WO2024051326A1 - Communication method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided in the embodiments of the present application are a communication method and apparatus, which can improve the sending power of downlink transmission of a device in an LPI scenario, and can be applied to a WLAN communication system. The method comprises: a first access point (AP) generating a first trigger frame, wherein the first trigger frame is used for triggering a plurality of APs to participate in downlink transmission by using discrete resource units (RUs) or discrete multi-resource units (MRUs); and then the first AP sending the first trigger frame.

Description

Communication methods and devices

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on September 7, 2022, with application number 202211091171.0 and application title "Communication Method and Device", the entire content of which is incorporated into this application by reference.

Technical field

The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communication, and in particular, to a communication method and device.

Background technique

Wireless local area network (WLAN) has developed through many generations, from 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax to the 802.11be currently under discussion. Among them, the 802.11n standard is called high throughput (HT), the 802.11ac standard is called very high throughput (VHT), the 802.11ax standard is called high efficient (HE), and the 802.11be standard is called It is called extremely high throughput (EHT).

In indoor low power indoor (LPI) scenarios, the maximum power and maximum frequency spectrum density transmitted by the device are strictly limited, and the maximum transmit power of the device increases as the transmission bandwidth increases. Among them, when the maximum bandwidth is 320MHz, for the access point (AP), the maximum power is 30 decibel-milliwatts (dBm), and the maximum power spectral density is 5dBm/megahertz (MHz) ; For the station (station, STA), its maximum power is 24dBm, and its maximum power spectral density is -1dBm/MHz. In the standard power scenario, the maximum power of the AP is 36dBm and the maximum power of the STA is 30dBm. It can be seen that even when the bandwidth is 320MHz, the transmit power of the device in the LPI scenario is still 6dBm lower than the transmit power of the device in the standard power scenario. For this reason, how to improve the transmission power of devices in LPI scenarios has become an urgent problem to be solved.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and device that can improve the transmission power of equipment in LPI scenarios.

In order to achieve the above objectives, the embodiments of this application adopt the following technical solutions:

The first aspect provides a communication method. The method can be executed by the first AP, or by components of the first AP, such as the processor, chip, or chip system of the first AP. It can also be executed by a device that can realize all Or the logical module or software implementation of part of the first AP function. The following description takes the method executed by the first AP as an example. The communication method includes: the first access point AP generates a first trigger frame, and the first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete resource units RU or discrete multiple resource units MRU to participate in downlink transmission. Furthermore, the first AP sends the first trigger frame.

Based on this communication method, the first AP can trigger multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission through the first trigger frame. Compared with single AP transmission, under the same spectrum efficiency, the AP's transmit power or Power spectral density on a single subcarrier.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1. In this way, the first AP may not participate in downlink transmission, and only schedules at least two second APs to form multi-AP discrete RU transmission or multi-AP discrete MRU transmission, so that the transmit power of the AP or a single AP can be increased under the same spectrum efficiency. Power spectral density on subcarriers.

In another possible design solution, the multiple APs may include a first AP and N second APs, where N is a positive integer. In this way, the first AP can also participate in transmission, and form multi-AP discrete RU transmission or multi-AP discrete MRU transmission with at least one scheduled second AP, which can not only reduce the complexity of scheduling APs, but also improve the efficiency of scheduling APs under the same spectrum efficiency. The transmit power of the AP or the power spectral density on a single subcarrier is increased.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the first AP sends a first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to one or more STAs. Wherein, the first PPDU may include a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU. In this way, when the first AP and the second AP participate in downlink transmission together, the first AP also uses the discrete RU or the discrete MRU to transmit the first PPDU together with the second AP, thereby improving the AP's transmission power or increase the power spectral density on a single subcarrier.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission.

In a possible design solution, the first indication information may be a trigger frame type field.

In another possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include second indication information and third indication information. The second indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in downlink transmission, and the third indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission.

In a possible design, the second indication information is a trigger frame type field, and the third indication information is carried in a public information field, a special user information field, or a user information field.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may also include identification information of the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of a second AP.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may correspond to M user information fields in the user information list field, where M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission. Therefore, the first AP can only allocate discrete RU or discrete MRU resource information to the second AP and not schedule STAs for the second AP, and then the second AP can freely schedule STAs according to the allocated discrete RU or discrete MRU resource information, thereby The signaling overhead of the first AP can be reduced, and the flexibility of communication between the second AP and the STA can be improved.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP. In this way, the first AP can schedule in a unified manner and indicate all the STAs that need to transmit and the discrete RU or discrete MRU resource information of each STA in advance, so that the resources can be allocated more reasonably, so that the second AP can directly perform the transmission according to the first trigger frame. Data transmission of relevant information can not only reduce the complexity of the second AP communication, but also increase the communication rate. In this case, multiple second APs may also be allowed to use unified signaling fields for data transmission.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the public information field or the special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. Wherein, the identification information of the second AP and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged adjacently. Therefore, after acquiring the first trigger frame, the second AP can parse the corresponding identification information to determine the corresponding number of assigned user information fields, and then obtain relevant information for downlink transmission.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously. In this way, the user information fields corresponding to the same second AP are continuously discharged, and the relevant information of downlink transmission can be obtained more quickly and the data transmission delay can be reduced.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may be the color of the basic service set corresponding to the second AP or the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP, or the identification information of the second AP may be the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP. part of the information.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content. Multiple APs can jointly send the same non-modulated part field. The non-modulated parts sent by different APs do not interfere with each other, so that all associated STAs can receive it.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the first trigger frame; or, the basic service set corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field Color is predetermined defined; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs send non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame can also be used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection. In this way, in addition to triggering data transmission, the first trigger frame can also be used to trigger channel detection. During the channel detection process, multiple APs can also use discrete RU or discrete MRU transmission, which can improve the AP's performance during the channel detection process. Transmit power or increase the power spectral density on a single subcarrier.

In a possible design, the first trigger frame may also include fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in channel sounding.

Optionally, the first trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field. Wherein, the detection dialogue token field can be used to indicate the number of times of channel detection this time.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU is an empty data packet NDP, and the first PPDU is used for channel detection by one or more STAs. In this way, since data transmission may not be performed during the channel sounding process, in the case where multiple APs include the first AP and N second APs, the first PPDU may be an NDP that does not include a data field and is related to the participating The second AP for channel detection uses discrete RU or discrete MRU transmission together, which can reduce signaling overhead and increase the AP's transmit power and channel detection rate.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the first AP uses a discrete RU or a discrete MRU to send an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame to one or more STAs. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection. In this way, the first AP participates in channel transmission and needs to send an NDPA frame to the STA before sending NDP to notify the STA to perform channel detection. Using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames can improve the transmission power of the first AP.

In the second aspect, a communication method is provided. The method can be executed by the second AP, or by components of the second AP, such as the processor, chip, or chip system of the second AP. It can also be executed by a device that can realize all Or the logic module or software implementation of part of the second AP function. The following description takes the method being executed by the second AP as an example. The communication method includes: the second access point AP receives a first trigger frame from the first AP. The first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU to participate in downlink transmission. The second AP sends the first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to one or more station STAs. The first PPDU includes a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU.

Based on this communication method, one or more second APs can participate in the downlink transmission initiated by the first AP according to the discrete RU or discrete MRU indicated by the first trigger frame. Under the same spectrum efficiency, the transmit power of the AP or a single Power spectral density on subcarriers.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In another possible design solution, the multiple APs may include a first AP and N second APs, where N is a positive integer.

Optionally, the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application may also include: the second AP receives a second PPDU from one or more STAs, and the second PPDU is transmitted by the STA using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission.

In a possible design solution, the first indication information may be a trigger frame type field.

In another possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include second indication information and third indication information. The second indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in downlink transmission, and the third indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission.

In a possible design, the second indication information is a trigger frame type field, and the third indication information is carried in a public information field, a special user information field, or a user information field.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may also include identification information of the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of a second AP.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may correspond to M user information fields in the user information list field, where M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission. Therefore, the first AP can only use the discrete RU or discrete MRU resource information allocated by the second AP and not schedule the STA for the second AP, and then the second AP can freely schedule the STA according to the allocated discrete RU or discrete MRU resource information. This can reduce the signaling overhead of the first AP and improve the flexibility of communication between the second AP and the STA.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP. In this way, the first AP can schedule in a unified manner and indicate all the STAs that need to transmit and the discrete RU or discrete MRU resource information of each STA in advance, so that the resources can be allocated more reasonably, so that the second AP can directly perform the transmission according to the first trigger frame. Data transmission of relevant information can not only reduce the complexity of the second AP communication, but also increase the communication rate. In this case, multiple second APs may also be allowed to use unified signaling fields for data transmission.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the public information field or the special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. Wherein, the identification information of the second AP and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged adjacently. Therefore, after acquiring the first trigger frame, the second AP can parse the corresponding identification information to determine the corresponding number of assigned user information fields, and then obtain relevant information for downlink transmission.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously. In this way, the user information fields corresponding to the same second AP are continuously discharged, and the relevant information of downlink transmission can be obtained more quickly and the data transmission delay can be reduced.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may be the color of the basic service set corresponding to the second AP or the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP, or the identification information of the second AP may be the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP. part of the information.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame is also used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection.

In a possible design, the first trigger frame may also include fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in channel sounding. In this way, in addition to triggering data transmission, the first trigger frame can also be used to trigger channel detection. During the channel detection process, multiple APs can also use discrete RU or discrete MRU transmission, which can improve the AP's performance during the channel detection process. Transmit power or increase the power spectral density on a single subcarrier.

Optionally, the first trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU is an empty data packet NDP, and the first PPDU is used for channel detection by one or more STAs. In this way, since data transmission may not be performed during the channel sounding process, in the case where multiple APs include the first AP and N second APs, the first PPDU may be an NDP that does not include a data field and is related to the participating The second AP for channel detection uses discrete RU or discrete MRU transmission together, which can reduce signaling overhead and increase the AP's transmit power and channel detection rate.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the second AP uses a discrete RU or a discrete MRU to send an empty data packet announcement NDPA frame to one or more STAs. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection. In this way, the first AP participates in channel transmission and needs to send an NDPA frame to the STA before sending NDP to notify the STA to perform channel detection. Using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames can improve the transmission power of the first AP.

In one possible design solution, the contents of NDPA frames jointly sent by multiple APs are the same. In this way, multiple APs can send the same NDPA frame, which can reduce the transmission delay of multiple APs.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of multiple APs and identification information of STAs associated with the multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames. In this way, different APs can use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to transmit independently, which can improve the communication flexibility of the AP.

In a possible design, the first PPDU is an empty data packet NDP, the second PPDU includes a compressed beamforming report CBFR or a channel status indication CQI, and the first PPDU is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content. Multiple APs can jointly send the same non-modulated part field. The non-modulated parts sent by different APs do not interfere with each other, so that all associated STAs can receive it.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the first trigger frame; or, the basic service set corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field The color is predefined; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs send non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In the third aspect, a communication method is provided. The method can be executed by the STA, or by components of the STA, such as the processor, chip, or chip system of the STA. It can also be executed by logic that can realize all or part of the functions of the STA. Module or software implementation. The following description takes the method executed by STA as an example. The communication method includes: the station STA receives a first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU from the second access point AP. Wherein, the first PPDU includes a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using a discrete resource unit RU or a discrete multiple resource unit MRU. The STA parses the first PPDU.

Optionally, the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application may also include: the STA uses a discrete RU or a discrete MRU to send the second PPDU to the second AP.

Optionally, the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application may also include: the STA uses a discrete RU or a discrete MRU to send the second PPDU to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU is an NDP, the second PPDU may include a compressed beamforming report CBFR or a channel status indication CQI, and the first PPDU is used for channel sounding by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the STA receiving an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame from the second AP. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send NDPA frames with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of the second AP and identification information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, the second AP uses different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design solution, the non-modulation part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG word The segment may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, first field symbol number field, first field Coding and modulation strategy fields.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the first trigger frame; or the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field It is predefined; or the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple second APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple second APs send the non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP.

The fourth aspect provides a communication method, which can be executed by the first AP, or can be executed by components of the first AP, such as the processor, chip, or chip system of the first AP, or can also be executed by a device that can realize all Or the logical module or software implementation of part of the first AP function. The following description takes the method executed by the first AP as an example. The communication method includes: the first access point AP generates a second trigger frame, and the second trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU to participate in channel detection. The first AP sends a second trigger frame.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In another possible design solution, the multiple APs may include a first AP and N second APs, where N is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the first AP uses a discrete RU or a discrete MRU to send an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame to one or more STAs. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the first AP uses a discrete RU or a discrete MRU to send empty data packets NDP to one or more STAs. Among them, NDP is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may also include fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel sounding.

Optionally, the second trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field. Wherein, the detection dialogue token field can be used to indicate the number of times of channel detection this time.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may also include identification information of the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of a second AP.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP corresponds to M user information fields in the user information list field, and M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP is carried in the public information field or the special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. Wherein, the identification information of the second AP and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged adjacently.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP or the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP. The service set identifier, or the identification information of the second AP, is part of the information in the basic service set identifier corresponding to the second AP.

In the fifth aspect, a communication method is provided. The method can be executed by the second AP, or by components of the second AP, such as the processor, chip, or chip system of the second AP. It can also be executed by a device that can realize all Or the logic module or software implementation of part of the second AP function. The following description takes the method being executed by the second AP as an example. The communication method includes: the second access point AP receives a second trigger frame from the first AP. The second trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection using discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU. The second AP sends a null data packet announcement NDPA frame to one or more STAs using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection. The second AP sends empty data packets NDP to one or more STAs using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs. Among them, NDP is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In another possible design solution, the multiple APs may include a first AP and N second APs, where N is a positive integer.

