WO2022206701A1

WO2022206701A1 - Access point candidate set establishment method and communication apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2022206701A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/083460
Authority: WO
Inventors: 郭宇宸; 李云波; 淦明; 班科夫·德米特里; 莱维茨基·伊利亚; 霍罗夫·埃夫根尼·米哈伊洛维奇
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2021-03-30
Filing date: 2022-03-28
Publication date: 2022-10-06
Also published as: CN117083978A

Abstract

The present application provides an AP candidate set establishment method and a communication apparatus. The method comprises: a first AP generates AP candidate set information of the first AP, the AP candidate set information of the first AP being used for indicating information of the AP that initiates multi-AP transmission; and the first AP sends the AP candidate set information of the first AP. According to the solution provided by the present application, the first AP generates and sends the AP candidate set information thereof, so that other APs can learn the candidate set information established by the first AP, and on the basis of the AP candidate set information, other APs can further decide whether to join a candidate set established by the first AP. Therefore, the first AP sends the AP candidate set information thereof to enable the first AP to effectively manage the AP candidate set established by the first AP, so as to avoid confusion.

Description

Method and communication device for establishing access point candidate set

This application claims the priority of the Russian patent application filed on March 30, 2021 with the application number RU2021108429 and the invention title is "Multi-AP Collaboration Set Establishment Process", the entire contents of which are incorporated in this application by reference.

technical field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method and a communication device for establishing an access point candidate set.

Background technique

With the development of wireless networks and the continuous popularization of wireless local area network (WLAN) technology, WLAN devices are becoming more and more dense. Since access points (APs) are easy to deploy, more and more dense APs also bring more inter-cell interference.

When an AP shares transmission resources or transmission opportunities with other APs, it needs to determine which APs to share with. At present, all multiple APs that may participate in multi-AP cooperative transmission constitute a large AP candidate set. In this large AP candidate set, there may be multiple APs that initiate multi-AP transmission, and multiple APs that share transmission resources or transmission opportunities. Any sharing AP can share transmission resources or transmission opportunities to any one or more APs. A shared AP.

For a shared AP, not any shared AP is suitable for multi-AP transmission with it. In addition, due to the existence of multiple shared APs, it is not conducive to the management of the shared APs, that is, each shared AP does not know which sharing AP is managed by, and the AP identities (IDs) of the shared APs are also difficult to communicate with each other. not the same, leading to confusion.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a method and a communication device for establishing an access point candidate set, which facilitates management of multiple APs and can avoid confusion.

A first aspect provides a method for establishing an access point candidate set, the method includes: a first AP generates AP candidate set information of the first AP, and the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate an initiation AP information transmitted by multiple APs;

The first AP sends AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the first AP generates and sends its AP candidate set information, so that other APs can learn the candidate set information established by the first AP. Based on the AP candidate set information, other APs can further decide whether to join the first AP. The candidate set established by AP. Therefore, sending the AP candidate information by the first AP enables the first AP to effectively manage the AP candidate set established by the first AP, so as to avoid confusion.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP;

Information of a third AP, the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information of the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the media access control MAC address of the third AP, the basic service set identifier BSSID of the third AP, the identification ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

Whether there is already a shared AP added to the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the cooperation mode includes at least one of the following modes:

Coordinated orthogonal frequency division multiple access OFDMA, coordinated time division multiple access TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, coordinated beamforming, joint transmission.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes; or,

The AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes.

In this embodiment of the present application, the third AP may correspond to one or more of the foregoing cooperation modes, or the AP candidate set of the first AP may correspond to one or more of the foregoing cooperation modes, or the third AP and The AP candidate set of the first AP may correspond to one or more of the foregoing cooperation modes, which is not limited.

In the solution provided in this application, the third AP (that is, the shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP) may correspond to one or more of the above cooperation modes. On the one hand, it is convenient for the first AP to share transmission resources when There is more selectivity; on the other hand, the first AP sends the cooperation mode of the third AP as the candidate set information, which is helpful for other APs to consider selecting the same cooperation as the third AP when joining the candidate set of the first AP. This mode is convenient for the first AP to uniformly and effectively manage the APs that join the AP candidate set. The AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes. On the one hand, other APs that join the AP candidate set of the first AP can choose whether to join the AP of the first AP according to the cooperation mode of the first AP. candidate set; on the other hand, the first AP has one or more cooperation modes, which can facilitate the first AP to uniformly manage other APs that join its candidate set or flexibly select a cooperation mode according to other APs that join its candidate set, so as to improve the management efficiency.

In conjunction with the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the method further includes:

receiving, by the first AP, a first frame sent by the second AP, where the first frame includes first information, where the first information is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The first AP sends a second frame to the second AP according to the first information, the second frame includes first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the first AP. An AP candidate set of an AP, or the first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

In the solution provided by this application, the first AP receives the first frame sent by the second AP, and the first frame includes the first information for requesting to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. A message sends a second frame to the second AP, the second frame includes first indication information indicating whether or not the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, so that the first AP can establish its own candidate set . That is to say, after the first AP sends the candidate set information corresponding to its AP candidate set, other APs will send a request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP to the first AP according to the candidate set information, and the first AP further Deciding whether to approve the request of the AP sending the request message according to the request is helpful for the first AP and other APs to establish an AP candidate set according to their own conditions, and it is convenient for the first AP to effectively manage other APs joining its candidate set.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the second frame further includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the second frame is a response frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the type of the first frame or the second frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the first information included in the first frame may be carried in a common action field or an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the first indication information included in the second frame may be carried in a status code field or an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set parameter field includes at least one of the following:

The set ID of the AP candidate set that the second AP requests to join, and the cooperation mode adopted after the second AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

the first AP receives second information, where the second information includes information of the second AP;

The first AP sends a second frame to the second AP according to the first information, including:

sending, by the first AP, the second frame to the second AP according to the first information and the second information;

Wherein, the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Information about the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, where the information about the AP candidate set includes the number of the AP candidate set that has joined, the MAC addresses of the APs of the AP candidate set that have joined, and the The BSSID of the AP in the AP candidate set, and the ID of the second AP in the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join an AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the first AP can receive the second information sent from the second AP, and send the second frame including the first indication information to the second AP according to the second information and the first information, to indicate whether to agree or not The second AP is agreed to join the first AP's AP candidate set so that the first AP can build its own candidate set. In this solution, by further combining the second information and the first information to send the second frame including the first indication information to the second AP, the AP candidate set of the first AP can be effectively established, and further, the capability of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes second indication information , the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second frame sent by the first AP to the second AP may include first indication information, and in the case that the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the first indication The second frame may further include second indication information for indicating the ID allocated to the second AP, which can further facilitate the first AP to manage the APs that join its AP candidate set. In particular, it is assumed that the first AP includes multiple APs, and when the IDs assigned by the multiple APs to the second AP are the same, that is, when the second AP joins multiple AP candidate sets, the multiple AP candidate sets are When each AP candidate set of the first AP assigns the same ID to the second AP, in the process of sharing transmission resources, the second AP can identify which AP in the candidate set is sharing the transmission resources with itself through the APs sharing the transmission resources. There is no confusion about being assigned the same ID.

sending, by the first AP, a third frame to the second AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The first AP receives the fourth frame sent by the second AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees with the first AP's invite.

In the solution provided in this application, the first AP may send a third frame including the third information to the second AP, which is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the second AP may send the first AP including the third frame to the first AP. The fourth frame of the three-indication information is used to indicate approval or disapproval of the invitation of the first AP. In this application, by actively inviting the second AP to join its AP candidate set, the first AP can selectively send an invitation to the second AP, which can effectively establish its AP candidate set and improve the cooperation capability between APs.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the first information is further used to invite the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; the first indication information is also used to indicate the The first AP agrees to join the AP candidate set of the second AP, or the first indication information is further used to indicate that the first AP does not agree to join the AP candidate set of the second AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the first information can be used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, or can be used to invite the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; An indication message can be used to indicate whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, or can be used to indicate that the first AP agrees or disagrees to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; through the same information Requesting to join the AP candidate set of the first AP and inviting the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP, and indicating approval or disapproval of the request and indicating approval or disapproval of the invitation through the same indication information can save resources.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations, the first AP agrees with the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the method further includes:

The first AP sends a fifth frame to the second AP, where the fifth frame includes fifth indication information, where the fifth indication information is used to indicate that the second AP selects the AP candidate of the first AP from the AP candidate centralized deletion; or,

The first AP receives the sixth frame sent by the second AP, the sixth frame includes sixth indication information, and the sixth indication information is used by the second AP to request the AP from the first AP Deleted from the candidate set.

In the solution provided in this application, the first AP can delete some or all APs in its AP candidate set during the process of establishing its AP candidate set, so that the APs included in the AP candidate set of the first AP can be flexibly changed, and can further Improve collaboration between APs.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fifth frame or the sixth frame further includes a reason field, where the reason field indicates a reason for deletion.

The first AP receives the seventh frame sent by the second AP, where the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, where the seventh indication information is used to request to acquire AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, after receiving the seventh frame including the seventh indication information sent by the second AP, the first AP sends the AP candidate set information of the first AP to the second AP, that is, the first AP has a targeted The AP candidate set information thereof is sent, so that the efficiency of establishing the AP candidate set of the first AP can be improved.

In a second aspect, a method for establishing an AP candidate set of an access point is provided. The method includes: a second AP receives AP candidate set information of a first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate that multiple AP information transmitted by the AP;

The second AP sends a first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information is used to request to join the first AP AP candidate set of APs.

In the solution provided in the present application, after receiving the AP candidate set information of the first AP, the second AP can send a first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame includes information for requesting to join The first information of the AP candidate set of the first AP enables the first AP to establish its own candidate set, so that the first AP can effectively manage the AP candidate set established by the first AP and avoid confusion.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the cooperation mode includes at least one of the following modes:

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes; or,

In the solution provided in this application, the third AP (that is, the shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP) can correspond to one or more of the above cooperation modes, so that the first AP has more resources when sharing transmission resources. On the other hand, the first AP sends the cooperation mode of the third AP as the candidate set information, which is helpful for other APs to consider selecting the same cooperation mode as the third AP when joining the candidate set of the first AP, which is convenient for The first AP performs unified and effective management on the APs added to the AP candidate set. The AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes. On the one hand, the second AP can choose whether to join the AP candidate set of the first AP according to the cooperation mode of the first AP; The AP has one or more cooperation modes, which can facilitate the first AP to uniformly manage other APs added to its candidate set or flexibly select a cooperation mode according to other APs added to its candidate set, thereby improving management efficiency.

