WO2019032148A1

WO2019032148A1 - Enhanced scheduling for wireless communications

Info

Publication number: WO2019032148A1
Application number: PCT/US2018/025568
Authority: WO
Inventors: Cheng Chen; Carlos Cordeiro; Carlos Aldana; Oren Kedem; Michael Glik; Kerstin Johnsson
Original assignee: Intel Ip Coproration
Priority date: 2017-08-08
Filing date: 2018-03-30
Publication date: 2019-02-14

Abstract

This disclosure describes methods, apparatus, and systems related to enhanced scheduling for wireless communications. A device may allocate one or more service periods for one or more resource allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI) of a beacon interval. The device may determine to set an indication in an extended schedule element to indicate a time division duplex (TDD) type of at least one of the one or more service periods. The device may determine a frame comprising the extended schedule element. The device may cause to send the frame to one or more station devices.

Description

ENHANCED SCHEDULING FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S

[0001] This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/542,688, filed August 8, 2017, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in full.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wireless communications and, more particularly, to enhanced scheduling for wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and are increasingly requesting access to wireless channels. Wireless devices in a communication network may improve transmissions through efficient operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] FIG. 1 depicts a network diagram illustrating an example network environment, according to one or more example embodiments of the disclosure.

[0005] FIG. 2 illustrates an enhanced millimeter Wave (mmWave) distribution network, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0006] FIG. 3 illustrates an enhanced scheduling structure for an mmWave distribution network, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0007] FIG. 4A depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for enhanced scheduling, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0008] FIG. 4B depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for enhanced scheduling, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0009] FIG. 5 depicts a functional diagram of an example communication station that may be suitable for use as a user device, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the disclosure.

[0010] FIG. 6 depicts a block diagram of an example machine upon which any of one or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0011] The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0012] A scheduling structure for a millimeter wave (mmWave) distribution and/or mesh network use case for the IEEE 802.1 lay standard may use several destination networks (DNs) and core networks (CNs) in a network. Each DN may maintain one or more communication links with one or more CNs and/or other DNs, while each CN may maintain a communication link to one DN.

[0013] Currently, there is no known way to signal and schedule time allocations, for the IEEE 802.1 lay and the new mmWave use case, using dedicated downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) time allocations.

[0014] Example embodiments described herein provide certain systems, methods, and devices for enhanced scheduling for wireless communication in various networks, including, but not limited to, the IEEE 802.11 ay standard.

[0015] In some demonstrative embodiments, an enhanced scheduling system may facilitate enhanced scheduling for dedicated allocations to be used in the mmWave distribution network and usage model of IEEE 802.1 lay.

[0016] In some demonstrative embodiments, an enhanced scheduling system may define one or more access protocols for dedicated time allocations between a DN and CNs or other DNs.

[0017] In some demonstrative embodiments, for a given DN that is already associated with a network, the DN may behave or may be mapped to an access point (AP), and may consider all associated CNs and other DNs as station devices (STAs).

[0018] In some demonstrative embodiments, from a medium access control (MAC) layer perspective, all communication may be regarded as an access point (AP)-STA relationship regardless of whether the transmissions are DN-CN or DN-DN.

[0019] In some demonstrative embodiments, an enhanced scheduling system may signal related information for each allocation. The enhanced scheduling system may determine a scheduling structure that may allocate a period of time that may be partitioned into one or more timeslots. The one or more timeslots may be allocated for uplink and/or downlink traffic. [0020] In one embodiment, an enhanced scheduling system may determine an access assignment that may be used after the AP determines the scheduling structure. The access assignment may determine how to map the one or more STAs to the one or more timeslots.

[0021] In one embodiment, an enhanced scheduling system may determine that a service period (SP) that may be allocated by a device may be made up of one or more time division duplex (TDD) intervals, and each of the TDD intervals may comprise one or more TDD slots. The one or more TDD slots may be allocated for downlink traffic or uplink traffic. The downlink traffic may be transmitted (TX) traffic from, for example, an AP or personal basic service set (PBSS) control point (PCP) to an STA, and the uplink traffic may be received (RX) traffic received by an STA from an AP or PCP.

[0022] In some demonstrative embodiments, an enhanced scheduling system may define and use new information elements and fields to address scheduling and access of dedicated allocations that may be used between nodes of the mmWave distribution network.

[0023] In one embodiment, an enhanced scheduling system may indicate in an extended schedule element whether a service period follows a conventional service period defined in 802.1 lad/ay or a service period (SP) with TDD channel access in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0024] In one embodiment, an enhanced scheduling system may facilitate that whenever an AP/PCP wants to schedule allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI), the AP/PCP may include the extended schedule element in one or more frames that may be sent to one or more STAs.

[0025] In one embodiment, an enhanced scheduling system may facilitate an indication of TDD channel access between one or more devices (e.g., AP/PCP or STA). During association with an AP/PCP, the STA and the AP/PCP may exchange, among other things, capability information. The capability information may be included in one or more types of frames in the form of information elements. For example, a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) capability information element may comprise an indication that may be used by the AP/PCP and the STA to indicate whether they support TDD channel access or not. If one of the APs/PCPs or an STA does not support TDD channel access, then the SP will be the conventional SP and not the SP with TDD channel access in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0026] In some demonstrative embodiments, an enhanced scheduling system may define related scheduling and access rules for the mmWave distribution network. [0027] In some demonstrative embodiments, an enhanced scheduling system may facilitate onboarding (e.g., discovery and association) of new CNs or DNs that join an mmWave distribution network.

[0028] The above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations, processes, etc., may exist, some of which are described in greater detail below. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures.

[0029] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environment, according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. Wireless network 100 may include one or more user device(s) 120 and one or more access point(s) (AP) 102, which may communicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 communication standards, such as IEEE 802.1 lay, IEEE 802.1 lad, millimeter- wave, and WiGig specifications. The user device(s) 120 may be mobile devices that are non-stationary and do not have fixed locations.

[0030] In some embodiments, the user device(s) 120 and AP 102 may include one or more computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram of FIG. 5 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 6.

[0031] One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may be operable by one or more user(s) 110. It should be noted that any addressable unit may be a station (STA). An STA may take on multiple distinct characteristics, each of which shape its function. For example, a single addressable unit might simultaneously be a portable STA, a quality-of- service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and the AP(s) 102 may be STAs. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may operate as a personal basic service set (PBSS) control point/access point (PCP/AP). The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/or AP(s) 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device including, but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile, e.g., a static, device. For example, user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may include, a user equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point (AP), a software enabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer (PC), a wearable wireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabook™ computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, an internet of things (IoT) device, a sensor device, a PDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular phone functionalities with PDA device functionalities), a consumer device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a PCS device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively small computing device, a non-desktop computer, a "carry small live large" (CSLL) device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC (UMPC), a mobile internet device (MID), an "origami" device or computing device, a device that supports dynamically composable computing (DCC), a context-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A/V device, a set-top-box (STB), a blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digital video disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVD recorder, a HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), a broadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, an audio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat panel display, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), a digital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier, a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera (DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, or the like. Other devices, including smart devices such as lamps, climate control, car components, household components, appliances, etc., may also be included in this list.

