WO2024165047A1

WO2024165047A1 - Time domain symbol repetition for enhanced long range wi-fi

Info

Publication number: WO2024165047A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/076673
Authority: WO
Inventors: Shengquan Hu; Jianhan Liu; Thomas Edward Pare, Jr.
Original assignee: MediaTek Inc
Current assignee: MediaTek Inc
Priority date: 2023-02-10
Filing date: 2024-02-07
Publication date: 2024-08-15
Anticipated expiration: 2025-08-10
Also published as: CN120883579A; EP4662841A1

Abstract

Techniques pertaining to time domain (TD) symbol repetition for enhanced long range (ELR) Wi-Fi are described. An apparatus (e.g., an access point (AP) station (STA) ) signals one or more stations (STAs) to perform a symbol repetition in TD. The apparatus then communicates with the one or more STAs. In communicating with the one or more STAs, the apparatus transmits or receives an entire bandwidth or a respective resource unit (RU) to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, Nx ≥ 1.

Description

TIME DOMAIN SYMBOL REPETITION FOR ENHANCED LONG RANGE WI-FI

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

The present disclosure is part of a non-provisional patent application claiming the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 63/484,209, filed 10 February 2023, the content of which herein being incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is generally related to wireless communications and, more particularly, to time domain (TD) symbol repetition for enhanced long range (ELR) Wi-Fi in wireless local area networks (WLANs) .

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.

In wireless communications such as Wi-Fi (or WiFi) in accordance with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards, tone repetition and resource unit (RU) duplication in the frequency domain (FD) have been proposed for ELR. However, at the present time, how to achieve lower effective coding rate and longer coverage range in TD has yet to be defined. Therefore, there is a need for a solution of TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi.

SUMMARY

The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce concepts, highlights, benefits and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. Select implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Thus, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

An objective of the present disclosure is to provide schemes, concepts, designs, techniques, methods and apparatuses pertaining to TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi. Moreover, under various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure, a hybrid approach of RU or tone repetition in FD and symbol repetition in TD may be achieved.

In one aspect, a method may involve signaling one or more stations (STAs) to perform a symbol repetition in TD. The method may also involve communicating with the one or more STAs. The communicating may involve transmitting or receiving an entire bandwidth or a respective resource unit (RU) to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, Nx ≥ 1.

In another aspect, a method may involve generating a RU. The method may also involve communicating with an access point (AP) STA. The communicating may involve receiving or transmitting an entire bandwidth or the RU with at least a symbol repetition by Nx times in TD, Nx ≥ 1.

In yet another aspect, an apparatus may include a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly and a processor coupled to the transceiver. The processor may signal one or more STAs to perform a symbol repetition in TD. The processor may also communicate with the one or more STAs by transmitting or receiving an entire bandwidth or a respective RU from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, Nx ≥ 1.

It is noteworthy that, although description provided herein may be in the context of certain radio access technologies, networks and network topologies such as, Wi-Fi, the proposed concepts, schemes and any variation (s) /derivative (s) thereof may be implemented in, for and by other types of radio access technologies, networks and network topologies such as, for example and without limitation, Bluetooth, ZigBee, 5^th Generation (5G) /New Radio (NR) , Long-Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro, Internet-of-Things (IoT) , Industrial IoT (IIoT) and narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) . Thus, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the examples described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the present disclosure. The drawings illustrate implementations of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. It is appreciable that the drawings are not necessarily in scale as some components may be shown to be out of proportion than the size in actual implementation to clearly illustrate the concept of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example network environment in which various solutions and schemes in accordance with the present disclosure may be implemented.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example scenario under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example design under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an example scenario under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an example scenario under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of an example scenario under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example design under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of an example scenario under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an example scenario under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an example communication system in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an example process in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of an example process in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Detailed embodiments and implementations of the claimed subject matters are disclosed herein. However, it shall be understood that the disclosed embodiments and implementations are merely illustrative of the claimed subject matters which may be embodied in various forms. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the exemplary embodiments and implementations set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments and implementations are provided so that description of the present disclosure is thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the present disclosure to those skilled in the art. In the description below, details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the presented embodiments and implementations.

