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US-20260129670-A1 - WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICE AND METHOD FOR INTRA-BSS INTERFERENCE MITIGATION VIA NON-PRIMARY CHANNEL ACCESS

US20260129670A1US 20260129670 A1US20260129670 A1US 20260129670A1US-20260129670-A1

Abstract

A method and device for mitigating intra-BSS interference in a wireless network are disclosed. A wireless communication device detects a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) on a primary channel. The device determines if the first PPDU is an intra-BSS transmission and not directed to itself. If both conditions are met, the device initiates a non-primary channel access (NPCA) procedure to allow the device to communicate on an idle non-primary channel by transmitting or receiving a second PPDU, thereby avoiding contention on the busy primary channel.

Inventors

  • Hao-Hua KANG
  • Cheng-Ying Wu
  • Chih-Chun KUO
  • Chien-Feng Hsu

Assignees

  • MEDIATEK INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251022

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A wireless communication device operating in a basic service set (BSS), the wireless communication device comprising: a transceiver configured to receive and transmit a plurality of physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) on a primary channel and a non-primary channel; and a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to: detect, via the primary channel, a first PPDU; determine that the first PPDU is an intra-BSS transmission corresponding to the BSS; determine that the first PPDU is not directed to the wireless communication device; and in response to determining that the first PPDU is the intra-BSS transmission and is not directed to the wireless communication device, control the transceiver to perform a non-primary channel access (NPCA) procedure on the non-primary channel to transmit or receive a second PPDU.
  2. 2 . The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the first PPDU is a downlink (DL) PPDU transmitted by an access point (AP) of the BSS.
  3. 3 . The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the first PPDU is an uplink (UL) PPDU transmitted by a first station (STA) in the BSS.
  4. 4 . The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication device is a non-AP station that communicates with a second station (STA) via a tunneled direct link setup (TDLS).
  5. 5 . The wireless communication device of claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to: exchange, with the second station, a media access control (MAC) address list of a plurality of intra-BSS stations detectable by each other; and perform the NPCA procedure only when a transmitter address (TA) or a receiver address (RA) of the first PPDU is commonly identified by the wireless communication device and the second station.
  6. 6 . The wireless communication device of claim 4 , wherein the non-primary channel is determined through negotiation by the wireless communication device and the second station.
  7. 7 . The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication device is an access point (AP) of the BSS or a non-TDLS station, and the first PPDU is transmitted by a pair of stations performing TDLS communication.
  8. 8 . The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the non-primary channel is announced by an access point (AP) of the BSS.
  9. 9 . The wireless communication device of claim 1 , wherein the non-primary channel is located outside an operating bandwidth of the BSS.
  10. 10 . A non-primary channel access (NPCA) method for a first wireless communication device, the first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device operating in a basic service set (BSS) and communicating via a tunneled direct link setup (TDLS), the NPCA method comprising: detecting, on a primary channel, a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU); determining that the first PPDU is an intra-BSS transmission corresponding to the BSS; determining that the first PPDU is not directed to the first wireless communication device; in response to determining that the first PPDU is the intra-BSS transmission and is not directed to the first wireless communication device, switching to a non-primary channel; and communicating with the second wireless communication device on the non-primary channel.
  11. 11 . The non-primary channel access (NPCA) method of claim 10 , further comprising: exchanging, with the second wireless communication device, a media access control (MAC) address list of a plurality of intra-BSS stations detectable by each other; and wherein switching to the non-primary channel is performed only when a transmitter address (TA) or a receiver address (RA) of the first PPDU is commonly identified by the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device.
  12. 12 . The NPCA method of claim 10 , wherein the first PPDU is transmitted by an access point (AP) of the BSS.
  13. 13 . The NPCA method of claim 10 , wherein the first PPDU is transmitted by a non-TDLS station in the BSS.
  14. 14 . The NPCA method of claim 10 , wherein the non-primary channel is announced by an access point (AP) of the BSS.
  15. 15 . The NPCA method of claim 10 , wherein the non-primary channel is determined through negotiation by the first wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device.
  16. 16 . A non-primary channel access (NPCA) method for a first wireless communication device operating in a basic service set (BSS), the BSS further comprising a second wireless communication device and a third wireless communication device, wherein the second wireless communication device and third wireless communication device communicate via a tunneled direct link setup (TDLS), the NPCA method comprising: detecting, on a primary channel, a first physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) transmitted by the second wireless communication device or the third wireless communication device; determining that the first PPDU is an intra-BSS transmission corresponding to the BSS; determining that the first PPDU is not directed to the first wireless communication device; and in response to determining that the first PPDU is the intra-BSS transmission and is not directed to the first wireless communication device, performing an NPCA procedure on a non-primary channel.