In conjunction with the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the method further includes:

The second AP receives a second frame sent by the first AP, where the second frame includes first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate of the first AP or, the first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP can receive the second frame sent by the first AP, where the second frame includes first indication information indicating whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the second frame The AP can join or not join the AP candidate set of the first AP according to the indication of the first indication information, so that the first AP can establish its own candidate set.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the second frame further includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the second frame is a response frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the type of the first frame or the second frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the first information included in the first frame may be carried in a common action field or an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the first indication information included in the second frame may be carried in a status code field or an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set parameter field includes at least one of the following:

The second AP sends second information to the first AP, where the second information includes information of the second AP, wherein the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP can send the second information to the first AP, so that the first AP can combine the second information and the first information to establish its own candidate set, and further, the ability of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes second indication information , the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

The second AP receives a third frame sent by the first AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP ;

The second AP sends a fourth frame to the first AP according to the third information, the fourth frame includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees to the The invitation of the first AP mentioned above.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP may receive the third frame including the third information sent by the first AP to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the second AP may send the frame including the third information to the first AP. The fourth frame of the third indication information is used to indicate approval or disapproval of the invitation of the first AP. In this application, the second AP sends the third indication information to the first AP by receiving the third information sent by the first AP to actively invite the second AP to join its AP candidate set, so that the first AP can be effectively established Its AP candidate set improves the cooperation ability between APs.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the first information is further used to invite the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; the first indication information is also used to indicate the The first AP agrees to join the AP candidate set of the second AP, or the first indication information is further used to indicate that the first AP does not agree to join the AP candidate set of the second AP.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations, the first AP agrees with the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the method further includes:

The second AP receives a fifth frame sent by the first AP, where the fifth frame includes fifth indication information, where the fifth indication information is used to instruct the second AP to obtain information from the AP of the first AP delete from the candidate set; or,

The second AP sends a sixth frame to the first AP, where the sixth frame includes sixth indication information, where the sixth indication information is used by the second AP to request AP candidates from the first AP Centralized deletion.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fifth frame or the sixth frame further includes a reason field, and the reason field indicates a reason for deletion.

The second AP sends a seventh frame to the first AP, where the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, where the seventh indication information is used to request acquisition of AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP may send a seventh frame including seventh indication information to the first AP, so as to request to obtain the AP candidate set information of the first AP, so that the first AP can improve the establishment of its AP candidate set. efficiency.

In a third aspect, a method for establishing an AP candidate set is provided. The method includes: a first AP sends a third frame to a second AP, where the third frame includes third information, and the third information is used to invite all APs. adding the second AP to the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The first AP receives a fourth frame sent by the second AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to instruct the second AP to agree to the invitation of the first AP , or, the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree to the invitation of the first AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations, the method further includes:

The second AP sends the information of the second AP to the first AP.

the first AP receives the information of the second AP;

The first AP sends a third frame to the second AP, including:

The first AP sends the third frame to the second AP according to the information of the second AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP can first send the information of the second AP to the first AP, and after receiving the information, the first AP can send the information including the second information to the second AP according to the information of the second AP. The second frame is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. The second AP may send a fourth frame including fourth indication information to the first AP to indicate that the second AP agrees or disagrees with the first AP. The invitation of the AP can effectively establish the AP candidate set of the first AP, and further, the ability of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

The information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Information about the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, where the information about the AP candidate set includes the number of the AP candidate set that has joined, the MAC addresses of the APs of the AP candidate set that have joined, and the The BSSID of the AP in the AP candidate set, and the ID of the AP in the AP candidate set that has been added;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes eighth indication information, where the eighth indication information is used to indicate that the fourth frame is a response frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes ninth indication information, where the ninth indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations, the third information is further used to indicate that the first AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the second AP;

The third indication information is further used to instruct the second AP to allow the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP, or the third indication information is further used to instruct the second AP not to. Approve the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP.

In the solution provided by this application, the third information may include either inviting the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, or may include requesting to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; similarly, the third indication The information can be used to indicate that the second AP agrees or does not agree to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and can also be used to indicate whether to agree or disagree with the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; invite the second AP through the same information. The second AP joins the AP candidate set of the first AP and requests to join the AP candidate set of the second AP, and indicates the approval or disapproval invitation and the approval or disapproval request through the same indication information, which can save resources.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations, the type of the third frame or the fourth frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the third information or the third indication information is carried in a common action field, or in an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set parameter field includes at least one of the following:

The set ID to which the second AP that is invited to join the AP candidate set of the first AP belongs, and the cooperation mode adopted by the second AP that is invited to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations, the third indication information indicates that the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP, and the method further includes:

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fifth frame or the sixth frame further includes a reason field, and the reason field indicates a reason for deletion.

receiving, by the first AP, a seventh frame sent by the second AP, where the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, where the seventh indication information is used to request acquisition of AP candidate set information of the first AP;

The first AP sends an eighth frame to the second AP, where the eighth frame includes AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, after receiving the seventh frame including the seventh indication information sent by the second AP, the first AP sends the AP candidate set information of the first AP to the second AP, that is, the first AP has a targeted The AP candidate set information thereof is sent, thereby improving the efficiency of establishing the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

Information of a third AP, the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information of the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the MAC address of the third AP, the BSSID of the third AP, the ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations, the cooperation mode includes at least one of the following modes:

With reference to the third aspect, in some possible implementations, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes; or,

In a fourth aspect, a method for establishing an AP candidate set is provided. The method includes: a second AP receives a third frame, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join AP candidate set of the first AP;

The second AP sends a fourth frame to the first AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third information is used to indicate that the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP, or , and the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree to the invitation of the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP may receive the third frame including the third information sent by the first AP to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the second AP may send the frame including the third information to the first AP. The fourth frame of the third indication information is used to indicate whether to agree or disagree with the invitation of the first AP, so that the first AP can establish the AP candidate set of the first AP, which is convenient for the first AP to manage multiple APs and improve the AP collaboration ability.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the method further includes: the second AP sends the information of the second AP to the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP can first send the information of the second AP to the first AP, so that the first AP can send the second frame including the second information to the second AP according to the information of the second AP, for Invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second AP can send a fourth frame including fourth indication information to the first AP, which is used to indicate that the second AP agrees or disagrees with the invitation of the first AP, which can be valid The AP candidate set of the first AP is established, and further, the ability of multi-AP cooperation can be improved.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes eighth indication information, where the eighth indication information is used to indicate that the fourth frame is a response frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes ninth indication information, where the ninth indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the third information is further used to indicate that the first AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the second AP;

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the type of the third frame or the fourth frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the third information or the seventh indication information is carried in a public action field, or in an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set parameter field includes at least one of the following:

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the method further includes:

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fifth frame or the sixth frame further includes a reason field, and the reason field indicates a reason for deletion.

sending, by the second AP, a seventh frame to the first AP, where the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, where the seventh indication information is used to request acquisition of AP candidate set information of the first AP;

The second AP receives an eighth frame sent by the first AP, where the eighth frame includes AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In the solution provided in this application, the second AP can send the seventh frame including the seventh indication information to the first AP, so that the first AP can send its AP candidate set information to the second AP, that is, the first AP sends the information in a targeted manner. The AP candidate set information thereof can improve the efficiency of establishing the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

Information about a third AP, where the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information about the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the MAC address of the third AP, the BSSID of the third AP, the ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the cooperation mode includes at least one of the following modes:

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible implementations, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes; or,

A fifth aspect provides a communication device, comprising: a processing module configured to generate AP candidate set information of a first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate that the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission AP information;

A communication module, configured to send AP candidate set information of the first AP.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some possible implementations, the communication module is further configured to:

receiving a first frame sent by the second AP, where the first frame includes first information, where the first information is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The processing module is also used for:

Send a second frame to the second AP according to the first information, the second frame includes first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate of the first AP or, the first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

receiving second information, where the second information includes information of the second AP;

The processing module is further used for:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in some possible implementations, if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes second indication information , the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

sending a third frame to the second AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

A fourth frame sent by the second AP is received, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP.

For the beneficial effects of the fifth aspect, reference may be made to the beneficial effects of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a communication module configured to receive AP candidate set information of a first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate that the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission. AP information;

The communication module is further configured to send a first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information is used to request to join the first AP. Describe the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some possible implementations, the communication module is further configured to:

Receive a second frame sent by the first AP, where the second frame includes first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, or, The first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

Send second information to the first AP, where the second information includes information of the second AP, wherein the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets that the second AP supports to join;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

With reference to the sixth aspect, in some possible implementations, if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes second indication information , the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

receiving a third frame sent by the first AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

Send a fourth frame to the first AP according to the third information, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees with the first AP's invite.

For the beneficial effects of the sixth aspect, reference may be made to the beneficial effects of the second aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a seventh aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, comprising: a communication module configured to send a third frame to a second AP, where the third frame includes third information, and the third information is used to invite the second AP to join an AP candidate set of the first AP;

The communication module is further configured to receive a fourth frame sent by the second AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to instruct the second AP to agree to the first frame The invitation of the AP, or the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree with the invitation of the first AP.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the communication module is further configured to:

receiving the information of the second AP;

The third frame is sent to the second AP according to the information of the second AP.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes eighth indication information, where the eighth indication information is used to indicate that the fourth frame is a response frame.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes ninth indication information, where the ninth indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the third information is further used to indicate that the first AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the second AP;

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the type of the third frame or the fourth frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the third information or the third indication information is carried in a common action field, or in an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set parameter field includes at least one of the following:

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the third indication information indicates that the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP, and the communication module is further configured to:

sending a fifth frame to the second AP, where the fifth frame includes fifth indication information, where the fifth indication information is used to instruct the second AP to be deleted from the AP candidate set of the first AP; or,

Receive a sixth frame sent by the second AP, where the sixth frame includes sixth indication information, where the sixth indication information is used for the second AP to request deletion from the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fifth frame or the sixth frame further includes a reason field, and the reason field indicates a reason for deletion.

receiving a seventh frame sent by the second AP, where the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, where the seventh indication information is used to request acquisition of AP candidate set information of the first AP;

Send an eighth frame to the second AP, where the eighth frame includes AP candidate set information of the first AP.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the cooperation mode includes at least one of the following modes:

With reference to the seventh aspect, in some possible implementations, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes; or,

For the beneficial effects of the seventh aspect, reference may be made to the beneficial effects of the third aspect, which will not be repeated here.

According to an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided, wherein the communication module is configured to receive a third frame, where the third frame includes third information, and the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the first AP. AP candidate set of AP;

The communication module is further configured to send a fourth frame to the first AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, and the third information is used to instruct the second AP to agree to the first AP's Invitation, or the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree to the invitation of the first AP.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the method further includes:

The second AP sends the information of the second AP to the first AP.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes eighth indication information, where the eighth indication information is used to indicate that the fourth frame is a response frame.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fourth frame further includes ninth indication information, where the ninth indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the third information is further used to indicate that the first AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the second AP;

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the type of the third frame or the fourth frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the third information or the seventh indication information is carried in a public action field, or in an AP candidate set parameter field.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set parameter field includes at least one of the following:

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the communication module is further configured to receive a fifth frame sent by the first AP, where the fifth frame includes fifth indication information, and the fifth indication The information is used to instruct the second AP to be deleted from the AP candidate set of the first AP; or,

Send a sixth frame to the first AP, where the sixth frame includes sixth indication information, where the sixth indication information is used for the second AP to request deletion from the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementation manners, the fifth frame or the sixth frame further includes a reason field, and the reason field indicates a reason for deletion.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the communication module is further configured to send a seventh frame to the first AP, where the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, and the seventh indication information for requesting to obtain AP candidate set information of the first AP;

An eighth frame sent by the first AP is received, where the eighth frame includes AP candidate set information of the first AP.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the cooperation mode includes at least one of the following modes:

With reference to the eighth aspect, in some possible implementations, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes; or,

For the beneficial effects of the eighth aspect, reference may be made to the beneficial effects of the fourth aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided, and the communication device may be the first AP in the above method embodiments, or a chip provided in the first AP. The communication device includes a transceiver, a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs or instructions, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the transceiver, and when the processor executes the computer program or instructions, the communication device executes the method executed by the first AP in the above method embodiments .

