US-12621812-B2 - Apparatuses and methods for flexible resource unit (RU) allocation

US12621812B2US 12621812 B2US12621812 B2US 12621812B2US-12621812-B2

Abstract

A station (STA) for communicating with an Access Point (AP) in a wireless communication system is provided. The STA may include a wireless transceiver and a processor. The wireless transceiver may be configured to perform wireless transmission and reception to and from the AP. The processor may be configured to receive allocation information from the AP via the wireless transceiver, wherein the allocation information indicates at least one user block and at least one stream for the STA, wherein each resource unit (RU) in a Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprises at least one user block, and send Uplink (UL) data or receive Downlink (DL) data in the at least one user block to or from the AP via the wireless transceiver according to the allocation information.

Inventors

Hung-Tao Hsieh
Tung-Sheng Yang
Chao-Chun Wang
Jianhan Liu
Ying-You Lin

Assignees

MEDIATEK INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20230705

Claims (14)

1 . A station (STA) for communicating with an Access Point (AP) in a wireless communication system, comprising: a wireless transceiver, configured to perform wireless transmission and reception to and from the AP; and a processor, configured to: receive allocation information from the AP via the wireless transceiver, wherein the allocation information indicates at least one user block and at least one stream for the STA, wherein each resource unit (RU) in a Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprises at least one user block, wherein the allocation information is configured in at least one preamble in the PPDU, wherein a first preamble configured in a head of the PPDU comprises a signal (SIG) field and other preambles configured in the PPDU do not comprise the SIG field; and send Uplink (UL) data or receive Downlink (DL) data in the at least one user block to or from the AP via the wireless transceiver according to the allocation information.
2 . The STA as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the user blocks assigned to the STA are at different RUs, in different time slots or in different spatial streams.
3 . The STA as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the allocation information further indicates at least one modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and at least one spatial stream for the STA, wherein the MCS and the number of the spatial streams for the STA are the same or different at different RUs, in different time slots or in different spatial streams.
4 . The STA as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the at least one preamble is inserted in the PPDU in response to the allocation information being different in two time slots.
5 . The STA as claimed in claim 1 , wherein there is only one preamble configured in a head of the PPDU.
6 . A method, executed by a station (STA) for communicating with an Access Point (AP) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving, by the STA, allocation information from the AP via the wireless transceiver, wherein the allocation information indicates at least one user block and at least one stream for the STA, wherein each resource unit (RU) in a Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprises at least one user block, wherein the allocation information is configured in at least one preamble in the PPDU, wherein a first preamble configured in a head of the PPDU comprises a signal (SIG) field and other preambles configured in the PPDU do not comprise the SIG field; and sending, by the STA, Uplink (UL) data or receive Downlink (DL) data in the at least one user block to or from the AP via the wireless transceiver according to the allocation information.
7 . The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the user blocks assigned to the STA are at different RUs, in different time slots or in different spatial streams.
8 . The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the allocation information further indicates at least one modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and at least one spatial stream for the STA, wherein the MCS and the number of the spatial streams for the STA are the same or different at different RUs, in different time slots or in different spatial streams.
9 . The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the at least one preamble is inserted in the PPDU in response to the allocation information being different in two time slots.
10 . The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein there is only one preamble configured in a head of the PPDU.
11 . An Access Point (AP) for communicating with a plurality of stations (STA) in a wireless communication system, comprising: a wireless transceiver, configured to perform wireless transmission and reception to and from the STAs; and a processor, configured to: send allocation information to the STAs via the wireless transceiver, wherein the allocation information indicates at least one user block and at least one stream for each STA, wherein each resource unit (RU) in a Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprises at least one user block, wherein the allocation information is configured in at least one preamble in the PPDU, wherein a first preamble configured in a head of the PPDU comprises a signal (SIG) field and other preambles configured in the PPDU do not comprise the SIG field; and receive Uplink (UL) data or send Downlink (DL) data in the at least one user block from or to each STA via the wireless transceiver according to the allocation information.