[0032] As used herein, the term "Internet of Things (IoT) device" is used to refer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has an addressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, a Bluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.) and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wired or wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communication interface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an active communication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, a transmitter-receiver, or the like. An IoT device can have a particular set of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether the IoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available for task execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, an environmental monitoring or recording function, a light-emitting function, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded in and/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to an IoT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example, IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators, toasters, ovens, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools, clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners, thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers, electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices are equipped with an addressable communications interface for communicating with the IoT network. IoT devices may also include cell phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the IoT network may be comprised of a combination of "legacy" Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop or desktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do not typically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

[0033] The user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may also include mesh stations in, for example, a mesh network, in accordance with one or more IEEE 802.11 standards and/or 3 GPP standards.

[0034] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP 102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one or more communications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. Any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include, but not limited to, any one of a combination of different types of suitable communications networks such as, for example, broadcasting networks, cable networks, public networks (e.g., the Internet), private networks, wireless networks, cellular networks, or any other suitable private and/or public networks. Further, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may have any suitable communication range associated therewith and may include, for example, global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), or personal area networks (PANs). In addition, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic may be carried including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communication mediums, white space communication mediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums, satellite communication mediums, or any combination thereof.

[0035] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP(s) 102 may include one or more communications antennas. The one or more communications antennas may be any suitable type of antennas corresponding to the communications protocols used by the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126 and 128) and AP(s) 102. Some non-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include Wi-Fi antennas, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards compatible antennas, directional antennas, non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, omnidirectional antennas, quasi- omnidirectional antennas, or the like. The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupled to a radio component to transmit and/or receive signals, such as communications signals to and/or from the user devices 120 and/or AP(s) 102. [0036] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/or directional reception in conjunction with wirelessly communicating in a wireless network. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform such directional transmission and/or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays (e.g., DMG antenna arrays or the like). Each of the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and/or reception in a particular respective direction or range of directions. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform any given directional transmission towards one or more defined transmit sectors. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

[0037] MIMO beamforming in a wireless network may be accomplished using RF beamforming and/or digital beamforming. In some embodiments, in performing a given MIMO transmission, user devices 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or more communications antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

[0038] Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP(s) 102 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver for transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in the bandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communications protocols utilized by any of the user device(s) 120 and AP(s) 102 to communicate with each other. The radio components may include hardware and/or software to modulate and/or demodulate communications signals according to pre-established transmission protocols. The radio components may further have hardware and/or software instructions to communicate via one or more Wi-Fi and/or Wi-Fi direct protocols, as standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards.

[0039] In certain example embodiments, the radio component, in cooperation with the communications antennas, may be configured to communicate via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g., 802.11b, 802.1 lg, 802.11η, 802.11ax), 5 GHz channels (e.g., 802.11η, 802.11ac, 802.1 lax), or 60 GHZ channels (e.g., 802.1 lad, 802.1 lay). 800 MHz channels (e.g., 802.1 lah). The communications antennas may operate at 28 GHz and 40 GHz. It should be understood that this list of communication channels in accordance with certain 802.11 standards is only a partial list and that other 802.11 standards may be used (e.g., Next Generation Wi-Fi, or other standards). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fi protocols may be used for communications between devices, such as Bluetooth, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), Ultra- High Frequency (UHF) (e.g., IEEE 802.1 laf, IEEE 802.22), white band frequency (e.g., white spaces), or other packetized radio communications. The radio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via the communications protocols. The radio component may further include a low noise amplifier (LNA), additional signal amplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers, and digital baseband.

[0040] An extended schedule element is an element entry in a beacon or an announce frame showing a schedule for a beacon interval. There may be one or more extended schedule element entries conveyed within a beacon or an announce frame.

[0041] This represents the amount of time between beacon transmissions. Before a station enters power save mode, the station needs the beacon interval to know when to wake up to receive the beacon (and learn whether there are buffered frames at the access point).

[0042] A beacon header interval (BHI) is a period of time that starts at the target beacon transmission time (TBTT) of a beacon interval of a directional multi-gigabit (DMG) basic service set (BSS) and that ends no later than the beginning of the data transfer interval (DTI) of the beacon interval. A beacon transmission interval (BTI) is a time interval between the start of the first DMG beacon frame transmission by a DMG station (STA) in a beacon interval to the end of the last DMG beacon frame transmission by the STA in the same beacon interval.

[0043] All the traffic would be scheduled and all the traffic is unidirectional. That is during a certain period of time the traffic is in a downlink direction and during a different period of time the traffic is in an uplink direction. The determination of when to have downlink traffic or uplink traffic is done by the AP. A new time division duplex (TDD) scheduling of periods of time that may be used for uplink and/or downlink traffic may be designed because it is different than the conventional use case of 802. Had and 802.1 lay.

[0044] An enhanced scheduling system may determine during which time which devices transmit to which device. The enhanced scheduling system may define access protocol.

[0045] Some demonstrative embodiments may be used in conjunction with a wireless communication network communicating over a frequency band of 60 GHz. However, other embodiments may be implemented utilizing any other suitable wireless communication frequency bands, for example, an extremely high frequency (EHF) band (the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band), e.g., a frequency band within the frequency band of between 20 GHz and 300 GHz, a WLAN frequency band, a WPAN frequency band, a frequency band according to the WGA specification, and the like.

[0046] The phrases "directional multi-gigabit" (DMG) and "directional band" (DBand), as used herein, may relate to a frequency band wherein the channel starting frequency is above 45 GHz. In one example, DMG communications may involve one or more directional links to communicate at a rate of multiple gigabits per second, for example, at least 1 gigabit per second, 7 gigabits per second, or any other rate.

[0047] In some demonstrative embodiments, the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more specifications, for example, including, one or more IEEE 802.11 specifications, e.g., an IEEE 802.11 ay specification, an IEEE 802.1 lad specification, and/or any other specification and/or protocol. For example, an amendment to a DMG operation in the 60 GHz band, e.g., according to an IEEE 802.1 lad standard, may be defined, for example, by an IEEE 802.11 ay project.

