Apparatus, method, and computer readable medium for high-efficiency wireless local-area network (HEW) signal field detection

1. An apparatus of a station (STA), the apparatus comprising: memory; and, circuitry coupled to the memory, the circuitry configured to:

detect a high-efficiency (HE) signal field (SIG) of a preamble of a packet based on

a rotation of a signal constellation of the HE SIG different than legacy rotations of: a rotation of a first signal constellation and no rotation of a second signal constellation, and no rotation of the first signal constellation and a rotation of the second signal constellation;

determine whether a first sum of power of a first received signal field is greater for an in-phase (I) component than for a quadrature (Q) component;

if the first sum of power of the first received signal field is greater for the I component, then determine that the first received signal field is not the HE signal field;

determine whether a second sum of power of a second received signal field is greater for the I component than for the Q component;

if the second sum of power of the second received signal field is greater for the I component, then determine that the second received signal field has the rotation of the signal constellation of the HE SIG and is the HE SIG;

if the HE SIG is detected, configure the STA to process remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a HE format; and

if the HE SIG is not detected, configure the STA to process the remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a legacy format.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to interpret fields of the HE SIG as Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax SIG fields.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine that the second signal field is a Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n signal field if the second sum of power of the second received signal field is less for the I component.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine that the SIG is a Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a or IEEE 802.11ac SIG if the first sum of power of the first received signal field is greater for the I component.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to determine that a second signal field is the HE-SIG, if a constellation of a first symbol is rotated 90 degrees and a second symbol is not rotated 90 degrees.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to:

determine that a reserved bit is the flipped reserved bit if the reserved bit indicates a value of 1 or 0 that is opposite of a value indicated by at least one of the following group:

Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a standard, IEEE 802.11ac standard, and IEEE 802.11n standard.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to interpret a first portion of the HE-SIG in accordance with one from the following group:

IEEE 802.11a, 802.11ac, and 802.11n, and interpret a second portion of the HE-SIG in accordance with IEEE 802.11ax.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to operate in accordance with Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to transmit and receive in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), and further configured to transmit symbols with a duration that is four times the duration of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a standard.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising memory and a transceiver coupled to the circuitry.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

12. A method performed by an apparatus of a station (STA), the method comprising:

detecting a high-efficiency (HE) signal field (SIG) from a preamble of a packet based on

a scrambled portion of the HE SIG

if the HE SIG is detected, configure the STA to process remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a HE format; and

if the HE SIG is not detected, configure the STA to process the remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a legacy format.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

determining that the second signal field is a Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n signal field if the second sum of power of the second received signal field is less for the I component.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

determining that the SIG is a Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a or IEEE 802.11ac SIG if the first sum of power of the first received signal field is greater for the I component.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the detecting the HE-SIG based on the rotation of the SIG constellation further comprises:

determining that a second signal field is the HE-SIG, if a constellation of a first symbol is rotated 90 degrees and a second symbol is not rotated 90 degrees.

16. The method of claim 12 , the method further comprising:

unscrambling a portion of a received signal field;

determining whether a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) indicates the HE-SIG contains errors; and

if the CRC indicates there are no errors, then determining that the signal field is the HE-SIG.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the portion of the HE-SIG is one from the following group: a content field, a CRC field, and a tail bits field.

18. An apparatus of a high-efficiency (HE) wireless device, the apparatus comprising: memory; and circuitry coupled to the memory, the circuitry configured to:

determine whether a first sum of power of a first received signal field is greater for an in-phase (I) component than for a quadrature (Q) component;

if the first sum of power of the first received signal field is greater for the I component, then determine that the signal field is not the HE signal field;

determine whether a second sum of power of a second received signal field is greater for the I component than for the Q component; and

if the second sum of power of the second received signal field is greater for the I component, then determine that the second signal field has a rotated SIG constellation and is a high-efficiency (HE) signal field (SIG);

if the HE SIG is detected, configure the STA to process remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a HE format and

if the HE SIG is not detected, configure the STA to process the remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a legacy format.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the device is further configured to:

determine that the second signal field is a Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n signal field if the second sum of power of the second received signal field is less for the I component; and

determine that the SIG is a Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a or IEEE 802.11ac SIG if the first sum of power of the first received signal field is greater for the I component.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising a transceiver coupled to the circuitry.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations by an apparatus of a wireless communication device, the instructions to configure the one or more processors to cause the apparatus to:

detect a high-efficiency (HE) signal field (SIG) from a preamble of a packet based on

a rotation of a signal constellation of the HE SIG different than legacy rotations of: a rotation of a first signal constellation and no rotation of a second signal constellation, and no rotation of the first signal constellation and a rotation of the second signal constellation;

determine whether a first sum of power of a first received signal field is greater for an in-phase (I) component than for a quadrature (Q) component;

if the first sum of power of the first received signal field is greater for the I component, then determine that the first received signal field is not the HE signal field;

determine whether a second sum of power of a second received signal field is greater for the I component than for the Q component;

if the second sum of power of the second received signal field is greater for the I component, then determine that the second received signal field has the rotation of the signal constellation of the HE SIG and is the HE SIG;

if the HE SIG is detected, configure the STA to process remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a HE format; and

if the HE SIG is not detected, configure the STA to process the remaining portions of the packet following the HE SIG in accordance with a legacy format.