Methods and arrangements for resource assessment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12457586-B2
Application number	US-202117561905-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 24, 2021
Priority date	Dec 24, 2021
Publication date	Oct 28, 2025
Grant date	Oct 28, 2025

Abstract

Logic to generate, by an access point (AP) station (STA), a medium access control (MAC) resource assessment trigger frame to transmit during a first transmission opportunity (TxOP), the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to allocate a portion of the first TxOP to a first STA and to request a first resource assessment from a first group of STAs for evaluation by the first STA, the first resource assessment to assess peer-to-peer (P2P) data transfers between the first group of STAs and the first STA. Logic to cause transmission of the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to the first STA and the first group of STAs. And logic to receive one or more short term resource assessment frames from the first group of STAs, the one or more short term resource assessment frames each comprising an indication of resources for a data transfer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a memory; and
circuitry coupled with the memory to:
generate, by an access point (AP) station (STA) of the apparatus, a medium access control (MAC) resource assessment trigger frame to transmit during a first transmission opportunity (TxOP), the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to allocate a portion of the first TxOP to a first STA and to request a first resource assessment from a first group of STAs for evaluation by the first STA, the first resource assessment to assess peer-to-peer (P2P) data transfers between the first group of STAs and the first STA;
cause transmission of the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to the first STA and the first group of STAs; and
receive one or more short term resource assessment frames from the first group of STAs, the one or more short term resource assessment frames each comprising an indication of resources for a first data transfer during a first data transfer stage, an interframe space after the first TxOP, wherein each indication of resources comprises at least an indication that the corresponding STA of the first group of STAs has data queued and ready to transmit during the first data transfer stage.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry comprises baseband processing circuitry and further comprising a radio coupled with the baseband processing circuitry, and one or more antennas coupled with the radio to transmit the MAC resource assessment trigger frame.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein causing transmission of the MAC resource assessment trigger frame comprises causing transmission on a 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) channel, a 5 GHz channel, or 6 GHz channel.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein each of the indications of resources comprises at least an indication of an availability to transmit an increased, reduced or full resource for the first data transfer, wherein the increased, reduced or full resource are relative to a peer-to-peer traffic specification (PTP TSPEC).

5. The apparatus of claim 3 , an absence of a response from one or more of the STAs in the first group to the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to indicate a lack of readiness to transmit data during the first data transfer stage.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to trigger a transmission of a second trigger frame by the first STA, the second trigger frame to allocate a portion of the first TxOP to the first group of STAs to respond to the MAC resource assessment trigger frame.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the short term resource assessment frame comprises a physical layer null data protocol data unit.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to further request a second resource assessment from a second group of STAs for evaluation by a second STA, the second group of STAs including the first STA, the second STA to be one of STAs in the first group of STAs, the second resource assessment to assess peer-to-peer (P2P) data transfers between the second group of STAs and the second STA during a second data transfer stage, the second data transfer stage subsequent to the first data transfer stage.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , the circuitry to further receive one or more short term resource assessment frames from the second group of STAs, wherein each of one or more short term resource assessment frames from the second group of STAs comprises an indication of resources for a second data transfer during a third TxOP, wherein the MAC resource assessment trigger frame comprises an enabling signal for access to a 6 GHz channel and the apparatus comprises a channel enabler for the 6 GHz channel, the channel enabler to operate under the control of an automated frequency coordination (AFC) system.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations to:
generate, by an access point (AP) station (STA), a medium access control (MAC) resource assessment trigger frame to transmit during a first transmission opportunity (TxOP), the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to allocate a portion of the first TxOP to a first STA and to request a first resource assessment from a first group of STAs for evaluation by the first STA, the first resource assessment to assess peer-to-peer (P2P) data transfers between the first group of STAs and the first STA;
cause transmission of the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to the first STA and the first group of STAs, the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to trigger a transmission of a second trigger frame by the first STA, the second trigger frame to allocate a portion of the first TxOP to the first group of STAs to respond to the MAC resource assessment trigger frame; and
receive one or more short term resource assessment frames from the first group of STAs, the one or more short term resource assessment frames each comprising an indication of resources for a first data transfer during a first data transfer stage, an interframe space after the first TxOP.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein each of the indications of resources comprises at least an indication that the corresponding STA of the first group of STAs has data queued and ready to transmit during the first data transfer stage.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein each of the indications of resources comprises at least an indication of an availability to transmit an increased, reduced or full resource for the first data transfer, wherein the increased, reduced or full resource are relative to a peer-to-peer traffic specification (PTP TSPEC).

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein causing transmission of the MAC resource assessment trigger frame comprises causing transmission on a 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) channel, a 5 GHz channel, or 6 GHz channel.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13 , the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to further request a second resource assessment from a second group of STAs for evaluation by a second STA, the second group of STAs including the first STA, the second STA to be one of STAs in the first group of STAs, the second resource assessment to assess peer-to-peer (P2P) data transfers between the second group of STAs and the second STA during a second data transfer stage, the second data transfer stage subsequent to the first data transfer stage.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the short term resource assessment frame comprises a high efficiency single user physical layer protocol data unit (HE SU PPDU) with a MAC frame payload, high efficiency multiple user physical layer protocol data unit (HE MU PPDU) with a MAC frame payload, or high efficiency trigger-based feedback null data unit (HE TB Feedback NDP).

16. An apparatus comprising:
a memory; and
circuitry coupled with the memory to:
receive a medium access control (MAC) resource assessment trigger frame from a channel enabler, the MAC resource assessment trigger frame to allocate a portion of a first transmission opportunity (TxOP) to the apparatus and to request a first resource assessment from a first group of stations (STAs) for evaluation by the apparatus, the first resource assessment to assess peer-to-peer (P2P) data transfers between the first group of STAs and the apparatus;
cause transmission of a second trigger frame in response to receipt of the MAC resource assessment trigger frame, the second trigger frame to allocat

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Segev Yonathan
• Cordeiro Carlos
• Birnbaum David
• Li Qinghua
• Chen Xiaogang
• Yaghoobi Hassan

Classifications

• H04W72/40

  Resource management for direct mode communication, e.g. D2D or sidelink · CPC title

• H04L67/104

  Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W74/006

  in the downlink, i.e. towards the terminal · CPC title

• H04W74/0816

  with collision avoidance · CPC title