Optionally, the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application may also include: the second AP receives a second PPDU from one or more STAs, and the second PPDU is transmitted using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the second PPDU may include compressed beamforming report CBFR or channel status indication CQI.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may also include fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel sounding.

Optionally, the second trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field. Wherein, the detection dialogue token field can be used to indicate the number of times of channel detection this time.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may also include identification information of the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of a second AP.

Optionally, M user information fields in the user information list field, M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP is carried in the public information field or the special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. Wherein, the identification information of the second AP and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged adjacently.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may be the color of the basic service set corresponding to the second AP or the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP, or the identification information of the second AP may be the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP. part of the information.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send NDPA frames with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of multiple APs and identification information of STAs associated with the multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may include a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the second trigger frame; or, the basic service set corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field Color; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is predefined or the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs send non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP.

The sixth aspect provides a communication method, which can be executed by the STA, or by components of the STA, such as the STA's processor, chip, or chip system, or by logic that can realize all or part of the STA functions. Module or software implementation. The following description takes the method executed by STA as an example. The communication method includes: the station STA receives an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame from the second access point AP. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection. The STA receives the empty data packet NDP from the second AP. Among them, NDP is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

Optionally, the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application may also include: the STA sends a second PPDU to the second AP, and the second PPDU is transmitted using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the STA receiving an NDPA frame from the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the STA receiving an NDP from the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: the STA sends a second PPDU to the first AP, and the second PPDU is transmitted using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the second PPDU may include compressed beamforming report CBFR or channel status indication CQI.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send NDPA frames with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of the second AP and identification information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, multiple second APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may include a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the second trigger frame; or the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is predefined; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple second APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple second APs send the non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP.

The technical effects of the communication methods described in the fourth to sixth aspects may be referred to the technical effects of the methods described in the first to third aspects, and will not be described again here.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods mentioned above. The communication device may be the first AP in the first aspect, or a device including the first AP, or a device included in the first AP, such as a chip. The communication device includes corresponding modules, units, or means that implement the method described in the first aspect. The modules, units, or means can be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes: a processing module and a transceiver module. Wherein, the processing module is used to generate a first trigger frame, and the first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU to participate in downlink transmission. Transceiver module, used to send the first trigger frame.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs may include the communication device described in the seventh aspect and N second APs, where N is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the transceiver module is also used to send the first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to one or more STAs. Wherein, the first PPDU may include a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission.

In a possible design solution, the first indication information may be a trigger frame type field.

In another possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include second indication information and third indication information. The second indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in downlink transmission, and the third indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission.

In a possible design, the second indication information is a trigger frame type field, and the third indication information is carried in a public information field, a special user information field, or a user information field.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may also include identification information of the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of a second AP.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP may correspond to M user information fields in the user information list field, where M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the station STA associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP is carried in the public information field or the special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. Wherein, the identification information of the second AP and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged adjacently.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may be the color of the basic service set corresponding to the second AP or the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP, or the identification information of the second AP may be the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP. part of the information.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU may also include a non-modulation part field. Among them, the non-modulation part field can To include a first field, the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the first trigger frame; or, the basic service set corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field The color is predefined; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs send non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the communication device described in the eighth aspect may be the basic service set corresponding to the communication device described in the eighth aspect. color.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame can also be used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection.

In a possible design, the first trigger frame may also include fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in channel sounding.

Optionally, the first trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field. Wherein, the detection dialogue token field can be used to indicate the number of times of channel detection this time.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU is an empty data packet NDP, and the first PPDU is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, the transceiver module is also used to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send empty data packet announcement NDPA frames to one or more STAs. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection.

Optionally, the transceiver module may include a receiving module and a sending module. The sending module is used to implement the sending function of the communication device described in the seventh aspect, and the receiving module is used to implement the receiving function of the communication device described in the seventh aspect.

Optionally, the communication device according to the seventh aspect may further include a storage module that stores programs or instructions. When the processing module executes the program or instruction, the communication device described in the seventh aspect can perform the method described in the first aspect.

For the technical effects of the communication device described in the seventh aspect, reference can be made to the technical effects of the method described in the first aspect, which will not be described again here.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods mentioned above. The communication device may be the second AP in the second aspect, or a device including the second AP, or a device included in the second AP, such as a chip. The communication device includes corresponding modules, units, or means (means) that implement the method described in the second aspect. The modules, units, or means can be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes: a sending module and a receiving module. The receiving module is configured to receive the first trigger frame from the first AP. The first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU to participate in downlink transmission. A sending module, configured to send the first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to one or more station STAs. The first PPDU includes a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N communication devices described in the eighth aspect, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs may include a first AP and N communication devices described in the eighth aspect, where N is a positive integer.

Optionally, the receiving module is also configured to receive a second PPDU from one or more STAs, and the second PPDU is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission.

In a possible design solution, the first indication information may be a trigger frame type field.

In another possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include second indication information and third indication information. The second indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in downlink transmission, and the third indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission.

In a possible design, the second indication information is a trigger frame type field, and the third indication information is carried in a public information field, a special user information field, or a user information field.

In a possible design, the first trigger frame may also include identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect may be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect.

Optionally, the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect corresponds to M user information fields in the user information list field, and M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the communication device described in the eighth aspect for downlink transmission.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the communication device described in the eighth aspect.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect is carried in a public information field or a special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect. Wherein, the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect are arranged adjacently.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect are arranged continuously.

Optionally, the identification information of the communication device described in the eighth aspect may be the basic service set color corresponding to the communication device described in the eighth aspect or the basic service set identification corresponding to the communication device described in the eighth aspect, or the eighth The identification information of the communication device described in the aspect is part of the information in the basic service set identification corresponding to the communication device described in the eighth aspect.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame is also used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection.

In a possible design, the first trigger frame may also include fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in channel sounding.

Optionally, the first trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU is an empty data packet NDP, and the first PPDU is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, the sending module is also used to send an empty data packet announcement NDPA frame to one or more STAs using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send NDPA frames with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of multiple APs and identification information of STAs associated with the multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames.

In a possible design, the first PPDU is an empty data packet NDP, the second PPDU includes a compressed beamforming report CBFR or a channel status indication CQI, and the first PPDU is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design solution, the non-modulation part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG word The segment may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, first field symbol number field, first field Coding and modulation strategy fields.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the first trigger frame; or, the basic service set corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field The color is predefined; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs send non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the communication device described in the eighth aspect may be the basic service set corresponding to the communication device described in the eighth aspect. color.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP.

Optionally, the sending module and the receiving module can also be integrated into one module, such as a transceiving module. Wherein, the transceiver module is used to implement the sending function and receiving function of the communication device described in the eighth aspect.

Optionally, the communication device according to the eighth aspect may further include a processing module. Wherein, the processing module is used to implement the processing function of the communication device described in the eighth aspect.

Optionally, the communication device according to the eighth aspect may further include a storage module that stores programs or instructions. When the processing module executes the program or instruction, the communication device can perform the communication method described in the second aspect.

For the technical effects of the communication device described in the eighth aspect, reference can be made to the technical effects of the communication method described in the second aspect, which will not be described again here.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods mentioned above. The communication device may be the STA in the above third aspect, or a device including the above STA, or a device included in the above STA, such as a chip. The communication device includes corresponding modules, units, or means (means) that implement the method described in the third aspect. The modules, units, or means can be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes: a processing module and a transceiver module. The transceiver module is configured to receive the first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU from the second access point AP. Wherein, the first PPDU includes a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using a discrete resource unit RU or a discrete multiple resource unit MRU. A processing module used to parse the first PPDU.

Optionally, the transceiver module is also configured to use a discrete RU or a discrete MRU to send the second PPDU to the second AP.

In a possible design, the first PPDU is an NDP frame, the second PPDU may include a compressed beamforming report CBFR or a channel status indicator CQI, and the first PPDU is used for one or more communication devices described in the ninth aspect to perform channel processing. detection.

In a possible design solution, the transceiver module is also configured to receive an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame from the second AP. The NDPA frame is used to notify one or more communication devices described in the ninth aspect to perform channel detection.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send NDPA frames with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of the second AP and identification information of the communication device described in the ninth aspect associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, multiple second APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames.

In a possible design solution, the first PPDU may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the first trigger frame; or, the basic service set corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field The color is predefined; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP may include RU allocation information of the communication device described in the ninth aspect associated with multiple second APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple second APs send the non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the communication device described in the ninth aspect associated with the second AP.

The technical effects of the communication device described in the ninth aspect can be referred to the technical effects of the communication method described in the third aspect, and will not be described again here.

In a tenth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods mentioned above. The communication device may be the first AP in the fourth aspect, or a device including the first AP, or a device included in the first AP, such as a chip. The communication device includes corresponding modules, units, or means (means) that implement the method described in the fourth aspect. The modules, units, or means can be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes: a processing module and a transceiver module. Wherein, the processing module is used to generate a second trigger frame, and the second trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection using discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU. The transceiver module is used for the first AP to send the second trigger frame.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs may include the communication device described in the tenth aspect and N second APs, where N is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the transceiver module is also used to send an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame to one or more STAs using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection.

In a possible design solution, the transceiver module is also used to send empty data packets NDP to one or more STAs using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs. Among them, NDP is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may also include fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel sounding.

Optionally, the second trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field. Wherein, the detection dialogue token field can be used to indicate the number of times of channel detection this time.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may also include identification information of the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of a second AP.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP corresponds to M user information fields in the user information list field, and M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP is carried in the public information field or the special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. Wherein, the identification information of the second AP and the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged adjacently.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may be the color of the basic service set corresponding to the second AP or the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP, or the identification information of the second AP may be the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP. part of the information.

Optionally, the transceiver module may include a receiving module and a sending module. The sending module is used to implement the sending function of the communication device described in the tenth aspect, and the receiving module is used to implement the receiving function of the communication device described in the tenth aspect.

Optionally, the communication device according to the tenth aspect may further include a storage module that stores programs or instructions. When the processing module executes the program or instruction, the communication device described in the tenth aspect can perform the method described in the fourth aspect.

For the technical effects of the communication device described in the tenth aspect, reference can be made to the technical effects of the method described in the fourth aspect, which will not be described again here.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods mentioned above. The communication device may be the second AP in the fifth aspect, or a device including the second AP, or a device included in the second AP, such as a chip. The communication device includes corresponding modules, units, or means that implement the method described in the fifth aspect. The modules, units, or means can be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes: a receiving module and a sending module. The receiving module is configured to receive the second trigger frame from the first AP. The second trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection using discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU. A sending module, configured to send an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame to one or more STAs using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU. Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify one or more STAs to perform channel detection. The sending module is also used to send empty data packets NDP to one or more STAs using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs. Among them, NDP is used for channel detection by one or more STAs.

In a possible design solution, multiple APs may include N communication devices described in the eleventh aspect, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs may include a first AP and N communication devices described in the eleventh aspect, where N is a positive integer.

Optionally, the receiving module is also configured to receive a second PPDU from one or more STAs, and the second PPDU is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the second PPDU may include compressed beamforming report CBFR or channel status indication CQI.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may also include fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel sounding.

Optionally, the second trigger frame may also include a probe conversation token field. Wherein, the detection dialogue token field can be used to indicate the number of times of channel detection this time.

In a possible design, the second trigger frame may also include identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect may be carried in the user information list field. Wherein, one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect.

Optionally, M user information fields in the user information list field, M is a positive integer.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include RU allocation information.

In a possible design solution, the RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the communication device described in the eleventh aspect for downlink transmission.

In another possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the communication device described in the eleventh aspect.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect is carried in a public information field or a special user information field.

In a possible design solution, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect. Wherein, the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect are arranged adjacently.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect are arranged continuously.

Optionally, the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect may be the basic service set color corresponding to the communication device described in the eleventh aspect or the basic service set identification corresponding to the communication device described in the eleventh aspect, Or the identification information of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect is part of the information in the basic service set identification corresponding to the communication device described in the eleventh aspect.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send NDPA frames with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of multiple APs and identification information of STAs associated with the multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may include a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the second trigger frame; or, the basic service set corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field Color; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is predefined or the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs send non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the communication device described in the eleventh aspect may be the basic service set color corresponding to the communication device described in the eleventh aspect. Service collection color.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the communication device described in the eleventh aspect includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the communication device described in the eleventh aspect.

Optionally, the sending module and the receiving module can also be integrated into one module, such as a transceiving module. Wherein, the transceiver module is used to implement the sending function and receiving function of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect.

Optionally, the communication device according to the eleventh aspect may further include a processing module. Wherein, the processing module is used to implement the processing function of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect.

Optionally, the communication device according to the eleventh aspect may further include a storage module that stores programs or instructions. When the processing module executes the program or instruction, the communication device can perform the communication method described in the fifth aspect.

For the technical effects of the communication device described in the eleventh aspect, reference can be made to the technical effects of the communication method described in the fifth aspect, which will not be described again here.

In a twelfth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the various methods mentioned above. The communication device may be the STA in the sixth aspect, or a device including the STA, or a device included in the STA, such as a chip. The communication device includes corresponding modules, units, or means that implement the method described in the sixth aspect. The modules, units, or means can be implemented by hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the above functions.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes: a receiving module. Wherein, the receiving module is configured to receive an empty data packet declaration NDPA frame from the second access point AP. The NDPA frame is used to notify one or more communication devices described in the twelfth aspect to perform channel detection. The receiving module is also configured to receive the empty data packet NDP from the second AP. Wherein, NDP is used for channel detection by one or more communication devices described in the twelfth aspect.