Overview

Implementations in accordance with the present disclosure relate to various techniques, methods, schemes and/or solutions pertaining to TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi. According to the present disclosure, a number of possible solutions may be implemented separately or jointly. That is, although these possible solutions may be described below separately, two or more of these possible solutions may be implemented in one combination or another.

It is noteworthy that, in the present disclosure, a regular RU (rRU) refers to a RU with tones that are continuous (e.g., adjacent to one another) and not interleaved, interlaced or otherwise distributed. Moreover, a 26-tone regular RU may be interchangeably denoted as RU26 (or rRU26) , a 52-tone regular RU may be interchangeably denoted as RU52 (or rRU52) , a 106-tone regular RU may be interchangeably denoted as RU106 (or rRU106) , a 242-tone regular RU may be interchangeably denoted as RU242 (or rRU242) , and so on. Moreover, an aggregate (26+52) -tone regular multi-RU (MRU) may be interchangeably denoted as MRU78 (or rMRU78) , an aggregate (26+106) -tone regular MRU may be interchangeably denoted as MRU132 (or rMRU132) , and so on.

It is also noteworthy that, in the present disclosure, a bandwidth of 20MHz may be interchangeably denoted as BW20 or BW20M, a bandwidth of 40MHz may be interchangeably denoted as BW40 or BW40M, a bandwidth of 80MHz may be interchangeably denoted as BW80 or BW80M, a bandwidth of 160MHz may be interchangeably denoted as BW160 or BW160M, a bandwidth of 240MHz may be interchangeably denoted as BW240 or BW240M, a bandwidth of 320MHz may be interchangeably denoted as BW320 or BW320M.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 in which various solutions and schemes in accordance with the present disclosure may be implemented. FIG. 2 ～ FIG. 12 illustrate examples of implementation of various proposed schemes in network environment 100 in accordance with the present disclosure. The following description of various proposed schemes is provided with reference to FIG. 1 ～ FIG. 12.

Referring to FIG. 1, network environment 100 may involve at least a station (STA) 110 communicating wirelessly with a STA 120. Either of STA 110 and STA 120 may be an access point (AP) STA or, alternatively, either of STA 110 and STA 120 may function as a non-AP STA. In some cases, STA 110 and STA 120 may be associated with a basic service set (BSS) in accordance with one or more IEEE 802.11 standards (e.g., IEEE 802.11be and future-developed standards) . Each of STA 110 and STA 120 may be configured to communicate with each other by utilizing the TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi in accordance with various proposed schemes described below. It is noteworthy that, while the various proposed schemes may be individually or separately described below, in actual implementations some or all of the proposed schemes may be utilized or otherwise implemented jointly. Of course, each of the proposed schemes may be utilized or otherwise implemented individually or separately.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example scenario 200 of TD symbol repetition under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. In scenario 200, all physical-layer (PHY) designs may be utilized such that, after encoding and modulation, each TD symbol may be repeated by a number of times (Nx, with Nx ≥ 1) , as shown in FIG. 2. The TD symbol repetition may support both single-user (SU) cases as well as orthogonal frequency-divisional multiple-access (OFDMA) multiple-user (MU) cases, the TD symbol waveform can be either legacy Wi-Fi signals such as IEEE 802.11a/g/n/ac signals or IEEE 802.11ax/be signals over any channel bandwidth.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example design 300 of data rates of TD symbol repetition for SU cases using modulation schemes of binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) and BPSK+DCM (Dual-Carrier Modulation) under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. More specifically, FIG. 3 shows data rates of TD symbol repetition for SU cases on a 242-tone RU (RU242) .

