WO2019070746A1

WO2019070746A1 - Beamforming and link establishment for time division duplex networks

Info

Publication number: WO2019070746A1
Application number: PCT/US2018/054010
Authority: WO
Inventors: Tom Harel; Oren Kedem; Cheng Chen; Carlos Cordeiro; Michael Glik
Original assignee: Intel IP Corporation
Priority date: 2017-10-02
Filing date: 2018-10-02
Publication date: 2019-04-11
Also published as: DE112018005551T5

Abstract

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and devices related to beamforming and link establishment. A device may determine a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information. The device may determine a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of the initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots. The device may cause to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector. The device may cause to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector. The device may identify beamforming feedback information, from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frame.

Description

BEAMFORMING AND LINK ESTABLISHMENT FOR TIME DIVISION DUPLEX

NETWORKS

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/527,039, filed October 2, 2017, U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/581,509, filed November 3, 2017, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/610,813, filed December 27, 2017, all disclosures of which are 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 beamforming and link establishment.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and are increasingly requesting access to wireless channels. The growing density of wireless deployments requires increased network and spectrum availability. Wireless devices may communicate with each other using directional transmission techniques, including, but not limited to, beamforming techniques. Wireless devices may communicate over a next generation 60 GHz (NG60) network, an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) network, and/or any other network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] FIG. 1 depicts a network diagram illustrating an example network environment for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0005] FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0006] FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0007] FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0008] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0009] FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [0010] FIGs. 7A-7E depict illustrative diagrams for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0011] FIGs. 8A-8B depict illustrative flow diagrams for a beamforming and link establishment system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0012] FIG. 9 illustrates 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 present disclosure.

[0013] FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine on which any of one or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] Example embodiments described provide certain systems, methods, and devices for beamforming and link establishment for time division duplex (TDD) network architectures. 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.

[0015] Devices may communicate over a next generation 60 GHz (NG60) network, an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) network, and/or any other network. Devices operating in EDMG may be referred to herein as EDMG devices. This may include user devices, and/or access points (APs) or other devices capable of communicating in accordance with a communication standard.

[0016] An IEEE 802. Hay task group started development of the new standard in the mmWave (60 GHz) band which is an evolution of the IEEE 802.1 lad standard also known as WiGig. The large bandwidth availability and its directional propagation nature make it very attractive for service providers that want to deliver high-speed internet to enterprises, small-to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), homes, etc., through a fixed wireless access (FWA) distribution network. This kind of network is built with many nodes communicating with each other and creating a distributed mesh network. The method accepted into IEEE 802.11 ay to allocate link access in those controlled network is by dividing the medium between uplink and downlink slots and further dividing each of the slots into several TDD-SPs (time division duplex service periods). A typical FWA network is deployed in an outdoor environment which requires nodes to establish links at a relatively long distance. To achieve a long distance communication link, high antennas and beamforming are used on both sides of the link. The method in which both of the communicating nodes adjust their directive beams toward each other is referred to as beamforming. As a result, there is a need to develop a beamforming procedure for TDD networks, given that neither 802. Had nor 802.1 lay support TDD access and instead assume that both transmissions and receptions can take place in the same transmit opportunity (TXOP) and/or SP. The TDD-SPs are allocated to different stations allowing the controlled link access to be managed by a central server and operator. In each of the TDD- SPs, a station may transmit or receive but not both. This method of allocating the medium helps mitigate interferences among stations. This method is also known as TDD (time division duplex).

[0017] IEEE 802.1 lad standardizes the beamforming procedure for two communicating nodes. However, it presumes that an initial connection could be established if one of the nodes is configured in a quasi-omni antenna pattern. Moreover, IEEE 802.11 ad/ay assumes a half- duplex link access in which two communicating nodes respond to received frames right after they are received (e.g., SLS, Data-Ack). These two assumptions cannot be assumed in TDD link access since (1) the nodes are too far apart, and the link cannot be established if one of the nodes is not beamformed towards the other; and (2) an immediate response cannot be sent since the link access is TDD and not half-duplex.

[0018] IEEE 802.1 lad standardizes the beamforming procedure for two communicating nodes, however, it presumes that initial connection could be established if one of the nodes is configured in a quasi- Omni antenna pattern. Moreover, 11 ad/ay assumes a half-duplex link access in which two communicating nodes respond to received frames right after they were received (e.g., SLS, Data-Ack). These two assumptions cannot be assumed in TDD link access since: (1) The nodes are too far apart and the link cannot be established if one of the nodes in not beamformed towards the other; and (2) Immediate response cannot be sent since the link access is TDD and not half-duplex.

[0019] Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems, methods, and devices for beamforming and link establishment.

[0020] A directional multi-gigabyte (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. An amendment to a DMG operation in a 60 GHz band, e.g., according to an IEEE 802. Had standard, may be defined, for example, by an IEEE 802. Hay project.

[0021] In some demonstrative embodiments, one or more devices may be configured to communicate over a next generation 60 GHz (NG60) network, an enhanced DMG (EDMG) network, and/or any other network. For example, the one or more devices may be configured to communicate over the NG60 or EDMG networks.

[0022] In one or more embodiments, a beamforming and link establishment system may provide a mechanism for two nodes to find each other and establish a connection using beamforming. Beamforming is used in millimeter waves because to achieve a link budget a directed antenna should be used to point an antenna to the device that it needs to establish a connection with.

[0023] In one embodiment, a beamforming and link establishment system may perform an efficient and robust beamforming procedure for networks that use TDD channel access. The suggested procedure supports the case when a communication link can only be established if the two communicating devices are using their directive beams (e.g., quasi-omni is not assumed, and no link could be established if one of the nodes is not pointed in the peer beam direction). The proposed method allows the initiator node to manage the network (NW) link access though the core network that is used in such types of networks. In one embodiment, a beamforming and link establishment system addresses the beamforming needs without relying on the above assumptions. There might be proprietary implementations that perform this kind of beamforming; however, they are not standardized and may use a very specific network configuration and parameters. As a result, they are not robust and do not provide a solution to a generic TDD network configuration.

[0024] In one or more embodiments, a beamforming and link establishment system may facilitate that a receiving device may sweep its receive antenna through all of its sector IDs and an initiator device sends one or more frames in a sweep in all directions (transmit sectors) until the initiator device hits the direction (e.g., a preferred antenna sector) that allows the receiving device to receive one of the one or more frames with a certain antenna gain for a specific sector ID.

[0025] In one or more embodiments, a beamforming and link establishment system may facilitate a frame definition and how the frame is being transmitted and what information is included in the frame.

[0026] In one or more embodiments, a beamforming and link establishment system may facilitate a mechanism for sharing information between an initiator device and a responder device during beamforming to establish the connection. For example, after the responder device receives or otherwise captures a frame of the one or more sweep frames sent by the initiator device, the responder device may decode and determine from the captured frame information when the responder device can transmit its response to the initiator device. For example, a TDD SSW frame may be sent during a first TDD slot using a transmit sector associated with a transmit sector ID. The initiator device would allocate within the same sector ID a timeslot that the initiator device expects the responder device to send its response to the TDD SSW frame. This TDD SSW frame may comprise information that would help the responder device to know at which TDD slot to send its response to the TDD SSW frame. The initiator device would then expect the response frame to be sent at a specific TDD slot to be received from the responder device. The initiator device will then set its receive antenna in the same sector ID that the TDD SSW frame was transmitted.

[0027] In one or more embodiments, once the responder receives a frame, the responder device knows where the TDD slot begins because there is a count in the TDD SSW frame that tells the responder device where the start is for the TDD slots and how frequent these slots are. Knowing this, the responder device can switch its antennas efficiently.

[0028] In one embodiment, the TDD beamforming (BF) procedure may be used by a pair of stations (STAs) to perform beamforming during a TDD service period (SP). TDD BF training is a bidirectional sequence of TDD beamforming frames and provides the necessary signaling to allow each STA to determine the appropriate directional multi-gigabit (DMG) antenna configuration for both transmission and reception. TDD beamforming training may support establishing the initial connection when both transmit and receive antennas use a directional configuration. The TDD beamforming procedure assumes antenna reciprocity of both the initiator and responder STAs. A TDD beamforming frame may be a TDD sector sweep (SSW) frame, a TDD SSW-Feedback frame or a TDD SSW-Ack frame. Nodes from different vendors and nodes that are using different antenna configurations can connect to an mmWave TDD link access network. This approach will enable usages such as WFA.