Optionally, the communication device provided by the embodiment of the present application may also include: a sending module. The sending module is configured to send a second PPDU to the second AP, and the second PPDU is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the receiving module is also configured to receive the NDPA frame from the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the receiving module is also used to receive the NDP from the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the sending module is also configured to send a second PPDU to the first AP, and the second PPDU is transmitted using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU.

In a possible design solution, the second PPDU may include compressed beamforming report CBFR or channel status indication CQI.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send NDPA frames with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the NDPA frame may include identification information of the second AP and identification information of the STA associated with the second AP.

In another possible design solution, multiple second APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to send NDPA frames.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may include a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs.

In a possible design solution, the NDP may also include a non-modulation part field. The non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information for demodulating the modulation part field.

In a possible design, the non-modulated part field may also include a universal signaling U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic Service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, number of symbols field in the first field, coding and modulation strategy field in the first field.

In one possible design solution, multiple second APs jointly send non-modulated partial fields with the same content.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the second trigger frame; or the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is predefined; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP.

In a possible design solution, the common information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP may include RU allocation information of the communication device described in the twelfth aspect associated with multiple second APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple second APs send the non-modulated partial fields on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

In a possible design solution, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP may be the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP.

In a possible design solution, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the communication device described in the twelfth aspect associated with the second AP.

Optionally, the sending module and the receiving module can also be integrated into one module, such as a transceiving module. Wherein, the transceiver module is used to implement the sending function and receiving function of the communication device described in the twelfth aspect.

Optionally, the communication device described in the twelfth aspect may further include a processing module. Wherein, the processing module is used to implement the processing function of the communication device described in the twelfth aspect.

Optionally, the communication device according to the twelfth aspect may further include a storage module that stores programs or instructions. When the processing module executes the program or instruction, the communication device can perform the communication method described in the sixth aspect.

For the technical effects of the communication device described in the twelfth aspect, reference can be made to the technical effects of the communication method described in the sixth aspect, which will not be described again here.

In a thirteenth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device includes: a processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, and the processor is used to execute a computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication device executes any one of the possible implementation methods of the first to sixth aspects. Methods.

In a possible design solution, the communication device described in the thirteenth aspect may further include a transceiver. The transceiver can be a transceiver circuit or an interface circuit. The transceiver can be used for the communication device described in the thirteenth aspect to communicate with other communication devices.

In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device described in the thirteenth aspect may be the first AP in the first aspect or the fourth aspect, or The second AP in the second or fifth aspect, or the STA in the third or sixth aspect, or a chip (system) or other component or component that can be disposed in the first AP or the second AP or the STA, Or a device including the first AP or second AP or STA.

For the technical effect of the thirteenth aspect, reference can be made to the technical effect of the method described in any one of the implementation modes of the first to sixth aspects, and will not be described again here.

A fourteenth aspect provides a communication system. The communication system includes: a first AP, a second AP and an STA. Wherein, the first AP is used to perform the communication method described in the first aspect, the second AP is used to perform the communication method described in the second aspect, and the STA is used to perform the communication method described in the third aspect; or, The first AP is used to perform the communication method described in the fourth aspect, the second AP is used to perform the communication method described in the fifth aspect, and the STA is used to perform the communication method described in the sixth aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium stores computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the first to sixth aspects.

In a sixteenth aspect, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes: a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer performs the method described in any one of the possible implementations of the first to sixth aspects.

Description of the drawings

Figure 1A is a schematic diagram of the distribution of discrete RUs provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 1B is a schematic diagram of the distribution of another discrete RU provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a scenario in which an AP triggers communication with multiple STAs provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an 802.11be trigger frame provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an EHT TB PPDU provided by the embodiment of the present application;

Figure 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a copy-transmitted EHT MU PPDU provided by the embodiment of the present application;

Figure 6 is an architectural schematic diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 7 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a user information field in a first trigger frame provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of a multi-AP transmission scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another user information field in the first trigger frame provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 11 is a partial structural diagram of a public information field or a special user information field provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 12 is a method for indicating the identification information of the second AP provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a first PPDU provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 14 is a schematic structural diagram of the transmission method of the non-modulation part field in the first PPDU provided by the embodiment of the present application;

Figure 15 is a schematic structural diagram of an NDP provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 16 is a schematic structural diagram of an NDPA frame provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 17 is a schematic flow chart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 18 is a schematic diagram of a multi-AP channel detection scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 20 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 21 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

For ease of understanding, the relevant technologies involved in the embodiments of the present application are first described below.

WLAN supports communication using protocols such as 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, and 802.11be. Among them, the 802.11n standard is called HT, the 802.11ac standard is called VHT, the 802.11ax standard is called HE, and the 802.11be standard is called EHT.

In terms of bandwidth configuration, 802.11ax currently supports the following bandwidth configuration: 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz and 80+80MHz. Among them, the difference between 160MHz and 80+80MHz is that the former is a continuous frequency band, while the latter has two 80MHz can be separated. In 802.11be, only the continuous frequency band bandwidths of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, and 320MHz are supported.

(1)LPI

The LPI communication method is defined in the regulations on the 6 (giga hertz, GHz) spectrum promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission of the United States. LPI communication places strict limits on the maximum power and maximum frequency spectral density transmitted by the device. For example, the maximum power of the AP is 30dBm and the maximum power spectral density is 5dBm/MHz. The maximum power of the STA is 24dBm and the maximum power spectral density is -1dBm. /MHz. Therefore, the transmit power of the device cannot exceed the maximum power, and the power spectral density transmitted by the device cannot exceed the maximum power spectral density. Among them, the maximum power spectral density refers to the maximum transmission power of 1MHz, and the minimum granularity of the maximum power spectral density is 1MHz.

Table 1 below shows the relationship between the maximum power of the device and the transmission bandwidth in the LPI scenario. The maximum power of the device increases with the increase of the transmission bandwidth, but cannot exceed the maximum power specified by regulations.

Table 1

It can be seen from Table 1 that when the maximum transmission bandwidth is 320MHz, the AP and STA can reach the maximum power limit specified by the regulations. When the transmission bandwidth is less than 320MHz, due to the limitation of the maximum power spectral density, the maximum power transmitted by the AP and STA lower. In addition, since the power transmitted per MHz is limited, the power on each subcarrier is also very low, making the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal received by the receiving end very low.

In the standard power scenario, the maximum power of the AP is 36dBm and the maximum power of the STA is 30dBm. In the LPI scenario, even if the bandwidth is 320MHz, the transmit power of the device is still 6dB lower than the transmit power of the device in the standard power scenario. For this reason, how to improve the transmission power of devices in LPI scenarios has become an urgent problem to be solved.

(2) Discrete resource unit (RU)

The 802.11ax standard stipulates that for bandwidths of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, and 160MHz, the bandwidth can be divided into multiple types of RUs. The size of the RU can be 26-tone RU, 52-tone RU, 106-tone RU, 242-tone RU, 484 -tone RU, 996-tone RU, etc. Among them, tone represents a subcarrier. For example, a 26-tone RU represents an RU that includes 26 consecutive subcarriers, or an RU that includes a group of 13 consecutive subcarriers and another group of 13 consecutive subcarriers.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient transmit power of equipment in LPI scenarios, methods have been proposed to replace part or all of the continuous RUs with discrete RUs, such as splitting the continuous RU into multiple sub-RUs (sub-RUs) and allocating them to different bandwidths. on, so that the sum of the frequency ranges of several sub-RUs is greater than the frequency range of the original continuous RUs, and the transmit power is increased by increasing the bandwidth.

Exemplarily, FIG. 1A shows a schematic distribution diagram of discrete RUs. As shown in Figure 1A, the channel bandwidth is 80MHz and includes four 20MHz sub-channels. Divide the 26-tone RU into two odd-numbered and even-numbered sub-RUs according to the subcarrier index value, such as 26 sub-RU1 and 26 sub-RU2. Each sub-RU includes 13 sub-carriers, and there is a gap between two adjacent sub-carriers of each sub-RU. The space is 1 subcarrier, and the two sub-RUs are located on different 20MHz sub-channels. For example, 26 sub-RU1 is located on the first 20 MHz sub-channel, and 26 sub-RU2 is located on the second 20 MHz sub-channel. Multiple sub-channel discrete RU distribution can be achieved. .

Through the resource allocation method shown in Figure 1A, the 26-tone RU with the original frequency span of 2MHz can be dispersed into the 4MHz frequency range. In this way, when the power spectral density has reached the maximum value, by increasing the equivalent bandwidth This method can increase the total transmit power, indirectly increase the power of each subcarrier, and improve the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio at the receiving end. For example, a 26-tone RU occupies approximately 2MHz bandwidth under continuous conditions, the maximum power supported by the AP is 8dB, and the maximum power supported by the STA is 2dB. The discrete 26-tone RU occupies approximately 4MHz bandwidth, the maximum power supported by the AP is 11dB, and the maximum power supported by the STA is 5dB. Compared with the continuous 26-tone RU, the maximum power of the AP and STA increases by 3dB.

As another example, FIG. 1B shows another distribution diagram of discrete RUs. As shown in Figure 1B, the 26-tone RU is divided into four sub-RUs, such as 26 sub-RU1, 26 sub-RU2, 26 sub-RU3 and 26 sub-RU4. Each sub-RU includes 6 sub-carriers, and each sub-RU is adjacent in pairs. The sub-carriers are separated by 3 sub-carriers, and the four sub-RUs are located in different 20MHz sub-channels On, for example, 26 sub-RU1 is located on the first 20MHz sub-channel, 26 sub-RU2 is located on the second 20 MHz sub-channel, 26 sub-RU3 is located on the third 20 MHz sub-channel, and 26 sub-RU4 is located on the fourth 20 MHz sub-channel. .

Through the resource allocation method shown in Figure 1B, the discrete 26-tone RU occupies approximately 8MHz bandwidth, the maximum power supported by the AP is 14dB, and the maximum power supported by the STA is 8dB. Compared with the continuous 26-tone RU, the AP and STA maximum power increased by 6dB.

It is worth noting that, as shown in Figure 1A and Figure 1B, in addition to discrete RUs used to transmit data, the bandwidth also includes guard subcarriers, null subcarriers, or direct current (DC) subcarriers.

The resource allocation methods shown in Figure 1A and Figure 1B can increase the total transmit power by increasing the equivalent bandwidth. In addition to the pairing and mutual discretization method used in Figure 1A and Figure 1B above, other mapping methods can also be used for discrete processing, such as taking all continuous subcarriers as a whole and mapping them to different subcarriers through a predetermined interleaver. Location.

During the downlink transmission process from AP to STA, as shown in Figure 2, AP1 sends a trigger frame to STA1~STA3. This trigger frame is used to trigger STA1~STA3 to send extremely high throughput trigger-based physical layer protocol data units (extreme high throughput trigger based physical layer protocol data unit, EHT TB PPDU), after STA1~STA3 sends EHT TB PPDU, AP1 then sends a confirmation frame to confirm the EHT TB PPDU sent by different STAs.

Exemplarily, FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an 802.11be trigger frame provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 3, the trigger frame includes a common information (common info) field and a user information list (user info list) field. It can be understood that the trigger frame may only include some of the fields shown in FIG. 3 , or may include more fields than those shown in FIG. 3 , which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Among them, the public information field can also be called the public domain or public information field. The public information field includes the trigger frame type (Trigger Type) field, the uplink length (UL Length) field, the more trigger frame (More TF) field, and the required carrier Listening (CS Required) field, uplink bandwidth (UL Bandwidth) field, guard interval + long training sequence type (GI And LTF Type) field, multi-user multiple input multiple output long training sequence mode (MU-MIMO LTF Mode) field, Number of LTF Symbols And Midamble Periodicity field, uplink space-time block coding (UL STBC) field, LDPC Extra Symbol Segment field, AP transmit power (AP TX Power ) field, Pre-FEC Padding Factor field, Packet Extension Disambiguation (PE Disambigulty) field, Uplink Spatial Reuse (UL Spatial Reuse) field, Doppler, Uplink HE-SIG-A2 reserved (UL HE-SIG-A2Reserved) field, reserved field and public information (Trigger Dependent Common Info) field based on trigger frame type and other public information that need to be read by STA.

The user information list field may also be called a user information list field. The user information list field includes a special user information field and one or more user information (User Info) fields.

As shown in Figure 3, the special user information field includes an association identifier (AID) field, a physical layer version identifier (PHY Version ID) field, an uplink EHT bandwidth extension (UL EHT BW Extension) field, and an uplink EHT spatial multiplexing field. 1 (UL EHT Spatial Reuse 1) field, uplink EHT spatial multiplexing 2 (UL EHT Spatial Reuse 2) field, universal signaling field ignore and confirm indication (U-SIG Disregard And Validate) field, reserved field and trigger-based The site information (Trigger Dependent User Info) field of the frame type. For the specific functions of each field, please refer to the existing relevant descriptions and will not be repeated here.

User information fields include association identification (AID12) field, resource unit allocation (RU Allocation) field, uplink forward error correction coding type (UL FEC Coding Type) field, modulation and coding strategy (UL EHT-MCS) field, and reserved fields. , spatial stream start value field, spatial stream number field, uplink target received signal strength indication (UL Target RSSI) field, PS160 primary and secondary 160MHz indication (PS160) field and user information (Trigger Dependent User Info) based on trigger (frame type) Fields. For the specific functions of each field, please refer to the existing descriptions and will not be repeated here.

