WO2025230297A1 - Structure of data unit for extended range communication - Google Patents

Abstract

In various examples of the present disclosure, a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) capable of increasing a transmission range may be referred to by various names, such as an enhanced long range (ELR) PPDU. The ELR PPDU may include a universal signal (U-SIG) field, and the U-SIG field may include a first field related to a physical (PHY) version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU type and compression mode. For example, the bandwidth of the ELR PPDU may be 20 MHz, and a value of the second field may be zero (0). For example, the third field may have a value of three (3) for the ELR PPDU. For example, the ELR PPDU may further include a data field. For example, the data field may be transmitted through multiple 52-tone resource units (RUs) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs.

Description

Structure of data units for extended range communication

This specification relates to a wireless LAN system, and more particularly, to a method and device for communication related to an extended range in a wireless LAN system.

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have been improved in various ways. For example, the Extreme High Throughput (EHT) standard can utilize newly proposed increased bandwidth, an improved PHY layer protocol data unit (PPDU) structure, improved sequences, and the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) technique.

For example, a new standard that further improves the EHT standard is called the Ultra High Reliability (UHR) standard. The UHR standard may also be designated as IEEE 802.11bn or Wi-Fi 8. For example, the UHR standard may propose technical features that improve data rates even at low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) levels. Furthermore, the UHR standard may propose technical features that minimize latency and jitter even in scenarios with mobility and overlapping BSSs. Furthermore, the UHR standard may propose technical features for wireless medium reuse.

A wireless LAN system can operate with various STAs, including access points (APs) and non-AP STAs (stations). Typically, the TX power of an AP is greater than that of a non-AP STA. This difference in TX power can result in a difference between the downlink and uplink signal transmission ranges in a wireless LAN system.

To overcome these signal transmission range differences, a new PPDU (physical protocol data unit) structure can be proposed. These PPDUs need to be structured to increase signal transmission range. Furthermore, because various PPDU types and formats are defined for various PHY versions in wireless LANs, STAs must accurately indicate relevant PPDUs and differentiate them from other PPDUs. This requires improvements to the structure of various fields in the PPDU.

The present disclosure may propose a method for transmitting/receiving a physical protocol data unit (PPDU) with an improved structure and a device related thereto.

Among the various examples of this specification, a PPDU that can increase the transmission range may be called by various names such as an enhanced long range (ELR) PPDU or an extended range (ER) PPDU. The ELR PPDU may include a Universal Signal (U-SIG) field, and the U-SIG field may include a first field related to a physical version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU type and compression mode. For example, the bandwidth of the ELR PPDU may be 20 MHz and the value of the second field may be zero (0). For example, the third field may have a value of three (3) for the ER PPDU. For example, the ELR PPDU may further include a data field. For example, the above data field can be transmitted via multiple 52-tone resource units (RUs) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs.

An example of this specification proposes an enhanced long range (ELR) PPDU (or ER PPDU) structure. For example, the enhanced structure may be related to a U-SIG included in the ELR PPDU. According to an example of this specification, whether an ELR (enhanced long range or extended long range) transmission is indicated using a U-SIG, thereby enabling rapid recognition of whether an ELR transmission is occurring. In addition, an example of this specification proposes an improved frequency mapping technique in which RUs of a specific size are repeated. Based on this, the transmission range of the PPDU can be increased.

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a transmitting device and/or a receiving device of the present specification.

Figure 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of a wireless local area network (WLAN).

Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating a general link setup process.

Figure 4 illustrates one embodiment of a multi-link (ML).

Figure 5 illustrates a PPDU transmitted/received by an STA of this specification.

Figure 6 is a diagram showing the layout of resource units (RUs) used for 20MHz PPDU.

Figure 7 is a diagram showing the layout of resource units (RUs) used for 40MHz PPDU.

Figure 8 is a diagram showing the layout of resource units (RUs) used for 80MHz PPDU.

Figure 9 shows the operation according to UL-MU.

Figure 10 shows an example of channels used/supported/defined within the 2.4 GHz band.

Figure 11 illustrates an example of channels used/supported/defined within the 5 GHz band.

Figure 12 illustrates an example of channels used/supported/defined within the 6 GHz band.

Figure 13 shows an example of a header of a MAC frame.

FIG. 14 illustrates a modified example of a transmitting device and/or a receiving device of the present specification.

Figure 15 shows an example of the PPDU format of this specification.

Figure 16 illustrates another example of the PPDU format of this specification.

Figure 17 illustrates another example of the PPDU format of this specification.

Figure 18 shows an example of replication of the 52-tone RU proposed in this specification.

Figure 19 shows an example of replication of the 106-tone RU proposed in this specification.

Figure 20 shows an example of replication of the 52-tone RU proposed in this specification.

Figure 21 shows an example of replication of the 52-tone RU proposed in this specification.

Figure 22 shows an example of replication of the 26-tone RU proposed in this specification.

Figure 23 shows an example of an ELR PPDU of this specification.

Figure 24 is a diagram showing four 52-tone RUs included in an ELR PPDU.

Figure 25 is an example of a procedure flowchart related to this specification.

Figure 26 is an example of a procedure flowchart related to this specification.

In this specification, “A or B” can mean “only A,” “only B,” or “both A and B.” In other words, “A or B” in this specification can be interpreted as “A and/or B.” For example, “A, B or C” in this specification can mean “only A,” “only B,” “only C,” or “any combination of A, B, and C.”

As used herein, a slash (/) or a comma can mean "and/or." For example, "A/B" can mean "A and/or B." Accordingly, "A/B" can mean "only A," "only B," or "both A and B." For example, "A, B, C" can mean "A, B, or C."

In this specification, “at least one of A and B” may mean “only A,” “only B,” or “both A and B.” Additionally, in this specification, the expressions “at least one of A or B” or “at least one of A and/or B” may be interpreted identically to “at least one of A and B.”

In addition, parentheses used in this specification may mean “for example”. Specifically, when it is indicated as “control information (UHR-Signal field)”, the “UHR-Signal field” may be proposed as an example of “control information”. In other words, the “control information” in this specification is not limited to the “UHR-Signal field”, and the “UHR-Signal field” may be proposed as an example of “control information”. In addition, even when it is indicated as “control information (UHR-Signal field)”, the “UHR-Signal field” may be proposed as an example of “control information”.

Additionally, as used herein, “a/an” can mean “at least one” or “one or more.” Additionally, terms ending in “(s)” can mean “at least one” or “one or more.”

Additionally, the expressions “based on” or “on the basis of” or “according to” used herein mean “based at least in part on” and not “based solely on.”

Technical features individually described in a single drawing in this specification may be implemented individually or simultaneously.

The following examples of this specification can be applied to various wireless communication systems. For example, the following examples of this specification can be applied to wireless local area network (WLAN) systems. For example, the present specification can be applied to the IEEE 802.11a/g/n/ac/ax/be/bn standards. In addition, the examples of this specification can be applied to the Ultra High Reliability (UHR) standard or the next-generation wireless LAN standard that enhances IEEE 802.11bn. In addition, the examples of this specification can be applied to mobile communication systems. For example, the examples of this specification can be applied to mobile communication systems based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) and its evolution based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard.

In order to explain the technical features of this specification, the technical features to which this specification can be applied are described below.

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a transmitting device and/or a receiving device of the present specification.

An example of FIG. 1 can perform various technical features described below. FIG. 1 relates to at least one STA (station). For example, the STA (110, 120) of the present specification may also be referred to by various names such as a mobile terminal, a wireless device, a Wireless Transmit/Receive Unit (WTRU), a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Subscriber Unit, or simply a user. The STA (110, 120) of the present specification may also be referred to by various names such as a network, a base station, a Node-B, an access point (AP), a repeater, a router, a relay, etc. The STA (110, 120) of the present specification may also be referred to by various names such as a receiving apparatus, a transmitting apparatus, a receiving STA, a transmitting STA, a receiving device, a transmitting device, etc.

For example, STA (110, 120) may perform the role of an AP (access point) or a non-AP role. That is, STA (110, 120) of the present specification may perform the functions of an AP and/or a non-AP. In the present specification, AP may also be indicated as an AP STA.

The STA (110, 120) of this specification can support various communication standards other than the IEEE 802.11 standard. For example, it can support communication standards according to the 3GPP standard (e.g., LTE, LTE-A, 5G NR standard). In addition, the STA of this specification can be implemented in various devices such as mobile phones, vehicles, and personal computers. In addition, the STA of this specification can support communication for various communication services such as voice calls, video calls, data communications, and autonomous driving (Self-Driving, Autonomous-Driving).

In this specification, STA (110, 120) may include a medium access control (MAC) and a physical layer interface for a wireless medium that follow the provisions of the IEEE 802.11 standard.

Based on the sub-drawing (a) of Fig. 1, STA (110, 120) is described as follows.

The first STA (110) may include a processor (111), a memory (112), and a transceiver (113). The illustrated processor, memory, and transceiver may each be implemented as separate chips, or at least two blocks/functions may be implemented through a single chip.

The transceiver (113) of the first STA performs signal transmission and reception operations. Specifically, it can transmit and receive IEEE 802.11 packets (e.g., IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be, etc.).

For example, the first STA (110) can perform the intended operation of the AP. For example, the processor (111) of the AP can receive a signal through the transceiver (113), process the received signal, generate a transmission signal, and perform control for signal transmission. The memory (112) of the AP can store a signal received through the transceiver (113) (e.g., a received signal) and store a signal to be transmitted through the transceiver (e.g., a transmitted signal).

For example, the second STA (120) can perform the intended operation of a non-AP STA. For example, the transceiver (123) of the non-AP performs signal transmission and reception operations. Specifically, it can transmit and receive IEEE 802.11 packets (e.g., IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be, etc.).

For example, the processor (121) of the Non-AP STA can receive a signal through the transceiver (123), process the received signal, generate a transmission signal, and perform control for signal transmission. The memory (122) of the Non-AP STA can store a signal (e.g., a reception signal) received through the transceiver (123) and store a signal (e.g., a transmission signal) to be transmitted through the transceiver.

For example, in the specification below, the operation of a device indicated as AP may be performed in the first STA (110) or the second STA (120). For example, if the first STA (110) is an AP, the operation of the device indicated as AP may be controlled by the processor (111) of the first STA (110), and a related signal may be transmitted or received through a transceiver (113) controlled by the processor (111) of the first STA (110). In addition, control information related to the operation of the AP or a transmission/reception signal of the AP may be stored in the memory (112) of the first STA (110). In addition, when the second STA (110) is an AP, the operation of the device indicated as an AP is controlled by the processor (121) of the second STA (120), and a related signal can be transmitted or received through a transceiver (123) controlled by the processor (121) of the second STA (120). In addition, control information related to the operation of the AP or the transmission/reception signal of the AP can be stored in the memory (122) of the second STA (110).

For example, in the specification below, the operation of a device indicated as a non-AP (or User-STA) may be performed in the STA (110) or the second STA (120). For example, if the second STA (120) is a non-AP, the operation of the device indicated as a non-AP may be controlled by the processor (121) of the second STA (120), and a related signal may be transmitted or received through a transceiver (123) controlled by the processor (121) of the second STA (120). In addition, control information related to the operation of the non-AP or the transmission/reception signal of the AP may be stored in the memory (122) of the second STA (120). For example, if the first STA (110) is a non-AP, the operation of a device indicated as a non-AP is controlled by the processor (111) of the first STA (110), and a related signal may be transmitted or received through a transceiver (113) controlled by the processor (111) of the first STA (120). In addition, control information related to the operation of the non-AP or the transmission/reception signal of the AP may be stored in the memory (112) of the first STA (110).

In the following specification, devices called (transmitting/receiving) STA, first STA, second STA, STA1, STA2, AP, first AP, second AP, AP1, AP2, (transmitting/receiving) Terminal, (transmitting/receiving) device, (transmitting/receiving) apparatus, network, etc. may refer to the STA (110, 120) of FIG. 1. For example, devices indicated as (transmitting/receiving) STA, first STA, second STA, STA1, STA2, AP, first AP, second AP, AP1, AP2, (transmitting/receiving) Terminal, (transmitting/receiving) device, (transmitting/receiving) apparatus, network, etc. without specific drawing symbols may also refer to the STA (110, 120) of FIG. 1. For example, in the example below, the operation of various STAs transmitting and receiving signals (e.g., PPPDU) may be performed by the transceiver (113, 123) of FIG. 1. In addition, in the example below, the operation of various STAs generating transmission and reception signals or performing data processing or calculations in advance for transmission and reception signals may be performed by the processor (111, 121) of FIG. 1. For example, an example of an operation for generating a transmission/reception signal or performing data processing or operation in advance for a transmission/reception signal may include 1) an operation for determining/obtaining/configuring/computing/decoding/encoding bit information of a subfield (SIG, STF, LTF, Data) field included in a PPDU, 2) an operation for determining/configuring/obtaining time resources or frequency resources (e.g., subcarrier resources) used for a subfield (SIG, STF, LTF, Data) field included in a PPDU, 3) an operation for determining/configuring/obtaining a specific sequence (e.g., a pilot sequence, an STF/LTF sequence, an extra sequence applied to SIG) used for a subfield (SIG, STF, LTF, Data) field included in a PPDU, 4) a power control operation and/or a power saving operation applied to an STA, 5) an operation related to determining/obtaining/configuring/computing/decoding/encoding an ACK signal, etc. Additionally, in the examples below, various information (e.g., information related to fields/subfields/control fields/parameters/power, etc.) used by various STAs for determining/acquiring/configuring/computing/decoding/encoding transmission/reception signals can be stored in the memory (112, 122) of FIG. 1.

The device/STA of the sub-drawing (a) of the above-described FIG. 1 can be modified as in the sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1. Hereinafter, the STA (110, 120) of the present specification will be described based on the sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1.