[0029] 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 detailed below. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures.

[0030] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environment for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [0031] Wireless network 100 may include one or more user device(s) 120 and one or more access point(s) (AP) 102 (may also be referred herein as distribution nodes (DNs)), 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 referred to as stations (STAs) or client nodes (CNs). The user device(s) 120 may be mobile devices that are non- stationary and do not have fixed locations. Although the AP 102 is shown to be communicating on multiple antennas with user devices 120, it should be understood that this is only as an example and that any user device 120 may also communicate using multiple antennas with other user devices 120 and/or AP 102.

[0032] In some embodiments, the user device(s) 120 and the AP 102 may include one or more computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram of FIG. 9 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 10.

[0033] One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP 102 may be operable by one or more user(s) 110. The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/or AP 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 102 may include, a user equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point (AP), 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^tm 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. It is understood that the above is a list of devices. However, other devices, including smart devices, Internet of Things (IoT), such as lamps, climate control, car components, household components, appliances, etc. may also be included in this list.

[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 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 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, 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 102.

[0036] Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may include multiple antennas that may include one or more directional antennas. The one or more directional antennas may be steered to a plurality of beam directions. For example, at least one antenna of a user device 120 (or an AP 102) may be steered to a plurality of beam directions. For example, a user device 120 (or an AP 102) may transmit a directional transmission to another user device 120 (or another AP 102).

[0037] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 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 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 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 102 may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

[0038] 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 102 may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or more communications antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

[0039] Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 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 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. 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. llg, 802.11η, 802.1 lax), 5 GHz channels (e.g., 802.11η, 802.11ac, 802.11ax), or 60 GHz channels (e.g., 802.11ad, 802.11ay). 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 802.11af, 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] 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), 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.

[0041] 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.

[0042] 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, including one or more IEEE 802.11 specifications, (e.g., an IEEE 802.1 lad specification, an IEEE 802.1 lay specification, and/or any other specification and/or protocol). For example, an amendment to a DMG operation in the 60 GHz band, according to an IEEE 802.1 lad standard, may be defined, for example, by an IEEE 802. Hay project.

[0043] It is understood that a basic service set (BSS) provides the basic building block of an 802.11 wireless LAN. For example, in infrastructure mode, a single access point (AP) together with all associated stations (STAs) is called a BSS.

[0044] In some demonstrative embodiments, the user devices 120 and/or the AP 102 may be configured to support one or more mechanisms and/or features, for example, channel bonding, single user (SU) MIMO, and/or and multi-user (MU) MIMO, for example, in accordance with an EDMG standard, an IEEE 802. Hay standard and/or any other standard and/or protocol.

[0045] 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). [0046] 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 sector sweep (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. However, the SSW frames may reach the user device 126. It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0047] FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram 200 for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0048] Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown an example of the TDD beamforming training procedure between an initiator device (e.g., an AP or a DN).

[0049] In one embodiment, an STA that has not established a DMG control mode connection with an intended peer switches its antenna configuration through all of its receive sectors. In order to establish a DMG control mode connection, an initiator sends multiple TDD SSW frames during its assigned TDD slots. A TDD SSW frame may indicate to the responder the TX sector ID used by the initiator for the transmission of the TDD SSW frames, the time offset for which the responder should send its TDD SSW feedback frame as a response and the time offset for which the responder shall be ready to get the TDD SSW Ack frame. The responder sends its TDD SSW feedback frame with the best received RX sector. Following the reception of a TDD SSW feedback frame, the initiator sends a TDD SSW Ack frame that acknowledges the reception of the TDD SSW feedback frame, where the TDD SSW feedback frame included configuration and time offsets included in the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield indicating when the responder obtains the network configuration parameters.

[0050] During the TDD beamforming training, the TDD SSW frame is sent periodically and will be repeated multiple times for each TX sector ID. The TDD BF training sequence is continued until the initiator sets the End of Training subfield in the TDD SSW Ack frame to 1.

[0051] In one or more embodiments, an STA (e.g., an initiator device) may transmit a series of TDD SSW frames through its antenna sectors while a target STA (e.g., a responder device) sweeps its antenna receive sectors in order to receive at least one of the TDD SSW frames. If the responder receives at least one TDD SSW frame, by exchanging additional frames, both the initiator and the responder are made aware of one or more combinations of transmit beams on the initiator side and receive beams on the responder side that enable communication between the two devices. [0052] As seen in FIG. 2, the transmit (TX) and the receive (RX) sides of the initiator and the responder device are shown. Also, frames that are sent by the initiator or the responder device are shown in solid blocks, while frames that are received are shown in dotted lines. On the initiator transmit side, there is shown one or more TX sector IDs (e.g., TX sector ID (i) 202, TX sector ID (j) 208, etc.). For each TX sector ID, there are one or more TDD slots that are used to transmit one or more TDD SSW frames. For example, TDD slot 206, may be comprised of one or more TDD SSW 204 frames. Further, the initiator may also have one or more RX sector IDs that are used for receiving frames from the responder (e.g., RX sector ID (i) 210).

[0053] The responder device that receives a TDD SSW frame (e.g., TDD SSW frame 204) may decode the SSW frame and extract information included in the received TDD SSW frame. Based on the information included in the TDD SSW frame, the responder device may then determine an offset of when the initiator device is expecting a feedback frame (e.g., TDD SSW feedback frame 205) during a TDD slot 207. The responder device may use that information to send an acknowledgment of the TDD SSW frame 204 by sending the TDD SSW feedback frame 205 during a transmit sector of the responder device (e.g., TX sector ID (m)). The receive sector on the initiator device may have the same sector ID as the sector ID during which the TDD SSW frame was sent. For example, considering that the TDD SSW frame 204 was sent using the TX sector ID (i) 202 and was received by the responder device on one of its receive sectors, the initiator device allocates a timeslot during which the RX sector ID (i) 210 is associated with receiving the TDD SSW feedback frame 205 from the responder device. The initiator device would then use another TX sector ID (i) (e.g., TX sector ID (i) 212) to send an acknowledgment to the received TDD SSW feedback frame 205. For example, the initiator device may send a TDD SSW Ack frame 214 during a TDD slot using the TX sector ID (i) 212. Similarly, on the responder side, because the responder device sent the TDD SSW feedback frame 205 in a timeslot using a TX sector ID (m), the responder device may receive the TDD SSW Ack frame 214 using an RX sector ID (m) 209. After this process is complete, the initiator device and the responder device may exchange additional frames to enable communication between the two devices.

[0054] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0055] FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram 300 for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0056] In one embodiment, beamforming may be conducted by two nodes: the initiator and the responder. The initiator is typically already connected to the core network (but does not have to) and is instructed by the core network to connect an additional node with a known MAC address (in this case, the responder device). Because the network is managed, the initiator gets a command from a network administrator node to connect with a responder device. The initiator may start this phase as part of the initial routine to find out a list of nodes that need to be connected. To find the responder, it is proposed to have the initiator transmit TDD SSW frames in TDD slots (e.g., TDD slot 306). The initiator may transmit several consecutive TDD SSW frames 304 to increase the probability of the responder to receive at least one TDD SSW frame (e.g., TDD SSW frame 305). A group of TDD slots may be included in a TDD interval (e.g., TDD interval 302). Each TDD SSW frame (e.g., TDD SSW frames 304) transmitted in a TDD slot (e.g., TDD slot 306) uses the same transmit beam. The initiator may transmit the TDD SSW frames over at least N TDD slots, where N should be equal or greater than the number of sectors supported by the responder. The number of times that the initiator transmits each TDD SSW frame in the same direction is to allow the responder to switch its sectors. If the responder has eight sectors (e.g., eight directions to transmit and receive from), the SSW frame should then be transmitted at least eight times by the initiator device. This way, the responder device is able to see at which sector it receives the best TDD SSW frame. That is, there are several TDD SSW frames that are transmitted in the same direction, and the assumption here is that for each direction, the responder should be able to switch all of its receive antenna and the check all of its receive antennas.

[0057] Each TDD SSW frame (e.g., TDD SSW frames 304) may indicate:

[0058] TX Sector ID - indicates the antenna sector through which the TDD SSW frame is transmitted.

