Patent Description:
The present disclosure is generally related to wireless communications and, more particularly, to enhanced long range (ELR) communication schemes in wireless communications.

In wireless communications, such as wireless local area networks (WLANs) based on one or more Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) <NUM> standards, there are increasingly more applications that require ELR transmissions in WLANs. Such applications include, for example, wireless video surveillance, wireless video doorbells and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. The IEEE <NUM>. 11b standard provided a single-carrier, complementary code keying (CCK) modulated communication scheme. However, long range communications based on IEEE <NUM>. 11b tend to suffer low spectrum efficiency and poor network management. Thus, ELR communication schemes superior than IEEE <NUM>. 11b-based schemes that provide higher spectrum efficiency, better network management, longer coverage and higher data rate are urgently needed. Therefore, there is a need for a solution of ELR communication schemes in wireless communications.

<CIT> discloses a method and an apparatus for wireless communication involving generating a PPDU that includes a resource unit.

<CIT> discloses a long-range transmission and reception for low-power indoor application in <NUM> band.

<CIT> discloses a technique for configuring preamble in wireless communication system.

<CIT> discloses a method and apparatus for receiving PPDU with duplicated data through <NUM> band in wireless LAN system.

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

An objective of the present disclosure is to provide schemes, concepts, designs, techniques, methods and apparatuses pertaining to ELR communication schemes in wireless communications. It is believed that aforementioned issue(s) may be avoided or otherwise alleviated by implementation of one or more of various proposed schemes described herein. A method and an apparatus according to the invention are defined in the independent claims. The dependent claims define preferred embodiments thereof.

In one aspect, a method is provided in independent claim <NUM>.

In another aspect, an apparatus is provided in independent claim <NUM>.

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

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

Referring to <FIG>, network environment <NUM> may involve at least a STA <NUM> communicating wirelessly with a STA <NUM>. Each of STA <NUM> and STA <NUM> may be a non-access point (non-AP) STA or, alternatively, either of STA <NUM> and STA <NUM> may function as an access point (AP) STA. Each of STA <NUM> and STA <NUM> may be a <NUM>-capable MLO STA. In some cases, STA <NUM> and STA <NUM> may be associated with a basic service set (BSS) in accordance with one or more IEEE <NUM> standards (e.g., IEEE <NUM>. 11be and future-developed standards). Each of STA <NUM> and STA <NUM> may be configured to communicate with each other by utilizing the techniques pertaining to ELR communication schemes in wireless communications in accordance with various proposed schemes described below. It is noteworthy that, while the various proposed schemes may be individually or separately described below, in actual implementations some or all of the proposed schemes may be utilized or otherwise implemented jointly. Of course, each of the proposed schemes may be utilized or otherwise implemented individually or separately.

<FIG> illustrates an example design <NUM> under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Design <NUM> pertains to a design of an ELR PPDU. Under the proposed scheme, transmission of ELR PPDUs may use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and/or orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) modulation(s) in preamble signal fields and data portion thereof. Referring to <FIG>, under the proposed scheme, each ELR PPDU may be composed of three function blocks, namely: spoofing preamble, ELR preamble, and ELR data portion. The spoofing preamble may be used to resolve the co-existence issue and avoid collision. The ELR preamble and ELR data portion may not be backward compatible to older and pre-existing IEEE <NUM> standards.

It is noteworthy that, in legacy preambles, a legacy short training field (L-STF), a legacy long training field (L-LTF) and a legacy signaling (L-SIG) field need to be added or prepended to a data field to spoof IEEE <NUM>-compliant devices for clear channel assessment (CCA). Under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure, a <NUM>-microsecond (<NUM>) OFDM symbol with binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulation (herein interchangeably referred to as "BPSK-Symbol <NUM>") may be added after the L-SIG field to spoof high-throughput (HT) devices based on the IEEE <NUM>. 11n standard. Furthermore, a second <NUM> OFDM symbol with BPSK modulation (herein interchangeably referred to as "BPSK-Symbol <NUM>") may be added after BPSK-Symbol <NUM> to spoof very-high-throughput (VHT) devices based on the IEEE <NUM>. 11ac standards. It is also noteworthy that HT and VHT devices behave differently than high-efficiency (HE) and extremely-high-throughput (EHT) devices when they encounter a signal field cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error.

