DE112017007168T5 - DELIVER AUTONOMITY BASED ON NETWORK CONDITIONS IN A MULTI-ACCESS POINT ENVIRONMENT - Google Patents

Abstract

Methods, computer readable media and devices for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple access point (AP) environment are disclosed. A device is disclosed that includes processing circuitry, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: decode a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) from a second AP, wherein the first PPDU includes an autonomy grant; Autonomy grant indicates a function and condition, and where the grant of autonomy indicates that, if the condition is met, the first access point is authorized to perform the function. The processing circuitry may further be configured to determine if the condition is met. The processing circuitry may further be configured to decode a second PPDU from a station, wherein the second PPDU requests the function to be performed for the station, and if the determination is made that the condition is met, to perform the function for the station.

Description

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application claims the benefit of the provisional United States patent application 62 / 465,365 , filed on Mar. 1, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL AREA

Embodiments belong to wireless networks and wireless communications. Some embodiments relate to wireless local area networks (WLANs) and Wi-Fi networks, including networks operating in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 standards family. Some embodiments relate to IEEE 802.11ax. Some embodiments relate to methods, computer-readable media and devices for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multi-access point (AP) environment.

BACKGROUND

Efficient use of the resources of a local wireless network (WLAN) is important to provide WLAN users with acceptable response times. Often, however, multiple devices attempt to share the same resources, and some devices may be constrained by the communication protocol they use or by the bandwidth of their hardware. In addition, wireless devices may need to work with both newer protocols and legacy setup protocols.

list of figures

• 1 ist ein Blockdiagramm einer Funkarchitektur gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 2 veranschaulicht eine Frontend-Modul-Schaltungsanordnung zur Verwendung in der Funkarchitektur der 1 gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 3 veranschaulicht eine Funk-IC-Schaltungsanordnung zur Verwendung in der Funkarchitektur der 1 gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 4 veranschaulicht eine Basisbandverarbeitungsschaltungsanordnung zur Verwendung in der Funkarchitektur der 1 gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 5 veranschaulicht ein WLAN gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen,
• 6 veranschaulicht ein Blockdiagramm einer beispielhaften Maschine, auf der irgendeine oder mehrere der hier erörterten Techniken (z. B. Methoden) durchgeführt werden können;
• 7 veranschaulicht ein Blockdiagramm einer beispielhaften Drahtlos-Einrichtung, auf der eine oder mehrere der hier erörterten Techniken (z. B. Methoden oder Operationen) durchgeführt werden können;
• 8 veranschaulicht ein System zum Delegieren von Autonomität auf Basis von Netzwerkbedingungen in einer Mehrfach-AP-Umgebung;
• 9 veranschaulicht einen Multi-AP-Controller gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 10 veranschaulicht einen Multi-AP-Agent gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 11 veranschaulicht ein Autonomitätsbewilligungs-Informationselement (IE) gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 12 veranschaulicht das Fähigkeiten-Informationselement gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 13 veranschaulicht einen Service Request gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 14 veranschaulicht ein Verfahren zum Delegieren von Autonomität auf Basis von Netzwerkbedingungen in einer Mehrfach-AP-Umgebung gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 15 veranschaulicht ein Verfahren zum Delegieren von Autonomität auf Basis von Netzwerkbedingungen in einer Mehrfach-AP-Umgebung gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen;
• 16 veranschaulicht ein Verfahren zum Delegieren von Autonomität auf Basis von Netzwerkbedingungen in einer Mehrfach-AP-Umgebung gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen; und
• 17 veranschaulicht ein Verfahren zum Delegieren von Autonomität auf Basis von Netzwerkbedingungen in einer Mehrfach-AP-Umgebung gemäß einigen Ausführungsformen.

The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals designate like elements and in which:

• 1 FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a radio architecture according to some embodiments; FIG.
• 2 FIG. 12 illustrates a front-end module circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG 1 according to some embodiments;
• 3 FIG. 10 illustrates a radio IC circuit arrangement for use in the radio architecture of FIG 1 according to some embodiments;
• 4 FIG. 11 illustrates baseband processing circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG 1 according to some embodiments;
• 5 illustrates a WLAN according to some embodiments,
• 6 FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine on which any one or more of the techniques discussed herein (eg, methods) may be performed;
• 7 Fig. 12 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary wireless device on which one or more of the techniques discussed herein (eg, methods or operations) may be performed;
• 8th illustrates a system for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment;
• 9 illustrates a multi-AP controller according to some embodiments;
• 10 illustrates a multi-AP agent according to some embodiments;
• 11 FIG. 12 illustrates an autonomy grant information element (IE) according to some embodiments; FIG.
• 12 illustrates the skill information item according to some embodiments;
• 13 illustrates a service request according to some embodiments;
• 14 illustrates a method for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment according to some embodiments;
• 15 illustrates a method for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment according to some embodiments;
• 16 illustrates a method for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment according to some embodiments; and
• 17 FIG. 12 illustrates a method for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment according to some embodiments.

DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings illustrate sufficiently specific embodiments to enable practitioners to practice them. Other embodiments may be structural, logical, electrical, procedural and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in or substituted for those of other embodiments. The embodiments set forth in the claims include all available equivalents of these claims.

The 1 is a block diagram of a radio architecture 100 according to some embodiments. The radio architecture 100 may be the wireless front-end module (FEM) circuitry 104 , the radio IC circuitry 106 and the baseband processing circuitry 108 contain. The radio architecture 100 as shown includes both Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality and Bluetooth (BT) functionality, although the embodiments are not so limited. In this disclosure, "WLAN" and "Wi-Fi" are used interchangeably.

The FEM circuitry 104 Can be a Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi FEM circuitry 104A and Bluetooth (BT) FEM circuitry 104 B included. The WLAN FEM circuitry 104A may include a receive signal path that includes circuitry that is configured to operate on WLAN RF signals received from one or more antennas 101 are received to amplify the received signals and the amplified versions of the received signals of the WLAN radio IC circuitry 106A to provide for further processing. The BT-FEM circuitry 104B may include a receive signal path that may include circuitry that is configured to operate with BT-RF signals received from one or more antennas 101 to amplify the received signals and the amplified versions of the received signals of the BT radio IC circuitry 106B to provide for further processing. The FEM circuitry 104A may also include a transmission signal path, which may include circuitry adapted to receive WLAN signals from the radio IC circuitry 106A provided for wireless transmission via one or more of the antennas 101 to reinforce. In addition, the FEM circuitry 104B Also included is a transmission signal path that may include circuitry that is configured to receive BT signals from the radio IC circuitry 106B to amplify for wireless transmission over the one or more antennas. Although in the embodiment of the 1 FEM 104A and FEM 104B are shown as being different from each other, the embodiments are not limited thereto and include within their scope the use of a FEM (not shown) containing a transmission path and / or a reception path for both WLAN and BT signals, or the use of one or more FEM circuitry, wherein at least some of the FEM circuitry utilize transmit and / or receive signal paths in common for both WLAN and BT signals.

The radio IC circuitry 106 As it is shown, the wireless radio IC circuitry can 106A and the BT radio IC circuitry 106B contain. The wireless radio IC circuitry 106A may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to receive from the FEM circuitry 104A down convert received WLAN RF signals and the WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108A To provide baseband signals. The BT radio IC circuitry 106B in turn, may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to from the FEM circuitry 104B down converted received BT RF signals and the BT baseband processing circuitry 108B To provide baseband signals. The wireless radio IC circuitry 106A may also include a transmission signal path that may include circuitry for receiving from the WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108A up-converted WLAN baseband signals and the FEM circuitry 104A the WLAN RF output signals for subsequent wireless transmission over the one or more antennas 101 provide. The BT radio IC circuitry 106B may also include a transmission signal path that may include circuitry for receiving from the BT baseband processing circuitry 108B up converted BT baseband signals and the FEM circuitry 104B the BT RF output signals for subsequent wireless transmission over the one or more antennas 101 provide. Although in the embodiment of the 1 the radio IC circuitry 106A and 106B are shown as being different from each other, the embodiments are not limited thereto, and include within their scope the use of radio IC circuitry (not shown) including a transmission signal path and / or a reception signal path for both WLAN and BT Or at least some of the radio IC circuitry utilize transmission and / or reception signal paths in common for both WLAN and BT signals.