[0059] Count Index - indicates the repetition of the initiator TDD beamforming frames within a TDD slot. This way, if the responder device receives a TDD SSW frame, the responder would know its location within a TDD slot. And because the responder knows how much time it takes to transmit a TDD SSW frame, the responder device is able to know when a TDD slot starts. This way, the responder device is able to switch its antenna around the same time at the start of a TDD slot.

[0060] Beamforming Time Unit - indicates the time units used by the TDD beamforming fields.

[0061] Transmit Period - indicates the offset, in units of BTUs, between TDD SSW transmissions with the same Count Index subfield value in different TDD slots. [0062] Responder Feedback Offset - indicates the offset, in units of 1 μ8 beginning immediately after the end of the TDD SSW frame of when the TDD SSW feedback frame is to be transmitted by the responder.

[0063] Initiator Ack Offset - indicates the offset, in units of 1 μ8 beginning immediately after the time indicated by the Responder Feedback Offset field, of when the TDD SSW Ack frame is to be transmitted by the initiator.

[0064] End of Training - indicates that the initiator ends the TDD beamforming training after the transmission of the remaining TDD SSW frames with the current sector ID.

[0065] In one embodiment, the responder sweeps its receive sectors through all receive beams, whereby the time spent on each receive sector is larger than the time it takes to transmit a TDD SSW frame. So the responder needs to "dwell" on each receive direction at least the amount of time it takes to transmit a TDD SSW frame. For example, during time period 307, the responder may sweep its receive sectors while dwelling on each receive direction at least the amount of time it takes to transmit a TDD SSW frame.

[0066] In one embodiment, if no frame was received for timeout greater than the TDD SSW time, the responder switches to the next receive beam. The responder loops through all receive beams until successfully receiving and decoding at least one TDD SSW frame (e.g., TDD SSW 305).

[0067] Once the first TDD SSW frame is received, the responder proceeds with the following operation.

[0068] Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown an example of the responder receiver sweeping procedure. Upon the receipt of the TDD SSW frame 305 , the responder STA sweeps its receiver antenna configuration through its receive sectors during the TDD slots used for beamforming training according to the time period (e.g., time period 309) as indicated by the Transmit Period subfield of the first TDD SSW frame it received (e.g., TDD SSW frame 305).

[0069] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0070] FIG. 4 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram 400 for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0071] FIG. 4 shows how the initiator and responder communicate the time for the responder to send its TDD SSW feedback response and for the initiator to send its TDD SSW Ack.

[0072] In one or more embodiments, the time between sending each of the TDD SSW frames may be equal to a short beamforming interframe space (SBIFS) interval 402 but could be any time period determined by a system/network administrator, or by a communication standard.

[0073] In one embodiment, upon reception of one or more TDD SSW frames on a single receive sector, the responder switches to its next receive sector to be ready to receive the next TDD SSW frame transmission within SBIFS interval 402 or at the time instant specified by the transmit period in the TDD SSW frame. While sweeping through its receive sectors, the responder continues decoding all of the received TDD SSW frames. The responder transmits a TDD SSW feedback frame 405 using the sector from which the responder received the TDD SSW frame with the best link quality at the time indicated by:

[0074] ResponderFeedbackOffset - [Countlndex x TXTIME(TDD SSW) +

( Countlndex -1) x SBIFS]

[0075] Where:

[0076] ResponderFeedbackOffset is the Responder Feedback Offset subfield value from the received TDD SSW type frame (in microseconds). The responder feedback offset is a constant that is provided by the initiator device to the responder device such that the responder device can use the responder feedback offset to determine when to transmit its TDD SSW feedback frame. Knowing the responder feedback offset, the count index of the received TDD SSW frame, the duration of the TDD SSW frame, and the duration of the SBIFS results in the responder device having the ability to determine a time to transmit the TDD SSW feedback frame 405 to the initiator device.

[0077] Countlndex is the Count Index subfield value from the received TDD SSW or TDD SSW Ack (integer).

[0078] That is when a responder device receives a TDD SSW frame that contains beamforming information such as the offset value, which points to a future location in time. The responder device would then subtract out of the offset value the time it took to transmit a TDD SSW frame multiplied by the Countlndex and account for how many SBIFS that occurred up to this point. This because the responder needs to send its TDD SSW feedback frame 405 to be at the beginning of a TDD slot 406. The responder sends its TDD SSW feedback frame 405 with the same sector it received the TDD SSW frame with the best quality.

[0079] For example, the initiator device may send three consecutive TDD SSW frames, where a first TDD SSW frame has a Count Index 0, a second TDD SSW frame has a Count Index 1, and a third TDD SSW frame has a Count Index of 3. When the responder receives at least one of these TDD SSW frames, it will be capable of determining when to send its TDD SSW feedback frame based on the above calculation. For example, if the first TDD SSW frame is received, then the responder device may use the responder feedback offset value, the Count Index associated with the received TDD SSW frame, the time it takes to transmit a TDD SSW frame and the value of the SBIFS to calculate a time (e.g., time Tl) of when to send its feedback frame. In FIG. 4, it is shown that each responder feedback offset is started based on the Count Index (e.g., periods 401, 403 and 404). It is also shown in this case that the TDD SSW feedback frame 405 is sent at time Tl, which is based on the fact that the third TDD SSW frame 407 with Count Index 2 was received by the responder.

[0080] In one or more embodiments, a TDD SSW feedback frame 405 may include the sector ID used by the initiator to transmit the TDD SSW frame 407 in the RX Sector ID subfield, the sector ID used by the responder to transmit the TDD SSW feedback frame in the TX Sector ID subfield, and the SNR of the TDD SSW frame received with best quality in the SNR Report subfield.

[0081] In one embodiment, at the time offset indicated by the Initiator Ack Offset subfield of the decoded TDD SSW frame, the responder sets its receive DMG antenna to the same sector that was indicated in the TX Sector ID subfield of the TDD SSW feedback frame in order to be ready to receive a TDD SSW Ack frame from the initiator.

[0082] In one embodiment, the responder continues to sweep through its receive sectors until successfully receiving and decoding a TDD SSW Ack frame (e.g., TDD SSW Ack frame 414) with End of Training subfield equal to 1. Upon reception of the TDD SSW Ack frame 414 with an End of Training subfield equal to 1, the responder stops its receive sweeping and configures its DMG antenna to the sector as indicated in the RX Sector ID subfield of the TDD SSW Ack frame 414 received from the initiator, and its End of Training subfield may be set to 1. The responder uses this sector for its subsequent transmissions and receptions with the initiator until another sector is negotiated.

[0083] In one embodiment, the responder that transmits TDD SSW feedback frame in response to the TDD SSW frames sent with the End of training subfield set to 1 will set the End of Training subfield in the TDD SSW feedback frame to 1 to acknowledge the indication.

[0084] In one embodiment, the responder now should be ready to receive a management frame from the initiator at the time offset indicated by the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield of the TDD SSW Ack frame received from the initiator. The responder transmits any required response frame at the time offset indicated by the Responder Transmit Offset subfield of the TDD SSW Ack frame received from the initiator.

[0085] In one embodiment, upon reception of the TDD SSW Ack frame with the End of Training subfield set to 1, the responder completes the TDD beamforming procedure and transmits to the initiator a management frame (e.g., an announce frame) containing a TDD Route element listing the ordered pairs of TX Sector IDs and RX Sector IDs obtained from the TDD beamforming training transmitted at the time offset indicated by:

[0086] ResponderTransmitOffset - [Countlndex x TXTIME (TDD SSW) + (Countlndex - lj x SBIFS].

[0087] Where:

[0088] ResponderTransmitOffset is the Responder Transmit Offset subfield value from the received TDD SSW Ack type frame (in microseconds).

[0089] Countlndex is the Count Index subfield value from the received TDD SSW or TDD SSW Ack (integer).

[0090] In one embodiment, upon reception of an announce frame containing a TDD Route element with the Set Sector ID subfield set to 1, the responder shall set its antenna sector to the sector as indicated in the decoded RX Sector ID subfield of the first Decoded RX Sector information field of the first TDD feedback field within the element. It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0091] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram 500 for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0092] Referring to FIG. 5, there is shown an example where the responder manages to receive at least one TDD SSW frame transmission, TDD SSW frame 502 with RX beam Index 8 settings (e.g., RX Sector ID = 8), which was determined to be the best. This information is sent in the TDD SSW feedback frame 507 as a response to the received TDD SSW frame 502. The initiator may confirm with TDD SSW Ack frame 509 indicating its receive indication as well.

