Search

EP-4738919-A1 - METHOD FOR DETERMINING DATA BUFFER STATUS, AND APPARATUS

EP4738919A1EP 4738919 A1EP4738919 A1EP 4738919A1EP-4738919-A1

Abstract

Embodiments of this application disclose a method for determining a data buffer status, and an apparatus. The method includes: A first multi-link device MLD receives first indication information from a second MLD, and determines, based on the first indication information and a correspondence between an association identifier of the first MLD and a data type supported by the first MLD, a buffer status of bufferable data that corresponds to the at least one data type and that is in the second MLD, where the first indication information is used to indicate the buffer status of the bufferable data that corresponds to the association identifier of the first MLD and that is in the second MLD. According to the embodiments of this application, a data buffer status in a data type dimension can be determined. The embodiments of this application may be applied to a wireless local area network system that supports a next-generation Wi-Fi EHT protocol of the IEEE 802.11, that is, the 802.11 protocol such as 802.11be.

Inventors

  • LI, YUNBO
  • GAN, Ming
  • GUO, YUCHEN
  • ZHOU, YIFAN
  • LI, YIQING

Assignees

  • Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20210311

Claims (7)

  1. A first multi-link device, MLD, wherein thefirst MLD comprises: a communications unit, configured to receive, a beacon frame, the beacon frame comprising: a traffic information map, TIM, field, wherein the TIM field is used to indicate a buffer status of bufferable data of each station in the first MLD in a second MLD; the communications unit, configured to receive a second bufferable data from the second MLD over a first link, wherein the second bufferable data comprises third indication information, the third indication information is used to indicate whether first bufferable data corresponding to at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD, and the second data type is any data type mapped to the first link; and a processing unit, configured to determine, based on the third indication information, whether the first bufferable data corresponding to the at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD; wherein a MAC frame structure of the second bufferable data includes a frame control, Frame Control field, wherein the Frame Control field comprises a More Data subfield, wherein the third indication information is the More Data subfield; a value of the More Data subfield is 1, indicating that the first bufferable data corresponding to the at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD; or a value of the More Data subfield is 0, indicating that the first bufferable data corresponding to any one second data type is not buffered in the second MLD.
  2. The first MLD according to claim 1, wherein the first MLD has a plurality of stations, the method further comprises: after determining whether the bufferable data corresponding to the at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD, determining, by the first MLD, an operating status of at least one station in the plurality of stations based on whether the first bufferable data corresponding to the at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD, where the operating status is an active state or a doze state.
  3. The first MLD according to claim 2, wherein if the first bufferable data corresponding to the at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD, the first MLD determines the operating status of the station corresponding to the first link in the plurality of stations as the active state; or if the first bufferable data corresponding to any second data type is not buffered in the second MLD, the first MLD determines the operating status of the station corresponding to the first link in the plurality of stations as the active state or the doze state.
  4. The first MLD according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: sending, by the first MLD, a power saving polling PS-Poll frame to the second MLD to indicate to the second MLD that the first link is in the active state.
  5. A second multi-link device, MLD, wherein the second MLD comprises: a communications unit, configured to send a beacon frame, the beacon frame comprising: a traffic information field, TIM, field, wherein the TIM field is used to indicate a buffer status of bufferable data of each station in a first MLD in the second MLD; a processing unit, configured to determine whether first bufferable data corresponding to at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD, wherein the second data type is any data type mapped to a first link; and the communications unit, configured to send, second bufferable data to a first MLD over the first link, wherein the bufferable data comprises third indication information, and the third indication information is used to indicate whether the first bufferable data corresponding to the at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD; wherein a MAC frame structure of the second bufferable data includes a frame control, Frame Control field, wherein the Frame Control field comprises a More Data subfield, wherein the third indication information is the More Data subfield; a value of the More Data subfield is 1, indicating that the first bufferable data corresponding to the at least one second data type is buffered in the second MLD; or a value of the More Data subfield is 0, indicating that the first bufferable data corresponding to any one second data type is not buffered in the second MLD.
  6. The second MLD according to claim 5, wherein the method comprising: sending, by the second MLD, fourth bufferable data to the first MLD after received the PS-Poll frame from the first MLD, wherein the PS-Poll frame indicates to the second MLD that the first link is in the active state.
  7. The second MLD according to any of claims 5 or 6, wherein the fourth indication information is a quality of service null value, QoS Null frame, where the QoS null frame is a data frame that does not carry a payload, and a value of the More Data subfield in the QoS null frame is 0.