The baseband processing circuitry 108 may be a WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108A and a BT baseband processing circuitry 108B contain. The WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108A may include a memory such as a set of RAM arrays in a block (not shown) for fast Fourier transform or for inverse fast Fourier transform of the WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108A , contain. Both the WLAN baseband circuitry 108A as well as the BT baseband circuitry 108B may further include one or more processors and control logic for processing the signals received from the corresponding WLAN or BT receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry 106 and also for generating respective WLAN or BT baseband signals for the transmission signal path of the radio IC circuitry 106 contain. Each of the baseband processing circuitry 108A and 108B may further include physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) circuitry, and further to the application processor 111 for generating and processing the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the radio IC circuitry 106 be coupled.

Still referring to the 1 In accordance with the illustrated embodiment, the WLAN-BT coexistence circuitry 113 Logic containing an interface between the WLAN baseband circuitry 108A and the BT baseband circuitry 108B to enable use cases where coexistence of WLAN and BT is required. In addition, a switch 103 between the WLAN FEM circuitry 104A and the BT-FEM circuitry 104B provided to allow the switching between the WLAN and the BT radio according to the requirements of the application. Although the antennas 101 be shown so that they each use the wireless FEM circuitry 104A and the BT-FEM circuitry 104B In addition, in their scope of protection, the embodiments additionally include sharing one or more antennas of the WLAN and BT FEM, or providing more than one antenna, each with the FEM 104A or 104B connected is.

In some embodiments, the front-end module circuitry 104 , the radio IC circuitry 106 and the baseband processing circuitry 108 be provided on a single radio card, such as a wireless radio card 102 , In some other embodiments, the one or more antennas may be 101 , the FEM circuitry 104 and the radio IC circuitry 106 be provided on a single radio card. In some other embodiments, the radio IC circuitry may 106 and the baseband processing circuitry 108 on a single chip or as a single integrated circuit (IC), such as the IC 112 ,

In some embodiments, the wireless radio card may 102 include a WLAN wireless card and may be designed for Wi-Fi communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some of these embodiments, the radio architecture 100 be adapted to receive and transmit Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication signals over a multi-carrier communication channel. The OFDM or OFDMA signals may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some of these multi-carrier embodiments, the radio architecture 100 Part of a Wi-Fi communication station (STA), such as a wireless access point (AP), a base station or a mobile device, including a Wi-Fi device. In some of these embodiments, the radio architecture 100 be adapted to transmit and receive signals according to specific communication standards and / or protocols, such as any of the standards of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), including the standards IEEE 802.1 In-2009, IEEE 802.11-2012, IEEE 802.11-2016, IEEE 802.1 1ac and / or IEEE 802.1 1ax, and / or intended specifications for WLANs, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. The radio architecture 100 may also be adapted to transmit and / or receive communications in accordance with other techniques and standards.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 100 for high efficiency (HE) Wi-Fi (HEW) communications according to the IEEE standard 802.1 1ax be designed. In these embodiments, the radio architecture 100 be configured to communicate according to an OFDMA technique, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

In some other embodiments, the radio architecture may be 100 be adapted to transmit and receive signals that have been transmitted using one or more modulation techniques, such as a Spread spectrum modulation (eg Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) and / or Frequency Hopping Code Division Multiple Access (FH-CDMA)), time division multiplexed - TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) modulation and / or Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) modulation, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

As further in the 1 can be shown, the BT baseband circuitry 108B in some embodiments conform to a Bluetooth (BT) connectivity standard, such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth 5.0 or any other iteration of the Bluetooth standard. In embodiments that include BT functionality, such as in the 1 can be shown, the radio architecture 100 be configured to establish a synchronous connection oriented (SCO) BT connection and / or a BT low power (BT LE, Bluetooth Low Energy) connection. In some of the embodiments that include functionality, the radio architecture may 100 be configured to establish an extended SCO (eSCO, Extended SCO) connection for BT communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some of these embodiments involving BT functionality, the radio architecture may be configured to participate in asynchronous connection-less (ACL) communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some embodiments, as shown in FIG 1 5, the functions of a BT radio card and a WLAN radio card are combined on a single wireless radio card, such as a single wireless radio card 102 although the embodiments are not limited thereto and include discrete WLAN and BT radio cards within their scope.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 100 include other radio cards, such as a cellular radio card designed for cellular (e.g., 3GPP, such as LTE, LTE-Advanced, or 5G) communications.

In some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, the radio architecture 100 be designed for communication over different channel bandwidths, including bandwidths with center frequencies of about 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and bandwidths of about 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, 8 MHz, 10 MHz , 16 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz (with contiguous bandwidths) or 80 + 80 MHz (160 MHz) (with non-contiguous bandwidths). In some embodiments, a bandwidth of 320 MHz may be used. However, the scope of the embodiments is not limited with respect to the above center frequencies.

The 2 illustrates a FEM circuitry 200 according to some embodiments. The FEM circuitry 200 FIG. 12 is an example of a circuit arrangement for use as the WLAN and / or BT FEM circuitry 104A / 104B ( 1 ), although other circuit configurations may also be suitable.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 200 a TX / RX switch 202 to switch between operation in transmission mode and in reception mode. The FEM circuitry 200 may include a reception signal path and a transmission signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 200 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) 206 for receiving RF signals 203 to amplify and the amplified received RF signals 207 as an output (e.g., for radio IC circuitry) 106 ( 1 )). The transmission signal path of the circuit arrangement 200 can be a power amplifier (PA, Power Amplifier) to RF input signals 209 (eg, from the radio IC circuitry 106 provided) and one or more filters 212 such as bandpass filters (BPFs), low pass filters (LPFs) or other types of filters to RF signals 215 for the subsequent transmission (eg via one or more of the antennas 101 ( 1 )), contain.

In some dual-mode embodiments for Wi-Fi communications, the FEM circuitry may 200 be designed to operate either in the 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum, in the 5 GHz frequency spectrum or in the 60 GHz frequency spectrum. In these embodiments, the receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 200 a receive signal path duplexer 204 included to separate both the signals from each spectrum and a separate LNA for each spectrum 206 as shown. In these embodiments, the transmission signal path of the FEM circuitry 200 also a power amplifier 210 and a filter 212 , such as a BPF, an LPF or other type of filter for each frequency spectrum, and a transmission signal path duplexer 214 contain the signals of one of the different spectra on a single transmission path for subsequent transmission over the one or more of the antennas 101 to provide 1 ). In some embodiments, the BT They use the 2.4GHz signal paths and they can use the same FEM circuitry 200 like the ones used for Wi-Fi communications.

The 3 illustrates a radio IC circuitry 300 according to some embodiments. The radio IC circuitry 300 FIG. 12 is an example of a circuit arrangement for use as the WLAN or BT radio IC circuitry 106A / 106B ( 1 ), although other circuit configurations may also be suitable.

In some embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 300 a receive signal path and a transmission signal path. The receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry 300 can at least the mixer circuit arrangement 302 , such as down-conversion mixer circuitry, the amplifier circuitry 306 and the filter circuitry 308 contain. The transmission signal path of the radio IC circuitry 300 at least the filter circuitry 312 and the mixer circuitry 314 such as up-conversion mixer circuitry. The radio IC circuitry 300 can also be a synthesizer circuitry 304 to synthesize a frequency 305 for use by the mixer circuitry 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 contain. The mixer circuit arrangements 302 and or 314 For example, each may be configured to provide direct conversion functionality, in accordance with some embodiments. The latter type of circuitry presents a much simpler architecture than standard superheterodyne mixer circuitry, and each of these caused flickers can be reduced, for example, by the use of OFDM modulation. The 3 only illustrates a simplified version of radio IC circuitry and, although not shown, may include embodiments in which each of the circuit arrangements shown may include more than one component. For example, the mixer circuitry 320 and or 314 each contain one or more mixers, and the filter circuit arrangements 308 and or 312 may each contain one or more filters, such as one or more BPFs and / or LPFs, according to the requirements of the application. For example, if the mixer circuitry is of the direct conversion type, they may each contain two or more mixers.