[0093] In one embodiment, the frame description and information may include that the TDD SSW, TDD SSW feedback and TDD SSW Ack frames are sent as different subtypes of the same TDD beamforming of subtype Control Frame Extension.

[0094] In one embodiment, the TDD SSW frame may be sent by the initiator and may include the following information:

[0095] TDD Slot Duration (2 Bytes);

[0096] TA - Initiator Address (6 Bytes);

[0097] RA - Responder Address (6 Bytes); and

[0098] TDD BF Control - (1 Byte).

[0099] The TDD beamforming frame field may be set to TDD SSW. The End of Training subfield set to 1 in a TDD SSW frame may indicate that the initiator ends the TDD beamforming training after the transmission of the remaining TDD SSW frames with the current sector ID; this subfield may be set to zero otherwise.

[0100] In one embodiment, a TDD SSW Body field (6 bytes), may include the fields described below:

[0101] TX Sector ID may indicate the antenna sector through which the TDD SSW frame is transmitted.

[0102] Count Index may indicate the repetition of the initiator TDD beamforming frames within a TDD slot, with the subfield set to zero for the first transmission and increased by one for each successive transmission within a TDD slot.

[0103] Beamforming Time Unit (BTU) may indicate the beamforming time unit for the Transmit Period and Responder Feedback Offset subfields in the TDD Beamforming Information field of the TDD SSW frames. This subfield also defines the time unit for the Transmit Period, Initiator Transmit Offset, and Responder Transmit Offset subfields in the TDD Beamforming Information field of the TDD SSW feedback frames. Units may be defined in the table below.

[0104] Table 1: Beamforming Time Unit subfield:

[0105] Transmit Period may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, between the TDD SSW transmissions with the same Count Index subfield value in different TDD slots.

[0106] Responder Feedback Offset may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, beginning immediately after the end of the TDD SSW frame of when the TDD SSW feedback frame is to be transmitted by the responder.

[0107] Initiator Ack Offset may indicate the offset, in units of 1 μ8, beginning immediately after the time indicated by the Responder Feedback Offset field of when the TDD SSW Ack frame is to be transmitted by the initiator.

[0108] In one embodiment, the responder may send its feedback in the TDD beamforming frame set with the TDD SSW feedback subtype in which its frame body contains the following information: TDD Slot Duration (2 bytes); TA - Initiator Address (6 bytes); RA - Responder Address (6 bytes); TDD BF Control - (1 byte); and TDD SSW Body field (6 bytes). The TDD BF control may include the TDD beamforming frame type set to TDD SSW feedback, and the End of Training subfield may be set to 1 in a TDD SSW feedback frame if the TDD SSW feedback is sent in response to a TDD SSW frame in which its End of Training subfield was set to 1 ; this subfield may be set to zero otherwise.

[0109] The TDD SSW Body field (6 bytes) may include the TX Sector ID subfield, which may indicate the sector through which the TDD SSW feedback frame is transmitted. The TDD SSW Body field may also include the RX Sector ID, which may contain the value of the TX Sector ID subfield of a TDD SSW frame that the feedback frame is sent in response to the TDD SSW frame that was received from the initiator with the best quality. In one embodiment, the SNR Report may be set to the value of the SNR achieved while decoding the TDD SSW frame received with the best quality and which is indicated in the RX Sector ID subfield. The SNR Report subfield is unsigned integers referenced to a level of -8 dB. Each step is 0.25 dB. SNR values less than or equal to -8 dB are represented as 0. SNR values greater than or equal to 55.75 dB are represented as OxFF.

[0110] The TDD SSW feedback frame sent by the responder triggers the initiator to send to the responder the TDD SSW Ack frame. The TDD SSW Ack frame transmitted by the initiator includes the following fields:

[0111] TDD Slot Duration (2 Bytes)

[0112] TA - Initiator Address (6 Bytes)

[0113] RA - Responder Address (6 Bytes)

[0114] TDD BF Control - (1 Byte), which may have the TDD Beamforming frame type set to TDD SSW Ack. The End of Training subfield may be set to 1 in a TDD SSW Ack frame to indicate that the TDD beamforming training has been completed; otherwise, this subfield may be set to zero.

[0115] TDD SSW Body field (6 Bytes).

[0116] In one embodiment, the RX Sector ID may contain the value of the TX Sector ID subfield of the TDD SSW Feedback frame that was received from the responder.

[0117] In one embodiment, the Count Index may indicate the index of the frame transmission within a TDD slot, with the subfield set to zero for the first frame transmission and increased by one for each successive frame transmission within a TDD slot.

[0118] In one embodiment, the Transmit Period may indicate the interval, in units of BTUs, between successive TDD SSW transmissions with the same Count Index subfield value in different TDD slots.

[0119] In one embodiment, the SNR Report may be set to the value of the SNR achieved while decoding the TDD SSW feedback frame. The SNR Report subfield is unsigned integers referenced to a level of -8 dB. Each step is 0.25 dB. SNR values less than or equal to -8 dB are represented as 0. SNR values greater than or equal to 55.75 dB are represented as OxFF.

[0120] In one embodiment, the Initiator Transmit Offset may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, beginning immediately after the end of the TDD SSW Ack frame when the initiator is expected to transmit additional frames, such as management frames carrying the network configuration, to the responder. When the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield may be set to zero, no time offset indication is specified by the initiator.

[0121] In one embodiment, the Responder Transmit Offset may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, beginning immediately after the time indicated by the Initiator Transmit Offset field when the responder is expected to respond to frames sent by the initiator. When the Responder Transmit Offset subfield may be set to zero, no time offset indication is specified by the initiator.

[0122] In one embodiment, beamforming may end upon receiving one TDD SSW Ack frame with the "End of Training" field set to "1." The initiator can set it to "1" in its TDD SSW frames, through indicating to the responder that it will stop sending further TDD SSW frames, or in the TDD SSW Ack which concludes the beamforming procedure. After the responder receives the TDD SSW Ack with the "End of Training" field set to "1", the beamforming is considered completed, and the responder should expect to receive a management frame with the network configuration. The initiator management frame (typically Announce Frame) embedded several elements that describe the network configuration. The responder is required to send its capabilities in a management frame (typically Probe or Association request) in a time defined by the TDD SSW Ack frame in the "Responder Transmit Offset" subfield.

[0123] In one embodiment, the management frames from the initiator may include the network configuration (elements provided in this frame are comprised of 802.11 existing information elements, for example: (1) Timestamp (TSF); (2) Extended Schedule IE; (3) TDD Slot Structure IE; and (4) TDD Bitmap Schedule IE. Management frames from the responder may include the TDD Route IE (new element definition) and the STA Capability element (elements are comprised of 802.11 existing information elements, for example: TDD Route IE and EDMG Capabilities IE.

[0124] FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative schematic diagram 600 for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0125] Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown combined asynchronous and synchronous flows. [0126] The initiator device sends several TDD SSW frames (e.g., TDD SSW frames 601 and 602) to the responder device, and the initiator device allocates time for a responder SSW feedback, which is indicated in each of the TDD SSW frames sent by the initiator device. That is, the initiator device includes timing information such as the responder feedback offset. The initiator also includes in each of the TDD SSW frames information related to the transmit sector in which the TDD SSW frames were sent. The responder device may then decode a received TDD SSW frame and may determine the feedback offset for when the initiator device is expecting a feedback frame. The responder device may use that information to send an acknowledgment of the TDD SSW frame by sending the TDD SSW feedback frame 603 during a transmit sector of the responder device. The receive sector on the initiator device may have the same sector ID as the sector ID during which the TDD SSW frame was sent. For example, considering that the TDD SSW frame was sent using a first TX sector ID and received by the responder device on one of its receive sectors, the initiator device allocates a timeslot during which an RX sector ID is associated with receiving the TDD SSW feedback frame 603 from the responder device. The TDD SSW feedback frame 603 includes the sector ID used by the initiator to transmit the TDD SSW frame in the RX Sector ID subfield, the sector ID used by the responder to transmit the TDD SSW feedback frame 603 in the TX Sector ID subfield, and the SNR of the TDD SSW frame received with the best quality in the SNR Report subfield. A TDD SSW frame (e.g., TDD SSW frames 601 and 602) may indicate to the responder the TX Sector ID used by the initiator for the transmission of the TDD SSW frames, the time offset for which the responder should send its TDD SSW feedback frames as a response, and the time offset for the responder to be ready to get the TDD SSW Ack frame (e.g., TDD SSW Ack frame 604). The TDD SSW Ack frame 604 acknowledges the received configuration and the time offsets indication in the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield on when the responder obtains the network configuration parameters. During the TDD beamforming training, the TDD SSW frames (e.g., TDD SSW frames 601 and 602) are sent periodically and will be repeated multiple times for each TX Sector ID. The TDD beamforming training sequence is continued until the initiator sets the End of Training subfield in the TDD SSW Ack frame 604 to 1. The responder should be ready to receive a management frame 605 from the initiator at the time offset indicated by the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield of the TDD SSW Ack frame 604 received from the initiator. Upon reception of the TDD SSW Ack 604 with the End of Training subfield set to 1, the responder completes the TDD beamforming procedure and transmits to the initiator a management frame (e.g., management frame 606) containing a TDD Route element listing the ordered pairs of TX Sector IDs and RX Sector IDs obtained from the TDD beamforming training transmitted at the time offset indicated.