<FIG> illustrates an example design <NUM> under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Design <NUM> pertains to a design of a spoofing preamble. Part (A) of <FIG> shows an example of a spoofing preamble # <NUM> under the proposed scheme. As shown, spoofing preamble # <NUM> may include an L-STF, an L-LTF and an L-SIG field. Part (B) of <FIG> shows an example of a spoofing preamble # <NUM> under the proposed scheme. As shown, spoofing preamble # <NUM> may include an L-STF, an L-LTF, an L-SIG, a BPSK-Symbol <NUM> and a BPSK-Symbol <NUM>. Part (C) of <FIG> shows an example of a spoofing preamble # <NUM> under the proposed scheme. As shown, spoofing preamble # <NUM> may include an L-STF, an L-LTF, an L-SIG, a repeated legacy signaling (RL-SIG) field, a universal signaling (U-SIG) field followed by another U-SIG field.

Under the proposed scheme, for spoofing preamble # <NUM>, a following ELR signature sequence may need to be started with at least two BPSK modulated OFDM symbols. Under the proposed scheme, for spoofing preamble # <NUM>, the ELR signature sequence may be any sequence. Under the proposed scheme, for spoofing preamble # <NUM>, a portion of a preamble of an IEEE <NUM>. 11be-compliant multi-user (MU) PPDU may be used (e.g., from a legacy long training field (L-LTF) to an end of a U-SIG field thereof) with certain change to U-SIG contents. For instance, a value in the "PHY Version Identifier" field may be set to a non-zero value to indicate that this PPDU is for next generation beyond IEEE <NUM>. 11be (EHT). Additionally, a value in the "PPDU Type And Compression Mode" field may be set to indicate that this is a spoofing preamble for an ELR PPDU.

<FIG> illustrates an example design <NUM> under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Design <NUM> pertains to designs of an ELR preamble # <NUM>. Part (A) of <FIG> shows an example of an ELR preamble that supports one spatial stream. Part (B) of <FIG> shows an example of an ELR preamble that supports one or multiple spatial streams. Under the proposed scheme, one ELR signature sequence may be used for pack detection and format detection of the respective ELR PPDU. Moreover, to enhance the range of preamble, mini-subchannel duplications in the frequency domain may be utilized in the ELR PPDU.

<FIG> illustrates an example design <NUM> under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Design <NUM> pertains to a design of an ELR preamble # <NUM>. Under the proposed scheme, an ELR PPDU may be in a one-spatial-stream format or in a two-spatial-stream format. In particular, according to the invention, two ELR signature sequences (ELR signature sequence A and ELR signature sequence B) are utilized to indicate whether a following ELR preamble and data are in the one-spatial-stream format or in the two-spatial-stream format. For instance, in case that ELR signature sequence A is sent, the ELR PPDU may be in the one-spatial-stream format. Moreover, in case that ELR signature sequence B is sent, the ELR PPDU may be in the two-spatial-stream format.

<FIG> illustrates an example design <NUM> under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Design <NUM> pertains to a design of an ELR preamble # <NUM>. Under the proposed scheme, an ELR signature sequence may also be used for automatic gain control (AGC) and synchronization. Accordingly, the ELR signature sequence may be designed together with an ELR short training field (ELR-STF), and such signature sequence may herein be referred to as an "ELR signature-STF sequence. " Under the proposed scheme, the ELR signature-STF sequence may be designed in the frequency domain with BPSK modulation (which may be used for spoofing purpose). Also, the ELR signature-STF sequence may be similar to a L-STF but may have a very low correlation with a L-STF sequence so as to avoid false detection of Wi-Fi STAs. For instance, one example of the ELR signature-STF sequence may be as follows: <MAT>.

Under the proposed scheme, two ELR signature-STF sequences (A and B) may be utilized to indicate whether a following ELR preamble and data are in the one-spatial-stream format or in the two-spatial-stream format.