  17. 17 . The NPCA method of claim 16 , wherein the first wireless communication device is an access point (AP) of the BSS, and the NPCA procedure comprises communicating with a fourth wireless communication device on the non-primary channel.
  18. 18 . The NPCA method of claim 16 , wherein the first wireless communication device is a non-TDLS station.
  19. 19 . The NPCA method of claim 16 , wherein the non-primary channel is announced by an access point (AP) of the BSS.
  20. 20 . The NPCA method of claim 16 , further comprising switching back to the primary channel after the NPCA procedure is completed.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/714,953, filed on November 1st, 2024. The content of the application is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND Wireless communication technology has become an indispensable part of modern life. Among these technologies, Wi-Fi®, based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 series of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN), has been widely adopted in various settings such as homes, offices, and public spaces due to its convenience and high-speed transmission characteristics. Wi-Fi® is a registered trademark of Wi-Fi Alliance. For readability and conciseness throughout this specification, the term “Wi-Fi” will subsequently be used to refer to its respective technologies without repeated use of the trademark symbol ®. This usage is for descriptive purposes and is not intended to challenge the validity or ownership of the trademark. Consistent with the above, the term will be used descriptively without repeated trademark symbols. To enhance transmission rates, more recent generations of Wi-Fi standards (e.g., 802.11ac, 802.11ax, and 802.11be) employ channel bonding technology, which combines multiple narrower bandwidths (e.g., 20MHz) into a wider transmission bandwidth (e.g., 80MHz, 160MHz, or 320MHz). Within a wideband channel, a "primary channel" is typically designated for tasks such as contention-based access and transmission of control frames, while the remaining channels are referred to as "non-primary channels" or "secondary channels". In a Wi-Fi network, all wireless devices, including the access point (AP) and stations (STAs), must first listen to determine if a channel is idle before transmitting. If the channel is detected as being in use, the transmission must be deferred. However, in high-density deployment environments, the coverage area of one basic service set (BSS) often overlaps with that of an "overlapping BSS" (OBSS) established by a different AP. When a device in the OBSS transmits on the primary channel, devices within the current BSS must defer their own transmissions, even if non-primary channels are idle. This scenario is an example of Inter-Basic Service Set (inter-BSS) interference, which refers to interference caused by transmissions from devices in a different, overlapping BSS. This inter-BSS interference significantly reduces the utilization efficiency of bandwidth resources. To address this issue, the IEEE 802.11bn standard has formally defined a "non-primary channel access" (NPCA) mechanism as one of the main features in Wi-Fi 8. According to the conventional NPCA mechanism, when an AP or a STA within a BSS detects a signal from an OBSS on the primary channel, it can communicate on a pre-negotiated non-primary channel until the OBSS transmission ends, at which point it switches back to the primary channel. This approach allows devices to bypass the occupied primary channel and utilize idle non-primary channels for transmission, thereby improving channel utilization in the presence of OBSS interference. However, the conventional NPCA mechanism is primarily designed to address inter-BSS interference and fails to consider the underutilization of bandwidth caused by Intra-Basic Service Set (intra-BSS) interference. Unlike inter-BSS interference, intra-BSS interference originates from other devices operating within the same BSS. Inside a BSS, when the AP is communicating with a certain STA, it also occupies the primary channel, causing other devices within the BSS to wait. This problem is particularly pronounced in network environments that utilize a "tunneled direct link setup" (TDLS). TDLS allows two non-Access Point (non-AP) STAs to establish a peer-to-peer (P2P) connection directly without forwarding through the AP. A “non-AP” STA refers to a wireless station that is not functioning as an access point (AP) within the network. When the AP is communicating with one STA, two STAs engaged in TDLS communication will also be blocked upon detecting that the primary channel is busy, preventing them from effectively utilizing idle non-primary channels. Although TDLS devices can perform an off-channel operation to switch to a completely different channel, this process is often time-consuming and interrupts the connection with the AP, making it an inefficient solution. Therefore, a need exists in the art for a method that can effectively utilize spectrum resources to address the problem of intra-BSS interference. SUMMARY An embodiment of the present invention provides a wireless communication device operating in a basic service set (BSS). The wireless communication device comprises a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver is configured to receive and transmit a plurality of physical layer protocol data units (PPDUs) on a primary channel and a non-primary channel. The processor is coupled to the transceiver and is configured to