In a tenth aspect, a communication device is provided, and the communication device may be the second AP in the above method embodiments, or a chip provided in the second AP. The communication device includes a transceiver, a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs or instructions, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the transceiver, and when the processor executes the computer program or instructions, the communication device is made to execute the method executed by the second AP in the above method embodiments .

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system, where the chip system includes a processor for implementing the functions of the first AP or the second AP in the methods of the above aspects. In one possible design, the system-on-a-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and/or data. The chip system may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

Alternatively, the discrete device may be an interface or interface circuit.

Optionally, the above-mentioned processor may also be a processing circuit.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed, the first AP or the second AP executes the above aspects. Methods.

In a thirteenth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: computer program code that, when executed, causes the method of the above aspects to be performed by the first AP or the second AP be executed.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a network architecture diagram of a multi-access point cooperation system according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a method for establishing an AP candidate set according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of fields of AP candidate set information of a first AP according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a cooperation mode corresponding to a third AP according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a cooperation mode corresponding to an AP candidate set of a first AP according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of information of a second AP provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of another method for establishing an AP candidate set according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of another communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of still another communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 11 is a schematic block diagram of still another communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram of still another communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 13 is a schematic block diagram of still another communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

The technical solutions in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to wireless local area networks (WLAN for short) systems, and can also be applied to communication systems of other standards, for example, long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE for short) systems, 5G systems and other communication systems in the future. Taking a WLAN system as an example, a station (station, STA for short) and an AP for short are basic components of the WLAN system. Among them, the AP is the access point for mobile users to access the wired network. It is mainly deployed in homes, buildings, and campuses, with a typical coverage radius ranging from tens of meters to hundreds of meters. Of course, it can also be deployed outdoors. AP is equivalent to a bridge connecting wired network and wireless network. Its main function is to connect various wireless network clients together, and then connect the wireless network to Ethernet. Specifically, the AP may be a device with a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, WiFi) chip, for example, a terminal device or a network device with a WiFi chip. Optionally, the AP may be a device supporting 802.11ax; optionally, the AP may also be a device supporting multiple WLAN standards such as 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11a, and further, the The AP may also be a device that supports 802.11be and other WLAN standards of the 802.11 standard in the future, and the system type supported by the AP is not limited in this embodiment.

A STA is generally a terminal device in a WLAN system. The STA can be mobile or fixed, and is the most basic component of a wireless local area network. The STA can be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor, or a wireless communication terminal. For example: mobile phones that support WiFi communication, tablet computers that support WiFi communication, set-top boxes that support WiFi communication, smart TVs that support WiFi communication, smart wearable devices that support WiFi communication, in-vehicle communication that supports WiFi communication Devices and computers that support WiFi communication. FIG. 1 is a network architecture diagram of a multi-access point cooperation system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1 , the network architecture may include one or more access point devices, for example, the access point device 10 , the access point device 20 , and the access point device 30 shown in FIG. 1 . The network architecture may also include one or more station devices (not shown in the figure).

It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit the specific structure of the execution body of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application, as long as the program in which the codes of the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application are recorded can be executed according to the embodiments of the present application. The provided method only needs to perform communication. For example, the execution subject of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be an access point device, or a functional module in the access point device that can call a program and execute the program.

Additionally, various aspects or features of the present application may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used in this application encompasses a computer program accessible from any computer readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer-readable storage media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (eg, hard disks, floppy disks, or magnetic tapes, etc.), optical disks (eg, compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs) ), etc.), smart cards and flash memory devices (eg, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), cards, stick or key drives, etc.).

Additionally, various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable storage media for storing information. The term "machine-readable storage medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instructions and/or data.

It should be understood that the manners, situations, categories, and divisions of the embodiments in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description, and should not constitute a special limitation. Various manners, categories, situations, and features in the embodiments are not inconsistent cases can be combined.

It should also be understood that "first", "second" and "third" in the embodiments of the present application are only for distinction, and should not constitute any limitation to the present application. For example, "first information" and "second information" in the embodiments of this application represent information transmitted between access point devices.

It should also be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence numbers of each process does not imply the sequence of execution, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, rather than the embodiment of the present application. implementation constitutes any limitation.

With the development of wireless networks and the continuous popularization of WLAN technology, WLAN devices have become more and more dense. Since APs (the APs can be the access point devices in Figure 1 above) are easy to deploy, more and more dense APs also bring more inter-cell interference.

When an AP shares transmission resources or transmission opportunities with other APs, it needs to determine which APs to share with. To this end, it is necessary to establish a multi-AP cooperation set, or AP candidate set.

At present, all multiple APs that may participate in multi-AP cooperative transmission constitute a large AP candidate set. In this large AP candidate set, there may be multiple shared APs (that is, APs that initiate or participate in multi-AP transmission), and multiple shared APs (that is, APs that are shared with transmission resources or transmission opportunities). Transmission resources or transmission opportunities can be shared with any one or more shared APs.

For a shared AP, not any shared AP is suitable for multi-AP transmission with it. In addition, due to the existence of multiple shared APs, it is not conducive to the management of the shared APs, that is, each shared AP does not know which shared AP is managed, and the IDs of the shared APs are difficult to be different from each other, resulting in confusion. (For example, two sharing APs provide the same ID to a shared AP).

Therefore, the present application provides a method for establishing an AP candidate set (also referred to as a candidate set), which is convenient for managing multiple APs and can avoid confusion.

FIG. 2 shows a method 200 for establishing an AP candidate set provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method 200 may be performed by an access point device, or may also be performed by a chip in the access point device. The method 200 may include:

S210: The first AP generates AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate information of an AP that initiates multi-AP transmission.

The first AP in this embodiment of the present application may be the access point device 10 or the access point device 20 or the access point device 30 in the foregoing FIG. 1 . In this embodiment of the present application, the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the information of the AP that initiates multi-AP transmission, which can be understood as: the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the AP that can initiate multi-AP transmission (maybe Information included for the above-mentioned sharing AP). In other words, the first AP can perform resource sharing as a sharing AP, the first AP establishes an AP cooperation set with itself as a sharing AP, and generates its candidate set information, where the candidate set information includes or indicates that the first AP will establish or The information of the established AP candidate set, the candidate set information can be further used as a reference for whether other APs choose to join the AP cooperation set of the first AP.

In addition, the AP candidate set information of the first AP in this embodiment of the present application may also be used to indicate the information included in the APs (which may be the shared APs mentioned above) that can participate in multi-AP transmission. It can be understood that the first AP participates in the transmission between APs in the cooperative set established by itself, or it can be understood as the transmission between multiple APs participating in the cooperative set of other APs to which the first AP joins, which is not limited in this application.

S220, the first AP sends AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first AP may send the AP candidate set information of the first AP in a multicast (also called multicast) or unicast manner, which is not limited. In other words, the first AP may send AP candidate set information of the first AP to a single AP, and the first AP may also send AP candidate set information of the first AP to at least two APs.

It can be understood that each AP with the sharing capability, that is, the AP that can share its own transmission resources with other APs, can be used as the first AP to establish its corresponding AP candidate set, and its own candidate set information Send to other APs to achieve effective cooperation between multiple APs. Of course, the first AP, which is the sharing AP, can also be used as the shared AP to join the cooperation set established by other APs, so as to realize the orderly and efficient cooperation of the cooperation sets of multiple APs.

S230, the second AP receives the AP candidate set information of the first AP.

The second AP in this embodiment of the present application may be the access point device 20 or the access point device 10 or the access point device 30 in the foregoing FIG. 1 . If the first AP is the access point device 10, the second AP may be the access point device 20 and/or the access point device 30; if the first AP is the access point device 20, the second AP is the access point The device 10 and/or the access point device 30 ; if the first AP is the access point device 30 , the second AP is the access point device 10 and/or the access point device 20 .

Further, the method 200 may further include step S240:

S240. The second AP sends a first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information is used to request to join the first AP. AP candidate set for the first AP.

In this embodiment of the present application, after receiving the AP candidate set information of the first AP, the second AP may send a first frame to the first AP based on the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame may be a request frame , and the first information included therein is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

It can be understood that, in some embodiments, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may also provide a reference for other APs (such as the second AP in the following) whether to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP; The AP candidate set information of the AP may be used to guide or indicate whether other APs send information requesting to join the AP candidate set of the first AP; it is not limited.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the above step S240 may also not depend on the above step S230. In other words, the second AP may also directly send the first frame including the first information to the first AP, for requesting to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

In other embodiments, before the first AP sends its AP candidate set information, the second AP can also actively ask the first AP whether it is going to establish an AP candidate set or whether it has already established an AP candidate set, if the first AP responds to the first AP If the second AP is going to establish the AP candidate set of the first AP or has already established the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second AP can send the first frame including the first information to the first AP, which is used to request the AP to join the first AP candidate set.

In the solution provided in this application, the first AP generates and sends its AP candidate set information, so that other APs can learn the candidate set information established by the first AP. For example, after the second AP receives the AP candidate set information of the first AP , it can further decide whether to join the candidate set established by the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP. If it decides to join, the second AP can send the first frame to the first AP, and the first frame includes the first information for requesting to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, so that the first AP can establish its own AP candidate set, so that the first AP can effectively manage the AP candidate set established by it, and avoid confusion.

It is pointed out above that the first AP may generate and send the AP candidate set information of the first AP, wherein for the specific information included in the AP candidate set information of the first AP, please refer to the following.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

Information of a third AP, the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information of the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the MAC address of the third AP, the basic service set identifier (basic service set identifier, BSSID) of the third AP, the ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

In this embodiment of the present application, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include one or more of the foregoing information. Assuming that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9 and AP10), the following will take the first AP as AP1 as an example to illustrate the AP candidate set information of AP1 .

The maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of AP1, that is, the maximum number of shared APs that the AP candidate set of AP1 can include. For example, the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of AP1 is 50, that is, AP1 The AP candidate set can include a maximum of 50 shared APs. The maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the AP1 may be specified by the protocol, may also be configured by the system, or be determined by the communication capability of the AP1 itself.

It can be understood that, for different APs, the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set may be the same or different, which is not limited.

As shown in FIG. 3 , it is a schematic diagram of fields of AP candidate set information of a first AP according to an embodiment of the present application. The information of the third AP in the embodiment of this application is the information of the APs that have joined the AP candidate set of AP1, and the information may include the number of the third AP, the MAC address of the third AP, the BSSID of the third AP, the third AP one or more of the ID of the third AP and the cooperation mode of the third AP.

Exemplarily, if the number of third APs is 5, that is, the number of APs included in the AP candidate set added to AP1 is 5 (for example, five APs AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, and AP6 are added to the AP candidate set of AP1). ); the information of the third AP may also include the MAC address, BSSID, ID, and one or more of the cooperation modes of each of the five APs. Taking the third AP being AP2 as an example, the information of the third AP may further include the MAC address of the AP2, or include the MAC address and BSSID of the AP2, or include the MAC address of the AP2, the BSSID, and the ID of the AP2, or , including the AP2's MAC address, BSSID, AP2's ID, and cooperation mode.

As for other possibilities, they are similar to the above-mentioned examples, and are not repeated here for the sake of brevity.

