RU2812042C1 - Method for establishing multichannel connection and communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: means for establishing a multi-channel connection.

SUBSTANCE: multi-link association response frame carries radio bitmap information to indicate an AP allowed to associate with a radio module from the STA MLD device, or a communication channel allowed to be established using a radio module from the STA MLD device, so that the radio module is subsequently switched between different APs or communication channels. This multi-link association response frame carries link setup status information to indicate the link setup status with respect to each link requested to be established by the MLD STA, so that multi-link setup is performed more flexibly. This multi-channel association response frame carries reassociation information for indicating whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved, so that the problem that signalling overhead becomes relatively large due to the reassociation operation is avoided.

EFFECT: increased flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection.

34 cl, 4 tbl, 21 dwg

Description

Field of technology to which the invention relates

The present application relates to the field of communication technology and, in particular, to a method for establishing a multi-channel connection and a communication device.

State of the art

The IEEE 802.11ax next-generation wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) standard requires an extremely high throughput (EHT) device to aggregate multiple discrete communication channels using multi-channel cooperation technology to achieve ultra-wide bandwidth. In addition to aggregating a wider frequency band, multichannel cooperation technology can further be used to simultaneously transmit a data packet of the same service to the same station. It can be understood that multi-channel cooperation technology significantly increases the speed of data transfer.

A Station Multi-link Device (STA MLD) can establish multiple communication links with an Access point Multi-link Device (AP MLD) using a single communication link. A multi-channel association request frame or a multi-channel association response frame during an operation of a multi-channel connection establishment method carries information about multiple communication channels for establishing the multiple communication channels.

Currently, for a single-link device, such as a station (STA) and an access point (AP), during the process of associating the STA with an AP, the status code field in the association response frame can be used to indicate whether successful association of the STA with the AP. However, for a multi-channel device, if only the status code field is used to indicate successful association between multi-channel devices, the specific connection establishment status for each individual channel cannot be determined. As a result, the flexibility of establishing a multi-link connection is relatively low.

Disclosure of the invention

The multi-channel connection establishment method and communication apparatus proposed herein help to improve the flexibility of multi-channel connection establishment.

According to a first aspect, the present application provides a method for establishing a multi-channel connection. This method comprises: The MLD STA transmits a multi-link association request frame; and the MLD STA receives a multi-link association response frame, wherein the multi-link association response frame carries radio bitmap information, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate which radios from the MLD STA are allowed to be used for establishing each communication channel that this STA MLD device requires to be installed.

According to a second aspect, the present application provides a method for establishing a multi-channel connection. This method corresponds to the first aspect and is described from the point of view of an AP MLD device. This method comprises: The MLD AP receives a multi-link association request frame; and the MLD AP transmits a multi-channel association response frame, wherein the multi-channel association response frame carries radio bitmap information, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio module from the MLD STA that is permitted to be used to establish each communication channel that the device STA MLD requires installation.

It can be understood that both methods of establishing a multi-channel connection described in the above two aspects help the AP MLD device to notify the radio module from the STA MLD device that is allowed to be used to establish each communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to be installed. Further, it helps to determine that when there are no radios allowed to be used to establish a communication channel, the communication channel cannot be established; or determine that if there is a radio module enabled for use on a communication channel, that communication channel has been successfully established. When the same radio module is allowed to be used to establish multiple communication channels, the radio module can quickly switch between these multiple communication channels, thereby avoiding the problem of relatively high latency caused by re-establishing a communication channel and increasing the flexibility of establishing a multi-channel connection.

In other words, if the radio bitmap information indicates that a radio from an STA MLD device authorized to be used to establish one communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to be established does not exist or the number of such radio modules is zero, this implicitly indicates that this channel connection cannot be established. If the radio bitmap information indicates that there is one radio from the MLD STA authorized to be used to establish one communication link that the MLD STA requires to be established, this implicitly means that the communication link in question has been successfully established. If the radio bitmap information indicates that there are multiple radios from an STA MLD device authorized to be used to establish one communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to be established, this implicitly means that the communication channel has been successfully established, and all these multiple radio modules can switch into this communication channel.

Optionally, if the radio bitmap information indicates that the same radio module from an STA MLD is authorized to be used to establish multiple communication channels that that STA MLD requires to be established, this implicitly indicates that the radio module in question can be used to establish several communication channels and can switch between these several communication channels. It can be determined that according to the multi-channel connection establishment method, it is indicated whether the establishment of a communication channel is successful, and then multiple communication channels for the same radio module can be established, so as to help the radio module to quickly switch between multiple communication channels, thereby avoiding problems with a relatively large delay due to the switching performed after subsequent re-establishment of the communication channel.

Various options for implementing the multi-channel connection establishment methods described in accordance with the first aspect and the second aspect are now discussed.

The radio bitmap information may further comprise, but is not limited to, a description of the following types of data: The radio bitmap information is used to indicate to the AP that each MLD STA radio is allowed to associate with the MLD AP; or a communication channel allowed to be shared by each radio module of the STA MLD device; or the communication channel that each radio module of the STA MLD device is allowed to use to establish; or a radio module with which each AP in the MLD AP is allowed to associate and which is part of the MLD STA. From these various descriptions, information such as whether each communication channel has been successfully established, the set of communication channels between which each radio module is allowed to switch, and whether any radio module is available can be ascertained. The details will not be described here.

In this embodiment, the radio bitmap information indicates the mapping between each communication channel and each radio module of the MLD STA, or the mapping between each AP in the MLD AP and each radio in the MLD STA. Therefore, in this embodiment, the radio bitmap information may be transmitted as part of the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element. Optionally, the radio bitmap information may alternatively be carried in the multi-channel association response frame in the form of an independent field.

In addition, the total number of bits occupied by the radio bitmap information = the number of radios in the STA MLD multiplied by the number of APs in the AP MLD. Alternatively, the total number of bits occupied by the radio bitmap information = the number of radios in the STA MLD multiplied by the number of communication channels that the STA MLD requires to be installed. It can be understood that the radio number information transmitted in the multi-channel association request frame helps determine the number of bits in the radio bitmap information or the length of the radio bitmap information.

In this embodiment, the radio bitmap information may be carried in the MLD device layer information in the specified multi-channel element.

In another implementation, the multi-channel association response frame carries multiple segments of radio bitmap information, one segment of this radio bitmap information corresponds to one communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to establish, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio module from the STA MLD device allowed to establish the appropriate communication channel. It can be understood that this embodiment assists the MLD AP to inform the MLD STA of the radios from that MLD STA that are authorized to be used to establish each communication channel that the MLD STA requires to be established. Further, if the radio bitmap information for one communication channel indicates that there is no radio module authorized for use for that communication channel in the STA MLD, or the number of such radio modules is zero, this implicitly means that the communication channel cannot be established. If the radio bitmap information for one link indicates that there are multiple radios enabled for that link in the MLD STA, this implicitly means that the link has been successfully established and all of those multiple radios can switch to that link. .

As an option, if the radio bitmap information for multiple communication channels individually points to the same STA MLD radio module authorized for use on those channels, this implicitly means that this radio module can be used to establish said multiple communication channels and can switch between these multiple communication channels.

It can be understood that, in this embodiment, it is indicated whether a communication channel has been successfully established, and multiple communication channels can be further established for the same radio module to help the radio module quickly switch between these multiple communication channels, thereby avoiding the problem with a relatively large delay due to the switching carried out after the re-establishment of the communication channel.

In this embodiment, the total number of bits occupied by the radio bitmap information for one communication channel = the number of radios in the STA MLD.

In this embodiment, the radio bitmap information for the transmission channel that the STA MLD device requires to set up is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element; and the radio bitmap information for the non-transmittable communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to be established is transmitted in the communication channel configuration information for this non-transmittable communication channel in the specified multi-channel element. Alternatively, regardless of the transmitted communication channel or the non-transmitted communication channel, the radio bitmap information for each communication channel is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element. Optionally, radio bitmap information for each communication channel is transmitted in the multi-channel association response frame in the form of an independent field.

Optionally, the radio bitmap information in the above embodiments may alternatively be transmitted in a multi-link association request frame or in a re-association request frame to inform the MLD AP of the correspondence between the radio module requested by the MLD STA and the communication channel, or about the correspondence between any radio module and the AP point. The details will not be described here.

Optionally, the radio bitmap information in the above embodiments may alternatively be carried in a reassociation response frame to inform the MLD STA of the correspondence between a radio module enabled by the MLD AP and any communication channel or the correspondence between some radio module and AP point. The details will not be described here.

Optionally, the multi-channel association request frame or the re-association request frame further carries information about the number of radio modules, and this number of radio modules information is used to indicate the number of radio modules in the STA MLD device. Further, it helps to determine the number of bits of complete radio bitmap information for all communication channels or the length of complete radio bitmap information for all communication channels, or helps to determine the number of bits of radio bitmap information for each communication channel or the length of radio bitmap information for each channel communications.

For the above multi-channel connection establishment method, the reassociation response frame received by the MLD STA from the MLD AP may carry reassociation information, and this reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved. The MLD AP uses the reassociation information to allow the MLD STA to reserve a portion of the parameters so that retransmission of parameters during and after the reassociation operation can be avoided, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

Optionally, the association configuration information may be information shared by multiple communication channels in a multi-channel device. The MLD AP uses the reassociation information to allow the MLD STA to reserve a portion of the parameters so that retransmission of parameters during and after the reassociation operation can be avoided, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

Optionally, the association configuration information includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following parameters: block handshaking protocol indication, sequence number, packet number, duplicate detection cache indication, chunking and reassembly buffer indication, and buffered data unit. media access control service data unit MSDU.

In one implementation, the reassociation information contains one bit. This bit corresponds to all parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether all parameters in the association configuration information are reserved.

In another implementation, the reassociation information contains multiple bits. One bit corresponds to one parameter in this association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding parameter is reserved.

In yet another embodiment, the reassociation information comprises multiple bits. One bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved.

In yet another embodiment, the reassociation information comprises multiple bits. One bit corresponds to multiple parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding multiple parameters are reserved.

Optionally, the reassociation information is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the re-association response frame. Alternatively, the reassociation information is transmitted in the reassociation response frame in the form of an independent field.

According to a third aspect, the present application provides a method for establishing a multi-channel connection. This method comprises: The MLD STA transmits a multi-channel association request frame; and the MLD STA receives a multi-channel association response frame, wherein the multi-channel association response frame carries information about the establishment of communication channels, and this information about the establishment of communication channels is used to indicate the establishment status of each communication channel requested to be established by the STA MLD device. It can be understood that according to the present multi-channel connection establishment method, the MLD STA can determine the establishment status for each communication channels based on the information about the establishment status of communication channels, in other words, it is allowed that there is a communication channel that could not be established among the communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device, thereby increasing the flexibility of establishing a multi-link connection.

According to a fourth aspect, the present application provides a method for establishing a multi-channel connection. This method is described from the point of view of the AP MLD device. This method comprises: The MLD AP receives a multi-link association request frame; and the MLD AP transmits a multi-link association response frame, wherein the multi-link association response frame carries information about the link setup status, and this link setup status information is used to indicate the setup status for each link that the MLD STA requires to set up. It can be understood that according to this multi-channel connection establishment method, the MLD AP device can indicate the establishment status for each communication channel. Among the set of communication channels that the MLD STA requires to establish, it is allowed to exist a communication channel that cannot be established, which helps to increase the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection.

The following describes a number of options for implementing the methods for establishing a multi-channel connection proposed in the third aspect and in the fourth aspect.

In one implementation, the link establishment status information includes a status code field and link configuration information for a successfully established link among the set of links that the MLD STA requires to be established. The status code field is used to indicate that the STA MLD device has successfully associated with the AP MLD device. This MLD AP device may use the present embodiment to allow the MLD STA device to determine that the communication channel whose configuration information is transmitted in the multi-link association response frame is a successfully established communication channel. Among the plurality of communication channels that the MLD STA requires to establish, it is allowed to exist a communication channel that cannot be established, thereby increasing the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection. In addition, the multi-link association response frame does not need to carry configuration information about a communication channel that cannot be established. It can be understood that, in this embodiment, signaling overhead can be further reduced.

Optionally, if in this embodiment the status code field indicates that the subject MLD STA failed to associate with the MLD AP, the multi-link association response frame may not contain information about the configuration of the subject link.

In another implementation, the link establishment status information includes a status code field and link configuration information for a successfully established link from a set of links requested to be established by the MLD STA. The status code field is used to indicate that a portion of the communications links that the STA MLD requested to be installed have been successfully installed. The MLD AP device may use this embodiment to allow the MLD STA device to determine that the communication channel whose configuration information is transmitted in the multi-link association response frame is a successfully established communication channel. Among the plurality of communication channels that the MLD STA requires to establish, it is allowed to exist a communication channel that cannot be established, thereby increasing the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection.

Optionally, the status code field indicates that all communication channels requested to be installed by the STA MLD device have been successfully installed. The link establishment status information may include link configuration information with respect to all communications links that the subject MLD STA has requested to establish.

In yet another embodiment, the link establishment status information comprises a status code field and link configuration information for a successfully established non-transmit link among a plurality of links requested to be established by the MLD STA. The status code field is used to indicate that the transmitted communication channel among the set of communication channels that the STA MLD device requires to be established has been successfully established. Optionally, when this status code field indicates that a transmitted communication channel among the plurality of communication channels that the MLD STA requires to be established has failed to be established, the communication channel establishment status information may further include information about the configuration of the communication channel with respect to the successfully established non-transmitted communication channel. communication channel among the set of communication channels that the STA MLD device requires to be installed. It can be understood that in this embodiment, among the plurality of communication channels that the MLD STA requires to be established, a communication channel that cannot be established is allowed to exist, thereby increasing the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection.

In the above implementation option, the status code field may be transmitted in the multi-channel association response frame in the form of an independent field, the communication channel configuration information regarding the successfully established transmitted communication channel may be transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the multi-channel association response frame, and communication channel configuration information with respect to a successfully established non-transferable communication channel may be transmitted in the communication channel configuration information with respect to each communication channel in a multi-channel element in a multi-channel association response frame. Optionally, the status code field and successfully established communication channel information may alternatively be transmitted at another position in the multi-channel association response frame.

In yet another embodiment, the link establishment status information comprises multiple status code fields. One status code field corresponds to one communication channel requested to be established by the STA MLD device and is used to indicate the communication channel establishment status with respect to the corresponding communication channel. It can be understood that in this embodiment, each communication channel corresponds to one status code field. Here, it is possible to indicate not only whether the corresponding communication channel has been established successfully, so as to increase the flexibility of the multi-channel connection establishment procedure, but also to indicate a different status of the communication channel establishment.

In addition, but not limited to, the following two types of methods for transmitting link establishment status information to a multi-link association response frame are possible. In one embodiment, for communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device, the status code field for the transmitted communication channel is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element, and the status code field for the non-transmitted communication channel is transmitted in the communication channel configuration information regarding non-transmittable communication channel in this multi-channel element. In another implementation, in the communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device, the status code fields for all these communication channels are transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element.

In yet another embodiment, the handshake status information includes a status code field and bitmap information about the handshake status. The status code field is used to indicate that the MLD STA device has successfully associated with the MLD AP device, and the link establishment status bitmap information is used to indicate whether each link of the set of links requested to be established by the MLD STA device has been successfully established . Optionally, if the status code field indicates that the MLD STA failed to associate with the MLD AP, the handshake status information may not include the handshake status bitmap information.

