accurately identified at the receiving side, and decoding can be performed efficiently. In addition, transmission and reception of the extended signal field may be possible, and thus the efficiency of the WLAN system may be increased.

Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to the embodiment shown in the drawings, this is merely exemplary, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Accordingly, the true technical protection scope of the present disclosure should be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

Claims (10)

A method for wireless communication by a first device, comprising:
receiving a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a second device;
extracting a first field from a first signal field included in the first PPDU; and
identifying the number of symbols of a second signal field included in the first PPDU based on the value of the first field;
The step of identifying the number of symbols in the second signal field comprises: when the first field has a first value, identifying that the number of symbols in the second signal field is equal to or greater than the first number wireless communication method. The method according to claim 1,
extracting a common field from the second signal field;
The step of identifying that the number of symbols in the second signal field is equal to or greater than the first number,
identifying the number of user fields included in the second signal field based on a value of at least one resource unit (RU) allocation subfield included in the common field; and
and calculating the number of symbols of the second signal field based on the number of the user fields. The method according to claim 1,
The step of identifying the number of symbols in the second signal field comprises:
If the first field has a value different from the first value, identifying the number of symbols in the second signal field less than the first number from the value of the first field. communication method. The method according to claim 1,
Transmitting a second PPDU including capability information of the first device to the second device,
The second PPDU includes a first subfield having a value indicating that the first device can process the second signal field including more than the first number of symbols. . 5. The method according to claim 4,
The second PPDU includes a first capability information field based on a legacy protocol and a second capability information field based on a non-legacy protocol,
The first subfield is included in the first capability information field, and when the first capability information field is transmitted to the second device by a legacy device, a signal field containing more than a second number of symbols. A wireless communication method, characterized in that it has a value indicating whether it is possible. 5. The method according to claim 4,
The second PPDU includes a first capability information field based on a legacy protocol and a second capability information field based on a non-legacy protocol,
The first subfield is a wireless communication method, characterized in that included in the second capability information field. A method for wireless communication by a first device, comprising:
receiving a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a second device;
extracting a first field from a first signal field included in the first PPDU;
extracting a first subfield from a second signal field included in the first PPDU; and
and identifying the number of symbols in the second signal field based on the value of the first field and the value of the first subfield. 9. The method of claim 8,
The step of extracting the first subfield comprises:
extracting a common field from the second signal field; and
and extracting the first subfield from the common field. 8. The method of claim 7,
The step of extracting the first subfield comprises:
extracting a special user field from a user specific field of the second signal field; and
and extracting the first subfield from the special user field. A method for wireless communication by a first device, comprising:
receiving a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) from a second device;
extracting a first field, a second field, and a third field from a first signal field included in the first PPDU;
identifying the mode of the first PPDU based on the value of the first field;
identifying a punctured pattern based on the value of the second field; and
identifying the number of symbols of a second signal field included in the first PPDU;
The step of identifying the number of symbols of the second signal field may include determining the number of symbols of the second signal field based on at least one bit of the second field and the third field when the identified mode is the first mode. A wireless communication method comprising the step of identifying.

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