The AP candidate set information of the first AP may also include whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1, wherein the information of whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1 can be realized through indication information, that is, the first AP The AP candidate set information includes indication information indicating that the second AP is allowed to join its AP candidate set, or the indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join its AP candidate set.

The AP candidate set information of the first AP may also include the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission, which can be understood as how many APs AP1 can allocate resources to for parallel transmission in one transmission; The set information may also include the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity, which may be understood as a single transmission opportunity may include multiple transmissions, and the multiple transmissions may be transmissions performed at staggered times.

In addition, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may also include whether a shared AP has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information may simply indicate whether the AP candidate set of the first AP already has a shared AP, In this way, a reference can be provided for other second APs to be added to the AP candidate set of the first AP.

The AP candidate set information of the first AP may further include a cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP. The AP candidate set of the first AP may include multiple AP candidate sets, and the multiple AP candidate sets may support the same or different cooperation modes, which are not limited.

In an optional implementation manner, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include the following information: the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP and information of a third AP, the third AP The information of , may include the number of third APs, so that the second AP can determine the AP candidate set that requests to join the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In another optional implementation manner, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include the following information: the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP and information of a third AP, the third AP The AP information may include the MAC address of the third AP, so that the second AP can determine the corresponding number of third APs according to the MAC address of the third AP, and combine the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP. The number determines the AP candidate set requesting to join the first AP.

In another optional implementation manner, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include the following information: whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the second AP receives the information Afterwards, the AP candidate set requesting to join the first AP can be determined according to the information.

In another optional implementation manner, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include the following information: the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission or the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity, the second After receiving the information, the AP can determine the probability of resources or opportunities that it can share according to the information, so as to determine the AP candidate set that requests to join the first AP.

In another optional implementation manner, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include the following information: the cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP, after receiving the information, the second AP may support Or the included cooperation mode determines the AP candidate set requesting to join the first AP.

It should be understood that the above implementation manners are only examples, and there may be various implementation manners. For example, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP and the third Information of the AP, the information of the third AP may include one or more of the number of the third AP, the AMC address of the third AP, the BSSID of the third AP, the ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP Or, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may also include the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP, the information of the third AP, and whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate of the first AP Alternatively, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may also include the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP, the information of the third AP, and whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP of the first AP. The candidate set and the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission; alternatively, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may also include the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP, the information, whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission, and the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity; or, the AP candidate set of the first AP The information may also include the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP, information of the third AP, whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the largest AP supported by a single transmission. The number of APs, the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity, and whether any shared APs have joined the AP candidate set of the first AP; or, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may also include the first AP’s The maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set, the information of the third AP, whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission, supported by a single transmission opportunity The maximum number of APs, whether there is already a shared AP added to the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP, etc.

As for other possibilities, they are similar to the above-mentioned implementation manner, and are not repeated here.

As described above, the AP candidate set information of the first AP may include the cooperation mode of the third AP or the cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the cooperation mode may include at least one of the following modes:

Coordinated Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Coordinated Spatial Multiplexing, Coordinated Beamforming, Joint Transmission.

In the embodiments of the present application, the coordinated OFDMA mode in the cooperative mode can be understood as when the bandwidth is large, multiple APs can transmit on different channels in the form of OFDMA, so as to achieve the effect of mutual non-interference. Coordinated TDMA can be understood that when an AP obtains a transmission opportunity, it transmits data, and when it fails to use up its transmission opportunity, the time in the remaining transmission opportunity can be allocated to other APs for transmission, which can make other APs faster. Obtain transmission, thereby reducing communication delay. Coordinated spatial reuse can be understood that when two APs are separated by a certain distance, they can transmit on the same channel at the same time. Through the control of transmission power, the mutual interference will be within an acceptable range. Coordinated beamforming can be understood that if multiple APs can obtain all channel information, they can perform interference nulling processing on a station (station, STA) of another cell during parallel transmission to avoid interference.

In the embodiment of the present application, the cooperation mode of the third AP may be the cooperation mode supported by each AP in the third AP, or the included cooperation mode, or the adopted cooperation mode, or the supported cooperation mode, or the cooperation mode that can be included, or the cooperation mode that can be used; the cooperation mode of the third AP can also be the cooperation mode supported by at least one AP in the third AP, or the included cooperation mode, or the adopted cooperation mode. The collaboration mode, or the collaboration modes that can be supported, or the collaboration modes that can be included, or the collaboration modes that can be adopted.

Similarly, the cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP may be the cooperation mode supported by each AP candidate set in the AP candidate set of the first AP, or the included cooperation mode, or the adopted cooperation mode, or the The cooperation mode that can be supported, or the cooperation mode that can be included, or the cooperation mode that can be adopted; the cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP can be supported by at least one AP candidate set in the AP candidate set of the first AP The cooperation mode, or the included cooperation mode, or the adopted cooperation mode, or the supported cooperation mode, or the possible included cooperation mode, or the available cooperation mode.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, the cooperation mode of the third AP may include one or more of the above modes, or the cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP may include one of the above modes or more, or, the cooperation mode of the third AP and the cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP may include one or more of the above modes, which are not limited.

It should also be noted that the cooperation modes in the embodiments of the present application include, but are not limited to, the several modes shown above, and may also include cooperation modes that may appear in the future.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperative modes; or, the AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperative modes kind.

In this embodiment of the present application, the third AP may correspond to one or more of the foregoing cooperation modes: the third AP supports one or more of the foregoing cooperation modes, or the third AP includes one or more of the foregoing cooperation modes one or more, or the third AP adopts one or more of the foregoing cooperation modes, which is not specifically limited in this application.

In this embodiment of the present application, it may be understood that the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes, and each AP of the third APs corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes, or that the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes. At least one of the APs corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes. Similarly, the fact that the AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperative modes can be understood as that each AP candidate set in the AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperative modes or, at least one AP candidate set in the AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes.

As shown in FIG. 4 , it is a schematic diagram of a cooperation mode corresponding to a third AP according to an embodiment of the present application. In a possible implementation, it is assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10), wherein, it is assumed that among the 10 APs AP1 can send its AP candidate set information, and AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, and AP6 can all be added to AP1's AP candidate set, then each of the five APs (that is, the third AP) can correspond to the above One or more of the collaborative modes. Taking AP2 as an example, AP2 may correspond to one or more of coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, and coordinated beamforming. For example, AP2 may correspond to coordinated OFDMA, or, may correspond to coordinated OFDMA and coordinated TDMA, or, may correspond to Coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, or may correspond to coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, and coordinated beamforming, or may correspond to coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, coordinated beamforming, and joint transmission, etc. As for other possibilities, they are similar to the above-mentioned examples, and are not repeated here for the sake of brevity.

Similarly, other APs (such as AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6) in the AP candidate set of the AP1 may also correspond to one or more of the above-mentioned cooperation modes, which will not be repeated.

As shown in FIG. 5 , it is a schematic diagram of a cooperation mode corresponding to the AP candidate set of the first AP according to the embodiment of the present application. In another possible implementation, it is still assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9 and AP10), wherein, it is assumed that these 10 APs AP1 sends its AP candidate set information, and has established multiple AP candidate sets (for example, AP candidate set 1, AP candidate set 2 and AP candidate set 3 are established), then the multiple AP candidate sets can correspond to the above cooperation mode one or more of. Exemplarily, taking AP candidate set 1 as an example, for example, AP candidate set 1 may correspond to coordinated OFDMA, or AP candidate set 1 may correspond to coordinated OFDMA and coordinated TDMA, or, AP candidate set 1 may correspond to coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, Coordinated spatial multiplexing, or, AP candidate set 1 may correspond to coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, and coordinated beamforming, or may correspond to coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, coordinated beamforming, and joint transmission, etc. . As for other possibilities, they are similar to the above-mentioned examples, and are not repeated here for the sake of brevity.

Similarly, other AP candidate sets (such as AP candidate set 2 and AP candidate set 3) of the AP1 may also correspond to one or more of the above-mentioned cooperation modes, and details are not repeated here.

In the solution provided in this application, the third AP (that is, the shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP) can correspond to one or more of the above cooperation modes, so that the first AP has more resources when sharing transmission resources. On the other hand, the first AP sends the cooperation mode of the third AP as the candidate set information, which is helpful for other APs to consider selecting the same cooperation mode as the third AP when joining the candidate set of the first AP. The first AP performs unified and effective management of the APs that join the AP candidate set; the AP candidate set of the first AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes. On the one hand, other APs that join the AP candidate set of the first AP are allowed to Whether to join the AP candidate set of the first AP can be selected according to the cooperation mode of the first AP; on the other hand, the first AP has one or more cooperation modes, which can facilitate the first AP to unify other APs that join its candidate set Manage or flexibly select a collaboration mode according to other APs that join its candidate set to improve management efficiency.

In the above step S240, the second AP sends the first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, the first AP can receive the first frame sent by the second AP, and based on the first frame The first information in a frame indicates to the second AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the method 200 further includes: receiving, by the first AP, a first frame sent by the second AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information uses upon requesting to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The first AP sends a second frame to the second AP according to the first information, where the second frame includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to indicate that the second AP is allowed to join the first AP. An AP candidate set of an AP, or the first indication information is used to indicate that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. Correspondingly, the second AP receives the second frame sent by the first AP.

In this embodiment of the present application, after receiving the second frame, the second AP may join or not join the AP candidate set of the first AP according to the first indication information included in the second frame.

Exemplarily, it is still assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10), wherein, among the 10 APs, AP1 sends its AP Candidate set information, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10 can all send the first frame to AP1, and the first frame includes the first information to request to join the AP candidate set of AP1. Taking AP2 as an example, after receiving the first frame sent by AP2, AP1 can send a second frame to AP2 (for example, it can send a second frame to AP2 according to its own candidate set information). The first indication information indicating whether AP2 is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1.

Specifically, in a possible implementation, it is assumed that the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of AP1 is 10. If the number of APs included in the AP candidate set is 5, then AP1 AP2 may be approved to join its AP candidate set, that is, at this time, the first indication information may indicate that AP2 is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1. Therefore, after receiving the first indication information, the second AP can join the AP candidate set of AP1. Alternatively, if the number of APs included in its AP candidate set is 10, AP1 may not agree to AP2 joining its AP candidate set, that is, the first indication information may indicate that AP2 does not agree to join AP1's AP candidate set. Therefore, after receiving the first indication information, the second AP does not join the AP candidate set of AP1.

In another possible implementation, it is assumed that the AP candidate set information of AP1 includes whether AP2 is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1. For example, the indication information that AP2 is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1 is included. After the information is obtained, the AP candidate set of AP1 can be added. Alternatively, the AP candidate set information of AP1 includes indication information that AP2 is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1, then AP2 may not join the AP candidate set of AP1 after receiving the indication information.

Of course, in some embodiments, the AP candidate set information of AP1 may include the MAC address of the third AP and the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of AP1. The first indication information is sent according to the maximum number of shared APs supported by the set. If the AP candidate set information of AP1 includes 6 MAC addresses, and the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of AP1 is 10, then AP1 can infer the AP candidates that have joined AP1 at this time based on the 6 MAC addresses. The number of shared APs (that is, third APs) in the set is 6. Since the number of third APs is less than the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of AP1, the first indication information can indicate consent at this time. AP2 joins AP1's AP candidate set. Therefore, after receiving the first indication information, the second AP can join the AP candidate set of AP1. Or, if the AP candidate set information of AP1 includes 10 MAC addresses, AP1 can infer from the 10 MAC addresses that the number of shared APs (ie, third APs) that have joined AP1's AP candidate set at this time is 10. The number of third APs is the same as the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of AP1. Therefore, AP1 may not agree with AP2 to join its AP candidate set, that is, the first indication information may indicate that AP2 does not agree to join AP1. AP candidate set. Therefore, after receiving the first indication information, the second AP does not join the AP candidate set of AP1.