For example, the transceiver (113, 123) illustrated in sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1 may perform the same function as the transceiver illustrated in sub-drawing (a) of FIG. 1 described above. For example, the processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1 may include a processor (111, 121) and a memory (112, 122). The processor (111, 121) and the memory (112, 122) illustrated in sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1 may perform the same function as the processor (111, 121) and the memory (112, 122) illustrated in sub-drawing (a) of FIG. 1 described above.

The mobile terminal, wireless device, Wireless Transmit/Receive Unit (WTRU), User Equipment (UE), Mobile Station (MS), Mobile Subscriber Unit, user, user STA, network, Base Station, Node-B, Access Point (AP), repeater, router, relay, receiving device, transmitting device, receiving STA, transmitting STA, receiving Device, transmitting Device, receiving Apparatus, and/or transmitting Apparatus described below may refer to the STA (110, 120) illustrated in the sub-drawings (a)/(b) of FIG. 1, or may refer to the processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in the sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1. That is, the technical feature of the present specification may be performed in the STA (110, 120) illustrated in the sub-drawings (a)/(b) of FIG. 1, or may be performed only in the processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in the sub-drawings (b) of FIG. 1. For example, the technical feature that the transmitting STA transmits a control signal may be understood as a technical feature that the control signal generated in the processor (111, 121) illustrated in the sub-drawings (a)/(b) of FIG. 1 is transmitted through the transceiver (113, 123) illustrated in the sub-drawings (a)/(b) of FIG. 1. Alternatively, the technical feature that the transmitting STA transmits a control signal may be understood as a technical feature that the control signal to be transmitted to the transceiver (113, 123) is generated in the processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in the sub-drawings (b) of FIG. 1.

For example, the technical feature of a receiving STA receiving a control signal can be understood as a technical feature of a control signal being received by a transceiver (113, 123) illustrated in sub-drawing (a) of FIG. 1. Alternatively, the technical feature of a receiving STA receiving a control signal can be understood as a technical feature of a control signal received by a transceiver (113, 123) illustrated in sub-drawing (a) of FIG. 1 being acquired by a processor (111, 121) illustrated in sub-drawing (a) of FIG. 1. Alternatively, the technical feature of a receiving STA receiving a control signal can be understood as a technical feature of a control signal received by a transceiver (113, 123) illustrated in sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1 being acquired by a processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in sub-drawing (b) of FIG.

Referring to the sub-drawing (b) of FIG. 1, software code (115, 125) may be included in the memory (112, 122). The software code (115, 125) may include instructions that control the operation of the processor (111, 121). The software code (115, 125) may be included in various programming languages.

The processor (111, 121) or processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in FIG. 1 may include an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), another chipset, a logic circuit, and/or a data processing device. The processor may be an application processor (AP). For example, the processor (111, 121) or processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in FIG. 1 may include at least one of a digital signal processor (DSP), a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and a modem (modulator and demodulator). For example, the processor (111, 121) or processing chip (114, 124) illustrated in FIG. 1 may be a SNAPDRAGON® series processor manufactured by Qualcomm®, an EXYNOS® series processor manufactured by Samsung®, an A series processor manufactured by Apple®, a HELIO® series processor manufactured by MediaTek®, an ATOM® series processor manufactured by INTEL®, or an enhanced processor thereof.

In this specification, uplink may mean a link for communication from a non-AP STA to an AP STA, and uplink PPDU/packet/signal, etc. may be transmitted through the uplink. In addition, in this specification, downlink may mean a link for communication from an AP STA to a non-AP STA, and downlink PPDU/packet/signal, etc. may be transmitted through the downlink.

Figure 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of a wireless local area network (WLAN).

The upper part of Figure 2 shows the structure of the infrastructure BSS (basic service set) of IEEE (institute of electrical and electronic engineers) 802.11.

Referring to the top of FIG. 2, the wireless LAN system may include one or more infrastructure BSSs (200, 205) (hereinafter, BSS). The BSSs (200, 205) are a collection of APs and STAs, such as an access point (AP) 225 and a station (STA1, 200-1), that have successfully synchronized and can communicate with each other, and are not a concept that designates a specific area. The BSS (205) may also include one or more STAs (205-1, 205-2) that can be associated with one AP (230).

A BSS may include at least one STA, an AP (225, 230) providing a distribution service, and a distribution system (DS, 210) connecting multiple APs.

A distributed system (210) can connect multiple BSSs (200, 205) to implement an extended service set (ESS) 240. An ESS (240) can be used as a term to indicate a network formed by connecting one or more APs through the distributed system (210). APs included in a single ESS (240) can have the same SSID (service set identification).

The portal (portal, 220) can act as a bridge to connect a wireless LAN network (IEEE 802.11) to another network (e.g., 802.X).

In a BSS such as the upper part of Fig. 2, a network between APs (225, 230) and a network between APs (225, 230) and STAs (200-1, 205-1, 205-2) can be implemented. However, it may also be possible to establish a network and perform communication between STAs without an AP (225, 230). A network that establishes a network and performs communication between STAs without an AP (225, 230) is defined as an ad-hoc network or an independent basic service set (IBSS).

The bottom of Figure 2 is a conceptual diagram showing IBSS.

Referring to the bottom of Fig. 2, the IBSS is a BSS that operates in ad-hoc mode. Since the IBSS does not include an AP, there is no centralized management entity. That is, in the IBSS, the STAs (250-1, 250-2, 250-3, 255-4, 255-5) are managed in a distributed manner. In the IBSS, all STAs (250-1, 250-2, 250-3, 255-4, 255-5) can be mobile STAs, and access to the distributed system is not permitted, forming a self-contained network.

Figure 3 is a diagram illustrating a general link setup process.

In step S310, the STA may perform a network discovery operation. This network discovery operation may include scanning by the STA. That is, for the STA to access the network, it must find a network it can join. Before joining a wireless network, the STA must identify compatible networks. The process of identifying networks in a specific area is called scanning. Scanning methods include active scanning and passive scanning.

Figure 3 illustrates a network discovery operation that includes an active scanning process as an example. In active scanning, an STA performing scanning transmits a probe request frame to discover which APs exist in the vicinity while moving between channels and waits for a response. A responder transmits a probe response frame to the STA that transmitted the probe request frame in response to the probe request frame. Here, the responder may be the STA that last transmitted a beacon frame in the BSS of the channel being scanned. In a BSS, the AP transmits the beacon frame, so the AP becomes the responder. In an IBSS, the STAs within the IBSS take turns transmitting beacon frames, so the responder is not constant. For example, an STA that transmits a probe request frame on channel 1 and receives a probe response frame on channel 1 can store BSS-related information included in the received probe response frame and move to the next channel (e.g., channel 2) to perform scanning (e.g., transmitting and receiving probe requests/responses on channel 2) in the same manner.

Although not shown in the example of FIG. 3, the scanning operation can also be performed in a passive scanning manner. An STA performing scanning based on passive scanning can wait for a beacon frame while moving between channels. A beacon frame is one of the management frames in IEEE 802.11. It announces the presence of a wireless network and is periodically transmitted so that the scanning STA can find the wireless network and participate in the wireless network. In the BSS, the AP periodically transmits the beacon frame, and in the IBSS, the STAs within the IBSS take turns transmitting the beacon frame. When the scanning STA receives a beacon frame, it stores the information about the BSS included in the beacon frame and moves to another channel, recording the beacon frame information on each channel. An STA that receives a beacon frame can store the BSS-related information included in the received beacon frame, move to the next channel, and perform scanning on the next channel in the same manner.

An STA that discovers a network can perform an authentication process through step S320. This authentication process may be referred to as the first authentication process to clearly distinguish it from the security setup operation of step S340 described below. The authentication process of S320 may include a process in which the STA transmits an authentication request frame to the AP, and the AP responds by transmitting an authentication response frame to the STA. The authentication frame used for the authentication request/response corresponds to a management frame.

The authentication frame may include information such as an authentication algorithm number, an authentication transaction sequence number, a status code, a challenge text, a Robust Security Network (RSN), and a Finite Cyclic Group.

An STA can transmit an authentication request frame to an AP. The AP can determine whether to grant authentication to the STA based on the information contained in the received authentication request frame. The AP can provide the result of the authentication process to the STA via an authentication response frame.

A successfully authenticated STA may perform an association process based on step S330. The association process includes a process in which the STA transmits an association request frame to the AP, and the AP transmits an association response frame to the STA in response. For example, the association request frame may include information related to various capabilities, such as a beacon listen interval, a service set identifier (SSID), supported rates, supported channels, RSN, mobility domain, supported operating classes, a Traffic Indication Map Broadcast request, and interworking service capabilities. For example, the association response frame may contain information related to various capabilities, status codes, Association ID (AID), supported rates, Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) parameter sets, Received Channel Power Indicator (RCPI), Received Signal to Noise Indicator (RSNI), mobility domains, timeout interval (association comeback time), overlapping BSS scan parameters, TIM broadcast response, QoS maps, etc.

In step S340, the STA may perform a security setup process. The security setup process of step S340 may include, for example, a process of setting up a private key through a four-way handshaking using an Extensible Authentication Protocol over LAN (EAPOL) frame.

Figure 4 illustrates one embodiment of a multi-link (ML).

As illustrated in FIG. 4, multiple multi-link devices (MLDs) can communicate over a remote link. The MLDs can be categorized into AP MLDs including multiple AP STAs and non-AP MLDs including multiple non-AP STAs. That is, the AP MLD can include affiliated APs (e.g., AP STAs), and the non-AP MLD can include affiliated STAs (e.g., non-AP STAs, or user-STAs).

A multilink may include a first link and a second link, and different channels/subchannels/frequency resources may be allocated to the first and second links. The first and second multilinks may be identified through a link ID of 4 bits (or other n bits). The first and second links may be configured in the same 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, or 6 GHz band. Alternatively, the first link and the second link may be configured in different bands.

The AP MLD of FIG. 4 includes three affiliated APs. In the example of FIG. 4, AP1 may operate in the 2.4 GHz band, AP2 may operate in the 5 GHz band, and AP3 may operate in the 6 GHz band. In the example of FIG. 4, the first link in which AP1 and non-AP1 operate may be defined as a channel/subchannel/frequency resource within the 2.4 GHz band. Furthermore, in the example of FIG. 4, the second link in which AP2 and non-AP2 operate may be defined as a channel/subchannel/frequency resource within the 5 GHz band. Furthermore, in the example of FIG. 4, the third link in which AP3 and non-AP3 operate may be defined as a channel/subchannel/frequency resource within the 6 GHz band.

In the example of FIG. 4, AP1 can initiate a multi-link setup procedure (ML setup procedure) by transmitting an Association Request frame to non-AP STA1. In the example of FIG. 4, non-AP STA1 can transmit an Association Response frame in response to the Association Request frame. Each AP (e.g., AP1/2/3) illustrated in FIG. 4 may be identical to the AP illustrated in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 2, and each non-AP (e.g., non-AP1/2/3) illustrated in FIG. 4 may be identical to the STA (e.g., user-STA or non-AP STA) illustrated in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 2.

The specific features of this specification are not limited to the specific features of FIG. 4. That is, the number of links can be defined in various ways, and multiple links can be defined in various ways within at least one band.

FIG. 5 illustrates a PPDU (physical protocol data unit or physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit) transmitted/received by an STA of this specification.

The STA (e.g., AP STA, non-AP STA, AP MLD, non-AP MLD) of the present specification can transmit and/or receive the PPDU of FIG. 5. The PPDU described in the present specification may have, for example, the structure of FIG. 5. In addition, the PPDU described in the present specification may be called by various names such as a transmission PPDU, a reception PPDU, a first type PPDU, or an Nth type PPDU, etc. The PPDU described in the present specification can be used in a WLAN system defined according to IEEE 802.11bn and/or a next-generation WLAN system that improves IEEE 802.11bn.

The PPDU of FIG. 5 may be related to various PPDU types used in a UHR system. For example, the example of FIG. 5 may be used for at least one of a single-user (SU) mode/type/transmission, a multi-user (MU) mode/type/transmission, and a null data packet (NDP) mode/type/transmission related to channel sounding. For example, if the example of FIG. 5 is related to NDP, the Data field illustrated may be omitted. If the PPDU of FIG. 5 is used for a trigger-based (TB) mode, the UHR-SIG of FIG. 5 may be omitted. In other words, an STA that has received a trigger frame for UL-MU (Uplink-MU) communication may transmit a PPDU with the UHR-SIG omitted in the example of FIG. 5.

In FIG. 5, L-STF or UHR-LTF may be called a preamble or physical preamble, and may be generated/transmitted/received/acquired/decoded in the physical layer (included in the transmitting/receiving STA).

Each block illustrated in Fig. 5 may be called a field/subfield/signal, etc. The names of these fields/subfields/signals may be, as illustrated in Fig. 5, L-STF (legacy short training field), L-LTF (legacy long training field), L-SIG (legacy signal), RL-SIG (repeated L-SIG), U-SIG (Universal Signal), UHR-SIG (UHR-signal), etc.

The subcarrier spacing of the L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG, RL-SIG, U-SIG, and UHR-SIG fields in FIG. 5 may be set to 312.5 kHz, and the subcarrier spacing of the UHR-STF, UHR-LTF, and Data fields may be set to 78.125 kHz. That is, the tone index (or subcarrier index) of the L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG, RL-SIG, U-SIG, and UHR-SIG fields may be expressed in units of 312.5 kHz, and the tone index (or subcarrier index) of the UHR-STF, UHR-LTF, and Data fields may be expressed in units of 78.125 kHz.

In the PPDU of Fig. 5, L-LTF and L-STF may be identical to conventional fields (e.g., non-HT LTF and non-HT STF defined in conventional WLAN standards).