In yet another embodiment, the handshake status information includes a status code field and bitmap information about the handshake status. The status code field is used to indicate that a portion of the communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device have been successfully established, and the bitmap information about the communication channel establishment status is used to indicate whether each communication channel has been, from the set of channels requested to be established by the STA device MLD installed successfully. Optionally, if the status code field indicates that all links requested to be established by the STA MLD device have been successfully established, this link setup status information may not contain bitmap information about the link setup status, or all bits of the bitmap information. The communication channel establishment status information included in the communication channel establishment status information is equal to 1 (it is assumed that when the value of the bit corresponding to a communication channel is equal to 1, this means that this communication channel has been successfully established). Optionally, if the status code field indicates that all channels that the STA MLD requested to be installed failed to be installed, the handshake status information may not contain bitmap information about the handshake status, or all bits of the bitmap information about The communication channel establishment status included in the communication channel establishment status information is equal to 0 (it is assumed that when the value of the bit corresponding to a communication channel is equal to 0, this means that this communication channel could not be established).

In yet another embodiment, the handshake status information includes a status code field and bitmap information about the handshake status. The status code field is used to indicate that the transmitted link of the set of links requested to be established by the STA MLD device has been successfully established, and bitmap information about the setup status of the links is used to indicate whether each non-transmitted link of the set of links has been established. requested for installation by the STA MLD device has been successfully installed. Optionally, if the status code field indicates that a transmitted bearer from the set of bearers requested to be established by the STA MLD device could not be established, the bearer establishment status information may still include bitmap information about the bearer establishment status, with the purpose of indicating whether each of the non-transmitting communication channels has been successfully established.

Optionally, link establishment status information may alternatively be conveyed in a reassociation response frame to indicate whether each link has been successfully established in the reassociation process.

In addition, according to the multi-channel connection establishment method, the reassociation response frame may not contain reassociation information, and the reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved. The association configuration information includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following parameters: block handshaking protocol indication, sequence number, packet number, duplicate detection cache indication, chunking and reassembly buffer indication, buffered media access control service data unit (MSDU) . Optionally, the association configuration information may be information shared by multiple communication channels in a multi-channel device. This reassociation information is used to reserve a portion of the parameters so that retransmission of parameters during and after the reassociation operation can be avoided, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

In one embodiment, the reassociation information contains one bit. This bit corresponds to all parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether all parameters in the association configuration information are reserved.

In another implementation, the reassociation information contains several bits. One bit corresponds to one parameter in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding parameter is reserved.

In yet another embodiment, the reassociation information comprises multiple bits. One bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved.

In yet another embodiment, the reassociation information comprises multiple bits. One bit corresponds to multiple parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding multiple parameters are reserved.

Optionally, the reassociation information is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the re-association response frame. Alternatively, the reassociation information is transmitted in the reassociation response frame in the form of an independent field.

In addition, according to the multi-channel connection establishment methods proposed in the first aspect and the second aspect, a method for indicating the correspondence between a radio module and a communication channel and the correspondence between a radio module and an AP is used to inform the MLD STA about successfully established communication channels and channels. connections that could not be established. According to the multi-channel connection establishment methods proposed in the third aspect and the fourth aspect, the communication channel establishment status is indicated with respect to each communication channel to inform the MLD STA of the communication channels that have been successfully established and the communication channels that have failed to be established. It can be understood that the methods for establishing a multi-channel connection according to the first aspect and the second aspect and the methods for establishing a multi-channel connection according to the third aspect and the fourth aspect face the need to solve the same problems, have specific technical features with the same functions, and achieve the technical effect of more flexible establishment of multi-channel connection. Therefore, the methods for establishing a multi-channel connection according to the first aspect and the second aspect and the methods for establishing a multi-channel connection according to the third aspect and the fourth aspect belong to the same inventive concept and satisfy the requirement of unity.

According to a fifth aspect, the present application further provides a method for establishing a multi-channel connection. This method comprises: The MLD STA transmits a reassociation request frame; and the MLD STA receives a reassociation response frame, where the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, and this reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved. The reassociation information is used to reserve a portion of the parameters so that the method can avoid retransmitting those parameters during and after the reassociation operation, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

According to a sixth aspect, the present application further includes a method for establishing a multi-channel connection. This method corresponds to the method according to the fifth aspect and is described from the point of view of an AP MLD device. This method comprises: The MLD AP receives a reassociation request frame; and the MLD AP transmits a reassociation response frame, where the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, and this reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved. This reassociation information is used to reserve a portion of the parameters so that in this method, retransmission of parameters during and after the reassociation operation can be avoided, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

Next, options of embodiments for methods for establishing a multi-channel connection according to the fifth aspect and the sixth aspect are discussed.

In one implementation, the association configuration information may be information shared by multiple communication channels in a multi-channel device. The reassociation information is used to reserve a portion of the parameters so that retransmission of these parameters during and after the reassociation operation can be avoided, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

In another embodiment, the association configuration information includes, but is not limited to, one or more of the following parameters: a block handshaking protocol indication, a sequence number, a packet number, a duplicate detection cache indication, a chunking and reassembly buffer indication, and a buffered unit. data from the MSDU medium access control service.

The reassociation information contains one or more bits. One bit corresponds to one or more parameters of the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved. In other words, the reassociation information includes, but is not limited to, the following implementation options.

In one embodiment, the reassociation information contains one bit. This bit corresponds to all parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether all parameters in the association configuration information are reserved.

In another implementation, the reassociation information contains several bits. One bit corresponds to one parameter in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding parameter is reserved.

In yet another embodiment, the reassociation information comprises multiple bits. One bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved.

In yet another embodiment, the reassociation information comprises multiple bits. One bit corresponds to multiple parameters in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding multiple parameters are reserved.

Optionally, the reassociation information is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the re-association response frame. Alternatively, the reassociation information is transmitted in the reassociation response frame in the form of an independent field.

In one embodiment, the multi-link association response frame in the 1st association process between the MLD AP and the MLD STA or the re-association response frame described above further carries information about the link establishment status. This link establishment status information is used to indicate the link setup status with respect to each link requested to be established by the MLD STA. It can be understood that according to the multi-channel connection establishment method, the MLD AP device can indicate the communication channel establishment status with respect to each communication channel. Among the plurality of communication channels that the MLD STA requires to establish, it is allowed to exist a communication channel that cannot be established, thereby increasing the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection.

Details of various options for implementing link establishment status information are provided in the embodiments discussed under the third aspect and the fourth aspect. The details will not be repeated here.

In another embodiment, the multi-link association response frame in the 1st association process between the MLD AP and the MLD STA or the re-association response frame described above further carries radio bitmap information. This radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio module included in the MLD STA that is authorized to be used to establish each communication channel that the MLD STA requires to be established. It can be understood that this embodiment helps to allow the AP MLD device to inform the STA MLD device about the radio module from the STA MLD device that is authorized to be used to establish each communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to establish.

Optionally, if the radio bitmap information indicates that a radio module from an STA MLD device authorized to be used to establish one communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to be installed does not exist or the number of such radio modules is zero, it implicitly means that this The communication channel could not be established. If the radio bitmap information indicates that there is one radio from the MLD STA authorized to be used to establish one communications link that the MLD STA requires to be established, this implicitly indicates that such communications link has been successfully established. If the radio bitmap information indicates that there are multiple radios from an STA MLD device authorized to be used to establish one communication link that the STA MLD device requires to be established, this implicitly means that the specified communication channel has been successfully established and that all of these multiple radio modules can switch to this communication channel.

Optionally, if the radio bitmap information indicates that the same radio from an STA MLD is authorized to be used to establish multiple communications channels that that STA MLD has requested to establish, this implicitly means that this radio can be used to establish several communication channels and can switch between these several communication channels. It can be understood that according to this method of establishing a multi-channel connection, it is indicated whether a communication channel has been successfully established, and then multiple communication channels for the same radio module can be established to help the radio module to quickly switch between these multiple communication channels, thereby avoiding the problem of a relatively large handover delay after this communication channel is subsequently re-established.

To obtain a possible description of the radio bitmap information, reference should be made to the content discussed in relation to the first aspect and the second aspect. The details will not be repeated here.

In another implementation, the multi-channel association response frame in the 1st association procedure between the MLD AP and the MLD STA or the re-association response frame discussed above further carries multiple radio bitmap information segments such that one radio bitmap information segment corresponds to one channel connection that the STA MLD device requires to be established. In other words, the radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio module from the STA MLD device that is allowed to be used to establish the corresponding communication channel.

It can be understood that this embodiment helps the MLD AP to inform the MLD STA about the radio module of that MLD STA that is authorized to be used to establish each communication channel requested to be established by the MLD STA. Further, if the radio bitmap information for one communication channel indicates that there is no radio module authorized for use from the STA MLD device or the number of such modules is zero, this implicitly means that the communication channel in question could not be established. If the radio bitmap information for one link indicates that there is one radio from the STA MLD enabled for use, this implicitly means that the link in question has been successfully established. If the radio bitmap information for one communication channel indicates that there are multiple radios from the STA MLD device enabled for use, this implicitly means that the communication channel in question has been successfully established and that all of those multiple radios can switch to that channel.

As an option, if the radio bitmap information for multiple communication channels individually points to the same radio module from the STA MLD enabled for use, this implicitly means that the specified radio module can be used to establish multiple communication channels and can implement switching between these multiple communication channels.

It can be understood that in this embodiment, it is indicated whether a communication channel has been established successfully, and then multiple communication channels for the same radio module can be established to help the radio module to quickly switch between these multiple communication channels, thereby avoiding the problem regarding a large delay caused by the switching after the re-establishment of the communication channel in the future.

Optionally, information related to this embodiment can be found in the description of the first aspect and the second aspect. The details will not be repeated here.

According to a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device. This device may be an STA MLD device, or may be some hardware within that STA MLD device. This communication device may alternatively be a processor or system on an integrated circuit (chip) in the STA MLD device. This communication device may implement the method according to the first aspect. The communication equipment function may be implemented by hardware, or the function may be implemented by hardware running corresponding software. This hardware or software contains one or more modules corresponding to the function described above. Such a module may be a software and/or hardware module. A description of the operation and positive effect of such communication equipment is given by considering the method and possible implementation options according to the first aspect to achieve this positive effect. The details will not be repeated here. Alternatively, a description of the operation and beneficial effect of such communication equipment is given while discussing a method and possible implementations according to the third aspect for achieving this beneficial effect. The details will not be repeated here. A description of the operation and positive effect of such communication equipment is given by considering the method and possible implementation options according to the fifth aspect to achieve this positive effect. The details will not be repeated here.

According to the eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device. This device may be an AP MLD device, or may be some hardware within the AP MLD device. This communication device may alternatively be a processor or system on an integrated circuit (chip) in the AP MLD device. This communication device may implement the method according to the second aspect. The communication equipment function may be implemented by hardware, or the function may be implemented by hardware running corresponding software. This hardware or software contains one or more modules corresponding to the function described above. Such a module may be a software and/or hardware module. A description of the operation and positive effect of such communication equipment is given by considering the method and possible implementation options according to the second aspect to achieve this positive effect. Repeated parts will not be described here again. Alternatively, a description of the operation and beneficial effect of such communication equipment is given while discussing a method and possible implementations according to the fourth aspect for achieving this beneficial effect. Repeated parts will not be described here again. Alternatively, a description of the operation and beneficial effect of such communication equipment is given while discussing the method and possible implementations according to the sixth aspect for achieving this beneficial effect. Repeated parts will not be described here again.

According to a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an STA MLD device or a system on an integrated circuit (chip). This communication device includes at least one processor such that when the processor calls up a computer program from the storage device, the STA MLD device according to the first aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this first aspect is implemented, or the method implemented by an STA MLD device according to the third aspect or any possible embodiment of that third aspect, or an implementation of a method carried out by an STA MLD device according to the fifth aspect or any possible embodiment of that fifth aspect.

According to a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an AP MLD device or a system on an integrated circuit (chip). This communication device includes at least one processor such that when the processor calls up a computer program from the storage device, an implementation of a method performed by the MLD AP according to the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this second aspect occurs, or an implementation of a method performed by an MLD AP device according to the fourth aspect or any possible embodiment of this fourth aspect, or an implementation of a method carried out by an MLD AP device according to the sixth aspect or any possible embodiment of this sixth aspect.

According to an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an STA MLD device or a system on an integrated circuit (chip). This communication device contains a processor and a storage device. The storage device is configured to store a computer program; and the processor is configured to execute a computer program stored in a storage device to enable the communication device to implement a method performed by the STA MLD device according to the first aspect or any of the possible embodiments of the first aspect, or to implement the method performed by the STA MLD device according to the third aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this third aspect, or carry out a method performed by the STA MLD device according to the fifth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this fifth aspect.

According to a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an AP MLD device or a system on an integrated circuit (chip). This communication device contains a processor and a storage device. The storage device is configured to store a computer program; and the processor is configured to execute a computer program stored in a storage device to enable the communication device to implement a method performed by an MLD AP device according to the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments of that second aspect, or to implement a method performed by an MLD AP device according to the fourth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this fourth aspect, or carry out a method performed by the MLD AP device according to the sixth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this sixth aspect.

According to a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an STA MLD device. This communication device contains a processor, a memory and a transceiver. The transceiver is configured to receive a signal or transmit a signal; the storage device is configured to store a computer program; and the processor is configured to call a computer program from the storage device to carry out a method performed by the STA MLD device according to the first aspect or any of the possible embodiments of the first aspect, or to carry out a method performed by the STA MLD device according to the third aspect or any of possible embodiments of this third aspect, or carry out a method performed by the STA MLD device according to the fifth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this fifth aspect.

According to the fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an AP MLD device. This communication device contains a processor, a memory and a transceiver. The transceiver is configured to receive a signal or transmit a signal; the storage device is configured to store a computer program; and the processor is configured to call a computer program from the storage device to implement a method performed by the MLD AP device according to the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments of the second aspect, or to implement a method performed by the MLD AP device according to the fourth aspect or any of possible embodiments of this fourth aspect, or carry out a method performed by the MLD AP device according to the sixth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this sixth aspect.

According to the fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an STA MLD device or a system on an integrated circuit (chip). This communication device contains at least one processor and a communication interface. The processor executes a computer program to carry out a method performed by an STA MLD device according to the first aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this first aspect, or to carry out a method performed by the STA MLD device according to the third aspect or any possible embodiments of this third aspect , or implement the method performed by the STA MLD device according to the fifth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this fifth aspect.

According to a sixteenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device may be an AP MLD device or a system on an integrated circuit (chip). This communication device contains at least one processor and a communication interface. The processor executes a computer program to carry out a method performed by an AP MLD device according to the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this second aspect, or to carry out a method performed by the AP MLD device according to the fourth aspect or any possible embodiment of this fourth aspect , or implement a method performed by an MLD AP according to the sixth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this sixth aspect.

According to a seventeenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable medium for storing information. This computer-readable information storage medium is configured to store instructions so that, when the instructions are executed, the method performed by the STA MLD device according to the first aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this first aspect is carried out, or the method performed by the STA MLD device according to the third aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this third aspect, or carry out a method performed by the STA MLD device according to the fifth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this fifth aspect.

According to an eighteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable medium for storing information. This computer-readable information storage medium is configured to store instructions so that, when executing those instructions, the method performed by the MLD AP device according to the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this second aspect is performed, or the method performed by the MLD AP device according to the fourth aspect is performed. or any of the possible embodiments of this fourth aspect, or carry out a method performed by the AP MLD device according to the sixth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this sixth aspect.

According to the nineteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product containing instructions. When these instructions are executed, the method performed by the STA MLD device according to the first aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this first aspect is carried out, or the method performed by the STA MLD device according to the third aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this third aspect is carried out, or the method performed by the STA MLD according to the fifth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this fifth aspect is carried out.