[0048] Some communications over a wireless communication band, for example, a DMG band, may be performed over a single channel bandwidth (BW). For example, the IEEE 802.1 lad specification defines a 60 GHz system with a single BW of 2.16 GHz, which is to be used by all STAs for both transmission and reception.

[0049] In some demonstrative embodiments, the AP 102 and/or the user devices 120 may be configured to implement one or more mechanisms, which may, for example, be able to extend a single-channel BW scheme, e.g., according to the IEEE 802. Had specification, for higher data rates and/or increased capabilities.

[0050] Some specifications, e.g., an IEEE 802.11 specification, may be configured to support a single user (SU) system, in which an STA cannot transmit frames to more than a single STA at a time. Such specifications may not be able, for example, to support an STA transmitting to multiple STAs simultaneously, for example, using an MU-MIMO scheme, e.g., a downlink (DL) MU-MIMO, or any other multi-user scheme.

[0051] In some demonstrative embodiments, the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 may be configured to implement one or more multi-user (MU) mechanisms. For example, the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 may be configured to implement one or more MU mechanisms, which may be configured to enable MU communication of downlink (DL) frames using an MIMO scheme, for example, between a device, e.g., AP 102, and a plurality of user devices, including the user device(s) 120 and/or one or more other devices.

[0052] In some demonstrative embodiments, the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 may be configured to communicate over a Next Generation 60 GHz (NG60) network, an Extended DMG (EDMG) network, and/or any other network. For example, the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 may be configured to communicate MIMO, e.g., DL MU-MIMO, transmissions and/or use channel bonding, for example, for communicating over the NG60 and/or EDMG networks. [0053] In some demonstrative embodiments, the user device(s) 120 the and/or AP 102 may be configured to support one or more mechanisms and/or features, for example, channel bonding, single user (SU) MIMO, and/or multi user (MU) MIMO, in accordance with an EDMG standard, an IEEE 802.11 ay standard, and/or any other standard and/or protocol.

[0054] In one embodiment, and with reference to FIG. 1, an initiator (e.g., AP 102) may be configured to communicate with one or more responders (e.g., non-AP STAs, such as user devices 120). It should be noted that an AP 102 may also be a PCP.

[0055] For example, in order for the AP 102 to establish communication with two devices (e.g., user device 124 and user device 128), the AP 102 may need to perform beamforming training with the user device 124 and the user device 128 using beams 104 and 106. The AP 102 may transmit one or more SSW frames over different antenna sectors defined by the one providing high signal quality between the AP 102 and the user device 124 and the user device 128.

[0056] In some demonstrative embodiments, an enhanced scheduling system may define one or more access protocols for dedicated time allocations between an AP 102 and one or more user devices 120.

[0057] In some demonstrative embodiments, an AP 102 may signal related information for each allocation to the one or more user devices 120. The AP 102 may determine a scheduling structure that may allocate a period of time that may be partitioned into one or more timeslots. The one or more timeslots may be allocated for uplink and/or downlink traffic.

[0058] In one embodiment, the AP 102 may determine an access assignment that may be used after the AP 102 determines the scheduling structure. The access assignment may determine how to map the one or more user devices 120 to the one or more timeslots.

[0059] In one embodiment, the AP 102 may determine that a service period (SP) that may be allocated may be made up of one or more time division duplex (TDD) intervals, and each of the TDD intervals may comprise one or more TDD slots. The one or more TDD slots may be allocated for downlink traffic or uplink traffic. The downlink traffic may be transmitted (TX) traffic from, for example, an AP 102 (or PCP) to an STA (e.g., a user device 120), and the uplink traffic may be received (RX) traffic received by an STA from an AP or PCP.

[0060] In some demonstrative embodiments, the AP 102 may use new information elements and fields to address scheduling and access of dedicated allocations that may be used between nodes of the mmWave distribution network.

[0061] In one embodiment, the AP 102 may indicate in an extended schedule element whether a service period follows a conventional service period defined in 802.1 lad/ay or an SP with TDD channel access. For example, whenever the AP 102 wants to schedule allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI), the AP 102 may include the extended schedule element in one or more frames that may be sent to the one or more user devices 120.

[0062] In one embodiment, the AP 102 may determine an indication of TDD channel access between one or more devices (e.g., the AP 102 or the user devices 120). During association with the AP 102, a user device 120 and the AP 102 may exchange, among other things, capability information. The capability information may be included in one or more types of frames in the form of information elements. For example, a DMG capability information element may comprise an indication that may be used by the AP 102 and the user device 120 to indicate whether they support TDD channel access or not. If one of the APs 102 or a user device 120 does not support TDD channel access, then the SP will be the conventional SP and not the SP with TDD channel access in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0063] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0064] FIG. 2 illustrates an enhanced mmWave distribution network 200, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0065] In the mmWave distribution network 200, there may be several destination networks (DNs) (e.g., APs/PCPs) and core networks (CNs) (e.g., STAs).

[0066] Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown two DNs (e.g., DN 202 and DN 204) which may be in communication with each other and/or with the CNs (e.g., CNs 220, 222, 224, 226, 228, and 230).

[0067] Each DN may maintain communication links with multiple CNs and other DNs. For example, the DN 202 may have communication links with CN 220, CN 222, CN 224, and the DN 204. The communication between any two nodes may be performed in dedicated downlink and uplink time allocations.

[0068] FIG. 3 illustrates an enhanced scheduling structure 300 for an mmWave distribution network, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0069] Referring to FIG. 3, there is a shown a beacon interval 302 that may be comprised of a beacon header interval (BHI) 304 and a data transmission interval (DTI) 306. The BHI 304 comprises a beacon time interval (BTI), an association beamforming training (A-BFT) interval, and an announcement transmission interval (ATI). The DTI 306 may be comprised of a contention based access period (CBAP 1) 308, a first service period (SP 1) 310, a second service period (SP 2) 312, and a second CBAP 2 313. The SP 2 312 may be an enhanced SP, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. Although this example shows that there are four allocation periods (e.g., CBAP 1 308, SP 1 310, SP 2 312, and CBAP 2 313), the AP may allocate additional allocation periods as needed. In addition, each of these allocation periods may be indicated in the allocation control field of an extended schedule element.

[0070] In one or more embodiments, the existing 802.11ad and 802.11ay scheduling framework may be used as a basis for enhanced scheduling.