The L-SIG field of FIG. 5 may include, for example, 24 bits of bit information. For example, the 24 bits of information may include a 4 bit Rate field, a 1 bit Reserved bit, a 12 bit Length field, a 1 bit Parity bit, and a 6 bit Tail bit. For example, the 12 bit Length field may include information about the length or time duration of the PPDU. For example, the value of the 12 bit Length field may be determined based on the type of the PPDU. For example, if the PPDU is a non-HT (non-High Throughput), HT (High Throughput), VHT (Very High Throughput) PPDU, or an EHT (extremely high throughput) PPDU or UHR PPDU, the value of the Length field may be determined as a multiple of 3. For example, if the PPDU is a HE PPDU, the value of the Length field may be determined as "a multiple of 3 + 1" or "a multiple of 3 + 2". In other words, for non-HT, HT, VHT PPDU, EHT PPDU, UHR PPDU, the value of the Length field can be determined as a multiple of 3, and for HE (High Efficiency) PPDU, the value of the Length field can be determined as "a multiple of 3 + 1" or "a multiple of 3 + 2". In other words, the Length field in an UHR PPDU is set to a value satisfying the condition that the remainder is zero when LENGTH is divided by 3.

For example, (non-AP and AP) STAs can apply BCC encoding based on a code rate of 1/2 to the 24 bits of information in the L-SIG field. Then, the transmitting STA can obtain 48 BCC coded bits. BPSK modulation can be applied to the 48 coded bits to generate 48 BPSK symbols. The transmitting STA can map the 48 BPSK symbols to positions excluding the pilot subcarriers {subcarrier index -21, -7, +7, +21} and the DC subcarrier {subcarrier index 0}. As a result, the 48 BPSK symbols can be mapped to subcarrier indices -26 to -22, -20 to -8, -6 to -1, +1 to +6, +8 to +20, and +22 to +26. The transmitting STA can additionally map the signal {-1, -1, -1, 1} to the subcarrier indices {-28, -27, +27, +28}. The above signal can be used for channel estimation for the frequency domain corresponding to {-28, -27, +27, +28}.

For example, (non-AP and AP) STA can generate RL-SIG, which is generated in the same manner as L-SIG. BPSK modulation can be applied to RL-SIG. Receiving (non-AP and AP) STA can determine whether the received PPDU is a HE PPDU, EHT PPDU, or UHR PPDU based on the presence of RL-SIG. In other words, if RL-SIG is present, receiving (non-AP and AP) STA can determine whether the received PPDU is one of HE PPDU, EHT PPDU, or UHR PPDU. In other words, if RL-SIG is not present, receiving (non-AP and AP) STA can determine whether the received PPDU is one of non-HT PPDU, HT PPDU, or VHT PPDU. In other words, the RL-SIG field is a repeat of the L-SIG field and is used to differentiate an UHR PPDU from a non-HT PPDU, HT PPDU, and VHT PPDU.

After the RL-SIG in Fig. 5, a U-SIG (Universal SIG) may be inserted. The U-SIG may be called by various names such as the first SIG field, the first SIG, the first type SIG, the control signal, the control signal field, the first (type) control signal, the common control field, and the common control signal.

A U-SIG can contain N bits of information and can include information for identifying the type of EHT PPDU. For example, a U-SIG can be formed based on two symbols (e.g., two consecutive OFDM symbols). Each symbol (e.g., an OFDM symbol) for a U-SIG can have a duration of 4 microseconds. Each symbol of a U-SIG can be used to transmit 26 bits of information. For example, each symbol of a U-SIG can be transmitted and received based on 52 data tones and 4 pilot tones.

For example, A bit information (e.g., 52 uncoded bits) can be transmitted through U-SIG, and the first symbol of U-SIG can transmit the first X bits of information (e.g., 26 uncoded bits) out of the total A bit information, and the second symbol of U-SIG can transmit the remaining Y bits of information (e.g., 26 uncoded bits) out of the total A bit information. For example, the transmitting STA can obtain 26 uncoded bits included in each U-SIG symbol. The transmitting STA can perform convolutional encoding (e.g., BCC encoding) based on a rate of R=1/2 to generate 52 coded bits, and perform interleaving on the 52 coded bits. The transmitting STA can perform BPSK modulation on the interleaved 52 BPSK symbols to generate 52 BPSK symbols allocated to each U-SIG symbol. A single U-SIG symbol can be transmitted based on 56 tones (subcarriers) from subcarrier index -28 to subcarrier index +28, excluding DC index 0. The 52 BPSK symbols generated by the transmitting STA can be transmitted based on the remaining tones (subcarriers) excluding the pilot tones -21, -7, +7, and +21.

For example, A bit information (e.g., 52 uncoded bits) transmitted by U-SIG may include a CRC field (e.g., a 4-bit long field) and a tail field (e.g., a 6-bit long field). The CRC field and the tail field may be transmitted through the second symbol of the U-SIG. The CRC field may be generated based on 26 bits allocated to the first symbol of the U-SIG and the remaining 16 bits excluding the CRC/tail field within the second symbol, and may be generated based on a conventional CRC calculation algorithm. In addition, the tail field may be used to terminate the trellis of the convolutional decoder and may be set to, for example, "000000".

The A bit information (e.g., 52 uncoded bits) transmitted by the U-SIG (or U-SIG field) can be divided into version-independent bits and version-dependent bits. For example, the size of the version-independent bits can be fixed or variable. For example, the version-independent bits can be assigned only to the first symbol of the U-SIG, or the version-independent bits can be assigned to both the first symbol and the second symbol of the U-SIG. For example, the version-independent bits and the version-dependent bits can be called by various names, such as the first control bit and the second control bit.

For example, the version-independent bits of the U-SIG may include a 3-bit PHY version identifier. For example, the 3-bit PHY version identifier may include information related to the PHY version of the transmitted and received PPDU. For example, a first value (e.g., a value of 000) of the 3-bit PHY version identifier may indicate that the transmitted and received PPDU is an EHT PPDU. In addition, a second value (e.g., a value of 001) of the 3-bit PHY version identifier may indicate that the transmitted and received PPDU is an UHR PPDU.

In other words, when the (AP/non-AP) STA transmits an EHT PPDU, it can set the 3-bit PHY version identifier to the first value. In other words, the receiving (AP/non-AP) STA can determine that the received PPDU is an EHT PPDU based on the PHY version identifier having the first value, and can determine that the received PPDU is an UHR PPDU based on the PHY version identifier having the second value.

For example, the version-independent bits of U-SIG may include a 1-bit UL/DL flag field. The first value of the 1-bit UL/DL flag field relates to UL communication, and the second value of the UL/DL flag field relates to DL communication.

For example, the version-independent bits of U-SIG may contain information about the length of the TXOP and information about the BSS color ID.

For example, if a UHR PPDU is classified into various types (e.g., a type related to SU transmission (performed based on UL or DL), a type related to DL transmission, a type related to NDP transmission, a type related to DL non-MU-MIMO, a type related to DL MU-MIMO, a type related to Multi-AP operation, a type related to CBF (Coordinated beamforming), SR (Spatial Reuse), a type related to C-OFDMA (Coordinated OFDMA), a type related to C-TDMA (Coordinated TDMA)), information about the type of the EHT PPDU (e.g., 2-bit or 3-bit information) can be included in the version-dependent bits of the U-SIG.

For example, U-SIG may include 1) a bandwidth field including information about bandwidth, 2) a field including information about a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) technique applied to UHR-SIG, 3) an indication field including information about whether a dual subcarrier modulation (DCM) technique is applied to UHR-SIG, 4) a field including information about the number of symbols used for UHR-SIG, 5) a field including information about whether UHR-SIG is generated over the entire band, 6) a field including information about the type of UHR-LTF/STF, and 7) a field indicating the length of UHR-LTF and the CP length.

Preamble puncturing may be applied to the PPDU of FIG. 5. Preamble puncturing refers to applying puncturing to a portion of the entire bandwidth of the PPDU (e.g., the secondary 20 MHz band). For example, when an 80 MHz PPDU is transmitted, the STA applies puncturing to the secondary 20 MHz band within the 80 MHz band, and can transmit the PPDU only through the primary 20 MHz band and the secondary 40 MHz band.

For example, the pattern of preamble puncturing can be preset. For example, when the first puncturing pattern is applied, puncturing can be applied only to the secondary 20 MHz band within the 80 MHz band. For example, when the second puncturing pattern is applied, puncturing can be applied only to one of the two secondary 20 MHz bands included in the secondary 40 MHz band within the 80 MHz band. For example, when the third puncturing pattern is applied, puncturing can be applied only to the secondary 20 MHz band included in the primary 80 MHz band within the 160 MHz band (or 80+80 MHz band). For example, when the fourth puncturing pattern is applied, a primary 40 MHz band included in the primary 80 MHz band within the 160 MHz band (or 80+80 MHz band) may be present, and puncturing may be applied to at least one 20 MHz channel that does not belong to the primary 40 MHz band.

Information regarding preamble puncturing applied to the PPDU may be included in the U-SIG and/or UHR-SIG. For example, the first field of the U-SIG may include information regarding the contiguous bandwidth of the PPDU, and the second field of the U-SIG may include information regarding preamble puncturing applied to the PPDU.

For example, U-SIG and UHR-SIG may include information regarding preamble puncturing based on the following method. If the bandwidth of the PPDU exceeds 80 MHz, the U-SIGs may be individually configured in units of 80 MHz. For example, if the bandwidth of the PPDU is 160 MHz, the PPDU may include a first U-SIG for the first 80 MHz band and a second U-SIG for the second 80 MHz band. In this case, the first field of the first U-SIG may include information regarding the 160 MHz bandwidth, and the second field of the first U-SIG may include information regarding preamble puncturing applied to the first 80 MHz band (e.g., information regarding a preamble puncturing pattern). Additionally, the first field of the second U-SIG may include information about a 160 MHz bandwidth, and the second field of the second U-SIG may include information about preamble puncturing applied to the second 80 MHz band (e.g., information about a preamble puncturing pattern). Meanwhile, the UHR-SIG consecutive to the first U-SIG may include information about preamble puncturing applied to the second 80 MHz band (e.g., information about a preamble puncturing pattern), and the UHR-SIG consecutive to the second U-SIG may include information about preamble puncturing applied to the first 80 MHz band (e.g., information about a preamble puncturing pattern).

Additionally or alternatively, U-SIG and UHR-SIG may include information about preamble puncturing based on the following methods. U-SIG may include information about preamble puncturing for all bands (e.g., information about preamble puncturing patterns). That is, UHR-SIG does not include information about preamble puncturing, and only U-SIG may include information about preamble puncturing (e.g., information about preamble puncturing patterns).

U-SIGs can be configured in 20 MHz units. For example, if an 80 MHz PPDU is configured, U-SIGs can be duplicated. That is, four identical U-SIGs can be included within an 80 MHz PPDU. PPDUs exceeding the 80 MHz bandwidth can contain different U-SIGs.

The UHR-SIG of FIG. 5 may include control information for a receiving STA. The UHR-SIG may be transmitted via at least one symbol, and each symbol may have a length of 4 us. Information regarding the number of symbols used for the UHR-SIG may be included in the U-SIG.

UHR-SIG provides additional signals to the U-SIG field to enable STAs to interpret/decode UHR PPDUs. The UHR-SIG field may contain U-SIG overflow bits that are common to all users. The UHR-SIG field also contains resource allocation information, allowing STAs to look up resources used in fields containing data fields/UHR-STF/UHR-LTF (e.g., UHR modulated fields of an UHR PPDU).

The frequency resources of the UHR-LTF, UHR-STF, and data fields illustrated in FIG. 5 can be determined based on RUs (resource units) defined by multiple subcarriers/tones. That is, the UHR-LTF, UHR-STF, and data fields of this specification can be transmitted/received through RUs (resource units) defined by multiple subcarriers/tones.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the layout of resource units (RUs) used for a 20 MHz PPDU. That is, the UHR-LTF, UHR-STF, and/or data fields included in the 20 MHz PPDU can be transmitted/received through at least one of the various RUs defined in FIG. 6.

As shown at the top of Fig. 6, 26 units (e.g., units corresponding to 26 tones) may be arranged. Six tones may be used as a guard band in the leftmost band of the 20 MHz band, and five tones may be used as a guard band in the rightmost band of the 20 MHz band. In addition, seven DC tones may be inserted in the center band, i.e., the DC band, and 26 units corresponding to 13 tones may exist on each side of the DC band. In addition, 26 units, 52 units, and 106 units may be allocated to other bands. Each unit may be allocated for a receiving station, i.e., a user.

Meanwhile, the RU arrangement of FIG. 6 is utilized not only in a situation for multiple users (MUs) but also in a situation for a single user (SU), in which case it is possible to use one 242-unit as shown at the bottom of FIG. 4, in which case three DC tones can be inserted.

In the example of Fig. 6, RUs of various sizes, such as 26-RU, 52-RU, 106-RU, and 242-RU, are proposed. Since the specific sizes of these RUs can be expanded or increased, the present embodiment is not limited to the specific sizes of each RU (e.g., the number of corresponding tones). In this specification, N-RU may be represented as N-tone RU, etc. For example, 26-RU may be represented as 26-tone RU.

Figure 7 is a diagram showing the layout of resource units (RUs) used for 40MHz PPDU.

As in the example of Fig. 6 where RUs of various sizes were used, the example of Fig. 7 can also use 26-RU, 52-RU, 106-RU, 242-RU, 484-RU, etc. In addition, 5 DC tones can be inserted at the center frequency, 12 tones can be used as a guard band in the leftmost band of the 40 MHz band, and 11 tones can be used as a guard band in the rightmost band of the 40 MHz band.

Additionally, as illustrated, 484 RUs may be used when used for a single user. Meanwhile, the specific number of RUs may be changed, as in the example of FIG. 6.