12 . The AP as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the user blocks assigned to each STA are at different RUs, in different time slots or in different spatial streams, and wherein the allocation information further indicates at least one modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and at least one spatial stream for each STA, wherein the MCS and the number of the spatial streams for each STA are the same or different at different RUs, in different time slots or in different spatial streams.
13 . The AP as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the at least one preamble is inserted in the PPDU in response to the allocation information being different in two time slots.
14 . The AP as claimed in claim 11 , wherein there is only one preamble configured in a head of the PPDU.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a Continuation-In-Part of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/088,652 filed on Nov. 4, 2020, which claims priority of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/930,692, filed on Nov. 5, 2019 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/367,922, filed on Jul. 8, 2022. The entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein. BACKGROUND OF THE APPLICATION Field of the Application The application generally relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to apparatuses and methods for flexible Resource Unit (RU) allocation. Description of the Related Art With growing demand for ubiquitous computing and networking, various wireless technologies have been developed, including Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) which is a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology allowing mobile devices, such as a smartphone, a smart pad, a laptop computer, a portable multimedia player, an embedded apparatus, or the like, to obtain wireless services in a frequency band of 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 Gz or 60 GHz. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has commercialized or developed various technological standards since an initial WLAN technology is supported using frequencies of 2.4 GHz. For example, IEEE 802.11ac supports Multi-User (MU) transmission using spatial degrees of freedom via a MU-Multiple Input-Multiple-Output (MU-MIMO) scheme in a downlink (DL) direction from an Access Point (AP) to Stations (STAs). To improve performance felt by users demanding high-capacity and high-rate services, IEEE 802.11ax has been proposed, which uses both Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and/or MU-MIMO in both DL and uplink (UL) directions. That is, in addition to supporting frequency and spatial multiplexing from an AP to multiple STAs, transmissions from multiple STAs to the AP are also supported in IEEE 802.11ax. In IEEE 802.11ax, a Resource Unit (RU) refers a group of 78.125 KHz bandwidth subcarriers (tones) used in both DL and UL transmissions for a single STA, and a Multi-User-Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (MU-PPDU) may carry multiple RUs, allowing multiple users to access an AP simultaneously and efficiently. However, according to the IEEE 802.11ax standards, each RU in an MU-PPDU can only be allocated to a single STA. When some of the STAs aggregated in an MU-PPDU for OFDMA transmission have only a small amount of traffic to send/receive, padding bits will be inserted in the RUs, as shown in FIG. 1, which will inevitably cause a waste of radio resources and decrease the overall system performance. Therefore, it is desirable to have a more efficient way of RU allocation for the next generation of IEEE 802.11 systems. BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE APPLICATION In order to solve the aforementioned problem, the present application proposes a more flexible way of RU allocation for IEEE 802.11be systems or any further generation of IEEE 802.11be systems, in which multiple station (STA) are allowed to share one Resource Unit (RU) in a Multi-User-Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (MU-PPDU). Advantageously, each RU can be more efficiently used among the multiple STAs aggregated in an MU-PPDU for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) transmission, thereby improving radio resource utilization and overall system performance. In one aspect of the application, a STA for communicating with an Access Point (AP) in a wireless communication system is provided. The STA may comprise a wireless transceiver and a processor. The wireless transceiver may be configured to perform wireless transmission and reception to and from the AP. The processor may be configured to receive allocation information from the AP via the wireless transceiver, wherein the allocation information indicates at least one user block and at least one stream for the STA, wherein each resource unit (RU) in a Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprises at least one user block, and send Uplink (UL) data or receive Downlink (DL) data in the at least one user block to or from the AP via the wireless transceiver according to the allocation information. In another aspect of the application, a method, executed by a STA for communicating with an Access Point (AP) in a wireless communication system, is provided. The method comprises the following steps: receiving, by the STA, allocation information from the AP via the wireless transceiver, wherein the allocation information indicates at least one user block and at least one stream for the STA, wherein each resource unit (RU) in a Physical layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) comprises at least one user block; and sending, by the STA, Uplink (UL) data or receive Downlink (DL) data in the at least one user block to or from the AP via the wireless transceiver according to the allocation information. In yet another aspect of the application, an AP for communicating with a plurality of stations (STAs) in a wireless communication system is pr