According to the twentieth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product containing instructions. When these instructions are executed, the method performed by the MLD AP device according to the second aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this second aspect is carried out, or the method performed by the MLD AP device according to the fourth aspect or any possible embodiment of this fourth aspect is carried out, or the method performed by the MLD AP according to the sixth aspect or any of the possible embodiments of this sixth aspect is carried out.

Brief description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a simplified diagram of the structure of the communication system 100;

fig. 2 is a simplified diagram of the structure of the communication system 200;

fig. 3 is a simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure;

fig. 4 represents a simplified logic diagram of a method 100 for establishing a multi-channel connection according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a simplified logic diagram of a method 200 for establishing a multi-channel connection according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a simplified diagram of the structure of a multi-channel element according to one embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a simplified logic diagram of a method 300 for establishing a multi-channel connection according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a simplified logic diagram of a method 400 for establishing a multi-channel connection according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a simplified logic diagram of a method 500 for establishing a multi-channel connection according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 15 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 16 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 17 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 18 is yet another simplified diagram of a multi-channel association response frame structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 19 is a simplified diagram of the structure of communication equipment 100 according to one embodiment of the present application;

fig. 20 is a simplified diagram of the structure of communications equipment 200 according to one embodiment of the present application; And

fig. 21 is a simplified diagram of the structure of an integrated circuit (chip) according to one embodiment of the present application.

Carrying out the invention

In the following, the technical solutions of the variants of this application are clearly and completely described with reference to the attached drawings of the variants of this application.

The radio communication system applicable to embodiments of the present application may be a Wireless local area network (WLAN) or a cellular network. The method for establishing a multi-channel connection may be implemented by a communication device in a radio communication system, or by an integrated circuit (chip) or processor in this communication device. The communication device may be a radio communication device that supports simultaneous transmission over multiple communication channels. For example, such a communication device may be called a multi-link device or multi-band device. Compared with a device that only supports single-channel transmission, a multi-channel device has higher transmission efficiency and higher throughput.

Embodiments of the present application are described primarily using an example in which an IEEE 802.11 communication network is deployed, such as a wireless local area network (abbreviated as Wi-Fi 7) using a communication protocol from the 802.11 family, such as the 802.11be protocol. However, aspects of the present application can be extended to other communication networks using a variety of standards or protocols, for example, the Bluetooth network (Bluetooth), high performance radio LAN (HIPERLAN) (a radio standard that is similar to the IEEE 802.11 standard and which is used mainly in Europe), as well as a wide area network (WAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), personal area network (PAN), or other communications network not currently known or to be developed later. Therefore, various aspects proposed in this application are applicable to any suitable radio network, regardless of its coverage and the radio access protocol used.

As shown in FIG. 1, using a local area network as an example, the communication system 100 to which the present application is applicable includes a station 101 and a station 102. The station 101 may communicate with the station 102 using multiple communication channels to increase capacity. Station 101 may be a multi-channel device, and station 102 may be a single-channel device, a multi-channel device, or the like. In one scenario, station 101 is an MLD AP device, and station 102 is an MLD STA device or station (eg, a single-channel station). In another scenario, station 101 is an MLD STA and station 102 is an AP (eg, a single-link AP) or an MLD AP. In yet another scenario, station 101 is an MLD AP device, and station 102 is an MLD AP device or AP. In yet another scenario, station 101 is an MLD STA and station 102 is an MLD STA or an STA (eg, a single channel station). Of course, the local radio network may further comprise another device. The number and types of devices shown in the communication system are merely an example.

As another example, FIG. 2 shows a communication system 200. Communication system 200 uses an example scenario in which an MLD AP communicates with an MLD STA on a radio local area network. The MLD AP includes AP 1, AP 2, and AP 3 affiliated with each other, the MLD STA includes STA 1, STA 2, and STA 3 affiliated with each other, and the MLD AP includes communication with the STA MLD device using communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 in parallel.

To assist in understanding the method for establishing a multi-channel connection, the present application will briefly describe the corresponding concepts of the embodiments of the present application.

1. Multi-channel device

The multi-channel device contains one or more affiliated STAs. Such an affiliate STA is a logical station and can operate on the same communication channel. An affiliate station can be an access point (AP) or a non-AP STA. For ease of description, in this application, a multi-link device whose affiliate station is an AP may be referred to as a multi-link AP, a multi-link AP device, or a multi-link AP device (AP multi-link device (AP MLD)). A multi-link device whose affiliate station is a non-AP STA may be called a multi-link STA, a multi-link STA device, or a multi-link STA device (STA MLD device). For ease of description, the expression " "multi-channel device comprises an affiliated STA" is also abbreviated as "multi-channel device comprises an STA" in embodiments of this application.

A multi-channel device can perform radio communications in accordance with the standards of the 802.11 family. For example, an Extremely high throughput (EHT) station, or an 802.11be-compliant or 802.11be-compatible station, communicates with another device. Of course, this other device may or may not be a multi-channel device.

For example, a multi-channel device in embodiments of the present application may be a single-antenna device or a multi-antenna device, such as a device with more than two antennas. In embodiments of this application, the number of antennas included in a multi-channel device is not limited.

For example, a multi-channel device is a device having a radio communication function. The device may be an integrated device, or may be an integrated circuit (chip), processor system, or other detailed component installed in such an integrated device. A device containing an integrated circuit (chip) or processor system may be controlled by the integrated circuit or processor system to implement the methods and functions of embodiments of this application. For example, an STA MLD device in embodiments of the present application has a radio transceiver function, can support 802.11 series protocols, and can communicate with an AP MLD device, another STA MLD device, or a single-channel device. For example, an STA MLD is any user communication device that allows a user to communicate with an AP and further communicate with a WLAN communication network. For example, the STA MLD device may be a user equipment that can be connected to a communications network, such as a tablet computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, an Ultra-mobile Personal Computer (UMPC), or a handheld computer. , netbook, personal digital assistant (PDA) or mobile phone, can be an Internet of Things node in an Internet of Things network, or can be a vehicle-mounted communication equipment in an Internet of Vehicles network. The STA MLD may alternatively be an integrated circuit and a processor system in the above terminals.

An MLD AP in embodiments of the present invention is a device that services an MLD STA and can support the 802.11 family of protocols. For example, an AP MLD device may be a piece of communications equipment such as a communications server, router, switch, or bridge, or an AP MLD device may be any of various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, and relay stations. Of course, the AP MLD device may alternatively comprise an integrated circuit (chip) and a processor system in devices of various configurations to implement the method and functions of the embodiments of the present application. In addition to this, a multi-channel device can support high data rates and low latency. As application scenarios for radio local area networks continue to evolve, the proposed multi-channel device can be further applied to more and more scenarios. For example, such a multi-channel device may be a metering node (such as a smart water meter, a smart electricity meter, a smart air sensor) in a smart city, a smart device (such as a smart video camera, a projector, a display, a TV, a stereo system , refrigerator and washing machine) in a smart home, an Internet of Things node, an entertainment terminal (such as a wearable device, such as an augmented reality (AR) device and a virtual reality (VR) device), a smart device (such as a printer and a projector) in smart office, an Internet of Vehicles (IoV) device and some infrastructure equipment (such as a vending machine, a self-service station for finding departments and items (navigation) in a supermarket, a self-service cash register and a self-checkout machine) in everyday life scenarios. The specific forms of the STA MLD device and the AP MLD device in this application are not particularly limited and are merely examples for description. The 802.11 protocol may be a protocol that supports the 802.11be standard or is compatible with the 802.11be standard.

The frequency range in which the multi-channel device operates may be, but is not limited to, the sub-1 GHz band, the 2.4 GHz band, the 5 GHz band, the 6 GHz band, and the high frequency band around 60 GHz.

2. Multi-channel connection establishment operation

As shown in FIG. 2, the MLD STA performs a multi-link connection establishment operation to establish multiple communication links, for example, link 1, link 2 and link 3 with the MLD AP. This multi-channel connection establishment operation may also be referred to as a multi-channel association operation. More specifically, the MLD STA may be associated with multiple communication channels connecting it to the MLD AP using a multi-link establishment operation. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, STA 1 in the STA MLD is associated with communication channel 1, STA 2 is associated with communication channel 2, and STA 3 is associated with communication channel 3. The operation of establishing a multi-channel connection may also be referred to as the operation of associating a multi-channel device. More specifically, the MLD STA may associate each of its stations (modules) with an AP in the MLD AP using a multi-link setup operation. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, STA 1 is associated with AP 1, STA 2 is associated with AP 2, and STA 3 is associated with AP 3.

During a multi-link establishment operation, the MLD STA establishes multiple communication channels with the MLD AP by exchanging a multi-link association request frame and a multi-link association response frame over the communication channel. This communication link is called a transmitting link or transmitted link, and the other link is called a non-transmitted link.

Using the communication system shown in FIG. 2, as an example, the operation of establishing a multi-channel connection may contain several steps.

The MLD STA transmits a multi-link association request frame to the MLD AP on link 1. This multi-link association request frame carries not only station side information for link 1, but also station side information for link 2 and link 3. This station-side information contains the station identifier corresponding to the communication channel and other similar information. Communication channel 1 is a transmittable communication channel, and communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 are non-transmittable communication channels.

The MLD AP returns a multi-link association response frame to the MLD STA. This multi-channel association response frame carries not only station-side information for link 1, but also access point-side information for that link 1, station-side information and access point-side information for link 2, and station-side information and information from the access point for communication channel 3. As a result, a multi-channel connection is established between the MLD STA and the MLD AP in this manner.

A multi-channel association request frame in the present application is an initiation request frame that carries a multi-channel element. Optionally, a multi-channel association request frame may also be referred to as a multi-channel connection establishment request frame, an initiation request frame, or a connection establishment request frame. A multi-channel association response frame in the present application is an association response frame that carries a multi-channel element. Optionally, a multi-link association response frame may also be referred to as a multi-link setup response frame, an association response frame, or a connection setup response frame. Next, the multi-channel association response frame is described with reference to FIGS. 3.

3. Multi-channel association response frame

Station-side information and access point-side information carried in a multi-link association response frame may be placed in a multi-link element. Both the multi-channel association request frame and the multi-channel association response frame carry the specified multi-channel element. As shown in FIG. 3, information transmitted in a multi-channel element in a multi-channel association response frame and transmitted in a multi-channel association response frame is divided into two parts. One part is multi-link device information (MLD-level info) and the other part is link configuration information for each link (according to per link profile info) ). The communication channel configuration information with respect to each non-transmission communication channel may be referred to as non-transmitting communication channel configuration information for brevity. Of course, the multi-channel element may also additionally contain another field or other information.

The content of the communication channel configuration information in the multi-channel association request frame is different from the content of the communication channel configuration information in the multi-channel association response frame. For example, both link configuration information in a multi-link association request frame and link configuration information in a multi-link association response frame carry link identifier, information regarding radio modules and other such information. However, the link configuration information in the multi-link association response frame may not contain corresponding information from the station side. In particular, this is not limited in the embodiments of this application.

The MLD device layer information contains information related to the multi-channel device, such as the service access point multi-media access control address (SAP MAC address) for the MLD STA and the media access control address for the MLD STA. serving access point for the AP MLD device. The profile information for each link starts with a fixed element, namely the Link-index element. This link index element carries a link ID with respect to the corresponding link to designate the link to which the specified link profile information relates. The link index element further carries an element designated as an "X" element in FIG. 3, on the STA side (or on the AP side) for the communication channel in question. An "X" element is an element whose content is different from the content of the element on the STA side (or on the AP side) with respect to the transmitted link. The MLD STA can obtain information such as an ID for each communication channel of the MLD AP by receiving a probe response frame or a beacon frame.

In addition, in addition to transmitting the multi-channel element, the multi-channel association response frame may further contain other fields. As shown in Table 1, based on sequential numbers, other fields are: capability information field, status code field, association identifier (AID) field, supported data rate and basic set of services ( service set, BSS) and other similar fields. An association response frame is transmitted by the access point during the association process between single-channel devices, and a multi-channel association response frame is transmitted by the multi-channel access point device during the association process between multi-channel devices.

Table 1. Association response frame

Serial number Information A comment 1 Information about opportunities 2 Status code 3 Association Identifier (AID) 4 Supported baud rate and BSS dial selector If dot11DMGOptionImplemented is true, this element is not present ... ... ...

The status code field is used to indicate whether the multilink connection establishment operation has completed successfully, whether the multilink device association operation has completed successfully, or whether each STA in the MLD STA is associated with each AP in the MLD AP. Table 2 shows the status code.

Table 2. Status code field

Status code Name Meaning 0 Successfully Success 1 Rejected or rejected for an unspecified reason Failure for an unspecified reason 2 Tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) rejected and alternative option proposed Direct link scheduling rejected, but alternative scheduling proposed ... ... ...

4. Radio module of a multi-channel device

A multi-channel device may be a single-antenna (either single radio or single high-frequency radio) multi-channel device, or it may be a multi-antenna (either multiple radio or multiple high-frequency radio) multi-channel device. In embodiments of this application, the number of antennas in a multi-channel device is not limited. In other words, a multi-channel device may include one or more radios, where each radio may support one or more of the above frequency bands. It should be noted that the radio module in the technical solution under consideration contains not only a high-frequency radio module, but also a video processor module. Optionally, the radio module in the STA MLD device can also be called a station in the STA MLD device.

When a single radio module in an STA MLD device can support multiple frequency bands, that radio module can switch between the communication channels individually corresponding to those frequency bands of the MLD AP device. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, one radio module of the STA MLD device can support two frequency bands, namely 5 GHz and 6 GHz. Therefore, this radio module can switch between communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. In other words, STA 2 corresponding to communication channel 2 and STA 3 corresponding to communication channel 3 can share one radio module. In other words, this radio module can be used to virtualize these two STAs. In other words, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 may share one radio module, or STA 2 and STA 3 may share one radio module.

Although the STA MLD device can establish two communication channels using a specified radio module, since these two communication channels share one radio module in the STA MLD device, only one of these two communication channels can be active (enabled) at a time, and the other communication channel is inactive at the same time (disabled). Optionally, since the STA MLD has established communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 using the radio module in question, this STA MLD can quickly switch from communication channel 2 to communication channel 3, so that channel 2 goes from an active (on) state to an inactive state (off) state, and communication channel 3 transitions from the inactive (off) state to the active (on) state.

It should be noted that all communication channels discussed in this application are communication channels the establishment of which is requested using a multi-channel association request frame. All radio modules in the STA MLD device discussed in this application are radio modules related to which information is transmitted in a multi-channel association request frame. The number of APs in the MLD AP discussed herein may represent the number of independent radios in the MLD AP. In addition, all APs in the MLD AP device discussed herein are APs corresponding to the bearer identifiers transmitted in the multilink association request frame.

The present application further provides a method 100 for establishing a multi-channel connection and a method 200 for establishing a multi-channel connection. In both multi-link establishment method 100 and multi-link establishment method 200, radio bitmap information may be used to determine the radio module allowed to be used for establishing each communication channel. Further, it helps to determine when there are no radios allowed for use on the communication channel in question, that the communication channel cannot be established; or determine, when there is a radio module enabled for use on the communication channel in question, that the communication channel has been successfully established. When the same radio module is allowed to be used to establish multiple communication channels, the radio module can quickly switch between these multiple communication channels, thereby avoiding the problem of relatively long delay caused by re-establishing a communication channel and increasing the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection.

The present application further provides a method 300 for establishing a multi-channel connection. This multi-channel connection establishment method 300 may indicate whether each communication channel that the MLD STA requested to be established was successfully established. Unlike the method in which only one status code field in the association response frame is used to indicate whether the association of the STA was successful, the multi-channel connection establishment method 300 is applicable to a multi-channel device. The link establishment status information can be used to indicate whether each link that the STA MLD requested to be established was successfully established, in other words, allowing for the existence of a link that failed to be established, thereby increasing the degree of flexibility of establishing a multi-link connection.