[0071] In one or more embodiments, a new enhanced type of SP (e.g., SP 2 312) may be defined with time division data (TDD) access and may be dedicated to mmWave distribution networks where the AP and STAs may perform downlink and uplink communications. For example, the SP 2 312 may comprise one or more TDD intervals 314, where each of the one or more TDD intervals 314 may be comprised of two groups of TDD slots (e.g., TDD slots 316 and TDD slots 318). The TDD slots 316 may be simplex transmit (TX) TDD slots and the TDD slots 318 may be simplex receive (RX) TDD slots. That is, the one or more of the TDD slots 316 may be used to send downlink data from an AP/PCP to one or more STAs while the TDD slots 318 may be used to send uplink data from one or more STAs to an AP/PCP. The TDD slots 316 may include N TDD slots, where N is a positive integer. The TDD slots 318 may include M TDD slots, where M is a positive integer. In essence, the TDD slots 316 and the TDD slots 318 include uplink and downlink TDD slots that may be used by the AP/PCP and/or one or more STAs. Further, there may be a time gap between each pair of TDD slots (e.g., gaps 320, 322, and 324). These time gaps may be added between the TDD slots as guard gaps to prevent interference between two consecutive TDD slots. These gaps may have equal time durations or may vary based on the type of TDD slot. For example, the gap 322 between a TX TDD slot and an RX TDD slot may be the same as the gap 320 or may be different. This may also be configurable by the network and/or by the system administrator. Further, at the beginning and end of the list of TDD slots, there may be a gap 326 and a gap 328 respectively. These beginning and end gaps may also be the same as the gaps between two consecutive TDD slots or may be different based on implementation.

[0072] In one or more embodiments, in order to advertise the new type of SP allocation, new information elements and fields may be used to address scheduling and access of dedicated allocations that may be used between nodes (e.g., the AP/PCP and STAs).

[0073] In one or more embodiments, a new enhanced type of SP allocation (e.g., SP 2 312) may be scheduled by an extended schedule element, and may have a unique indication bit so that the SP allocation can be differentiated from a conventional SP (e.g., SP 1 310) as defined, for example, by 802.1 lad or 802.1 lay. An extended schedule element is an element entry in a beacon or an announce frame showing a schedule for a beacon interval. There may be one or more extended schedule element entries conveyed within a beacon or an announce frame. The extended schedule element may be comprised of one or more subfields. For example, whenever an AP wants to schedule allocation, it will have to include an extended schedule element in a frame such as a beacon frame or an announce frame or any frame used for conveying allocation. The AP would send a frame, either unidirectionally or as a broadcast frame, to one or more user devices The extended schedule element may contain an element ID field, a length field, and one or more allocation fields. Each of the one or more allocation fields may contain an allocation control subfield, and an allocation block duration. For example, the allocation control subfield shown in Table 1.

[0074] Table 1: Allocation Control Subfield Format:

[0075] In one or more embodiments, when the Allocation Type subfield is 00, indicating that there is an SP allocation, one of the four reserved bits in an allocation control subfield of Table 1 may be set to indicate that the allocated SP is a new type of SP dedicated to a distribution mmWave network use case. This bit may be labeled as "SP with TDD Channel Access" in the allocation control subfield of Table 1.

[0076] In one or more embodiments, the SP with TDD Channel Access subfield may be included in the extended schedule element. The subfield may indicate whether a scheduled SP is the new enhanced SP with TDD channel access based on the value set in that subfield (e.g., either a 0 or a 1). If the SP with TDD Channel Access subfield is 0, it may indicate a conventional SP (e.g., SP 1 310). If the SP with TDD Channel Access subfield is set to 1, it may indicate a new enhanced type of SP allocation with TDD (e.g., SP 2 312).

[0077] In one or more embodiments, in the enhanced SP (e.g., SP 2 312), a TDD slot scheduling structure may be dedicated to address a distribution mmWave use case, and the associated channel access rules may be used.

[0078] In one or more embodiments, the maximum duration for an SP allocation may be about 32 ms, while the AP may attempt to allocate an entire DTI to the new enhanced SP type to address the new mmWave use case. [0079] In one or more embodiments, the duration resolution of the field "Allocation Block Duration" for the new SP type may be changed. In some embodiments, when the indication bit "SP with TDD Channel Access" is set to 1, the bit may indicate not only that the SP is using the TDD channel access, but also that a resolution of the field "Allocation Block Duration" may no longer be measured in microseconds.

[0080] In one or more embodiments, the new enhanced type of SP with TDD channel access scheduled by the AP may include several identical TDD intervals (e.g., TDD intervals 314), each of which may include consecutive downlink TDD slots (e.g., slots 316) and uplink TDD slots (e.g., slots 318) that may be dedicated to transmissions with one or more STAs.

[0081] In one or more embodiments, the number of downlink and uplink TDD slots in each TDD slot may be configured, as well as the duration of each specific TDD slot.

[0082] In one or more embodiments, once the number of downlink/uplink TDD slots and their durations are known, the duration of one TDD slot may be determined. Knowing the total duration of the SP with TDD channel access, the total number of TDD slots in the SP with TDD channel access may be determined.

[0083] In one or more embodiments, a new enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) slot structure information element shown in Table 2 may address slot scheduling. The EDMG slot structure information element may define the specific structure of a TDD slot, and within the allocated SP (e.g., with TDD channel access), the TDD slot may be repeated until the end of the SP. In essence, an STA that receives either a beacon frame or an announce frame may need to identify or otherwise decode the extended schedule element. The STA may need to determine based on that if and where the SP with TDD channel access is set to 1 indicating that in SP is an enhanced SP. Therefore, the STA would need to understand the structure of this enhanced SP.

[0084] In one or more embodiments, the EDMG Slot Structure Information Element in Table 2 may address the scheduling structure of the TDD slot that may be used by the AP and the STAs in an mmWave distribution network. The transmission of the EDMG Slot Structure Information Element may be broadcast (e.g., included in a beacon frame) or sent unidirectionally to one STA using an announce frame to address slot scheduling. The presence of the EDMG Slot Structure Information Element in a beacon or announce frame may indicate that the scheduling is for a new mmWave distribution network usage. Table 2 shows an EDMG Slot Structure Information Element, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. The EDMG Slot Structure Information Element may comprise at least one of an element ID field, a length field, an element ID extension field, an SP start time field, a TDD slot schedule control field, and a TDD slot schedule field.

[0085] Table 2: EDMG Slot Structure Information Element Format:

[0086] In one or more embodiments, the SP Start Time field may indicate the lower order four octets of a time synchronization factor (TSF) timer at the start of the first effective SP for scheduling defined by the EDMG Slot Structure Information Element.

[0087] In one or more embodiments, the TDD Slot Schedule Control field may include control information for the slot scheduling.

[0088] In one or more embodiments, the TDD Slot Schedule field may include scheduling information of downlink and uplink TDD slots in each TDD slot. Values M and N may correspond to a value of subfields, the number of downlink TDD slots and the number of uplink TDD slots, respectively.