[0127] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0128] FIGs. 7A-7E depict illustrative schematic diagrams for beamforming and link establishment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0129] Referring to FIG. 7A, there is shown a frame 700, where the TDD beamforming subtypes control frame extension definitions are presented and described below.

[0130] In one embodiment, all of the involved frames indicated in the TDD beamforming procedure (TDD SSW, TDD SSW Feedback and TDD SSW Ack) may be defined as subtypes with a control frame extension named "TDD Beamforming" frame as shown in row 701. The TDD beamforming frame includes the fields below for all of its subtypes.

[0131] Referring to FIG. 7B, there is shown the TDD beamforming frame 710 structure with its subtype definition.

[0132] In one embodiment, one or more fields of the TDD beamforming frame 710 may include:

[0133] (1) Frame Control 702 (2 Bytes) - defines the frame type as control extension;

[0134] (2) Duration 703 (2 Bytes) - set to the time until the end of the TDD slot where the TDD beamforming frame is transmitted;

[0135] (3) RA 704 (6 Bytes) - may contain the MAC address of the STA that is the intended receiver of the frame;

[0136] (4) TA 705 (6 Bytes) - field may contain the MAC address of the transmitter STA of the frame;

[0137] (5) TDD BF Control 706 (1 Byte) - which includes TDD BF Frame Subtype 707 (2 bits), which indicates the frame subtype. The TDD BF Control 706 may also include the End of Training 708 (1 bit), which indicates the end of beamforming training. The TDD beamforming frame 710 may also include a frame body (6 bytes), which contains different fields per the subtype of the frame, and a frame check sequence (FCS).

[0138] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0139] Referring to FIG. 7C, it is shown that the TDD beamforming frame 720 may contain fields per its subtype. Also, FIG. 7C describes the various fields to be included in the TDD beamforming frame according to its subtypes (e.g., TDD SSW Control subframe). [0140] In one embodiment, when the TDD beamforming frame is set to the TDD SSW subframe, its frame body includes the TDD Sector Sweep element as described below.

[0141] In one embodiment, the Duration field may be set to the time until the end of the TDD slot where the TDD SSW frame is transmitted.

[0142] In one embodiment, the RA field may contain the MAC address of the STA that is the intended receiver of the sector sweep. The TA field may contain the MAC address of the transmitter STA of the sector sweep frame.

[0143] In one embodiment, the TDD SSW frame body fields may be defined below.

[0144] In one embodiment, the TX Sector ID subfield may be set to indicate the antenna sector through which the TDD SSW frame is transmitted.

[0145] In one embodiment, the Count Index subfield may indicate the repetition of the initiator TDD beamforming frames within a TDD slot, with the subfield set to zero for the first transmission and increased by one for each successive transmission within a TDD slot.

[0146] In one embodiment, the Beamforming Time Unit (BTU) subfield may be defined in Table 2.

[0147] Table 2 - Tl— Beamforming Time Unit subfield:

[0148] In one embodiment, the BTU subfield may indicate the beamforming time unit for the Transmit Period and Responder Feedback Offset subfields in the TDD Beamforming Information field of TDD SSW frames. This subfield also defines the time unit for the Transmit Period, Initiator Transmit Offset, and Responder Transmit Offset subfields in the TDD Beamforming Information field of the TDD SSW feedback frames.

[0149] In one embodiment, the Transmit Period subfield may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, between the TDD SSW transmissions with the same Count Index subfield value in different TDD slots.

[0150] In one embodiment, the Responder Feedback Offset subfield may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, beginning immediately after the end of the TDD SSW frame of when the TDD SSW feedback frame is to be transmitted by the responder. [0151] In one embodiment, the Initiator Ack Offset subfield may indicate the offset, in units of 1 μ8, beginning immediately after the time indicated by the Responder Feedback Offset field of when the TDD SSW Ack frame is to be transmitted by the initiator. It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0152] Referring to FIG. 7D, there is shown a TDD SSW Feedback Control subframe 730.

[0153] In one embodiment, when the TDD beamforming frame is set to the TDD SSW feedback subframe, its frame body includes the following fields as described below.

[0154] In one embodiment, the Duration field may be set to the time until the end of the TDD slot where the TDD SSW frame is transmitted.

[0155] In one embodiment, the RA field may contain the MAC address of the STA that is the intended receiver of the sector sweep.

[0156] In one embodiment, the TA field may contain the MAC address of the transmitter STA of the sector sweep frame.

[0157] In one embodiment, the TDD SSW Feedback frame body may be defined below.

[0158] In one embodiment, the TX Sector ID subfield may be set to indicate the sector through which the TDD SSW feedback frame is transmitted.

[0159] In one embodiment, the RX Sector ID subfield may contain the value of the TX Sector ID subfield of a TDD SSW frame that the feedback frame is sent in response to and that the TDD SSW frame was received from the initiator with the best quality.

[0160] In one embodiment, the SNR Report subfield may be set to the value of the SNR achieved while decoding the TDD SSW frame received with the best quality and which is indicated in the RX Sector ID subfield. The SNR Report subfield is unsigned integers referenced to a level of -8 dB. Each step is 0.25 dB. SNR values less than or equal to -8 dB are represented as 0. SNR values greater than or equal to 55.75 dB are represented as OxFF.

[0161] Referring to FIG. 7E, there is shown a TDD SSW Ack Control subframe 740.

[0162] In one embodiment, when the TDD beamforming frame is set to the TDD SSW Ack subframe, its frame body includes the following fields as described below.

[0163] In one embodiment, the Duration field may be set to the time until the end of the TDD slot where the TDD SSW frame is transmitted. The RA field may contain the MAC address of the STA that is the intended receiver of the sector sweep. The TA field may contain the MAC address of the transmitter STA of the sector sweep frame.

[0164] In one embodiment, the TDD SSW Ack frame body may be defined below.

[0165] In one embodiment, the RX Sector ID subfield may contain the value of the TX Sector ID subfield of the TDD SSW feedback frame that was received from the responder. [0166] The Count Index subfield may indicate the index of the frame transmission within a TDD slot, with the subfield set to zero for the first frame transmission and increased by one for each successive frame transmission within a TDD slot.

[0167] In one embodiment, the Transmit Period subfield may indicate the interval, in units of BTUs, between successive TDD SSW transmissions with the same Count Index subfield value in different TDD slots.

[0168] In one embodiment, the SNR Report subfield may be set to the value of the SNR achieved while decoding the TDD SSW feedback frame. The SNR Report subfield is unsigned integers referenced to a level of -8 dB. Each step is 0.25 dB. SNR values less than or equal to 8 dB are represented as 0. SNR values greater than or equal to 55.75 dB are represented as OxFF.

[0169] In one embodiment, the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, beginning immediately after the end of the TDD SSW Ack frame when the initiator is expected to transmit additional frames, such as management frames carrying the network configuration, to the responder. When the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield may be set to zero, no time offset indication is specified by the initiator.

[0170] In one embodiment, the Responder Transmit Offset subfield may indicate the offset, in units of BTUs, beginning immediately after the time indicated by the Initiator Transmit Offset field when the responder is expected to respond to frames sent by the initiator. When the Responder Transmit Offset subfield may be set to zero, no time offset indication is specified by the initiator.

