IP Library Granted Patent US 9,924,540
Granted Patent B2
US 9,924,540 · App. 14/972,541 · Granted Mar 20, 2018

Co-existence for spatial reuse in wireless local area networks

Inventors: Po-Kai Huang (West Lafayette, IN); Laurent Cariou (Portland, OR); Robert J. Stacey (Portland, OR); Chittabrata Ghosh (Fremont, CA)
Assignee: Intel IP Corporation
H04W74/0808
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,924,540
App. No.
14/972,541
Granted
Mar 20, 2018
Kind
B2
Abstract

An apparatus of a first high-efficiency (HE) access point (AP) or station for spatial reuse is the disclosed. The apparatus includes processing circuitry configured to: decode a first portion of a first packet; and if the first portion indicates the first packet was transmitted by a second HE AP or station and that the first packet is an overlapping basic service set (OBSS) packet, then if a preamble detect energy is below a threshold, cause to be transmitted a second packet simultaneously with a portion of the first packet after the first portion. The processing circuitry may be configured to determine the first portion was transmitted by the second HE AP or station if a field in a physical (PRY) header or a second field in a media access control (MAC) header indicate the first packet was transmitted by the second HE AP or station.

Claims (47)

1. An apparatus of a first station, the apparatus comprising memory and processing circuitry coupled to the memory; the processing circuitry configured to:

decode a first portion of a first packet, the first portion comprising a preamble; and

when the first portion indicates the first packet was transmitted by a second station or an access point (AP) and that the first packet is an overlapping basic service set (OBSS) packet, then when a measured energy of the preamble is below an energy detect threshold, cause to be transmitted a second packet simultaneously with a portion of the first packet after the first portion.

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

when the first portion indicates not to use a spatial reuse opportunity, then do not cause to be transmitted the second packet simultaneously with the portion of the first packet after the first portion.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the first portion indicates not to use the spatial reuse opportunity in a field of a physical (PHY) header or in a field of a media access control (MAC) header.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry configured to:

determine the first portion was transmitted by the second station or the AP when the first portion is a physical (PHY) header comprising a HE signal (HE-SIG) field.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

determine the first portion was transmitted by the second station or the AP when a field in a physical (PHY) header or a second field in a media access control (MAC) header indicate the first packet was transmitted by the second station or AP.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the field in the PHY header is one or more reserved bits in a service field, wherein the PHY header is a legacy PHY header, and wherein the field in the MAC header is one or more reserved bits in a high-throughput (HT) control field or one or more reserved bits in a very-high throughput (VHT) HT control field.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry configured to:

determine the first packet is an OBSS packet when a color of a basic service set (BSS) of the first station is not the same as a color indicated in first portion, wherein the color indicated in the first portion is a field in a HE, physical (PHY) header or a field in a HE media access control (MAC) header.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determine when the MAC header indicates the first packet is the OBSS packet when a MAC address subfield of the MAC header that indicates a basic service set identification (BSSID) is not the same as a BSSID of an access point the wireless device is associated with.

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

wait a backoff window duration, and determine a clear channel assessment (CCA) after the backoff, then when the CCA indicates a clear channel, cause to be transmitted the second packet simultaneously with a portion of the first packet after the first portion of the first packet.

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

determine a transmit power based on a subfield in a physical (PHY) header of the first portion or a subfield in a media access control (MAC) header and a received energy of at least the PHY header, wherein the subfield indicates at least one from the following group: a transmission power used to transmit the first packet; a tolerable interference, or a sum of both; and

cause to be transmitted with the determined transmit power the second packet simultaneously after the first portion of the first packet.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 ; wherein the first station, the second station, and the AP are each one from the following group: a HE master station, a HE station, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) 802.11ax station, and an IEEE 802.11ax access point.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to transmit and receive in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiple access (MU-MIMO) within a transmission opportunity (TXOP).

13. The apparatus of claim 1 ; further comprising transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the processing circuitry.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations to configure a first station to:

decode a first portion of a first packet, the first portion comprising a preamble; and

when the first portion indicates the first packet was transmitted by a second station or an access point (AP) and that the first packet is an overlapping basic service set (OBSS) packet, then when a measured energy of the preamble is below an energy detect threshold, cause to be transmitted a second packet simultaneously with a portion of the first packet after the first portion.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further configure the wireless device to:

determine the first portion was transmitted by the second station or the AP when the first portion is a physical (PHY) header comprising a HE signal (HE-SIG) field.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further configure the wireless device to:

determine the first portion was transmitted by the second station or the AP when a field in a physical (PHY) header or a second field in a media access control (MAC) header indicate the first packet was transmitted by the second HE AP or station.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the field in the PHY header is one or more reserved bits in a service field, wherein the PHY header is a legacy PHY header, and wherein the field in the MAC header is one or more reserved bits in a high-throughput (HT) control field or one or more reserved bits in a very-high throughput (VHT) HT control field, and wherein the MAC header is a legacy MAC header.

19. A method performed by a first station, the method comprising:

decoding a first portion of a first packet, the first portion comprising a preamble; and

when the first portion indicates the first packet was transmitted by a second station or an access point (AP) and that the first packet is an overlapping basic service set (OBSS) packet, then if when a measured energy of the preamble is below an energy detect threshold, causing to be transmitted a second packet simultaneously with a portion of the first packet after the first portion.

20. The method of claim 19 , the method further comprising:

determining the first portion was transmitted by the second station or the AP when a field in a physical (PHY) header or a second field in a media access control (MAC) header indicate the first packet was transmitted by the second station or the AP.

21. An apparatus of a first access point (AP), the apparatus comprising memory and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to:

encode a first portion of a first packet to indicate a spatial reuse opportunity with a transmission of a first packet;

encode the first portion to indicate a basic service set (BSS) packet of the wireless device; and

cause to be transmitted the first packet.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the first portion comprises a legacy physical (PHY) header, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

encode a service field of the legacy PHY header to indicate the spatial reuse opportunity.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the first portion comprises a legacy media access control (MAC) header, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:

encode a reserved bit or bits in a high-throughput (HT) control field or a reserved bit or bits in a very high-throughput (VHT) control field of the legacy MAC header to indicate the spatial reuse opportunity.

24. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the first portion is to comprise a subfield that indicates that the first packet is available or not available for the spatial reuse opportunity.

25. The apparatus of claim 21 , further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the processing circuitry.

Assignments (4)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 3, 2024
From: SOLID, INC.
To: AX WIRELESS, LLC
Reel/Frame 066985/0361 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 15, 2021
From: INTEL CORPORATION
To: SOLID, INC.
Reel/Frame 057827/0276 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 20, 2021
From: INTEL IP CORPORATION
To: INTEL CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 056323/0278 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 1, 2016
From: HUANG, PO-KAI; CARIOU, LAURENT; STACEY, ROBERT J; GHOSH, CHITTABRATA
To: INTEL IP CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 037631/0767 →
Continuity (2)
Provisional Application 62215523 · Sep 8, 2015
Related Publication 20170071009A1 · Mar 9, 2017