[0089] Table 3 shows one example of an enhanced TDD Slot Schedule Control field, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0090] Table 3: TDD Slot Schedule Control field format:

[0091] In one or more embodiments, the number of DL/UL TDD slots per TDD slot may indicate the number of DL/UL TDD slots present in each TDD slot. Although Table 3 shows that the number of DL/UL TDD slots per TDD interval is equal to 3, making M and N equal to each other, this is merely an example and that any other values of M and N may be used. Such values may be configurable by the network and/or by the system administrator.

[0092] Table 4 shows an enhanced TDD Slot Schedule field format, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure. [0093] Table 4: TDD Slot Schedule field format:

[0094] In one or more embodiments, a DL/UL TDD slot i Duration subfield, where i is a positive integer between 1 an N or M, may indicate a duration, in microseconds, of DL/UL TDD slot i scheduled in a respective TDD slot.

[0095] In one or more embodiments, an access protocol of DL and UL TDD slots for an STA may operate in a master-slave relationship.

[0096] In one or more embodiments, an STA may only be allowed to communicate with the AP in a DL/UL TDD slot where it may be scheduled by the AP, which may be indicated by an access assignment.

[0097] In one or more embodiments, in each assigned DL/UL TDD slot, the access type may be either simplex or half-duplex. If set to simplex, the STAs may receive traffic from the AP in a DL TDD slot, and may transmit traffic to the AP in a UL TDD slot (e.g., one-direction traffic). If set to half-duplex, the STAs may perform bidirectional communication with the AP in the DL/UL TDD slot, such as beamforming training, association, announce frame exchanges (e.g., transactions that need responses such as acknowledgment frames).

[0098] Table 5 shows an EDMG Bitmap Schedule Information Element format, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0099] In one or more embodiments, a new EDMG Bitmap Schedule Information Element may address signaling. The EDMG Bitmap Schedule Information Element may be included in an association response frame or an announce frame that may be sent from an AP to an STA. The bitmap may indicate an access assignment along with an access type for an STA in all DL and UL TDD slots. For each specific STA, the transmission of this information element may be unicast.

[0100] Table 5: EDMG Bitmap Schedule Information Element format.

[0101] Table 6 shows an enhanced Bitmap Schedule Control field format, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the disclosure.

[0102] Table 6: Bitmap Schedule Control field format.

[0103] In one or more embodiments, a Bitmap Schedule Control field may include bitmap information for an access assignment and access type of DL and UL TDD slots for an STA. Two bits may be used to identify an access assignment along with an access type of a given TDD slot. For example, 00 may indicate no assignment; 10 may indicate an assigned simplex; 11 may indicate an assigned half-duplex; and 01 may indicate a reserved value.

[0104] In one or more embodiments, Channel Aggregation and Bandwidth (BW) subfields may specify the channel(s) over which an allocation is scheduled.

[0105] In one or more embodiments, a TDD Slot Start Time subfield may indicate the time in microseconds between TSF 0 and a start of the first TDD slot for bitmap scheduling defined by the EDMG bitmap schedule IE to take effect.

[0106] In one or more embodiments, the Number of Assigned TDD Slots subfield may indicate a number of TDD slots in which an STA is assigned following the TDD Slot Start Time.

[0107] In one or more embodiments, communication between the AP and STAs may require the STAs to first enable communication with the AP. Otherwise, the STAs may not be able to be scheduled in the DL/UL TDD slots allocated by the AP. As a result, discovery and association of new STAs may be addressed.

[0108] In one or more embodiments, unassociated STAs may perform beamforming first with an AP in a conventional contention-based access period (CBAP)/SP scheduled by the AP to enable a communication link with the AP. Then, the STAs may execute association procedures with the AP in the remaining CBAP/SP, or in scheduled half-duplex TDD slots after receiving the access assignment information from the AP. It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0109] FIG. 4 A illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process 400 for an illustrative enhanced scheduling system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [0110] At block 402, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1) may allocate one or more service periods for one or more resource allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI) of a beacon interval. For example, an AP 102 may signal related information for each allocation to the one or more user devices 120. The AP 102 may determine a scheduling structure that may allocate a period of time that may be partitioned into one or more timeslots. The one or more timeslots may be allocated for uplink and/or downlink traffic. The AP 102 may determine an access assignment that may be used after the AP 102 determines the scheduling structure. The access assignment may determine how to map the one or more user devices 120 to the one or more timeslots.

[0111] At block 404, the device may determine to set an indication in an extended schedule element to indicate a time division duplex (TDD) type of at least one of the one or more service periods. For example, the AP 102 may determine an indication of TDD channel access between one or more devices (e.g., the AP 102 or the user devices 120). The AP 102 may indicate in an extended schedule element whether a service period follows the conventional service period defined in 802.1 lad/ay or an SP with TDD channel access.

[0112] At block 406, the device may determine a frame comprising the extended schedule element. For example, whenever the AP 102 wants to schedule allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI), the AP 102 may include the extended schedule element in one or more frames that may be sent to the one or more user devices 120. An extended schedule element is an element entry in a beacon or an announce frame showing a schedule for a beacon interval. There may be one or more extended schedule element entries conveyed within a beacon or an announce frame. The extended schedule element may be comprised of one or more subfields. For example, the extended schedule element may contain an allocation control subfield shown in Table 1. When the allocation type subfield is 00, indicating that there is an SP allocation, one of the four reserved bits in an allocation control subfield of Table 1 may be set to indicate that the allocated SP is a new type of SP dedicated to a distribution mmWave network use case. This bit may be labeled as SP with TDD Channel Access in the allocation control subfield of Table 1. The SP with a TDD Channel Access subfield may be included in the extended schedule element. The subfield may indicate whether a scheduled SP is the new enhanced SP with TDD channel access based on the value set in that subfield (e.g., either a 0 or a 1). If the SP with TDD Channel Access subfield is 0, it may indicate a conventional SP. If the SP with TDD Channel Access subfield is set to 1, it may indicate a new enhanced type of SP allocation with the TDD. [0113] At block 408, the device may cause to send the frame to one or more station devices. For example, whenever an AP wants to schedule an allocation, it will have to include an extended schedule element in a frame such as a beacon frame or an announce frame or any frame used for conveying allocation. The AP would send a frame, either unidirectionally or as a broadcast frame, to one or more user devices 120.

