Data transmission indication method, access point and terminal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016337100-A1
Application number	US-201615220410-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 27, 2016
Priority date	Jan 28, 2014
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention provides a data transmission indication method, an access point and a terminal. The method includes: sending, by an access point, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to a terminal. The OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates, to the terminal, a subchannel allocated for the terminal, so that the terminal determines the subchannel according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling. The OFDMA physical layer signaling includes an identifier of the terminal and subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal. In the method provided in an embodiment of the present invention, a manner in which the access point allocates a subchannel for each terminal according to OFDMA physical layer signaling enables the access point to indicate subchannels for more terminals.

First claim

1 . A data transmission indication method, comprising:
sending, by an access point, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to a terminal, wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates, to the terminal, a subchannel allocated for the terminal, so that the terminal determines the subchannel according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling; and wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling comprises an identifier of the terminal and subchannel information corresponding to the identifier of the terminal.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the identifier of the terminal is an identifier of a terminal group, and the terminal group comprises at least one terminal;
wherein the subchannel information comprises an uplink subchannel, a downlink subchannel, or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel; wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates to the terminal group that the allocated subchannel is an uplink subchannel, a downlink subchannel, or an uplink and downlink bidirectional subchannel; and wherein the terminal group and the subchannel are in a one-to-one correspondence.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein sending, by the access point, the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal comprises:
sending, by the access point, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) preamble to the terminal, wherein the OFDM preamble carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein sending, by the access point, the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal comprises:
sending, by the access point, a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame to the terminal, wherein the NDPA frame carries the OFDMA physical layer signaling.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates, to the terminal, a subchannel allocated to the terminal for receiving downlink OFDMA data information, and wherein the method further comprises:
sending, by the access point in an OFDMA mode, the downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel allocated to the terminal, wherein the downlink OFDMA data information comprises an OFDMA preamble and OFDMA data.

6 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling or the downlink OFDMA data information carries an acknowledge (ACK) request or a block acknowledge (BA) request;
wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling further indicates, to the terminal, that the allocated subchannel is used for sending an ACK response or a BA response to the access point; and wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the access point in the OFDMA mode, the ACK response or the BA response from the terminal on the subchannel allocated to the terminal.

7 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling further indicates, to the terminal, that the allocated subchannel is used for sending acknowledge (ACK) responses or block acknowledge (BA) responses to the access point; and wherein after the sending, by the access point, downlink OFDMA data information on the subchannel allocated to the terminal, the method further comprises:
sending, by the access point, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, wherein the ACK request frame or the BA request frame comprises a dedicated information bit, and the dedicated information bit instructs the terminal to send an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in the OFDMA mode; and receiving, by the access point in the OFDMA mode, the ACK response or the BA response from the terminal on the allocated subchannel.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates, to the terminal, the subchannel allocated for the terminal for sending acknowledge (ACK) responses or block acknowledge (BA) responses to the access point; wherein sending, by the access point, the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal comprises:
sending, by the access point in a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, MU-MIMO data information to the terminal; and sending, by the access point, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, wherein the ACK request frame or the BA request frame comprises a dedicated information bit, and the dedicated information bit is used for instructing the terminal to send an ACK response or an BA response to the access point in an OFDMA mode; wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling is carried in at least one of: the MU-MIMO data information, the ACK request frame, and the BA request frame; and wherein after sending, by the access point, the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method further comprises: receiving, by the access point in the OFDMA mode, the ACK response or the BA response from the terminal on the subchannel allocated to the terminal.

9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates, to the terminal, the subchannel allocated to the terminal for sending acknowledge (ACK) responses or block acknowledge (BA) responses to the access point; and wherein after sending, by the access point, the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method further comprises:
sending, by the access point in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (OFDMA+MU-MIMO) mode, OFDMA+MU-MIMO data information to the terminal on the subchannel allocated to the terminal; sending, by the access point, an ACK request frame or a BA request frame to the terminal, wherein the ACK request frame or the BA request frame comprises a dedicated information bit, and the dedicated information bit is used for instructing the terminal to send an ACK response or a BA response to the access point in an OFDMA mode; and receiving, by the access point in the OFDMA mode, the ACK response or the BA response from the terminal on the allocated subchannel.

10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the the subchannel is used by the terminal to send uplink OFDMA data information to the access point; and wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the access point, an uplink transmission frame from the terminal; and wherein after sending, by the access point, the OFDMA physical layer signaling to the terminal, the method further comprises: receiving, by the access point in an OFDMA mode, the uplink OFDMA data information from the terminal on the allocated subchannel.

11 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein the uplink OFDMA data information carries an acknowledge (ACK) request or a block acknowledge (BA) request, and the ACK request or the BA request is used for instructing the access point to send an ACK response or a BA response to the terminal in the OFDMA mode; and wherein after the receiving, by the access point, the uplink OFDMA data information from the terminal on the allocated subchannel, the method further comprises:
sending, by the access point in the OFDMA mode, the ACK response or the BA response corresponding to the uplink OFDMA data information on the subchannel allocated to the terminal.

12 . A network apparatus that acts as an access point for terminal devices, comprising a transmitter, a receiver and a processor; wherein the transmitter is configured to:
send orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer signaling to a terminal, wherein the OFDMA physical layer signaling indicates, to the terminal, a subchannel allocated for the terminal, so that the terminal determines the subchannel according to the OFDMA physical layer signaling, and wherein the OFDMA physical

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yang Xun
• Liu Yalin

Classifications

• H04L5/0023

  Time-frequency-space · CPC title

• H04L5/0007

  the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A) or DMT · CPC title

• H04L5/0055

  Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK (for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861) · CPC title

• H04L5/0094 Primary

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

• H04L5/0037 Primary

  Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation · CPC title