In other embodiments, the AP candidate set information of AP1 may include a list of MAC addresses of shared APs that want to join its candidate set. information, AP1 can match the MAC address of AP2 with the MAC address list of the candidate shared APs included in the candidate set (that is, the shared APs that AP1 wants to add to the candidate set described above). If the matching is successful, It indicates that AP2 is allowed to join its AP candidate set; if the matching is unsuccessful, it indicates that AP2 is not allowed to join its AP candidate set.

In the solution provided by this application, the first AP receives the first frame including the first information sent by the second AP, and the first information is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. information to send a second frame to the second AP, the second frame includes first indication information indicating whether the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, so that the first AP can establish its own AP candidate set . That is to say, after the first AP sends the candidate set information corresponding to its AP candidate set, other APs will send a request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP to the first AP according to the candidate set information, and the first AP further Deciding whether to approve the request of the AP sending the request message according to the request is helpful for the first AP and other APs to establish an AP candidate set according to their own conditions, and it is convenient for the first AP to effectively manage other APs joining its candidate set.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the second frame further includes fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate that the second frame is a response frame.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first frame sent by the second AP to the first AP may be a request frame, and the second frame sent by the first AP to the second AP may be a response frame.

In some implementations, the second frame sent by the first AP to the second AP may include fourth indication information for indicating that the second frame is a response frame.

The first frame in this embodiment of the present application may include the fields in Table 1:

Table 1

Optionally, in some embodiments, the type of the first frame or the second frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the first information included in the first frame may be carried in a common action field or an AP candidate set parameter field.

If the first information is carried in the public action field, a preset value of the public action field may represent the first information; if the first information is carried in the AP candidate set parameter field, a type of the AP candidate set parameter field A field (eg request type) may carry the first information.

The second frame in this embodiment of the present application may include the fields in Table 2:

Table 2

11	类型(category)type (category)
22	公共行动(public action)public action
33	AP候选集参数(AP candidate set parameters)AP candidate set parameters
44	状态码(status code)(可选地(optional))status code (optional)

Optionally, in some embodiments, the first indication information included in the second frame may be carried in a status code field or an AP candidate set parameter field.

If the first indication information is carried in the status code field, a preset value in the status code field may represent the first indication information. For example, the preset value may be a value corresponding to any one of the 16 bits, such as The preset value may be 1, 2, 32, etc.; if the first indication information is carried in the AP candidate set parameter field, a status field included in the AP candidate set parameter field may carry the first indication information.

The above-mentioned fourth indication information may be carried in the public action field or the AP candidate set parameter field. If the fourth indication information is carried in the public action field, a preset value of the public action field may represent the fourth indication information. For example, the preset value may be a value corresponding to any one of the 16 bits, such as The preset value may be 1, 2, 32, etc.; if the fourth indication information is carried in the AP candidate set parameter field, a type field (eg request type) included in the AP candidate set parameter field may carry the fourth indication information .

Optionally, in some embodiments, the AP candidate set parameter field includes at least one of the following:

In this embodiment of the present application, the AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame may include the set ID of the AP candidate set requested by the second AP to join or the cooperation mode adopted by the AP candidate set of the first AP requested to join.

Exemplarily, it is still assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10), wherein, among the 10 APs, AP1 sends its AP Candidate set information, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10 can send the first frame to AP1, and the AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame can include the requested AP candidate set. The set ID or the cooperation mode adopted by the AP candidate set of the first AP requesting to join.

Taking the first AP being AP1 and the second AP being AP2 as an example, AP2 sends a first frame including first information to AP1, where the first information is used to request to join the AP candidate set of AP1. The AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame may include the set ID of the AP candidate set requested to join AP1. If the AP candidate set of AP1 includes one AP candidate set, the AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame may include Request to join the 1 AP candidate set; if the AP candidate set of AP1 includes multiple AP candidate sets, the AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame can request to join one or more APs in the multiple candidate sets The candidate set can be realized by the set ID of the requested AP candidate set.

In addition, the AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame may further include the cooperation mode adopted by the AP candidate set of AP1 that requests to join. For example, the AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame may include the cooperation mode adopted by AP2 requesting to join the AP candidate set of AP1, and the cooperation mode may be coordinated OFDMA, coordinated TDMA, coordinated spatial multiplexing, coordinated beamforming and joint one or more of the transmissions. Exemplarily, the AP candidate set parameter field in the first frame may include that the cooperation mode adopted by AP2 to request to join the AP candidate set of AP1 is coordinated OFDMA, or coordinated OFDMA and coordinated TDMA, or coordinated OFDMA, Coordinated TDMA and Coordinated Spatial Multiplexing, or, Coordinated OFDMA, Coordinated TDMA, Coordinated Spatial Multiplexing and Coordinated Beamforming, or Coordinated OFDMA, Coordinated TDMA, Coordinated Spatial Multiplexing, Coordinated Beamforming, and Joint Transmission, etc.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, the parameter field of the AP candidate set may only include the set ID of the AP candidate set that the second AP requests to join, or the cooperation mode adopted after the second AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. , may also include the set ID of the AP candidate set that the second AP requests to join and the cooperation mode adopted after the second AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, which is not limited.

It is explained above that the first AP can send the second frame to the second AP according to the first information. In some embodiments, the first AP can also send the second frame to the second AP according to other information.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the method 200 further includes: the second AP sends second information to the first AP, where the second information includes information of the second AP.

the first AP receives the second information;

In the above steps, the first AP sends the second frame to the second AP according to the first information, including:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

It should be noted that, the second information in this embodiment of the present application may be sent in the same frame (eg, the above-mentioned first frame) as the first information, or may be sent in a different frame, which is not limited.

In this embodiment of the present application, the step of the second AP sending its own information (that is, the second information) to the first AP may be located before the foregoing step S240, that is, after the first AP receives the second information sent by the second AP, The second frame is sent to the second AP according to the second information and the first information to indicate whether the second AP is approved or disapproved to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. The first information and the second information may be sent in the same frame, or may be sent in different frames, which are not limited in this application.

Exemplarily, it is still assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10), wherein, among the 10 APs, AP1 sends its AP For the candidate set information, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9 and AP10 can all send second information to AP1, where the second information mainly includes the information of the respective APs. After receiving the second information, the AP1 may send the second frame according to the second information and the first information. Taking the second AP being AP2 as an example, after receiving the second information sent by AP2, AP1 may send a second frame to AP2 according to the second information and the first information, where the second frame may include the first indication information, and the second frame may include the first indication information. An indication message is used to indicate whether AP2 is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1.

As shown in FIG. 6 , it is a schematic diagram of the information of the second AP provided by the embodiment of the present application. Assuming that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9 and AP10), the following will take the second AP as AP2 as an example to illustrate the second information of AP2.

Among them, the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by AP2, that is, how many AP candidate sets AP2 can join at most. For example, the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by AP2 is 5, that is, AP2 can join at most 5 AP candidate sets. The maximum number of AP candidate sets that the AP2 supports to join may be specified by the protocol, may also be configured by the system, or may be determined by the communication capability of the AP2 itself.

It can be understood that, for different APs, the maximum number of AP candidate sets that it supports to join may be the same or different, which is not limited.

In this embodiment of the present application, the information about the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, the information may include the number of AP candidate sets that have joined, the MAC addresses of the APs that have joined the AP candidate set, and the The BSSID of the AP, and the ID of the second AP in the AP candidate set that has already joined.

Exemplarily, the number of AP candidate sets that AP2 has joined, for example, the number of AP candidate sets that AP2 has joined is 2 (for example, AP2 has joined the AP candidate set of AP3 and the AP candidate set of AP4); the information of AP2 may also be It includes one or more of the MAC address, BSSID, and ID of AP2 in the AP candidate set of AP3 to which AP2 has joined, and the MAC address, BSSID, and AP candidate set of AP4 that AP2 has joined. One or more of the IDs of AP2 in AP4's AP candidate set.

The information of AP2 may also include whether to be invited (or requested) to join an AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has already joined. As in the above example, AP2 has joined the AP candidate set of AP3 and the AP candidate set of AP4, then the information of AP2 may also include allowing or not allowing AP2 to be invited to join the AP candidate set of AP1, wherein the information can be obtained through the indication information Implementation, that is, the second information that the second AP can send to the first AP can include indication information, the indication information indicates that AP2 is allowed to be invited to join the AP candidate set of AP1, or the indication information indicates that AP2 is not allowed to be invited to join AP1 AP candidate set.

The information of AP2 may also include whether AP2 has joined the AP candidate set. This information can be implemented through indication information. For example, the information of AP2 includes indication information that AP2 has joined the AP candidate set, or includes AP2 that has not joined the AP candidate set. Instructions.

The information of AP2 may also include whether AP2 supports as a sharing AP or a shared AP, and this information may also be realized through indication information. For example, the information of AP2 includes indication information that AP2 supports as a sharing AP, or includes AP2 does not support as a sharing AP. The indication information of the AP, or, includes the indication information that AP2 supports being the shared AP, or includes the indication information that AP2 does not support being the shared AP, and so on.

In an optional implementation manner, the information of the second AP may include the following information: the maximum number of AP candidate sets that the second AP supports to join and the information of the AP candidate sets that the second AP has joined, the second AP has joined The information of the AP candidate set added may include the number of AP candidate sets that the second AP has joined, so that the first AP sends an indication of agreeing or disagreeing with the second AP according to the information of the second AP and in combination with the AP candidate set information of the first AP. The AP joins the first indication information of its AP candidate set.

In another optional implementation manner, the information of the second AP may include the following information: the maximum number of AP candidate sets that the second AP supports to join and the information of the AP candidate sets that the second AP has joined. The information of the AP candidate set that has joined may include the MAC address of the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, so that the first AP can determine, according to the MAC address of the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, that the corresponding second AP has joined. The number of AP candidate sets, thus, the first AP sends the first indication information indicating whether the second AP joins its AP candidate set according to the information of the second AP and in combination with the AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In another optional implementation manner, the information of the second AP may include the following information: whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join an AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has already joined, and the first AP receives the After the information is obtained, first indication information indicating whether the second AP is allowed to join its AP candidate set may be sent according to the information and the AP candidate set information of the first AP.

It should be understood that the above implementation manners are only examples, and there may also be various implementation manners. For example, the information of the second AP may include the maximum number of AP candidate sets that the second AP supports to join and the number of AP candidate sets that the second AP has joined. information, the information of the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined may include the number of the AP candidate set that has joined, the MAC addresses of the APs that have joined the AP candidate set, the One or more of the BSSID of the AP and the ID of the second AP in the AP candidate set that has already joined; or, the information of the second AP may include the maximum number of AP candidate sets that the second AP supports to join, the first AP candidate set. The information of the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, and whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join the AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that it has joined; or, the information of the second AP may include that the second AP supports joining The maximum number of AP candidate sets that the second AP has joined, the information about the AP candidate sets that the second AP has joined, whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join AP candidate sets other than the AP candidate set that it has joined, and whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set Join the AP candidate set; or, the information of the second AP may include the maximum number of AP candidate sets that the second AP supports to join, the information of the AP candidate sets that the second AP has joined, and whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join in addition to the AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has been added, whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set, and whether the second AP supports as a shared AP or a shared AP, etc.