Figure 8 is a diagram illustrating the layout of resource units (RUs) used for an 80MHz PPDU. The layout of resource units (RUs) used in this specification may vary. For example, the layout of resource units (RUs) used in the 80MHz band may vary.

Figure 9 illustrates an operation according to UL-MU. As illustrated, a transmitting STA (e.g., AP) can acquire a TXOP (925) by performing channel access through contending (e.g., backoff operation) and transmit a trigger frame (930). That is, the transmitting STA (e.g., AP) can transmit a PPDU including a trigger frame (930). When a PPDU including a trigger frame is received, a TB (trigger-based) PPDU is transmitted after a delay of SIFS.

TB PPDUs (941, 942) are transmitted at the same time and can be transmitted from multiple STAs (e.g., User STAs) whose AIDs are indicated in the Trigger frame (930). The ACK frame (950) for the TB PPDU can be implemented in various forms. For example, the ACK frame (950) for the TB PPDU can be implemented in the form of a BA (block ACK).

In FIG. 9, transmission(s) of a Trigger Frame (930), TB PPDU (941, 942) and/or ACK frame (950) can be performed within a TXOP (925).

Figure 10 shows an example of channels used/supported/defined within the 2.4 GHz band.

The 2.4 GHz band may be referred to by other names, such as the first band (band). Furthermore, the 2.4 GHz band may refer to a frequency range in which channels with a center frequency adjacent to 2.4 GHz (e.g., channels with a center frequency between 2.4 and 2.5 GHz) are used/supported/defined.

The 2.4 GHz band may include multiple 20 MHz channels. The 20 MHz within the 2.4 GHz band may have multiple channel indices (e.g., indices 1 through 14). For example, the center frequency of a 20 MHz channel assigned channel index 1 may be 2.412 GHz, the center frequency of a 20 MHz channel assigned channel index 2 may be 2.417 GHz, and the center frequency of a 20 MHz channel assigned channel index N may be (2.407 + 0.005*N) GHz. The channel indices may be referred to by various names, such as channel numbers. The specific numerical values of the channel indices and center frequencies may change.

Figure 10 exemplarily illustrates four channels within the 2.4 GHz band. The illustrated first frequency region (1010) to fourth frequency region (1040) may each include one channel. For example, the first frequency region (1010) may include channel 1 (a 20 MHz channel having an index of 1). In this case, the center frequency of channel 1 may be set to 2412 MHz. The second frequency region (1020) may include channel 6. In this case, the center frequency of channel 6 may be set to 2437 MHz. The third frequency region (1030) may include channel 11. In this case, the center frequency of channel 11 may be set to 2462 MHz. The fourth frequency region (1040) may include channel 14. In this case, the center frequency of channel 14 may be set to 2484 MHz.

Figure 11 illustrates an example of channels used/supported/defined within the 5 GHz band.

The 5 GHz band may be referred to by other names, such as a second band/band, etc. The 5 GHz band may refer to a frequency range in which channels with center frequencies greater than or equal to 5 GHz and less than 6 GHz (or less than 5.9 GHz) are used/supported/defined. Alternatively, the 5 GHz band may include multiple channels between 4.5 GHz and 5.5 GHz. The specific figures shown in FIG. 11 are subject to change.

Multiple channels within the 5 GHz band include Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII)-1, UNII-2, UNII-3, and ISM. UNII-1 may be referred to as UNII Low. UNII-2 may include frequency ranges called UNII Mid and UNII-2Extended. UNII-3 may be referred to as UNII-Upper.

Within the 5 GHz band, multiple channels can be configured, and the bandwidth of each channel can be variously configured, such as 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, or 160 MHz. For example, the 5170 MHz to 5330 MHz frequency domain/range within UNII-1 and UNII-2 can be divided into eight 20 MHz channels. The 5170 MHz to 5330 MHz frequency domain/range can be divided into four channels through a 40 MHz frequency domain. The 5170 MHz to 5330 MHz frequency domain/range can be divided into two channels through an 80 MHz frequency domain. Alternatively, the 5170 MHz to 5330 MHz frequency domain/range can be divided into one channel through a 160 MHz frequency domain.

Figure 12 illustrates an example of channels used/supported/defined within the 6 GHz band.

The 6 GHz band may also be referred to by other names, such as the third band/band. The 6 GHz band may refer to the frequency range in which channels with center frequencies above 5.9 GHz are used, supported, or defined. The specific figures shown in Figure 12 are subject to change.

For example, the 20 MHz channel of FIG. 12 can be defined from 5.940 GHz. Specifically, the leftmost channel among the 20 MHz channels of FIG. 12 can have an index of 1 (or channel index, channel number, etc.), and a center frequency of 5.945 GHz can be assigned. That is, the center frequency of the indexed channel N can be determined as (5.940 + 0.005*N) GHz.

Accordingly, the indexes (or channel numbers) of the 20 MHz channels of FIG. 12 are 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 25, 29, 33, 37, 41, 45, 49, 53, 57, 61, 65, 69, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 93, 97, 101, 105, 109, 113, 117, 121, 125, 129, 133, 137, 141, 145, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165, 169, 173, 177, 181, 185, 189, 193, It can be 197, 201, 205, 209, 213, 217, 221, 225, 229, 233. Also, according to the (5.940 + 0.005*N) GHz rule mentioned above, the indices of the 40 MHz channels in Fig. 12 can be 3, 11, 19, 27, 35, 43, 51, 59, 67, 75, 83, 91, 99, 107, 115, 123, 131, 139, 147, 155, 163, 171, 179, 187, 195, 203, 211, 219, 227.

Below, the structure and types/subtypes of MAC frames are described.

Fig. 13 illustrates an example of a header of a MAC frame. As illustrated, the MAC frame may include a frame control field/information of 2 octets in length, a duration field/information of 2 octets in length, a RA (Receiver Address) field/information of 6 octets in length, and a TA (Transmitter Address) field/information of 6 octets in length. As illustrated in Fig. 13, the four fields may be consecutive to each other. The MAC header of Fig. 13 may be modified in various ways, and a new field may be inserted between the four illustrated fields, or at least one of the illustrated fields may be omitted.

The MAC header illustrated in Fig. 13 may be positioned at the very front of a MAC frame. That is, the MAC frame may include a MAC header as illustrated in Fig. 13 and MAC body fields/information subsequent to the MAC header. The MAC frame including the MAC header of Fig. 13 is inserted/included in the data field of the PPDU (e.g., UHR PPDU) illustrated in Fig. 5.

The MAC frames included in the data field of the PPDU of this specification can be classified into various types. For example, the MAC frames of this specification can be classified into control frames, management frames, and data frames.

For example, the management frame includes Association Request, Association Response, Reassociation Request, Reassociation Response, Probe Request, Probe Response, Beacon, Disassociation, Authentication, and Deauthentication frames/signals defined in conventional WLAN. For the management frame, the values of the type fields (B3 and B2) in FIG. 13 are set to 00. In addition, the values of the subtype fields (B7, B6, B5, B4) in FIG. 13 are as follows: Association Request (0000), Association Response (0001), Reassociation Request (0010), Reassociation Response (0011), Probe Request (0100), Probe Response (0101), Beacon (1000), Disassociation (1010), Authentication (1011), Deauthentication (1100).

For example, the control frame includes Trigger Beamforming Report Poll, NDP Announcement (NDPA), Control Frame Extension, Control Wrapper, Block Ack Request (BlockAckReq), Block Ack (BlockAck), PS-Poll, RTS, CTS, Ack, and CF-End frames/signals defined in conventional WLAN. For the control frame, the value of the type field (B3 and B2) in FIG. 13 is set to 01. Also, the values of the subtype fields (B7, B6, B5, B4) of FIG. 13 are as follows: Trigger (0010), Beamforming Report Poll (0100), NDP Announcement (0101), Control Frame Extension (0110), Control Wrapper (0111), BlockAckReq (1000), BlockAck (1001), PS-Poll (1010), RTS (1011), CTS (1100), Ack (1101), CF-End (1110).

For example, the data frame includes (QoS) Data, (QoS) Null, etc. defined in conventional WLAN. For the management frame, the value of the type field (B3 and B2) of Fig. 13 is set to 10.

The MAC frame/signal used in this specification can be identified through the type field/information and subtype field/information described above. For example, the “trigger frame” in this specification can mean a MAC frame in which the type bits B3 and B2 bits in the frame control field of the MAC header are set to 01, and the subtype bits B7, B6, B5, B4 bits in the frame control field are also set to 0010. Various MAC frames described in this specification are inserted/included in the data fields of various PPDUs (e.g., HE/VHT/HE/EHT/UHR PPDUs).

FIG. 14 illustrates a modified example of a transmitting device and/or a receiving device of the present specification.

The devices (e.g., AP STA, non-AP STA) illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 4 may be modified as illustrated in FIG. 14. The transceiver (630) of FIG. 14 may be identical to the transceivers (113, 123) of FIG. 1. The transceiver (630) of FIG. 14 may include a receiver and a transmitter.

The processor (610) of FIG. 14 may be identical to the processor (111, 121) of FIG. 1. Alternatively, the processor (610) of FIG. 14 may be identical to the processing chip (114, 124) of FIG. 1.

The memory (150) of FIG. 14 may be the same as the memory (112, 122) of FIG. 1. Alternatively, the memory (150) of FIG. 14 may be a separate external memory different from the memory (112, 122) of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 14, a power management module (611) manages power to a processor (610) and/or a transceiver (630). A battery (612) supplies power to the power management module (611). A display (613) outputs results processed by the processor (610). A keypad (614) receives input to be used by the processor (610). The keypad (614) may be displayed on the display (613). A SIM card (615) may be an integrated circuit used to securely store an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) and an associated key used to identify and authenticate a subscriber in a mobile phone device, such as a mobile phone or computer.

Referring to FIG. 14, the speaker (640) can output sound-related results processed by the processor (610). The microphone (641) can receive sound-related input to be used by the processor (610).

The wireless LAN system (e.g., IEEE 802.11bn or UHR system) related to this specification aims to support ultra-high reliability in signal transmission to STAs. To this end, various technologies are being considered for high throughput, low latency, and extended range support. Based on these various technologies, a method for extending the range of signal transmission may be possible to expand not only reliability within the BSS but also signal transmission coverage of the BSS. The following technical features are related to proposing a new structure/type of frame/PPDU/preamble for extended range (ER) in a wireless LAN system.

A device (e.g., non-AP STA, AP, non-AP MLD, AP, MLD) based on the present specification may support a new ELR (extended long range or enhanced long range) PPDU designed to overcome link budget imbalances between uplink and downlink and improve spectral efficiency of STAs operating far from the AP. The expression ELR may be replaced with expressions such as ER (extended range or enhanced range). Accordingly, expressions such as ER transmission may be expressed as ELR transmission. For example, in the following example, an ER PPDU may also be called an ELR PPDU. For example, in the following example, an ER preamble may mean a preamble included in the ER PPDU or ELR PPDU. Accordingly, a PPDU including an ER preamble may be called an ER PPDU or an ELR PPDU. For example, an ELR PPDU has a fixed bandwidth of 20 MHz and can be used for both downlink and uplink in the 2.4 GHz band, but only for uplink in the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands. In other words, an ELR PPDU may only be 20 MHz and may not have bandwidths such as 40/80/160/320 MHz.

This specification is not limited to the technical features described above, and supports various ER or ELR transmissions. The various formats/structures of ER frames considered in this specification are described below.

Fig. 15 illustrates an example of a PPDU format of the present specification. The U-SIG fields (e.g., U-SIG1 and U-SIG2) of Fig. 15 may include all or part of the bits of the U-SIG described in Fig. 5. Various fields (e.g., L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG, RL-SIG, U-SIG1, RU-SIG1, U-SIG2, RU-SIG2) illustrated in the example of Fig. 15 may be included in an ER preamble according to an example of the present specification. For example, the illustrated RU-SIG1 is a field that is continuous to U-SIG1 and may be a repeat of U-SIG1. For example, the illustrated RU-SIG2 is a field that is continuous to U-SIG2 and may be a repeat of U-SIG2. In other words, the bit information (or contents) included in RU-SIG1 may be the same as the bit information (or contents) included in U-SIG1. For example, the bit information (or contents) included in RU-SIG2 may be the same as the bit information (or contents) included in U-SIG2. An example in Fig. 15 is a part of an EL/ELR PPDU, and various fields (e.g., STF, LTF, ELR-field, DATA, etc.) may be located after the illustrated field.

In the example of Fig. 15, the constellation applied to U-SIG1 (e.g., BPSK, QBPSK, etc.) and the constellation applied to RU-SIG1 may be determined based on the format of the transmitted and received PPDU, or may be determined based on whether the transmitted and received PPDU is an ER/ELR PPDU. For example, if BPSK is applied to U-SIG1 and QBPSK is applied to RU-SIG1, a receiving STA (e.g., AP or non-AP STA) that receives the PPDU can know that the received PPDU is an ER/ELR PPDU.

The example of FIG. 15 can be varied in various ways. For example, various fields can be included in the ER/ELR PPDU, such as the examples of FIG. 16 and/or FIG. 17 below.

Fig. 16 illustrates another example of the PPDU format of the present specification. As illustrated, U-SIG1 and U-SIG2 may be identical to the example of Fig. 15. Additionally or alternatively, the U-SIG fields (e.g., U-SIG1 and U-SIG2) of Fig. 16 may include all or part of the bits of the U-SIG described in Fig. 5. The example of Fig. 16 is a part of an ER/ELR PPDU, and various fields (e.g., STF, LTF, ELR-field, DATA, etc.) may be located after the illustrated fields.

Fig. 17 illustrates another example of the PPDU format of the present specification. As illustrated, the ER/ELR PPDU of the present specification may sequentially include L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG, RL-SIG, and U-SIG. For example, the U-SIG may have two symbols. For example, the example of Fig. 17 may include an ELR-MARK consecutive to the U-SIG. The U-SIG may include all or part of the bits of the U-SIG illustrated in Fig. 5, and may include various pieces of information described below. For example, the ELR-MARK is described in detail below.

