Spectrum allocation for multiple resource units in a wireless network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12309756-B2
Application number	US-202318131858-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 6, 2023
Priority date	Mar 13, 2020
Publication date	May 20, 2025
Grant date	May 20, 2025

Abstract

Methods, devices and systems for allocating spectrum in a wireless local area network. A bit representation of the availability or unavailability of a plurality of sub-bands of a portion of frequency spectrum is generated and included in a physical layer protocol data unit, which is transmitted to a target station to allocate resource units within the portion of frequency spectrum for use by the target station. The sub-bands may be 20 MHz spectrum sub-bands for large-size resource units, or the portion of frequency spectrum may be a single 20 MHz band sub-divided into multiple sub-bands for allocating small-size resource units. A station that receives the data unit may decode the bit representation and use the allocated resource units to communicate over the wireless local area network.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for allocating a portion of frequency spectrum in a wireless local area network, comprising:
transmitting a physical layer protocol data unit to a target station, the physical layer protocol data unit including a header that includes a bit representation of the portion of frequency spectrum for use by the target station, the bit representation including a plurality of binary values, each binary value indicating the availability or unavailability of one or more equal-size sub-bands making up the portion of frequency spectrum,
wherein:
the portion of frequency spectrum is an operating channel consisting of one to four sub-blocks of the operating channel, each sub-block of the operating channel consisting of four 20 MHz sub-bands;
each binary value in the plurality of binary values indicates an unavailable sub-band or an available one or more sub-bands; and
the bit representation consists of, for each sub-block of the operating channel, a corresponding sub-block representation, each sub-block representation consisting of one or more binary values.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
each binary value is two bits; and
each binary value corresponds to an unavailable 20 MHz sub-band or the size of an available one or more contiguous 20 MHz sub-bands.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the four possible binary values correspond to:
an unavailable sub-band;
an available sub-band;
two contiguous available sub-bands; and
four contiguous available sub-bands.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
each binary value is one bit; and
each binary value corresponds to an unavailable 20 MHz sub-band or an available 20 MHz sub-band.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein:
a binary value of “0” indicates an unavailable 20 MHz sub-band; and
a binary value of “1” indicates an available 20 MHz sub-band.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the header includes a universal signal field; and
the bit representation is included in the universal signal field.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the header includes an extreme high throughput signal field; and
the bit representation is included in the extreme high throughput signal field.

8. A processing system for allocating a portion of frequency spectrum in a wireless local area network, comprising:
a processing device;
a wireless network interface for wireless communication with a network; and
a memory storing machine-executable instructions that, when executed by the processing device, implement a communication module configured to transmit a physical layer protocol data unit to a target station, the physical layer protocol data unit including a header that includes a bit representation of the portion of frequency spectrum for use by the target station, the bit representation including a plurality of binary values, each binary value indicating the availability or unavailability of one or more equal-size sub-bands making up the portion of frequency spectrum,
wherein:
the portion of frequency spectrum is an operating channel consisting of one to four sub-blocks of the operating channel, each sub-block of the operating channel consisting of four 20 MHz sub-bands;
each binary value in the plurality of binary values indicates an unavailable sub-band or an available one or more sub-bands; and
the bit representation consists of, for each sub-block of the operating channel, a corresponding sub-block representation, each sub-block representation consisting of one or more binary values.

9. The processing system of claim 8 , wherein:
each binary value is two bits; and
each binary value corresponds to an unavailable 20 MHz sub-band or the size of an available one or more contiguous 20 MHz sub-bands.

10. The processing system of claim 9 , wherein:
the four possible binary values correspond to:
an unavailable sub-band;
an available sub-band;
two contiguous available sub-bands; and
four contiguous available sub-bands.

11. The processing system of claim 8 , wherein:
each binary value is one bit; and
each binary value corresponds to an unavailable 20 MHz sub-band or an available 20 MHz sub-band.

12. The processing system of claim 11 , wherein:
a binary value of “0” indicates an unavailable 20 MHz sub-band; and
a binary value of “1” indicates an available 20 MHz sub-band.

13. The processing system of claim 8 , wherein:
the header includes a universal signal field; and
the bit representation is included in the universal signal field.

14. The processing system of claim 8 , wherein:
the header includes an extreme high throughput signal field; and
the bit representation is included in the extreme high throughput signal field.

Assignees

• Xin Yan
• Sun Sheng
• Suh Jung Hoon
• Aboul Magd Osama
• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Xin Yan
• Sun Sheng
• Suh Jung Hoon
• Aboul-Magd Osama

Classifications

• H04W16/14 Primary

  Spectrum sharing arrangements {between different networks} · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W72/02

  Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal · CPC title

• H04W72/23 Primary

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04L5/0098

  Signalling of the activation or deactivation of component carriers, subcarriers or frequency bands · CPC title