[0114] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0115] FIG. 4B illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process 450 for an illustrative enhanced scheduling system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0116] At block 452, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1) may identify a frame received from an access point. For example, the frame may be any type of management frame such as a beacon frame, an announce frame, or an association response frame. The frame may be used to notify a user device 120 that the AP 102 has allocated one or more service periods that may be used for transmissions. For example, one of the service periods may be a new TDD scheduling of periods of time that may be used for uplink and/or downlink traffic because it is different than the conventional use case of 802.1 lad and 802. Hay. For example, during a beacon interval, the AP may have defined a data transmission interval (DTI) to be used for data transmission. The DTI may be made up of one or more service periods (e.g., CBAP, SP, a new SP for TDD access).

[0117] At block 454, the device may identify an extended schedule element included in the frame, wherein the extended schedule element comprises an indication of a time division duplex (TDD) service period for one or more service periods. For example, the user device may decode the frame that was received from the AP 102 and extract an extended schedule element. The extended schedule element may contain an indication of TDD channel access between one or more devices (e.g., the AP 102 or the user devices 120). The indication may indicate whether a service period follows a conventional service period defined in 802.1 lad/ay or an SP with TDD channel access. An extended schedule element is an element entry in a beacon or an announce frame showing a schedule for a beacon interval. There may be one or more extended schedule element entries conveyed within a beacon or an announce frame. The extended schedule element may be comprised of one or more subfields. For example, the extended schedule element may contain an allocation control subfield shown in Table 1. When the allocation type subfield is 00, indicating that there is an SP allocation, one of the four reserved bits in an allocation control subfield of Table 1 may be set to indicate that the allocated SP is a new type of SP dedicated to a distribution mmWave network use case. This bit may be labeled as SP with TDD Channel Access in the allocation control subfield of Table 1. The SP with TDD Channel Access subfield may be included in the extended schedule element. The subfield may indicate whether a scheduled SP is the new enhanced SP with TDD channel access based on the value set in that subfield (e.g., either a 0 or a 1). If the SP with TDD Channel Access subfield is 0, it may indicate a conventional SP. If the SP with TDD Channel Access subfield is set to 1, it may indicate a new enhanced type of SP allocation with the TDD.

[0118] At block 456, the device may cause to send an uplink frame in at least one TDD slot of the TDD service period to the access point. Based on the information received in the frame, the user device 120 may determine when it can send its uplink data. For example, the user device 120 may identify that the new enhanced type of SP with TDD channel access scheduled by the AP includes several identical TDD intervals, each of which may include consecutive DL TDD slots and UL TDD slots as shown in FIG. 3. The user device 120 may only be allowed to communicate with the AP 102 in a DL/UL TDD slot where it may be scheduled by the AP 102, which may be indicated by an access assignment. For example, for each assigned DL/UL TDD slot, the access type may be either simplex or half-duplex. If set to simplex, the user device 120 may receive traffic from the AP 102 in a DL TDD slot, and may transmit traffic to the AP 102 in a UL TDD slot (e.g., one-direction traffic). If set to half-duplex, the user device on 120 may perform bidirectional communication with the AP 102 in the DL/UL TDD slot, such as beamforming training, association, announce frame exchanges (e.g., transactions that need responses such as acknowledgment frames). The AP 102 may determine an EDMG Bitmap Schedule Information Element format. This new EDMG Bitmap Schedule Information Element may address signaling. The EDMG Bitmap Schedule Information Element may be included in an association response frame or an announce frame that may be sent from an AP 102 to one or more user devices 120. The bitmap may indicate an access assignment along with an access type for a user device 120 in all DL and UL TDD slots. For each specific user device 120, the transmission of this information element may be unicast.

[0119] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0120] FIG. 5 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station 500 in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, FIG. 5 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as an AP 102 (FIG. 1) or user device 120 (FIG. 1) in accordance with some embodiments. The communication station 500 may also be suitable for use as a handheld device, a mobile device, a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a wearable computer device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device.

[0121] The communication station 500 may include communications circuitry 502 and a transceiver 510 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from other communication stations using one or more antennas 501. The transceiver 510 may be a device comprising both a transmitter and a receiver that are combined and share common circuitry (e.g., communication circuitry 502). The communications circuitry 502 may include amplifiers, filters, mixers, analog to digital and/or digital to analog converters. The transceiver 510 may transmit and receive analog or digital signals. The transceiver 510 may allow reception of signals during transmission periods. This mode is known as full-duplex, and may require the transmitter and receiver to operate on different frequencies to minimize interference between the transmitted signal and the received signal. The transceiver 510 may operate in a half-duplex mode, where the transceiver 510 may transmit or receive signals in one direction at a time.

[0122] The communications circuitry 502 may include circuitry that can operate the physical layer (PHY) communications and/or media access control (MAC) communications for controlling access to the wireless medium, and/or any other communications layers for transmitting and receiving signals. The communication station 500 may also include processing circuitry 506 and memory 508 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the communications circuitry 502 and the processing circuitry 506 may be configured to perform operations detailed in detailed in FIGs. 1-4.

[0123] In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 502 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames or packets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communications circuitry 502 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. The communications circuitry 502 may also include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 506 of the communication station 500 may include one or more processors. In other embodiments, two or more antennas 501 may be coupled to the communications circuitry 502 arranged for sending and receiving signals. The memory 508 may store information for configuring the processing circuitry 506 to perform operations for configuring and transmitting message frames and performing the various operations described herein. The memory 508 may include any type of memory, including non-transitory memory, for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, the memory 508 may include a computer-readable storage device, read-only memory (ROM), random- access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices and other storage devices and media.

[0124] In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computer device, or another device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly.

[0125] In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one or more antennas 501. The antennas 501 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna with multiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture may be considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated for spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result between each of the antennas and the antennas of a transmitting station.

[0126] In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one or more of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touch screen.

[0127] Although the communication station 500 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements of the communication station 500 may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0128] Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media. In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device memory.

[0129] FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 600 or system upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments, the machine 600 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 600 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 600 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environments. The machine 600 may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device, a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer cluster configurations.

[0130] Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations when operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardware may be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurable execution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computer readable medium containing instructions where the instructions configure the execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation. The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units or a loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units are communicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium when the device is operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member of more than one module. For example, under operation, the execution units may be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a first module at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set of instructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

[0131] The machine (e.g., computer system) 600 may include a hardware processor 602 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 604 and a static memory 606, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 608. The machine 600 may further include a power management device 632, a graphics display device 610, an alphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 614 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the graphics display device 610, alphanumeric input device 612, and UI navigation device 614 may be a touch screen display. The machine 600 may additionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 616, a signal generation device 618 (e.g., a speaker), an enhanced scheduling device 619, a network interface device/transceiver 620 coupled to antenna(s) 630, and one or more sensors 628, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 600 may include an output controller 634, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, a card reader, etc.)).