Technical Features 1.

Hereinafter, various technical features that can be applied to ER/ELR PPDU, ER preamble, and/or ER/ELR transmission are described. For example, the bandwidth (BW) for ER transmission can be fixed to 20 MHz or set to 40 MHz or more. For example, an ER/ELR PPDU with a BW of 40 MHz or more can be duplicated in units of 20 MHz subchannels. Additionally or alternatively, a signal occupying any one 20 MHz subchannel within an ER/ELR PPDU with a BW of 40 MHz or more can be allocated for different STAs.

For example, the RUs allocated to an ER/ELR PPDU can be determined in various ways. For example, the size of the RUs included in the payload (and/or ER/ELR SIG field) of the ER/ELR PPDU can be 242-tone RUs, 106-tone RUs, one of the 52-tone RUs, or a combination of multiple RUs. For example, the following RU combinations can be used when transmitting ER/ELR.

Combination 1: 106 tones/subcarriers + 242 tones/subcarriers

Second combination: 52 tones/subcarriers + 106 tones/subcarriers

Third combination: 52 tones/subcarriers + 106 tones/subcarriers + 242 tones/subcarriers

For example, the index of the RU/subcarriers group allocated for ER/ELR transmission considers the low frequency order, and for example, in the case of 106 tones/subcarriers, it can be the same as 106 tone RU index 1 within 20MHz. Similarly, in the case of using 52 tones/subcarriers, the index for this can be indicated using the 52 tone RU index of 20MHz.

Additionally or alternatively, an RU allocated to an ER/ELR PPDU may only have one size. For example, the size of the RU included in the payload (and/or ER/ELR SIG field) of an ER/ELR PPDU may be 52-tone RU. In this case, the 52-tone RU may be duplicated multiple times in the frequency domain.

Technical Features 2.

Below, the technical features applied to the U-SIG (field) of the ER/ELR PPDU and/or ER preamble are described.

Technical Features 2.1.

For example, the U-SIG may include a PHY version identifier. The PHY version identifier may be called by various names such as first information/field/bit/subfield, etc. The PHY version identifier may identify whether the PHY version of the PPDU corresponds to 11bn or next wi-fi. For example, since the ER/ELR PPDU is a PPDU based on IEEE 802.11bn (or UHR), the value of the PHY version identifier may be 1 (one). For example, the U-SIG PHY version identifier may have a length of 3 bits.

Technical Features 2.2.

Additionally or alternatively, the U-SIG may include a field (e.g., BW field) for identifying the bandwidth (or BW) of the PPDU. As described above, the ER/ELR PPDU may only have a bandwidth of 20 MHz. Accordingly, the field (e.g., BW field) for identifying the bandwidth (or BW) may always be set to 0. For example, any value other than 0 may be reserved. In another example, if the ER/ELR PPDU is allowed to have a bandwidth of 40 MHz or more, the bandwidth of the PPDU may be identified by the BW field. The field (e.g., BW field) for identifying the bandwidth (or BW) of the PPDU may be called by various names such as second information/field/bit/subfield, etc.

Technical Features 2.3.

Additionally or alternatively, the U-SIG may include a field related to PPDU Type And Compression Mode. The field related to PPDU Type And Compression Mode may be called by various names such as third information/field/bit/subfield, etc.

The above PPDU Type And Compression Mode or third information may include information related to the PPDU Type and/or Compression Mode. For example, the value of the PPDU Type And Compression Mode may be set to indicate/identify OFDMA transmission, SU transmission, sounding NDP, non-OFDMA DL MU-MIMO transmission, TB PPDU, etc. For example, the PPDU Type And Compression Mode may have a length of 2 bits and thus may have values of 0, 1, 2, and 3.

For example, the PPDU Type And Compression Mode or third information may be set to 3 (three) to indicate/identify ER/ELR transmission (or ER/ELR PPDU) when the related ER/ELR PPDU is transmitted on DL (downlink).

For example, the PPDU Type And Compression Mode or the third information may be set to 3 (or 2) to indicate/identify ER/ELR transmission (or ER/ELR PPDU) when the related ER/ELR PPDU is transmitted on UL (uplink). For example, the third value may be set to 3 (three) regardless of UL/DL to indicate/identify ER/ELR transmission (or ER/ELR PPDU).

The above PPDU Type And Compression Mode or third information may be related to the following technical effects. For example, when transmitting an ER/ELR PPDU, the value of the PPDU Type And Compression Mode included in the U-SIG can be used to clearly indicate that the transmitted PPDU is an ER/ELR PPDU. This allows a receiving STA (e.g., receiver) to quickly distinguish the received PPDU. Specifically, when transmitting an ER/ELR, a UHR STA can determine that the received PPDU is an ER PPDU by using the value of the PPDU Type And Compression Mode included in the U-SIG of the received PPDU. At this time, if the receiving STA does not support ER PPDU transmission, additional reception/processing for the corresponding PPDU can be stopped, which has the advantage of saving reception power. Additionally, for legacy STAs capable of decoding U-SIG (e.g., IEEE 802.11be STAs), it can be recognized that the value of the PPDU Type And Compression Mode is set to an undefined value (e.g., 3). This allows the legacy STA to confirm that the received PPDU is not an EHT PPDU and to save reception power by not performing any further decoding after the U-SIG of the PPDU.

Technical Features 2.4.

The above U-SIG may include information about the RU/subcarriers group used in ER/ELR transmission. The information about the RU/subcarriers group may be called by various names, such as fourth information/field/bit/subfield.

For example, the fourth information may be included in the first or second symbol of two U-SIG symbols. For example, the fourth information may be defined using disregards bits (e.g., B0 to B15) of the second symbol (e.g., U-SIG sym2). For example, when ER/ELR transmission is performed using two RUs, the information may be configured with 1 bit. For example, when 106 tones/subcarriers and 242 tones/subcarriers are used, the information may be set to a value of 0, and when 106 tones/subcarriers are used, the information may be set to a value of 1. For example, the fourth information may also be used for a combination of a 52-tone RU and a 106-tone RU. For example, when the fourth information is configured with 1 bit, it may be located in the B0 bit of the second symbol of the U-SIG field. For example, the fourth information can be used for a combination of a 52-tone RU, a 106-tone RU, and a 242-tone RU, in which case the fourth information can have a length of 2 bits. For example, a first value (e.g., binary 00) of the fourth information having a length of 2 bits can indicate/identify a 52-tone RU, a second value (e.g., binary 01) of the fourth information can indicate/identify a 106-tone RU, and a third value (e.g., binary 10) of the fourth information can indicate/identify a 242-tone RU. For example, the fourth information having the bit length can be located in bits B0 to B1 of the second symbol of the U-SIG field.

Technical Features 2.5.

For example, the ER/ELR PPDU may further include a field with a similar function to the conventional EHT-SIG field. For example, the field may have various names such as EHT-SIG field, UHR-SIG field, or ER/ELR-SIG field. For example, information about RUs included in the ER/ELR PPDU may be defined using B13 to B16, which are defined as Disregard in the common field of the UHR-SIG field (or ER/ELR-SIG field).

Information about RU included in the above UHR-SIG field (or ER/ELR-SIG field) may be called by various names such as fifth information/field/bit/subfield.

For example, the fifth information may be composed of 1 bit or 2 bits depending on the number of RUs used in ER/ELR transmission. For example, when ER/ELR transmission is performed using 2 RUs, the fifth information may be composed of 1 bit. For example, when 106 tones/subcarriers and 242 tones/subcarriers are used for ER/ELR transmission, the fifth information may have a first value (e.g., 0), and when 106 tones/subcarriers are used, the fifth information may have a second value (e.g., 1). For example, the fifth information may also be used for a combination of a 52-tone RU and a 106-tone RU. For example, the fifth information may have a length of 1 bit and be defined in B13 within the common field of the UHR-SIG field (or ER/ELR-SIG field).

Additionally or alternatively, when three types of RU are used for ER transmission (e.g., 52, 106, 242 tones/subcarriers are used), the fifth information may be composed of two bits. A first value of the two bits (e.g., binary 00) may identify/indicate 52 tones/subcarriers, a second value of the two bits (e.g., binary 01) may identify/indicate 106 tones/subcarriers, a third value of the two bits (e.g., binary 10) may identify/indicate 242 tones/subcarriers, and a fourth value of the two bits (e.g., binary 11) may be reserved. For example, the above 2 bits can be defined in B13 to B14 within the common field of the UHR-SIG field (or ER/ELR-SIG field).

For example, the UHR-SIG field (or ER/ELR-SIG field) may include one user field for the intended non-AP STA receiving the ER/ELR transmission. At this time, the UHR-SIG is transmitted modulated with MCS 15. That is, when transmitting ER/ELR, the MCS for UHR-SIG is set to MCS15 and transmitted. Accordingly, since the MCS for UHR-SIG can be fixed when transmitting ER/ELR in UHR, the MCS field included in U-SIG can be used to indicate other information when transmitting ER/ELR.

Additionally or alternatively, the MCS field in the U-SIG field may be used for RU allocation for ER/ELR transmission as defined above when transmitting ER/ELR. For example, when performing ER/ELR transmission using two RUs, it may be indicated using two values of the MCS field. For example, when using 106 tones/subcarriers and 242 tones/subcarriers, the value may be set to 0 to indicate 106 tones/subcarriers and the value may be set to 1 to indicate 242 tones/subcarriers. The above example may be modified in various ways and may consist of 52 & 106 tones/subcarriers. The remaining values not mentioned above may be reserved. For example, if three RUs (52, 106, 242 tones/subcarriers) are used instead of two, the MCS field value 0 could represent 52 tones/subcarriers, 1 could represent 106 tones/subcarriers, and 2 could represent 242 tones/subcarriers. In this case, the remaining values not mentioned may be reserved.

Technical Features 2.6.

Additionally or alternatively, the value of the number of spatial streams (e.g., Nss) used in ER/ELR transmission may be limited to 1. For example, since Nss = 1, the Nss field included in UHR-SIG in ER/ELR transmission may be used for other purposes (e.g., indication). Just as the content of the MCS field described above is reconstructed, the Nss field may also have its content reconstructed to indicate an RU used in ER/ELR transmission.

For example, when performing ER/ELR transmission using two subcarrier groups/RUs, it can be indicated using two values of the NSS field. For example, when using 106 tones/subcarriers and 242 tones/subcarriers, value = 0 can be set to indicate 106 tones/subcarriers and value = 1 can be set to indicate 242 tones/subcarriers. For example, 52 & 106 tones/subcarriers can be used instead of 106 & 242 tones/subcarriers. The remaining values of NSS that are not mentioned can be reserved.

For example, when using 3 RUs (e.g., 52, 106, 242 tones/subcarriers), the NSS field value 0 may represent 52 tones/subcarriers, 1 may represent 106 tones/subcarriers, and 2 may represent 242 tones/subcarriers. The remaining values not mentioned may be reserved.

Technical Features 2.7.

Additionally or alternatively, the RU used in ER/ELR transmission (e.g., the RU included in the payload of the ER/ELR PPDU or the ER/ELR SIG field) may be fixed to one size and used, and in this case, an indication for the used RU may not be performed separately. For example, the size of the RU used in ER/ELR transmission (e.g., the RU included in the payload/ELR-SIG of the ER/ELR PPDU) may be fixed to 52 tone RU.

For example, it is desirable that the RU used in ER/ELR transmission (e.g., the RU included in the payload/ELR-SIG of the ER/ELR PPDU) be repeated four times in the frequency domain.

Technical Features 3.

Below, various examples of the U-SIG and ELR-SIG fields included in a PPDU for ER/ELR transmission (e.g., ER/ELR PPDU) are described.

Technical Features 3.1.

The following examples include examples that further specify the technical features 2.1 to 2.3 described above. For example, examples of the first information/field/bit/subfield described in the technical feature 2.1 described above (e.g., PHY version identifier of U-SIG), the second information/field/bit/subfield described in the technical feature 2.2 described above (e.g., a field for identifying bandwidth (or BW) of PPDU), and/or the third information/field/bit/subfield described in the technical feature 2.3 described above (e.g., a field related to PPDU Type And Compression Mode) may be configured as follows.

For example, the U-SIG1 symbol (e.g., the first U-SIG symbol among two U-SIG symbols) containing the version independent field defined in IEEE 802.11be (or EHT system) can be configured by considering the existing structure. For example, the U-SIG1 of the U-SIG field included in the ER/ELR PPDU (e.g., the first U-SIG symbol among two U-SIG symbols) can be defined as follows. The bits shown in Table 1 below can be called by various names such as information/field/subfield, etc.

Bit Subfield Number of bits U-SIG-1 B0-B2 PHY Version identifier 3 B3-B5 Bandwidth 3 B6 UL/DL 1 B7-B12 BSS color 6 B13-B19 TXOP 7 B20-B24 Disregard 5 B25 Validate 1

For example, the following information/fields/bits/subfields included in U-SIG1 of ER/ELR PPDU can be set to specific values as follows. For example, PHY version identifier included in B0 bit to B2 bit can be set to 1 to indicate/identify ER/ELR PPDU or to indicate/identify UHR PHY version. For example, Bandwidth included in B3 bit to B5 bit can have a value of 0, thereby indicating/identifying that ER/ELR PPDU is 20MHz BW. For example, Disregard included in B20 bit to B24 bit can be set to a value of (binary) 11111. For example, Validate included in B25 bit can be set to a value of 1.

Additionally or alternatively, U-SIG2 (e.g., the second U-SIG symbol among two U-SIG symbols) may be structured as follows: The bits shown in Table 2 may be referred to by various names such as information/field/subfield, etc.