The trigger frame includes identification information of the target STA (STA1-STA3) and resource unit allocation information corresponding to the target SAT, and the trigger frame may carry indication information for instructing multiple STAs to use discrete RU transmission. Among them, the identification information of the target STA can be indicated by the association identification field in the user information field, the resource unit allocation information corresponding to the target SAT can be indicated by the resource unit allocation field, and the resource unit allocation information corresponding to the target SAT can include discrete allocation information allocated by AP1. RU, multiple STAs using discrete RU transmission can improve the transmission power of STA sending EHT TB PPDU.

As another example, Figure 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an EHT TB PPDU provided by the embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 4, the EHT TB PPDU includes a legacy short training sequence (legacy short training field, L-STF) field, a legacy long training sequence (legacy long training field, L-LTF) field, and a legacy signaling field (legacy signal field A, L-SIG) field, traditional signaling field replicated (repeated L-SIG, RL-SIG) field, universal signaling field (universal SIG, U-SIG) field, extremely high throughput short training sequence (extremely high throughput short training field, EHT-STF) field, extremely high throughput long training field (EHT-LTF) field, data field and data packet extension (packet extension, PE) field. The functions of each field in the EHT TB PPDU are shown in Table 2 below. It can be understood that in standard formulation or actual implementation, the EHT TB PPDU may also include other fields, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of this application.

Table 2

In the uplink transmission process shown in Figure 2, multiple STAs use discrete RU transmission, which reduces the number of subcarriers sent in the 1MHz bandwidth and increases the equivalent bandwidth. When the total power on the 1MHz bandwidth remains unchanged , the power of a single subcarrier increases, thereby increasing the STA's transmit power and signal-to-noise ratio on a single subcarrier.

However, there is only one AP in a basic service set (BSS). In the downlink transmission from the AP to the STA, if the AP uses discrete RU transmission, there will be many empty subcarriers, which will cause a loss of spectrum resources. waste. On the contrary, if the data transmitted by the AP occupies all data subcarriers, under the limitation of power spectral density, the power in the 1MHz bandwidth is limited, making the power on each subcarrier very small, which will cause the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio at the receiving end to be very low. Low, reducing the decoding performance of the receiving end, thereby reducing the throughput rate. It can be seen that discrete RU transmission is not suitable for downlink transmission from AP to STA.

Furthermore, if the data transmitted by the AP occupies all data subcarriers, the power on each subcarrier will be very small, resulting in a very low equivalent signal-to-noise ratio at the receiving end. The AP can use the copy transmission method for downlink transmission. That is, the same data is sent on more than one subcarrier. For copied and transmitted data, the receiving end can combine and receive the data received on multiple subcarriers, thereby increasing the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio of the receiving end and thereby improving the decoding performance of the receiving end.

Exemplarily, FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a copy-transmitted EHT MU PPDU provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, the AP uses orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) to send data to three users (such as STA1~STA3). Among them, the AP uses copy transmission to send data to user 1 and user 2. For example, 1 bit of information is transmitted on 4 subcarriers. The PPDU format used by the AP is extremely high throughput multi-user physical layer protocol data unit (extreme high throughput multiple user physical layer protocol data unit, EHT MU PPDU), the EHT MU PPDU can support single-user (downlink or uplink) and multi-user (downlink) data transmission. Compared with EHT TB PPDU, EHT MU PPDU further contains the EHT-SIG field, which contains the information required by the receiving end to demodulate subsequent data, such as the identification information of the target STA and the corresponding resource unit allocation of the target STA. Information etc.

However, although the copy transmission method can increase the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio at the receiving end, it requires sending the same data on different subcarriers, which will cause low spectrum efficiency. For example, if the data is copied a times, the spectrum efficiency is 1/a of the spectral efficiency of non-replicated transmission using all data subcarriers, where a is a positive integer greater than 1.

Therefore, for downlink transmission in the LPI scenario, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method that uses a multi-AP transmission mechanism to increase the transmit power of the AP under the same spectrum efficiency and the same number of subcarriers, or Under the condition of the same spectrum efficiency and the same transmit power, the equivalent signal-to-noise ratio of each subcarrier is improved.

The technical solutions in this application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiments of this application can be applied to WLAN scenarios and can be applied to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 system standards, such as 802.11a/b/g standards, 802.11n standards, 802.11ac standards, The 802.11ax standard, or its next generation, such as the 802.11be standard or its next generation standard. Alternatively, the embodiments of the present application may also be applied to wireless local area network systems such as Internet of Things (IoT) networks or Vehicle to X (V2X) networks. Of course, the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to other possible communication systems, such as long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division) system duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), global interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) mobile communication system, such as new Air interface (new radio, NR) systems, as well as future sixth generation (6th generation, 6G) mobile communication systems and next-generation communication systems, etc.

This application will present various aspects, embodiments, or features in terms of systems, which may include multiple devices, components, modules, etc. It should be understood and appreciated that various systems may include additional devices, components, modules, etc., and/or may not include all devices, components, modules, etc. discussed in connection with the figures. Additionally, a combination of these scenarios can be used.

In addition, in the embodiments of this application, words such as "exemplarily" and "for example" are used to represent examples, illustrations or explanations. Any embodiment or design described herein as "example" is not intended to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of the word example is intended to present a concept in a concrete way.

In the embodiments of this application, "of", "corresponding, relevant" and "corresponding" can sometimes be used interchangeably. It should be noted that when the difference is not emphasized, the intended expression The meaning is consistent.

The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are for the purpose of explaining the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application more clearly, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this application. Those of ordinary skill in the art will know that with the network With the evolution of architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

First, embodiments of this application provide a communication system, and the communication method described in this application can be applied to this communication system. The communication system may include: at least two APs, and one or more STAs. Among them, the AP can be used to implement resource scheduling, wireless resource management, wireless access control, etc. of the STA, and transmit data for the STA on the scheduled wireless resources.

As an example, see FIG. 6 , which is a schematic architectural diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. In the communication system shown in Figure 6, APs include AP1, AP2, and AP3, and STAs include STA1, STA2, and STA3. AP1 may schedule wireless resources for STA1 and STA2, and transmit data for STA1, STA2, and STA3 on the scheduled wireless resources. The data may include uplink data information and/or downlink data information.

In the embodiment of this application, taking AP1 as the primary AP and AP2 and AP3 as secondary APs as an example, AP1 can schedule wireless resources for AP2 and AP3, and AP2 and AP3 can transmit for STA1, STA2 and STA3 on the wireless resources scheduled by AP1. data.

It can be understood that one or more APs can communicate with one or more STAs. Of course, APs can communicate with APs, and STAs can communicate with each other.

In the embodiment of this application, the AP can be a device deployed in a wireless communication network to provide wireless communication functions for its associated STAs. It is mainly deployed inside homes, buildings, and campuses. The typical coverage radius is tens of meters to hundreds of meters. Of course, it can also be deployed outdoors. The AP is equivalent to a bridge connecting the wired network and the wireless network. Its main function is to connect various wireless network clients together and then connect the wireless network to the Ethernet. Specifically, the AP can be a base station, router, gateway, repeater, communication server, switch or bridge and other communication equipment with a WiFi chip. Among them, base stations can include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations, relay stations, etc.

In addition, the AP can be a device supporting the 802.11be standard. The AP can also be a device that supports multiple WLAN standards of the 802.11 family such as 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11a. The AP in the embodiment of this application may be an extremely high throughput (EHT) AP or a HE AP, or may be an access point that is applicable to a certain future generation of Wi-Fi standards. Among them, extremely high throughput can also be called extremely high throughput.

The STA in the embodiment of this application may be a wireless communication chip, a wireless sensor, a wireless communication terminal, etc., and may also be called a user (or user site). For example, a user terminal, user device, access device, subscriber station, subscriber unit, mobile station, user agent, or user equipment that supports Wi-Fi or WLAN communication functions. Among them, the user terminal may include various types of wireless communication functions. capable handheld devices, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices, IoT devices, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, as well as various forms of user equipment (UE), mobile stations (MS), Terminal, terminal equipment, portable communications device, handset, portable computing device, entertainment device, gaming device or system, global positioning system device or any other suitable device configured for network communications via a wireless medium Equipment etc.

In addition, STA can support the 802.11be standard. STA can also support multiple WLAN standards of the 802.11 family such as 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, and 802.11a. The STA in the embodiment of this application may be an EHT STA or a HE STA, or may be a station that is applicable to a certain future generation of Wi-Fi or WLAN standards.

For example, the above-mentioned STA and AP can be: devices used in the Internet of Vehicles, Internet of Things nodes, sensors, etc. in the IoT, smart cameras in smart homes, smart remote controls, smart water meters, and sensors in smart cities. etc., as well as communication servers, routers, switches, bridges, computers, mobile phones, etc.

The APs and STAs involved in the embodiments of this application can be collectively referred to as WLAN communication devices. The WLAN communication device may include hardware structure and software modules. The WLAN communication device can implement various communication functions (such as functions corresponding to the communication methods in the embodiments of this article) in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or hardware structures plus software modules. A certain function among the various communication functions can be implemented in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module.

It should be noted that the network elements in the architecture of Figure 6 and the interface names between each network element are just an example. In the specific implementation, the network elements and the interface names between network elements can be other names. In this application embodiment, No specific limitation is made. In addition, Figure 6 is only an exemplary framework diagram, and the number of nodes included in Figure 6 and the access method of STAs are not limited. In addition to the functional nodes shown in Figure 6, other nodes may also be included, such as core network equipment, etc., without limitation.

It should be noted that the solutions in the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to other communication systems, and the corresponding names can also be replaced with the names of corresponding functions in other communication systems.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to Figures 7-18.

Exemplarily, FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. This communication method can be applied to the communication system shown in Figure 6.

As shown in Figure 7, the communication method includes the following steps:

S701. The first AP generates a first trigger frame.

Among them, the first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete multiple resource units (MRUs) to participate in downlink transmission.

The discrete MRU may be a joint RU composed of multiple predetermined discrete RUs. The structure of the first trigger frame may refer to the structure of the trigger frame shown in Figure 3 above. That is, the first trigger frame may include a public information field and a user information list field. The user information list field may include a special user information field and a or Multiple user information fields.

In a possible design solution, the multiple APs include a first AP and N second APs, where N is a positive integer. In other words, the first trigger frame is used to trigger the first AP and N second APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission, and N is a positive integer.

In this scenario, the first AP participates in downlink transmission, that is, the first AP performs downlink transmission together with its scheduled second AP. The number of scheduled second APs may be 1, that is, N may be 1. It can be understood that when the first AP participates in downlink transmission, it also uses discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission. In addition, the first AP can reserve resources required for its own transmission when scheduling the second AP, such as when configuring the first trigger frame. In this case, at this time, the first trigger frame may be used to trigger the first AP and the at least one second AP to participate in downlink transmission using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs.

It is worth noting that the first AP is both the initiator and participant of multi-AP discrete RU transmission during multi-AP discrete RU transmission. When the first AP participates in discrete RU transmission, it can be considered to be triggered by the first trigger frame. The trigger may not depend on the first trigger frame, that is, the first AP independently performs downlink transmission according to the number of scheduled second APs. The first trigger frame may not include scheduling information related to the first AP's participation in transmission. The first AP After sending the first trigger frame to the second AP, the discrete RU or discrete MRU can be used together with the second AP for downlink transmission at a set time point.

In another possible design solution, the multiple APs include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1. In other words, the first trigger frame is used to trigger N second APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In this scenario, the first AP does not participate in downlink transmission, that is, it only schedules multiple second APs to participate in downlink transmission. N can be a positive integer greater than 1. In other words, the first AP may only be used to schedule multiple second APs for transmission and does not participate in downlink transmission.

It can be understood that, as the initiator of multi-AP discrete RU transmission, whether the first AP participates in the transmission can be determined based on the number of second APs that can currently be scheduled, channel status information, complexity of scheduling the second AP, etc. This application The embodiment does not limit this. For example, in one possible scenario, there are only two APs, and the AP that is the initiator of multi-AP transmission (ie, the first AP) needs to participate in the transmission. In another possible scenario, there are five APs. The AP that is the initiator of multi-AP transmission (i.e., the first AP) can schedule at least two other APs in the current scenario to participate in the transmission, or can schedule itself to communicate with another AP. At least one AP participates in itself. It is understandable that the more APs involved in transmission, the more complex the scheduling will be. In practical applications, the number of APs involved in multi-AP transmission cannot be too large.

In the embodiment of this application, the first AP may also be called the primary AP, which may be the AP1 shown in the above-mentioned Figure 6, and the second AP may be called the secondary AP, which may be the one shown in the above-mentioned Figure 6. AP2 or AP3.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission. In other words, the first indication information is used to instruct the first AP and at least one second AP to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission, or the first indication information is used to instruct at least two second APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission. transmission.

The first indication information may be a trigger frame type field as shown in Figure 3. The first AP may use the trigger frame type field to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission. In other words, the trigger frame type field is used to indicate that the first trigger frame is a trigger frame for multiple APs to participate in downlink transmission using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs. It is worth noting that the trigger frame type field is an existing field. The length of the trigger frame type field is 4 bits. When the trigger frame type field has a value of 0 to 7 (i.e., 0000 to 0111), it already has a corresponding indication meaning. In the embodiment of this application, the value of the trigger frame type field can be any value from 8 to 15 (i.e., 1000 to 1111), which is used to indicate that multiple APs use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission. In this embodiment of this application, No restrictions.