<FIG> illustrates an example design <NUM> under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Design <NUM> pertains to a design of an ELR data portion for single-user (SU) and OFDMA scenarios. Under the proposed scheme, ELR data portion may be transmitted to a single user using OFDM or to multiple users using OFDMA. To simplify implementation and signaling, a resource unit (RU) size for an ELR PPDU may be fixed for each user. For instance, only a <NUM>-tone RU or a <NUM>-tone RU may be allowed. Moreover, to simplify implementation and signaling, a maximum number of users may be limited to <NUM> or <NUM> or <NUM>. It is noteworthy that, for different numbers of users, duplications may also be different. Under the proposed scheme, to reach the similar range, difference modulation and coding schemes (MCSs) may be applied. For instance, in transmission of a <NUM> ELR PPDU, quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) + dual carrier modulation (DCM) + ½ coding may be applied to SU transmissions, and BPSK + DCM + ½ coding may be used for two users, while BPSK + DCM +¼ coding may be used for four users. Part (A) of <FIG> shows an example of a scenario for single user or <NUM>-user OFDMA, with a <NUM> subchannel for a same user (e.g., user <NUM>) duplicated across the operating bandwidth (e.g., <NUM> times as shown in <FIG>). Part (B) of <FIG> shows an example of a scenario of <NUM>-user OFDMA, with a <NUM> subchannel for a first user (e.g., user <NUM>) duplicated once and another <NUM> subchannel for a second user (e.g., user <NUM>) duplicated once. Part (C) of <FIG> shows an example of a scenario of <NUM>-user OFDMA, with no duplication of <NUM> subchannels as each of the <NUM> subchannels is used for a respective user of four users (e.g., user <NUM>, user <NUM>, user <NUM> and user <NUM>).

<FIG> illustrates an example design <NUM> under a proposed scheme in accordance with the present disclosure. Design <NUM> pertains to a design of frequency and/or time domain duplication of an ELR data portion. Under the proposed scheme, to achieve the enhanced long range in transmission, ELR data portion may be duplicated in either or both of the frequency domain and the time domain. For instance, a <NUM> subchannel may be duplicated (e.g., same as a <NUM>-tone RU) to achieve a longer range by 6dB. Under the proposed scheme, ELR data OFDMA symbols may be duplicated in the time domain as shown in <FIG>. It is noteworthy that the guard interval (GI) between two adjacent duplicated OFDMA symbols may be removed to enhance spectrum efficiency. Referring to <FIG>, an OFDMA symbol <NUM> may be for user <NUM> with duplicated <NUM> subchannels, and the OFDMA symbol <NUM> may be duplicated in the time domain (without GI for the time domain duplication). Similarly, an OFDMA symbol <NUM> may be for user <NUM> with duplicated <NUM> subchannels, and the OFDMA symbol <NUM> may be duplicated in the time domain (without GI for the time domain duplication). Of course, the GI may be optional and may be omitted to improve spectrum efficiency.

<FIG> illustrates an example system <NUM> having at least an example apparatus <NUM> and an example apparatus <NUM> in accordance with an implementation of the present disclosure. Each of apparatus <NUM> and apparatus <NUM> may perform various functions to implement schemes, techniques, processes and methods described herein pertaining to ELR communication schemes in wireless communications, including the various schemes described above with respect to various proposed designs, concepts, schemes, systems and methods described above as well as processes described below. For instance, apparatus <NUM> may be implemented in STA <NUM> and apparatus <NUM> may be implemented in STA <NUM>, or vice versa.

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

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

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

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

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

Under various proposed schemes pertaining to ELR communication schemes in wireless communications in accordance with the present disclosure, with apparatus <NUM> implemented in or as STA <NUM> and apparatus <NUM> implemented in or as STA <NUM> in network environment <NUM>, processor <NUM> of apparatus <NUM> may perform, via transceiver <NUM>, an ELR communication involving an ELR PPDU. The ELR PPDU may include a spoofing preamble, an ELR preamble and an ELR data portion. For instance, processor <NUM> may transmit or receive the ELR PPDU.

In some implementations, the ELR PPDU may be transmitted using an OFDM modulation or an OFDMA modulation on preamble signal fields and the ELR data portion of the ELR PPDU.