FIG. 4 illustrates an example scenario 400 of TD symbol repetition for OFDMA MU cases under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 4, each user of multiple users may be allocated with a different (or same) RU size as that of a normal physical-layer protocol data unit (PPDU) . Moreover, all of the multiple users may be signaled (e.g., a non-AP STA being signaled by an AP STA) to perform symbol repetition by Nx times. For instance, for four users, each user may be allocated with a 52-tone RU (RU52) with Nx symbol repetition in TD. Furthermore, different users may be scheduled with different number of times of repetition, although guard interval (GI) reduction may not be applied for downlink (DL) ELR PPDU or uplink (UL) trigger-based (TB) PPDU since symbol boundaries may not be aligned.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example scenario 500 of TD symbol repetition for OFDMA MU cases under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 5, to further improve FD diversity and robustness to reduce band interference, RU interleaving or hopping in a predefined pattern in FD may be utilized. Part (A) of FIG. 5 shows an example of four users with each user allocated with a RU52 with four-times (4x) symbol repetition in TD coupled with RU interleaving or hopping in a predefined pattern. Part (B) of FIG. 5 shows an example of four users with each user allocated with a RU52 with two-times (2x) symbol repetition in TD coupled with RU interleaving or hopping in a predefined pattern. Part (C) of FIG. 5 shows an example of two users with each user allocated with a 106-tone RU (RU106) with two-times (2x) symbol repetition in TD coupled with RU interleaving or hopping in a predefined pattern. Part (D) of FIG. 5 shows an example of two users with each user allocated with a RU106 with four-times (4x) symbol repetition in TD coupled with RU interleaving or hopping in a predefined pattern in FD.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example scenario 600 of GI reduction under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Under the proposed scheme for TD symbol repetition, GI may be inserted every certain number (e.g., 2x or 4x or Nx) repeated symbols so as to shorten the airtime. Part (A) of FIG. 6 shows an example of a GI being inserted every four symbols. For GI = 1.6 microseconds (μs) , about 8%of airtime for data portion may be saved. For GI = 3.2 μs, about 15%of airtime for data portion may be saved. Part (B) of FIG. 6 shows an example of a GI being inserted every two symbols. For GI = 1.6 μs, about 6%of airtime for data portion may be saved. For GI = 3.2 μs, about 10%of airtime for data portion may be saved. It is noteworthy that there may be some limitation on GI reduction for TD symbol repetition. For instance, all users may require the same number of times of repetition. Moreover, all users may require the same GI reduction period (e.g., all users inserting GI every four symbols, etc) .

FIG. 7 illustrates an example design 700 of data rates of TD symbol repetition for OFDMA cases under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Part (A) of FIG. 7 shows data rates of TD symbol repetition for OFDMA on a RU52. Part (B) of FIG. 7 shows data rates of TD symbol repetition for OFDMA on a RU106.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example scenario 800 of hybrid FD and TD repetition under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Under the proposed scheme, a hybrid of RU duplication in FD and symbol repetition in TD may be performed. Part (A) of FIG. 8 shows an example of a SU case with RU106 with two-times (2x) duplication in FD plus dual-carrier modulation (DCM) and two-times (2x) symbol repetition in TD, at 0.8 megabits per second (Mbps) . Part (B) of FIG. 8 shows an example of a two-user case with each user allowed with a RU52 with two-times (2x) duplication in FD plus DCM and two-times (2x) symbol repetition in TD, at 0.4 Mbps.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example scenario 900 of hybrid FD and TD repetition under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Under the proposed scheme, a hybrid of tone repetition in FD and symbol repetition in TD may be performed. Part (A) of FIG. 9 shows an example of a SU case with tone repetition in FD on a RU242 and symbol repetition in TD. Part (B) of FIG. 9 shows an example of a two-user case with each user with tone repetition in FD and symbol repetition in TD.

Illustrative Implementations

FIG. 10 illustrates an example system 1000 having at least an example apparatus 1010 and an example apparatus 1020 in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may perform various functions to implement schemes, techniques, processes and methods described herein pertaining to TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi, including the various schemes described above with respect to various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above as well as processes described below. For instance, apparatus 1010 may be implemented in STA 110 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in STA 120, or vice versa.

Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be a part of an electronic apparatus, which may be a non-AP STA or an AP STA, such as a portable or mobile apparatus, a wearable apparatus, a wireless communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. When implemented in a STA, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in a smartphone, a smart watch, a personal digital assistant, a digital camera, or a computing equipment such as a tablet computer, a laptop computer or a notebook computer. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may also be a part of a machine type apparatus, which may be an IoT apparatus such as an immobile or a stationary apparatus, a home apparatus, a wire communication apparatus or a computing apparatus. For instance, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in a smart thermostat, a smart fridge, a smart door lock, a wireless speaker or a home control center. When implemented in or as a network apparatus, apparatus 1010 and/or apparatus 1020 may be implemented in a network node, such as an AP in a WLAN.

In some implementations, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in the form of one or more integrated-circuit (IC) chips such as, for example and without limitation, one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more reduced-instruction set computing (RISC) processors, or one or more complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) processors. In the various schemes described above, each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be implemented in or as a STA or an AP. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may include at least some of those components shown in FIG. 10 such as a processor 1012 and a processor 1022, respectively, for example. Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may further include one or more other components not pertinent to the proposed scheme of the present disclosure (e.g., internal power supply, display device and/or user interface device) , and, thus, such component (s) of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 are neither shown in FIG. 10 nor described below in the interest of simplicity and brevity.

In one aspect, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 may be implemented in the form of one or more single-core processors, one or more multi-core processors, one or more RISC processors or one or more CISC processors. That is, even though a singular term “aprocessor” is used herein to refer to processor 1012 and processor 1022, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 may include multiple processors in some implementations and a single processor in other implementations in accordance with the present disclosure. In another aspect, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 may be implemented in the form of hardware (and, optionally, firmware) with electronic components including, for example and without limitation, one or more transistors, one or more diodes, one or more capacitors, one or more resistors, one or more inductors, one or more memristors and/or one or more varactors that are configured and arranged to achieve specific purposes in accordance with the present disclosure. In other words, in at least some implementations, each of processor 1012 and processor 1022 is a special-purpose machine specifically designed, arranged and configured to perform specific tasks including those pertaining to TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi in accordance with various implementations of the present disclosure.

In some implementations, apparatus 1010 may also include a transceiver 1016 coupled to processor 1012. Transceiver 1016 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. In some implementations, apparatus 1020 may also include a transceiver 1026 coupled to processor 1022. Transceiver 1026 may include a transmitter capable of wirelessly transmitting and a receiver capable of wirelessly receiving data. It is noteworthy that, although transceiver 1016 and transceiver 1026 are illustrated as being external to and separate from processor 1012 and processor 1022, respectively, in some implementations, transceiver 1016 may be an integral part of processor 1012 as a system on chip (SoC) , and transceiver 1026 may be an integral part of processor 1022 as a SoC.

In some implementations, apparatus 1010 may further include a memory 1014 coupled to processor 1012 and capable of being accessed by processor 1012 and storing data therein. In some implementations, apparatus 1020 may further include a memory 1024 coupled to processor 1022 and capable of being accessed by processor 1022 and storing data therein. Each of memory 1014 and memory 1024 may include a type of random-access memory (RAM) such as dynamic RAM (DRAM) , static RAM (SRAM) , thyristor RAM (T-RAM) and/or zero-capacitor RAM (Z-RAM) . Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 1014 and memory 1024 may include a type of read-only memory (ROM) such as mask ROM, programmable ROM (PROM) , erasable programmable ROM (EPROM) and/or electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM) . Alternatively, or additionally, each of memory 1014 and memory 1024 may include a type of non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) such as flash memory, solid-state memory, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) , magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) and/or phase-change memory.

Each of apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 may be a communication entity capable of communicating with each other using various proposed schemes in accordance with the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes and without limitation, a description of capabilities of apparatus 1010, as STA 110, and apparatus 1020, as STA 120, is provided below in the context of example processes 1100 and 1200. It is noteworthy that, although a detailed description of capabilities, functionalities and/or technical features of apparatus 1020 is provided below, the same may be applied to apparatus 1010 although a detailed description thereof is not provided solely in the interest of brevity. It is also noteworthy that, although the example implementations described below are provided in the context of WLAN, the same may be implemented in other types of networks.