In some possible situations, the trigger frame type field can also be used to indicate that multiple APs use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs but do not perform downlink transmission. Alternatively, the trigger frame type field can also be used to indicate that multiple APs do not use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission. Alternatively, the trigger frame type field may also be used to indicate that multiple APs do not use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs and do not perform downlink transmission. For example, the length of the trigger frame type field is 4 bits. When the trigger frame type field indicates 1001, it indicates that multiple APs do not use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs and do not perform downlink transmission; when the trigger frame type field indicates 1010, it indicates Multiple APs do not use discrete RU or discrete MRU (such as using continuous RU or discrete MRU), but can perform downlink transmission; when the trigger frame type field indicates 1011, it indicates that multiple APs use discrete RU or discrete MRU but do not perform downlink transmission. Transmission; when the trigger frame type field indicates 1100, multiple APs are instructed to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission, which is not limited in this embodiment of the application. In the embodiment of this application, the following fields may also correspond to different indication information when they have different values, or different indication information may correspond to different values of the fields. For specific descriptions, please refer to the relevant description of the trigger frame type field, which will not be discussed further. Repeat.

In another possible design solution, the first trigger frame may include second indication information and third indication information. The second indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in downlink transmission, and the third indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission. The second indication information may be a trigger frame type field as shown in Figure 3. In this case, the trigger frame type field is only used to indicate that multiple APs participate in downlink transmission. The third indication information can be carried in a public information field, a user information field or a special user information field. For example, the third indication information can be indicated by one or more bits in a public information field, a user information field or a special user information field. .

Exemplarily, the third indication information is indicated by one or more bits in the 56th to 62nd bits (ie, b56 to b62) in the public information field. As shown in Figure 3, b56 to b62 in the public information field are For other uplink HE-SIG-A2 reserved fields in the uplink HE-SIG-A2 reserved field, the third indication information can be indicated by b60~b62. In actual application, the uplink HE-SIG-A2 reserved field can be b60 to b62 in are set as a new field, which can be used to indicate the third indication information, that is, to indicate that multiple APs use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission. In other words, the uplink HE-SIG-A2 reserved field is changed from 9 bits to 6 bits, and the third indication information is a field located in the 60th to 62nd bits. The field name corresponding to the third indication information can be named according to actual applications or needs. , such as the discrete RU indication field or the discrete transmission indication field, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Further, the first trigger frame may also include identification information of the second AP, and the identification information of the second AP is used to indicate an AP that uses discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission. The identification information of the second AP may be the basic service corresponding to the second AP. The service set color or the basic service set identifier corresponding to the second AP, or the identification information of the second AP is part of the information in the basic service set identifier corresponding to the second AP, such as changing the basic service set identifier corresponding to the second AP The information indicated by the lower 8 bits is used as the identification information of the second AP, which can save signaling overhead.

It can be understood that, regardless of whether the first AP participates in downlink transmission, the first trigger frame also includes the identification information of the first AP, but the first trigger frame does not need to carry the relevant information of the first AP transmission, and the first AP automatically Schedule STA to use discrete RU or discrete MRU for downlink transmission.

In a possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the user information list field. One user information field in the user information list field includes the identification information of the second AP. In other words, in one user information field Includes identification information of one second AP among the N pieces of second identification information.

Optionally, the identification information of the second AP may correspond to M user information fields in the user information list field, where M is a positive integer. In other words, the identification information of a second AP may correspond to one or more user information fields in the user information list field.

Further, the user information field may also include RU allocation information. In other words, a user information field corresponding to the identification information of a second AP may also include RU allocation information. The RU allocation information may include discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission, and the discrete RUs or discrete MRUs may be one or more.

In a possible design solution, the user information field may also include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP. In other words, a user information field corresponding to the identification information of a second AP may also include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP. For example, the m-th user information field corresponding to the identification information of the n-th second AP may also include the identification information of the STA associated with the n-th second AP. In this case, the m-th user information field The RU allocation information may include one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs used for downlink transmission between the n-th second AP and STAs associated with the n-th second AP.

Exemplarily, FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a user information field in a first trigger frame provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 8, the user information field includes an AP identification information field, an association identification field, and a resource unit allocation field. The AP identification information field may be used to indicate the identification information of one second AP (such as the n-th second AP) among the identification information of the N second APs, and the association identification field may be used to indicate the identification information associated with the n-th second AP. The identification information of the STA associated with the AP, the resource unit allocation field can be used to indicate the RU allocation information, and the RU allocation information includes the downlink transmission between the n-th second AP and the STA associated with the n-th second AP. One or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs.

In addition, as shown in Figure 8, the user information field may also include the uplink forward error correction coding type field, modulation and coding strategy field, spatial stream start value field, spatial stream number field, uplink target received signal strength indication field and trigger-based (Frame type) user information field and other information used for downlink transmission.

It can be understood that the user information field shown in FIG. 8 may indicate identification information of a second AP and identification information of an STA associated with the second AP. In other words, the identification information of a second AP and an associated STA may correspond to a user information field. In one possible scenario, the identification information of a second AP may correspond to one or more user information fields in the user information list field, but the association identifiers in different user information fields indicate different STAs, that is, the nth The STAs indicated by the association identification fields in the M user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the two APs are different.

Exemplarily, FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a multi-AP transmission scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application. Among them, AP1 is the first AP, AP2 and AP3 are the second AP, that is, N=2, AP1 does not participate in transmission, that is, multiple APs include two second APs (AP2 and AP3), and AP1 is scheduled for AP2 and AP3 STA performs data transmission. For example, STA1 and STA2 are scheduled for AP2, and STA3 is scheduled for AP3. The user information field in the generated first trigger frame is shown in Figure 8. The identification information of AP2 can correspond to the user information list field. User information field 2 and user information field 3, that is, M=2, and the identification information of AP3 can correspond to user information field 4 in the user information list field, that is, M=1. It is understandable that different APs can transmit data to the same STA.

Among them, for user information field 2 and user information field 3, the corresponding AP identification information fields indicate the identification information of AP2, but the corresponding indicated identification information of the STA associated with AP2 is different. That is to say, the STAs indicated by the association identification fields in user information field 2 and user information field 3 are different. For example, the association identification fields in user information field 2 and user information field 3 respectively indicate the identification information of STA1 and STA2. The user information Field 2 and user information field 3 can indicate that AP2 needs to send data to STA1 and STA2 respectively. Moreover, the RU allocation information indicated by the resource unit allocation field in the user information field 2 is used for communication between AP2 and STA1. The RU allocation information includes the communication between AP2 and the associated STA1. One or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs used for downlink transmission. The RU allocation information indicated by the resource unit allocation field in user information field 3 is used for communication between AP2 and STA2. The RU allocation information includes one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete RUs used for downlink transmission between AP2 and the associated STA2. Multiple discrete MRUs.

For user information field 4, the corresponding AP identification information field indicates the identification information of AP3, the associated identification information indicates the identification information of STA3, and the RU allocation information indicated by the resource unit allocation field is used for communication between AP3 and STA3. The RU allocation information includes one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs used for downlink transmission between AP3 and the associated STA3.

It is worth noting that the one or more discrete RUs or the one or more discrete MRUs used for downlink transmission in the embodiment of the present application can also be referred to as discrete RU resource information or downlink discrete RU resource information, and this is not done Specific limitations.

In another possible design solution, the user information field corresponding to the identification information of the second AP may not include the identification information of the STA associated with the second AP. In other words, the user information field does not include identification information of the STA associated with the second AP. That is to say, the first AP may not schedule an STA for the second AP in advance. In this case, the second AP may schedule the STA according to one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission included in the RU allocation information in the user information field.

For example, the structure of the user information field in the first trigger frame may be as shown in Figure 10. The user information field includes an AP identification information field and a resource unit allocation field. There is no associated identification field in the user information field. Among them, the functions of the AP identification information field and the resource unit allocation field are similar to the functions of the AP identification information field in the user information field shown in Figure 8, but the RU allocation information indicated by the resource unit allocation field does not specify which STA to communicate with. communication.

In this case, one second AP may also correspond to multiple user information fields. The resource unit allocation information fields in different user information fields indicate different RU allocation information allocated by the first AP to the second AP. The RU allocation information Including one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission. For example, the first AP allocates one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs to a second AP. The first AP can indicate the allocated discrete RU resource information through a user information field, or can also use multiple The user information field is used to separately indicate the allocated discrete RU resource information. For example, AP1 allocates 6 discrete MRUs to AP2, which is indicated by two user information fields, such as user information field 2 and user information field 3. The resource unit allocation field in the user information field 2 indicates the 2 discrete MRUs allocated to AP2. , the resource unit allocation field in user information field 3 indicates the four discrete MRUs allocated to AP2, but the AP identification information fields in user information field 2 and user information field 3 both indicate the identification information of AP2.

It can be understood that the user information field shown in Figure 10 may also include an uplink forward error correction coding type field, a modulation and coding strategy field, a spatial stream start value field, a spatial stream number field, and an uplink target received signal strength indication field. Or information for downlink transmission based on trigger (frame type) user information field.

Optionally, the RU allocation information may also include discrete RU resource information for uplink transmission. In one possible scenario, the AP and STA may use the same discrete RU resource information for uplink transmission and downlink transmission. In this case, the RU allocation information may not include discrete resource RU information for uplink transmission.

In another possible design solution, the identification information of the second AP can be carried in the public information field or the special user information field. For example, the identification information of the second AP may be located in the public information field based on the trigger frame type in the public information field as shown in FIG. 3, but the user information field does not carry the identification information of the second AP.

Further, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. Wherein, the identification information of the second AP and the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged adjacently. That is to say, in addition to the identification information of the N second APs included in the public information field or the special user information field, the public information field or the special user information field may also include information indicating that each second AP is in the first trigger frame. The number or number of user information fields in the user information field, and the identification information of each second AP and its corresponding user information field number information are arranged adjacently.

Exemplarily, FIG. 11 is a partial structural diagram of a public information field or a special user information field provided by an embodiment of the present application. In a possible design, as shown in (a) in Figure 11, the public information field or the special user information field includes an AP quantity field, an AP identification information field, and a corresponding user information field quantity field, and each AP The identification information fields are arranged adjacently and there is a corresponding user information field number field. Among them, the AP quantity field can be used to indicate the number of second APs. The AP The identification information field may be used to indicate the identification information of the second AP, and the number of corresponding user information fields field may be used to indicate the number of corresponding user information fields of the second AP.

In the scenario shown in Figure 9, AP1 (the first AP) instructs AP2 and AP3 (the second AP) to participate in downlink transmission. The identification information of the second AP in the public information field or the special user information field is indicated as follows: As shown in (a) in 12. Among them, the number of second APs indicated by the AP quantity field is 2, the first AP identification information field indicates the identification information of AP2 (such as ID=1), and the user corresponding to AP2 indicated by the adjacent corresponding user information field quantity field. The number of information fields is 2. The second AP identification information field indicates the identification information of AP3 (such as ID=2), and the number of user information fields corresponding to AP3 indicated by the adjacent corresponding user information field number field is 1.

For another example, in another scenario, AP1 instructs AP2 to AP4 to participate in downlink transmission. The identification information of the second AP in the common information field or the special user information field is indicated as shown in (c) of Figure 12 . Among them, the number of second APs indicated by the AP quantity field is 3, the first AP identification information field indicates the identification information of AP2 (such as ID=1), and the user corresponding to AP2 indicated by the adjacent corresponding user information field quantity field. The number of information fields is 3. The second AP identification information field indicates the identification information of AP3 (such as ID=2). The number of user information fields corresponding to AP3 indicated by the adjacent corresponding user information field number field is 4. The third The AP identification information field indicates the identification information of AP4 (such as ID=3), and the adjacent corresponding user information field number field indicates that the number of user information fields corresponding to AP4 is 2.

In one possible design solution, the user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously. In other words, when one second AP corresponds to multiple user information fields, the user information fields corresponding to the same second AP are arranged continuously. Therefore, the second AP can determine which user information fields correspond to the second AP based on the identification information of the second AP.

As shown in (b) of Figure 12, the user information fields corresponding to the same second AP are arranged continuously, and the user information fields of multiple second APs are arranged in order according to the AP identification information. For example, two user information fields (User Information Field 2 and User Information Field 3) corresponding to AP2 (such as ID=1) are arranged continuously, and then one user information field (User Information Field) corresponding to AP3 (such as ID=2) is arranged. 4).

As shown in (d) in Figure 12, the three user information fields (user information field 2 to user information field 4) corresponding to AP2 (such as ID=1) are arranged continuously, and then the corresponding ones of AP3 (such as ID=2) are arranged. 4 user information fields (User Information Field 5 ~ User Information Field 8), and then arrange the 2 user information fields (User Information Field 9 ~ User Information Field 10) corresponding to AP4 (such as ID=3).

In another possible design, as shown in (b) in Figure 11 , the public information field or special user information field may not include the number of user information fields, as shown in (a) in Figure 11 The corresponding user information field quantity field includes an AP quantity field and an AP identification information field, which are used to indicate the number of second APs and the identification information of the second AP.

It can be understood that, in the case where the identification information of the N second APs is indicated in the public information field or the special user information field based on the method shown in Figure 11, the structure of the user information field may be the user information shown in Figure 3 The structure of the field. Optionally, the user information field may not include an association identification field, that is to say, it may not include information about the STA associated with the second AP. As shown in Figure 10, the user information field does not include an association identification field, and the second AP STA scheduling is performed according to the RU allocation information indicated by the resource unit allocation field.

In a possible design solution, the first trigger frame can also be used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection. For example, before the second AP transmits data to the STA, the first AP can trigger the second AP to participate in channel detection through the first trigger frame to provide channel information required for beamforming, coding, etc. for data transmission. Alternatively, the first AP and the scheduled second AP participate in channel detection together.

