Orthogonal frequency division multiple access for wireless local area network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9717086-B2
Application number	US-201414553974-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2014
Priority date	Nov 27, 2013
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

A method for generating an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit is described. A plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) tone blocks for a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication channel are assigned to a plurality of devices including a first device and second device. The plurality of different OFDM tone blocks includes at least a first OFDM tone block assigned to the first device and a second OFDM tone block assigned to the second device. The first OFDM tone block and the second OFDM tone block together span a bandwidth equal to a smallest channel bandwidth of a legacy WLAN communication protocol. An OFDMA data unit is generated for the WLAN communication channel. The OFDMA unit includes a preamble portion and a data portion. The preamble portion has i) at least a legacy portion that spans the entire WLAN communication channel, ii) a first non-legacy portion that spans the first OFDM tone block, and iii) a second non-legacy portion that spans the second OFDM tone block.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
assigning a plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) tone blocks for a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication channel to a plurality of devices including a first device and second device, wherein
the plurality of different OFDM tone blocks includes at least a first OFDM tone block assigned to the first device and a second OFDM tone block assigned to the second device, and
the first OFDM tone block and the second OFDM tone block together span a bandwidth equal to a smallest channel bandwidth of a legacy WLAN communication protocol; and

generating an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit for the WLAN communication channel, the OFDMA unit including a preamble portion and a data portion, the preamble portion having i) at least a legacy portion that spans the entire WLAN communication channel, ii) a first non-legacy portion that spans the first OFDM tone block, and iii) a second non-legacy portion that spans the second OFDM tone block.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the OFDMA data unit for the WLAN communication channel comprises:
generating i) a first OFDM data unit of the data portion using first data received for the first device and ii) a second OFDM data unit of the data portion using second data received for the second device, wherein the first data is independent of the second data; and
modulating i) the first OFDM data unit on tones in the first OFDM tone block and ii) the second OFDM data unit on tones in the second OFDM tone block.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the OFDMA data unit for the WLAN communication channel comprises modulating the OFDMA data unit to span an entire bandwidth of the WLAN communication channel.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein modulating the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit comprises modulating i) the first OFDM data unit on tones in the first OFDM tone block using a first tone plan and ii) the second OFDM data unit on tones in the second OFDM tone block using a second tone plan, wherein the legacy portion is modulated using a legacy tone plan that is different from at least the first tone plan.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein one or more of the first non-legacy tone plan or the second non-legacy tone plan corresponds to a fast Fourier transform (FFT) width that is less than a FFT width of the WLAN communication channel.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit comprises:
generating first data tones using the first data and first pilot tones for the first OFDM tone block;
separately generating second data tones using the second data and second pilot tones for the second OFDM tone block;
jointly performing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) on the first data tones, the first pilot tones, the second data tones, and the second pilot tones.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit comprises:
generating the second OFDM data unit to include at least one padding OFDM symbol such that the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit have a same number of OFDM symbols.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining a number of padding OFDM symbols to be included in the second OFDM data unit as a difference between a total number of OFDM symbols of the first OFDM data unit and a total number of OFDM symbols of the second OFDM data unit.

9. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit comprises:
generating the second OFDM data unit to include at least one padding OFDM symbol such that a sum of a number of OFDM symbols in the first non-legacy portion and a number of OFDM symbols of the first OFDM data unit is equal to a sum of a number of OFDM symbols of the second non-legacy portion and a number of OFDM symbols of the second OFDM data unit.

10. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first non-legacy portion and the second non-legacy portion comprise non-legacy signal fields having respective group identifier (ID) sub-fields that indicate whether the corresponding OFDM data units are any of i) a single user data unit, ii) a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output data unit to be decoded by an indicated device of the plurality of devices, or iii) a portion of the OFDMA data unit to be decoded by an indicated device of the plurality of devices.

11. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first non-legacy portion and the second non-legacy portion comprise non-legacy signal fields having respective tone block allocation identifiers that indicate the assignment of the first OFDM tone block to the first device and the assignment of the second OFDM tone block to the second device.

12. The method of claim 2 , wherein modulating the first OFDM data unit and the second OFDM data unit comprises modulating i) the first OFDM data unit using a same bandwidth as the first OFDM tone block with an integer multiple of tones and corresponding reduced tone spacing and ii) the second OFDM data unit using a same bandwidth as the second OFDM tone block with the integer multiple of tones and corresponding reduced tone spacing.

13. An apparatus, comprising:
a network interface device having one or more integrated circuits configured to:
assign a plurality of different orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) tone blocks for a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication channel to a plurality of devices including a first device and second device, wherein
the plurality of different OFDM tone blocks includes at least a first OFDM tone block assigned to the first device and a second OFDM tone block assigned to the second device, and
the first OFDM tone block and the second OFDM tone block together span a bandwidth equal to a smallest channel bandwidth of a legacy WLAN communication protocol; and

wherein the one or more integrated circuits are further configured to generate an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) data unit for the WLAN communication channel, the OFDMA unit including a preamble portion and a data portion, the preamble portion having i) at least a legacy portion that spans the entire WLAN communication channel, ii) a first non-legacy portion that spans the first OFDM tone block, and iii) a second non-legacy portion that spans the second OFDM tone block.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to:
generate i) a first OFDM data unit of the data portion using first data received for the first device and ii) a second OFDM data unit of the data portion using second data received for the second device, wherein the first data is independent of the second data, and
modulate i) the first OFDM data unit on tones in the first OFDM tone block and ii) the second OFDM data unit on tones in the second OFDM tone block.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the OFDMA data unit spans an entire bandwidth of the WLAN communication channel.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the one or more integrated circuits are configured to modulate i) the first OFDM data unit on tones in the first OFDM tone block using a first tone plan and ii) the second OFDM data unit on tones in the second OFDM tone block using a second tone plan, wherein the legacy portion is modulated using a legacy tone plan that is different from at least the first tone plan.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein one or more of the first non-legacy tone plan or the second non-legacy t

Assignees

• Marvell World Trade Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Hongyuan
• Sun Yakun
• Lou Hui-Ling
• Chu Liwen

Classifications

• H04L5/0041

  Frequency-non-contiguous · CPC title

• H04L5/0044

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

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04L5/006

  Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling · CPC title

• H04L5/0007

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