US-12628197-B2 - Communication apparatus and communication method for wireless local area network sensing

US12628197B2US 12628197 B2US12628197 B2US 12628197B2US-12628197-B2

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a communication apparatus and method for wireless local area network sensing. The communication apparatus comprises: a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits a request frame to one or more peer communication apparatuses, the request frame carrying transmission parameters to be used by the each of one or more peer communication apparatuses to transmit a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) used for channel measurements; a sensing module configured to perform the channel measurements based on the respective PPDU(s) received from the one or more peer communication apparatuses; and an interface configured to obtain sensing parameters from higher layer applications and pass a result of the channel measurements to the higher layer applications.

Inventors

Rojan CHITRAKAR
Lei Huang
Yoshio Urabe
Rajat PUSHKARNA

Assignees

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20210610
Priority Date: 20200818

Claims (15)

1 . A communication apparatus comprising: a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits a request frame to one or more peer communication apparatuses, the request frame carrying (i) transmission parameters to be used by each of the one or more peer communication apparatuses to transmit a Null Data Packet (NDP), and (ii) a session identifier identifying a sensing session, wherein the transmitter, in operation, transmits another frame carrying the session identifier to the one or more peer communication apparatuses, the another frame soliciting each of the one or more peer communication apparatuses to transmit the NDP; circuitry, which, in operation, performs channel measurements based on the respective NDP(s) received from the one or more peer communication apparatuses; and an interface, which, in operation, obtains sensing parameters from higher layer applications and pass a result of the channel measurements to the higher layer applications.
2 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the NDP(s) received from the one or more peer communication apparatuses used for channel measurements is transmitted using a same PPDU format and a same channel bandwidth as a request PPDU comprising the request frame.
3 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transmission parameters comprise at least one of: a group identifier, respective identifier(s) of the one or more peer communication apparatuses, a PPDU format, a number of spatial streams, a channel bandwidth, a target receive power and a transmit power.
4 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the request frame further comprises a Transmit Power Hold field that indicates to one or more peer communication apparatuses to transmit the NDP(s) using a same transmit power during the sensing session.
5 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transmission parameters are negotiated with the one or more communication apparatus during a setup of the sensing session.
6 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the interface comprises a primitive to request for a transmission of the request frame to the one or more peer communication apparatuses, and pass, from the higher layer applications: a group identifier, the session identifier, respective identifier(s) of the one or more peer apparatus or a media access control address of one of the one or more peer communication apparatuses, a PPDU format, a number of spatial streams and a channel bandwidth.
7 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the interface comprises a primitive to pass, to the higher layer applications: the session identifier, a media access control address of one of the one or more peer communication apparatuses, a PPDU format, a channel bandwidth and the result of the channel measurements.
8 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry, in operation, performs channel measurements on a periodic basis based on unsolicited PPDUs received from at least one of the one or more peer communication apparatuses.
9 . The communication apparatus of claim 8 , wherein each of the at least one of the one or more peer communication apparatuses is identified by a transmitter address field of a frame received immediately prior to the unsolicited PPDU.
10 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the interface comprises a primitive to request the one or more peer communication apparatuses to initiate a legacy channel measurement procedure.
11 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the session identifier is assigned to at least two different peer communication apparatuses.
12 . The communication apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter, in operation, transmits the request frame at least twice during one sensing session.
13 . A communication method comprising: obtaining sensing parameters from higher layer applications; transmitting a request frame to one or more peer communication apparatuses, the request frame carrying (i) transmission parameters to be used by each of the one or more peer communication apparatuses to transmit a Null Data Packet (NDP), and (ii) a session identifier identifying a sensing session; transmitting another frame carrying the session identifier to the one or more peer communication apparatuses, the another frame soliciting each of the one or more peer communication apparatuses to transmit the NDP; performing channel measurements based on the respective NDP(s) received from the one or more peer communication apparatuses; and passing a result of the channel measurements to the higher layer applications.