[0171] In one embodiment, a TDD Route element may be used to communicate the total received TX beam as received by the EDMG station during a TDD asynchronous and synchronous beamforming procedure and may be embedded in the management frames sent by the responder to the initiator upon conclusion of the TDD beamforming.

[0172] The Micro Route IE may be defined in the table below.

[0173] Table 3: Micro Route element format:

[0174] In one embodiment, the Number of TDD Routes field may indicate the number of TDD Route fields following this field. [0175] Each TDD Route field is as defined in the table below.

[0176] Table 4: TDD Route field format:

[0177] In one embodiment, the TX Sector ID subfield may indicate the respective Initiator Beam Index in which the Micro Route IE information is related to.

[0178] In one embodiment, the Number of Decoded RX Beam values indicate the number of decoded RX beams that the responder successfully received and decoded. The element includes as many Decoded RX Beam Information fields as indicated in this field.

[0179] In one embodiment, the Decoded RX Beam Information field may contain the RX Decoded Beam Index and the RX Decoded Beam Link Quality indication subfields as shown in Table 5. The total of the Decoded RX Beam Information field integrated in the Micro Route IE are per the values indicated in the Number of Decoded RX Beam field.

[0180] Table 5— Decoded RX Beam Information field:

[0181] In one embodiment, the SNR Report subfield may be set to the value of the SNR achieved while decoding the TDD SSW frame with the respective TX Sector ID and RX Decoded Sector ID. The SNR Report subfield is 8-bit unsigned integers referenced to a level of -8 dB. Each step is 0.25 dB. SNR values less than or equal to -8 dB are represented as 0. SNR values greater than or equal to 55.75 dB are represented as OxFF.

[0182] In one embodiment, the RSSI Report subfield may be set to the value of the received power while receiving the TDD SSW frame with the respective TX Sector ID and RX Decoded Sector ID. The RSSI Report is an 8-bit signed integer in the range -128 dBm through 127 dBm and is measured by the PHY of the power observed at the input of the antennas plus the antenna gain, or equivalent antenna gain for a phased-array antenna, used to receive the current PPDU. The RSSI may be measured during the reception of the PHY preamble. The RSSI is intended to be used in a relative manner, and it may be a monotonically increasing function of the received power.

[0183] FIG. 8A illustrates a flow diagram of illustrative process 800 for beamforming and link establishment system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0184] At block 802, an initiator device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1) may determine a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information. For example, the initiator device that has not established a DMG control mode connection with an intended peer switches its antenna configuration through all its receive sectors. In order to establish a DMG control mode connection, the initiator sends multiple TDD SSW frames during its assigned TDD slots. The beamforming information that is included in a TDD SSW frame may comprise an indication of the TX Sector ID used by the initiator for the transmission of the TDD SSW frames, the time offset for which the responder should send its TDD SSW Feedback frame as response and the time offset the responder shall be ready to get the TDD SSW Ack frame, and any other relevant beamforming information.

[0185] At block 804, the device may determine a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of the initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots. For example, the initiator device may have a number of TX sectors base on the number of antennas it has. Each of the TX sectors may have a TX sector ID to identify it. The initiator device may have one or more TDD slots that it uses to send one or more TDD SSW frames for a specific TX sector ID. That is for each TX sector ID, there are one or more TDD slots that are used to transmit one or more TDD SSW frames. Further, the initiator may also have one or more RX sector IDs that are used for receiving frames from the responder.

[0186] At block 806, the device may cause to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector. For example, the initiator device may send a series of TDD SSW frames to the responder device using the TDD slots that are associated with a first TX sector having a first TX sector ID. This TX sector ID is transmitted within each of the TDD SSW frames that are sent using the TDD slots that are allocated to be using that TX sector ID.

[0187] At block 808, the device may cause to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector. That is the initiator may send a number of TDD SSW frames associated with other TDD slots allocated for a specific TX sector ID. [0188] At block 810, the device may identify beamforming feedback information, from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0189] For example, the responder sends its TDD SSW Feedback frame with the best received RX sector. Following the reception of a TDD SSW Feedback frame, the initiator sends a TDD SSW Ack frame that acknowledges the received configuration and with time offsets indication in the Initiator Transmit Offset subfield on when the responder obtains the network configuration parameters. During the TDD beamforming training, the TDD SSW frame is sent periodically and will be repeated multiple times for each TX Sector ID. The TDD BF training sequence is continued until the initiator sets the End of Training subfield in the TDD SSW Ack frame to 1.

[0190] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0191] FIG. 8B illustrates a flow diagram of illustrative process 850 for beamforming and link establishment system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0192] At block 852, a responder device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1) may identify a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information received from an initiator device. For example, an initiator device that has not established a DMG control mode connection with an intended peer switches its antenna configuration through all its receive sectors. In order to establish a DMG control mode connection, the initiator sends multiple TDD SSW frames during its assigned TDD slots. The beamforming information that is included in a TDD SSW frame may comprise an indication of the TX Sector ID used by the initiator for the transmission of the TDD SSW frames, the time offset for which the responder should send its TDD SSW Feedback frame as response and the time offset the responder shall be ready to get the TDD SSW Ack frame, and any other relevant beamforming information. The responder device that has received a TDD SSW frame may sweep its receiver antenna configuration through its receive sectors between TDD SSW frames received in a TDD slot and between TDD slots used for BF training according to the period as indicated by the transmit period subfield of the received TDD SSW frame.

[0193] At block 854, the device may determine a first antenna receive sector associated with receiving the TDD sector sweep frame. For example, the responder device may determine that one of the TDD SSW frames was received with the best received RX sector. That receive sector may be associated with a sector ID that the responder device will use whenever it receives or transmits frames to the initiator device.

[0194] At block 856, the device may determine a time offset based on the beamforming information, wherein the time offset indicates when to send a TDD sector sweep feedback frame.

[0195] For example, when the responder device receives a TDD SSW frame that contains beamforming information such as the offset value, which points to a future location in time. The responder device would them subtract out of the offset value the time it took to transmit a TDD SSW frame multiplied by the Count index and account for how many short beamforming interframe space (SBIFS) that occurred up to this point. This because the responder needs to send a TDD SSW feedback frame to be at the beginning of a TDD slot. The responder device may send its TDD SSW feedback frame with the same sector it received the TDD SSW frame with the best quality.

[0196] At block 858, the device may cause to send the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a TDD slot associated with the first antenna receive sector based on the beamforming information. The TDD SSW Feedback frame may include the sector index used by the initiator to transmit the TDD SSW frame in the decoded TX Sector ID subfield of the TDD SSW frame, the sector index used by the responder device to transmit the TDD SSW feedback frame in the TX Sector ID subfield, and the SNR of the TDD SSW frame received with best quality in the SNR report subfield. At the time offset indicated in the decoded TDD SSW frame, the responder may set its receive antenna to the same sector that was indicated in the TX Sector ID subfield of the TDD SSW Feedback frame in order to be ready to receive a TDD SSW Ack frame from the initiator. A responder device that transmits a TDD SSW Feedback frame in response to a TDD SSW frame sent with End of Training subfield equal to 1 May set the End of Training subfield in the TDD SSW Feedback frame to 1.

[0197] At block 860, the device may identify a TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame received from the initiator device, wherein the TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame is received on the first receive sector. For example, the responder may continue sweeping through its receive sectors until successfully receiving and decoding a TDD SSW Ack frame with End of Training subfield equal to 1. Upon the reception of TDD SSW Ack frame with End of Training subfield equal to 1, the responder shall stop its receive sweeping and shall configure its DMG antenna to the sector as indicated in the Decoded TX Sector ID subfield of the TDD SSW Ack frame received from the initiator that has the End of Training subfield equal to 1. The responder shall use this sector for its subsequent frame exchanges with the initiator until another sector is negotiated. Upon reception of a TDD SSW Ack frame with End of Training subfield equal to 1, the responder may be ready to receive an Announce frame from the initiator at a specific time offset. The responder may then, at the time offset transmit to the initiator an Announce frame containing a TDD Route element listing the ordered pairs of TX sector IDs and decoded TX sector IDs obtained from the TDD beamforming training with the initiator.

[0198] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0199] FIG. 9 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station 900 in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, FIG. 9 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as an AP 102 (FIG. 1) or a user device 120 (FIG. 1) in accordance with some embodiments. The communication station 900 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.