When performing channel detection, the first trigger frame may also include fourth indication information, which is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to perform channel detection. In some possible situations, such as during data transmission, the field corresponding to the fourth indication information may indicate that multiple APs do not participate in channel sounding.

In a possible situation, the fourth indication information may also be a trigger frame type field. In this case, the trigger frame type field may indicate multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission without participating in channel detection according to the value. Or instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs not to participate in downlink transmission but to participate in channel detection, etc.

In another possible situation, the fourth indication information is also indicated by 1 or more bits in the public information field or the user information field. In this case, and when performing channel sounding, the trigger frame type field in the first trigger frame may indicate multiple The AP uses discrete RU or discrete MRU but does not participate in downlink transmission.

It can be understood that the priority of channel detection is higher than the priority of data transmission. The first trigger frame includes indication information for instructing multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission (such as the first indication information or In the case of second indication information), and indication information (such as the fourth information) used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel detection, the first trigger frame can priority trigger multiple APs to perform channel detection. After the channel detection is completed, multiple APs are triggered to transmit downlink data.

It can be understood that when the first AP participates in channel detection, the first trigger frame may not carry relevant information about the first AP performing channel detection. Similar to data transmission, since the first AP is in the multi-AP discrete RU channel detection process , is both an initiator and a participant. When the first AP participates in discrete RU channel detection, it can be considered to be triggered by the first trigger frame, or it can be triggered independently of the first trigger frame.

Optionally, the RU allocation information in the first trigger frame may also include one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs allocated to multiple APs for channel detection. In one possible scenario, the discrete RU resource information used by multiple APs for channel detection may be the same as the discrete RU resource information used for downlink transmission.

It can be understood that when performing channel sounding, since data transmission is not involved, the first trigger frame may not carry relevant information such as data field coding. In addition, the first trigger frame may also include public information such as a sounding dialogue token, which is used to indicate which channel detection this channel detection is.

It is worth noting that the names of each field in the embodiment of this application can be named according to the function of each field. For example, the field corresponding to the number of user information fields can also be called the number field of user information fields, the number of user information fields field, etc. This application The embodiment does not specifically limit this.

S702. The first AP sends the first trigger frame to the second AP. Correspondingly, the second AP receives the first trigger frame from the first AP.

In a possible implementation, when the first trigger frame is used to trigger multi-AP data transmission, the first trigger frame may include first indication information (or second indication information and third indication information), second indication information, and second indication information. The identification information of the AP or the RU allocation information may not include the fourth indication information, or the field corresponding to the fourth indication information may indicate that multiple APs do not participate in channel sounding. The second AP may determine to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission based on the first indication information in the first trigger frame, or the second AP may determine to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission based on the second indication information and the third indication information in the first trigger frame. RU or discrete MRU participates in downlink transmission. For the indication method or carrying method of each information in the first trigger frame, please refer to the relevant description in S701 above.

For example, in the scenario shown in Figure 9, the first AP is AP1, and the second APs are AP2 and AP3. For example, the first trigger frame sent by AP1 includes user information fields 2 to 4, and the user information fields in the first trigger frame have a structure as shown in FIG. 8 . Among them, user information fields 2 and 3 are used to indicate the relevant information of AP2's downlink transmission, and user information field 4 is used to indicate the relevant information of AP3's downlink transmission. Each user information field may include the identification information of the second AP (AP2 or AP3), the identification information of the STA associated with the second AP (STA1 or STA2 or STA3), and the information used between the second AP and the associated STA. Discrete RU resource information for downlink transmission.

Or, for example, in the scenario shown in Figure 9, the first AP sends a first trigger frame including user information fields 2 to 4, and the user information fields in the first trigger frame are as shown in Figure 10 structure. Among them, user information fields 2 and 3 are used to indicate the relevant information of AP2's downlink transmission, and user information field 4 is used to indicate the relevant information of AP3's downlink transmission. Each user information field may include identification information of the second AP (AP2 or AP3) and discrete RU resource information used by the second AP (AP2 or AP3) for downlink transmission. The first AP does not schedule STAs for the second AP. , but only allocates discrete RU resource information to the second AP, and then the second AP (AP2 or AP3) can schedule the STA for downlink transmission according to the discrete RU resource information indicated by the user information field.

Alternatively, the user information field in the first trigger frame is as shown in Figure 3 above, and the identification information of the second AP is carried in the public information field or the special user information field as shown in Figure 11. AP2 or AP3 can respond according to the corresponding The identification information determines the number of user information fields, and then determines the discrete RU resource information allocated by AP1 and/or the STAs associated with it based on the corresponding number of user information fields.

In another possible implementation, when the first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to participate in channel detection, the first trigger frame The frame transmission may include first indication information (or second indication information and third indication information), identification information of the second AP, RU allocation information, fourth indication information, etc. The second AP may use discrete RU or discrete MRU to perform channel detection according to the fourth indication information in the first trigger frame. For the indication method or carrying method of each information in the first trigger frame, please refer to the relevant description in the above S701 and the above relevant description in the multi-AP data transmission, and will not be described again here.

S703. The second AP sends the first PPDU to one or more STAs. Correspondingly, the STA receives the first PPDU from the second AP.

Wherein, the first PPDU includes a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU. For example, the second AP transmits the modulation part field according to the discrete RU or discrete MRU indicated in the first trigger frame. Multiple second APs simultaneously send the first PPDU at a set time point. The set time point may be indicated by the first AP, such as carried in the first trigger frame, or determined by negotiation between the first AP and the second AP. The set time point is used to indicate the time point when the second AP performs downlink transmission.

For example, in the scenario shown in Figure 9, the user information field in the first trigger frame is as shown in Figure 8, and AP2 sends the first PPDU to STA1 and STA2, then AP2 can use the user information field in the first trigger frame to One or more discrete RUs or discrete MRUs in the RU allocation information indicated in field 2 and user information field 3 send the modulation part field in the first PPDU to STA1 and STA2 at the set time point. AP3 can send the modulation part field in the first PPDU according to the first trigger frame. One or more discrete RUs or discrete MRUs in the RU allocation information indicated in the user information field 4 in the send the modulation part field in the first PPDU to STA3 at the set time point.

Or, for example, in the scenario shown in Figure 9, the user information field in the first trigger frame is as shown in Figure 10, AP2 can be based on the instructions in user information field 2 and user information field 3 in the first trigger frame. One or more discrete RUs or discrete MRUs in the RU allocation information schedule the STA, and send the modulation part field in the first PPDU to the scheduled STA. AP3 is similar to AP2, and will not be described again here.

In addition, in this embodiment of the present application, the first PPDU may also include a non-modulation part field, where the non-modulation part field may include a first field, and the first field may include information used to demodulate the modulation part field.

The non-modulated part field may also include a U-SIG field, where the U-SIG field may include one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/downlink field, basic service set color field, transmission opportunity field, The PPDU type and compression mode fields, the symbol number field of the first field, or the coding and modulation strategy field of the first field.

Among them, the physical layer version field indicates the type of the first PPDU (such as UHR PPDU below), the bandwidth field indicates the bandwidth of the first PPDU, the uplink/downlink field indicates downlink transmission, and the transmission opportunity field indicates the transmission opportunity duration of this transmission. PPDU The type and compression mode fields indicate that this transmission is downlink transmission using discrete RU or discrete MRU. The number of symbols field in the first field indicates the number of symbols occupied by the first field. The coding and modulation strategy field in the first field indicates the first field. coding modulation method. The basic service set color indicated by the basic service set color field is determined according to the transmission mode of the non-modulation part. For details, please refer to the following related descriptions.

It can be understood that, in the case where the first trigger frame is used to trigger data transmission by multiple APs, the modulation part field in the first PPDU may also include a data field.

Exemplarily, FIG. 13 is a schematic structural diagram of a first PPDU provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 13, the first PPDU is an ultra high reliability (UHR) PPDU. The UHR PPDU includes an L-STF field, an L-LTF field, an L-SIG field, a RL-SIG field, and a U-SIG field. , UHR-SIG field, UHR-STF field, UHR-LTF field, data field and PE field. Among them, the L-STF field, L-LTF field, L-SIG field, RL-SIG field, U-SIG field, and UHR-SIG field belong to the non-UHR modulation part fields, and the above-mentioned first field can be the UHR-SIG field, The UHR-STF field, UHR-LTF field, data field and PE field belong to the UHR modulation part fields. Among them, the UHR-STF field and the UHR-LTF field are preambles used to demodulate subsequent data fields, UHR-STF can be used for automatic gain control, and UHR-LTF can be used for channel estimation.

Among them, the non-UHR modulation part from the L-STF field to the RL-SIG field is usually modulated in units of 20MHz sub-channels, and duplicate transmission is performed on each 20MHz sub-channel. The U-SIG field is copied and transmitted in each 80 MHz frequency sub-block. The content of the U-SIG field in each 80 MHz frequency sub-block may be different or the same. There is a content channel in the UHR-SIG field, which supports carrying different content in different 20MHz.

It is worth noting that the UHR in the UHR PPDU provided by the embodiment of this application may be a certain generation standard after 802.11be. The name of the label. The above name is only an example. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the name of the first PPDU. For example, it can also be called ultra-high throughput (UHT) PPDU, or it can be other names. Codename XX, XT.

In one possible design solution, the non-modulated partial fields sent by multiple APs have the same content. For example, at least two second APs can jointly send the non-modulated partial fields with the same content. In other words, the contents of the non-modulated part fields sent by different APs are the same, as shown in (a) in Figure 14. For example, AP2 and AP3 jointly send the non-modulated part, and the contents of the non-modulated part fields sent by AP2 and AP3 are exactly the same. In this case, the first AP can define the signaling content of the non-modulation part in advance, as shown in Figure 8 in the user information field in the first trigger frame.

In the case where multiple second APs can send jointly, and the basic service set colors corresponding to the basic service set color fields in the U-SIG fields corresponding to different second APs are the same, the basic service set colors in the U-SIG fields can be It is indicated by the first trigger frame. For example, the first trigger frame indicates the basic service set color used by AP2 and AP3 for this transmission; or the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field can also be preset. The defined basic service set color; or, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field can also be the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP. For example, AP2 and AP3 uniformly use the basic service corresponding to AP1 The embodiments of this application do not limit the collection of colors or logos.

In addition, for the first field (such as the UHR-SIG field), the common information field in the first field may include RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple second APs, such as including STA1 and STA2 associated with AP2. RU allocation information. The User Specific field in the first field carries one of the identification information of the second AP, the identification information of the STA associated with the second AP, coding and modulation, spatial stream allocation and other information. or more. In another possible implementation, the RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple second APs may also be carried in the user information field in the first field. The RU allocation information of STAs associated with multiple second APs in the first PPDU may also include one or more discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for downlink transmission.

If the STA associated with the second AP can correctly demodulate the first trigger frame, that is to say, the STA can obtain the corresponding discrete RU resource information for transmitting by demodulating the first trigger frame, then the first field may not carry N The RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP, the identification information of the second AP, the identification information of the STA associated with the second AP, coding modulation, spatial stream allocation and other information, or the second AP does not transmit the first field or The first field is not included in the first PPDU.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs may send the non-modulation part field on different frequency resource sub-blocks, for example, at least two second APs send the non-modulation part field on different frequency resource sub-blocks. In other words, different APs use frequency division to transmit the non-modulated part field, and transmit the non-modulated part field on different frequency resource sub-blocks. Different second APs transmit different non-modulated part fields, as shown in (b) in Figure 14 shown. For example, AP2 and AP3 transmit the non-UHR modulation part in different 80MHz frequency resource sub-blocks, and the position of the 80MHz frequency resource sub-block where the second AP sends the non-UHR modulation part may be in the first position of the first AP (such as AP1). Indication in the trigger frame, for example, allocation in the order in which the identification information of the second AP appears, or explicit indication in the user information field corresponding to the second AP. In another possible scenario, the positions of the 80 MHz frequency resource sub-blocks used by different APs to transmit non-UHR modulation parts can also be determined by the first AP and the second AP through negotiation.

In the case where multiple second APs independently transmit the non-modulation part field on different frequency resource sub-blocks, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP is used to indicate the first The color of the basic service set corresponding to the second AP. For example, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to AP2 is the basic service set color corresponding to AP2, and the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to AP3 It is the color of the basic service set corresponding to AP3.

In addition, the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP. For example, the public information field in the first field corresponding to AP2 may include RU allocation information of the STA associated with AP2, and the public information field in the first field corresponding to AP3 may include RU allocation information of the STA associated with AP3. The RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP also includes one or more discrete RUs or discrete MRUs used for downlink transmission.

In one possible scenario, as shown in Figure 8 in the user information field in the first trigger frame, the RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP may be indicated in the first trigger frame. In another possible scenario, as shown in Figure 10 in the user information field in the first trigger frame, the RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP can be provided by the second AP according to the discrete RU or discrete RU allocated in the user information field. The MRU is further scheduled to the STA, and the RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP includes the One or more discrete RUs or discrete MRUs.

Optionally, in the case where the first AP (such as AP1) also participates in the transmission, the first AP also sends the first PPDU to one or more STAs at a preset time point. Correspondingly, the STA receives the first PPDU from the first AP. In other words, in case the first AP participates in the transmission, it can send the PPDU together with at least one second AP at the same point in time. The first AP may also jointly send a non-modulated part field with the same content as the second AP, and the content of the non-modulated part field in the first PPDU is exactly the same as the content of the non-modulated part field in the second PPDU. In this case, the first field corresponding to the first AP and the first field corresponding to the at least one second AP include RU allocation information of the STA associated with the first AP and RU allocation information of the STA associated with the at least one second AP. . The first AP and the second AP may also send the non-modulation part field on different frequency resource sub-blocks, and the contents of the non-modulation part field in the first PPDU corresponding to different APs are different, as shown in (b) of Figure 14.

