US-12621704-B2 - Wireless communication method using multilink, and wireless communication terminal using same

US12621704B2US 12621704 B2US12621704 B2US 12621704B2US-12621704-B2

Abstract

Disclosed are: a traffic transmission method performed by a first multi-link device (MLD) comprising a plurality of stations respectively operating on a plurality of links in a wireless communication system; and an apparatus. In detail, an MLD of the present invention receives a beacon frame from a second MLD including a plurality of access points (APs) operating on the plurality of links, respectively, and transmits and receives a data unit on the basis of the beacon frame. Here, the beacon frame includes a multi-link traffic indication element indicating mapping between at least one traffic identifier (TID) for a buffered unit (BU) of the plurality of APs from among a plurality of TIDs and the plurality of links, according to whether or not mapping between the plurality of TIDs and the plurality of links is default mapping for downlink or bidirectional.

Inventors

Sanghyun Kim
Geonjung KO
Juhyung Son
Jinsam Kwak

Assignees

WILUS INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20240827
Priority Date: 20220228

Claims (8)

1 . A first multi-link device (MLD) comprising multiple stations, the device comprising: a transceiver; and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to: receive a beacon frame from a second MLD comprising multiple access points (APs), the second MLD associated with one or more other MLDs, the one or more other MLDs comprising the first MLD; and decode the received beacon frame, wherein the beacon frame includes i) a multi-link traffic indication element based on both a first condition and a second condition being satisfied and ii) a traffic indication map (TIM) element related to whether a first bufferable unit (BU) for the first MLD exists, wherein the first condition is that for at least one of the one or more other MLDs, there is a first link between the second MLD and the at least one of the one or more other MLDs to which a first traffic identifier (TID) is mapped but to which a second TID is not mapped; and wherein the second condition is that the second MLD has a buffered second BU with the second TID, the buffered second BU being for the at least one of the one or more other MLDs.
2 . The device of claim 1 , when an existence of the first BU for the first MLD is indicated by the TIM element, wherein the processor is configured to, transmit a PS-Poll frame for reception of the first BU to the second MLD through an enabled link of the first MLD when i) the multi-link traffic indication element is not present in the beacon frame, or ii) the multi-link traffic indication element is present in the beacon frame and the multi-link traffic indication element does not include link information for the first MLD.
3 . The device of claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to receive, from the second MLD, a frame for the first BU based on the PS-Poll frame.
4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the first BU and the second BU are the same BU.
5 . A frame transmission and reception method performed by a first multi-link device (MLD) comprising multiple stations, the method comprising: receiving a beacon frame from a second MLD comprising multiple access points (APs), the second MLD associated with one or more other MLDs, the one or more other MLDs comprising the first MLD; and decoding the received beacon frame, wherein the beacon frame includes i) a multi-link traffic indication element based on both a first condition and a second condition being satisfied and ii) a traffic indication map (TIM) element related to whether a first bufferable unit (BU) for the first MLD exists, wherein the first condition is that for at least one of the one or more other MLDs, there is a first link between the second MLD and the at least one of the one or more other MLDs to which a first traffic identifier (TID) is mapped but to which a second TID is not mapped; and wherein the second condition is that the second MLD has a buffered second BU with the second TID, the buffered second BU being for the at least one of the one or more other MLDs.
6 . The method of claim 5 , when an existence of the first BU for the first MLD is indicated by the TIM element, the method further comprising, transmitting a PS-Poll frame for reception of the first BU to the second MLD through an enabled link of the first MLD when i) the multi-link traffic indication element is not present in the beacon frame, or ii) the multi-link traffic indication element is present in the beacon frame and the multi-link traffic indication element does not include link information for the first MLD.
7 . The method of claim 6 , the method further comprising, receiving, from the second MLD, a frame for the first BU based on the PS-Poll frame.
8 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the first BU and the second BU are the same BU.