Bit Subfield Number of bits U-SIG-2 B0-B1 PPDU Type And Compression Mode 2 B2-B15 Validate 14 B16-B19 CRC 4 B20-B25 Tail 6

For example, U-SIG2 may consist of PPDU Type And Compression Mode, Validate, CRC, and/or tail.

For example, in order to indicate an ER/ELR PPDU, the PPDU Type And Compression Mode field may be set to a value of 3, as already described in Technical Feature 2.3. When the PPDU Type And Compression Mode field has a value of 3, all or part of the remaining bits of U-SIG2 excluding CRC (e.g., B16-B19) and tail (e.g., B20-B25) may be set as a validate field. For example, when the validate field has a length of n bits, individual bits of the n bits may all be set to 1. For example, the validate field may be located at bits B13 to B15 in U-SIG2. In other words, the validate field may have a length of 3 bits and a value of (binary) 111 or a value of 7.

For example, 11bn STAs (e.g., ELR capable STA or none capable STA) that receive a PPDU via the U-SIG2 symbol can check whether the received PPDU is ELR (or whether an ER/ELR PPDU is received). That is, whether the received PPDU is an ER/ELR PPDU can be detected early by checking whether the value of PPDU Type And Compression Mode has a value of 3 and whether the validate field/bit is all set to 1 (all 1s).

Therefore, as described above, early detection of whether or not an ELR PPDU is received can be performed through U-SIG, and when an ELR PPDU is received, a non-intended STA can stop processing the received PPDU to perform power saving.

In other words, in addition to setting the value of PPDU Type And Compression Mode to 3 on U-SIG2, an example in this specification proposes an additional validate field/bit/subfield of length n bits (e.g., 2, 3, or 14 bits, etc.) on U-SIG2. For example, if we rely only on the value of PPDU Type And Compression Mode, even if an error occurs in the process of decoding the value of PPDU Type And Compression Mode, there may be no problem passing the CRC (e.g., B16-B19) check on U-SIG2. For example, since the value of PPDU Type And Compression Mode could have values such as 0/1/2 in existing WIFI systems, even if an error occurs in which the value is decoded to a value other than 3, the error may be difficult to detect with only the CRC check. In addition, various fields included in U-SIG1 may not be suitable for indicating/identifying ER/ELR PPDUs because they already have defined purposes. Accordingly, one example of this specification proposes an example of locating a 2-bit long PPDU Type And Compression Mode information/field in U-SIG2, while adding an n-bit long validate field/bit/subfield to the U-SIG2 and setting the value of the validate field/bit/subfield to “all 1s”. This reduces errors that occur when determining errors only with the CRC included in U-SIG2, and allows the receiving STA to accurately detect/decode ER/ELR PPDUs.

Technical Features 3.2.

Below, more specific examples are proposed for the ER/ELR SIG field mentioned in the above-mentioned technical feature 2.5, etc. For example, an ER/ELR PPDU may define an ELR-SIG field together with a U-SIG field. For example, the ELR SIG field may contain common information and user-specific information, or may contain multiple pieces of information without distinction. For example, the ELR-SIG field may contain some of the information included in the existing U-SIG field.

For example, the ELR SIG field may contain information necessary to interpret the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the ELR SIG field may consist of two symbols or parts. For example, ELR-SIG-1 (e.g., the first symbol/part of the two ELR-SIG symbols/parts) and/or ELR-SIG-2 (e.g., the second symbol/part of the two ELR-SIG symbols/parts) may contain at least one of the following information:

1st ER/ELR-SIG Information:

This information may be a PHY Version identifier. For example, it may be 3 bits long or 1 bit long. For example, this information may indicate the ELR PPDU version. For example, this information may be set to be the same as or different from the PHY Version identifier of the U-SIG.

For example, the information may be called by various names such as ELR Version Identifier. For example, if the ER/ELR PPDU of the present specification is based on the UHR PPDU, the PHY version of the ER/ELR PPDU of the present specification may be UHR. Accordingly, the value of the PHY Version identifier (e.g., 3 bits) of the U-SIG may be set to 1. Alternatively, the first ER/ELR-SIG information (or ELR Version Identifier) may be related to distinguishing ELR versions. In other words, the ER/ELR PPDU may be configured in various ways/versions, and the first ER/ELR-SIG information (or ELR Version Identifier) may be used to identify the ER/ELR version. In this case, when the ER/ELR PPDU of the present specification is configured, the first ER/ELR-SIG information (or ELR Version Identifier) may have a value of 0, and when an ER/ELR PPDU having improved features compared to the ER/ELR PPDU of the present specification is configured, the first ER/ELR-SIG information may have a value of 1.

2nd ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may be UL/DL. The information may relate to whether the ER/ELR PPDU is transmitted on UL or DL.

Third ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may be a TXOP. It may contain information about the duration of the TXOP associated with the PPDU.

4th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may be an LDPC extra symbol. It may contain information related to the presence of an LDPC extra (OFDM) symbol. In other words, the information may contain information regarding whether additional OFDM symbols are required for LDPC encoding of the PPDU.

The above fourth ER/ELR-SIG information may have a length of 1 bit, and if the information has a value of 1, it may indicate that an LDPC extra symbol exists. For example, if the information has a value of 0, it may indicate that an LDPC extra symbol does not exist.

5th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may be a Pre-FEC Padding Factor. For example, the information may be configured in the same manner as the Pre-FEC Padding Factor included in the HE-SIG-A field of a conventional HE MU PPDU.

6th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may be PE Disambiguity. For example, the information may be configured in the same manner as PE Disambiguity included in the HE-SIG-A field of a conventional HE MU PPDU.

7th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may be an STA-ID. The information may be 11 bits long, for example. For example, the information may be used for STA identification.

8th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may include information regarding the MCS applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the information may have a length of 1 bit. For example, the information may indicate conventional MCS0 and/or MCS1 techniques. For example, if the information has a first value (e.g., 0), the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU may be configured (or encoded) based on BPSK with a coding rate of 1/2. For example, if the information has a second value (e.g., 1), the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU may be configured (or encoded) based on QPSK with a coding rate of 1/2.

9th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may include information related to the coding type (e.g., BCC or LDPC) applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the information may have a length of 1 bit. For example, if the information has a first value (e.g., 0), the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU may be configured (or encoded) based on BCC. For example, if the information has a second value (e.g., 1), the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU may be configured (or encoded) based on LDPC (e.g., LDPC with word lengths of various lengths (e.g., 648, 1296, or 1944)).

10th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information may be a CRC and may be 4 bits long.

11th ER/ELR-SIG Information:

The information can be Tail and can be 6 bits long.

Data transmitted using RU for ER transmission defined above can be transmitted using the following method to ensure a more extended range of transmission.

Technical Features 3.3.

Below, a more specific example of the technical characteristics of the RUs included in the ER/ELR PPDU is described. For example, an example of technical characteristic 2.7 is described below.

For example, the RU included in the payload of an ER/ELR PPDU (and/or the ER/ELR SIG field, etc.) can be 106 tones/subcarriers and 242 tones/subcarriers. For example, when transmitting ER/ELR (e.g., when transmitting and receiving ER/ELR PPDU), the data (or subcarrier/tone/signal) within the allocated RU can be duplicated in the frequency aspect (or frequency domain).

For example, if 106 tones/subcarriers are used for the payload of ER/ELR PPDU (and/or ER/ELR SIG field, etc.), data bits (or bits/tones/subcarriers used for payload/ELR-SIG) can be transmitted by duplication within 106 tones/subcarriers. In this case, it can be repeated in units of 2 tones/subcarriers. For example, data can be transmitted using 52 tones/subcarriers-1 and 52 tones/subcarriers-2 that constitute 106 tones/subcarriers. In this case, 52 tones/subcarriers-2 can be a repetition/duplication of the data carried on 52 tones/subcarriers-1.

For example, data carried on 52 tones/subcarriers can be mapped using BPSK and DCM techniques, or BPSK mapping can be applied and repeated within 106 tones/subcarriers.

The 106 tones/subcarriers configuration related to the above-described technical features can be represented in Fig. 18.

Figure 18 shows an example of replication of the 52-tone RU proposed in this specification.

As illustrated in FIG. 18, two 52 subcarriers can be located within 106 subcarriers. In this case, two null subcarriers can exist within 106 subcarriers, and the first null carrier can exist to the left of 52 subcarriers-1, and the second null subcarrier can exist between 52 subcarriers-1 and 52 subcarriers-2. For example, the position of the null carrier can be configured to be the same as the position of the null tone defined in IEEE 802.11ax/11be. An example of FIG. 18 can be used for the payload (and/or ER/ELR-SIG field) of an ER/ELR PPDU.

The example of Fig. 18 can be modified like the example of Fig. 19 described below.

For example, when 242 tones/subcarriers are used, data bits can utilize 106 tones/subcarriers-1 and 106 tones/subcarriers-2 that make up 242 tones/subcarriers. For example, 26 tones/subcarriers in the middle of 242 tones/subcarriers may or may not be used. In this case, data can be allocated to 106 tones/subcarriers-1 and 106 tones/subcarriers-2 that make up 242 tones/subcarriers. In this case, 106 tones/subcarriers-2 may be a repetition/duplication of the data carried on 106 tones/subcarriers-1. For example, data carried on 106 tones/subcarriers can be composed/modulated/generated based on BPSK and DCM techniques. Alternatively, the data can be mapped using BPSK and repeated/replicated within 242 tones/subcarriers.

The 242 tones/subcarriers configuration related to the above-described technical features can be represented as Fig. 19.

Figure 19 shows an example of replication of the 106-tone RU proposed in this specification.

The above-described example can be modified as in the example of Figure 20 described below.

For example, by repeating the 106 tones/subcarriers configured through a repeating configuration of 52 tones/subcarriers within the above 106 tones/subcarriers, a further improved SNR gain can be obtained at the receiving end. The configuration of 242 tones/subcarriers or 20 MHz configured in this way is as shown in FIG. 20.

Figure 20 shows an example of replication of the 52-tone RU proposed in this specification.

For example, in the example of FIG. 20, 26 subcarriers located around the DC terms may not be used. For example, when using two 52 subcarriers within 106 subcarriers, there are two null subcarriers, the first null carrier may be located to the left of 52 subcarriers-1, and the second null subcarrier may be located between 52 subcarriers-1 and 52 subcarriers-2. In other words, 52 subcarriers-1 may be replicated in units of 52-tone RUs.

The above-described example can be modified as in the example of Fig. 21 described below.

For example, when 242 tones/subcarriers or 20MHz are used, data can be transmitted by repeating 52 tones/subcarriers within 242 tones/subcarriers or 20MHz. In this case, the data bits can be mapped to 52 tones/subcarriers and repeated 4 times. This example can be expressed as in Fig. 21.

Figure 21 illustrates an example of replication of the 52-tone RU proposed in this specification. In the example of Figure 21, data carried in the 52-tone RU may be mapped by applying BPSK modulation or may be applied BPSK+DCM.

The example of Fig. 21 can be further modified as in the example of Fig. 22.

Figure 22 illustrates an example of replication of the 26-tone RU proposed in this specification. For example, data may be carried on 26 tones/subcarriers-1 within 52 tones/subcarriers. At this time, the same data may also be repeated on 26 tones/subcarriers-2. For example, the data carried on the 26 tones/subcarriers may be modulated with MCS0, MCS15, or MCS0+DCM.

Technical Features 4.

Fig. 23 shows an example of an ELR PPDU of the present specification. As illustrated, an ER/ELR PPDU (or a PPDU used for ER/ELR communication) may include L-STF (2305), L-LTF (2310), L-SIG (2315), RL-SIG (2320), U-SIG (2325), ELR-MARK (2330), UHR-STF (2335), UHR-LTF (2340), ELR-SIG (2345), and Data (2350). For example, some fields of Fig. 23 may be omitted. For example, the order of some fields of Fig. 23 may be changed differently. Each field disclosed in Fig. 23 may be called by various names such as signal/bit.

As described in Technical Feature 2.6 above, the value of the number of spatial streams (e.g., Nss) for an ER/ELR PPDU may be limited to 1. Additionally or alternatively, for example, an ER/ELR PPDU may have a fixed bandwidth of 20 MHz and may be used for both downlink and uplink in 2.4 GHz band operation, but only for uplink in 5 GHz and 6 GHz band operation. In other words, an ELR PPDU may consist of only 20 MHz and may not have bandwidths such as 40/80/160/320 MHz.

For example, the L-SIG (2315) and/or RL-SIG (2320) may be identical to the L-SIG and RL-SIG described in FIGS. 5 and 15 to 17. For example, the technical features of the L-SIG and RL-SIG described with respect to FIG. 5 may be equally applied to the L-SIG (2315) and/or RL-SIG (2320).

For example, the ELR-MARK (2330) of FIG. 23 may be composed of two OFDM symbols. The ELR-MARK (2330) may include information about an identifier (e.g., BSS_COLOR) indicating the BSS color to which the STA transmitting the corresponding PPDU belongs.

For example, an example of the present specification may relate to improvements in U-SIG (2325), ELR-SIG (2345), and/or Data (2350) of FIG. 23. Accordingly, the operation/PPDU of the present specification may be expressed based on at least one of the above three fields/signals (2325, 2345, 2350). Accordingly, further descriptions of fields/signals other than the above three fields/signals (2325, 2345, 2350) may be omitted below.

Technical Features 4.1.

For example, U-SIG (2325) may have the following features. Various technical features of U-SIG (2325) included in ER/ELR PPDU have been described through technical features 2.1 to 2.3 and technical feature 3.1 described above. U-SIG (2325) of this specification may have the following features.

For example, the U-SIG (2325) of the present specification may be configured as a signal/field for an ER/ELR PPDU. For example, a PPDU other than an ER/ELR PPDU (e.g., a UHR MU PPDU or a UHR TB PPDU) also contains a U-SIG, but the contents of the U-SIG (2325) of the present specification may contain different contents.