In the case where the first trigger frame is used to trigger multi-AP channel detection, the first PPDU may be a null data packet (NDP), and the NDP is used for one or more STAs to perform channel detection. NDP can also be called detection PPDU, which is a special UHR PPDU, that is, NDP has no data field. The structure of NDP is shown in Figure 15. Its transmission method is similar to the UHR PPDU shown in Figure 13. The modulation part field adopts For discrete RU or discrete MRU transmission, please refer to the relevant description of UHR PPDU transmission mentioned above for details, which will not be described again here.

In the case where the first PPDU is an NDP, before sending the NDP, the second AP can also send a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame to one or more STAs, where the NDPA frame is used to notify the STAs to proceed. Channel sounding.

Exemplarily, FIG. 16 is a schematic structural diagram of an NDPA frame provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 16, the NDPA frame may include a frame control field, a duration field, a receiving address field, a sending address field, a public information field, one or more site information fields or a frame check sequence field, etc. Among them, the public information field can include the detection session token field and the AP identification list field, etc. The site information field can include the AP identification field, association identifier 11 (AID11) field, partial bandwidth information (Partial BW Info) field, 1-bit reserved field, column number index field, feedback type and packet number field, disambiguation field, codebook size field or 3-bit reserved field, etc.

Among them, the AP identification field is used to indicate an AP (the first AP or the second AP); the association identification 11 field represents the lower 11 bits of an associated site identification, used to identify the target site; the partial bandwidth information field is a 9-bit Bitmap used to instruct the STA to feedback channel status information of part of the bandwidth. Among them, the first bit is used to indicate the subsequent 8-bit bitmap, and each bit represents whether the sub-bandwidth granularity is 20MHz or 40MHz. For example, when the bandwidth is 320MHz, the granularity indication is 1, indicating that the granularity is 40MHz. Each of the subsequent 8 bits is used to indicate 8 40MHz sub-bands in the entire 320MHz; the number of columns (Nc) index field is used Used to indicate the number of columns of channel state information (compressed beamforming report matrix V) that a certain STA needs to feed back; Feedback Type and Number of Grouping fields (Feedback Type And Number of Grouping) are used to indicate the feedback type and Ng subcarriers are divided into A group, in which the feedback types include single user (SU) feedback, multi-user feedback and channel quality indication (CQI). The number of grouping (Ng) includes 4 and 16. The larger Ng is, the greater the compression amount; the codebook size (codebook size) is used to indicate the accuracy of quantization, and different accuracy corresponds to different overhead. In addition, two reserved fields of 1 bit and 3 bits are used for subsequent expansion.

In one possible design solution, multiple APs can jointly send NDPA frames with the same content. For example, at least two second APs can jointly send NDPA frames with the same content. In other words, the contents of NDPA frames sent by multiple APs are the same. The station information field in the NDPA frame includes identification information of multiple APs and identification information of STAs associated with multiple APs.

In another possible design solution, multiple APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to transmit NDPA frames, for example, at least two second APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to transmit NDPA frames. In other words, different APs use different discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to transmit NDPA frames and send them independently on different frequency resources. In this case, the NDPA frame may not include the AP identification field in the AP identification list field and the station information field, and the sending address field may identify the sender of the NDPA frame.

Similarly, when the first AP participates in channel detection, the first AP may also send an NDPA frame to the STA. Correspondingly, the STA receives the NDPA frame from the first AP. The first AP and at least one second AP may jointly send NDPA frames with the same content, or may use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to independently send NDPA frames. Correspondingly, the first PPDU is NDP, which will not be described again here.

S704. The STA parses the first PPDU.

Exemplarily, the first PPDU is a UHR PPDU as shown in Figure 13. After receiving the UHR PPDU, the STA parses the UHR PPDU and can obtain the data transmitted by the UHR PPDU, discrete RU resource information for uplink transmission, Or the identification information of the AP, etc.

For example, if the first PPDU is an NDP as shown in Figure 15, then after receiving the NDP, the STA parses the NDP and uses the parsed L-LTF sequence to perform channel detection and so on.

Optionally, the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application also includes the following steps:

S705. The STA uses the discrete RU or the discrete MRU to send the second PPDU to the second AP. Correspondingly, the second AP receives the second PPDU from the STA.

The discrete RU or discrete MRU used by the STA for uplink transmission can be obtained by parsing the first PPDU or by parsing the first trigger frame. For details, please refer to the relevant description in S703 above.

For example, after parsing the first PPDU, the STA can obtain one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs allocated to the STA for uplink transmission indicated in the first PPDU, and the STA can also use discrete The RU or discrete MRU sends the second PPDU to the second AP. For example, STA1 uses the discrete RU resource information indicated in the first PPDU to send the second PPDU to AP2, and the second PPDU may carry data information.

When the first PPDU is NDP, the second PPDU may not carry data information, but the second PPDU may carry or include a compressed beamforming report (CBFR) or channel status indication CQI for feedback. Current channel status.

The process of multiple STAs using discrete RU transmission can be referred to the process shown in Figure 2, which will not be described again here.

It can be understood that, when the first AP participates in transmission, the STA may also send the second AP to the first AP based on one or more discrete RUs or one or more discrete MRUs indicated in the first PPDU for uplink transmission. PPDU. Correspondingly, the first AP receives the second PPDU from the STA. For details, please refer to the relevant description in S705 above, which will not be described again here.

Based on the communication method shown in Figure 7, the first AP can trigger one or more second APs to perform discrete RU data transmission through the first trigger frame, forming a multi-AP discrete RU transmission process. Compared with single AP transmission, in the same In the case of spectrum efficiency, the transmit power of the AP can be increased or the power spectral density on a single subcarrier can be increased.

The communication method shown in Figure 7 mainly describes the process of multiple APs using discrete RUs for downlink data transmission. The following is a detailed description of the process of multiple APs using discrete RUs for channel detection based on the scenario.

Exemplarily, FIG. 17 is a schematic flowchart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 17, the communication method includes the following steps:

S1701. The first AP generates a second trigger frame.

The second trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel detection.

In a possible design solution, the multiple APs include a first AP and N second APs, where N is a positive integer. In other words, the second trigger frame is used to trigger the first AP and N second APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel detection, where N is a positive integer.

In this scenario, the first AP participates in channel detection, that is, the first AP performs channel detection together with its scheduled second AP. The number of the scheduled second APs may be 1, that is, N may be 1. It can be understood that when the first AP participates in channel detection, it also uses discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to perform channel detection.

In another possible design solution, the multiple APs include N second APs, where N is a positive integer greater than 1. In other words, the first trigger frame is used to trigger N second APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in downlink transmission, where N is a positive integer greater than 1.

In this scenario, the first AP does not participate in channel detection, that is, it only schedules multiple second APs to perform channel detection, and N can be a positive integer greater than 1. In other words, the first AP may only be used to schedule multiple second APs to perform channel detection and does not participate in channel detection.

Similar to the first trigger frame in S701 above, the first AP is both an initiator and a participant in the multi-AP discrete RU transmission process. When the first AP participates in discrete RU channel detection, it may be considered to be triggered by the second trigger frame, or may not be triggered based on the second trigger frame. The second trigger frame may not include scheduling information related to the first AP's participation in channel detection.

In a possible design solution, the second trigger frame may include fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to participate in channel sounding. The fifth indication information may be a trigger frame type field.

In another possible design solution, the second trigger frame may include sixth indication information and seventh indication information. Among them, the sixth The indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to participate in channel detection, and the seventh indication information is used to instruct multiple APs to use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs for channel detection. The sixth indication information may also be a trigger frame type field, and the seventh indication information may be carried in a public information field, a user information field or a special user information field.

Further, the second trigger frame may also include the identification information of the second AP, the identification information of the STA associated with the second AP, or RU allocation information, etc. The RU allocation information includes the RU allocation information allocated to the second AP for channel detection. One or more RUs or one or more discrete MRUs.

The fifth indication information (or the sixth indication information and the seventh indication information) in the second trigger frame, the identification information of the second AP, the identification information of the STA associated with the second AP, the carrying method and the sending method of the RU allocation information Reference may be made to the relevant description in the first trigger frame in S701 above, which will not be described again here.

The difference between the second trigger frame and the first trigger frame is that the second trigger frame does not include the first indication information (or the second indication information and the third indication information), and when performing channel detection, since no data transmission is involved, The second trigger frame may not carry relevant information such as data field encoding. In addition, the second trigger frame may also include public information such as a sounding dialogue token, which is used to indicate which channel detection this channel detection is.

S1702. The first AP sends the second trigger frame to the second AP. Correspondingly, the second AP receives the second trigger frame from the first AP.

Exemplarily, FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a multi-AP channel detection scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 18, AP1 is the first AP, AP2 and AP3 are the second AP, and AP1 does not participate in channel detection. AP1 may send a second trigger frame to AP2 and AP3 to trigger AP2 and AP3 to perform channel detection. The second trigger frame may include identification information of STAs associated with AP2 and AP3, discrete RU resource information for channel detection, and the like. For the relevant description in S1702, please refer to the relevant content in S702 above, and will not be described again here.

S1703. The second AP sends an NDPA frame to one or more STAs. Correspondingly, the STA receives the NDPA frame from the second AP.

Among them, the NDPA frame is used to notify the STA to perform channel detection.

In a possible design solution, multiple second APs can jointly send NDPA frames with the same content. In other words, the contents of the NDPA frames sent by multiple second APs are the same. Wherein, the station information field in the NDPA frame corresponding to a second AP includes identification information of multiple second APs and identification information of STAs associated with the multiple second APs. In other words, the NDPA frame sent by each second AP includes the identification information of all second APs and the identification information of STAs associated with all second APs. For example, in the scenario in Figure 18, the NDPA frame corresponding to AP2 may include AP2 The identification information of AP3, the identification information of the STA associated with AP2, and the identification information of the STA associated with AP3.

In another possible design solution, NDPA frames are transmitted using discrete RUs or discrete MRUs and are sent independently on different frequency resources. In this case, the NDPA frame may not include the AP identification field in the AP identification list field and the station information field, and the sending address field may identify the sender of the NDPA frame.

Similarly, the first AP may also send an NDPA frame to the STA. Correspondingly, the STA receives the NDPA frame from the first AP. The first AP and the second AP may jointly send NDPA frames with the same content, or may use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to independently send NDPA frames, which will not be described again here.

For example, as shown in Figure 18, AP2 sends an NDPA frame to STA1 and STA2, and AP3 sends an NDPA frame to STA3. AP2 and AP3 can jointly send NDPA frames with the same content, or they can use discrete RUs or discrete MRUs to independently send different NDPA frames. NDPA frame.

For the relevant description of the NDPA frame, please refer to the relevant content in the above-mentioned S703, which will not be described again here.

It is worth noting that multiple APs participating in channel detection send NDPA frames at the same time point.

S1704. The second AP sends NDP to one or more STAs. Correspondingly, the STA receives the NDP from the second AP.

Among them, NDP is used by STA for channel detection.

For example, as shown in Figure 18, AP2 sends an NDP to STA1 and STA2, and AP3 sends an NDP to STA3. The modulation part field in the NDP is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU. AP2 and AP3 can jointly transmit NDP or independently send NDP on different frequency resource sub-blocks.

The NDP can also be called a detection PPDU, which is a special UHR PPDU, that is, the NDP has no data field, and the NDP The structure can be shown in Figure 15, and its transmission method is similar to the UHR PPDU method shown in Figure 13. The modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU. For details, please refer to the relevant description of UHR PPDU transmission in S703 above, which is not shown here. Again.

Optionally, the communication method provided by the embodiment of this application may also include the following steps:

S1705. The second AP uses the discrete RU or the discrete MRU to send the third trigger frame to one or more STAs. Correspondingly, the STA receives the third trigger frame from the second AP.

The third trigger frame is used to trigger the STA to send channel detection information, and the channel detection information can be indicated by CBFR or CQI. It can be understood that the third trigger frame may also include identification information of the STA, or information used to instruct the STA to send channel sounding information, etc.

S1706, STA performs channel detection based on NDP.

For example, after STA1 receives the NDP sent by AP2, it can parse the NDP and obtain the L-LTF sequence or UHR-LTF sequence for channel estimation, so as to obtain the channel state information between STA1 and AP2. . The processing procedures of STA2 and STA3 are similar to those of STA1 and will not be described again here.

S1707. The STA sends the second PPDU to the second AP. Correspondingly, the second AP receives the second PPDU from the STA.

The second PPDU includes CBFR or CQI, which is used to indicate the channel status between the STA and the second AP.

For example, as shown in Figure 18, STA1 may send the second PPDU according to the discrete RU resource information carried in the NDP sent by AP2. In other words, STA1 can send CBFR or CQI to AP2 based on the discrete RU resource information carried in the NDP, which can prepare for subsequent data transmission between AP2 and STA2 to achieve more efficient data transmission. The processing procedures of STA2 and STA3 are similar to those of STA1 and will not be described again here.

For the specific description in S1707, please refer to the relevant content in S705 above, and will not be described again here.