Illustrative Processes

FIG. 11 illustrates an example process 1100 in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Process 1100 may represent an aspect of implementing various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above. More specifically, process 1100 may represent an aspect of the proposed concepts and schemes pertaining to TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi in accordance with the present disclosure. Process 1100 may include one or more operations, actions, or functions as illustrated by one or more of blocks 1110 and 1120. Although illustrated as discrete blocks, various blocks of process 1100 may be divided into additional blocks, combined into fewer blocks, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. Moreover, the blocks/sub-blocks of process 1100 may be executed in the order shown in FIG. 11 or, alternatively in a different order. Furthermore, one or more of the blocks/sub-blocks of process 1100 may be executed repeatedly or iteratively. Process 1100 may be implemented by or in apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 as well as any variations thereof. Solely for illustrative purposes and without limiting the scope, process 1100 is described below in the context of apparatus 1010 implemented in or as STA 110 functioning as a non-AP STA or an AP STA and apparatus 1020 implemented in or as STA 120 functioning as an AP STA or a non-AP STA of a wireless network such as a WLAN in network environment 100 in accordance with one or more of IEEE 802.11 standards. Process 1100 may begin at block 1110.

At 1110, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 of apparatus 1020 signaling, via transceiver 1026, one or more STAs (including apparatus 1010 as STA 110) to perform a symbol repetition in TD. Process 1100 may proceed from 1110 to 1120.

At 1120, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 communicating, via transceiver 1026, with the one or more STAs (including apparatus 1010) . In communicating, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 transmitting or receiving an entire bandwidth or a respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, Nx ≥ 1.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 transmitting or receiving a first RU and a second RU to or from a first STA and a second STA of the one or more STAs, respectively. In some implementations, the first RU and the second RU may be of a same size. Alternatively, the first RU and the second RU may be of different sizes.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with RU interleaving or hopping in the FD.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with a GI inserted every predefined number of repeated symbols. For instance, the GI may be inserted every 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 or Nx repeated symbols.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with a hybrid of the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a RU duplication in the FD.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1100 may involve processor 1022 transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with a hybrid of the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a tone repetition in the FD.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example process 1200 in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Process 1200 may represent an aspect of implementing various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above. More specifically, process 1200 may represent an aspect of the proposed concepts and schemes pertaining to TD symbol repetition for ELR Wi-Fi in accordance with the present disclosure. Process 1200 may include one or more operations, actions, or functions as illustrated by one or more of blocks 1210 and 1220. Although illustrated as discrete blocks, various blocks of process 1200 may be divided into additional blocks, combined into fewer blocks, or eliminated, depending on the desired implementation. Moreover, the blocks/sub-blocks of process 1200 may be executed in the order shown in FIG. 12 or, alternatively in a different order. Furthermore, one or more of the blocks/sub-blocks of process 1200 may be executed repeatedly or iteratively. Process 1200 may be implemented by or in apparatus 1010 and apparatus 1020 as well as any variations thereof. Solely for illustrative purposes and without limiting the scope, process 1200 is described below in the context of apparatus 1010 implemented in or as STA 110 functioning as a non-AP STA or an AP STA and apparatus 1020 implemented in or as STA 120 functioning as an AP STA or a non-AP STA of a wireless network such as a WLAN in network environment 100 in accordance with one or more of IEEE 802.11 standards. Process 1200 may begin at block 1210.

At 1210, process 1200 may involve processor 1012 of apparatus 1010 generating a RU. Process 1200 may proceed from 1210 to 1220.

At 1220, process 1200 may involve processor 1012 communicating, via transceiver 1016, with an AP STA (e.g., apparatus 1020) . In communicating, process 1200 may involve processor 1012 transmitting or receiving an entire bandwidth or the RU with at least a symbol repetition by Nx times in TD, Nx ≥ 1.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1200 may involve processor 1012 transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with RU interleaving or hopping in FD.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1200 may involve processor 1012 transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with a GI inserted every predefined number of repeated symbols. For instance, the GI may be inserted every 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 or Nx repeated symbols.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1200 may involve processor 1012 transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a RU duplication in FD.