[0132] The storage device 616 may include a machine readable medium 622 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 624 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 624 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 604, within the static memory 606, or within the hardware processor 602 during execution thereof by the machine 600. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 602, the main memory 604, the static memory 606, or the storage device 616 may constitute machine-readable media.

[0133] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may carry out or perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., the processes 400 and 450) described and shown above. For example, the enhanced scheduling device 619 may be configured to facilitate enhanced scheduling for dedicated allocations to be used in the mmWave distribution network and usage model of IEEE 802. Hay. [0134] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may define one or more access protocols for dedicated time allocations between a destination network (DN) and core networks (CNs) or other DNs.

[0135] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may be configured to facilitate that for a given DN that is already associated with a network, the DN may behave or may be mapped to an access point (AP), and may consider all associated CNs and other DNs as station devices (STAs).

[0136] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may be configured to facilitate that for a medium access control (MAC) layer perspective, all communication may be regarded as an AP-STA relationship regardless of whether the transmissions are DN-CN or DN-DN.

[0137] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may signal related information for each allocation. The enhanced scheduling system may determine a scheduling structure that may allocate a period of time that may be partitioned into one or more timeslots. The one or more timeslots may be allocated for uplink and/or downlink traffic.

[0138] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may determine an access assignment that may be used after the AP determines the scheduling structure. The access assignment may determine how to map the one or more STAs to the one or more timeslots.

[0139] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may determine that a service period (SP) that may be allocated by a device may be made up of one or more time division duplex (TDD) intervals, and each of the TDD intervals may comprise one or more TDD slots. The one or more TDD slots may be allocated for downlink traffic or uplink traffic. The downlink traffic may be transmitted (TX) traffic from, for example, an AP or PCP to an STA, and the uplink traffic may be received (RX) traffic received by an STA from an AP or PCP.

[0140] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may define and use new information elements and fields to address scheduling and access of dedicated allocations that may be used between nodes of the mmWave distribution network.

[0141] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may indicate in an extended schedule element whether a service period follows a conventional service period defined in 802.1 lad/ay or an SP with TDD channel access in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0142] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may facilitate that whenever an AP/PCP wants to schedule allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI), the AP/PCP may include the extended schedule element in one or more frames that may be sent to one or more STAs. [0143] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may facilitate an indication of TDD channel access between one or more devices (e.g., AP/PCP or STA). During association with an AP/PCP, the STA and the AP/PCP may exchange, among other things, capability information. The capability information may be included in one or more types of frames in the form of information elements. For example, a DMG capability information element may comprise an indication that may be used by the AP/PCP and the STA to indicate whether they support TDD channel access or not. If one of the APs/PCPs or an STA does not support TDD channel access, then the SP will be the conventional SP and not the SP with TDD channel access in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0144] The enhanced scheduling device 619 may define related scheduling and access rules for the mmWave distribution network.

[0145] It is understood that the above are only a subset of what the enhanced scheduling device 619 may be configured to perform and that other functions included throughout this disclosure may also be performed by the enhanced scheduling device 619.

[0146] While the machine-readable medium 622 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "machine-readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 624.

[0147] Various embodiments may be implemented fully or partially in software and/or firmware. This software and/or firmware may take the form of instructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Those instructions may then be read and executed by one or more processors to enable performance of the operations described herein. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as but not limited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readable medium may include any tangible non-transitory medium for storing information in a form readable by one or more computers, such as but not limited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; a flash memory, etc.

[0148] The term "machine-readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 600 and that cause the machine 600 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examples may include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. In an example, a massed machine -readable medium includes a machine-readable medium with a plurality of particles having resting mass. Specific examples of massed machine -readable media may include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD- ROM disks.

[0149] The instructions 624 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 626 using a transmission medium via the network interface device/transceiver 620 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communications networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), plain old telephone (POTS) networks, wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 620 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 626. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 620 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple- output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 600 and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of such software. The operations and processes described and shown above may be carried out or performed in any suitable order as desired in various implementations. Additionally, in certain implementations, at least a portion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore, in certain implementations, less than or more than the operations described may be performed.

[0150] The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. The terms "computing device," "user device," "communication station," "station," "handheld device," "mobile device," "wireless device" and "user equipment" (UE) as used herein refers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, a printer, a point of sale device, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device. The device may be either mobile or stationary.

[0151] As used within this document, the term "communicate" is intended to include transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving. This may be particularly useful in claims when describing the organization of data that is being transmitted by one device and received by another, but only the functionality of one of those devices is required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchange of data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive during the exchange) may be described as "communicating," when only the functionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term "communicating" as used herein with respect to a wireless communication signal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/or receiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wireless communication unit, which is capable of communicating a wireless communication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit the wireless communication signal to at least one other wireless communication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receive the wireless communication signal from at least one other wireless communication unit.

[0152] As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinal adjectives "first," "second," "third," etc., to describe a common object, merely indicates that different instances of like objects are being referred to and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

[0153] The term "access point" (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. An access point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station, an evolved node B (eNodeB), or some other similar terminology known in the art. An access terminal may also be called a mobile station, user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similar terminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein generally pertain to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wireless networks that operate in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

[0154] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices and systems, for example, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, an onboard device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehicular device, a non- vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumer device, a non- mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communication station, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP), a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device, an audio device, an audio- video (A/V) device, a wired or wireless network, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal area network (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

[0155] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-way radio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communication systems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, a personal communication system (PCS) device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable global positioning system (GPS) device, a device which incorporates a GPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFID element or chip, a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver or device, a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) transceiver or device, a multiple-input single-output (MISO) transceiver or device, a device having one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, digital video broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi- standard radio devices or systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a smartphone, a wireless application protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

[0156] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types of wireless communication signals and/or systems following one or more wireless communication protocols, for example, radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM (OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access (TDM A), extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS), extended GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi- tone (DMT), Bluetooth®, global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra- wideband (UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3 GPP, long term evolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), or the like. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices, systems, and/or networks.

[0157] Example 1 may include a device comprising memory and processing circuitry configured to: allocate one or more service periods for one or more resource allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI) of a beacon interval; determine an extended schedule element, the extended schedule element comprising an indication of a time division duplex (TDD) type of at least one of the one or more service periods; determine a frame comprising the extended schedule element; and cause to send the frame to one or more station devices.

[0158] Example 2 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods may be associated with an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) channel access.

[0159] Example 3 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods comprises one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots.

[0160] Example 4 may include the device of example 3 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first set of TDD slots may be allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots may be allocated for uplink traffic.

[0161] Example 5 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein two consecutive TDD slots are separated by a time gap.

[0162] Example 6 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the one or more service periods comprise at least one of a contention based service period, a scheduled service period, or a TDD service period.