In some embodiments, the blender circuitry may 302 be designed by the FEM circuitry 104 ( 1 ) received RF signals 207 based on the synthesized frequency 305 that of the synthesizer circuitry 304 is provided to convert downwards. The amplifier circuit arrangement 306 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals, and the filter circuitry 308 may include an LPF configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to baseband output signals 307 to create. The baseband output signals 307 may be the baseband processing circuitry 108 ( 1 ) are provided for further processing. In some embodiments, the baseband output signals 307 Null-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, the blender circuitry may 302 passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

In some embodiments, the blender circuitry may 314 be adapted to baseband input signals 311 based on the synthesized frequency 305 that of the synthesizer circuitry 304 is provided to upconvert to RF output signals 209 for the FEM circuitry 104 to create. The baseband signals 311 may be from baseband processing circuitry 108 can be provided by the filter circuitry 312 be filtered. The filter circuit arrangement 312 may include an LPF or a BPF, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the blender circuitry may 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 each contain two or more mixers and for quadrature down conversion or up conversion using the synthesizer 304 be designed. In some embodiments, the blender circuitry may 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 each contain two or more mixers, each designed for image rejection (eg for Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the blender circuitry may 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 be designed for direct down conversion or direct upconversion. In some embodiments, the blender circuitry may 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 be designed for superheterodyne operation, although this is not a requirement.

The mixer circuitry 302 According to one embodiment, it may include passive quadrature mixers (eg, for the in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) paths). In such a Embodiment may be the RF input signal 207 from the 3 down to provide I and Q baseband output signals to be sent to the baseband processor.

The passive quadrature mixers may be driven by time-variant zero and ninety-degree LO switching signals provided by quadrature circuitry that may be configured to receive an LO frequency (f _LO ) from a local oscillator or synthesizer. such as an LO frequency 305 of the synthesizer 304 ( 3 ). In some embodiments, the LO frequency may be the carrier frequency, while in other embodiments the LO frequency may be a fraction of the carrier frequency (eg, half the carrier frequency, one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the time variant zero and ninety degree switching signals may be generated by the synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

In some embodiments, the LO signals may differ in duty cycle (the percentage of a period in which the LO signal is high) and / or in offset (the offset between start points of the period). In some embodiments, the LO signals may have a duty cycle of 25% and an offset of 50%. In some embodiments, each leg of the mixer circuitry (eg, the in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) paths) may operate at a duty cycle of 25%, which may result in a significant reduction in power consumption.

The RF input signal 207 ( 2 ) may comprise a balanced signal, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The I and Q baseband output signals may be provided to a low noise amplifier, such as the amplifier circuitry 306 ( 3 ) or the filter circuitry 308 ( 3 ).

In some embodiments, the baseband output signals 307 and the baseband input signals 311 be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard. In some alternative embodiments, the baseband output signals may be 307 and the baseband input signals 311 be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the radio IC circuitry may include analog to digital converter (ADC) and digital to analog converter (DAC) circuitry.

In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum or for other spectra not mentioned herein, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this regard.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 304 a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional-N / N + 1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect because other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuitry 304 a delta sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier or a synthesizer comprising a phase locked loop with a frequency divider. According to some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 304 a digital synthesizer circuitry included. An advantage of using digital synthesizer circuitry is that although it may still contain some analog components, its footprint can be much smaller than the footprint of analog synthesizer circuitry. In some embodiments, that may be incorporated into the synthesizer circuitry 304 input frequency can be provided by a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO), although this is not a requirement. A divider control input may further be from either the baseband circuitry 108 ( 1 ) or the application processor 111 ( 1 ), depending on the desired output frequency 305 , In some embodiments, a divider control input (eg, N) may be determined from a look-up table (eg, in a Wi-Fi card) based on a channel number and channel center frequency, such as from the application processor 111 determined or indicated.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 304 be designed to have a carrier frequency as the output frequency 305 to generate while the output frequency 305 in other embodiments, may be a fraction of the carrier frequency (eg, half of the carrier frequency, one third of the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the output frequency 305 be an LO frequency (f _LO ).

The 4 Fig. 12 illustrates a functional block diagram of the baseband processing circuitry 400 according to some embodiments. The baseband processing circuitry 400 is an example of circuitry suitable for use as the baseband processing circuitry 108 ( 1 ), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable can. The baseband processing circuitry 400 can receive a reception baseband processor (RX BBP) 402 for processing receive baseband signals 309 included by the radio IC circuitry 106 ( 1 ), and a transmission baseband processor (TX BBP) 404 for generating transmission baseband signals 311 for the radio IC circuitry 106 , The baseband processing circuitry 400 can also control logic 406 for coordinating the operations of the baseband processing circuitry 400 contain.

In some embodiments (eg, when analog baseband signals between the baseband processing circuitry 400 and the radio IC circuitry 106 can be exchanged), the baseband processing circuitry 400 an ADC 410 included to analog baseband signals coming from the radio IC circuitry 106 are received into digital baseband signals for processing by the RX BBP 402 to convert. In these embodiments, the baseband processing circuitry 400 also the DAC 412 included to digital baseband signals from TX BBP 404 to convert to analog baseband signals.

In some embodiments, the OFDM signals or OFDMA signals communicate, such as via the baseband processor 108A , the transmission baseband processor can 404 be configured to generate OFDM or OFDMA signals as appropriate for transmission by performing an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT). The reception baseband processor 402 may be configured to process received OFDM signals or OFDMA signals by performing an FFT. In some embodiments, the receive baseband processor may be 402 be adapted to detect the presence of an OFDM signal or an OFDMA signal by performing an autocorrelation for detecting a preamble, such as a short preamble, and performing a cross-correlation to detect a long preamble. The preambles may be part of a predetermined frame structure for Wi-Fi communication.

With reference to the 1 In some embodiments, the antennas 101 ( 1 ) each include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, stripline antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmitting RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result. The antennas 101 may each include a set of phased array antennas, although the embodiments are not so limited.

Although the radio architecture 100 is illustrated with a plurality of separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and implemented by combinations of software configured elements such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs) and / or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), integrated radio frequency circuits (RFICs), and combinations of various hardware and logic circuits, at least those described herein perform the functions described. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

The 5 illustrates a WLAN 500 according to some embodiments. The WLAN 500 may include a Basic Service Set (BSS) that contains a HE Access Point (AP) 502 which may be an AP, several high-performance wireless (e.g., IEEE 802.1 1ax) (HE) stations 504 and several legacy (e.g., IEEE 802.1 1n / ac) facilities 506 may contain.

The HE-AP 502 may be an AP using the IEEE 802.11 communication protocol for transmission and reception. The HE-AP 502 can be a base station. The HE-AP 502 can use other communication protocols as well as the IEEE 802.11 protocol. The IEEE 802.11 protocol may be IEEE 802.11ax. The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), and / or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include a multiple access technique. For example, the IEEE 802.11 protocol may include space-division multiple access (SDMA) and / or multiple-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO). It can have more than one HE-AP 502 that is part of an Extended Service Set (ESS). A controller (not illustrated) can store information that belongs to more than one HE-APs 502 are common.

The legacy facilities 506 may be used in accordance with one or more of IEEE 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac / ad / af / ah / aj / ay or any other legacy Wireless communication standard work. The legacy facilities 506 can be STAs or IEEE-STAs. The HE-STAs 504 may be wireless transmission and reception devices, such as a mobile telephone, portable electronic wireless communication devices, a smartphone, a handheld wireless device, wireless glasses, a wireless watch, a personal wireless device, a tablet, or other device using the IEEE 802.11 protocol, such as IEEE 802.1 1ax, or another wireless protocol can transmit and receive. In some embodiments, the HE-STAs 504 be referred to as high performance (HE) stations.

The HE-AP 502 Can with legacy facilities 506 communicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 legacy communication techniques. In exemplary embodiments, the HE-AP 502 also be designed with HE-STAs 504 in accordance with IEEE 802.11 legacy communication techniques.

In some embodiments, a HE frame may be configurable to have the same bandwidth as a channel. The HE frame may be a Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU). In some embodiments, there may be different types of PPDUs that may have different fields and different physical layers and / or different media access control (MAC) layers.

The bandwidth of a channel may be 20 MHz, 40 MHz or 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 320 MHz in contiguous bandwidths or 80 + 80 MHz (160 MHz) non-contiguous bandwidth. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of a channel may be 1MHz, 1.25MHz, 2.03MHz, 2.5MHz, 4.06MHz, 5MHz, and 10MHz, or any combination thereof or other bandwidth that is less than or equal to equal to the available bandwidth, can also be used. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channels may be based on a number of active data subcarriers. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channels is based on 26, 52, 106 . 242 . 484 . 996 or 2x996 active data subcarriers or tones spaced at 20 MHz. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channels is 256 Sounds spaced 20 MHz. In some embodiments, the channels are a multiple of 26 tones or a multiple of 20 MHz. In some embodiments, a 20 MHz channel 242 comprise active data subcarriers or tones, which may determine the magnitude of a fast Fourier transform (FFT). An allocation of a bandwidth or a number of tones or subcarriers may be referred to as a resource unit (RU) allocation according to some embodiments.

