Access points, station and corresponding methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12335990-B2
Application number	US-202017772666-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2020
Priority date	Nov 5, 2019
Publication date	Jun 17, 2025
Grant date	Jun 17, 2025

Abstract

An approach is presented, by which an access point can identify and trigger stations with stringent latency requirements or with periodic traffic to transmit to their corresponding access points, simultaneously with uplink traffic from its own service set. The existing spatial reuse is improved to take into account receive beamforming capabilities at the access points. Furthermore, an approach is presented to gather the channel information in an efficient manner and enhance the triggering procedures to allow stations from overlapping cells to access the channel, during the transmit opportunities or resource units allocated to other users.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A first access point comprising circuitry configured to
communicate with one or more first stations associated with the first access point,
transmit a trigger requesting stations to transmit data units containing channel estimation sequences enabling channel estimation and/or channel feedback information,
determine channel information based on channel estimation sequences and/or the channel feedback information transmitted from one or more of said first stations and from one or more second stations associated with a second access point, and
determine, based on the determined channel information, spatial reuse parameters for use by the first access point for reception of data during spatial reuse of resources by (i) one or more of said first stations for transmission of data to the first access point and (ii) by one or more of said second stations for transmission of data to the second access point.

2. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to determine the spatial reuse parameters ensuring that a signal to interference ratio or a signal to interference plus noise ratio at the first access point is above a threshold or that a signal to interference condition or a signal to interference plus noise condition is fulfilled during the spatial reuse.

3. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to determine, as spatial reuse parameter, one or more of
beamforming vectors defining a beamforming configuration used by the first access point for receiving data transmitted by one or more of said first stations during spatial reuse,
resource allocation information indicating the time and frequency allocation of resources to one or more of said second stations for transmission of data to the second access point,
spatial reuse feasibility information indicating the feasibility of spatial reuse, and
individual transmit power levels and/or transmit power limits for use by the one or more first stations and the one or more second stations for transmitting data during the spatial reuse.

4. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to notify the first and second stations of one or more of
individual transmit power levels for use by one or more of said second stations for transmission of data to the second access point,
an identifier of second stations that are allowed to reuse resources allocated to one or more first stations,
time and frequency information of resource units that can be used by the respective first and/or second stations.

5. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to identify if there is a second station and/or which second station is desiring to make use of spatial reuse by receiving, from the second station, channel estimation sequences and identification information in resource units allocated for random access or spatial reuse or by receiving channel estimation sequences sent with a pilot pattern which corresponds to an identifier of the second station.

6. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to transmit an announcement to inform the first and second stations and the second access point of the start of a channel sounding interval, which contains a spatial reuse stage, and/or to transmit channel estimation sequences allowing the first and second stations to estimate the channel information and receive channel feedback information from the first and/or second stations.

7. The first access point as claimed in claim 6 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to perform, in the spatial reuse stage, a triggered transmission with at least one resource allocated such that known or unknown second stations can transmit and the access points can estimate the channels from the second stations.

8. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to transmit information, included in the trigger, indicating which channel estimation sequences, among a set of orthogonal channel estimation sequences, should be used for transmission by the first and second stations and to receive data units with first channel estimation sequences from a first station that are orthogonal to the channel estimation sequences received from a second station.

9. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to transmit allocation information indicating one or more of:
first resource units allocated to one or more first stations to transmit channel information or channel estimation sequences,
second resource units allocated to one or more second station to transmit indication that they shall perform spatial reuse or they shall transmit channel estimation sequences,
third resource units allocated to a specifically addressed set of one or more second stations, from which only the ones that need to access a channel within a given time interval, and require a spatial reuse mode, shall respond.

10. The first access point as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to transmit to the second access point one or more of
a request to estimate the channel between the second access point and first and second stations, and
a request to transmit information if one or more second stations require spatial reuse and to transmit identification information identifying the one or more second stations requiring spatial reuse, and/or

wherein the circuitry is configured to determine if and for which one or more stations spatial reuse is possible and with which parameters spatial reuse is possible.

11. A second station comprising circuitry configured to
communicate with an associated second access point,
receive a trigger from a first access point to which one or more first stations are associated, the trigger requesting stations to transmit data units containing channel estimation sequences enabling channel estimation and/or channel feedback information,
transmit channel estimation sequences enabling channel estimation and/or channel feedback information to the first access point,
receive, from the second access point or the first access point, an individual transmit power level or individual transmit power limit,
receive, from the first access point, resource allocation information indicating resource units allocated to the second station for spatial reuse, and
transmit data, using the allocated resource units and the received individual transmit power level or a transmit power level equal to or lower than the received individual transmit power limit, during spatial reuse of resources allocated by the first access point to one or more of said first stations for transmission of data to the first access point.

12. The second station as claimed in claim 11 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to simultaneously transmit channel information and identification information identifying the second station or to transmit with a pilot pattern corresponding to identification information.

13. The second station as claimed in claim 11 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to receive an announcement from the first access point informing the second station of the start of a channel sounding interval allowing spatial reuse and/or to receive channel estimation sequences from the first access point allowing the second station to estimate the channel information for subsequent transmission of the estimated channel information to the first access point in response to the trigger and/or to receive allocation information indicating one or more first resource units alloc

Assignees

• Sony Group Corp

Inventors

• Ciochina Dana
• Handte Thomas

Classifications

• H04W52/367

  Power values between minimum and maximum limits, e.g. dynamic range · CPC title

• H04W72/542 Primary

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04L5/0057

  Physical resource allocation for CQI · CPC title

• H04L5/0048

  Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091) · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title