[0163] Example 7 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to set a service period allocation subfield in the extended schedule element to a first value, wherein the first value indicates a service period with TDD channel access.

[0164] Example 8 may include the device of example 7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the service period allocation subfield may be included in an allocation control field of the extended schedule element.

[0165] Example 9 may include the device of example 7 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first value may be set to "1" to indicate a service period with TDD channel access.

[0166] Example 10 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first value may be set to "0" to indicate a scheduled service period.

[0167] Example 11 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to determine an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) slot structure information element indicating a scheduling structure of a TDD slot.

[0168] Example 12 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. [0169] Example 13 may include the device of example 12 and/or some other example herein, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver.

[0170] Example 14 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising: identify a frame received from an access point; identify an extended schedule element included in the frame, wherein the extended schedule element comprises an indication of a time division duplex (TDD) service period one or more service periods; and cause to send an uplink frame in at least one TDD slot of the TDD service period to the access point.

[0171] Example 15 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein the frame may be one of a beacon frame or an announce frame.

[0172] Example 16 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD service period may be comprised of one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots.

[0173] Example 17 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 16 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first set of TDD slots may be allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots may be allocated for uplink traffic.

[0174] Example 18 may include a method comprising: allocating, by one or more processors, one or more service periods for one or more resource allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI) of a beacon interval; determining an extended schedule element, the extended schedule element comprising an indication of a time division duplex (TDD) type of at least one of the one or more service periods; determining a frame comprising the extended schedule element; and causing to send the frame to one or more station devices.

[0175] Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods may be associated with an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) channel access.

[0176] Example 20 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods comprises one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots. [0177] Example 21 may include the method of example 20 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first set of TDD slots may be allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots may be allocated for uplink traffic.

[0178] Example 22 may include an apparatus comprising means for: allocating, by one or more processors, one or more service periods for one or more resource allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI) of a beacon interval; determining an extended schedule element, the extended schedule element comprising an indication of a time division duplex (TDD) type of at least one of the one or more service periods; determining a frame comprising the extended schedule element; and causing to send the frame to one or more station devices.

[0179] Example 23 may include the apparatus of example 22 and/or some other example herein, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods may be associated with an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) channel access.

[0180] Example 24 may include the apparatus of example 22 and/or some other example herein, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods comprises one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots.

[0181] Example 25 may include the apparatus of example 24 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first set of TDD slots may be allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots may be allocated for uplink traffic.

[0182] Example 26 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-25, or any other method or process described herein.

[0183] Example 27 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-25, or any other method or process described herein.

[0184] Example 28 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-25, or portions or parts thereof.

[0185] Example 29 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-25, or portions thereof. [0186] Example 30 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0187] Example 31 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0188] Example 32 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0189] Embodiments according to the disclosure are in particular disclosed in the attached claims directed to a method, a storage medium, a device and a computer program product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claim category, e.g., method, can be claimed in another claim category, e.g., system, as well. The dependencies or references back in the attached claims are chosen for formal reasons only. However, any subject matter resulting from a deliberate reference back to any previous claims (in particular multiple dependencies) can be claimed as well, so that any combination of claims and the features thereof are disclosed and can be claimed regardless of the dependencies chosen in the attached claims. The subject- matter which can be claimed comprises not only the combinations of features as set out in the attached claims but also any other combination of features in the claims, wherein each feature mentioned in the claims can be combined with any other feature or combination of other features in the claims. Furthermore, any of the embodiments and features described or depicted herein can be claimed in a separate claim and/or in any combination with any embodiment or feature described or depicted herein or with any of the features of the attached claims.

[0190] The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

[0191] Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference to block and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or computer program products according to various implementations. It will be understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flow diagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executable program instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the order presented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, according to some implementations.

[0192] These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto a special- purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage media or memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage media produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certain implementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising a computer- readable storage medium having a computer-readable program code or program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements or steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks.

[0193] Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose, hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, or combinations of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

[0194] Conditional language, such as, among others, "can," "could," "might," or "may," unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain implementations could include, while other implementations do not include, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or operations are in any way required for one or more implementations or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to be performed in any particular implementation. [0195] Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forth herein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to the specific implementations disclosed and that modifications and other implementations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A device, the device comprising memory and processing circuitry configured to:

allocate one or more service periods for one or more resource allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI) of a beacon interval;

determine an extended schedule element, the extended schedule element

comprising an indication of a time division duplex (TDD) type of at least one of the one or more service periods;

determine a frame comprising the extended schedule element; and

cause to send the frame to one or more station devices.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods is associated with an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) channel access.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods comprises one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the first set of TDD slots is allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots is allocated for uplink traffic.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein two consecutive TDD slots are separated by a time gap.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more service periods comprise at least one of a contention based service period, a scheduled service period, or a TDD service period.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to set a service period allocation subfield in the extended schedule element to a first value, wherein the first value indicates a service period with TDD channel access.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the service period allocation subfield is included in an allocation control field of the extended schedule element.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein the first value is set to "1" to indicate a service period with TDD channel access.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the first value is set to "0" to indicate a scheduled service period.

11. The device of any one of claims 1-10, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to determine an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) slot structure information element indicating a scheduling structure of a TDD slot.

12. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

13. The device of claim 12, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising: identify a frame received from an access point;

identify an extended schedule element included in the frame, wherein the extended schedule element comprises an indication of a time division duplex (TDD) service period one or more service periods; and

cause to send an uplink frame in at least one TDD slot of the TDD service period to the access point.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the frame is one of a beacon frame or an announce frame.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of claims 14-15, wherein the TDD service period is comprised of one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first set of TDD slots is allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots is allocated for uplink traffic.

18. A method comprising:

allocating, by one or more processors, one or more service periods for one or more resource allocations during a data transmission interval (DTI) of a beacon interval;

determining an extended schedule element, the extended schedule element

determining a frame comprising the extended schedule element; and

causing to send the frame to one or more station devices.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods is associated with an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) channel access.

20. The method of any one of claims 18-19, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods comprises one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first set of TDD slots is allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots is allocated for uplink traffic.

22. An apparatus comprising means for:

determining an extended schedule element, the extended schedule element

determining a frame comprising the extended schedule element; and

causing to send the frame to one or more station devices.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods is associated with an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) channel access.

24. The apparatus of any one of claims 22-23, wherein the at least one of the one or more service periods comprises one or more TDD intervals, the one or more TDD intervals comprising a first set of TDD slots and a second set of TDD slots.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the first set of TDD slots is allocated for downlink traffic and the second set of TDD slots is allocated for uplink traffic.