The present application provides a method 400 for establishing a multi-channel connection. According to the multi-link connection establishment method 400, during the reassociation process, a predefined rule is used to allow the MLD STA to reserve a portion of the parameters in the previous association configuration information, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

The present application further provides a method 500 for establishing a multi-channel connection. According to the multi-channel connection establishment method 500, during the reassociation process, the MLD STA is explicitly instructed, using the reassociation information, to reserve a portion of the parameters in the previous association configuration information, thereby reducing signaling overhead. It can be understood that, compared with the present method, in which, when a single-channel device needs to modify the capability information or some attributes of that single-channel device, the subject single-channel device erases the previous association configuration information and again acquires the configuration information in a reassociation operation, such The multi-channel connection establishment method 400 and the multi-channel connection establishment method 500 help reduce signaling overhead.

In addition, methods 100 to 300 for establishing multi-link connections need to solve the same problem, have specific technical features with the same functions, and achieve similar beneficial effects. Therefore, the specified methods 100 - 300 for establishing a multi-channel connection belong to the same concept of the invention and satisfy the same requirements.

The multi-link association response frame may carry one or more of the following information blocks: re-association information, link establishment status information, and radio bitmap information. This is not limited in the embodiments of this application.

Further, the variants of this application are discussed separately with reference to the attached drawings.

Option 1

The present application further provides a method 100 for establishing a multi-channel connection. According to the multi-link establishment method 100, a radio module from an MLD STA may be designated to be used to establish each communication channel that the MLD STA has requested to be established.

For example, assume that the MLD STA has two radios, namely radio 1 and radio 2, the MLD AP has AP 1, AP 2, and AP 3, and the communication links from the MLD AP are each individual channel 1 communication, channel 2 communication and channel 3 communication. According to the multi-channel connection establishment method 100, in the communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 requested to be established by the STA MLD device, the radio module allowed for use in establishing the communication channel 1 and included in the STA MLD device, the radio module allowed for use when establishing communication channel 2 and included in the STA MLD device, and a radio module allowed for use when establishing communication channel 3 and included in the STA MLD device.

Alternatively, it may be described by one or more of the following: According to the multi-link establishment method 100, an AP with which each radio from the MLD STA is allowed to associate and which is located in the MLD AP may be specified; or a communication channel may be specified that is allowed to be shared by each radio module from the STA MLD device, from the set of communication channels that the STA MLD device has requested to install; or the communication channel that each radio module from the STA MLD device is allowed to use to establish may be specified; or a radio module can be specified that each AP from the MLD AP is allowed to associate with and is included in the MLD STA.

For example, assume that the MLD STA has two radios, namely radio 1 and radio 2, the MLD AP has AP 1, AP 2, and AP 3, and the MLD AP's communications links are each channel 1. communications, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. According to the multi-link establishment method 100, the APs with which radio module 1 and radio module 2 are separately allowed to associate and which are included in the AP MLD device may be specified; or a communication channel allowed to share the radio module 1 and a communication channel allowed to share the radio module 2 may be specified among the plurality of communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3; or the communication channel that radio module 1 is allowed to use for establishment and the communication channel that radio module 2 is allowed to use for establishment may be specified; or the radio module with which AP 1 is allowed to associate, the radio module with which AP 2 is allowed to associate, and the radio module with which AP is allowed to associate can be specified.

In fig. 4 shows a simplified logic diagram of a method 100 for establishing a multi-channel connection according to one embodiment of the present application. This method 100 for establishing a multi-channel connection includes, but is not limited to, the following steps.

S101: The MLD STA transmits a multi-channel association request frame.

S102: The MLD AP receives this multi-channel association request frame.

S103: The MLD AP transmits a multi-channel association response frame, where this multi-channel association response frame contains radio bitmap information, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate, in the MLD STA, the radio module allowed to be used for establishing each communication channel that this device STA MLD required to be installed.

S104: The MLD STA receives a multi-channel association response frame.

Further, the multi-channel connection establishment method 100 may comprise: The MLD STA determines, based on the radio module bitmap information, a plurality of communication channels that are allowed to use the same radio module to perform switching between communication channels via the same radio module; the STA MLD device determines, based on the radio bitmap information, a communication channel for which there are no radio modules authorized for use, in order to determine that this communication channel could not be established; and the STA MLD determines, based on the radio bitmap information, a communication channel for which there is a radio module authorized to be used for establishing a communication channel, to determine that the communication channel has been successfully established.

It can be understood that, in the present embodiment, the AP MLD device is activated not only to inform the STA MLD device about a radio module from that STA MLD device that is authorized for use to establish a communication channel that the STA MLD device has requested to establish. In this way, the STA MLD determines, based on the radio bitmap information, whether any communication channel has been successfully established. In other words, the MLD AP is allowed to reject the establishment of a portion of the communication channels requested by the MLD STA, thereby increasing the flexibility of establishing a multi-channel connection. In addition, the STA MLD determines, based on the radio bitmap information, multiple communication channels that can be established using the same radio module to help the radio module flexibly switch between these multiple communication channels. In other words, the number of radio modules of the MLD STA is allowed to be less than the number of communication channels that the MLD STA has requested to establish, thereby further increasing the flexibility of establishing a multi-channel connection.

In one embodiment, the multi-channel association request frame carries radio number information, where the radio number information is used to indicate the number of radios in the MLD STA. The number of bits occupied by the radio module number information is determined based on the number of radio modules in the subject STA MLD. For example, suppose that the number of radio modules in the STA MLD device is two, then the number of bits occupied by the information about the number of radio modules is one. Assuming that the number of radio modules in the STA MLD is four, the number of bits occupied by the radio module number information is two.

In another embodiment, the number of radio modules in the STA MLD device is determined based on information regarding the radio modules transmitted in the multi-link association request frame. For example, the number of media access control addresses carried in a multi-link association request frame is equal to the number of radios in the MLD STA.

The total number of bits occupied by the radio bitmap information = the number of radios in the STA MLD multiplied by the number of APs in the AP MLD. Alternatively, the total number of bits occupied by the radio bitmap information = the number of radios in the STA MLD multiplied by the number of communication channels the STA MLD requires to be installed. It can be understood that the radio number information transmitted in the multi-link association request frame helps determine the number of bits of the radio bitmap information or the length of the radio bitmap information.

In particular, the radio module bitmap information is used to indicate the radio module from the STA MLD device that is authorized to be used to establish each communication channel out of a plurality of multiple communication channels that the STA MLD device has requested to establish. One communication channel corresponds to R bits in the radio bitmap information, where R represents the number of radios in the STA MLD. One of these R bits corresponds to one radio module in the STA MLD device, and this bit indicates whether the corresponding radio module is allowed to be used to establish the communication channel in question. In addition, the specified R bits corresponding to each communication channel in the radio bitmap information may be determined based on the communication channel identifier or preset. The bit corresponding to each radio module from the R bits may be determined based on the sequence of corresponding radio module information transmitted in the multi-channel association request frame, or preset. For example, the number R of radio modules in the STA MLD is two, and the sequence in which information regarding radio modules appears in a multi-link association request frame transmitted by the STA MLD is such that information regarding radio module 2 appears first, followed by information regarding radio module 1. In this case, the 1st bit of the specified two bits corresponds to radio module 2, and the 2nd bit corresponds to radio module 1.

For example, assume that an STA MLD device has two radio modules, namely, radio module 1 and radio module 2, and the communication channels that this STA MLD device requires to establish are communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. In such a case, the radio bitmap information contains six bits and R is equal to two. Two bits corresponding to link 1, two bits corresponding to link 2, and two bits corresponding to link 3, of these six bits can be distributed as follows: link 1 corresponds to the first two bits, link 2 corresponds to the middle two bits , and communication channel 3 corresponds to the last two bits. The bits individually corresponding to the specified two radio modules of each two bits can be as follows: the 1st bit corresponds to radio module 1, and the 2nd bit corresponds to radio module 2. If the radio module bitmap information is 100101, this means that the radio module, The radio module authorized for use in establishing communication channel 1 is radio module 1, and the radio module authorized for use in establishing communication channel 2 and the radio module authorized for use in establishing communication channel 3 are both radio module 2. It can be understood that all communication channels – communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 are successfully established, radio module 2 can be used to establish communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. Therefore, the radio module 2 can switch between communication channel 2 and communication channel 3.

In addition to this, the radio bitmap information may be transmitted not only in a multi-link association response frame, but also in a multi-link association request frame. A multi-channel association request frame carrying radio bitmap information may inform the MLD AP of the above matches requested by the MLD STA. For the purposes of the description below, an example is used in which radio bitmap information is transmitted in a multi-channel association response frame.

Radio bitmap information may be carried in MLD device layer information in a multi-channel element to indicate the mapping between each radio module in the MLD STA and each AP in the MLD AP device, or the mapping between each radio module in the MLD STA device and each communication link that it the STA MLD device required installation. This radio bitmap information may be referred to as a Radio's Bitmap indication for each link field. As shown in FIG. 5, the radio bitmap indication field for each communication channel is in the MLD device layer information in the multi-channel element.

Optionally, the radio bitmap information is described from different points of view, and then the radio bitmap information corresponds to different descriptions. For example, the radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio from the MLD STA with which each AP in the MLD AP is allowed to associate. Alternatively, the radio bitmap information is used to indicate the AP that each radio from the MLD STA is allowed to associate with and is included in the MLD AP. Alternatively, the radio bitmap information is used to indicate the communication channel that each radio module in the STA MLD device is allowed to use in conjunction with other communication channels from the plurality of several communication channels that the STA MLD device has requested to install. Alternatively, the radio bitmap information is used to indicate the communication channel that each radio in the MLD STA is allowed to use to establish. In other words, the radio bitmap information may indicate a correspondence between each radio in the MLD STA and each AP in the MLD AP, or a mapping between each radio in the MLD STA and each communication link that the MLD STA has requested to establish.

The following is another way of describing how the radio bitmap information specifically indicates matches when the radio bitmap information is in MLD device layer information in a multi-channel element.

In this specification, radio bitmap information is used to indicate one of the radios in the MLD STA where that radio is enabled for use to establish each communication link from the MLD AP having an AP for that communication link. One communication channel corresponds to R bits in the radio bitmap information, where R represents the number of radios in the STA MLD. One bit in these R bits corresponds to one radio module in the STA MLD device and indicates whether the corresponding radio module is allowed to be used to establish a communication link with the AP. In addition, such R bits corresponding to each communication channel in the radio bitmap information may be determined based on the communication channel identifier or preset. The bits individually corresponding to the R radio modules from the set of R bits may be determined based on the sequence of information transmission regarding the radio modules in the multi-channel association request frame or preset.

For example, suppose that an STA MLD device has two radio modules, namely, radio module 1 and radio module 2, and the communication channels that this STA MLD device requires to establish are communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. In this case, the radio bitmap information occupies six bits and R is equal to two. The radio bitmap information denotes a radio that can be used to establish link 1 with AP 1, a radio that can be used to establish link 2 with AP 2, and a radio that can be used to establish link 3 with AP AP 3, from a pair of radio module 1 and radio module 2. Two bits corresponding to communication channel 1, two bits corresponding to communication channel 2, and two bits corresponding to communication channel 3, of these six bits can be distributed as follows: communication channel 1 corresponds to the first two bits, link 2 corresponds to the middle two bits, and link 3 corresponds to the last two bits. The bits individually corresponding to the specified two radio modules of each two bits can be as follows: 1st bit corresponds to radio module 1, and 2nd bit corresponds to radio module 2. If the radio modules bitmap information is 100101, it means that radio module 1 is authorized for use to establish communication channel 1 with AP 1, and radio module 2 is not authorized for use to establish communication channel 1 with AP 1; radio module 1 is not allowed to be used to establish communication channel 2 with AP 2, and radio module 2 is allowed to be used to establish communication channel 2 with AP 2; and radio module 1 is not allowed to be used to establish communication channel 3 with AP 3, and radio module 2 is allowed to be used to establish communication channel 3 with AP 3. It can be understood that all communication channels are communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and channel 3 connections established successfully. In addition to this, radio module 2 can establish communication channel 2 with AP 2, and establish communication channel 3 with AP 3. Therefore, radio module 2 can switch between communication channel 2 and communication channel 3, respectively.

In another embodiment, the radio bitmap information is used to designate a radio from the MLD STA that is allowed to associate with each AP in the MLD AP. One AP corresponds to R bits in the radio bitmap information, where R represents the number of radios in the STA MLD. One bit of these R bits corresponds to one radio in the STA MLD and indicates whether the corresponding radio is allowed to associate with the AP in question. In addition, R bits corresponding to each AP in the radio bitmap information may be determined based on the association identifier of that AP or preset. The bits individually corresponding to the R radio modules, collectively the R bits, may be determined based on the sequence of transmission of information related to these radio modules in the multi-channel association request frame or preset.

For example, suppose an MLD STA has two radios, namely radio 1 and radio 2, and an MLD AP has three APs, namely AP 1, AP 2 and AP 3. In such a case, the information bit The radio module card contains six bits, and R is equal to two. The two bits corresponding to AP 1, two bits corresponding to AP 2, and two bits corresponding to AP 3 in these six bits can be distributed as follows: AP 1 corresponds to the first two bits, AP 2 corresponds to the middle two bits , AP 3 corresponds to the last two bits. The bits individually corresponding to the specified two radio modules of each two bits can be as follows: the 1st bit corresponds to radio module 1, and the 2nd bit corresponds to radio module 2. If the radio module bitmap information is 100101, this means that the radio module, that AP 1 is allowed to associate with is radio 1, and the radio that AP 2 is allowed to associate with and the radio that AP 3 is allowed to associate with are both radio 2. It can be understood that radio 2 switches between AP 2 and AP 3.

In yet another embodiment, radio bitmap information is used to indicate an AP with which each radio in the MLD STA is allowed to associate and is included in the MLD AP. One radio corresponds to S bits in the radio bitmap information, where S represents the number of APs in the AP MLD. One bit of these S bits corresponds to one AP in the MLD AP device, and denotes whether the radio in question is allowed to associate with the corresponding AP. In addition, the S bits corresponding to each radio module in the radio module bitmap information may be determined based on the sequence in which information regarding the radio modules is transmitted in the multi-channel association request frame, or these bits may be preset. The bits individually corresponding to the S APs from the set of S bits may be determined based on the association identifiers for these APs or preset.

For example, suppose an MLD STA has two radios, namely, radio 1 and radio 2, and an MLD AP has three APs, namely, AP 1, AP 2, and AP 3. In such a case, the information The radio bitmap contains six bits, and S is equal to two. The three bits corresponding to radio 1 and the three bits corresponding to radio 2 of the above six bits may be as follows: radio 1 corresponds to the first three bits, and radio 2 corresponds to the last three bits. The bits individually corresponding to the three APs in each bit triple can be as follows: the 1st bit corresponds to AP 1, the 2nd bit corresponds to AP 2, and the 3rd bit corresponds to AP 3. If the bitmap information The radio module is 010101, which means that radio 1 is allowed to associate with AP 2, and radio 2 is allowed to associate with AP 1 and AP 3. It can be understood that radio 2 switches between AP 1 and AP 3.