In some embodiments, the 26 subcarrier RU and the 52 subcarrier RU are used in the 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and the 80 + 80 MHz OFDMA HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 106 subcarrier RU is used in the 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and the 80 + 80 MHz OFDMA and MU-MIMO-HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 242 subcarrier RU is used in the 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and the 80 + 80 MHz OFDMA and MU-MIMO-HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 484 subcarrier RU is used in the 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and the 80 + 80 MHz OFDMA and MU-MIMO-HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 996 subcarrier RU is used in the 160 MHz and 80 + 80 MHz OFDMA and MU-MIMO-HE PPDU formats.

An HE frame may be configured to transmit a series of spatial data streams, which may be in accordance with MU-MIMO and OFDMA. In other embodiments, the HE-AP 502 , the HE-STA 504 and / or the legacy device 506 Other technologies such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000, CDMA 2000 IX, CDMA 2000 Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), IEEE 802.16 (ie, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) ), BlueTooth® or other technologies.

Some embodiments relate to HE communications. According to some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, e.g. For example, in IEEE 802.11ax embodiments, a HE-AP 502 may operate as a master station that may be configured to compete for a wireless medium (eg, during a contention period) to provide exclusive control over the medium for a HE control period. In some embodiments, the HE control period may be referred to as a transmission opportunity (TXOP). The HE-AP 502 may transmit a HE master sync transmission at the beginning of the HE control period, which may be trigger frame or HE control and scheduling transmission. The HE-AP 502 can transmit a temporal duration of the TXOP and subchannel information. During the HE control period, the HE-STAs 504 with the HE-AP 502 according to a non-contention based multiple access technique, such as OFDMA or MU-MIMO, communicate. This is in contrast to conventional WLAN communications in which the devices communicate according to a contention-based communication technique rather than a multiple access technique. During the HE control period, the HE-AP 502 with the HE stations 504 communicate using one or more HE frames. During the HE control period, the HE-STAs 504 working on a sub-channel that is smaller than the operating range of the HE-AP 502 is. During the HE control period, legacy stations refrain from communicating. The legacy stations may need communication from the HE-AP 502 received to reset the communication.

According to some embodiments, the HE-STAs 504 during the TXOP to the wireless medium with the legacy devices 506 which are excluded from competing for the wireless medium during the Master Sync transmission. In some embodiments, the trigger frame may indicate an uplink (UL) MU-MIMO and / or a UL-OFDMA-TXOP. In some embodiments, the trigger frame may include a DL-UL-MU-MIMO and / or a DL-OFDMA with scheduling specified in a preamble portion of the trigger frame.

In some embodiments, the multiple access technique used during the HE-TXOP may be a scheduled OFDMA technique, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, the multiple access technique may be a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technique or a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) technique. In some embodiments, the multiple access technique may be a Space Division Multiple Access (SDMA) technique. In some embodiments, the multiple access technique may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technique.

The HE-AP 502 can also work with legacy stations 506 and / or HE stations 504 communicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 legacy communication techniques. In some embodiments, the HE-AP 502 also be configurable with the HE stations 504 although it is not a requirement, to communicate outside the HE-TXOP according to IEEE 802.11 legacy communication techniques.

In some embodiments, the HE station 504 a "group owner" (GO) for peer-to-peer operating modes. A wireless device can be a HE station 502 or a HE-AP 502 be.

In some embodiments, the HE station 504 and / or the HE-AP 502 be designed according to the IEEE 802.1 1mc to work. In exemplary embodiments, the radio architecture is the 1 designed to be the HE station 504 and / or the HE-AP 502 implement. In exemplary embodiments, the front-end module circuitry is the 2 designed to be the HE station 504 and / or the HE-AP 502 implement. In exemplary embodiments, the radio IC circuitry is the 3 designed to be the HE station 504 and / or the HE-AP 502 implement. In exemplary embodiments, the baseband processing circuitry is the 4 designed to be the HE station 504 and / or the HE-AP 502 implement.

In example embodiments, the HE stations 504 , the HE-AP 502 , a device of HE stations 504 and / or a device of the HE-AP 502 one or more of the following: the radio architecture of 1 , the front-end module circuitry of the 2 , the radio IC circuitry of the 3 and / or the baseband processing circuitry of 4 ,

In exemplary embodiments, the radio architecture of the 1 , the front-end module circuitry of the 2 , the radio IC circuitry of the 3 and / or the baseband processing circuitry of 4 designed to be used in conjunction with the 1 - 17 described procedures and operations / functions.

In exemplary embodiments, the HE station 504 and / or the HE-AP 502 designed to be used in conjunction with the 1 - 17 described procedures and operations / functions. In exemplary embodiments, an apparatus is the HE station 504 and / or a device of the HE-AP 502 designed to be used in conjunction with the 1 - 17 perform described procedures and functions. The term Wi-Fi may refer to one or more IEEE 802.11 communication standards. AP and STA can access the HE access point 502 and / or the HE station 504 as well as the legacy facilities 506 Respectively.

In some embodiments, a HE-AP-STA may subscribe to a HE-AP 502 and a HE-STA 504 refer to a HE-AP 502 operates. If a HE-STA 504 not operating as a HE-AP, it may be referred to as a HE non-AP STA or HE non-AP in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the HE-STA 504 either as a HE-AP-STA or a HE-non-AP.

The 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine 600 at which one or more of the techniques discussed herein (eg, methods) may be performed. In alternative embodiments, the machine may 600 work as a standalone device, or it can be connected to other machines (eg, networked). In a networked use, the machine 600 working in the property of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In one example, the machine can 600 act as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The machine 600 can be a HE-AP 502 , a HE station 504 , a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable communication device, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a web device, a network router , Switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) specifying actions to be taken by that machine. Although only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" is further to be understood to include any collection of machines that individually or collectively execute a set (or sets of instructions) to perform any one or more of the instructions methods discussed here, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

The machine (eg computer system) 600 can be a hardware processor 602 (For example, a main processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processing core, or any combinations thereof), a main memory 604 and a static memory 606 some or all of them are linked together (eg a bus) 608 communicate.

For specific examples of main memory 604 include random access memory (RAM) and semiconductor memory devices, which in some embodiments may include memory locations in semiconductors, such as registers. Specific examples of static memory 606 may include nonvolatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM)). ), and flash memory devices, magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical disks, RAM and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks count.

The machine 600 may further include a display device 610 , an input device 612 (eg, a keyboard) and a user interface (UI) navigation device 614 (eg a mouse). In one example, the display device 610 , the input device 612 and the UI navigation device 614 be a touchscreen display. The machine 600 can additionally have a mass storage (eg a drive) 616 , a signal generating device 618 (eg, a speaker), a network interface device 620 and one or more sensors 621 such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensors. The machine 600 can be an output controller 628 such as a serial (eg Universal Serial Bus (USB)), a parallel or another wired or wireless (eg infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) Connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (eg, a printer, a card reader, etc.). In some embodiments, the processor 602 and / or the instructions 624 Processing circuitry and / or transceiver circuitry include.

The storage device 616 can be a machine readable medium 622 contain on the one or more sets of data structures or instructions 624 (eg, software) that embody or are exploited by one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 624 may also, completely or at least in part, during their execution by the machine 600 in main memory 604 , in static memory 606 or in the hardware processor 602 are located. In one example, one or all combinations of the hardware processor 602 , the main memory 604 , the static memory 606 or the storage device 616 form the machine-readable media.

Specific examples of machine-readable media may include nonvolatile memory such as semiconductor memory devices (eg, EPROM or EEPROM) and flash memory devices, magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical disks, RAM, and CD-ROM and DVD Count ROM disks.

Although the machine-readable medium 622 as a single medium, the term "machine-readable medium" may be used single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database and / or associated caches and servers) for storing one or more instructions 624 are designed.