It is pointed out above that the first AP sends the second frame to the second AP, and the second indication information included in the second frame may indicate whether or not the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. In the case where the first indication information indicates consent, the second frame may further include other information, for details, please refer to the following.

Optionally, in some embodiments, if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes second indication information, the first The second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

In the embodiment of the present application, it is still assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10). Its AP candidate set information, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10 can send the first frame to AP1. After receiving the first frame, AP1 can send the first frame to the corresponding AP. The second frame is sent to indicate whether the corresponding AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of AP1, and in the case of indicating agreement, the ID allocated to the corresponding AP can also be indicated to the corresponding AP through the second indication information.

Taking the second AP being AP2 as an example, after receiving the first frame sent by AP2, AP1 can send a second frame to AP2, where the second frame includes first indication information, assuming that the first indication information indicates that AP2 is allowed to join AP1 The second frame may also include second indication information, indicating the ID allocated to AP2, for example, the ID allocated to AP2 is "0" or "1", which is not limited.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, the IDs allocated to different APs by the first AP are different, for example, the ID allocated to AP2 is "1", the ID allocated to AP3 is "2", etc.; the first AP is allocated to the AP is different from the association ID (AID) assigned to its associated site. In addition, in this embodiment of the present application, the ID allocated to the AP may start from "2048".

It can be understood that, in the case where the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second indication information may indicate the ID allocated to the second AP, which is the ID of the first AP. The ID of the third AP (an AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP) included in the AP candidate set information.

In this embodiment of the present application, if the first AP includes two APs (respectively AP1 and AP3), and AP2 both sends the first information for requesting to join the respective AP candidate set to the two APs, and AP1 and AP3 Both send the first indication information for agreeing to AP2 to join the respective AP candidate set and the ID assigned to the AP2 to AP2. The ID indicated by AP1 to be allocated to AP2 and the ID indicated by AP3 to be allocated to AP2 may be the same or different, which are not limited.

It should be noted that, assuming that the ID indicated by AP1 to assign to AP2 is the same as the ID indicated by AP3 to assign to AP2, then if AP1 shares transmission resources with AP2, AP2 can determine the corresponding ID based on the AP1; When sharing transmission resources, AP2 can determine the corresponding ID based on the AP3, which can avoid confusion.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the method 200 further includes: the first AP sends a third frame to the second AP, the third frame includes third information, and the third information is used for The second AP is invited to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

The second AP receives the third frame.

The second AP sends a fourth frame to the first AP according to the third information, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to instruct the second AP to agree to the The invitation of the first AP, or the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree with the invitation of the first AP.

The first AP receives the fourth frame sent by the second AP.

In this embodiment of the present application, the first AP may send a third frame including the third information to the second AP to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP; after receiving the third frame, the second AP, A fourth frame including third indication information may be sent to the first AP, and the third indication information may be used to indicate that the second AP agrees or disagrees with the invitation of the first AP.

Exemplarily, it is assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9 and AP10), wherein, AP1 among the 10 APs The third frame of information is intended to invite the second AP to join its AP candidate set. Taking the second AP being AP2 as an example, AP1 may send a third frame to AP2, and the third frame may include third information to invite AP2 to join its AP candidate set. After AP2 receives the third frame sent by AP1 , the fourth frame can be sent to AP1 (for example, the fourth frame can be sent to AP1 according to the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by AP2 and the number of AP candidate sets that have been added), and the fourth frame can include the third indication information , which can be used to indicate approval or disapproval of AP1's invitation, that is, approval or disapproval to join AP1's AP candidate set.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, the first AP sends the third frame including the third information to the second AP and the second AP sends the fourth frame including the third indication information to the first AP. Based on any one of the embodiments mentioned above, no limitation is imposed.

In this embodiment of the present application, the third frame may be a request frame, and the fourth frame may be a response frame; the third frame may also be a response frame, and the fourth frame may be an acknowledgement frame, which is not limited.

The frame structure of the third frame may still be as shown in the foregoing Table 1, and the frame structure of the fourth frame may be as shown in the foregoing Table 2, which will not be repeated here.

The third information included in the third frame may be carried in the common action field or the AP candidate set parameter field. If the third information is carried in the common action field, a preset value of the common action field may represent the third information; if the third information is carried in the AP candidate set parameter field, a type of the AP candidate set parameter field A field (eg, request type, which may be an invitation) may carry third information.

The third indication information included in the fourth frame may also be carried in the common action field or the AP candidate set parameter field. If the third indication information is carried in the public action field, a preset value of the public action field may represent the third indication information; if the third indication information is carried in the AP candidate set parameter field, the AP candidate set parameter field contains A type field of can carry third indication information.

In some embodiments, the third frame may further include indication information for indicating the ID allocated to the second AP.

It is explained above that the second AP can request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP by sending the first frame, and the first AP can send the second frame including the first indication information to the second AP based on the first frame. The first indication The information is used to indicate approval or disapproval of the second AP's request. Alternatively, the first AP may invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP by sending a third frame, and the second AP may send a fourth frame including fourth indication information to the first AP based on the third frame, the fourth frame The indication information is used to indicate approval or disapproval of the invitation of the first AP. In some embodiments, when the second AP requests to join the candidate set of the first AP, the first AP may also be invited to join the candidate set established by the second AP. In this case, both the first AP and the second AP can act as both sharing APs and shared APs. The first information may include information for inviting the first AP to join the second AP candidate set and information for requesting to join the first AP candidate set, please refer to the following for details.

The first information is also used to invite the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; the first indication information is also used to instruct the first AP to agree to join the AP candidate set of the second AP or the first indication information is further used to indicate that the first AP does not agree to join the AP candidate set of the second AP.

It should be noted that the third information may be used to indicate that the second AP is invited to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and may also be used to indicate that the first AP requests to join the AP candidate of the second AP The third indication information can be used to indicate whether the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP, and can also be used to indicate whether the first AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the second AP. For details, please refer to the related content of the method 700 below.

In this embodiment of the present application, the second AP may send a first frame including first information to the first AP, where the first information is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the first information may also be used to invite The first AP joins the AP candidate set of the second AP; after receiving the first frame, the first AP may send a second frame including the first indication information to the second AP, where the first indication information includes information of responding to the invitation information , that is, used to indicate that the first AP agrees or disagrees with the request of the second AP, and the first indication information may include information in response to the request information, that is, used to indicate whether to agree or disagree with the invitation of the second AP.

It should be noted that the information included in the above-mentioned first information can be identified by an identifier. Exemplarily, if the first information is carried in the above-mentioned AP candidate set parameter field, the AP candidate set parameter field can be identified by different identifiers. The identifier identifies the information included in the first information. For example, the AP candidate set parameter field is identified by "1", then the first information can include invitation information and request information; if the first information is identified by "2", the first information May include request information; no limitation. Similarly, the first indication information can also be identified by a corresponding symbol. If the first indication information is identified by "1", the first indication information may include information of response invitation information and response request information; The indication information is identified by "2", then the first indication information may include information responding to the request information; it is not limited.

It should also be noted that the identifiers shown in the above examples are for illustration only, and can also be identified by other symbols, which should not limit the present application.

Exemplarily, it is assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10), wherein AP1 among the 10 APs sends its AP candidate set information, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10 can all send the first frame to AP1, and the first frame includes the first information, which is intended to request to join AP1's AP candidate set and invite AP1 Join its AP candidate set. Taking the second AP being AP2 as an example, AP2 may send a first frame to AP1, and the first frame may include first information for requesting to join AP1's AP candidate set and inviting AP1 to join its AP candidate set. AP1 is receiving After the first frame sent by AP2, a second frame may be sent to AP2 (for example, a second frame may be sent to AP2 according to its own candidate set information), the second frame may include first indication information, and the first indication information may be It is used to indicate whether AP2 agrees to join the AP candidate set of AP1 and agrees or disagrees with the invitation of AP2, that is, agrees or disagrees to join the AP candidate set of AP2.

If the first information included in the first frame is not only used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, but also used to invite the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP, the frame structure of the first frame can still be as above. shown in Table 1.

Then the first information included in the first frame may be carried in the common action field or the AP candidate set parameter field. If the first information is carried in the public action field, a preset value of the public action field may represent the first information. For example, the preset value may be a value corresponding to any one of the 16 bits, such as the preset value. The set value can be 1, 2, 32, etc.; if the first information is carried in the AP candidate set parameter field, a type field (such as a request type, the request type can be a request, or, The request type may be request and invitation) and may carry the first information.

Correspondingly, the frame structure of the second frame sent by the first AP to the second AP may be as shown in Table 2 above. Then, the first indication information included in the second frame may be carried in the status code field or the AP candidate set parameter field. If the first information is carried in the status code field, a preset value in the status code field may represent the first indication information. For example, the preset value may be a value corresponding to any one of the 16 bits, such as this The preset value may be 1, 2, 32, etc.; if the first information is carried in the AP candidate set parameter field, a status field included in the AP candidate set parameter field may carry the first indication information.

In another implementation manner, the first frame sent by the second AP to the first AP may carry two information units. Exemplarily, the two information units may be the two AP candidate set parameters in Table 3, one The information element is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the other information element is used to invite the first AP to join the AP candidate set of the second AP. Correspondingly, the second frame sent by the first AP to the second AP may also carry two information units, one information unit is used to respond to the request, and the other information unit is used to respond to the invitation. In this case, the frame structure of the first frame or the second frame is shown in Table 3 below.

table 3

11	类型(Category)Type (Category)
22	公共行动(Public Action)Public Action
33	AP候选集参数(AP Candidate Set Parameters)AP Candidate Set Parameters
44	AP候选集参数(AP Candidate Set Parameters)AP Candidate Set Parameters
55	高吞吐率能力单元(HT capabilities element)(可选地(optional))HT capabilities element (optional)
66	非常高吞吐能力单元(VHT capabilities element)(可选地(optional))very high throughput capability element (VHT capabilities element) (optional)
77	高效能力单元(HE capabilities element)(可选地(optional))HE capabilities element (optional)
88	极端高吞吐能力单元(EHT capabilities element)(可选地(optional))EHT capabilities element (optional)

The content of adding the second AP to the AP candidate set of the first AP is described above, and the following describes the relevant content of the second AP leaving or deleting from the AP candidate set of the first AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the first AP agrees with the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the method 200 further includes:

In this embodiment of the present application, in the above steps, the first AP sends the fifth frame to the second AP or the first AP receives the sixth frame sent by the second AP. The first AP may agree to the second AP to join its AP candidate after the first AP agrees to it. After the set, in other words, the first AP may instruct the second AP to delete from the AP candidate set or receive a deletion request from the second AP after agreeing to the second AP to join its AP candidate set.

In a possible manner, the first AP may send a fifth frame including fifth indication information to the second AP, where the fifth indication information instructs the second AP to be deleted from the AP candidate set of the first AP. Exemplarily, it is assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10), wherein, among the 10 APs, AP candidates established by AP1 Sets include AP2, AP3, AP4. Taking the deletion of AP2 as an example, AP1 may send a fifth frame including fifth indication information to AP2, where the fifth indication information is used to instruct AP2 to delete from the AP candidate set of AP1.

