Communication devices and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12362872-B2
Application number	US-202117910357-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 19, 2021
Priority date	Mar 16, 2020
Publication date	Jul 15, 2025
Grant date	Jul 15, 2025

Abstract

In communication devices and methods configured to communicate with each other, bits of a continuous bit stream are allocated to resource units of different sizes. Various options are disclosed that differ in both implementation complexity and diversity achieved. Furthermore, exemplary implementations are provided that consider the definition of resource units of IEEE802.11ax as a baseline and outline the operation of the bit allocation for combination of resource units of various sizes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. First communication device configured to communicate with a second communication device, the first communication device comprising:
circuitry configured to
encode data words of an input bit stream to be transmitted to the second communication device into code words of an encoded bit stream;
allocate the bits of the encoded bit stream to two or more resource units assigned to the second communication device and covering different subsections of a channel bandwidth,

wherein at least two of the two or more resource units cover subsections having a different number of tones,
wherein a number of bits of the encoded bit stream allocated to a resource unit is proportional to the number of tones of the subsection covered by the resource unit,
wherein the bits to be allocated to the two or more resource units are alternately allocated to the two or more resource units in a cycle having two or more alternations,
wherein, for a first portion of the bits to be allocated to the two or more resource units in one cycle, a first ratio of predetermined numbers of consecutive bits alternately allocated to two resource units is based on the number of tones of subsections covered by said two resource units, and
wherein, for a second portion of the bits to be allocated to the two or more resource units in one cycle, a second ratio of predetermined numbers of consecutive bits alternately allocated to two resource units is different from the first ratio, wherein the second ratio is formed by a remainder of bits that are not allocated to the two or more resource units as first portion of bits according to the first ratio;
groupwise map, per resource unit, bits of the encoded bit stream allocated to the respective resource unit to symbols of a constellation; and
assign the resource units to the respective subsection of the channel bandwidth in the frequency domain.

2. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the first ratio corresponds to the integer part of the ratio of a first product to a second product, the first product being formed by multiplying the number of tones of the subsections covered by a first of said two or more resource units with a modulation order of a modulation of the bits allocated to the first resource unit and the second product being formed by multiplying the number of tones of the subsections covered by a second of said two or more resource units with a modulation order of a modulation of the bits allocated to the second resource unit, wherein the first product is equal to or larger than the second product.

3. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is configured to allocate the remainder of bits to the respective resource unit as additional bits in addition to the predetermined number of bits in one or more alternations of a cycle and/or as pre- and/or post-bits in a pre-assignment and/or post-assignment at the start and/or end of a cycle.

4. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to allocate the bits of the encoded bit stream to the two or more resource units in one cycle and to fill all resource units with bits at the same time.

5. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein at least one ratio of the number of tones of subsections covered by a pair of resource units of the two or more resource units is a non-integer number, wherein the circuitry is further configured to allocate a remainder of bits that are not allocated to the two or more resource units as first portion of bits and/or as second portion of bits according to the first ratio either as additional bits in addition to the predetermined number of bits in the first and/or last alternation of a cycle or as pre- and/or post-bits in a pre-assignment and/or post-assignment at the start and/or end of a cycle.

6. The first communication device as claimed in claim 3 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to allocate the same number of pre-bits and post-bits in the pre-assignment and the post-assignment, and/or to allocate the same number of additional bits in the first alternation, and/or the last alternation of a cycle and/or in one or more other predetermined alternations of a cycle.

7. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein a first resource unit covers a subsection having 26 tones and a second resource unit covers a subsection having 52 tones, or
wherein a first resource unit covers a subsection having 26 tones and a second resource unit covers a subsection having 106 tones, or
wherein a first resource unit covers a subsection having 242 tones and a second resource unit covers a subsection having 484 tones, or
wherein a first resource unit covers a subsection having 242 tones and a second resource unit covers a subsection having 996 tones, or
wherein a first resource unit covers a subsection having 484 tones and a second resource unit covers a subsection having 996 tones, or
wherein a first resource unit covers a subsection having 242 tones, a second resource unit covers a subsection having 996 tones, and a third resource unit covers a subsection having 484 tones.

8. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to generate signaling information for transmission to the second communication device, the signaling information indicating
which resource units are assigned to the second communication device, and/or
the sizes and/or subsections of the channel bandwidth are covered by the resource units, and/or
how the bits of the encoded bit stream are allocated to two or more resource units.

9. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry is further configured to add bits to the encoded bit stream before allocating the bits to two or more resource units to achieve a predetermined length of the encoded bit stream, and/or to interleave the symbols, per resource unit, over the tones of the subsection covered by the respective subsection or to interleave the symbols, across the two or more resource units, over the tones of the subsections covered by the two or more resource units.

10. The first communication device as claimed in claim 1 ,
wherein the predetermined number of consecutive bits is an integer multiple of the number of bits per group of bits groupwise mapped to symbols of a constellation or half the number of bits per group of bits groupwise mapped to symbols of a constellation.

11. Second communication device configured to communicate with a first communication device, the second communication device comprising:
circuitry configured to
extract, from a received signal in the frequency domain, tones of different subsections of a channel bandwidth that are covered by two or more resource units assigned to the second communication device, wherein at least two of the two or more resource units cover subsections having a different number of tones;
groupwise demap, per resource unit, bits of an encoded bit stream allocated to the respective resource unit from symbols of a constellation;
retrieve from two or more resource units the bits of the encoded bit stream;

wherein a number of bits of the encoded bit stream allocated to a resource unit is proportional to the number of tones of the subsection covered by the resource unit,
wherein the bits allocated to the two or more resource units in one cycle are alternately retrieved from the two or more resource units in two or more alternations,
wherein, for a first portion of the bits allocated to the two or more resource units in one cycle, a first ratio of predetermined numb

Assignees

• Sony Group Corp

Inventors

• Handte Thomas
• Ciochina Dana

Classifications

• H04W72/0453

  Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA · CPC title

• H04L5/0094

  Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated · CPC title

• H04L5/0044 Primary

  Allocation of payload; Allocation of data channels, e.g. PDSCH or PUSCH · CPC title

• H04L5/0042

  Intra-user or intra-terminal allocation · CPC title

• H04L1/0071

  Use of interleaving (interleaving per se H03M13/27) · CPC title