A device of the machine 600 may be one or more of the following: a hardware processor 602 (For example, a main processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 604 and a static memory 606 , Sensors 621 , a network interface device 620 , Antennas 660 , a display device 610 , an input device 612 , a UI navigation device 614 , a mass storage 616 , Instructions 624 , a signal generating device 618 and an output controller 628 , The apparatus may be configured to perform one or more of the methods and / or operations disclosed herein. The device can be considered a component of the machine 600 be provided to perform one or more of the methods and / or operations disclosed herein and / or to perform a portion of one or more of the methods and / or operations disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the device may include a pin or other means for receiving power. In some embodiments, the device may include power conditioning hardware.

The term "machine-readable medium" may include any medium capable of instructions for execution by the machine 600 store, encode or carry, and that causes the machine 600 performs any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting examples of a machine-readable medium may include semiconductor memory and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readable media may include nonvolatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (eg, electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM)), and flash memory devices, magnetic disks, such as For example, internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical disks, random access memory (RAM), and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks count. In some examples, machine-readable media may include non-transitory machine-readable media. In some examples, machine-readable media may include machine-readable media that is not a transient propagating signal.

The instructions 624 can furthermore via a communication network 626 using a transmission medium via the network interface device 620 transmit or receive using any of a number of broadcast protocols (e.g., Frame Forwarding, Internet Protocol (IP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), etc.). ). Exemplary communication networks may include, but are not limited to, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Packet Data Network (eg, the Internet), mobile telephone networks (eg, cellular networks), conventional telephone line - Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks and wireless data networks (eg the family of standards of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, known as Wi-Fi®, the family of IEEE 802.16 standards , known as WiMAX®), the family of IEEE 802.15.4 standards, a family of Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards, a family of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) standards, peer-to-peer ( P2P) networks count.

In one example, the network interface device may 620 one or more physical sockets (eg, Ethernet, coax or telephone jacks) or one or more antennas for connection to the communications network 626 contain. In one example, the network interface device may 620 one or more antennas 660 to communicate wirelessly using at least one of the following, single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device may 620 communicate wirelessly using multi-user MIMO techniques. The term "transmission medium" is to be taken to include any intangible medium capable of instructions for execution by the machine 600 store, encode or carry, and it includes digital or analog communication signals or other immaterial medium to facilitate the communication of such software.

Logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms may count or work with examples described herein. Modules are tangible entities (eg, hardware) that are capable of performing specified operations, and that may be designed or arranged in some way. In one example, circuits may be in a specified manner be designed as a module (eg internally or in relation to external entities, such as other circuits). In one example, all or portions of one or more computer systems (eg, a standalone, client, or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors may be replaced by firmware or software (eg, instructions, an application section, or a computer) Application) as a module that operates to perform specified operations. In one example, the software may reside on a machine-readable medium. In one example, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, the software causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

Accordingly, the term "module" is understood to include a tangible entity, be it an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (eg, hardwired), or temporarily (eg, temporarily) configured (eg, as shown in FIG. programmed) to operate in a specified manner or to perform some or all of the operations described herein. If examples are considered in which modules are designed to be temporary, not every module must be realized at all times. For example, if the modules include a general purpose hardware processor configured using software, the general purpose hardware processor may be configured as different modules at different times. Software can accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, to build one particular module at a time and form another module at a different time.

Some embodiments may be fully or partially implemented in software and / or firmware. This software and / or firmware may take the form of instructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. These instructions may then be read and executed by one or more processors to facilitate the performance of the operations described herein. The instructions may be in any suitable form such as, but not limited to, source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readable medium may include any tangible non-volatile medium for storing information in a form that is readable by one or more computers, such as, but not limited to, read-only memory (ROM). Random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory, etc.

The 7 FIG. 12 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary wireless device. FIG 700 at which any one or more of the techniques discussed herein (eg, methods or operations) may be performed. The wireless device 700 may be a HE device. The wireless device 700 can be a HE-STA 504 and / or a HE-AP 502 be (eg 5 ). A HE-STA 504 and / or a HE-AP 502 can some or all of those in the 1 - 7 components shown included. The wireless device 700 can be an exemplary machine 600 be as related to the 6 is disclosed.

The wireless device 700 can the processing circuitry 708 contain. The processing circuitry 708 can a transceiver 702 , Physical Layer Circuitry (PHY Circuitry) 704 and MAC layer circuitry (MAC circuitry) 706 including one or more of the transmission and reception of signals to and from other wireless devices 700 (eg the HE-AP 502 , the HE-STA 504 and / or the legacy facilities 506 ) using one or more antennas 712 can enable. As an example: the PHY circuitry 704 can perform various encoding and decoding functions, which may include the formation of baseband signals for the transmission and decoding of received signals. As another example, the transceiver 702 perform various transmission and reception functions, such as converting signals between a baseband area and a radio frequency (RF) area.

Accordingly, the PHY circuitry 704 and the transceiver 702 may be separate components, or they may be part of a combined component, e.g. B. the processing circuitry 708 , In addition, some of the described functionalities related to transmission and reception of signals may be performed by a combination including any, any or all of the following, the PHY circuitry 704 , the transceiver 702 , the MAC circuitry 706 , the memory 710 and other components or layers. The MAC circuitry 706 can control access to the wireless medium. The wireless device 700 can also store 710 which is designed to perform the operations described herein, e.g. For example, some of the operations described herein may be performed by instructions stored in memory 710 are stored.

The antennas 712 (Some embodiments may include only one antenna) may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, stripline antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmitting RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas 712 be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

One or more of the following, the memory 710 , the transceiver 702 , the PHY circuitry 704 , the MAC circuitry 706 , the antennas 712 and / or the processing circuitry 708 , can be coupled with each other. Although the memory 710 , the transceiver 702 , the PHY circuitry 704 , the MAC circuitry 706 , the antennas 712 In addition, one or more of the following, the memory, may be illustrated as separate components 710 , the transceiver 702 , the PHY circuitry 704 , the MAC circuitry 706 , the antennas 712 , be integrated in an electronic package or chip.

In some embodiments, the wireless device may 700 be a mobile device, as in connection with the 6 is described. In some embodiments, the wireless device may 700 be configured to operate in accordance with one or more wireless communication standards, as described herein (eg, described in connection with US Pat 1 - 6 , IEEE 802.11). In some embodiments, the wireless device may 700 contain one or more components, as in connection with the 6 is described (eg the display device 610 , the input device 612 etc.). Although the wireless device 700 is illustrated with multiple separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and implemented by combinations of software configured elements such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs) and / or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), integrated radio frequency circuits (RFICs), and combinations of various hardware and logic circuits, at least those described herein perform the functions described. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

In some embodiments, a device may be the wireless device 700 or a device used by it, various components of the wireless device 700 , like in the 7 is shown, and / or components of the 1 - 6 contain. Accordingly, techniques and operations described herein may apply to the wireless device 700 refer, in some embodiments, to a device for a wireless device 700 be applicable (eg the HE-AP 502 and / or the HE-STA 504 ). In some embodiments, the wireless device is 700 configured to receive signals, packets and / or frames as described herein, e.g. As PPDUs to decode and / or encode.

In some embodiments, the MAC circuitry 706 be configured to compete for a wireless medium during a contention period to receive control of the medium for a HE-TXOP and to encode or decode an HE-PPDU. In some embodiments, the MAC circuitry 706 be configured to compete for the wireless medium based on channel contention settings, a transmit power level, and a clear channel assessment level (eg, an energy detection level).

The PHY circuitry 704 may be configured to transmit signals in accordance with one or more communication standards described herein. For example, the PHY circuitry 704 be designed to transmit a HE-PPDU. The PHY circuitry 704 may include modulation / demodulation, upconversion / downconverting, filtering, amplification, and the like. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry may 708 contain one or more processors. The processing circuitry 708 may be configured to perform functions based on instructions stored in a RAM or ROM or on the basis of special circuitry. The processing circuitry 708 may include a processor, such as a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor. The processing circuitry 708 can implement one or more functions with the antennas 712 , the transceiver 702 , the PHY circuitry 704 , the MAC circuitry 706 and / or the memory 710 are associated. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry may 708 be designed to one or more of the here perform described functions / operations and / or procedures.