[0200] The communication station 900 may include communications circuitry 902 and a transceiver 910 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from other communication stations using one or more antennas 901. The communications circuitry 902 may include circuitry that can operate the physical layer (PHY) communications and/or medium 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 900 may also include processing circuitry 906 and memory 908 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the communications circuitry 902 and the processing circuitry 906 may be configured to perform operations detailed in FIGs.1-8.

[0201] In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 902 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames or packets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communications circuitry 902 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. The communications circuitry 902 may also include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 906 of the communication station 900 may include one or more processors. In other embodiments, two or more antennas 901 may be coupled to the communications circuitry 902 arranged for sending and receiving signals. The memory 908 may store information for configuring the processing circuitry 906 to perform operations for configuring and transmitting message frames and performing the various operations described herein. The memory 908 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 908 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.

[0202] In some embodiments, the communication station 900 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.

[0203] In some embodiments, the communication station 900 may include one or more antennas 901. The antennas 901 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.

[0204] In some embodiments, the communication station 900 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 touchscreen.

[0205] Although the communication station 900 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 900 may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0206] 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 900 may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device memory.

[0207] FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 1000 or system upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments, the machine 1000 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 1000 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 1000 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environments. The machine 1000 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.

[0208] 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.

[0209] The machine (e.g., computer system) 1000 may include a hardware processor 1002 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 1004 and a static memory 1006, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 1008. The machine 1000 may further include a power management device 1032, a graphics display device 1010, an alphanumeric input device 1012 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 1014 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the graphics display device 1010, alphanumeric input device 1012, and UI navigation device 1014 may be a touchscreen display. The machine 1000 may additionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 1016, a signal generation device 1018 (e.g., a speaker), a beamforming and link establishment device 1019, a network interface device/transceiver 1020 coupled to antenna(s) 1030, and one or more sensors 1028, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 1000 may include an output controller 1034, 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.)).

[0210] The storage device 1016 may include a machine- readable medium 1022 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 1024 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 1024 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 1004, within the static memory 1006, or within the hardware processor 1002 during execution thereof by the machine 1000. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 1002, the main memory 1004, the static memory 1006, or the storage device 1016 may constitute machine-readable media.

[0211 ] The beamforming and link establishment device 1019 may carry out or perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., processes 800 and 850) described and shown above. [0212] In one or more embodiments, beamforming and link establishment system may provide a mechanism for two nodes to find each other and establish a connection using beamforming. Beamforming is used in millimeter waves because to achieve link budget a directed antenna should be used to point an antenna to the device that needs to establish a connection with.

[0213] A beamforming and link establishment device 1019 may perform efficient and robust beamforming procedure for networks that use TDD channel access. The suggested procedure supports the case when a communication link can only be established if the two communicating devices are using their directive beam (e.g., quasi-Omni is not assumed and no link could be established if one of the nodes is not pointed to the peer beam direction). The proposed method allows the initiator node to manage the network (NW) link access through the core network that is used in such types of network. In one embodiment, a beamforming and link establishment system addresses the beamforming needs without relying on the above assumptions. There might be proprietary implementations that perform this kind of beamforming, however, they are not standardized and may use a very specific network configuration and parameters. As a result, they are not robust and do not provide a solution to a generic TDD network configuration.

[0214] A beamforming and link establishment device 1019 may facilitate that a receiving device may sweep its receive antenna through all of it sector IDs and an initiator device sends one or more frames in a sweep in all directions (transmit sectors) until the initiator device hits the direction (e.g., a preferred antenna sector) that allows the receiving device to receive one of the one or more frames with a certain antenna gain for specific sector ID.

[0215] A beamforming and link establishment device 1019 may facilitate a frame definition and how the frame is being transmitted and what information is included in the frame.

[0216] A beamforming and link establishment device 1019 may facilitate in mechanism for sharing information between an initiator device and a responder device during beamforming to establish the connection. For example, after the responder device receives or otherwise captures a frame of the one or more sweep frames sent by the transmitting device, the responder device may decode and determine from the captured frame information relating to when the responder device can transmit its response to the transmitting device. For example, a TDD SSW frame may be sent during a first TDD slot using a transmit sector associated with a transmit sector ID. The initiator device would allocate within the same sector ID a timeslot that the initiator device expects the responder device to send its response to the TDD SSW frame. This TDD SSW frame may comprise information that would help the responder device to know at which TDD slot to send its response to the TDD SSW frame. The initiator device would then expect the response frame to be sent at a specific TDD slot to be received from the responder device. The initiator device will then set its receive antenna in the same sector ID that the TDD SSW frame was transmitted. Once the responder receives a frame, the responder device knows where the TDD slot begins because there is a count in the TDD SSW frame that tells the responder device where the start is for the TDD slots and how frequent these slots are. Knowing this, the responder device can switch its antennas efficiently.

[0217] A beamforming and link establishment device 1019 may facilitate that the TDD beamforming (BF) procedure may be used by a pair of STAs to perform beamforming during a TDD service period (SP). TDD BF training is a bi-directional sequence of TDD beamforming frames and provides the necessary signaling to allow each STA to determine appropriate directional multi-gigabit (DMG) antenna configuration for both transmission and reception. TDD beamforming training may support initial connection establishment when both transmit and receive antennas use a directional configuration. The TDD beamforming procedure assumes antenna reciprocity of both the initiator and responder STAs. A TDD beamforming frame may be a TDD sector sweep (SSW) frame, a TDD SSW-Feedback frame or a TDD SSW- Ack frame. Nodes from different vendors and that are using different antenna configurations can connect to a mmWave TDD link access network.

[0218] It is understood that the above are only a subset of what the beamforming and link establishment device 1019 may be configured to perform and that other functions included throughout this disclosure may also be performed by the beamforming and link establishment device 1019.

[0219] While the machine-readable medium 1022 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 1024.

[0220] 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.

[0221] The term "machine-readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 1000 and that cause the machine 1000 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.

[0222] The instructions 1024 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 1026 using a transmission medium via the network interface device/transceiver 1020 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 1020 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 1026. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 1020 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 1000 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.

[0223] 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.

[0224] 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.

[0225] 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.

[0226] 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.

[0227] 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.

[0228] 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.

[0229] 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.

[0230] Example 1 may include a device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to: determine a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information; determine a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of the initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots; cause to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector; cause to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector; and identify beamforming feedback information, received from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0231] Example 2 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna transmit sector may be associated with a first antenna transmit sector ID.

[0232] Example 3 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured to cause to send a third series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a third number of TDD slots of a second antenna transmit sector.

[0233] Example 4 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0234] Example 5 may include the device of example 4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may be included in a TDD sector sweep feedback frame received from the responder device.

[0235] Example 6 may include the device of example 4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be received using the first sector ID.

[0236] Example 7 may include the device of example 4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the processing circuitry may be further configured to process the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a time period based on an offset.

[0237] Example 8 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may include a transmit sector ID associated with the initiator device, a transmit sector ID associated with a responder device, or a reported signal to noise ratio (SNR).

[0238] Example 9 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

[0239] Example 10 may include the device of example 9 and/or some other example herein, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver.

[0240] Example 11 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: determining a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information; determining a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of the initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots; causing to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector; causing to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector; and identifying beamforming feedback information, received from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0241] Example 12 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna transmit sector may be associated with a first antenna transmit sector ID.

[0242] Example 13 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise causing to send a third series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a third number of TDD slots of a second antenna transmit sector.

[0243] Example 14 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0244] Example 15 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may be included in a TDD sector sweep feedback frame received from the responder device. [0245] Example 16 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be received using the first sector ID.

[0246] Example 17 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 14 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise processing the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a time period based on an offset.

[0247] Example 18 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may include a transmit sector ID associated with the initiator device, a transmit sector ID associated with a responder device, or a reported signal to noise ratio (SNR).

[0248] Example 19 may include a method comprising: determining, by one or more processors, a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information; determining a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of the initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots; causing to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector; causing to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector; and identifying beamforming feedback information, received from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0249] Example 20 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna transmit sector may be associated with a first antenna transmit sector ID.

[0250] Example 21 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, further comprising causing to send a third series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a third number of TDD slots of a second antenna transmit sector.

[0251] Example 22 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0252] Example 23 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may be included in a TDD sector sweep feedback frame received from the responder device. [0253] Example 24 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be received using the first sector ID.

