Enhanced trigger frame

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12439384-B2
Application number	US-202418428834-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 31, 2024
Priority date	Jul 23, 2020
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

This disclosure provides methods, devices and systems for generating enhanced trigger frames. Some implementations more specifically relate to trigger frame designs that support gains in data throughput achievable in accordance with the IEEE 802.11be amendment, and future generations, of the IEEE 802.11 standard. In some implementations, an enhanced trigger frame may be used to solicit a non-legacy trigger-based (TB) physical layer protocol convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) from one or more wireless stations (STAs). In some implementations, the enhanced trigger frame may be configurable to support multiple versions of the IEEE 802.11 standard. For example, an enhanced trigger frame may be configured in accordance with a legacy trigger frame format or a non-legacy trigger frame format. Thus, when configured in accordance with the legacy trigger frame format, the enhanced trigger frame can also be used to a legacy TB PPDU from one or more STAs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless station, comprising:
at least one modem;
at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one modem; and
at least one memory communicatively coupled with the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, is configured to:
receive a trigger frame soliciting a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the trigger frame including a medium access control (MAC) header, a common information field, and a user information list that includes a special user information field and one or more user information fields, wherein the special user information field includes an association identifier (AID) value not assigned to any wireless stations and one or more common information extension bits including an bandwidth extension subfield indicating bandwidth information associated with the PPDU, the one or more common information extension bits associated with an extension of the common information field; and
transmit the PPDU based at least in part on the bandwidth information.

2. The wireless station of claim 1 , wherein the common information field includes an bandwidth subfield carrying second bandwidth information associated with the PPDU, the bandwidth information and the second bandwidth information jointly indicating a bandwidth associated with the PPDU.

3. The wireless station of claim 2 , wherein the bandwidth associated with the PPDU is greater than 160 MHz.

4. The wireless station of claim 1 , wherein the special user information field includes a bandwidth puncturing subfield, the bandwidth puncturing subfield indicating whether one or more subbands spanning a bandwidth associated with the PPDU are punctured.

5. The wireless station of claim 1 , wherein the common information field includes a PPDU type subfield that indicates whether the PPDU is a single user PPDU or a trigger-based PPDU.

6. The wireless station of claim 1 , wherein the common information field includes one or more bits signaling that the trigger frame includes the special user information field.

7. The wireless station of claim 1 , wherein the common information field includes a PHY version subfield that indicates whether a format of the trigger frame is a legacy trigger frame format or a non-legacy trigger frame format.

8. The wireless station of claim 1 , wherein the special user information field immediately follows the common information field.

9. The wireless station of claim 1 , wherein the one or more user information fields carry additional configuration for configuring the PPDU, a format of each of the one or more user information fields being indicated by one or more first bits in the common information field and one or more second bits in a respective user information field, the format of each user information field being one of a legacy user information field format or a non-legacy user information field format.

10. The wireless station of claim 9 , wherein a format of the PPDU is indicated by the one or more first bits in the common information field and the one or more second bits in each of the one or more user information fields, the format of the PPDU being one of a legacy PPDU format or a non-legacy PPDU format.

11. The wireless station of claim 9 , wherein each user information field formatted in accordance with the non-legacy user information field format includes a spatial stream allocation subfield indicating a number of spatial streams allocated for a user associated with the user information field and may further include a starting spatial stream index associated with the number of spatial streams, the starting spatial stream index being one of sixteen spatial stream indices.

12. The wireless station of claim 11 , wherein the starting spatial stream index is indicated by a 4-bit subfield of the spatial stream allocation subfield and the number of spatial streams is indicated by a 2-bit subfield of the spatial stream allocation subfield.

13. A wireless station, comprising:
at least one modem;
at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one modem; and
at least one memory communicatively coupled with the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, is configured to:
receive a trigger frame soliciting a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the trigger frame including a medium access control (MAC) header, a common information field, and a user information list that includes a special user information field and one or more user information fields, wherein the special user information field includes an association identifier (AID) value not assigned to any wireless stations and one or more common information extension bits including an bandwidth extension subfield indicating bandwidth information associated with the PPDU, the one or more common information extension bits associated with an extension of the common information field, wherein a first length of the special user information field and a second length of at least one of the one or more user information fields are a same length, and wherein the common information field includes a first plurality of spatial reuse subfields that indicate a first set of spatial reuse values, and the special user information field includes a second plurality of spatial reuse subfields that indicate a second set of spatial reuse values; and
transmit the PPDU based at least in part on the bandwidth information, wherein the PPDU comprises one or more spatial reuse values of the second set of spatial reuse values in accordance with a bandwidth associated with the PPDU.

14. A wireless station, comprising:
at least one modem;
at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one modem; and
at least one memory communicatively coupled with the at least one processor and storing processor-readable code that, when executed by the at least one processor in conjunction with the at least one modem, is configured to:
receive a trigger frame soliciting a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the trigger frame including a medium access control (MAC) header, a common information field, and a user information list that includes a special user information field and one or more user information fields, wherein the special user information field includes an association identifier (AID) value not assigned to any wireless stations and an bandwidth extension subfield indicating bandwidth information associated with the PPDU, wherein a first length of the special user information field and a second length of at least one of the one or more user information fields are a same length; and
transmit the PPDU based at least in part on the bandwidth information.

15. A method by a wireless station, comprising:
receiving a trigger frame soliciting a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU), the trigger frame including a medium access control (MAC) header, a common information field, and a user information list that includes a special user information field and one or more user information fields, wherein the special user information field includes an association identifier (AID) value not assigned to any wireless stations and one or more common information extension bits including an bandwidth extension subfield indicating bandwidth information associated with the PPDU, the one or more common information extension bits associated with an extension of the common information field; and
transmitting the PPDU based at least in

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Shellhammer Stephen Jay
• Vermani Sameer
• Chen Jialing Li
• Tian Bin
• Asterjadhi Alfred
• Sun Yanjun

Classifications

• H04W72/51

  based on terminal or device properties · CPC title

• H04L69/22

  Parsing or analysis of headers · CPC title

• H04W84/12 Primary

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04L5/0096

  Indication of changes in allocation · CPC title

• H04L5/0064

  Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority · CPC title