In yet another embodiment, the radio bitmap information is used to indicate the communication channel allowed to be used by each radio module from the STA MLD device in conjunction with other communication channels from a plurality of several communication channels that the STA MLD device has requested to install. One radio corresponds to S bits in the radio bitmap information, where S represents the number of communication channels in the MLD AP. One bit of the set of these S bits corresponds to one communication channel in the STA MLD device, and indicates whether the corresponding communication channel is allowed to share the radio module in question. In addition, S bits corresponding to each radio module in the radio module bitmap information may be determined based on the transmission sequence of information regarding these radio modules in a multi-channel association request frame, or preset. The bits individually corresponding to the S communication channels, collectively the S bits, can be determined based on the communication channel identifiers or preset.

For example, suppose that an STA MLD device has two radio modules, namely, radio module 1 and radio module 2, and the communication channels that this STA MLD device required to establish are communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. In such a case, the radio bitmap information contains six bits, and S is equal to three. The three bits corresponding to radio module 1 and the three bits corresponding to radio module 2 of the above six bits may be as follows: The bits individually corresponding to communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 in each triple of bits may be as follows: 1 The th bit corresponds to communication channel 1, the 2nd bit corresponds to communication channel 2 and the 3rd bit corresponds to communication channel 3. If the radio bitmap information is 010101, it means that the communication channel that is allowed to use radio module 1 is communication channel 2, and the communication channels that are allowed to share radio module 2 are communication channel 1 and communication channel 3. It can be understood that the radio module 2 switches between communication channel 1 and communication channel 3.

In yet another embodiment, the radio bitmap information is used to indicate the communication channel that each radio of the STA MLD device is allowed to use to establish. One radio corresponds to S bits in the radio bitmap information, where S represents the number of communication channels in the MLD AP. One bit in the aggregate of these S bits corresponds to one communication channel in the STA MLD device, and indicates whether the radio module in question is allowed to be used to establish the corresponding communication channel. In addition, S bits corresponding to each radio module in the radio module bitmap information may be determined based on the transmission sequence of information regarding these radio modules in a multi-channel association request frame, or preset. The bits individually corresponding to the S communication channels from the totality of these S bits may be determined based on the communication channel identifiers or preset.

For example, assume that the STA MLD device has two radio modules, namely radio module 1 and radio module 2, and the communication channels that this STA MLD device requires to be installed are communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. In such a case, the radio bitmap information contains six bits, and S is equal to three. The three bits corresponding to radio 1 and the three bits corresponding to radio 2 of the above six bits may be as follows: radio 1 corresponds to the first three bits, and radio 2 corresponds to the last three bits. The bits individually corresponding to communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 in each triple of bits can be as follows: 1st bit corresponds to communication channel 1, 2nd bit corresponds to communication channel 2 and 3rd bit corresponds to channel 3 connections. If the radio bitmap information is 010101, it means that the communication channel that is allowed to use radio module 1 for establishment is communication channel 2, and the communication channels that are allowed to share radio module 2 for establishment are communication channel 1 and channel 3 communications. It can be understood that the radio module 2 switches between communication channel 1 and communication channel 3.

It can be understood that in this embodiment of the present application, when the radio bitmap information is interpreted from different points of view, each bit in the radio bitmap information is assigned different values. In particular, one of the interpretations, namely one of the descriptions, is determined by pre-determining the configuration or signaling it. This is not specifically limited in any way in the present application. In conclusion, no matter how the radio bitmap information is described, the STA MLD device can determine information such as the radio module enabled for use by the AP MLD device on the link side facing the STA, whether any link has been successfully installed, and communication channels between which the specified radio module can quickly switch. As a result, the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-channel connection is significantly increased.

Option 2

The present application further provides a method 200 for establishing a multi-link connection 200. As shown in FIG. 6, the method 200 for establishing a multi-channel connection is similar to the method 100 for establishing a multi-channel connection. For example, step S201 shown in FIG. 6 is the same as step S101 shown in FIG. 4, and step S202 is the same as step S102 shown in FIG. 4. The only difference is that according to the multi-channel connection establishment method 200, the multi-channel association response frame in steps S203 and S204 carries multiple radio bitmap information segments. One segment of radio bitmap information corresponds to one communication channel requested to be established by the STA MLD device, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio module allowed to be used to establish the corresponding communication channel.

The radio bitmap information for the transmitted communication channel is located in the MLD device layer information in the multi-channel element. The radio bitmap information for the non-transmitable communication channel is found in the profile information of each communication channel in the multi-channel element. In other words, the radio bitmap information located in the MLD device layer information in the multi-channel element is used to indicate the correspondence between the transmitted communication channel and each radio module in the STA MLD device. The radio bitmap information found in the profile information of each communication channel in the multi-channel element is used to indicate the mapping between the corresponding non-transmitted communication channel and each radio module in the STA MLD device.

The high-frequency bitmap information may be referred to as a Bitmap corresponding to non-AP MLD's radios field or a Bitmap corresponding to STA MLD's radios. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, assume that communication channel 1 is a transmitted communication channel, and communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 are non-transmitting communication channels. In such a case, as shown in FIG. 7, the bitmap corresponding to the radio modules of the STA MLD device for communication channel 1 is in the MLD device layer information in the multi-channel element, and the bitmap corresponding to the radio modules of the STA MLD device for communication channel 2 and the bitmap corresponding to the radio module of the STA MLD device for the channel The 3 links are found separately in the profile information of each link in the multi-link element. Using communication channel 2 as an example, as shown in FIG. 7, a bitmap corresponding to the radio modules of the STA MLD device for communication channel 2 is located in the communication channel profile information index element for non-transmittable communication channel 2 in the multi-channel element. In addition, the link index element may further carry an element ID, a length, a link ID, and an on/off indicator.

The number of bits occupied by radio bitmap information for a transmitted link and the number of bits occupied by radio bitmap information for a non-transmitted link are both equal to the number of radios in the STA MLD. The number of radios information carried in the multi-link association request frame helps determine the number of bits of radio bitmap information or the length of that radio bitmap information.

Likewise, radio bitmap information for one communication channel may also correspond to different descriptions from other perspectives. For example, the radio bitmap information for one communication channel is used to indicate a radio module allowed to be used for establishing a communication channel, or is used to indicate a radio module from the STA MLD device allowed to be used for establishing a communication channel. The radio bitmap information for each communication channel contains R bits, where R represents the number of radios in the STA MLD. One of these R bits corresponds to one radio module in the STA MLD device and indicates whether the corresponding radio module is allowed to be used to establish a communication channel. In addition, the bit corresponding to each radio module in the radio module bitmap information may be determined based on the transmission sequence of information related to these radio modules in a multi-channel association request frame, or preset.

For example, suppose that an STA MLD device has two radio modules, namely, radio module 1 and radio module 2, and the communication channels that this STA MLD device has required to establish are communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. In this case, the radio bitmap information for each communication channel contains two bits. The bits individually corresponding to the two radio modules may be: the 1st bit corresponds to radio module 1, and the 2nd bit corresponds to radio module 2. If the radio module bitmap information for communication channel 1 is 10, this means that the radio module, radio module 1 authorized for use to establish communication channel 1. If the radio module bitmap information for communication channel 2 is 10, this means that the radio module authorized for use to establish communication channel 2 is radio module 1. If the radio module bitmap information for the channel Communication 3 is 01, which means that the radio module allowed to be used to establish communication channel 3 is radio module 2. It can be understood that the STA MLD device can switch between communication channel 1 and communication channel 2 using radio module 1.

Similar to the above multi-channel connection establishment method 100, according to the multi-channel connection establishment method 200, information about whether a communication channel has been successfully established, as well as the communication channels between which the radio module can quickly switch, can be determined, thereby greatly increasing the degree of flexibility of multi-channel connection establishment. connections. In particular, when the value of one bit in the radio bitmap information for a certain communication channel is assumed to be zero, it means that the radio module corresponding to such bit cannot establish the specified communication channel. When the value of one bit in the radio bitmap information for a communication channel is equal to one, this means that the radio module corresponding to that bit is allowed to be used to establish a communication channel. In such a case, the number of radio modules in the STA MLD device is R. If the high frequency bitmap information for a certain communication channel is R zeros, it means that such communication channel cannot be successfully established using any module from the STA device MLD, in other words, it implicitly means that the communication channel in question could not be established. If several bits in the radio bitmap information for a communication channel are equal to one, it means that such communication channel can be successfully established using multiple radio modules from the STA MLD device, where these multiple radio modules individually correspond to the specified multiple bits.

For example, assume that the STA MLD has two radios, namely radio 1 and radio 2, and the radio bitmap information for one communication channel contains two bits. Then the 1st bit corresponds to radio module 1, and the 2nd bit corresponds to radio module 2. If the radio bitmap information for a communication channel is 10, this means that such a communication channel can be established using radio module 1. If the radio modules bitmap information for a communication channel is of the form 01, this means that such a communication channel can be established using radio module 2. If the radio modules bitmap information for a communication channel is of the form 11, this means that such a communication channel can be established using both modules - radio module and radio 2. If the radio bitmap information for a communication channel is 00, this means that such a communication channel cannot be established using radio module 1 or radio module 2. Therefore, this situation may implicitly indicate that such a communication channel could not be established .

It can be understood that according to the multi-channel connection establishment method 100 and the multi-channel connection establishment method 200, a radio module supporting multiple frequency bands in an MLD STA device may require establishing multiple communication channels with the MLD AP device, where these multiple communication channels share the specified radio module. Since a single radio from an STA MLD can only communicate with an AP MLD on one communication channel at a time, once multiple communication channels sharing that radio have been successfully established, one of those channels may be set to the active (on) state and the others set to inactive (turned off) state. If the STA MLD switches from one link to another link, the first (original) link switches from an active (on) state to an inactive (off) state, and the time-consuming link establishment procedure does not need to be re-initiated. In other words, in the exemplary embodiment of the present application, the multi-band radio module in the MLD STA switches between multiple communication channels of the MLD AP without having to re-initiate the time-consuming communication link establishment operation.

In addition, according to the multi-channel association establishment method 100 and the multi-channel association establishment method 200, in the case where the same radio module establishes multiple communication channels, the multi-channel association response frame also needs to carry other information to notify the STA MLD of the communication channel , which is initially in the active (on) state, and about the communication channel, which is in the inactive (off) state. For example, the communication channel configuration information for each communication channel in the multi-channel association response frame may carry a status indication to indicate whether the communication channel in question is in an active (on) state or an inactive (off) state.

In addition, for the case where the same communication channel is allowed to be established by multiple radio modules, the multi-channel association response frame additionally needs to carry other information to inform the MLD STA about the radio module that is initially allowed to be used for establishing the communication channel. For example, the link configuration information for each link in the multi-link association response frame may carry a radio MAC address index to inform the MLD STA about the radio that originally established the link in question.

In addition, according to the multi-channel connection establishment method 100 and the multi-channel connection establishment method 200, the radio bitmap information can be transmitted not only in the multi-channel association response frame for the 1st association between the MLD STA and the MLD AP, but also in the response frame reassociation to reassociate between the MLD STA and the MLD AP.

Option 3

The present application further provides a method 300 for establishing a multi-channel connection. This multi-channel connection establishment method 300 may indicate whether each communication channel that the MLD STA requested to be established was successfully established. In other words, unlike the status code field in the request response frame only indicating whether the MLD STA has been successfully associated with the MLD AP, according to the multi-channel connection establishment method 300, it is possible to indicate whether each channel has been successfully associated with the MLD AP. connection that the STA MLD device requested to establish has been successfully established. As shown in FIG. 8, a method 300 for establishing a multi-link connection includes, but is not limited to, the following steps.

S301: The MLD STA transmits a multi-channel association request frame.

S302: The MLD AP receives a multi-channel association request frame.

S303: The MLD AP transmits a multi-channel association response frame, where the multi-channel association response frame contains information about the communication channel establishment status, and this communication channel establishment status information is used to indicate the communication channel establishment status with respect to each communication channel requested to be established by the device STA MLD.

S304: The MLD STA receives a multi-channel association response frame.

Optionally, the multi-channel association request frame and multi-channel association response frame in steps S301 to S304 may be a multi-channel association request frame and a multi-channel association response frame during the initial association between the MLD STA and the MLD AP, or may be a re-request frame. association and a reassociation response frame in the reassociation process between the MLD STA and the MLD AP. In other words, the reassociation response frame may also carry link establishment status information.

According to the multi-link establishment method 200, the link setup status information may include, but is not limited to, the following four implementation options to indicate the link setup status with respect to each link requested to be established by the MLD STA.

(1) The link establishment status information contains a status code field and link configuration information regarding a successfully established link from the set of links requested to be established by the MLD STA.

The status code field is used to indicate whether the STA MLD device has been successfully associated with the AP MLD device. When the status code field indicates that the MLD STA is successfully associated with the MLD AP, the link establishment status information may carry link configuration information regarding the successfully established link from the set of links requested to be established by the MLD STA. When the status code field indicates that the MLD STA device failed to associate with the MLD AP device, the link establishment status information does not carry link configuration information regarding the links requested to be established by the MLD STA device.

Whether the STA MLD device has been successfully associated with the AP MLD device has the following two interpretations.

According to one interpretation, whether the MLD STA device has been successfully associated with the MLD AP device is related to whether there is a successfully established communication channel from the set of communication channels requested to be established by the MLD STA device. If at least one communication channel among the plurality of communication channels requested for installation by the MLD STA device is successfully established, it means that the MLD STA device is successfully associated with the MLD AP device. If none of the multiple links requested to be established by the STA MLD device were successfully established, this means that the STA MLD device was unable to associate with the AP MLD device.

According to another interpretation, whether the MLD STA device has been successfully associated with the MLD AP device is related to whether the transmitted communication channel from the plurality of multiple communication channels requested for installation by the MLD STA device has been successfully established. In other words, only when a transmitted communication channel from a plurality of multiple communication channels requested for installation by the MLD STA is successfully established, it means that the MLD STA is successfully associated with the MLD AP. If the transmitted link from the plurality of multiple links requested to be established by the MLD STA device fails to be established, it means that the MLD STA device failed to associate with the MLD AP device.

Therefore, in another implementation, the status code field may be used to indicate whether a transmission channel that the STA MLD requested to be established has been successfully established, or the communication channel establishment status with respect to the transmission channel. Accordingly, the link establishment status information includes link configuration information with respect to a successfully established non-transmit link from the plurality of links requested to be established by the MLD STA.

The transmission of link establishment status information in the multi-link association response frame is carried out in the following form: The status code field is in the multi-link association response frame, the link configuration information regarding the successfully established non-transferable link is in the profile information field of each link in the multi-link element. , and the communication channel configuration information regarding the successfully established transmission communication channel is in the multi-channel association response frame in the form of an independent field.

For example, assume that link 1 is a transmitted link, link 2 and link 3 are non-transmit links, and the MLD AP receives link 1, link 2, and link 3 establishment requests, and these link 1 , communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 are all successfully established. As shown in FIG. 3, in the multi-channel association response frame transmitted by the MLD AP, the status code field is in the form of an independent field, and the communication channel configuration information regarding communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 is in the profile information field of each communication channel in the multi-channel element. In addition, information about the configuration of communication channel 1 is in the multi-channel association response frame in the form of an independent field.

Optionally, the status code field and link configuration information may alternatively be located at a different position in the association response frame. This is not limited in the present application.

The status code table corresponding to the status code field is shown in Table 3. When the value of the status code field is 0, it means that the MLD STA has successfully associated with the MLD AP. In other words, at least one communication channel from a plurality of several communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device is successfully established, or a transmitted communication channel from a plurality of several communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device is successfully installed. When the value of the status code field is 1, it means that the MLD STA device failed to associate with the MLD AP device. In other words, none of the plurality of multiple communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device was successfully established, or a transmitted communication channel of the plurality of multiple communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device could not be installed. When the value of the status code field is 2, it means that the TDLS installation is rejected and the alternative option is applied. In other words, direct link scheduling is rejected, but alternative scheduling is applied. In other words, the status code values in Table 3 refer to a multi-channel device, and the status code values in Table 2 refer to a single-channel device.