[0254] Example 25 may include the method of example 22 and/or some other example herein, further comprising processing the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a time period based on an offset.

[0255] Example 26 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may include a transmit sector ID associated with the initiator device, a transmit sector ID associated with a responder device, or a reported signal to noise ratio (SNR).

[0256] Example 27 may include an apparatus comprising means for: determining a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information; determining a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of the initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots; causing to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector; causing to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector; and identifying beamforming feedback information, received from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0257] Example 28 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna transmit sector may be associated with a first antenna transmit sector ID.

[0258] Example 29 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or some other example herein, further comprising causing to send a third series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a third number of TDD slots of a second antenna transmit sector.

[0259] Example 30 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0260] Example 31 may include the apparatus of example 30 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may be included in a TDD sector sweep feedback frame received from the responder device. [0261] Example 32 may include the apparatus of example 30 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be received using the first sector ID.

[0262] Example 33 may include the apparatus of example 30 and/or some other example herein, further comprising processing the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a time period based on an offset.

[0263] Example 34 may include the apparatus of example 27 and/or some other example herein, wherein the beamforming feedback information may include a transmit sector ID associated with the initiator device, a transmit sector ID associated with a responder device, or a reported signal to noise ratio (SNR).

[0264] Example 35 may include a device comprising processing circuitry coupled to storage, the processing circuitry configured to: identifying a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information received from an initiator device; determining a first antenna receive sector associated with receiving the TDD sector sweep frame; determining a time offset based on the beamforming information, wherein the time offset indicates when to send a TDD sector sweep feedback frame; causing to send the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a TDD slot associated with the first antenna receive sector based on the beamforming information; and identifying a TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame received from the initiator device, wherein the TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame may be received on the first receive sector.

[0265] Example 36 may include the device of example 35 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna receive sector may be associated with a first antenna receive sector ID.

[0266] Example 37 may include the device of example 35 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises a sector index used by the initiator device to transmit the TDD sector sweep frame, the sector index used to transmit the TDD sector sweep feedback frame, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the TDD sector sweep frame received.

[0267] Example 38 may include the device of example 35 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame. [0268] Example 39 may include the device of example 38 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises beamforming feedback information.

[0269] Example 40 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: identifying a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information received from an initiator device; determining a first antenna receive sector associated with receiving the TDD sector sweep frame; determining a time offset based on the beamforming information, wherein the time offset indicates when to send a TDD sector sweep feedback frame; causing to send the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a TDD slot associated with the first antenna receive sector based on the beamforming information; and identifying a TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame received from the initiator device, wherein the TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame may be received on the first receive sector.

[0270] Example 41 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 40 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna receive sector may be associated with a first antenna receive sector ID.

[0271] Example 42 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 40 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises a sector index used by the initiator device to transmit the TDD sector sweep frame, the sector index used to transmit the TDD sector sweep feedback frame, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the TDD sector sweep frame received.

[0272] Example 43 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 40 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0273] Example 44 may include the non- transitory computer-readable medium of example 43 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises beamforming feedback information.

[0274] Example 45 may include a method comprising: identifying, by one or more processors, a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information received from an initiator device; determining a first antenna receive sector associated with receiving the TDD sector sweep frame; determining a time offset based on the beamforming information, wherein the time offset indicates when to send a TDD sector sweep feedback frame; causing to send the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a TDD slot associated with the first antenna receive sector based on the beamforming information; and identifying a TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame received from the initiator device, wherein the TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame may be received on the first receive sector.

[0275] Example 46 may include the method of example 45 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna receive sector may be associated with a first antenna receive sector ID.

[0276] Example 47 may include the method of example 45 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises a sector index used by the initiator device to transmit the TDD sector sweep frame, the sector index used to transmit the TDD sector sweep feedback frame, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the TDD sector sweep frame received.

[0277] Example 48 may include the method of example 45 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0278] Example 49 may include the method of example 48 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises beamforming feedback information.

[0279] Example 50 may include an apparatus comprising means for: identifying a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information received from an initiator device; determining a first antenna receive sector associated with receiving the TDD sector sweep frame; determining a time offset based on the beamforming information, wherein the time offset indicates when to send a TDD sector sweep feedback frame; causing to send the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a TDD slot associated with the first antenna receive sector based on the beamforming information; and identifying a TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame received from the initiator device, wherein the TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame may be received on the first receive sector.

[0280] Example 51 may include the apparatus of example 50 and/or some other example herein, wherein the first antenna receive sector may be associated with a first antenna receive sector ID. [0281] Example 52 may include the apparatus of example 50 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises a sector index used by the initiator device to transmit the TDD sector sweep frame, the sector index used to transmit the TDD sector sweep feedback frame, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the TDD sector sweep frame received.

[0282] Example 53 may include the apparatus of example 50 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame may be based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

[0283] Example 54 may include the apparatus of example 53 and/or some other example herein, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises beamforming feedback information.

[0284] Example 55 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 1-54, or any other method or process described herein.

[0285] Example 56 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 1-54, or any other method or process described herein.

[0286] Example 57 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-54, or portions or parts thereof.

[0287] Example 58 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 1-54, or portions thereof.

[0288] Example 59 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

[0289] Example 60 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0290] Example 61 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

[0291] 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.

[0292] 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.

[0293] 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.

[0294] 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.

[0295] 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.

[0296] 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.

[0297] 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 of an initiator for performing time division duplex (TDD) beamforming, the device comprising memory and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry coupled to the memory, and the processing circuitry configured to:

determine a TDD sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information;

determine a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of the initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots;

cause to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector; cause to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector; and

identify beamforming feedback information, received from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frame.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first antenna transmit sector is associated with a first antenna transmit sector ID.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to cause to send a third series of the TDD sector sweep frames to the responder device during a third number of TDD slots of a second antenna transmit sector.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame is based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the beamforming feedback information is included in a TDD sector sweep feedback frame received from the responder device.

6. The device of claim 4, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame is received using the first antenna transmit sector ID.

7. The device of claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to process the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a time period based on an offset.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the beamforming feedback information includes a transmit sector ID associated with the initiator device, a transmit sector ID associated with a responder device, or a reported signal to noise ratio (SNR).

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

10. The device of claim 9, further comprising an antenna coupled to the transceiver further comprising the one or more antenna transmit sectors.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a responder device result in performing operations comprising:

identifying a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information received from an initiator device;

determining a first antenna receive sector associated with receiving the TDD sector sweep frame;

determining a time offset based on the beamforming information, wherein the time offset indicates when to send a TDD sector sweep feedback frame;

causing to send the TDD sector sweep feedback frame during a TDD slot associated with the first antenna receive sector based on the beamforming information; and

identifying a TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame received from the initiator device, wherein the TDD sector sweep acknowledgment frame is received on the first receive sector.

12. The non- transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the first antenna receive sector is associated with a first antenna receive sector ID.

13. The non- transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises a sector index used by the initiator device to transmit the TDD sector sweep frame, the sector index used to transmit the TDD sector sweep feedback frame, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the TDD sector sweep frame received.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame is based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

15. The non- transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame comprises beamforming feedback information.

16. A method comprising:

determining, by one or more processors of an initiator, a time division duplex (TDD) sector sweep frame comprising beamforming information;

determining a first antenna transmit sector of one or more antenna transmit sectors of a initiator corresponds to one or more TDD slots;

causing to send a first series of the TDD sector sweep frame to a responder device during a first number of TDD slots corresponding to the first antenna transmit sector;

causing to send a second series of the TDD sector sweep frames to the responder device during a second number of TDD slots of the first antenna transmit sector; and

identifying beamforming feedback information, received from the responder device, the beamforming feedback information based on the first series of the TDD sector sweep frame and the second series of the TDD sector sweep frames.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first antenna transmit sector is associated with a first antenna transmit sector ID.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising causing to send a third series of the TDD sector sweep frame to the responder device during a third number of TDD slots of a second antenna transmit sector.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the TDD sector sweep frame comprises an indication of a feedback TDD slot allocated for sending a TDD sector sweep feedback frame from the responder device, wherein the TDD sector sweep feedback frame is based on the TDD sector sweep frame.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the beamforming feedback information is included in a TDD sector sweep feedback frame received from the responder device.