CN-122003935-A - Dynamic sub-channel pre-allocation

Abstract

An Access Point (AP) in a wireless network, the AP including a memory and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to obtain a transmission opportunity (TXOP) or a Service Period (SP), transmit an indication to a first Station (STA) during the TXOP or SP to allocate a first sub-channel to the first STA at a first transmission start time, wherein the first sub-channel is outside an operating channel width of the first STA, transmit an indication to a second STA to allocate a second sub-channel at a second transmission start time, transmit a first frame to the first STA at the first transmission start time during the TXOP or SP, and transmit a second frame to the second STA at the second transmission start time during the TXOP or SP.

Inventors

• Bishnu Valdan Ratnam
• HUANG WENLONG
• Lu Bayete.shafen
• Pesar Nayak
• QI YUE
• E.Zhan

Assignees

• 三星电子株式会社

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20241011

Priority Date

20240930

Claims (15)

1. 1. An access point, AP, in a wireless network, the AP comprising: Memory, and A processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to: obtaining a transmission opportunity TXOP or a service period SP; during a TXOP or SP, transmitting an indication to a first station STA to allocate a first sub-channel among one or more sub-channels to the first STA at a first transmission start time, wherein the first sub-channel is outside an operating channel width of the first STA; During a TXOP or SP, transmitting an indication to the second STA to allocate a second sub-channel from among the one or more sub-channels to the second STA at a second transmission start time, wherein the second sub-channel is outside an operating channel width of the second STA; transmitting a first frame to the first STA at a first transmission start time on a first subchannel during a TXOP or SP, and A second frame is transmitted to the second STA on a second subchannel at a second transmission start time during the TXOP or SP.
2. 2. The AP of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a third frame from the first STA, wherein the third frame includes information associated with at least one of: supporting ability to allocate subchannels outside the operating channel width of the first STA, and A channel switching time required for the first STA to switch to the allocated channel, wherein the first transmission start time is determined based on the channel switching time.
3. 3. The AP of claim 1 or 2, wherein the indication of the allocation of the first and second sub-channels is sent within a third frame, wherein the processor is further configured to send, at the beginning of the TXOP or SP, a third frame indicating at least one of: The AP intends to serve one or more identifiers of associated STAs within the TXOP or SP, A transmission start time for each of the identified one or more STAs, In the event that the response is solicited from the identified one or more STAs, allocation of a subchannel for transmission of the response to the third frame, An allocation of one or more subchannels allocated to each of the identified one or more STAs for transmission within a TXOP or SP, Allocation of one or more 20 MHz channels to be used for preamble detection by each of the identified one or more STAs, and The one or more identified STAs are expected to return to a switch back time of the primary channel thereafter.
4. 4. The AP of any preceding claim, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmitting an indication to the third STA to allocate a second sub-channel among the one or more sub-channels to the third STA at a first transmission start time during the TXOP or SP, and A third frame is transmitted to a third STA on a second sub-channel at a first transmission start time during a TXOP or SP.
5. 5. The AP of any preceding claim, wherein the processor is further configured to, prior to the first transmission start time, transmit one or more of: a padding field within a third frame, wherein the third frame includes an indication to allocate a first sub-channel to the first STA, A fourth frame, wherein the fourth frame includes an indication to allocate a second sub-channel among the one or more sub-channels to a second STA, and And a fifth frame, wherein the fifth frame is a data frame or a null data packet with padding.
6. 6. The AP of any of the preceding claims, wherein the processor is further configured to end transmission of frames to the one or more STAs before the end of the TXOP to enable the one or more STAs to switch back to the primary channel.
7. 7. The AP of any one of the preceding claims wherein the processor is further configured to transmit a third frame to indicate a capability to support allocation of subchannels outside of an operating channel width of an associated STA, wherein the associated STA is capable of being allocated one or more subchannels outside of an operating channel width of the associated STA of a TXOP or SP.
8. 8. The AP of any preceding claim, wherein a third STA operates in an enhanced multi-link single radio (EMLSR) mode or an enhanced multi-link multi-radio EMLMR mode, wherein the processor is configured to: excluding operation of the third STA on sub-channels outside the operating channel width of the third STA, or The transmission start time of the third STA is determined based on the channel switch time required by the third STA and the padding delay required by the third STA for EMLSR or EMLMR operation, and an indication of the sub-channel allocation is sent to the third STA in a EMLSR or EMLMR control frame.
9. 9. The AP of any preceding claim, wherein the indication to allocate a first sub-channel of the one or more sub-channels to the first STA is included in a third frame, wherein the third frame comprises at least one of: whether the first sub-channel is available for peer-to-peer transmission by the first STA, The first subchannel can be used for the duration of the peer-to-peer transmission, Identifiers of other STAs assigned to the same subchannel by the AP, and The transmit power and modulation and coding scheme limitations applicable to peer-to-peer transmissions.
10. 10. A non-access point station, non-AP STA, in a wireless network, the non-AP STA comprising: Memory, and A processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to: Transmitting a first frame to the AP indicating a capability to operate one or more sub-channels outside of the primary channel; receiving a second frame indicating a subchannel allocation and a transmission start time from the AP during the TXOP or SP, and Before the transmission start time, switching to an indicated sub-channel, wherein the indicated sub-channel is outside the operating channel width of the non-AP STA.
11. 11. The non-AP STA of claim 10, wherein the processor is further configured to receive a frame from the AP on a subchannel starting at a transmission start time.
12. 12. The non-AP STA of claim 10 or 11, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit a third frame to the AP indicating at least one of: support for operation of non-AP STAs on subchannels outside the operating channel width is enabled or disabled, One or more sub-channels supported by non-AP STAs outside the operating channel width, Bandwidth, spatial stream, and modulation and coding schemes supported by non-AP STAs when receiving transmissions outside the width of the operating channel, and The ability of the non-AP STA to be pre-allocated a sub-channel, wherein the transmission start time to the non-AP STA can not immediately follow the indication of allocation.
13. 13. The non-AP STA of any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the processor is further configured to switch to the indicated sub-channel immediately upon receipt of the second frame or to the indicated sub-channel at or before the transmission start time.
14. 14. The non-AP STA of any of claims 10-13, wherein the processor is further configured to switch back to a primary channel based on at least one of: An indication of the end of the TXOP or SP time and the channel switch time required for the non-AP STA to switch channels; detecting that the indicated sub-channel is idle beyond a threshold time after the indicated transmission start time; Detecting a specific frame corresponding to another basic service set BSS on the indicated sub-channel or detecting that the transmitting address or receiving address of the specific frame does not correspond to the AP, and It is determined that no frame is received from the AP within a threshold time after the indicated start time.
15. 15. The non-AP STA of any of claims 10-14, wherein the processor is further configured to perform preamble detection on a 20 MHz channel determined based on a subchannel allocated to the non-AP STA.