In some implementations, in transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, process 1200 may involve processor 1012 transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a tone repetition in FD.

Additional Notes

The herein-described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely examples, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively "associated" such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as "associated with" each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being "operably connected" , or "operably coupled" , to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being "operably couplable" , to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.

Further, with respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.

Moreover, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims, e.g., bodies of the appended claims, are generally intended as “open” terms, e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to, ” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least, ” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to, ” etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to implementations containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an, " e.g., “a” and/or “an” should be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more; ” the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should be interpreted to mean at least the recited number, e.g., the bare recitation of "two recitations, " without other modifiers, means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations. Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc. ” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc. ” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention, e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc. It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B. ”

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that various implementations of the present disclosure have been described herein for purposes of illustration, and that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the various implementations disclosed herein are not intended to be limiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims.

Claims

A method, comprising:

signaling, by a processor of an apparatus, one or more stations (STAs) to perform a symbol repetition in a time domain (TD) ; and

communicating, by the processor, with the one or more STAs,

wherein the communicating comprises transmitting or receiving an entire bandwidth or a respective resource unit (RU) to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, Nx ≥ 1.
The method of Claim 1, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs comprises transmitting or receiving a first RU and a second RU to or from a first STA and a second STA of the one or more STAs, respectively, and wherein the first RU and the second RU are of a same size.
The method of Claim 1, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs comprises transmitting or receiving a first RU and a second RU to or from a first STA and a second STA of the one or more STAs, respectively, and wherein the first RU and the second RU are of different sizes.
The method of Claim 1, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with RU interleaving or hopping in a frequency domain (FD) .
The method of Claim 1, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with a guard interval (GI) inserted every predefined number of repeated symbols.
The method of Claim 5, wherein the GI is inserted every 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 or Nx repeated symbols.
The method of Claim 1, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with a hybrid of the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a RU duplication in a frequency domain (FD) .
The method of Claim 1, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with a hybrid of the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a tone repetition in a frequency domain (FD) .
A method, comprising:

generating, by a processor of an apparatus implemented in a station (STA) , a resource unit (RU) ; and

communicating, by the processor, with an access point (AP) STA,

wherein the communicating comprises transmitting or receiving an entire bandwidth or the RU with at least a symbol repetition by Nx times in a time domain (TD) , Nx ≥ 1.
The method of Claim 9, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with RU interleaving or hopping in a frequency domain (FD) .
The method of Claim 9, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with a guard interval (GI) inserted every predefined number of repeated symbols.
The method of Claim 11, wherein the GI is inserted every 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 or Nx repeated symbols.
The method of Claim 9, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a RU duplication in a frequency domain (FD) .
The method of Claim 9, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the RU with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the RU with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a tone repetition in a frequency domain (FD) .
An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly; and

a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform operations comprising:

signaling, via the transceiver, one or more stations (STAs) to perform a symbol repetition in a time domain (TD) ; and

communicating, via the transceiver, with the one or more STAs,

wherein the communicating comprises transmitting or receiving an entire bandwidth or a respective resource unit (RU) to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD, Nx ≥ 1.
The apparatus of Claim 15, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs comprises transmitting or receiving a first RU and a second RU to or from a first STA and a second STA of the one or more STAs, respectively, and wherein the first RU and the second RU are of a same size or different sizes.
The apparatus of Claim 15, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with RU interleaving or hopping in a frequency domain (FD) .
The apparatus of Claim 15, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and with a guard interval (GI) inserted every predefined number of repeated symbols, and wherein the GI is inserted every 2 or 4 or 6 or 8 or Nx repeated symbols.
The apparatus of Claim 15, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with a hybrid of the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a RU duplication in a frequency domain (FD) .
The apparatus of Claim 15, wherein the transmitting or receiving of the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with at least the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD comprises transmitting or receiving the entire bandwidth or the respective RU to or from each of the one or more STAs with a hybrid of the symbol repetition by Nx times in the TD and a tone repetition in a frequency domain (FD).