Description

This application is a continuation of International Patent Application No. PCT/KR2023/002824 filed on Feb. 28, 2023, which claims the priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0025710 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Feb. 28, 2022, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0035546 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Mar. 22, 2022, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0050377 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Apr. 22, 2022, Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0077871 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jun. 24, 2022, and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0079916 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Jun. 29, 2022, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a wireless communication method using a multi-link and a wireless communication terminal using the same. BACKGROUND ART In recent years, with supply expansion of mobile apparatuses, a wireless LAN technology that can provide a rapid wireless Internet service to the mobile apparatuses has been significantly spotlighted. The wireless LAN technology allows mobile apparatuses including a smart phone, a smart pad, a laptop computer, a portable multimedia player, an embedded apparatus, and the like to wirelessly access the Internet in home or a company or a specific service providing area based on a wireless communication technology in a short range. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 has commercialized or developed various technological standards since an initial wireless LAN technology is supported using frequencies of 2.4 GHz. First, the IEEE 802.11b supports a communication speed of a maximum of 11 Mbps while using frequencies of a 2.4 GHz band. IEEE 802.11a which is commercialized after the IEEE 802.11b uses frequencies of not the 2.4 GHz band but a 5 GHz band to reduce an influence by interference as compared with the frequencies of the 2.4 GHz band which are significantly congested and improves the communication speed up to a maximum of 54 Mbps by using an OFDM technology. However, the IEEE 802.11a has a disadvantage in that a communication distance is shorter than the IEEE 802.11b. In addition, IEEE 802.11g uses the frequencies of the 2.4 GHz band similarly to the IEEE 802.11b to implement the communication speed of a maximum of 54 Mbps and satisfies backward compatibility to significantly come into the spotlight and further, is superior to the IEEE 802.11a in terms of the communication distance. Moreover, as a technology standard established to overcome a limitation of the communication speed which is pointed out as a weak point in a wireless LAN, IEEE 802.11n has been provided. The IEEE 802.11n aims at increasing the speed and reliability of a network and extending an operating distance of a wireless network. In more detail, the IEEE 802.11n supports a high throughput (HT) in which a data processing speed is a maximum of 540 Mbps or more and further, is based on a multiple inputs and multiple outputs (MIMO) technology in which multiple antennas are used at both sides of a transmitting unit and a receiving unit in order to minimize a transmission error and optimize a data speed. Further, the standard can use a coding scheme that transmits multiple copies which overlap with each other in order to increase data reliability. As the supply of the wireless LAN is activated and further, applications using the wireless LAN are diversified, the need for new wireless LAN systems for supporting a higher throughput (very high throughput (VHT)) than the data processing speed supported by the IEEE 802.11n has come into the spotlight. Among them, IEEE 802.11ac supports a wide bandwidth (80 to 160 MHZ) in the 5 GHz frequencies. The IEEE 802.11ac standard is defined only in the 5 GHz band, but initial 11ac chipsets will support even operations in the 2.4 GHz band for the backward compatibility with the existing 2.4 GHz band products. Theoretically, according to the standard, wireless LAN speeds of multiple stations are enabled up to a minimum of 1 Gbps and a maximum single link speed is enabled up to a minimum of 500 Mbps. This is achieved by extending concepts of a wireless interface accepted by 802.11n, such as a wider wireless frequency bandwidth (a maximum of 160 MHZ), more MIMO spatial streams (a maximum of 8), multi-user MIMO, and high-density modulation (a maximum of 256 QAM). Further, as a scheme that transmits data by using a 60 GHz band instead of the existing 2.4 GHz/5 GHZ, IEEE 802.11ad has been provided. The IEEE 802.11ad is a transmission standard that provides a speed of a maximum of 7 Gbps by using a beamforming technology and is suitable for high bit rate moving picture streaming such as massive data or non-compression HD video. However, since it is difficult for the 60 GHz frequency band to pass through an obstacle, it is disadvantageous in that the 60 GHz fr