It can be understood that the first AP (AP1 in Figure 18) can also participate in channel detection. What is different from multiple second APs performing channel detection is that the second trigger frame does not include the first AP used for channel detection. Related scheduling information, the first AP configures related scheduling information itself. In the scenario where the first AP participates in channel detection, after the first AP sends the second trigger frame to the second AP, it can also communicate with the second AP at a set time point. Use discrete RU or discrete MRU to send NDPA and NDP together. For other processes, please refer to the relevant descriptions in S1701-S1707 above, which will not be described again.

It is worth noting that the communication method shown in Figure 17 is explained by taking multi-AP downlink channel detection as an example. The channel detection process provided by the embodiment of this application is not only applicable to multiple APs performing downlink channel detection with multiple STAs, but also supports Multiple STAs perform uplink channel detection with multiple APs.

Based on the communication method shown in Figure 17, the first AP can trigger one or more second APs to use discrete RUs to perform channel detection through the second trigger frame, forming a multi-AP discrete RU channel detection process. Under the same spectrum efficiency, not only The transmit power of the AP can be increased or the power spectral density on a single subcarrier can be increased, and channel detection can also be achieved.

It can be understood that in each of the above embodiments, the methods and/or steps implemented by the first AP can also be implemented by components that can be used in the first AP (such as processors, chips, chip systems, circuits, logic modules, or software); the methods and/or steps implemented by the second AP can also be implemented by components available for the second AP (such as processors, chips, chip systems, circuits, logic modules, or software); implemented by STA The methods and/or steps may also be implemented by components (such as processors, chips, chip systems, circuits, logic modules, or software) available for the STA.

The above mainly introduces the solutions provided by this application. Correspondingly, this application also provides a communication device, which is used to implement various methods in the above method embodiments. The communication device may be the first AP in the above method embodiment, or a device including the first AP, or a component that can be used for the first AP, such as a chip or a chip system. Alternatively, the communication device may be the second AP in the above method embodiment, or a device including the second AP, or a component that can be used for the second AP, such as a chip or a chip system. Alternatively, the communication device may be the STA in the above method embodiment, or a device including the STA, or a component that can be used for the STA, such as a chip or a chip system.

It can be understood that, in order to implement the above functions, the communication device includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing each function. Persons skilled in the art should easily realize that, with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed by hardware or computer software driving the hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel The operator may implement the described functionality using different methods for each particular application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

Embodiments of the present application can divide the communication device into functional modules according to the above method embodiments. For example, functional modules can be divided into corresponding functional modules, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software function modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods.

Taking the communication device as the first AP or STA in the above method embodiment as an example, FIG. 19 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 19, the communication device 1900 includes: a processing module 1901 and a transceiver module 1902. Among them, the processing module 1901 is used to perform the processing function of the first AP or STA in the above method embodiment. The transceiver module 1902 is configured to perform the transceiver function of the first AP or STA in the above method embodiment.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present application, the transceiver module 1902 may include a receiving module and a sending module (not shown in Figure 19). Among them, the transceiver module is used to implement the sending function and receiving function of the communication device 1900.

Optionally, the communication device 1900 may also include a storage module (not shown in FIG. 19), which stores programs or instructions. When the processing module 1901 executes the program or instruction, the communication device 1900 can perform the functions of the first AP or the second AP or the STA in the communication method shown in any one of FIG. 7 or FIG. 17 .

It should be understood that the processing module 1901 involved in the communication device 1900 can be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and can be a processor or a processing unit; the transceiver module 1902 can be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component, and can be a transceiver. transmitter or transceiver unit.

All relevant content of each step involved in the above method embodiments can be quoted from the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and will not be described again here.

Since the communication device 1900 provided in this embodiment can execute the above communication method, the technical effects it can obtain can be referred to the above method embodiments, which will not be described again here.

Taking the communication device as the second AP in the above method embodiment as an example, FIG. 20 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 20, the communication device 2000 includes: a receiving module 2001 and a sending module 2002. Among them, the receiving module 2001 is used to perform the receiving function of the second AP in the above method embodiment. The sending module 2002 is used to perform the sending function of the second AP in the above method embodiment.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present application, the receiving module 2001 and the sending module 2002 can also be integrated into one module, such as a transceiving module (not shown in Figure 20). Among them, the transceiver module is used to implement the sending function and receiving function of the communication device 2000.

Optionally, the communication device 2000 may further include a processing module (not shown in Figure 20). Among them, the processing module is used to implement the processing function of the communication device 2000.

Optionally, the communication device 2000 may also include a storage module (not shown in FIG. 20), which stores programs or instructions. When the processing module executes the program or instruction, the communication device 2000 can perform the function of the second AP in the communication method shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 17 .

It should be understood that the processing module involved in the communication device 2000 can be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and can be a processor or a processing unit; the transceiver module can be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component, and can be a transceiver or a transceiver. Transceiver unit.

All relevant content of each step involved in the above method embodiments can be quoted from the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and will not be described again here.

Since the communication device 1900 and the communication device 2000 provided in this embodiment can execute the above communication method, the technical effects that can be obtained can be referred to the above method embodiment, which will not be described again here.

Exemplarily, FIG. 21 is a schematic structural diagram of yet another communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication device may be the first AP or the second AP or the STA, or may be a chip (system) or other components or components that can be disposed on the first AP, the second AP or the STA. As shown in FIG. 21, the communication device 2100 may include a processor 2101. Optionally, the communication device 2100 may also include a memory 2102 and/or a transceiver 2103. The processor 2101 is coupled to the memory 2102 and the transceiver 2103, for example, through a communication bus.

The following is a detailed introduction to each component of the communication device 2100 with reference to Figure 21:

Among them, the processor 2101 is the control center of the communication device 2100, and may be a processor or a collective name for multiple processing elements. For example, the processor 2101 is one or more central processing units (CPUs), may also be an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or may be configured to implement one or more embodiments of the present application. An integrated circuit, such as one or more microprocessors (digital signal processor, DSP), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate array, FPGA).

Alternatively, the processor 2101 can perform various functions of the communication device 2100 by running or executing software programs stored in the memory 2102 and calling data stored in the memory 2102.

In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 2101 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 shown in FIG. 21 .

In specific implementation, as an embodiment, the communication device 2100 may also include multiple processors, such as the processor 2101 and the processor 2104 shown in FIG. 21 . Each of these processors can be a single-core processor (single-CPU) or a multi-core processor (multi-CPU). A processor here may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (eg, computer program instructions).

The memory 2102 is used to store the software program for executing the solution of the present application, and is controlled by the processor 2101 for execution. For specific implementation methods, please refer to the above method embodiments, which will not be described again here.

Alternatively, the memory 2102 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (random access memory (RAM)) or a random access memory (RAM) that can store information and instructions. Other types of dynamic storage devices for instructions can also be electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical discs Storage, optical disc storage (including compressed optical discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and any other media capable of being accessed by a computer, without limitation. The memory 2102 may be integrated with the processor 2101, or may exist independently and be coupled to the processor 2101 through the interface circuit (not shown in Figure 21) of the communication device 2100. This is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Transceiver 2103, used for communication with other communication devices. For example, the communication device 2100 is a terminal device, and the transceiver 2103 can be used to communicate with a network device or with another terminal device. For another example, the communication device 2100 is a network device, and the transceiver 2103 can be used to communicate with a terminal device or with another network device.

Optionally, the transceiver 2103 may include a receiver and a transmitter (not shown separately in Figure 21). Among them, the receiver is used to implement the receiving function, and the transmitter is used to implement the sending function.

Optionally, the transceiver 2103 can be integrated with the processor 2101, or can exist independently and be coupled to the processor 2101 through the interface circuit (not shown in Figure 21) of the communication device 2100. This is not the case in the embodiment of this application. Specific limitations.

It should be noted that the structure of the communication device 2100 shown in FIG. 21 does not constitute a limitation on the communication device. The actual communication device may include more or less components than shown in the figure, or some components may be combined, or Different component arrangements.

In addition, the technical effects of the communication device 2100 can be referred to the technical effects of the communication method described in the above method embodiments, which will not be described again here.

An embodiment of the present application provides a communication system. The communication system includes the above-mentioned first AP, second AP and STA.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program or instructions are stored. When the computer program or instructions are executed by a computer, the functions of any of the above method embodiments are implemented.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product, which, when executed by a computer, implements the functions of any of the above method embodiments.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that for the convenience and simplicity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can be referred to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be described again here.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" in this article is only an association relationship describing related objects, indicating that there can be three relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A alone exists, and A and B exist simultaneously. , there are three cases of B alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In addition, the character "/" in this article generally indicates that the related objects are an "or" relationship, but it can also It can express an "and/or" relationship, which can be understood by referring to the context.

In the embodiments of this application, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "multiple" refers to two or more. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions thereof refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of a single item (items) or a plurality of items (items). For example, at least one of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple .

It should be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its functions and internal logic, and should not be used in the embodiments of the present application. The implementation process constitutes any limitation.

It can be understood that the systems, devices and methods described in the embodiments of this application can also be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or can be integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored, or not implemented. On the other hand, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection between each other shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection of the devices or units may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, that is, they may be located in one place, or they may be distributed to multiple network units. Components shown as units may or may not be physical units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically alone, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transferred from a website, computer, server, or data center Transmission to another website, computer, server or data center through wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or include one or more data storage devices such as servers and data centers that can be integrated with the medium. The available media may be magnetic media (eg, floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), optical media (eg, DVD), or semiconductor media (eg, solid state disk (SSD)), etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the computer may include the aforementioned device.

Although the present application has been described herein in connection with various embodiments, in practicing the claimed application, those skilled in the art will understand and understand by reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. Other variations of the disclosed embodiments are implemented. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may perform several of the functions recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not mean that a combination of these measures cannot be combined to advantageous effects.

Although the present application has been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that various modifications and combinations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are intended to be merely illustrative of the application as defined by the appended claims and are to be construed to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the application. Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. In this way, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and equivalent technologies, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (29)

A communication method, characterized in that the method includes: The first access point AP generates a first trigger frame, the first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete resource units RU or discrete multi-resource units MRU to participate in downlink transmission; The first AP sends the first trigger frame. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of APs include N second APs, and N is a positive integer greater than 1. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of APs include the first AP and N second APs, and N is a positive integer. The method of claim 3, further comprising: The first AP sends a first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to one or more STAs, where the first PPDU includes a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using discrete RU or discrete MRU. A communication method, characterized in that the method includes: The second access point AP receives the first trigger frame from the first AP, where the first trigger frame is used to trigger multiple APs to use discrete resource units RU or discrete multiple resource units MRU to participate in downlink transmission; The second AP sends a first physical layer protocol data unit PPDU to one or more station STAs, where the first PPDU includes a modulation part field, and the modulation part field is transmitted using the discrete RU or discrete MRU. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of APs include N second APs, and N is a positive integer greater than 1. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of APs include the first AP and N second APs, where N is a positive integer. The method according to any one of claims 5-7, characterized in that the method further includes: The second AP receives a second PPDU from the one or more STAs, and the second PPDU is transmitted by the STA using a discrete RU or a discrete MRU. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the first trigger frame includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to instruct the plurality of APs to use discrete RU or discrete MRU participates in downlink transmission. The method according to any one of claims 9, characterized in that the first trigger frame further includes identification information of the second AP. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the identification information of the second AP is carried in a user information list field, wherein one user information field in the user information list field includes identification information of a second AP. . The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the identification information of the second AP corresponds to M user information fields in the user information list field, and M is a positive integer. The method according to claim 12, wherein the user information field further includes RU allocation information, and the RU allocation information includes discrete RUs or discrete MRUs allocated to the second AP for downlink transmission. The method according to claim 13, wherein the user information field further includes identification information of the STA associated with the second AP. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that the identification information of the second AP is carried in a public information field or a special user information field. The method according to claim 15, characterized in that the public information field or the special user information field also includes information on the number of user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP, and The identification information is arranged adjacent to the user information field number information corresponding to the identification information of the second AP. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that user information fields corresponding to the identification information of the second AP are arranged continuously. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, characterized in that the identification information of the second AP is the color of the basic service set corresponding to the second AP or the basic service set corresponding to the second AP. The identification, or the identification information of the second AP, is part of the information in the basic service set identification corresponding to the second AP. The method according to any one of claims 4 to 8, characterized in that the first PPDU further includes a non-modulated part field, the non-modulated part field includes a first field, and the first field includes a Demodulate the information of the modulated part field. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that the non-modulated part field also includes a universal information U-SIG field, wherein the U-SIG field includes one or more of the following fields: physical layer version field, uplink/ Downlink field, basic service set color field, transmission opportunity field, PPDU type and compression mode field, symbol number field of the first field, and coding and modulation strategy field of the first field. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the contents of the non-modulation portion jointly sent by the plurality of APs are the same. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is indicated by the first trigger frame; Alternatively, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is predefined; Alternatively, the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field is the basic service set color corresponding to the first AP. The method according to claim 22, wherein the common information field in the first field includes RU allocation information of STAs associated with the plurality of APs. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that the plurality of APs transmit the non-modulation part field on different frequency resource sub-blocks. The method of claim 24, wherein the basic service set color corresponding to the basic service set color field in the U-SIG field corresponding to the second AP is used to indicate the basic service set color corresponding to the second AP. Service collection color. The method according to claim 25, characterized in that the public information field in the first field corresponding to the second AP includes RU allocation information of the STA associated with the second AP. A communication device, characterized in that the device includes: a processing module and a transceiver module; wherein, The processing module is used to perform the processing function of the method described in any one of the above claims 1-26; The transceiver module is used to perform the transceiver function of the method described in any one of claims 1-26. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program or instructions, and when the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer is caused to execute claims 1-26 any one of the methods. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product includes: a computer program or instructions, which when the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, cause the computer to execute any one of claims 1-26 the method described.