Description

Dynamic sub-channel pre-allocation Technical Field The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to, for example, but not limited to, dynamic subchannel pre-allocation. Background Since the late 90 s of the 20 th century, wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology has evolved toward increasing data rates and continues to grow in various markets such as home, business, and hotspots. WLAN allows devices to access the internet in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz, or 60GHz frequency bands. WLAN is based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard. The IEEE 802.11 family of standards aims to increase speed and reliability and extend the operating range of wireless networks. WLAN devices are increasingly required to support various delay-sensitive applications or real-time applications such as Augmented Reality (AR), robotics, artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and unmanned vehicles. To achieve the extremely low latency and extremely high throughput required for such applications, multi-link operation (MLO) has been proposed for WLANs. WLANs are formed by WLAN devices within a limited area such as a home, school, apartment, or office building. Each WLAN device may have one or more Stations (STAs) such as an Access Point (AP) STA and a non-access point (non-AP) STA. The MLO may enable a non-AP multi-link device (MLD) to establish multiple links with an AP MLD. Each of the multiple links may independently enable channel access and frame exchange between the non-AP MLD and the AP MLD, which may reduce latency and increase throughput. The description set forth in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art because it is merely set forth in the background section. The background section may describe aspects or embodiments of the present disclosure. Disclosure of Invention One aspect of the present disclosure provides an Access Point (AP) in a wireless network. The AP includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor is configured to obtain a transmission opportunity (TXOP) or a Service Period (SP). The processor is configured to transmit an indication to a first Station (STA) during a TXOP or SP to allocate a first sub-channel among one or more sub-channels to the first STA at a first transmission start time, wherein the first sub-channel is outside an operating channel width of the first STA. The processor is configured to transmit, to the second STA, during the TXOP or SP, an indication to allocate a second sub-channel among the one or more sub-channels to the second STA at a second transmission start time, wherein the second sub-channel is outside of an operating channel width of the second STA. The processor is configured to transmit a first frame to a first STA on a first subchannel at a first transmission start time during a TXOP or SP. The processor is configured to transmit a second frame to the second STA at a second transmission start time on a second subchannel during the TXOP or SP. In some embodiments, the processor is further configured to receive a third frame from the first STA, wherein the third frame includes information associated with at least one of support of an ability to allocate sub-channels outside of an operating channel width of the first STA, and a channel switch time required for the first STA to switch to the allocated channel, wherein the first transmission start time is determined based on the channel switch time. In some embodiments, the indication of the allocation of the first and second subchannels is sent within a third frame, wherein the processor is further configured to send the third frame at the beginning of the TXOP or SP, the third frame indicating at least one of one or more identifiers of associated STAs that the AP intends to serve within the TXOP or SP, a transmission start time applicable to each of the identified one or more STAs, an allocation of subchannels for transmitting a response to the third frame (if a response is requested from the identified one or more STAs), an allocation of one or more subchannels allocated to each of the one or more identified STAs for transmission within the TXOP or SP, an allocation of one or more 20MHz channels for preamble detection by each of the one or more identified STAs, and a handoff back time at which the one or more identified STAs are expected to return to the primary channel. In some embodiments, the processor is further configured to transmit an indication to the third STA during the TXOP or SP to allocate a second sub-channel of the one or more sub-channels to the third STA at the first transmission start time and to transmit a third frame to the third STA during the TXOP or SP on the second sub-channel at the first transmission start time. In some embodiments, the processor is further configured to transmit, prior to the first transmission start time, one or more of a padding field within a