Description

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202010180304.6, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on March 13, 2020 and entitled "METHOD FOR DETERMINING DATA BUFFER STATUS, AND APPARATUS", which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD This application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method for determining a data buffer status, and an apparatus. BACKGROUND A goal of development and evolution of a cellular network and a wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN) is to continuously increase a throughput. To achieve an extremely high throughput, the next-generation standard IEEE 802.11be uses a multi-link (multi-link, ML) as one of key technologies. A multi-link device (multi-link device, MLD) having a capability of sending and receiving data in a multi-band (multi-band) may transmit data by using a larger bandwidth. This significantly increases a throughput. The MLD includes a plurality of stations (stations, STAs), and each station may establish a link to one station in another MLD for communication. A non-access point (non-access point, non-AP) station may be in an active state (active state) or a doze state (doze state). When the non-AP station is in the active state, a link corresponding to the non-AP station is also in the active state, and data can be transmitted between the non-AP station and an AP station through the link. When the non-AP station is in the doze state, a link corresponding to the non-AP station is also in the doze state, and data cannot be transmitted between the non-AP station and an AP station. When the non-AP station is in the doze state, an AP MLD may buffer a data service to be sent to the non-AP station, and when the non-AP station is in the active state, sends the bufferable data service to the non-AP station through the link corresponding to the non-AP station. However, a non-AP MLD cannot learn a buffer status of bufferable data corresponding to the non-AP MLD on the AP MLD. This is not conducive for the non-AP MLD to accurately determine an operating status of an associated link. Therefore, how to determine the buffer status of the bufferable data corresponding to the non-AP MLD on the AP MLD becomes an urgent technical problem to be resolved. SUMMARY Embodiments of this application provide a method for determining a data buffer status, and an apparatus, to determine a data buffer status in a data type dimension. According to a first aspect, an embodiment of this application provides a method for determining a data buffer status. The method includes: A first multi-link device MLD receives first indication information from a second MLD, where the first indication information is used to indicate a buffer status of bufferable data that corresponds to an association identifier of the first MLD and that is in the second MLD; and the first MLD determines, based on the first indication information and a correspondence between the association identifier of the first MLD and a data type supported by the first MLD, a buffer status of bufferable data that corresponds to the at least one data type and that is in the second MLD. In this technical solution, the buffer status of the bufferable data that corresponds to the at least one data type supported by the first MLD and that is in the second MLD can be determined. In an implementation, the first MLD may have a plurality of stations. The method may further include: The first MLD determines an operating status of at least one station in the plurality of stations based on the buffer status of the bufferable data that corresponds to the at least one data type and that is in the second MLD, where the operating status is an active state or a doze state. In this technical solution, a more appropriate operating status is determined for the station in the first MLD based on the data type of the bufferable data. This helps reduce power consumption. In an implementation, the method may further include: The first MLD receives second indication information from the second MLD, where the second indication information is used to determine the correspondence between the association identifier of the first MLD and the data type supported by the first MLD. In an implementation, the second indication information indicates at least one association identifier, and the at least one association identifier corresponds to the at least one data type. In this technical solution, the at least one association identifier (associate identifier, AID) corresponding to the at least one data type is indicated by using the second indication information, so that an AID can be more flexibly allocated to the first MLD. In an implementation, the first MLD supports a plurality of data types. The second indication information indicates a first association identifier, and the first association identifier corresponds to a first data ty