In some implementations, the spoofing preamble may include a L-STF, a L-LTF and a L-SIG field.

In some implementations, the spoofing preamble may include a L-STF, a L-LTF, a L-SIG field, a first OFDM symbol with BPSK modulation, and a second OFDM symbol with BPSK modulation.

In some implementations, the spoofing preamble may include a L-STF, a L-LTF, a L-SIG field, a RL-SIG field, a U-SIG field, and another U-SIG field. In some implementations, the spoofing preamble may be similar to an IEEE <NUM>. 11be MU PPDU preamble except that a field in each of the U-SIG fields may be set to indicate that the spoofing preamble is part of the ELR PPDU.

In some implementations, the ELR preamble may support one spatial stream. Moreover, the ELR preamble may include an ELR signature sequence, an ELR-LTF and an ELR-SIG field. Furthermore, the ELR-LTF and the ELR-SIG field may be duplicated across a plurality of subchannels.

In some implementations, the ELR preamble may support one spatial stream. Additionally, the ELR preamble may include an ELR signature sequence, a first ELR-STF, a first ELR-LTF and an ELR-SIG field, a second ELR-STF and a second ELR-LTF. Moreover, the first ELR-STF, the first ELR-LTF, the ELR-SIG field, the second ELR-STF and the second ELR-LTF may be duplicated across a plurality of subchannels.

In some implementations, the ELR preamble may support up to two spatial streams. Moreover, the ELR preamble may include a respective ELR signature sequence for each user up to two users, an ELR-STF, an ELR-LTF and an ELR-SIG field. Furthermore, the ELR-STF, the ELR-LTF and the ELR-SIG field may be duplicated across a plurality of subchannels.

In some implementations, the ELR preamble may support up to two spatial streams. Additionally, the ELR preamble may include a respective ELR signature plus STF sequence for each user up to two users, an ELR-LTF and an ELR-SIG field. Moreover, the ELR-LTF and the ELR-SIG field may be duplicated across a plurality of subchannels.

In some implementations, the ELR data portion may be transmitted to a single user using an OFDM modulation or to multiple users using an OFDMA modulation. In some implementations, a maximum number of users of the multiple users may be <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>.

In some implementations, in an event that the ELR data portion is transmitted to the single user, the ELR data portion may be duplicated across a plurality of subchannels.

In some implementations, in an event that the ELR data portion is transmitted to two users, a first subchannel carrying first data for a first user may be duplicated at least once while a second subchannel carry second data for a second user may be duplicated at least once.

In some implementations, in an event that the ELR data portion is transmitted to four users, each subchannel of four subchannels may carry respective data for a respective user of the four users.

In some implementations, the ELR data portion may be duplicated in either or both of a frequency domain and a time domain.

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

At <NUM>, process <NUM> may involve processor <NUM> of apparatus <NUM> performing, via transceiver <NUM>, an ELR communication involving an ELR PPDU, which may be represented by <NUM> and <NUM>. The ELR PPDU may include a spoofing preamble, an ELR preamble and an ELR data portion.

At <NUM>, process <NUM> may involve processor <NUM> transmitting the ELR PPDU.

At <NUM>, process <NUM> may involve processor <NUM> receiving the ELR PPDU.

Claim 1:
A method, comprising:
performing, by a processor of an apparatus operable in a wireless local area network, WLAN, an enhanced long range, ELR, communication (<NUM>) by either:
transmitting an ELR physical-layer protocol data unit, PPDU, (<NUM>); or
receiving the ELR PPDU (<NUM>),
wherein the ELR PPDU comprises a spoofing preamble, an ELR preamble and an ELR data portion,
the spoofing preamble comprises a legacy short training field, L-STF, a legacy long training field, L-LTF, and a legacy signaling, L-SIG, field,
the ELR preamble comprises an ELR signature sequence, an ELR long training field, ELR-LTF, and an ELR signaling, ELR-SIG, field, and
the ELR data portion carries data to be transmitted to one or more users, and wherein
the ELR signature sequence indicates whether the ELR preamble and the ELR data portion are in a one-spatial-stream format or in a two-spatial-stream format.