Table 3. Status code table

Status code Name Meaning 0 Successfully STA MLD device successfully associated with AP MLD device 1 Rejected and rejected for unspecified reason The STA MLD device failed to associate with the AP MLD device, and the reason for the failure is not specified 2 TDLS installation rejected and alternative option applied Direct link scheduling is rejected, but alternative scheduling is applied ... ... ...

In one of two interpretation options, the status code field may be determined by the STA MLD device through a preset or signaling notification to determine, based on the link setup status information, the link setup status with respect to each link that the STA MLD device has requested. install. In this embodiment, the association status of a multi-channel device is represented using a status code field, and whether a communication channel has been successfully established is indicated based on whether communication channel configuration information is transmitted regarding the communication channel. It can be understood that in this embodiment, the status of each communication channel can be indicated so that there is no need to modify the association response frame, which helps improve protocol compatibility between the new device and the old device.

(2) The link establishment status information contains a status code field and link configuration information regarding a successfully established link from the set of links requested to be established by the MLD STA.

Compared with the above first embodiment of the communication link establishment status information, the communication link establishment status information in this embodiment is the same. The difference is that the status code field is used to indicate that all or part of the plurality of communication channels requested to be installed by the STA MLD device have been successfully installed. Optionally, the status code field indicates that all communication channels requested to be installed by the STA MLD device have been successfully installed. Such link establishment status information may include link configuration information with respect to all links requested to be established by the STA MLD device.

In addition to this, the status code table corresponding to the status code field further contains the status code. This status code indicates that some of the multiple communication channels requested to be installed by the MLD STA have been successfully installed.

For example, as shown in the following Table 4, when the status code is 0, it means that all communication channels from the plurality of multiple communication channels requested to be installed by the STA MLD device have been successfully installed. When the status code field is 200, it means that a portion of the multiple communication channels requested to be installed by the MLD STA have been successfully installed. In other words, Table 4 again adds this status code by expanding Table 2 to indicate that some of the communication channels have been successfully established. Optionally, this newly added status code may be represented using the reserved status code value from Table 2.

Table 4. Status code table

Status code Name Meaning 0 All communication channels are successful All communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device have been successfully installed 1 Rejected and rejected for unspecified reason Unspecified failure 2 TDLS installation rejected and alternative option applied Direct link scheduling is rejected, but alternative scheduling is applied ... ... ... 200 Some communication channels have been successfully installed Some of the communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device have been successfully installed

As an option, a new status code table can be predefined. This new status code table may only contain a status code indicating that all communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device have been successfully established, a status code indicating that a portion of the communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device have been successfully established, and a code status indicating that all communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device could not be installed.

In addition, the method of transmitting link establishment status information in a multi-link association response frame in this embodiment is the same as in the previous embodiment, as demonstrated by the multi-link association response frame shown in FIG. 3. Therefore, in the present embodiment, any additional improvements to the multi-channel association response frame in addition to indicating the link establishment status that may indicate the establishment of each link can be avoided, so that the compatibility of implementations on different devices can be improved.

(3) Link establishment status information contains several status code fields.

One status code field corresponds to one communication channel that the STA MLD device requires to be established, and this status code field is used to indicate the communication channel establishment status with respect to the corresponding communication channel.

In other words, the number of status code fields in the link establishment status information is equal to the number of communications channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device to indicate the link establishment status with respect to each communication channel by using the status code field.

A method for transmitting multiple status code fields in a multi-channel association response frame may include, but is not limited to, the following two options, which are separately described below.

(a) The status code field for each communication channel is transmitted in the multi-channel association response frame in the same manner as the status code field shown in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 9, assume that the MLD STA has requested to establish three communication channels, referred to individually as communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. The status code field for each of these three communication channels may be located in a multi-channel association response frame, as shown in FIG. 9. The order or position of the status code field for each communication channel in the multi-channel association response frame is not limited. For example, the order of the status code field for each communication channel in the multi-channel association response frame is consistent with the order of the communication channel configuration information with respect to all communication channels in the multi-channel association response frame.

(b) The position of the status code field for each communication channel in the multi-channel association response frame is related to whether that communication channel is a transferable communication channel or a non-transmitting communication channel.

The status code field for the transmitted communication channel is the status code field in the multi-link association response frame, namely, the status code field in the multi-link association response frame shown in FIG. 3. The status code field for the non-transmitable communication channel is located in the multi-channel element in the multi-channel association response frame.

In one embodiment, the status code field for each non-transmitable communication channel may be located in the MLD device layer information in the multi-channel element. For example, assume that the MLD STA requires the establishment of three communication channels, which are individually communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. Communication channel 1 is a transmittable communication channel, and communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 are non-transmittable communication channels. As shown in FIG. 10, the status code field for communication channel 1 is transmitted directly in the multi-channel association response frame in the form of an independent field, and the status code field for communication channel 2 and the status code field for communication channel 3 are in the MLD device layer information in the multi-channel element.

In another implementation, the status code field for each non-transmitable communication channel may be located in the profile information field of each communication channel in the multi-channel element. For example, assume that the MLD STA requires the establishment of three communication channels, which are individually communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. Communication channel 1 is a transmittable communication channel, and communication channel 2 and communication channel 3 are non-transmittable communication channels. As shown in FIG. 11, the status code field for communication channel 1 is transmitted directly in the multi-channel association response frame in the form of an independent field, and the status code field for communication channel 2 and the status code field for communication channel 3 are located separately in the corresponding multi-channel communication channel configuration information element.

In one implementation, the status code field for each communication channel contains two segments of status code options, for example, a first status code and a second status code. The first status code indicates that the communication channel corresponding to this status code field has been successfully established, and the second status code indicates that the communication channel corresponding to this status code field has not been established.

In another implementation, in addition to a status code indicating whether the corresponding communication channel has been successfully established, the status code options in the status code field for each communication channel may further include one or more types of status code indicating that "the communication channel in question has established failed, and the reason for the failure."

In yet another embodiment, the status code options in the status code field for each communication channel include, but are not limited to, a status code shown in Table 2. In addition, a status code indicating the association status between the MLD STA and the MLD AP in Table 2, additionally needs to be modified to a status code indicating the link establishment status. For example, if the value of the status code field associated with communication channel 1 is 0, this means that communication channel 1 has been successfully established. If the value of the status code field associated with communication channel 1 is 2, this means that communication channel 1 requested to be established is rejected and that the reason for this rejection is not specified. If the value of the status code field associated with link 1 is 3, this means that link 1 requested to be installed is rejected by the TDLS setup and an alternative option is applied. In other words, direct link scheduling is rejected, but alternative scheduling is applied.

Optionally, one or more status code options(s) in the status code field for a communication channel described in the above embodiments may be used based on signaling overhead.

(4) The link establishment status information contains a status code field and a link establishment status bitmap.

The corresponding descriptions of the status code field are given in the first and second embodiments of the communication channel establishment status information implementation. More specifically, the status code field as described in the first embodiment is used to indicate that the MLD STA device has successfully associated with the MLD AP device. Details are given in the description of the first embodiment. Alternatively, a status code field, as described in the second embodiment, is used to indicate whether all or part of the plurality of multiple communication channels that requested to be established have been successfully established. Details are given in the description of the second embodiment. The link establishment status bitmap is discussed in detail next.

In one implementation, the link establishment status bitmap is used to indicate whether each link that the MLD STA requested to establish was successfully established. The number of bits in the link establishment status bitmap is equal to the total number of links requested to be established by the MLD STA.

For example, the total number of communication channels requested to be established by the MLD STA is N, the communication channel establishment status bitmap contains N bits, and each bit corresponds to one communication channel. If the value of the bit corresponding to the communication channel in question is 1, this means that the specified communication channel has been successfully established. If the value of the bit corresponding to the communication channel is 0, this means that the specified communication channel could not be established.

Optionally, the status code field is an independent field in the multi-channel association response frame, and the link establishment status bitmap is located in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the association response frame, as shown in FIG. 12. The correspondence between each bit in the link establishment status bitmap and the link can be determined in sequence based on the link identifier values.

For example, assume that the MLD STA requires the establishment of three communication channels, which are individually communication channel 1, communication channel 2 and communication channel 3. The link establishment status bitmap contains three bits, and the link identifiers, in ascending order, are: link 1 identifier, link 2 identifier and link 3 identifier. In other words, the 1st bit in the link establishment status bitmap corresponds to link 1, the 2nd bit corresponds to link 2, and the 3rd bit corresponds to link 3. Let us assume that, as shown in FIG. 12, the value of the status code field indicates that the MLD STA has successfully associated with the MLD AP, and the link establishment status bitmap is 101, which means that link 1 and link 3 have been successfully established, but link 2 has not been established. managed.

In another embodiment, if the status code field indicates, only when the transmitted link is successfully established, that the MLD STA has successfully associated with the MLD AP, or that a subset of multiple links requested to be established by the MLD STA have been successfully established, the number of bits in the link establishment status bitmap may be N–1. In other words, the link establishment status bitmap is used to indicate whether each non-transmit link of the set of links requested to be established by the MLD STA has been successfully established. For example, assume that the status code field shown in FIG. 14 indicates that the MLD STA has successfully associated with the MLD AP, and communication channel 1 is the transmitting communication channel. If the link establishment status bitmap may be 01, this link establishment status bitmap separately indicates the link establishment status for non-transmit link 2 and the link establishment status for non-transmit link 3, in other words, link setup 2 failed, but communication channel 3 was successfully established.

In this embodiment, an example is used in which the link establishment status may have two link status values, namely, that the link in question has been successfully established, and that the link has failed to be established. Optionally, the link establishment status bitmap is further used to indicate a different link status for each link requested to be established by the STA MLD device. In other words, the number of bits corresponding to each communication channel in the communication channel establishment status bitmap can be determined based on the type to be designated and the communication channel status with respect to each communication channel.

In addition to this, the difference between the above implementations of the link establishment status information is that the structures or contents of the link establishment status information are different, and the problem to be solved and the benefit to be achieved are identical. Therefore, the above embodiments of the considered embodiments of the present application belong to the same concept of the invention.

It can be understood that, in the present embodiment, it is possible to use as low a signaling overhead as possible to indicate whether each communication channel that the MLD STA requested to establish has been successfully established, in other words, failure to establish a portion of a plurality of communication channels, which required to establish between the STA MLD device and the AP MLD devices, which significantly increases the degree of flexibility in establishing a multi-link connection.

Option 4

In fig. 13 is a simplified logic diagram of a method 400 for establishing a multi-channel connection according to one embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 13, the method 400 for establishing a multi-channel connection includes, but is not limited to, the following steps.

S401: The MLD STA transmits a reassociation request frame.

S402: The MLD AP receives a reassociation request frame.

S403: The MLD AP transmits a reassociation response frame.

The MLD AP may determine a reassociation response frame based on the reassociation request frame. For example, the access point side information to be transmitted in the reassociation response frame is determined based on the station side information transmitted in the reassociation request frame.

S404: The MLD STA receives the reassociation response frame, and reserves the first configuration information and erases the second configuration information in accordance with a predetermined rule.

The re-association request frame is used by the MLD STA to re-initiate an association operation with an MLD AP with which it has been associated, to assist in re-initiating the association operation when the MLD STA needs to change capability information or feature parameters related to the association. The reassociation response frame is used to respond to the reassociation request frame. The reassociation request frame and the reassociation response frame may also carry a multi-channel element.

Both the first configuration information and the second configuration information are configuration information stored after the MLD STA has been associated with the MLD AP. The first configuration information is configuration information that needs to be reserved during the reassociation operation, and the second configuration information is configuration information that needs to be erased during the reassociation operation.

For example, the first configuration information contains, but is not limited to: an indication of the block handshaking protocol, a sequence number, a packet number, an indication of a duplicate detection cache, an indication of a chunking and reassembly buffer, and a media access control service data unit stored in the buffer. access control service data unit (MSDU). The second configuration information includes, but is not limited to: enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) function status, queued data to be transmitted, power management mode indication, radio network management sleep mode indication, and other similar parameters. A buffered MSDU may also be referred to as a queued MSDU.

In one embodiment, the specified preset rule is used to indicate the configuration information that needs to be reserved in the STA MLD device during the reassociation operation, in other words, the predetermined rule indicates the content of the first configuration information. The second configuration information is other MLD device-related information different from the first configuration information in the MLD STA device, and may be erased by default. In another embodiment, the specified predetermined rule is used to indicate the configuration information that needs to be erased in the STA MLD device during the reassociation operation, in other words, the predetermined rule indicates the content of the second configuration information. The first configuration information is other MLD device-related information different from the second configuration information in the MLD STA, and may be reserved by default. In yet another embodiment, the specified predetermined rule is used to indicate the configuration information that needs to be erased and the configuration information that needs to be reserved in the STA MLD device during the reassociation operation, in other words, the predetermined rule indicates the content of the first configuration information and contents of the second configuration information. Optionally, the operation of erasing or backing up other MLD device-related information other than the first configuration information and the second configuration information in the MLD device STA is not limited in the present embodiment.

It can be understood that according to the multi-channel connection establishment method, when multiple communication channels are re-established between the MLD STA and the MLD AP using a re-association request frame and a re-association response frame, said predetermined rule can be further used to reserve a portion of the configuration information. thereby reducing the signaling overhead caused by the reassociation operation.

As an option, the multi-channel connection establishment methods described in Embodiments 1 to 3 may also be used with reference to the reassociation related operation described in Embodiment 4 of the present application. More specifically, after an MLD STA has been associated with an MLD AP, if the MLD STA initiates a reassociation operation, a portion of the configuration information may be reserved in accordance with the above-described embodiments in order to reduce signaling overhead caused by the reassociation operation.

Option 5

The present application further provides a method 500 for establishing a multi-channel connection. The difference between the multi-channel connection establishment method 500 and the multi-channel connection establishment method 400 is that, according to the multi-channel connection establishment method 500, the reassociation information can be used to explicitly indicate the configuration information to be reserved during the reassociation operation between the STA device MLD and AP MLD device. According to the simplified logic diagram of the multi-channel connection establishment method 500 shown in FIG. 14, this method 500 of establishing a multi-channel connection includes, but is not limited to, the following steps.

S501: The MLD STA transmits a reassociation request frame.

S502: The MLD AP receives a reassociation request frame.

S503: The MLD AP transmits a reassociation response frame to the MLD STA, where the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, and this reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter is reserved in the association configuration information.

Optionally, the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, and this reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information has been erased. Optionally, the reassociation information may also be called configuration information update information or the like. In the considered version of this application, the name of this information is not limited.

The STA MLD device stores association configuration information after the STA MLD device is associated with a multi-link access point device (AP MLD). Optionally, the association configuration information is part or all of the configuration information stored by the MLD STA after the MLD STA is associated with the MLD AP. Optionally, a parameter included in the association configuration information is preset or communicated by the MLD AP device using signaling. For example, the association configuration information includes, but is not limited to: an indication of the block handshaking protocol, a sequence number, a packet number, an indication of a duplicate detection cache, an indication of a chunking and reassembly buffer, and a media access service data unit stored in the buffer. control service data unit (MSDU).

For example, the association configuration information may only contain configuration information that needs to be decided whether to be reserved during a reassociation operation, and configuration information other than the association configuration information stored by the MLD STA may be erased by default. For example, the association configuration information may only contain configuration information that needs to be decided whether to be erased during a reassociation operation, and configuration information other than the association configuration information stored by the MLD STA may be reserved by default.