In another possible manner, the second AP may send a sixth frame including sixth indication information to the first AP, where the sixth indication information is used to request deletion from the AP candidate set of the first AP. Exemplarily, it is assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9, and AP10), wherein, among the 10 APs, AP candidates established by AP1 Sets include AP2, AP3, AP4. Taking the deletion of AP2 as an example, AP2 may send a sixth frame including sixth indication information to AP1, where the sixth indication information is used for AP2 to request deletion from the AP candidate set of AP1.

The frame structure of the fifth frame or the sixth frame in the embodiment of the present application is shown in Table 4 below.

Table 4

11	类型(Category)Type (Category)
22	公共行动(Public Action)Public Action
33	AP候选集参数(AP Candidate Set Parameters)AP Candidate Set Parameters
44	原因码(Reason Code)Reason Code

Optionally, in some embodiments, the fifth frame or the sixth frame further includes a reason field, and the reason field indicates the reason for deletion.

Exemplarily, the reason field may be the reason code field in Table 4 above.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the method 200 further includes: the first AP receives a seventh frame sent by the second AP, the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, and the seventh indication The information is used to request to obtain AP candidate set information of the first AP.

In this embodiment of the present application, the step of the second AP sending the seventh frame including the seventh indication information to the first AP may be before step S220, may be before step S210, or may be after step S220, for example, the second The AP has not received the candidate set information sent by the first AP, and the second AP may actively request the first AP to obtain the candidate set information of the first AP, which is not limited in this application. After receiving the seventh frame sent by the second AP, the first AP may send the AP candidate set information of the first AP to the second AP in a targeted manner.

It should be understood that the numerical values listed in the embodiments of the foregoing method 200 are only for illustration, and may also be other numerical values, which should not be particularly limited to the present application.

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of another method 700 for establishing an AP candidate set according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 700 may be performed by an access point device, or may also be performed by a chip in the access point device. The method 700 can include:

S710: The first AP sends a third frame to the second AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.

S720, the second AP receives the third frame.

S730, the second AP sends a fourth frame to the first AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third information is used to indicate that the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP , or, the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree to the invitation of the first AP.

S740, the first AP receives the fourth frame sent by the second AP.

For steps S710-S740, reference may be made to the relevant content of the third frame and the fourth frame in the above-mentioned method 200, which will not be repeated here.

In the solution provided in this application, the first AP may send a third frame including the third information to the second AP, which is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the second AP may send the first AP including the third frame to the first AP. The fourth frame of the three-indication information is used to indicate whether to agree or disagree with the invitation of the first AP. In this application, the first AP can selectively invite the second AP to join its AP candidate set by actively inviting the second AP to join its AP candidate set. Sending an invitation can effectively establish its AP candidate set and improve the cooperation ability between APs.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the method 700 further includes:

The second AP sends the information of the second AP to the first AP.

the first AP receives the information of the second AP;

The first AP sends a third frame to the second AP, including:

In this embodiment of the present application, the second AP may first send its own information to the first AP, and after receiving the information of the second AP, the first AP may send a third frame to the second AP according to the information of the second AP.

Exemplarily, it is assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9 and AP10), wherein, AP1 among the 10 APs The third frame of information is intended to invite the second AP to join its AP candidate set. Taking the second AP being AP2 as an example, AP2 may first send its own information (ie, the second information) to AP1, and after receiving the second information sent by AP2, AP1 may send a third frame to AP2, the third frame can include third information to invite AP2 to join its AP candidate set. After receiving the third frame sent by AP1, AP2 can send the fourth frame to AP1 (for example, it can send the fourth frame to AP1 according to its own information) , the fourth frame may include third indication information, which may be used to indicate approval or disapproval of the invitation of AP1, that is, approval or disapproval to join the AP candidate set of AP1.

Of course, in some embodiments, after receiving the second information sent by AP2, AP1 may not send the third frame to AP2. For example, because the resources of AP1 and AP2 do not match, etc., AP1 may not send the third frame to AP2.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present application, the second AP may send the second information in a broadcast or unicast manner, and after receiving the second information, the first AP may send the second information to the second AP according to the second information third frame.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the fourth frame further includes eighth indication information, where the eighth indication information is used to indicate that the fourth frame is a response frame.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the fourth frame further includes ninth indication information, where the ninth indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.

The eighth indication information in this embodiment of the present application is similar to the fourth indication information in the foregoing method 200, and the ninth indication information is similar to the second indication information in the foregoing method 200. For details, please refer to the above-mentioned fourth indication information and The description of the second indication information is not repeated here.

It is pointed out above that the third information may be used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the third indication information may be used to indicate that the second AP agrees or disagrees with the invitation of the first AP, In some embodiments, the third information and the third indication information may further include other information, please refer to the following for details.

The third information is further used to indicate that the first AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the second AP;

In this embodiment of the present application, the first AP may send a third frame to the second AP, where the third frame includes third information, and the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP. The information can also be used to request to join the AP candidate set of the second AP; after receiving the third frame, the second AP can send a fourth frame to the first AP, the fourth frame includes third indication information, the third indication The information may be used to indicate that the second AP agrees or disagrees with the invitation of the first AP, and may also be used to indicate that the second AP agrees or disagrees to the request of the first AP.

Exemplarily, it is assumed that the wireless system includes 10 APs (respectively AP1, AP2, AP3, AP4, AP5, AP6, AP7, AP8, AP9 and AP10), wherein the first AP is AP1 and the second AP is AP2 For example, AP1 may send a third frame to AP2, where the third frame includes third information, which is intended to invite AP2 to join its AP candidate set and to request to join AP2's AP candidate set. After receiving the third frame sent by AP1, AP2 may send a fourth frame to AP1 (for example, it may send a fourth frame to AP2 according to its own information), and the fourth frame may include third indication information, the third indication information It can be used to indicate whether to agree or disagree with the invitation of AP1, that is, agree or disagree to join the AP candidate set of AP1 and agree or disagree with AP1 to join the AP candidate set of AP2.

It should be understood that the above numerical values are only for illustration, and other numerical values may also be used, which should not limit the present application.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the type of the third frame or the fourth frame is a public action frame or a protected public action frame.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the third information or the third indication information is carried in a public action field, or in an AP candidate set parameter field.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the third indication information indicates that the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP, and the method 700 further includes:

Optionally, in some embodiments, the method 700 further includes:

It should be understood that, in the above embodiment, the first AP can send its AP candidate set information without relying on the indication information sent by the second AP to request to obtain the AP candidate set information of the first AP, that is, the first AP can also directly broadcast its AP Candidate set information. In this embodiment, when the first AP invites the second AP to join its AP candidate set, if the second AP receives the AP candidate set information broadcast by the first AP, the second AP can base on the AP candidate set of the first AP. The information sends a fourth frame including third indication information to the first AP to indicate approval or disapproval of the invitation of the first AP.

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the collaboration mode includes at least one of the following modes:

Optionally, in some embodiments, the third AP corresponds to one or more of the cooperation modes; or,

For the detailed content of the method 700, reference may be made to the content of the above-mentioned method 200, which will not be repeated here.

The method for establishing the AP candidate set according to the embodiment of the present application has been described in detail above with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 7 . Hereinafter, the apparatus of the embodiment of the present application will be described with reference to FIG. 8 to FIG. 14 .

FIG. 8 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 800 may correspond to the first AP described in the above method 200, and each module in the apparatus 800 is respectively configured to execute the first AP in the above method 200. Each action or process performed by the AP, as shown in FIG. 8 , the communication apparatus 800 may include:

A processing module 810, configured to generate AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the information of the AP that the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission;

The communication module 820 is configured to send AP candidate set information of the first AP.

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the communication module 820 is further configured to receive a first frame sent by the second AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information is used to request to join an AP candidate set of the first AP;

The processing module 810 is also used for:

Optionally, in some embodiments, the communication module 820 is further configured to:

The processing module is further used for:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

FIG. 9 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 900 may correspond to the second AP described in the foregoing method 200, and each module in the apparatus 900 is respectively configured to execute the second AP in the foregoing method 200. Each action or processing performed by the AP, as shown in FIG. 9 , the communication apparatus 900 may include:

A communication module 910, configured to receive AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the information of the AP that the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission;

The communication module 910 is further configured to send a first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information is used to request to join AP candidate set of the first AP.

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the communication module 910 is further configured to:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

FIG. 10 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1000 may correspond to the first AP described in the above method 700 , and each module in the apparatus 1000 is respectively configured to execute the first AP in the above method 700 . Each action or processing performed by the AP, as shown in FIG. 10 , the communication apparatus 1000 may include:

A communication module 1010, configured to send a third frame to a second AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The communication module 1010 is further configured to receive a fourth frame sent by the second AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to instruct the second AP to agree to the first frame. The invitation of an AP, or the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree with the invitation of the first AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the communication module 1010 is further configured to:

receiving the information of the second AP;

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the third information is further used to indicate that the first AP requests to join the AP candidate set of the second AP;

Optionally, in some embodiments, the third indication information indicates that the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP, and the communication module 1010 is further configured to:

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

FIG. 11 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication apparatus 1100 according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1100 may correspond to the second AP described in the above method 700 , and each module in the apparatus 1100 is respectively configured to execute the second AP in the above method 700 . Each action or processing performed by the AP, as shown in FIG. 11 , the communication apparatus 1100 may include:

A communication module 1110, configured to receive a third frame, where the third frame includes third information, and the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The communication module 1110 is further configured to send a fourth frame to the first AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third information is used to instruct the second AP to agree to the first AP or, the third indication information is used to indicate that the second AP does not agree to the invitation of the first AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the communication module 1110 is further configured to send, by the second AP, the information of the second AP to the first AP.

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the third information or the seventh indication information is carried in a public action field, or in an AP candidate set parameter field.

Optionally, in some embodiments, the communication module 1110 is further configured to receive a fifth frame sent by the first AP, where the fifth frame includes fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used for instructing the second AP to be deleted from the AP candidate set of the first AP; or,

Optionally, in some embodiments, the communication module 1110 is further configured to send a seventh frame to the first AP, where the seventh frame includes seventh indication information, and the seventh indication information is used to request obtaining AP candidate set information of the first AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.

It should be understood that the above-mentioned apparatus can perform the steps involved in the above-mentioned method, and can obtain beneficial effects corresponding to the method. For details, reference may be made to the method embodiment, which is not repeated here for brevity.

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus 1200 provided by an embodiment of the present application, which may be, for example, the first AP in the foregoing embodiment. As shown in FIG. 12 , the communication device 1200 includes a processor 1210 and a transceiver 1220 . Optionally, the communication device 1200 further includes a memory 1230 . Among them, the processor 1210, the transceiver 1220 and the memory 1230 communicate with each other through an internal connection path to transmit control and/or data signals. The memory 1230 is used to store computer programs, and the processor 1210 is used to call from the memory 1230. And run the computer program to control the transceiver 1220 to send and receive signals.

The above-mentioned processor 1210 and the memory 1230 may be combined into one processing device, and the processor 1210 is configured to execute the program codes stored in the memory 1230 to realize the function of the first AP in the above method embodiment. During specific implementation, the memory 1230 may also be integrated in the processor 1210 or independent of the processor 1210 . The transceiver 1220 may be implemented by a transceiver circuit.