In millimeter-wave technology, communication between a station (eg, the HE stations 504 of the 5 or the wireless device 700 ) and an access point (eg, the HE-AP 502 of the 5 or the wireless device 700 ) use effectively associated wireless channels that are highly directional. To account for directional dependence, beamforming techniques can be used to radiate energy in a particular direction with a given beamwidth for communicating between two devices. Directed propagation concentrates the transmitted energy to a target device to compensate for significant energy loss in the channel between the two communicating devices. Using directional transmission may extend the range of millimeter-wave communication over the benefit of the same transmitted energy in omnidirectional propagation.

The 8th - 13 are revealed in conjunction with each other. The 8th illustrates a system 800 to delegate autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple-AP environment. In the 8th is the wide area network (WAN) 812 , the Fronthaul connection 814 , the WAN connection 816 , the connection 818 , the multi-AP facilities 820 , the non-AP-STA 822 and the backhaul connection 824 illustrated.

The Fronthaul connection 814 and the backhaul connection 824 may be wireless or wired communications (as illustrated, is a wireless connection). In some embodiments, the Fronthaul connection 814 and the wireless backhaul connection 824 use a communication protocol, such as IEEE 802.11 or IEEE 802.16. The communication protocol is not limited to this example. The Fronthaul connections 814 Can wireless or wired connections between a multi-AP device 820 and a non-AP STA 822 be. For example, the front haul 806.2 over the Fronthaul connection 814.2 with the non-AP STA 822.2 communicate via the antennas. The backhaul connections 824 Can wireless or wired connections between two multi-AP device 820 be. For example, the backhaul STA 810.3 with the multi-AP facility 820.1 over the backhaul connection 824.2 communicate.

The WAN 812 may be a telecommunications or computer network that can span a large geographic distance. For example, the WAN 812 be the internet or contain the internet. One or more of the multi-AP facilities 820 can directly with the WAN 812 be connected. For example, the multi-AP device 820.1 with the WAN 812 over the WAN connection 816 be connected, which may be a wired connection or a wireless connection. The multi-AP facility 820.1 can multipath to the WAN 812 have, for. B. can the multi-AP device 820.1 an LTE connection to the WAN 812 have (not shown).

The multi-AP device 820.1 may provide routing functions for PPDUs or packets to or from the other devices, e.g. B. the multi-AP facilities 820.2 . 820.3 . 820.4 , the non-AP STAs 822.1 . 822.2 . 822.3 . 822.4 and wired or wireless facilities that are on the WAN 812 are located, for. For example, VOIP services, video streaming, and so on.

The multi-AP facilities 820 can HE-APs 502 be. The multi-AP facilities 820 can use the multi-AP controller 802 , the multi-AP agent 804 , the Fronthaul 806 , the logical ethernet port 808 and the backhaul STA 810 contain.

The multi-AP controller 802 may be a controller designed to work with the Multi-AP Agents 804 that focus on other multi-AP facilities 820 and on a same multi-AP device 820 (eg 820.1) can communicate, communicate and control them. The multi-AP controller 802 and the multi-AP agent 804 may be configured to perform one or more of the functions described herein. A multi-AP facility 820 that has a multi-AP controller 802 may be called a root AP according to some embodiments. A multi-AP controller 802 who is a multi-AP agent 804 and no multi-AP controller 802 may be called a satellite AP according to some embodiments. The multi-AP controller 802 may be a logical entity that functions to control the operation of one or more portions of the system 800 implements.

The multi-AP facility 820.1 can request that the multi-AP facilities 820 that from the multi-AP controller 802 be controlled, continuous (eg 1 time per second) traffic reports and usage statistics values in real time for all associated non-AP-STA 822 (eg 822.1 . 822.2 . 822.3 and 822.4 ). In some embodiments, the multi-AP device may 820.1 Usage statistics values from the multi-AP facilities 820 query or request from the Multi-AP Controller 802 to be controlled. The usage statistics values can be found in the metrics and statistic values 906 get saved.

The 9 illustrates a multi-AP controller 802 according to some embodiments. The multi-AP controller 802 can read the readings and statistics 906 and the multi-AP setup information 904 contain. The 10 illustrates a multi-AP agent 804 according to some embodiments. The multi-AP agent 804 can the capability information 1002 , the readings and statistics 1004 and the Autonomy Permits 1006 contain.

The measured values and statistics 906 can measure and statistic values for communication and traffic in the system 800 be, z. For example, the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) for front haul connections 814 and the backhaul connections 824 , a number of abandoned packages for front haul connections 814 and the wireless backhaul connections 824 , the packet flow for each of the multi-AP facilities 820 that are non-AP STAs 822 , the WAN 821 , the network conditions (eg conditions of the system 800 ), the packet error rate over a time for Fronthaul connections 814 and the backhaul connections 824 and the measured energy level of a legacy portion of a received packet for front haul connections 814 and the backhaul connections 824 ,

The multi-AP setup information 904 can provide information for each multi-AP facility 820 in the system 800 be. The multi-AP setup information 904 can use the multi-AP facility identification (ID) 902 , the readings and statistics 908 , the autonomy grants 910 and the capability information 912 contain. The multi-AP setup ID 902 may be a Media Access Control (MAC) address or an Association ID (AID) according to some embodiments. The measured values and statistics 908 can use the same or similar readings and statistics 906 how the readings and statistic values are, referring to the multi-AP facility 820 with the multi-AP setup ID 902 Respectively. The autonomy grants 910 can have one or more autonomy grant IEs 1100 included, as in connection with the 11 is described. The autonomy grants 910 may, according to some embodiments, allow for autonomy 910 be that of the multi-AP facility 820 with the multi-AP setup ID 902 been granted. In some embodiments, the autonomy grants 910 contain additional fields, eg. For example, a field to specify a time to which the Autonomy grant 910 has been granted, whether the Autonomy Permit 910 still active etc.

The 11 illustrates an Autonomy Permit Information Element (IE) 1100 according to some embodiments. The autonomy grants 910 can be N functional 1102 and condition 1104 pairs 1106 contain. The function 1102 may be an operation involving the multi-AP device 820 can perform. The condition 1304 may be optional according to some embodiments. The condition 1304 can contain conditions when the function 1102 from the multi-AP facility 820 can be performed if the condition 1304 is satisfied. The functions 1102 can associate, disassociate, handover, beamform and stream from the WAN (eg the internet) 812 be. The conditions may include when a measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a third PPDU from the second AP is above a first threshold when the measured RSSI of the third PPDU is below a second threshold when the first AP is disconnected from the second AP when a number of hops between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when a latency between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when a response from the second AP to a third PPDU from the first AP is not received in a threshold period when a response from the second AP to a service request from the first AP is not received in a threshold number of retries when communication with the second AP and the first AP has timed out, when an elapsed time since decoding the first PPDU is less than a time specified by the condition, and when a connection metric between the first AP and the second AP is below a threshold. One condition 1104 can occur if a service request to the root AP 1406 or -AP 1506 has timed out.

The multi-AP controller 802 can receive values (Received Signal Strength Indicator, RSSI), statistic values (eg, packet abort rate), and capability information (eg, 1002) from the multi-AP facilities 820 , the Fronthauls 806 (eg, Fronthaul 806.1, 806.2, 806.3 and 806.3), the non-AP STAs 822 , the logical Ethernet ports 808 and the backhaul STAs 810 receive. In some embodiments, the multi-AP controller is 802 for communication with the Multi-AP Agents 804 designed. For example, the multi-AP controller 802 communicate with the Multi-AP Agent 804.1, 804.2 and 804.3.

The multi-AP controller 802 may be designed to be an Autonomy Permit 910 for a multi-AP facility 820 based on the measured values and statistical values 906 to create. For example, the multi-AP controller 802 determine that backhaul connection 824.1 is noisy or weak (eg, based on an RSSI being below a threshold or a packet error rate above a threshold), and an autonomy grant based on the determination 910 for multi-AP device 820.2 generate and code, for. B. a functional 1102 and conditional 1104 Pair 1106 for example, if the RSSI is below a threshold, then the multi-AP device 820.2 will handover to other multi-AP devices 820 (eg 820.3 or 820.4) without first using the 820.1 multi-AP device (eg the Multi-AP Controller) 802 ) to communicate.

The capability information 912 can provide skill information (such as the capability information 1300 ) for the multi-AP device 820 with the multi-AP setup ID 902 contain. The capability information 912 can be the same or similar to the skill information 1300 be.