For example, the U-SIG (2325) of the present specification has a length of 2 symbols, and each symbol can be represented as U-SIG-1 and U-SIG-2. For example, the B0 bit to the B2 bit of the U-SIG-1 can have various names such as the first information described above or the PHY Version Identifier, and can include a value (e.g., a value of 1) that identifies that the PHY version of the PPDU is UHR. For example, the positions of the B0 bit to the B2 bit can be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B3 to B5 of U-SIG-1 may have various names such as the second information or BW information, and may include information regarding the bandwidth of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, bits B3 to B5 of U-SIG-1 may only have a value of 0. This is because the bandwidth of the ER/ELR PPDU is preferably fixed to 20 MHz. For example, the positions of bits B3 to B5 may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, the B6 bit of the U-SIG-1 may contain information regarding whether the PPDU is transmitted in the UL or DL. For example, the position of the B6 bit may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B7 to B12 of U-SIG-1 may indicate the ID of a Basic Service Set (BSS). For example, bits B7 to B12 may include ID information (or BSS color information) of a BSS to which an STA transmitting/receiving the corresponding PPDU belongs. For example, the positions of bits B7 to B12 may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B13 to B19 of U-SIG-1 may contain information related to the duration of a transmission opportunity (TXOP). For example, the positions of bits B13 to B19 may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B20 through B24 of U-SIG-1 may all be set to 1, and the bits may be referred to as disregard. For example, the positions of bits B20 through B24 may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, the B25 bit of U-SIG-1 may be set to 1, and the bit may be called Validate. For example, the position of the B25 bit may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, the B0 bit or B1 bit of U-SIG-2 may have various names such as the third information or PPDU Type And Compression Mode. The B0 bit or B1 bit may always have a value of 3 regardless of whether the related PPDU is a DL PPDU or an UL PPDU, thereby indicating/identifying that the corresponding PPDU is an ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the positions of the B0 bit or B1 bit may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B2 to B12 of U-SIG-2 may be configured as an STA ID. For example, bits B2 to B12 may be configured as a portion of 11 bits (e.g., 11 bits of the LSB or 11 bits of the MSB) of the Association ID (AID) of the STA transmitting the corresponding PPDU. For example, the positions of bits B2 to B12 may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B13 to B15 of U-SIG-2 may be configured as ER/ELR validate. These three bits may be used to identify ER/ELR PPDUs, and these three bits may all be set to 1 (i.e., these three bits have a value of 7). For example, the positions of bits B13 to B15 may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B16 to B19 of the U-SIG-2 may be configured as a CRC.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B20 through B25 of U-SIG-2 may be configured as a tail, such that all bits are zero.

Technical Features 4.2.

For example, the ELR-SIG (2345) may have the following features. Various technical features of the ELR-SIG (2345) included in the ER/ELR PPDU have been described through the above-described technical feature 2.5 and/or technical feature 3.2. The ELR-SIG (2345) of the present specification may have the following features.

For example, the ELR-SIG (2345) of the present specification may have two parts. Each part may be indicated as ELR-SIG-1 and ELR-SIG-2. For example, the B0 bit of the ELR-SIG-1 may include the first ER/ELR-SIG information or the ELR Version Identifier described above. For example, the B0 bit to the B2 bit of the ELR-SIG-1 may have information for identifying the ELR version, and the ELR Version Identifier included in the ER/ELR PPDU having the technical features described in the present specification may have a value of 0. For example, the position of the B0 bit may be changed. For example, the corresponding information may be the first ER/ELR-SIG information described above.

Additionally or alternatively, the B1 bit of the ELR-SIG-1 may include a UL/DL field. For example, the bit may include information regarding whether the ER/ELR PPDU is transmitted in UL/DL. For example, the position of the B1 bit may be changed. For example, the information may be the second ER/ELR-SIG information described above.

Additionally or alternatively, the B2 bit of the ELR-SIG-1 may include an MCS field. For example, the bit may include information related to MCS information applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, when the bit is set to a first value (e.g., 0), the bit may indicate that BPSK with a coding rate of 1/2 is applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, when the bit is set to a second value (e.g., 1), the bit may indicate that QPSK with a coding rate of 1/2 is applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the position of the B2 may be changed. For example, the corresponding information may be the 8th ER/ELR-SIG information described above.

Additionally or alternatively, the B3 bit of the ELR-SIG-1 may include a coding (type) field. For example, the bit may include information related to coding (type) information applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, when the bit is set to a first value (e.g., 0), the bit may indicate that the BCC technique is applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, when the bit is set to a second value (e.g., 1), the bit may indicate that the LDPC technique (e.g., LDPC with a word length of 648, 1296 or 1944) is applied to the data field of the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the position of the B3 may be changed. For example, the corresponding information may be the ninth ER/ELR-SIG information described above.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B4 to B12 of the ELR-SIG-1 may include a length field. For example, the length field may have a length of 9 bits, and the specific bit positions may be changed. For example, the field may include information regarding the number of symbols in the data field included in the ER/ELR PPDU.

Additionally or alternatively, the B13 bit of ELR-SIG-1 may contain information regarding the presence of an LDPC extra (OFDM) symbol. For example, the information may include information regarding whether an additional OFDM symbol is required for LDPC encoding of the PPDU. The information may be the fourth ER/ELR-SIG information described above.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B14 to B17 of ELR-SIG-1 may contain CRC bits, and bits B18 to B23 of ELR-SIG-1 may contain tail bits and have a value of 0.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B0 to B10 of the ELR-SIG-2 may contain information regarding the STA-ID. For example, these bits may be composed of 11 bits (e.g., 11 bits of the LSB or 11 bits of the MSB) of the AID of the STA transmitting the ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the positions of these bits may be changed.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B1 through B13 of the ELR-SIG-2 may contain a disregard field/information. Each bit of the 3-bit field/information may be set to 1.

Additionally or alternatively, bits B14 to B17 of ELR-SIG-2 may contain CRC bits, and bits B18 to B23 of ELR-SIG-1 may contain tail bits and have a value of 0.

Technical Features 4.3.

For example, the Data (2350) field may be referred to by various names such as ER/ELR-Data, Payload, etc. The Data (2350) field and ELR-SIG (2345) of this specification may be transmitted via four replicated 52-tone RUs as described below.

For example, each of ELR-SIG-1 and ELR-SIG-2 included in ELR-SIG (2345) may include information with a length of 24 bits (e.g., uncoded bits with a length of 24 bits). BCC encoding by a code rate of 1/2 may be applied to the 24-bit information (e.g., uncoded bits with a length of 24 bits) to generate coded bits with a length of 48 bits. BPSK modulation may be applied to the coded bits to generate 48 BPSK symbols corresponding to each of ELR-SIG-1 and ELR-SIG-2. Four pilots are added to the 48 BPSK symbols to generate data corresponding to a total of 52 subcarriers/tones, and the data is included in a 52-tone RU. These 52-tone RUs can be transmitted via 52-tone RUs that are duplicated/repeated four times in the frequency domain (or via four duplicated 52-tone RUs) according to the method described herein. In other words, the data field can be transmitted via multiple 52-tone RUs (e.g., two or four 52-tone RUs) that are duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs (resource units).

For example, information included in Data (2350) can be mapped to a 52-tone RU based on BPSK or QPSK modulation. The 52-tone RU can be transmitted via a 52-tone RU that is replicated/repeated four times in the frequency domain (or via four replicated 52-tone RUs) based on the technique described below.

An example of configuring four replicated 52-tone RUs (or multiple 52-tone RUs replicated as 52-tone resource units) is described below.

Figure 24 is a diagram showing four 52-tone RUs included in an ELR PPDU.

As illustrated, the ELR-SIG (2345) and Data (2350) fields of the ER/ELR-PPDU can be transmitted and received through four 52-tone RUs (2410, 2420, 2430, 2440). The illustrated 52-tone RUs (2410, 2420, 2430, 2440) can be included in a 20 MHz ER/ELR PPDU.

For example, based on the technique described above, encoding for ELR-SIG (2345) and Data (2350) can be performed for a 52-tone RU (2410). The 52-tone RU (2410) can be duplicated into three 52-tone RUs (2420, 2430, 2440) within a 20 MHz PPDU. In other words, the ELR-SIG and data fields can be transmitted over a 52-tone RU with four times duplication in the frequency domain across four 52-tone RUs in 20 MHz. In other words, the ELR-SIG and data fields can be transmitted on multiple 52-tone resource units (RUs) duplicated in the frequency domain (e.g., two or four 52-tone RUs) on 20 MHz.

Additionally or alternatively, phase rotation may be performed on the four 52-tone RUs (2410, 2420, 2430, 2440).

Additionally or alternatively, a phase rotation of “-1” may be applied to the lower half of the third 52-tone RU (2430). Additionally or alternatively, a phase rotation of “-1” may be applied to the lower half of the data subcarriers of the third 52-tone RU (2430). For example, the lower half of the 52-tone RU (2430) may mean the 26 subcarriers having the lower index among the 52 subcarriers of the 52-tone RU (2430).

Additionally or alternatively, a phase rotation of “-1” may be applied to the upper half of the fourth 52-tone RU (2440). Additionally or alternatively, a phase rotation of “-1” may be applied to the data subcarriers of the upper half of the fourth 52-tone RU (2430). For example, the upper half of the 52-tone RU (2440) may mean 26 subcarriers having high indices among the 52 subcarriers of the 52-tone RU (2440).

For example, in the example of FIG. 24, the first 52-rone RU (2410) may be located on an index range of [-121: -70]. For example, among the index range of [-121: -70], a 4-tone pilot sequence may be inserted into indices {-116, -102, -90, -76}, and a data subcarrier may be placed on the remaining 48 tones. The 48-tone data subcarrier may include information for the ELR-SIG (2345) and/or Data (2350) fields.

For example, in the example of FIG. 24, the second 52-rone RU (2420) may be located on the index range of [-68: -17]. For example, among the index range of [-68: -17], a 4-tone pilot sequence may be inserted into the indices {-62, -48, -36, -22}, and a data subcarrier may be placed on the remaining 48 tones. The 48-tone data subcarrier may include information for the ELR-SIG (2345) and/or Data (2350) fields.

For example, in the example of FIG. 24, the third 52-rone RU (2430) may be located on the index range of [17: 68]. For example, among the index range of [17: 68], a 4-tone pilot sequence may be inserted into the {22, 36, 48, 62} indices, and a data subcarrier may be placed on the remaining 48 tones. The 48-tone data subcarrier may include information for the ELR-SIG (2345) and/or Data (2350) fields. For example, on the third 52-rone RU (2430), the [17: 42] index range corresponds to the lower half, and thus a phase rotation of “-1” may be applied. More specifically, a phase rotation of “-1” can be applied to the remaining 24 tones in the [17:42] index range, excluding the pilot index {22, 36}.

For example, in the example of FIG. 24, the fourth 52-rone RU (2440) may be located on an index range of [70: 121]. For example, among the index range of [70: 121], a 4-tone pilot sequence may be inserted into indices {76, 90, 102, 116}, and a data subcarrier may be placed on the remaining 48 tones. The 48-tone data subcarrier may include information for the ELR-SIG (2345) and/or Data (2350) fields. For example, on the fourth 52-rone RU (2440), the index range of [96: 121] corresponds to the upper half, and thus a phase rotation of “-1” may be applied. More specifically, a phase rotation of “-1” can be applied to the remaining 24 tones in the [96: 121] index range, excluding the pilot index {102, 116}.

For example, the above-mentioned index, or index range, may have a subcarrier subspacing of 78.125 kHz applied. That is, a difference of one index (or frequency index, subcarrier index, or tone index) may mean a difference of 78.125 kHz in the frequency domain.

Figure 25 is an example of a procedure flowchart related to the present specification. The procedure illustrated in Figure 25 may be performed by a non-AP STA, a non-AP MLD, an AP (Access Point), or an AP MLD (AP Multi-link Device).

As illustrated in S2510, an STA (e.g., non-AP or AP) may generate (or configure, construct) an ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the ER/ELR PPDU of step S2510 may be the ER/ELR PPDU illustrated in FIG. 23. In other words, technical feature 4 (e.g., technical feature 4.1, technical feature 4.2, and/or technical feature 4.3) may be applied to the ER/ELR PPDU of step S2510. Not all of the technical features described in the above-described technical feature 4 are essential features, and the ER/ELR PPDU of step S2510 may have various technical features.

For example, as described in Technical Feature 4.1, the ER PPDU related to step S2510 may include a U-SIG (Universal Signal) field, and the U-SIG field may include a first field related to a physical version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU Type and Compression Mode. For example, the bandwidth of the ER PPDU may be 20 MHz and the value of the second field may be zero (0). For example, the third field may have a value of three (3) for the ER PPDU. For example, the U-SIG field may have a length of two symbols. For example, the first and second fields may be included in a first symbol of the two symbols. For example, the third field may be included in a second symbol of the U-SIG field. For example, the second symbol of the U-SIG field may include a validate field for identifying the ER PPDU. For example, the validate field may have a length of N bits, each bit of the N bits may have a value of 1, and N may have a value of 2 or greater.

For example, the U-SIG field may further include various bits described in Technical Feature 4.1 (e.g., various information/fields defined in U-SIG-1 or U-SIG-2).

For example, as described in Technical Feature 4.2, the ER PPDU related to step S2510 may further include an ER-SIG (or ELR-SIG) field. For example, the ER-SIG field may include information about an MCS (modulation and coding scheme) index applied to the data field. For example, the MCS applied to the data field may be related to either Binary Phase-Shift Keying (BPSK) or Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK). For example, the ER-SIG field may further include second information about a coding type applied to the data field, and the second information may have a length of 1 bit. For example, the ER-SIG field may further include third information about whether an additional Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol is required for LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check) coding of the PPDU, and the third information may have a length of 1 bit. For example, the ER-SIG may include at least one bit/field related to ELR-SIG-1 as described in Technical Feature 4.2. Additionally or alternatively, the ER-SIG may include at least one bit/field related to ELR-SIG-2 as described in Technical Feature 4.2.

