Apparatus to enable EHT multi-AP group formation in a multi-AP network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11564109-B2
Application number	US-202016893871-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 5, 2020
Priority date	Jun 7, 2019
Publication date	Jan 24, 2023
Grant date	Jan 24, 2023

Abstract

An access point (AP) station (STA) (AP STA) may be configured to operate as a multi-AP controller in a multi-AP network. A multi-AP group formation message is encoded for transmission to other APs in the multi-AP network. The multi-AP group formation message is encoded to notify the APs of the formation of an extremely-high throughput (EHT) multi-AP group, to designate whether an AP is a member of an EHT multi-AP group, and whether an AP can take the role of a coordinator AP or coordinated AP within the EHT multi-AP group. For multi-AP joint processing, the AP STA is further configured to encode an AP trigger frame for transmission to the APs in the multi-AP network. The AP trigger frame is to trigger physical layer (PHY) and medium-access control layer (MAC) parameter synchronization. The AP trigger frame is to trigger transmission of aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) by the APs that include MAC parameters and PHY parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus of an access point (AP) station (STA) (AP STA) comprising: processing circuitry; and memory, wherein the processing circuitry is to configure the AP STA to operate as a multi-AP controller in a multi-AP network,
wherein the processing circuitry is to encode a multi-AP group formation message for transmission to APs in the multi-AP network, the multi-AP group formation message encoded to notify the APs of the formation of an extremely-high throughput (EHT) multi-AP group, to designate whether an AP is a member of an EHT multi-AP group, and whether an AP can take the role of a coordinator AP or coordinated AP within the EHT multi-AP group,
wherein when the AP is operating as the coordinator AP, the processing circuitry is further configured to:
encode an AP trigger frame for transmission to the coordinated APs in the multi-AP network, the AP trigger frame to trigger physical layer (PHY) and medium-access control layer (MAC) parameter synchronization for triggering a simultaneous transmission of aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) by the coordinator AP and the coordinated APs,
wherein the A-MPDUs of the simultaneous transmission have same PHY parameters for PHY parameter synchronization.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein if the multi-AP group formation message indicates that the AP STA is designated as the coordinator of the multi-AP group, the processing circuitry is further configured to encode the multi-AP group formation message to designate the other APs as coordinated APs of the EHT multi-AP group.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the EHT multi-AP group is a subset of the multi-AP network, and
wherein the EHT multi-AP group is one of a plurality of EHT multi-AP groups within the multi-AP network.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to select APs of the multi-AP network for inclusion in the EHT multi-AP group based on network topology, capabilities of the APs, and link conditions.

5. An apparatus of an access point (AP) station (STA) (AP STA) comprising: processing circuitry; and memory, wherein the processing circuitry is to configure the AP STA to operate as a multi-AP controller in a multi-AP network,
wherein the processing circuitry is to encode a multi-AP group formation message for transmission to APs in the multi-AP network, the multi-AP group formation message encoded to notify the APs of the formation of an extremely-high throughput (EHT) multi-AP group, to designate whether an AP is a member of an EHT multi-AP group, and whether an AP can take the role of a coordinator AP or coordinated AP within the EHT multi-AP group,
wherein for multi-AP joint processing, the processing circuitry is further configured to:
encode an AP trigger frame for transmission to the APs in the multi-AP network, the AP trigger frame to trigger physical layer (PHY) and medium-access control layer (MAC) parameter synchronization, the AP trigger frame to trigger transmission of aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) by the APs, the A-MPDUs to include MAC parameters and PHY parameters indicated in the AP Trigger frame; and
decode the A-MPDUs received from the APs.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the AP trigger frame includes a multi-AP STA indication to be used as a receiver address (RA) for a joint transmission.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein MAC parameters for the MAC synchronization include a MAC header information comprising frame control, duration, sequence control, quality-of-service (QoS) control and high-throughput (HT) control.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the MAC parameters for the MAC synchronization further include MAC security header information comprising a packet number (PN) and a key identity (ID).

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein PHY parameters for the PHY synchronization include a scrambling seed, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), a coding rate, a guard interval (GI), a long-training field (LTF) length, LTF symbols, a PHY format, a transmission PHY preamble, and PHY padding or a packet extension.

10. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein when the multi-AP joint processing is to be performed by the AP STA, the processing circuitry is configured to decode signaling provided the APs of the multi-AP network, the signalling from each of the APs to indicate a multi-AP basic-service set (BSS) color and a multi-AP BSSID.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry comprises a baseband processor, and wherein the memory is configured to store the multi-AP group formation message.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of an access point (AP) station (STA) (AP STA) to configure the AP STA to operate as a multi-AP controller in a multi-AP network,
wherein the processing circuitry is to encode a multi-AP group formation message for transmission to APs in the multi-AP network, the multi-AP group formation message encoded to notify the APs of the formation of an extremely-high throughput (EHT) multi-AP group, to designate whether an AP is a member of an EHT multi-AP group, and whether an AP can take the role of a coordinator AP or coordinated AP within the EHT multi-AP group,
wherein when the AP is operating as the coordinator AP, the processing circuitry is further configured to:
encode an AP trigger frame for transmission to the coordinated APs in the multi-AP network, the AP trigger frame to trigger physical layer (PHY) and medium-access control layer (MAC) parameter synchronization for triggering a simultaneous transmission of aggregated MAC protocol data units (A-MPDUs) by the coordinator AP and the coordinated APs, wherein the A-MPDUs of the simultaneous transmission have same PHY parameters for PHY Parameter synchronization.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 wherein if the multi-AP group formation message indicates that the AP STA is designated as the coordinator of the multi-AP group, the processing circuitry is further configured to encode the multi-AP group formation message to designate the other APs as coordinated APs of the EHT multi-AP group.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the EHT multi-AP group is a subset of the multi-AP network, and
wherein the EHT multi-AP group is one of a plurality of EHT multi-AP groups within the multi-AP network.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to select APs of the multi-AP network for inclusion in the EHT multi-AP group based on network topology, capabilities of the APs, and link conditions.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of an access point (AP) station (STA) (AP STA) to configure the AP STA to operate as a multi-AP controller in a multi-AP network,
wherein the processing circuitry is to encode a multi-AP group formation message for transmission to APs in the multi-AP network, the multi-AP group formation message encoded to notify the APs of the formation of an extremely-high throughput (EHT) multi-AP group, to designate whether an AP is a member of an EHT multi-AP group, and whether an AP can take the role of a coordinator AP or coordinated AP within the EHT multi-AP group,
wherein for multi-AP joint processing, the processing circuitry is further configured to:
encode an AP trigger frame for transmission to the APs in the multi-AP network, the AP trigger frame to trigger physical layer (PHY) and medi

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Chen Cheng
• Huang Po-Kai
• Cariou Laurent
• Cordeiro Carlos
• Jiang Feng
• Chen Xiaogang
• Li Qinghua
• Klein Arik
• Bravo Daniel F

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W16/18 Primary

  Network planning tools · CPC title

• H04W88/08

  Access point devices · CPC title

• H04W24/02 Primary

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04W88/12

  Access point controller devices · CPC title