14 . The communication method of claim 13 , wherein the session identifier is assigned to at least two different peer communication apparatuses.
15 . The communication method of claim 13 , wherein the request frame is transmitted at least twice during one sensing session.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to communication apparatuses and methods for wireless local network (WLAN) sensing, and more particularly to communication apparatuses and methods for WLAN sensing under a mix of various types (amendments) of 802.11 devices. BACKGROUND WLAN sensing is the use, by a WLAN sensing capable communication apparatus, of received WLAN signals to detect feature(s) of an intended target(s) in a given environment. In particular, examples of features for WLAN sensing includes range, velocity, angular, motion, present of proximity, gesture, people counting, etc; examples of targets for WLAN sensing includes object, human, animal, etc; and examples of environments includes room, house, car, enterprise, etc. A differentiating factor for WLAN sensing compared to other similar applications is that the target is not required to carry any WLAN or any other radio devices. In other words, WLAN sensing works without the target even being aware of the ongoing sensing/detection. Currently, the are some example use cases that utilize WLAN sensing such as smart home, gesture recognition, gaming control, presence and proximity detection for home/car, liveness, location tracking in store and audio with user tracking (follow-me sound). There are two categories of 802.11 devices that are considered: (i) mainstream 802.11 devices that operate on frequencies below 7 GHz, e.g. high throughput (HT), very high throughput (VHT), high efficiency (HE). These usually perform WLAN sensing by performing channel measurement and are suitable for use cases that do not require high resolution sensing; and (ii) Millimetre wave 802.11 devices that operate on frequencies above 60 GHz, e.g. digital multi-gigabit (DMG) and enhanced digital multi-gigabit (EDMG), which are capable of high resolution sensing where a single device may perform sensing in a monostatic fashion (similar to radar). Regarding mainstream 802.11 devices, WLAN sensing application typically involves performing channel measurements and tracking one or more wireless links over time to classify channel variations into events or activities. Since Channel State Information (CSI) provides information that describes how wireless signals propagate in the channel with the various effects such as time delay, amplitude attenuation and phase shift on each subcarrier, CSI is a popular channel measurement parameter for WLAN sensing. However, existing WLAN devices do not provide standardized interfaces for high layer application to obtain the CSI, or to configure the parameters used for channel measurement. In particular, IEEE 802.11 Project Authorization Request (PAR) states that the new Task Group (TG) formed for WLAN Sensing, 802.11bf, will be a media access control (MAC) amendments, i.e. no changes to the physical layer, for sub-7 GHz frequencies. Legacy 802.11 devices may support 802.11bf features using existing hardware by performing a firmware/software update. In other words, when 802.11bf specification is released, it is likely that 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11az and 802.11be devices will be in use in the market. It is prominent to explore issues when 11bf is implemented on different 802.11 amendments, and whether WLAN sensing can be performed even with 802.11 devices that do not implement 11bf. Thus, there is a need for communication apparatuses and methods that provide feasible technical solutions for WLAN sensing in the context of a mix of various types (amendments) of 802.11 devices. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure. SUMMARY Non-limiting and exemplary embodiments facilitate providing communication apparatuses and communication methods for wireless local area network (WLAN) sensing across different 802.11 devices. In a first embodiment, the present disclosure provides a communication apparatus comprising: a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits a request frame to one or more peer communication apparatuses, the request frame carrying transmission parameters to be used by each of the one or more peer communication apparatuses to transmit a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) used for channel measurements; a sensing module configured to perform the channel measurements based on the respective PPDU(s) received from the one or more peer communication apparatuses; and an interface configured to obtain sensing parameters from higher layer applications and pass a result of the channel measurements to the higher layer applications. In a second embodiment, the present disclosure provides a peer communication comprising: a receiver, which, in operation, receives a request frame comprising transmission parameters from a communication apparatus; and a transmitter, which, in operation, transmits a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) to b