The above-mentioned communication apparatus may further include an antenna 1240 for sending the uplink data or uplink control signaling output by the transceiver 1220 through wireless signals, or after receiving the downlink data or downlink control signaling and sending it to the transceiver 1220 for further processing.

It should be understood that the apparatus 1200 may correspond to the first AP in the method 200 and the method 700 according to the embodiments of the present application, and the apparatus 1200 may also be a chip or component applied to the first AP. In addition, each device in the apparatus 1200 implements the corresponding processes in the method 200 and the method 700. Specifically, the memory 1230 is used to store program codes, so that when the processor 1210 executes the program codes, the processor 1210 is controlled to be used for To perform the process of S210 in the method 200, the transceiver 1220 is used to perform the process of S220 in the method 200, or, the control transceiver 1220 is used to perform the process of S710 and S740 in the method 700, and each device performs the corresponding steps above. The specific process has been described in detail in the method 200 and the method 700, and is not repeated here for brevity.

FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus 1300 provided by an embodiment of the present application, which may be, for example, the second AP in the foregoing embodiment. As shown in FIG. 13 , the communication device 1300 (eg, a base station) includes a processor 1310 and a transceiver 1320 . Optionally, the communication device 1300 further includes a memory 1330 . The processor 1310 , the transceiver 1320 and the memory 1330 communicate with each other through an internal connection path to transmit control and/or data signals. The memory 1330 is used to store computer programs, and the processor 1310 is used to call from the memory 1330 And run the computer program to control the transceiver 1320 to send and receive signals.

The above-mentioned processor 1310 and the memory 1330 may be combined into a processing device, and the processor 1310 is configured to execute the program codes stored in the memory 1330 to realize the function of the second AP in the above method embodiment. During specific implementation, the memory 1330 may also be integrated in the processor 1310 or independent of the processor 1310 . The transceiver 1320 can be implemented by means of a transceiver circuit.

The above communication apparatus 1300 may further include an antenna 1340 for sending downlink data or downlink control signaling output by the transceiver 1320 through wireless signals, or receiving uplink data or uplink control signaling and sending it to the transceiver 1320 for further processing.

It should be understood that the apparatus 1300 may correspond to the second AP in the

method

200 or 700 according to the embodiment of the present application, and the apparatus 1300 may also be a chip or component applied to the second AP. Moreover, each device in the apparatus 1300 implements the corresponding process in the method 200 in FIG. 2 or the method 700 in FIG. 7 , specifically, the transceiver 1320 is used to perform the processes of S230 and S240 in the method 200, or, the transceiver 1320 The device 1320 is configured to execute the processes of S720 and S730 in the method 700. The specific process of each device performing the above corresponding steps has been described in detail in the method 200 and the method 700, and is not repeated here for brevity.

FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip provided by an embodiment of the present application. The chip 1400 shown in FIG. 14 includes a processor 1410, and the processor 1410 can call and run a computer program from a memory to implement the method in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, as shown in FIG. 14 , the chip 1400 may further include a memory 1420 . The processor 1410 may call and run a computer program from the memory 1420 to execute the steps of the method 200 or the method 700 in the embodiments of the present application.

The memory 1420 may be a separate device independent of the processor 1410, or may be integrated in the processor 1410.

Optionally, the chip 1400 may further include an input interface 1430 . The processor 1410 may control the input interface 1430 to communicate with other devices or chips, and specifically, may acquire information or data sent by other devices or chips.

Optionally, the chip 1400 may further include an output interface 1440 . The processor 1410 may control the output interface 1440 to communicate with other devices or chips, and specifically, may output information or data to other devices or chips.

Optionally, the chip can be applied to the first AP or the second AP in the embodiments of the present application, and the chip can implement the corresponding processes implemented by the first AP or the second AP in each method of the embodiments of the present application, in order to It is concise and will not be repeated here.

It should be understood that the chip mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as a system-on-chip, a system-on-chip, a system-on-chip, or a system-on-a-chip, or the like.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program.

Optionally, the computer-readable storage medium can be applied to the first AP or the second AP in the embodiments of the present application, and the computer program causes the computer to execute the methods described in the embodiments of the present application by the first AP or the second AP. For the sake of brevity, the corresponding process of implementation will not be repeated here.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product, including computer program instructions.

Optionally, the computer program product may be applied to the first AP or the second AP in the embodiments of the present application, and the computer program instructions cause the computer to execute the methods in the embodiments of the present application by the first AP or the second AP. The corresponding process, for the sake of brevity, will not be repeated here.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program.

Optionally, the computer program can be applied to the first AP or the second AP in the embodiments of the present application, and when the computer program runs on the computer, the computer program is executed by the first AP or the second AP in each method of the embodiments of the present application. The corresponding process implemented by the second AP is not repeated here for brevity.

Embodiments of the present application further provide a communication system, including the first AP and the second AP in the above-mentioned embodiments, so as to realize mutual cooperation between APs.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can realize that the modules and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working process of the system, device and module described above may refer to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are only illustrative, and the division of the modules is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, for example, multiple modules or components may be combined. On the other hand, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or communication connection may be indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or modules.

In addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one physical entity, or each module may correspond to a single physical entity, or two or more modules may be integrated into one physical entity.

If the functions are implemented in the form of software function modules and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or optical disk and other media that can store program codes .

The above are only specific embodiments of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited to this. should be covered within the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A method for establishing an access point AP candidate set, comprising:

The first AP generates AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the information that the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission;

The first AP sends AP candidate set information of the first AP.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP;

Information of a third AP, the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information of the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the media access control MAC address of the third AP, the basic service set identifier BSSID of the third AP, the identification ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

Whether there is already a shared AP added to the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, by the first AP, a first frame sent by the second AP, where the first frame includes first information, where the first information is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The first AP sends a second frame to the second AP according to the first information, the second frame includes first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the first AP. An AP candidate set of an AP, or the first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The method according to claim 3, wherein the method further comprises:

the first AP receives second information, where the second information includes information of the second AP;

The first AP sends a second frame to the second AP according to the first information, including:

sending, by the first AP, the second frame to the second AP according to the first information and the second information;

Wherein, the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Information about the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, where the information about the AP candidate set includes the number of the AP candidate set that has joined, the MAC addresses of the APs of the AP candidate set that have joined, and the The BSSID of the AP in the AP candidate set, and the ID of the second AP in the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join an AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.
The method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes a second indication information, the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the method further comprises:

sending, by the first AP, a third frame to the second AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The first AP receives the fourth frame sent by the second AP, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees with the first AP's invite.
A method for establishing an access point AP candidate set, comprising:

The second AP receives AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the information of the AP on which the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission;

The second AP sends a first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information is used to request to join the first AP AP candidate set of APs.
The method according to claim 7, wherein the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP;

Information of a third AP, the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information of the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the media access control MAC address of the third AP, the basic service set identifier BSSID of the third AP, the identification ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

Whether there is already a shared AP added to the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the method further comprises:

The second AP receives a second frame sent by the first AP, where the second frame includes first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate of the first AP or, the first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The method according to claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

The second AP sends second information to the first AP, where the second information includes information of the second AP, wherein the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Information about the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, where the information about the AP candidate set includes the number of the AP candidate set that has joined, the MAC addresses of the APs of the AP candidate set that have joined, and the The BSSID of the AP in the AP candidate set, and the ID of the second AP in the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join an AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.
The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes a second indication information, the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.
The method according to any one of claims 7 to 11, wherein the method further comprises:

The second AP receives a third frame sent by the first AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP ;

The second AP sends a fourth frame to the first AP according to the third information, the fourth frame includes third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees to the The invitation of the first AP mentioned above.
A communication device, comprising:

a processing module, configured to generate AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the information of the AP that the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission;

A communication module, configured to send AP candidate set information of the first AP.
The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP;

Information of a third AP, the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information of the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the media access control MAC address of the third AP, the basic service set identifier BSSID of the third AP, the identification ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

Whether there is already a shared AP added to the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The device according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the communication module is further used for:

receiving a first frame sent by the second AP, where the first frame includes first information, where the first information is used to request to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The processing module is also used for:

Send a second frame to the second AP according to the first information, the second frame includes first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate of the first AP or, the first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The device according to claim 15, wherein the communication module is further configured to:

receiving second information, where the second information includes information of the second AP;

The processing module is further used for:

sending, by the first AP, the second frame to the second AP according to the first information and the second information;

Wherein, the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Information about the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, where the information about the AP candidate set includes the number of the AP candidate set that has joined, the MAC addresses of the APs of the AP candidate set that have joined, and the The BSSID of the AP in the AP candidate set, and the ID of the second AP in the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join an AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.
The apparatus according to claim 15 or 16, wherein if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes a second indication information, the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.
The device according to any one of claims 13 to 17, wherein the communication module is further configured to:

sending a third frame to the second AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

A fourth frame sent by the second AP is received, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees to the invitation of the first AP.
A communication device, comprising:

a communication module, configured to receive AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the AP candidate set information of the first AP is used to indicate the information of the AP that the first AP initiates multi-AP transmission;

The communication module is further configured to send a first frame to the first AP according to the AP candidate set information of the first AP, where the first frame includes first information, and the first information is used to request to join the first AP. Describe the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the AP candidate set information of the first AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of shared APs supported by the AP candidate set of the first AP;

Information of a third AP, the third AP is a shared AP that has joined the AP candidate set of the first AP, and the information of the third AP includes at least one of the following information: the number of the third APs , the media access control MAC address of the third AP, the basic service set identifier BSSID of the third AP, the identification ID of the third AP, and the cooperation mode of the third AP;

whether to allow the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission;

The maximum number of APs supported by a single transmission opportunity;

Whether there is already a shared AP added to the AP candidate set of the first AP;

The cooperation mode of the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The device according to claim 19 or 20, wherein the communication module is further used for:

Receive a second frame sent by the first AP, where the second frame includes first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, or, The first indication information indicates that the second AP is not allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP.
The device according to claim 21, wherein the communication module is further configured to:

Send second information to the first AP, where the second information includes information of the second AP, wherein the information of the second AP includes at least one of the following information:

the maximum number of AP candidate sets supported by the second AP;

Information about the AP candidate set that the second AP has joined, where the information about the AP candidate set includes the number of the AP candidate set that has joined, the MAC addresses of the APs of the AP candidate set that have joined, and the The BSSID of the AP in the AP candidate set, and the ID of the second AP in the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP is allowed to be invited to join an AP candidate set other than the AP candidate set that has already joined;

Whether the second AP has joined the AP candidate set;

Whether the second AP is supported as a sharing AP or a shared AP.
The apparatus according to claim 21 or 22, wherein if the first indication information indicates that the second AP is allowed to join the AP candidate set of the first AP, the second frame further includes a second indication information, the second indication information is used to indicate the ID allocated to the second AP.
The device according to any one of claims 19 to 23, wherein the communication module is further configured to:

receiving a third frame sent by the first AP, where the third frame includes third information, where the third information is used to invite the second AP to join the AP candidate set of the first AP;

Send a fourth frame to the first AP according to the third information, where the fourth frame includes third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate whether the second AP agrees with the first AP's invite.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed, any one of claims 1 to 6 or 7 to 12 is implemented. Methods.