The 12 illustrates the skills information element 1200 according to some embodiments. The skills information element 1200 can the functional 1202 and conditional 1204 pairs 1206 contain. The condition 1204 may be optional, and there may be one or more additional fields, e.g. For example, a version of a standard. The function 1202 can be the same or similar to the function 1102 be. The condition 1204 may be the same or similar to the condition 1104 be. The skills information element 1200 can indicate that the multi-AP device 820 is capable of the function 1202 perform if the condition 1204 present or true. If the condition 1204 is not present, then the skill information element 1200 indicate that the multi-AP facility 820 to perform the function 1202 be able to.

The capability information 1002 can be the same or similar to the skill information element 1200 be. The capability information 1002 the capabilities (eg the functionalities of 1202 and conditional 1204 pairs 1206 ), to carry out the the multi-AP device 820 with the multi-AP agent 804 be able to.

The measured values and statistics 1004 can use the same or similar readings and statistics 906 or readings and statistics 908 for the multi-AP facility 820 with the multi-AP agent 804 be. For example, the readings and statistic values 1004 RSSI values for all wireless connections that contain the multi-AP device 820 currently has (for example, the multi-AP device 820.3 Keep RSSI values for packets coming from the non-AP STA 822.3 , the multi-AP facility 820.2 and the multi-AP facility 820.1 have been received). The measured values and statistics 1004 may contain one or more additional fields, e.g. For example, a field for a timestamp.

The autonomy grants 1006 can be the same or similar to the Autonomy grants 910 or the grant permission information element 1100 be. The autonomy grants 1006 can the active autonomy grants 1006 from the multi-AP controller 802 be. In some embodiments, the autonomy grants 1006 include one or more additional fields, such as a timestamp, when the Autonomy grant 1006 has been received.

The multi-AP facility 820 can make a service request 1300 to the multi-AP controller 802 transmitted (eg to the multi-AP device 820.1 with the multi-AP controller 802 ). The 13 illustrates a service request 1300 according to some embodiments. The service request 1300 can be N functional 1302 and conditional 1304 pairs 1306 contain. The function 1302 can be the same or similar to the function 1102 and / or the function 1202 be. The multi-AP controller 802 can be designed to service request 1300 with an autonomy grant information item 1100 to answer. The multi-AP controller 802 can the service request 1300 by accepting a packet reject, indicating that the service request 1300 is rejected. In some embodiments, an autonomy grant information item 1100 have one or more fields indicating that the service request 1300 is rejected. The multi-AP facility 820 can be based on the measured values and statistical values 906 and / or on the basis of the service request 1300 (eg a condition 1304 the service request 1300 , such as a threshold for RSSI of a packet coming from the multi-AP device 820 has been received, which is the multi-AP controller 802 contains) determine if the service request 1300 to be granted.

An autonomy grant information element 1100 , a skill information element 1200 or a service request 1300 can have a function 1102 . 1202 respectively. 1302 exhibit that more than once for different conditions 1104 . 1204 or 1304 is used. An autonomy grant information element 1100 , a skill information element 1200 or a service request 1300 can be a condition 1104 . 1204 respectively. 1304 exhibit that more than once for different functions 1102 . 1202 or 1302 is used.

The logical Ethernet ports 808 may be ports for use in communication using Ethernet. The logical Ethernet port 808.2 is with the logical ethernet port 808.1 about the connection 818 connected to a wired connection or a wireless Connection (as illustrated, this is a wired connection). The WAN connection 816 and connection 818 For example, in some embodiments, a wired connection may be Ethernet (IEEE 802.11 ), Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) or Powerline Communication (PLC).

The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1100 , the skill information element 1200 and / or the service request 1300 can be part of a package or a PPDU. In some embodiments, the autonomy grant information item 1100 , the skill information element 1200 and / or the service request 1300 Be fields of a package or a PPDU.

The 14 illustrates a method 1400 for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment, in accordance with some embodiments. In the 14 becomes a root AP 1406 , a satellite AP 1408 , a client 1410 and the time 1412 illustrated. The root AP 1406 can be a multi AP device 820.1 with a multi-AP controller 802 be. The satellite AP 1408 can be the multi-AP device 820.2 . 820.3 or 820.4 each with a multi-AP agent 804.2 . 804.3 or 804.4 be. The client 1410 can be a non AP STA 822.1 . 822.2 . 822.3 or 822.4 be.

The procedure 1400 can begin with that the satellite AP 1408 a skills information element 1404.1 Transfers 1402. The Skills Information Element 1404.1 can be a skills information element 1200 be, as related to the 12 is described. For example, the skill information element 1404.1 a number of functional 1202 and conditional 1204 mate 1206 contain. The function 1202 may be used to perform handovers or other functions as described herein. The condition 1204 may not be present according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the condition may 1204 on a measured RSSI between the root AP 1406 and the satellite AP 1408 Respectively. The skills information element 1404.1 can be transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, e.g. B. the connection 818 or the backhaul connection 824 , The root AP 1406 can be the skill information element 1404.1 receive and save it, z. In multi-AP setup information 904 by specifying the Multi-AP Setup ID 902 to a multi AP device ID of the satellite AP 1408 is set and by the skill information element 1404.1 in the capability information 912 is stored. The multi-AP facility 820 can be the skill information element 1404.1 based on a configuration of the multi-AP device 820 determine, for. B. can the multi-AP device 820 have a number of antennas that determine whether the multi-AP device 820 Beamforming can perform. The multi-AP facility 820 may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more communication protocols that may determine whether the device can perform some functions (eg, a non-AP-STA data stream) 822 to receive and send it to another wireless device, eg. B. a TV or music player to stream). The multi-AP facility 820 Can directly with the WAN 812 which would allow some functions, such as communicating connection and streaming requests to the Internet services.

The procedure 1400 drives in the operation 1402.2 with the transmission of the autonomy grant information item 1404.2 continued. For example, the autonomy grant information item 1404.2 an autonomy grant information item 1100 be, as related to the 11 is disclosed. For example, the function 1102.1 Handover, and the condition 1104.1 can be an RSSI between the root AP 1406 and the satellite AP 1408 be. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1404.2 can be additional functional 1102 and conditional 1104 pairs 1106 contain. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1404.2 can be transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, e.g. B. the connection 818 or the backhaul connection 824 , The satellite AP 1408 may be the grants permission information element 1404.2 as the autonomy grants 1006 save, as in connection with the 10 is described.

In some embodiments, the root AP 1406 based on whether the root AP 1406 overloaded with operations, determine which functional 1102 and conditional 1104 Couples are performed. For example, if the root AP 1406 a service request from the satellite AP 1408 receives, and the root AP 1406 determines that the load of the root AP 1406 is insufficient to adequately service the request, then the root AP 1406 the autonomy grant 1006 generate to allow the satellite AP 1408 performs the service. For example, the service for a handover, can connect to a server on the WAN 812 etc. serve. In some embodiments, the root AP creates 1406 the autonomy grant 1006 to allow the satellite AP 1408 Perform the service before the condition 1104 occurs. The root AP 1406 can z. B. an autonomy permit 1006 at the satellite AP 1408 send to perform service requests if the root AP 1406 overloaded.

The procedure 1400 drives in the operation 1402.3 so that continues the satellite AP 1408 a function 1404.3 for the client 1410 performs. For a functional 1102 and conditional 1104 Pair 1106 with the condition that the RSSI signal is one from the root AP 1406 For example, if the packet received is below a threshold, and the function that is handover then, for example, the function 1102 serve that the satellite AP 1408 the client 1410 to another satellite AP (not shown). The RSSI signal may fall below the threshold because of the client 1410 moves (eg to another room). The operation 1402.3 can be more than one transfer between the client 1410 and the satellite AP 1408 be. In some embodiments, the satellite AP 1408 a handover request from the client 1410 receive. In some embodiments, the satellite AP 1408 based on a measured received signal from the client 1410 (for example, the RSSI) determine that the client 1410 should be passed to another AP. The satellite AP 1408 The autonomy of the handover operation can be based on stored autonomy grants 1006 determine. The satellite AP 1408 can then determine if the handover with the client 1410 is to perform autonomously or whether the root AP 1406 to contact.

