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US-12628042-B2 - Radio communication apparatus and radio communication method for low latency communications

US12628042B2US 12628042 B2US12628042 B2US 12628042B2US-12628042-B2

Abstract

A radio communication apparatus that simultaneously uses multiple radio channels, the radio communication apparatus includes a radio communicator, and a radio controller, wherein the radio controller uses multiple transmission methods, at least one of the multiple transmission methods is a method for reducing latency, at least one radio channel of the multiple radio channels is allocated to the method for reducing latency, a beacon is transmitted on the multiple radio channels by use of the radio communicator, and information transmitted in the beacon includes an information element indicating the at least one radio channel allocated to the method for reducing latency.

Inventors

  • Hideo Namba
  • Atsushi Shirakawa
  • Hiromichi Tomeba

Assignees

  • SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20211126
Priority Date
20201201

Claims (5)

  1. 1 . A radio communication apparatus that simultaneously uses a plurality of radio channels, the radio communication apparatus comprising: a radio communicator; and a radio controller, wherein: the radio controller uses a plurality of transmission methods, at least one of the plurality of transmission methods is a method for reducing latency, at least one radio channel of the plurality of radio channels is used for the method for reducing latency, the radio communicator transmits a plurality of beacons on two or more of the plurality of radio channels, and information transmitted in one of the plurality of beacons includes an information element indicating the method for reducing latency.
  2. 2 . The radio communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a trigger frame is transmitted on a radio channel, among the two or more of the plurality of radio channels, on which the information is transmitted, and the trigger frame includes information indicating that the transmission is to be performed by the method for reducing latency.
  3. 3 . A radio communication method used in a radio communication apparatus that simultaneously uses a plurality of radio channels, the radio communication method comprising: using a plurality of transmission methods, at least one of the plurality of transmission methods being a method for reducing latency; using at least one radio channel of the plurality of radio channels for the method for reducing latency; and transmitting a plurality of beacons on two or more of the plurality of radio channels, wherein information transmitted in at least one of the plurality of beacons includes an information element indicating the method for reducing latency.
  4. 4 . The radio communication apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the method for reducing latency is used on a radio channel, among the two or more of the plurality of radio channels, on which the information is transmitted.
  5. 5 . A radio communication apparatus that simultaneously uses a plurality of radio channels, the radio communication apparatus comprising: a radio communicator; and a radio controller, wherein: the radio controller uses a plurality of transmission methods, at least one of the plurality of transmission methods is a method for reducing latency, the radio communicator receives a beacon on one radio channel of the plurality of radio channels, information transmitted in the beacon includes an information element indicating the method for reducing latency, and the method for reducing latency is used on the one radio channel.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a radio communication apparatus and a radio communication method. This application claims priority based on JP 2020-199373 filed on Dec. 1, 2020, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND ART The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) has been continuously working to update the IEEE 802.11 specification that is a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) standard in order to achieve a higher speed and frequency efficiency of wireless LAN communication. In a wireless LAN, radio communication can be performed using unlicensed bands that can be used without permission (license) by nations or regions. For applications for individuals including an application for domestic use, Internet accesses from residences are wirelessly established by, for example, including wireless LAN access point functions in optical network unit for connection to a Wide Area Network (WAN) line such as the Internet or connecting wireless LAN access point apparatuses to the optical network units. In other words, wireless LAN station apparatuses such as smartphones and PCs can connect to the wireless LAN access point apparatuses to access the Internet. The standardization of a specification of IEEE 802.11ax is expected to be completed in 2020, and wireless LAN devices compliant with the draft specification and smartphones and Personal Computers (PCs) with the wireless LAN devices equipped therein are already on the market as products compliant with Wi-Fi 6 (trade name, a name for IEEE-802.11ax compliant products certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance). Also, activities for standardizing IEEE 802.11be as a standard to succeed IEEE 802.11ax has been started. As the wireless LAN devices have been widely used, in the standardization of IEEE 802.11be, further improvement has been studied that allows throughput per user to be improved in environments where wireless LAN devices are densely installed. Meanwhile, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in Europe and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States are studying the use of 6 GHz band (5.935 to 7.125 GHz) as an unlicensed band, and the similar study is also being performed in other countries in the world. This means that in the wireless LANs 6 GHz band is expected to be available in addition to 2.4 GHz band and 5 GHz. In order to support the expansion of frequencies to be supported, the Wi-Fi Alliance is intending to standardize Wi-Fi 6E (trade name), which is an extended version of Wi-Fi 6, to use 6 GHz band. To be precise, 6 GHz band corresponds to frequencies of 5.935 to 7.125 GHz, and a bandwidth of about 1.2 GHz in total becomes newly available, that is, there is increase by 14 channels each having a bandwidth of 80 MHz or 7 channels each having a bandwidth of 160 MHz. This makes a sufficient number of frequency resources available, and a study has been performed to increase the maximum channel bandwidth usable by a single wireless LAN communication system (equivalent to a BSS to be described below) from the 160 MHz in IEEE 802.11ax to double, 320 MHz, in IEEE 802.11be (see NPL 1). The reduction of latency has been studied in IEEE 802.11be (see NPL 2). In this study, a low latency of 1 millisecond or less is under study. CITATION LIST Non Patent Literature NPL 1: IEEE 802.11-20/0693-01-00be, May. 2020NPL 2: IEEE 802.11-20/0418-00-00be SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem In the wireless LAN in the related art, CSMA/CA based access control is performed and the latency is largely affected by a congestion state of a channel. Specifically, in a case that carrier sense is successful and a transmission occasion is not acquired, it is necessary to further wait for a prescribed random time (perform random backoff) in order to perform transmission. In a case that the channel is congested, a situation in which a transmission occasion is not acquired continues, and as a result, there is a problem in that communication latency increases. Solution to Problem A radio communication apparatus and a radio communication method according to an aspect of the present invention for solving the aforementioned problem are as follows. (1) Specifically, a radio communication apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention simultaneously uses multiple radio channels, the radio communication apparatus includes a radio communicator, and a radio controller, wherein the radio controller uses multiple transmission methods, at least one of the multiple transmission methods is a method for reducing latency, at least one radio channel of the multiple radio channels is allocated to the method for reducing latency, a beacon is transmitted on the multiple radio channels by use of the radio communicator, and information transmitted in the beacon includes an information element indicating the at least one radio channel allocated to the method for reducing latency.(2) In the radio communi