Aggregation methods and systems for multi-user MIMO or OFDMA operation
View Patent ↗In an example of multi-user wireless communications, an access point may send a downlink frame, including a first signaling field and a second signaling field, to multiple stations. The first and second signaling fields are located in a header of the downlink frame. The first signaling field indicates whether the downlink frame is associated with a multi-user (MU) multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmission. The second signaling field includes an attribute of the MU-MIMO transmission or a non-MU-MIMO transmission. A resource unit of the downlink frame includes a MU-MIMO payload when the downlink frame is associated with the MU-MIMO transmission. A resource unit of the downlink frame includes a non-MU-MIMO payload when the downlink frame is associated with the non-MU-MIMO transmission. The stations may decode one or more portions of the downlink frame based on the attribute in the second signaling field. Other methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
1. A station for facilitating multi-user communication in a wireless network, the station comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, the one or more processors configured to cause:
receiving a downlink frame, the downlink frame comprising a first signaling field and a second signaling field, wherein the first signaling field is a high efficiency signal-A (HE SIG-A) field, wherein the second signaling field is a high efficiency signal-B (HE SIG-B) field;
determining whether the first signaling field indicates a multi-user (MU)-multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmission in the downlink frame;
when the first signaling field indicates the MU-MIMO transmission, determining one or more attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission in the second signaling field;
when the first signaling field indicates a transmission that is a non-MU-MIMO transmission, determining one or more attributes of the non-MU-MIMO transmission in the second signaling field;
decoding one or more portions of the downlink frame based on the one or more attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission or the one or more attributes of the non-MU-MIMO transmission; and
providing the decoded one or more portions of the downlink frame for processing.
2. The station of claim 1 , wherein the one or more attributes of the non-MU-MIMO transmission are a subset of the one or more attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission.
3. The station of claim 1 , wherein the downlink frame comprises one or more resource units associated with a full bandwidth of the MU-MIMO transmission.
4. The station of claim 1 , wherein the first signaling field comprises a single bit configured to be 1 for the MU-MIMO transmission and configured to be 0 for the non-MU-MIMO transmission.
5. The station of claim 1 , wherein the second signaling field comprises attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission, and the attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission comprise a station identifier, a number of spatial streams (NSTS), modulation and coding scheme (MCS), and coding.
6. The station of claim 1 , wherein the non-MU-MIMO transmission identifies an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission.
7. The station of claim 1 , wherein the downlink frame comprises a plurality of resource units that are associated with respective sub-bandwidths of a full bandwidth of the non-MU-MIMO transmission.
8. The station of claim 1 , wherein the first signaling field indicates whether each 20 MHz segment of the downlink frame is a MU-MIMO transmission.
9. The station of claim 1 , wherein the first signaling field indicates a bandwidth and an indication whether each sub-channel in the downlink frame with a size of the bandwidth is a MU-MIMO transmission.
10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:
generating a downlink frame for a multi-user transmission, the downlink frame comprising a first signaling field and a second signaling field, wherein the first signaling field is a high efficiency signal-A (HE SIG-A) field, wherein the second signaling field is a high efficiency signal-B (HE SIG-B) field, wherein the first signaling field indicates whether the downlink frame is associated with a multi-user (MU)-multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmission, wherein the second signaling field comprises one or more attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission when the downlink frame is associated with the MU-MIMO transmission, wherein the second signaling field comprises one or more attributes of a non-MU-MIMO transmission when the downlink frame is associated with the non-MU-MIMO transmission; and
providing the downlink frame for the multi-user transmission directed to a plurality of stations.
11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the one or more attributes of the non-MU-MIMO transmission are a subset of the one or more attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission.
12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the downlink frame comprises one or more resource units associated with a full bandwidth of the MU-MIMO transmission.
13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the downlink frame comprises a MU-MIMO physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) service data unit (PSDU) when the first signaling field indicates the MU-MIMO transmission.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the first signaling field indicates a bandwidth and an indication whether each sub-channel in the downlink frame with a size of the bandwidth is a MU-MIMO transmission.
15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the first signaling field indicates whether each 20 MHz segment of the downlink frame is a MU-MIMO transmission.
16. A computer-implemented method of facilitating multi-user communication in a wireless network, the method comprising:
receiving, by a station, a downlink frame from an access point, the downlink frame comprising a first signaling field and a second signaling field, wherein the first signaling field is a high efficiency signal-A (HE SIG-A) field, wherein the second signaling field is a high efficiency signal-B (HE SIG-B) field;
determining, by the station, whether the first signaling field indicates a multi-user (MU)-multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transmission in the downlink frame;
when the first signaling field indicates the MU-MIMO transmission, determining one or more attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission in the second signaling field;
when the first signaling field indicates a transmission that is a non-MU-MIMO transmission, determining one or more attributes of the non-MU-MIMO transmission in the second signaling field;
decoding, by the station, one or more portions of the downlink frame based on the one or more attributes of the MU-MIMO transmission; and
providing the decoded one or more portions of the downlink frame for processing.
17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16 , further comprising:
decoding, by the station, the one or more portions of the downlink frame based on the one or more attributes of the non-MU-MIMO transmission,
wherein the non-MU-MIMO transmission identifies an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) transmission.