For example, the ER PPDU may further include a data field. For example, the data field (and/or the ER/ELR-SIG field) may be transmitted via multiple 52-tone resource units (RUs) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs.

For example, the data field and/or the ER-SIG field (or ELR-SIG field) may be transmitted based on the technical features described in Technical Feature 3.3 and/or Technical Feature 4.3. For example, the data field and/or the ER/ELR-SIG field may be transmitted and received based on an RU (e.g., a duplicated/repeated 52-tone RU) having a structure as shown in FIG. 18, FIG. 19, FIG. 20, FIG. 21, FIG. 22, and/or FIG. 24. For example, the data field and/or the ER/ELR-SIG field may be transmitted based on four duplicated 52-tone RUs in the frequency domain. In this case, the four 52-tone RUs may be sequentially positioned on the frequency domain, from the first 52-tone RU to the fourth 52-tone RU, and a phase rotation of minus one (-1) may be applied to a tone in the lower half of the third 52-tone RU, and a phase rotation of minus one (-1) may be applied to a tone in the upper half of the fourth 52-tone RU. In this case, a phase rotation of one (1) may be applied to the first 52-tone RU and the second 52-tone RU, a phase rotation of one (1) may be applied to a tone in the upper half of the third 52-tone RU, and a phase rotation of one (1) may be applied to a tone in the lower half of the fourth 52-tone RU.

As illustrated in S2520 of FIG. 25, an STA (e.g., a non-AP or an AP) may transmit an ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the ER/ELR PPDU may be transmitted via a single spatial stream. For example, the RU through which the ER/ELR PPDU is transmitted may be based on a 52-tone RU that is duplicated/repeated as described above.

Figure 26 is an example of a procedure flowchart related to the present specification. The procedure illustrated in Figure 26 may be performed by a non-AP STA, a non-AP MLD, an AP (Access Point), or an AP MLD (AP Multi-link Device).

As illustrated in step S2610, an STA (e.g., a non-AP or AP) can receive an ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the ER/ELR PPDU of step S2610 may be identical to the ER/ELR PPDU of step S2510. Accordingly, technical features applicable to step S2510 may also be applied to step S2610. Accordingly, any redundant description of step S2610 is omitted.

As illustrated in S2620, an STA (e.g., non-AP or AP) can decode an ER/ELR PPDU. For example, the STA can decode a data field of an ER/ELR PPDU based on information in a U-SIG field and/or information in an ELR-SIG field included in the ER/ELR PPDU.

The technical features of the present disclosure may be implemented by various devices. The devices of the present disclosure may be the devices described in FIG. 1/FIG. 14. The devices of the present disclosure may include at least one processor; and at least one computer memory operably connectable to the at least one processor, the computer memory storing instructions for performing operations based on execution by the at least one processor.

For example, the processor may be a processor described in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 14. That is, as described above, the processor of the present specification may include at least one of a digital signal processor (DSP), a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), and a modem (modulator and demodulator). The processor may include not only computers having various architectures such as single/multiprocessor architecture, sequential (Von Neumann)/parallel architecture, but also specialized circuits such as FPGAs, ASICs, signal processing devices, and other devices. For example, the processor of the present specification may be a SNAPDRAGON® series processor manufactured by Qualcomm®, an EXYNOS® series processor manufactured by Samsung®, an A series processor manufactured by Apple®, a HELIO® series processor manufactured by MediaTek®, an ATOM® series processor manufactured by INTEL®, or a processor that enhances the same.

For example, the instructions may refer to computer program instructions executed by the at least one processor. The (computer program) instructions provide logic and/or routines that enable the technical features of the present specification to be performed by the processor. The at least one processor can load and execute a computer program by reading the at least one memory.

The computer program(s) defined by the above instructions may be delivered to the device (e.g., STA) of the present specification via an appropriate delivery mechanism. The delivery mechanism may be, for example, a computer-readable storage medium, a computer program product, a memory device, a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD, or a product tangibly embodying the computer program. The delivery mechanism may be a signal configured to reliably transmit the computer program via a wireless or electrical connection.

The above (computer program) instructions may include software or firmware for a programmable processor (e.g., programmable content of a hardware device whether instructions for a processor, or configuration settings for a fixed-function device, gate array or programmable logic device, etc.).

For example, the memory may be the memory described in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 14. That is, as described above, the memory of the present specification may store control information related to the operation of the STA of the present specification or information about signals transmitted and received by the STA (e.g., PPDU including management/control/data frames).

The technical features of this specification may be implemented in at least one computer-readable recording medium (CRM). The CRM includes instructions that are executed by at least one processor as described above. The instructions stored in the CRM may be computer program instructions as described above.

The device of the present disclosure may further include a transceiver. The transceiver may be operably connectable to the memory/processor, etc. The transceiver may be the transceiver illustrated in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 14.

The technical features of this specification described above are applicable to various applications and business models. For example, the technical features described above can be applied to wireless communication in devices that support artificial intelligence (AI).

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the study of artificial intelligence or the methodologies for creating it, while machine learning (ML) defines various problems in the field of AI and studies the methodologies for solving them. Machine learning is also defined as an algorithm that improves performance on a task through consistent experience.

An artificial neural network (ANN) is a model used in machine learning. It can refer to a model with problem-solving capabilities, consisting of artificial neurons (nodes) formed by the connection of synapses to form a network. An ANN can be defined by the connection patterns between neurons in different layers, the learning process that updates model parameters, and the activation function that generates output values.

An artificial neural network may include an input layer, an output layer, and optionally one or more hidden layers. Each layer contains one or more neurons, and the artificial neural network may include synapses connecting neurons. In an artificial neural network, each neuron can output a function value of an activation function based on input signals, weights, and biases received through the synapses.

Model parameters are parameters determined through learning, including synaptic connection weights and neuron biases. Hyperparameters are parameters that must be set before learning in machine learning algorithms, including the learning rate, number of iterations, mini-batch size, and initialization function.

The goal of artificial neural network training can be seen as determining model parameters that minimize a loss function. The loss function can be used as an indicator for determining optimal model parameters during the artificial neural network training process.

Machine learning can be classified into supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning depending on the learning method.

Supervised learning refers to a method for training an artificial neural network when given labels for the training data. The labels can refer to the correct answer (or output value) that the artificial neural network must infer when the training data is input to the artificial neural network. Unsupervised learning can refer to a method for training an artificial neural network when the training data is not given labels. Reinforcement learning can refer to a learning method in which an agent defined within a given environment is trained to select actions or action sequences that maximize the cumulative reward in each state.

Machine learning implemented with a deep neural network (DNN) containing multiple hidden layers among artificial neural networks is also called deep learning, and deep learning is a subset of machine learning. Hereinafter, the term "machine learning" is used to encompass deep learning.

Additionally, the above-described technical features can be applied to wireless communication of robots.

A robot can be defined as a machine that automatically performs or operates a given task based on its own capabilities. Specifically, a robot capable of perceiving its environment, making independent judgments, and performing actions can be called an intelligent robot.

Robots can be categorized into industrial, medical, household, and military applications based on their intended use or field. Robots are equipped with actuators or motors, enabling them to perform various physical actions, such as moving robot joints. Furthermore, mobile robots incorporate wheels, brakes, and propellers into their actuators, enabling them to move on the ground or fly in the air.

Additionally, the above-described technical features can be applied to devices that support extended reality.

Extended reality is a general term for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). VR technology presents real-world objects and backgrounds as CG images only, AR technology presents virtual CG images over images of real objects, and MR technology is a computer graphics technology that blends and combines virtual objects with the real world.

MR technology is similar to AR in that it presents both real and virtual objects simultaneously. However, while AR uses virtual objects to complement real objects, MR uses virtual and real objects on an equal footing.

XR technology can be applied to HMD (Head-Mount Display), HUD (Head-Up Display), mobile phones, tablet PCs, laptops, desktops, TVs, digital signage, etc., and devices to which XR technology is applied can be called XR devices.

Claims (16)

Generate an ELR (enhanced long range) PPDU (physical protocol data unit), The above ELR PPDU includes a U-SIG (Universal Signal) field, and the U-SIG field includes a first field related to a PHY version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU type and compression mode. The bandwidth of the above ELR PPDU is 20 MHz and the value of the second field is zero (0). The third field above has a value of three (3) for the ELR PPDU, The above ELR PPDU further includes a data field, The above data field is transmitted through a plurality of 52-tone RUs (resource units) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs; and Step of transmitting the above ELR PPDU Including method. In the first paragraph, The above data field is transmitted based on four 52-tone RUs replicated in the frequency domain. method. In the first paragraph, The above ELR PPDU further includes an ELR-SIG (EL:R signal) field, The above ER-SIG field includes information about an MCS (modulation and coding scheme) index applied to the data field, and the MCS applied to the data field is related to either BPSK (Binary Phase-Shift Keying) or QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying). method. In the first paragraph, The above U-SIG field has a length of two symbols, The first and second fields are included in the first symbol of the two symbols, The third field is included in the second symbol of the U-SIG field, The second symbol of the U-SIG field includes a validate field for identifying the ELR PPDU, the validate field has a length of N bits, each bit of the N bits has a value of 1, and N is 2 or more. method. In the first paragraph, The above ELR PPDU further includes an ELR-SIG (ER signal) field, The above ER-SIG field includes first information about an MCS (modulation and coding scheme) index applied to the data field, and the first information has a length of 1 bit. The ER-SIG field further includes second information about the coding type applied to the data field, and the second information has a length of 1 bit, The ER-SIG field further includes third information regarding whether additional OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) symbols are required for LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check) coding of the PPDU, and the third information has a length of 1 bit. method. In the first paragraph, The above ELR PPDU is transmitted via one spatial stream. method. In the first paragraph, The above ELR PPDU further includes an ELR-SIG (ER signal) field, The above data field and the above ER-SIG field are each transmitted based on four 52-tone RUs replicated in the frequency domain. method. In the first paragraph, The above data field is transmitted based on four 52-tone RUs replicated in the frequency domain, The above four 52-tone RUs are sequentially located in the frequency domain from the first 52-tone RU to the fourth 52-tone RU, For the lower half of the tone in the third 52-tone RU, a phase rotation of minus one (-1) is applied, For the upper half of the tone in the fourth 52-tone RU, a phase rotation of minus one (-1) is applied. method. In paragraph 8, For the first 52-tone RU and the second 52-tone RU, a phase rotation of one (1) is applied, For the upper half of the tone in the third 52-tone RU, a phase rotation of one (1) is applied, For the lower half tone of the fourth 52-tone RU, a phase rotation of one (1) is applied. method. at least one processor; and At least one computer memory operable to said at least one processor, said memory storing instructions for performing operations based on being executed by said at least one processor, The instructions of at least one computer memory are: Generate an ELR (enhanced long range) PPDU (physical protocol data unit), The above ELR PPDU includes a U-SIG (Universal Signal) field, and the U-SIG field includes a first field related to a PHY version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU type and compression mode. The bandwidth of the above ELR PPDU is 20 MHz and the value of the second field is zero (0). The third field above has a value of three (3) for the ELR PPDU, The above ELR PPDU further includes a data field, The above data field is transmitted through a plurality of 52-tone RUs (resource units) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs; and Step of transmitting the above ELR PPDU Including STA (station) performing the action. In the 10th paragraph, the command of at least one computer memory performs an operation related to any one of the 1st to 9th paragraphs. STA. By STA (station), ELR (enhanced long range) PPDU (physical protocol data unit) is received, The above ELR PPDU includes a U-SIG (Universal Signal) field, and the U-SIG field includes a first field related to a PHY version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU type and compression mode. The bandwidth of the above ELR PPDU is 20 MHz and the value of the second field is zero (0). The third field above has a value of three (3) for the ELR PPDU, The above ELR PPDU further includes a data field, The above data field is received through a plurality of 52-tone RUs (resource units) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs; and A step of decoding the ELR PPDU by the STA Including method. In the 12th paragraph, the STA performs an operation related to any one of the 1st to 9th paragraphs. method. at least one processor; and At least one computer memory operable to said at least one processor, said memory storing instructions for performing operations based on being executed by said at least one processor, The instructions of at least one computer memory are: Receive ELR (enhanced long range) PPDU (physical protocol data unit), The above ELR PPDU includes a U-SIG (Universal Signal) field, and the U-SIG field includes a first field related to a PHY version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU type and compression mode. The bandwidth of the above ELR PPDU is 20 MHz and the value of the second field is zero (0). The third field above has a value of three (3) for the ELR PPDU, The above ELR PPDU further includes a data field, The above data field is received through a plurality of 52-tone RUs (resource units) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs; and Step of decoding the above ELR PPDU Including STA (station) performing the action. In the 14th paragraph, the STA performs an operation related to any one of the 1st to 9th paragraphs. method. In a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, at least one computer readable medium including instructions based on being executed by at least one processor, Generate an ELR (enhanced long range) PPDU (physical protocol data unit), The above ELR PPDU includes a U-SIG (Universal Signal) field, and the U-SIG field includes a first field related to a PHY version identifier, a second field related to a bandwidth, and a third field related to a PPDU type and compression mode. The bandwidth of the above ELR PPDU is 20 MHz and the value of the second field is zero (0). The third field above has a value of three (3) for the ELR PPDU, The above ELR PPDU further includes a data field, The above data field is transmitted through a plurality of 52-tone RUs (resource units) duplicated in the frequency domain in units of 52-tone RUs; and Step of transmitting the above ELR PPDU Performing an operation that includes Recording medium.