IP Library Granted Patent US 12672186
Granted Patent B2
US 12672186 · App. 18/372,908 · Granted Jun 30, 2026

Network allocation vector (NAV) operation in multi-access point (AP) coordination

Inventors: Kiseon Ryu (San Diego, CA); Liwen Chu (San Ramon, CA); Rui Cao (Sunnyvale, CA); Hongyuan Zhang (Fremont, CA); Huizhao Wang (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: NXP USA, Inc.
H04W76/15
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12672186
App. No.
18/372,908
Granted
Jun 30, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

One example discloses a wireless device including: a wireless transceiver configured to receive a first frame from a first wireless access point (AP) for multi-AP coordination that is not associated with the wireless device and a second frame from a second wireless AP for multi-AP coordination that is associated with the wireless device; and a controller configured to set a network allocation vector (NAV) timer of the wireless device to a non-zero value in response to the first frame and the second frame, wherein the wireless transceiver is further configured to transmit a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) to the second wireless AP even if the NAV timer of the wireless device is non-zero.

Claims (28)

1 . A wireless device comprising:

a wireless transceiver configured to receive a first frame from a first wireless access point (AP) for multi-AP coordination that is not associated with the wireless device and a second frame from a second wireless AP for multi-AP coordination that is associated with the wireless device; and

a controller configured to set a network allocation vector (NAV) timer of the wireless device to a non-zero value in response to the first frame and the second frame,

wherein the wireless transceiver is further configured to transmit a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) to the second wireless AP.

2 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the PPDU comprises a trigger based (TB) PPDU.

3 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the PPDU comprises a non-trigger based (TB) PPDU.

4 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the wireless device comprises a non-AP station (STA) device.

5 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the second wireless AP shares a transmit opportunity (TXOP) of the first wireless AP.

6 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the controller is further configured to identify the first frame as an intra-basic service set (BSS) PPDU and to update an intra-BSS NAV timer of the wireless device in response to the intra-BSS PPDU.

7 . The wireless device of claim 6 , wherein the first wireless AP, the second wireless AP, and the wireless device belong to the same BSS.

8 . The wireless device of claim 6 , wherein the first wireless AP and the wireless device belong to different BSSs, and wherein the second wireless AP and the wireless device belong to the same BSS.

9 . The wireless device of claim 8 , wherein the wireless transceiver is further configured to receive BSS information of a plurality of wireless APs for multi-AP coordination.

10 . The wireless device of claim 8 , wherein the first frame comprises a multi-AP control frame that includes an indication of intra-BSS NAV timer update of the wireless device upon reception of the multi-AP control frame.

11 . The wireless device of claim 10 , wherein the multi-AP control frame comprises a Multi User Request to Send (MU-RTS) triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) frame.

12 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the second frame comprises a trigger frame that contains a carrier sense (CS) required subfield that is set to zero.

13 . A method for wireless communications, comprising:

receiving a first frame from a first wireless access point (AP) for multi-AP coordination that is not associated with the wireless device and a second frame from a second wireless AP for multi-AP coordination that is associated with the wireless device;

setting a network allocation vector (NAV) timer of the wireless device to a non-zero value in response to the first frame and the second frame; and

transmitting a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) to the second wireless AP.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the PPDU comprises a trigger based (TB) PPDU.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the PPDU comprises a non-trigger based (TB) PPDU.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the second wireless AP shares a transmit opportunity (TXOP) of the first wireless AP.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising identifying the first frame as an intra-basic service set (BSS) PPDU and updating an intra-BSS NAV timer of the wireless device in response to the intra-BSS PPDU.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the first wireless AP and the second wireless AP belong to different BSSs.

19 . A non-access point (AP) station (STA) device, the non-AP STA device comprising:

a wireless transceiver configured to receive a first frame from a first wireless AP for multi-AP coordination that is not associated with the non-AP STA device and a second frame from a second wireless AP for multi-AP coordination that is associated with the non-AP STA device, wherein the second wireless AP shares a transmit opportunity (TXOP) of the first wireless AP; and

a controller configured to set a network allocation vector (NAV) timer of the non-AP STA device to a non-zero value in response to the first frame and the second frame,

wherein the wireless transceiver is further configured to transmit a trigger based (TB) physical protocol data unit (PPDU) to the second wireless AP.