Extra high throughput preamble

1. A method for operating a communications network comprising:

encoding a first field of a preamble of a data unit; and

implicitly encoding a portion of the preamble to identify the data unit as being compliant with future versions of a communication protocol as distinguished from legacy versions of the communication protocol;

wherein the first field includes first bits having a static definition that is fixed for the future versions of the communication protocol, and second bits having a definition that varies with each new version of the future versions of the communication protocol; and

wherein the second bits indicate a number of symbols in a next adjacent field of the preamble, a modulation of the next adjacent field, and a coding type of the next adjacent field.

2. The method, as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first bits have a predetermined location and predetermined bit definitions.

3. The method, as recited in claim 1 ,

wherein the first bits include version identifier bits, basic service set identifier bits, and transmission opportunity bits, and

wherein the second bits include information corresponding to data bandwidth information of communications using the communications network.

4. The method, as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first bits of the first field and the second bits of the first field are modulated using binary phase-shift keying and are jointly encoded with cyclic redundancy check bits and at least one tail bit.

5. The method, as recited in claim 1 , wherein the implicitly encoding comprises:

modulating the first field using binary phase-shift keying, the first field being adjacent to a second field, the second field being a repeated version of a third field; and

encoding the third field and the second field in the portion of the preamble, a modulo operation of a length subfield in the second field or a length based on a combination of the length subfield in the second field and another length subfield in the third field, and a predetermined value being equal to zero, and the second field being equal to the third field.

6. The method, as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

encoding a second field adjacent to the first field, the second field including common information for communications with a single user or for communications with multiple users and per-user information for decoding data for the single user or for each user of the multiple users.

7. The method, as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:

encoding a second field including information indicating a number of spatial streams, a modulation type, and a coding type.

8. The method, as recited in claim 1 ,

wherein the first field follows a legacy signal field (L-SIG) and any repeated legacy signal field (RL-SIG) within the preamble,

wherein the first field is prior to an extra-high throughput signal field (EHT-SIG) within the preamble, and

wherein the L-SIG, any RL-SIG, and the first field are duplicated over an entire signal bandwidth.

9. A communications network comprising:

a transmitter comprising:

an encoder configured to encode a first field of a preamble of a data unit,

wherein the transmitter is configured to implicitly encode a portion of the preamble to identify the data unit as being compliant with future versions of a communication protocol as distinguished from legacy versions of the communication protocol;

wherein the first field includes first bits having a static definition that is fixed for the future versions of the communication protocol, and second bits having a variable definition that varies with each new version of the future versions of the communication protocol; and

wherein the second bits indicate a number of symbols in a next adjacent field of the preamble, a modulation of the next adjacent field, and a coding type of the next adjacent field.

10. The communications network, as recited in claim 9 , wherein the portion includes a second field having a length subfield, a modulo operation of the length subfield and three being equal to zero.

11. The communications network, as recited in claim 9 , wherein the transmitter further comprises:

a circuit configured to duplicate a second field in a third field of the preamble, the third field being adjacent to the second field; and

a constellation mapper configured to modulate a fourth field of the preamble, using binary phase-shift keying modulation, the fourth field being adjacent to the third field.

12. The communications network, as recited in claim 9 , wherein the first bits have a predetermined location and predetermined bit definitions.

13. The communications network, as recited in claim 9 , further comprising:

a receiver comprising:

a decoder configured to implicitly decode a received preamble of a received data unit to determine whether the received data unit is compliant with a legacy version of the communication protocol or the future versions of the communication protocol, and the decoder being further configured to selectively decode the data unit to determine a version of the future versions of the communication protocol used to encode the data unit based on whether the data unit is determined to be compliant with the future versions of the communication protocol.

14. The communications network, as recited in claim 13 , wherein the decoder is further configured to use the same decode sequence for decoding a first data unit for a single-user as for decoding a second data unit for multiple users for the future versions of the communication protocol.

15. A method for operating a communications network comprising:

receiving a data unit;

implicitly decoding a portion of the data unit to determine whether the data unit is compliant with a legacy version of a communication protocol or is compliant with future versions of the communication protocol; and

selectively decoding the data unit to determine a version of the communication protocol used to encode the data unit based on whether the data unit is compliant with the legacy version of the communication protocol or is compliant with the future versions of the communication protocol,

wherein the implicitly decoding comprises:

decoding a first field of a preamble of the data unit; and

determining whether the data unit is compliant with a first communication protocol based on a comparison of the first field to a second field adjacent to the first field, a determination of whether a modulo operation on a length subfield and a predetermined value equals zero, the length subfield being decoded from the first field or decoded from the length subfield in the first field and another length subfield in the second field, and a determination of a type of modulation of a third field.

16. The method, as recited in claim 15 , wherein the first field equals the second field, the length subfield is modulo three, the type of modulation of the third field is binary phase-shift keying, and the data unit is determined to comply with the first communication protocol.

17. The method, as recited in claim 15 , wherein selectively decoding includes decoding the third field to determine the version of the communication protocol, a format of the data unit, basic service set identifier, and transmission opportunity.

18. The method, as recited in claim 15 , wherein selectively decoding includes decoding a fourth field adjacent to the third field to determine common information and per-user information for at least one user.

19. The method, as recited in claim 15 , wherein selectively decoding includes using the same decode sequence for decoding a first data unit for a single-user and for decoding a second data unit for multiple users.

20. A communications network comprising:

a transmitter comprising:

an encoder configured to encode a first field of a preamble of a data unit,

wherein the transmitter is configured to implicitly encode a portion of the preamble to identify the data unit as being compliant with future versions of a communication protocol as distinguished from legacy versions of the communication protocol;

wherein the first field includes first bits having a static definition that is fixed for the future versions of the communication protocol, and second bits having a variable definition that varies with each new version of the future versions of the communication protocol;

wherein the first field follows a legacy signal field (L-SIG) and any repeated legacy signal field (RL-SIG) within the preamble,

wherein the first field is prior to an extra-high throughput signal field (EHT-SIG) within the preamble, and

wherein the L-SIG, any RL-SIG, and the first field are duplicated over an entire signal bandwidth.