S504: The MLD STA receives a reassociation response frame.

The re-association request frame is used by the MLD STA to re-initiate an association operation with an already associated MLD AP to help re-initiate the association operation when the MLD STA needs to change capability information or a feature parameter related to the association. The reassociation response frame is used to respond to the reassociation request frame. These reassociation request frame and reassociation response frame may also carry a multi-channel element.

In one embodiment, the reassociation information comprises one or more bits. One bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information, and this bit is used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved.

For example, when this bit has a first value, it means that one or more parameters corresponding to the bit are reserved. When this bit has a second value, it means that one or more parameters corresponding to the bit are cleared. The first value can be 1 and the second value can be 0 and vice versa. In particular, one or more parameters corresponding to each bit in the reassociation information may be specified in the association configuration information or determined using signaling.

A method for transmitting reassociation information in a reassociation response frame includes, but is not limited to, the following three options. The first transmission option is as follows: The reassociation information is transmitted in the reassociation response frame as a reassociation element. The second transmission option is as follows: the reassociation information is transmitted, in the form of a reassociation field, in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the re-association response frame. The third transmission option is as follows: The reassociation information is transmitted in the reassociation response frame as an independent field. These transmission options are described in detail below.

(1) The reassociation information is transmitted in a reassociation response frame in the form of a reassociation element.

The reassociation element may also be referred to as a configuration information indicator element or the like in a reassociation response frame. This is not limited in the present application. Optionally, the reassociation element structure is shown in FIG. 15 and fig. 16. The reassociation element is transmitted in the reassociation response frame, this element contains element ID, length and reassociation information. The number of bytes or bits occupied by the element identifier, the number of bytes or bits occupied by the length, and the number of bytes or bits occupied by the reassociation information may be preset. The element identifier is used to indicate that the element is a reassociation element. Length is used to indicate the total number of bits or bytes between the start of the bit occupied by the length field and the end of the bit occupied by the reassociation information.

In one case, the reassociation information contains several bits. One bit corresponds to one parameter in the association configuration information and is used to indicate whether the corresponding parameter is reserved.

For example, as shown in FIG. 15, assume that the reassociation information contains six bits, and these six bits are respectively in a one-to-one correspondence with the block handshaking protocol indication, the sequence number, the packet number, the duplicate detection cache indication, the chunking and reassembly buffer indication, and the recorded in the buffer by an MSDU in the association configuration information. Assuming that this reassociation information read by the STA MLD from the reassociation response frame is 100001, the STA MLD may reserve the block handshaking protocol indication and the buffered MSDU, and also erase the sequence number. package number, duplicate detection cache designation, and fragmentation and reassembly buffer designation.

In another case, the reassociation information contains several bits. One bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information, and this bit is used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved.

For example, as shown in FIG. 16, the reassociation information contains two bits. Then the 1st bit corresponds to the block handshaking protocol indication, sequence number, packet number, duplicate detection cache indication, and chunking and reassembly buffer indication in the association configuration information, and is used to indicate whether these block handshaking protocol indications, sequence number , package number, duplicate detection cache designation, and chunking and reassembly buffer designation reserved. Further, the 2nd bit corresponds to the buffered MSDU in the association configuration information, and is used to indicate whether the buffered MSDU is reserved. Assuming that this reassociation information read by the STA MLD from the reassociation response frame is of the form 11, the STA MLD may reserve the block handshaking protocol indication, sequence number, packet number, duplicate detection cache indication, partitioning buffer indication into fragments and reassembly and a buffered MSDU.

(2) The reassociation information is transmitted, in the form of a reassociation field, in the MLD device layer information in the multi-channel element in the reassociation response frame.

The reassociation information may be referred to as a reassociation area, a reassociation field, or some other similar name in a multi-channel element in a reassociation response frame. For example, the structure of reassociation information in a reassociation response frame is shown in FIG. 17 and fig. 18. The reassociation information is transmitted in multi-channel device information (MLD device layer information) in a reassociation response frame. The number of bytes or bits occupied by the reassociation information may be predetermined or signaled using signaling. For example, for the reassociation information shown in FIG. 17 or fig. 18, it is assumed that the number of bits occupied by the reassociation information is six bits, as shown in FIG. 17, or two bits as shown in FIG. 18.

In one implementation, the reassociation information may be transmitted only in a reassociation response frame. In another implementation, in addition to being sent in the re-association response frame, the re-association information may alternatively be sent in the re-association request frame. The reassociation information carried in the reassociation request frame may also have features described in the above embodiments. The difference between the reassociation information transmitted in the reassociation request frame and the reassociation information transmitted in the reassociation response frame is that the reassociation information transmitted in the reassociation request frame is used to indicate whether each parameter is reserved. requested by the MLD STA in the association configuration information during a reassociation operation between the MLD STA and the MLD AP, and the reassociation information transmitted in the reassociation response frame is used to indicate that each parameter requested by the MLD AP to be reserved by the device The STA MLD, in the association configuration information during the re-association operation between the STA MLD device and the AP device, the MLD is reserved.

Optionally, in addition to reserving a portion of the parameters in the association configuration information and erasing another portion of the parameters in the association configuration information based on the reassociation information, the STA MLD device may erase or reserve configuration information other than the association configuration information in the STA MLD device , default. This is not limited in the present application.

It can be understood that according to the multi-channel connection establishment method 400, in the reassociation process, the parameter to be reserved is explicitly designated using the reassociation information, thereby reducing the signaling overhead caused by the reassociation and increasing the degree of flexibility in notifying the STA MLD device about the parameter that needs to be reserved.

Optionally, the multi-channel connection establishment methods described in Embodiments 1 to 3 may also be used with reference to the reassociation-related operation described in Embodiment 5 of this application. More specifically, after the MLD STA has associated with the MLD AP, if the MLD STA initiates a reassociation operation, a portion of the configuration information may be reserved in accordance with the above embodiment to reduce signaling overhead caused by the reassociation operation.

In the above embodiments proposed in this application, the methods according to the embodiments of this application are described separately from the points of view of the AP MLD device and the STA MLD device. To implement the functions according to the methods proposed in the above embodiments of this application, each of the AP MLD device and the STA MLD device may comprise a hardware structure and a software module for implementing the above functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of hardware structure and software module. Any function from the above functions may be implemented by a hardware structure, a software module, or a combination of a hardware structure and a software module. Next, the communication device in embodiments of the present application is described with reference to FIGS. 19 – fig. 21. Such a communication device is an access point in a multi-channel access point device or a station in a multi-channel station device. Further, the communication device may be a device in an AP MLD device, or a device in an STA MLD device. In addition, the device may be a multi-channel device, a device within a multi-channel device, or a processor or system within an integrated circuit (chip) within a multi-channel device.

The communication device 100 shown in FIG. 19 may include a communication module 101 and a processor module 102. This processor module 102 is configured to process data. The communication module 101 includes an integrated receiving module and a transmitting module. This communication module 101 may also be called a transceiver module. Alternatively, the communication module 101 may be divided into a receiving module and a transmitting module. In particular:

When the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to implement a method performed by the MLD STA in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4:

The processor module 102 is configured to determine a multi-channel association request frame; And

The communication module 101 is configured to transmit a multi-channel association request frame, where

The communication module 101 is further configured to receive a multi-channel association response frame, and

The multi-link association response frame carries radio bitmap information, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio from the MLD STA that is authorized to be used to establish each of the communication channels that the MLD STA has requested to establish.

When the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the MLD AP, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4:

the communication module 101 is configured to receive a multi-channel association request frame; And

processor module 102 is configured to determine a multi-channel association response frame, where

the communication module 101 is further configured to transmit a multi-channel association response frame, and

The multi-link association response frame carries radio bitmap information, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate a radio from the MLD STA that is authorized to be used to establish each of the communication channels that the MLD STA has requested to establish.

With respect to the STA MLD device and the AP MLD device, in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the radio bitmap information is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element.

When the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the MLD AP, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6:

The processor module 102 is configured to determine a multi-channel association request frame; And

The communication module 101 is configured to transmit a multi-channel association request frame, where

The communication module 101 is further configured to receive a multi-channel association response frame, and

the multi-channel association response frame carries a plurality of radio bitmap information segments, one radio bitmap information segment corresponds to one communication channel requested for establishment by the MLD STA, and the radio bitmap information is used to indicate a radio from the MLD STA that is authorized to be used for establishment appropriate communication channel.

When the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the MLD AP, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6:

the communication module 101 is configured to receive a multi-channel association request frame; And

processor module 102 is configured to determine a multi-channel association response frame, where

the communication module 101 is further configured to transmit a multi-channel association response frame, and

the multi-channel association response frame carries multiple segments of radio bitmap information, one segment of radio bitmap information corresponds to one communication channel requested to be established by the STA MLD device, and this radio bitmap information is used to indicate the radio module from the STA MLD device that is allowed to be used for establishing an appropriate communication channel.

With respect to the STA MLD device and the AP MLD device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 6, as shown by the related content in FIG. 7, the radio bitmap information for the transmission channel requested to be set up by the MLD STA is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the multi-channel association response frame; and the radio bitmap information for the non-transmission link requested to be set up by the STA MLD is transmitted in the link configuration information for the non-transmit link in the multi-channel element.

With respect to the STA MLD device and the AP MLD device in the method embodiments shown in FIGS. 4 and fig. 6, a multi-channel association request frame carries radio number information, and this radio number information is used to indicate the number of radios in the MLD STA.

When the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the STA MLD, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8:

The communication module 101 is configured to transmit a multi-channel association request frame, where

The communication module 101 is further configured to receive a multi-channel association response frame, and

this multi-link association response frame carries the bearer establishment status information, and this bearer establishment status information is used to indicate the bearer establishment status with respect to each bearer requested to be established by the MLD STA.

When the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the MLD AP, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8:

The communication module 101 is configured to receive a multi-channel association request frame, where

The communication module 101 is further configured to transmit a multi-channel association response frame, and

The multi-link association response frame carries information about the link setup status, and this link setup status information is used to indicate the link setup status with respect to each link request to be established by the MLD STA.

The following describes one or more embodiments applicable to the STA MLD device and the AP MLD device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8.

In one implementation, the link establishment status information comprises a status code field and link configuration information regarding a successfully established link from a set of links requested to be established by the MLD STA. This status code field is used to indicate that the STA MLD device has successfully associated with the AP MLD device.

In another embodiment, the communication channel establishment status information comprises a status code field and communication channel configuration information regarding a successfully established communication channel from a set of communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device; And

this status code field is used to indicate that a portion of the set of communications channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device have been successfully established.

In yet another embodiment, the link establishment status information comprises a status code field and link configuration information regarding a successfully established non-transmit link from a plurality of links requested to be established by the MLD STA; And

this status code field is used to indicate that the transmitted communication channel from the set of communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device has been successfully established.

In yet another embodiment, the link setup status information includes multiple status code fields, and one status code field corresponds to one link setup requested by the STA MLD device; And

this status code field is used to indicate the link establishment status with respect to the corresponding link.

In yet another embodiment, with respect to communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device, the status code field for the transmitted communication channel is carried in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element, and the status code field for the non-transmitted communication channel is carried in the communication channel configuration information in regarding a non-transmittable communication channel in a multi-channel element; or with respect to the communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device, the status code fields for all of these communication channels are conveyed in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element.

In yet another embodiment, the handshake status information includes a status code field and bitmap information about the handshake status, and this status code field is used to indicate that the MLD STA is successfully associated with the MLD AP; And

The link establishment status bitmap information is used to indicate whether each of the communications links requested to be established by the STA MLD device has been successfully established.

In yet another embodiment, the handshake status information comprises a status code field and bitmap information about the handshake status;

the status code field is used to indicate that a portion of the communication channels requested to be installed by the STA MLD device have been successfully installed; And

The link establishment status bitmap information is used to indicate whether each of the communications links requested to be established by the STA MLD device has been successfully established.

In yet another embodiment, the handshake status information comprises a status code field and bitmap information about the handshake status;

this status code field is used to indicate that the transmitted communication channel from the set of communication channels requested for installation by the STA MLD device has been successfully established; And

bitmap information about the link establishment status is used to indicate whether each of the non-transmit links requested to be established by the STA MLD device has been successfully established.

In yet another embodiment, bitmap information about the link establishment status is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the multi-channel association response frame.

In yet another embodiment, when the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the STA MLD, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 13:

The communication module 101 is further configured to transmit a reassociation request frame, and

the communication module 101 is further configured to receive a re-association response frame; And

the processor module 102 is configured to reserve the first configuration information and erase the second configuration information in accordance with a predetermined rule.

In yet another embodiment, when the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the STA MLD, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 14:

The communication module 101 is further configured to transmit a reassociation request frame, and

the communication module 101 is further configured to receive a re-association response frame; And

the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, and this reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved.

When the communication device shown in FIG. 19 is configured to perform, by the MLD AP, a method in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 14:

the communication module is further configured to receive a reassociation request frame, and

the communication module is further configured to transmit a reassociation response frame, where

the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, and this reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved.

Next, one or more embodiments applicable to the MLD STA and the MLD AP in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 14.

In one implementation, the association configuration information includes one or more of the following parameters:

an indication of the block handshake protocol, a sequence number, a packet number, an indication of a duplicate detection cache, an indication of a chunking and reassembly buffer, and a media access control service data unit (MSDU) stored in the buffer.

In one embodiment, the reassociation information comprises one or more bits. One bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information, and this bit is used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved.

In one implementation, the reassociation information is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in a re-association response frame.

In fig. 20 is a simplified block diagram of communications equipment 200. In one implementation, this communication device 200 corresponds to an AP MLD device applicable to any one of the multi-link connection establishment methods 100 - 500. Optionally, communication device 200 may be a station 101 shown in FIG. 1, or the AP MLD shown in FIG. 2. Optionally, the communication device 200 may be an integrated circuit (chip), system of integrated circuits, processor, or other similar component implementing the above embodiments of the method. The communication device 200 may be configured to implement the methods described in the above embodiments. Details are contained in the description of these above method variants.

In another implementation, the communication device 200 corresponds to an STA MLD device applicable to any one of the multi-link connection establishment methods 100 - 500. Alternatively, communication device 200 is station 102 shown in FIG. 1, or the device of this station. Alternatively, communication device 200 is an STA MLD device shown in FIG. 2. Optionally, the communication device 200 may be an integrated circuit (chip), system of integrated circuits, processor, or other similar component implementing the above embodiments of the method. The communication device 200 may be configured to implement the methods described in the above embodiments. Details are contained in the description of these above method variants.

Communication device 200 may include one or more processors 201. Such processor 201 may be a general purpose processor, a specialty processor, or another similar processor. For example, processor 201 may be a video processor or a central processing unit. The video processor may be configured to process the communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit may be configured to control communications equipment (e.g., a base station, video integrated circuit, terminal, terminal integrated circuit, distributed unit (DU), or central unit (CU) ) to execute a computer program for the purpose of processing data from that computer program.

The communication device 200 may further include a transceiver 205. This transceiver 205 may be referred to as a transceiver module, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or the like, and be configured to perform a transceiver function. The transceiver 205 may include a receiver and a transmitter. The receiver may be called a receiving machine, receiving circuit, or the like, and be configured to perform a receiver function. The transmitter may be called a transmitting machine, a transmitting circuit, or the like, and be configured to perform the function of a transmitter. Optionally, communication device 200 may further include an antenna 206.

Optionally, communication device 200 may include one or more storage devices 202, and the storage device 202 may store instructions 204. These instructions 204 may be a computer program. This computer program may operate on the communication device 200 to enable the communication device 200 to perform the methods described in the above method embodiments. Optionally, storage device 202 may further store data. The communication device 200 and the storage device 202 may be located separately or may be integrated.

When the communication device 200 is configured to perform the functions of an STA MLD device according to any one of the multi-link connection establishment methods 100 to 500 of the above options:

processor 201 may be configured to determine a multi-channel association request frame.

The transceiver 205 is configured to perform steps S101 and S104 shown in FIG. 4; steps S201 and S204 shown in FIG. 6; steps S301 and S304 shown in FIG. 8; steps S401 and S404 shown in FIG. 13; or steps S501 and S504 shown in FIG. 14.

When the communication device 200 is configured to perform the functions of an AP MLD device according to any one of the multi-link establishment methods 100 - 500 of the above options:

processor 201 may be configured to determine a multi-channel association response frame.

The transceiver 205 is configured to perform steps S102 and S103 shown in FIG. 4; steps S202 and S203 shown in FIG. 6; steps S302 and S303 shown in FIG. 8; steps S402 and S403 shown in FIG. 13; or steps S502 and S503 shown in FIG. 14.

In one embodiment, processor 201 may include a transceiver configured to perform receiver functions and transmitter functions. For example, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit, an interface, or an interface circuit. Here, the transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit configured to perform the functions of the transmitter, and the transceiver circuit, interface or interface circuit configured to perform the functions of the receiver, may be separate or may be integrated. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit may be configured to read and write code or data. Alternatively, a transceiver circuit, an interface, or an interface circuit may be configured to transmit the signal.

In one embodiment, processor 201 may store instructions 203. These instructions may be a computer program. The computer program 203, when executed by the processor 201, allows the communication device 200 to implement the methods of the above embodiments. The computer program 203 may be hardwired into the processor 201, which in this case may be implemented in hardware.

In one embodiment, the communication device 200 may include circuitry such that the circuitry may perform transmitting, receiving, or communicating functions according to the above method embodiments. The processor and transceiver described here may be implemented in an integrated circuit (IC), analog IC, RFIC, mixed-signal IC, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or printed circuit board. printed circuit board (PCB), electronic device, or other similar method. The processor and transceiver may alternatively be fabricated using various integrated circuit (IC) technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), n-type metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) (n-type Metal-oxide-semiconductor, NMOS), p-type metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits (positive channel metal oxide semiconductor, PMOS), bipolar junction transistors (BJT), bipolar CMOS circuits (BiCMOS), silicon germanium alloy (SiGe) or gallium arsenide (GaAs) circuits.

The communication device described in the above embodiment may be an AP MLD device or an AP within the AP MLD device. However, the scope of the communication device contemplated herein is not limited to this, and the structure of such a communication device may not be limited to that shown in FIG. 20. Such a communication device may be an independent device or part of a relatively larger device. For example, the communication device may be one of the following:

(1) an independent integrated IC, a packaged integrated circuit (chip), or a system or subsystem of such a chip;

(2) a set comprising one or more IC circuits, where optionally, the set of IC circuits may further comprise a storage component configured to store data and a computer program;

(3) ASIC circuit, for example, modem (Modem);

(4) a module that can be built into another device;

(5) a receiver, terminal, smart terminal, cell phone, wireless device, hand-held device, mobile module, vehicle-mounted device, network device, cloud device, artificial intelligence device or other similar device; or

(6) other.

For the case where the communication device may be an integrated circuit or an integrated circuit-based system, reference should be made to a simplified diagram of the structure of such an integrated circuit shown in FIG. 21. The integrated circuit shown in FIG. 21 includes a processor 301 and an interface 302. There may be one or more processors 301 and one or more interfaces 302.

When the integrated circuit is configured to perform AP functions in an AP MLD device according to one of the multilink setup methods 200 to 500 of the above options:

processor 301 may determine a multi-channel association request frame.

Interface 302 is configured to implement steps S101 and S104 shown in FIG. 4; steps S201 and S204 shown in FIG. 6; steps S301 and S304 shown in FIG. 8; steps S401 and S404 shown in FIG. 13; or steps S501 and S504 shown in FIG. 14.

When the chip 200 is configured to perform AP functions in an MLD AP according to any one of the multi-link establishment methods 100 to 500 of the above options:

processor 301 may determine a multi-channel association response frame.

Interface 302 is configured to implement steps S102 and S103 shown in FIG. 4; steps S202 and S203 shown in FIG. 6; steps S302 and S303 shown in FIG. 8; steps S402 and S403 shown in FIG. 13; or steps S502 and S503 shown in FIG. 14.

One skilled in the art will further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps listed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of these components. Whether these functions are implemented using hardware or software depends on the specific application and design requirements of the overall system. One skilled in the art will be able to use different implementations of the described functions for each specific application, however, such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the embodiments of this application.

The present application further provides a computer-readable medium for storing information. This computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program such that, when the program is executed by a computer, functions according to any one of the above embodiments are performed.

This application further provides a computer program product. When a computer executes this computer program product, functions according to any one of the above embodiments of methods are performed.

All or some of the above options may be implemented using downloadable software, hardware, firmware, or some combination of these components. When downloadable software is used for such an implementation, some or all of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. This software product contains one or more computer programs. When such a computer program is loaded and executed by a computer, procedures or functions according to embodiments of this application are generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. A computer program may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium or may be transmitted from a computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, a computer program may be transmitted from a website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (such as coaxial cable, fiber optic, or digital subscriber line (DSL)). or wirelessly (for example, by infrared, radio or microwave) method. A computer-readable storage medium may be any suitable computer-accessible medium or a data storage device, such as a server or data center integrating one or more such suitable media. A suitable medium for use may be a magnetic medium (for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape), an optical medium (for example, a high-density digital video disc (DVD)), a semiconductor medium (for example, a solid-state media ( solid-state disk, SSD)), or other similar media.

Even one of ordinary skill in the art may understand that the various numerals such as “first” and “second” in this application are used only for distinction of elements and ease of description and are not intended to in any way limit the scope of the variations of this application or represent a sequence.

"At least one" as used herein may alternatively be described as one or more, and "several of" means two, three, four or more. This is not limited in this application. In the embodiments of this application, “first”, “second”, “third”, “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” and other similar designations are used only to distinguish between the technical features designated by them. There is no chronological order or dimensional order between the technical features designated "first", "second", "third", "A", "B", "C" and "D".

The matches shown in the tables in this application may be configurable or predefined. The information values in these tables are examples only, so other values may be configured. This is not limited in this application. When the mapping between information and each parameter is configurable, not all mappings shown in the tables need to be configurable. For example, in the tables herein, matches shown in some rows may alternatively not be configurable. As another example, based on the above tables, suitable deformations and adjustments such as splitting and combining can be made. The parameter names shown in the headings of the tables above may alternatively be replaced by other names that may be understood by the communication device, and the meanings and representations of such parameters may alternatively be other names that are understandable to the communication equipment. In implementing the above tables, other data structures may alternatively be used, such as a matrix, queue, container, stack, linear table, pointer, linked list, tree, graph, structure, class, stack, or hash table.

“Predefined” as used herein may be understood as “set,” “predefined,” “stored,” “prestored,” “preagreed,” “preconfigured,” “fixed,” or “prepared.”

Even one of ordinary skill in the art would be aware that, in combination with the examples described in the embodiments provided herein, the modules and steps of the algorithms may be implemented by electronic hardware or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are implemented using hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints on the technical solutions. A person skilled in the art will be able to use various methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, however, such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the embodiments of this application.

One skilled in the art will clearly appreciate that for a convenient and concise description of the details of the operating procedures in the systems, apparatus, and modules discussed herein, reference should be made to the description of the corresponding procedures in the above method embodiments.

The above description contains only specific embodiments of the present application and is not intended to in any way limit the scope of protection of the present application. Any variations or substitutions readily contemplated by one skilled in the art within the technical scope described in this application fall within the scope of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present application must correspond to the scope of protection of the Claims.

Claims (72)

1. A communication device used in a station multi-link device (STA MLD) containing a communication module for transmitting a multi-channel association request frame, wherein said communication module is additionally configured to receive a multi-channel association response frame, and the multi-channel association response frame carries information about the communication channel establishment status, wherein the information about the communication channel establishment status is used to indicate the communication channel establishment status with respect to at least two communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device; and the plurality of the at least two communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device comprises a transmit communication channel and at least one non-transmitting communication channel, wherein the transmit communication channel is a communication channel on which a multi-channel association request frame is transmitted, and the non-transmitting channel communication channel is a communication channel other than the communication channel on which the multi-channel association request frame is transmitted. 2. A communication device used in an access point multi-link device (AP MLD) containing a communication module for receiving a multi-channel association request frame, wherein said communication module is additionally configured to transmit a multi-channel association response frame, and the multi-channel association response frame carries information about the communication channel establishment status, wherein the information about the communication channel establishment status is used to indicate the communication channel establishment status with respect to at least two communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device; and the plurality of the at least two communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device comprises a transmit communication channel and at least one non-transmitting communication channel, wherein the transmit communication channel is a communication channel on which a multi-channel association request frame is transmitted, and the non-transmitting channel communication channel is a communication channel other than the communication channel on which the multi-channel association request frame is transmitted. 3. The communication device of claim 1 or 2, wherein the link establishment status information comprises at least two status code fields, wherein one of the status code fields is used to indicate the setup status of one of the at least two communication links. , requested to be installed by the STA MLD device. 4. Communication device according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, wherein the multi-channel association response frame contains a multi-channel element, wherein said multi-channel element contains multi-channel device information and communication channel configuration information with respect to at least one non-transmittable communication channel. 5. The communication device of claim 4, wherein the status code field with respect to the non-transmittable communication channel is transmitted in the communication channel configuration information with respect to the non-transmittable communication channel. 6. The communication device of claim 4 or 5, wherein the status code field with respect to the transmitted communication channel is transmitted in a multi-channel association response frame. 7. Communication device according to any one of paragraphs. 4-6, in which the communication channel configuration information includes a communication channel identifier. 8. The communication device of claim 7, wherein the communication channel identifier is used to indicate the communication channel, and the communication channel configuration information is used to indicate information regarding the communication channel. 9. Communication device according to claim 1 or any of claims. 3-8, in which The communication module is further configured to transmit a re-association request frame, wherein said communication module is further configured to receive a re-association response frame, and the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, wherein the reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved. 10. Communication device according to any one of paragraphs. 2-8, in which The communication module is further configured to receive a re-association request frame, wherein said communication module is further configured to transmit a re-association response frame, and said reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, wherein the reassociation information is used to indicate whether each parameter in the association configuration information is reserved. 11. The communication device of claim 9 or 10, wherein the association configuration information comprises one or more of: an indication of the block handshake protocol, a sequence number, a packet number, an indication of a duplicate detection cache, an indication of a chunking and reassembly buffer, and a buffered media service data unit (MSDU). 12. Communication device according to any one of paragraphs. 9-11, in which the reassociation information contains one or more bits, one bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information, said bit being used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved. 13. Communication device according to any one of paragraphs. 9-12, in which the reassociation information is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the re-association response frame. 14. A method for establishing a multi-channel connection, implemented by a multi-channel station device (STA MLD), containing the steps of: transmitting a multi-channel association request frame; And receive a multi-channel association response frame, wherein the multi-channel association response frame carries information about the communication channel establishment status, wherein the information about the communication channel establishment status is used to indicate the communication channel establishment statuses with respect to at least two communication channels from a plurality of communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device; A the plurality of the at least two communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device comprises a transmit communication channel and at least one non-transmitting communication channel, wherein the transmit communication channel is a communication channel on which a multi-channel association request frame is transmitted, and the non-transmitting channel communication channel is a communication channel other than the communication channel on which the multi-channel association request frame is transmitted. 15. A method for establishing a multi-channel connection, implemented by a multi-channel access point device (AP MLD), containing the steps of: receiving a multi-channel association request frame; And transmitting a multi-channel association response frame, wherein the multi-channel association response frame carries information about the communication channel establishment status, wherein the information about the communication channel establishment status is used to indicate the communication channel establishment statuses with respect to at least two communication channels from a plurality of communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device; A the plurality of the at least two communication channels requested to be established by the STA MLD device comprises a transmit communication channel and at least one non-transmitting communication channel, wherein the transmit communication channel is a communication channel on which a multi-channel association request frame is transmitted, and the non-transmitting channel communication channel is a communication channel other than the communication channel on which the multi-channel association request frame is transmitted. 16. The method of claim 14 or 15, wherein the link establishment status information comprises at least two status code fields, and one of said status code fields is used to indicate the setup status of one of the at least two communications links requested to be established. STA MLD device. 17. Method according to any one of paragraphs. 14-16, wherein the multi-channel association response frame contains a multi-channel element, wherein the multi-channel element contains multi-channel device information and communication channel configuration information regarding the at least one non-transmittable communication channel. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the status code field for the non-transmission link is transmitted in the link configuration information regarding the non-transmit link. 19. The method of claim 17 or 18, wherein the status code field for the transmitted communication channel is transmitted in a multi-channel association response frame. 20. Method according to any one of paragraphs. 17-19, in which the communication channel configuration information includes a communication channel identifier. 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the communication channel identifier is used to indicate the communication channel, and the communication channel configuration information is used to indicate information related to the corresponding communication channel. 22. The method according to paragraph 14 or according to any of paragraphs. 16-21, further comprising the steps of: transmitting a re-association request frame; And receive a reassociation response frame, wherein the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, and the reassociation information is used to indicate whether the parameters in the association configuration information are reserved. 23. Method according to any one of paragraphs. 15-21, further comprising the steps of: receiving a reassociation request frame; And transmitting a re-association response frame, wherein the reassociation response frame carries reassociation information, wherein the reassociation information is used to indicate whether the parameters in the association configuration information are reserved. 24. The method of claim 22 or 23, wherein the association configuration information comprises one or more of: an indication of the block handshake protocol, a sequence number, a packet number, an indication of a duplicate detection cache, an indication of a chunking and reassembly buffer, and a buffered media service data unit (MSDU). 25. Method according to any one of paragraphs. 22-24, in which the reassociation information contains one or more bits, one bit corresponds to one or more parameters in the association configuration information, the bit being used to indicate whether the corresponding one or more parameters are reserved. 26. Method according to any one of paragraphs. 22-25, in which the re-association information is transmitted in the multi-channel device information in the multi-channel element in the re-association response frame. 27. Communication device containing a processor and a storage device, wherein said storage device is configured to store instructions or a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the storage device to cause the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims. 14, 16-26. 28. Communication device containing a processor and a storage device, wherein said storage device is configured to store instructions or a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the storage device to cause the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims. 15-26. 29. Communication device containing a processor, a memory device, and a transceiver, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a signal or transmit a signal, the memory device is configured to store instructions or a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the memory device to enable the communication device to execute method according to any one of paragraphs. 14, 16-26. 30. Communication device containing a processor, a memory device, and a transceiver, wherein the transceiver is configured to receive a signal or transmit a signal, the memory device is configured to store instructions or a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the memory device to enable the communication device to execute method according to any one of paragraphs. 15-26. 31. Communication device containing an interface and a processor, wherein the interface is connected to the processor and the interface is configured to communicate with another communication device, and the processor is configured to execute a computer program to enable the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims. 14, 16-26. 32. Communication device containing an interface and a processor, wherein the interface is connected to the processor and the interface is configured to communicate with another communication device, and the processor is configured to execute a computer program to enable the communication device to perform the method of any one of claims. 15-26. 33. A machine-readable information storage medium that stores commands that cause, when the specified commands are executed, the implementation of the method according to any one of paragraphs. 14, 16-26. 34. A machine-readable information storage medium that stores commands that cause, when the specified commands are executed, the implementation of the method according to any one of claims. 15-26.