The procedure 1400 drives in the operation 1402.4 with the transmission of the autonomy grant information item 1404.4 continued. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1404.4 may be an update of the grant permission information item 1404.2 be. For example, the autonomy grant information item 1404.2 an autonomy grant information item 1100 be, as related to the 11 is disclosed. For example, the function 1102.1 be associated, and the condition 1104.1 can be a packet error rate between the root AP 1406 and the satellite AP 1408 be. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1404.4 can be additional functional 1102 and conditional 1104 pairs 1106 contain. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1404.4 can be transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, e.g. B. the connection 818 or the backhaul connection 824 , The satellite AP 1408 may be the grants permission information element 1404.4 as the autonomy grants 1006 save, as in connection with the 10 is described. In some embodiments, the satellite AP 1408 the previously stored autonomy grant information item 1404.2 by the autonomy grant information item 1404.4 replace. In some embodiments, the satellite AP 1408 the previously stored autonomy grant information item 1404.2 with the autonomy grant information item 1404.4 put together. In some embodiments, the stored autonomy grant information item 1404.2 contain a field to indicate whether a functional 1102 and conditional 1104 Pair 1106 has been canceled or updated.

The procedure 1400 drives in the operation 1402.5 so that continues the satellite AP 1408 a function 1404.5 for the client 1410 performs. For a functional 1102 and conditional 1104 Pair 1106 with the condition that a packet error rate is above a threshold for packets from the root AP 1406 is located, and where the function is associated, then, for example, the function 1102 serve the satellite AP 1408 with the client 1410 to link. In some embodiments, the function may be to have the satellite AP 1408 with the client 1410 associates without first the root AP 1406 to contact. The operation 1402.5 can be more than one transfer between the client 1410 and the satellite AP 1408 be. In some embodiments, the satellite AP 1408 a link request from the client 1410 receive. The satellite AP 1408 The Autonomy of the Associate Request can be based on stored Autonomy Permissions 1006 determine. The satellite AP 1408 can then determine if associating with the client 1410 is to perform autonomously or whether the root AP 1406 to be contacted.

The 15 illustrates a method 1500 for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment, in accordance with some embodiments. In the 15 becomes a root AP 1506 , a satellite AP 1508 , a client 1510 and the time 1512 illustrated. The root AP 1506 can be a multi AP device 820.1 with a multi-AP controller 802 be. The satellite AP 1508 can be a multi AP device 820.2 . 820.3 or 820.4 each with a multi-AP agent 804.2 . 804.3 or 804.4 be. The client 1410 can be a non AP STA 822.1 . 822.2 . 822.3 or 822.4 be.

The procedure 1500 can in the surgery 1502.1 start with that the satellite AP 1508 a service request 1504.1 transfers. The service request 1504.1 can be a service request 1300 be how he related to the 13 is described. For example, the service request 1504.1 a function 1302.1 and a condition 1304.1 contain. The function 1302.1 can be used to perform handovers. The condition 1304.1 may not be present according to some embodiments. The condition 1304.1 may be one of the conditions disclosed herein. In In some embodiments, the condition may be 1304.1 on a measured RSSI between the root AP 1406 and the satellite AP 1408 Respectively. The service request 1402.1 can be transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, e.g. B. the connection 818 or the backhaul connection 824 ,

The root AP 1506 can the service request 1504.1 received and based on the measured values and statistical values 906 determine if the service request 1504.1 to be granted. For example, if there is an indication that a packet error rate is above a threshold for communications between the root AP 1506 and the satellite AP 1508 is, then the root AP 1506 the service request 1504.1 approve. In some embodiments, the root AP 1506 the approval of the service request 1504.1 prove with a condition, for. For example, only if the packet error rate as given by the satellite AP 1508 between the satellite AP 1508 and the root AP 1506 is greater than a threshold.

The procedure 1500 can in the surgery 1502.2 continue with that the root AP 1506 an autonomy grant information item 1504.2 in response to the service request 1504.1 transfers. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1504.2 may be the same or similar to the grant permission information item 1100 be. In some embodiments, the root AP 1506 transmit a packet indicating that the service request 1504.1 is rejected. In some embodiments, the autonomy grant information item 1504.2 specify that the service request 1504.1 is rejected. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1504.2 can be a function 1102.1 and a condition 1104.1 included, for. B. can the function 1102.1 serve for performing handovers and the condition 1104.1 that may be the function 1102.1 is granted if a packet error rate between the root AP 1506 and the satellite AP 1508 is greater than a threshold. The Autonomy Permit Information Element 1504.2 can be transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, e.g. B. the connection 818 or the backhaul connection 824 ,

The procedure 1500 drives in the operation 1502.3 so that continues the satellite AP 1508 a function 1504.3 for the client 1510 performs. For a functional 1102 and conditional 1104 Pair 1106 the Autonomy Permit Information Element 1504.2 with a condition (for example, that a packet error rate between the root AP 1506 and the satellite AP 1508 greater than a threshold) and a function that is a handover, then, for example, the function 1102 serve that the satellite AP 1508 the client 1510 to another satellite AP (not shown). The operation 1502.3 may be the same or similar to the operations 1402.3 and or 1402.5 be.

The procedure 1500 can in the surgery 1502.4 continue with that the satellite AP 1508 a second service request 1504.4 transfers. The second service request 1504.4 can be a service request 1300 be how he related to the 13 is described. For example, the second service request 1504.4 a function 1302.1 and a condition 1304.1 contain. The function 1302.1 can be used to perform handovers. The condition 1304.1 may not be present according to some embodiments. The condition 1304.1 may be one of the conditions disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the condition may 1304.1 on a measured RSSI between the root AP 1406 and the satellite AP 1408 Respectively. The service request 1402.1 can be transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, e.g. B. the connection 818 or the backhaul connection 824 ,

The procedure 1500 can in the surgery 1502.5 continue with that the root AP 1506 a second autonomy grant information item 1504.5 in response to the second service request 1504.4 transfers. The operation 1502.5 may be the same or similar to the operation 1504.2 be. The second autonomy grant information item 1504.5 may be the same or similar to the grant permission information item 1504.2 be. The second autonomy grant information item 1504.5 may be the grants permission information element 1504.2 Replace or the Autonomy Permit Information Element 1502.2 complete. The satellite AP 1508 updates its autonomy grants 1006 ,

The procedure 1500 drives in the operation 1502.3 so that continues the satellite AP 1508 a function 1504.3 for the client 1510 performs. The operation 1502.6 may be the same or similar to the operations 1502.3 . 1402.3 and or 1402.5 be.

The 16 illustrates a method 1600 for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment, in accordance with some embodiments. The procedure 1600 begins in the operation 1602 decoding a first PPDU received from a second AP, wherein the first PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that if the condition is satisfied, the first Access point is authorized to perform the function.

For example, the satellite AP 1408 the autonomy grant information item 1404.2 or 1404.4 from the root AP 1406 receive. In another example, the satellite AP 1508 the autonomy grant information item 1504.2 or 1504.5 receive.

The procedure 1600 drives in the operation 1604 by determining if the condition is met. For example, the satellite AP 1408 determine whether the grant permission information item 1404.2 or 1404.4 a functional 1102 and conditional 1104 Pair 1106 contains, where the condition 1104 is satisfied. In another example, the satellite AP 1508 determine whether the grant permission information item 1504.2 or 1504.5 a functional 1102 and condition 1104 pair, where the condition 1104 is satisfied.

The procedure 1600 drives in the operation 1606 with the decoding of a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station. For example, the satellite AP 1408 a PPDU from a client 1410 in the operation 1402.3 or the operation 1402.5 receive a function 1102 requests or specifies a function for the client 1510 should be carried out. In another example, the satellite AP 1508 a PPDU from a client 1510 in the operation 1502.3 or 1502.6 receive a function 1102 requests or indicates that a function 1102 for the client 1510 should be carried out.

The procedure 1600 drives in the operation 1606 proceeding with performing the function for the station if and when it is determined that the condition is met, the memory being adapted to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU. For example, the satellite AP 1408 determine that a condition 1104 the Autonomy Permit Information Element 1404.2 or the Autonomy Permit Information Element 1404.4 is met, and if the condition 1104 is satisfied, then the satellite AP 1408 the function 1102 of the functional 1104 and conditional pairs 1106 perform as related to the 14 is disclosed.

In another example, the satellite AP 1508 determine if a condition 1104 the Autonomy Permit Information Element 1504.2 or the Autonomy Permit Information Element 1504.4 is met, and if the condition 1104 is satisfied, then the satellite AP 1508 the function 1102 of the functional 1104 and conditional pairs 1106 perform as related to the 15 is disclosed.

In some embodiments, the order of operations of the method 1600 be different, and one or more operations may be omitted. In addition, the process can 1600 contain one or more additional operations. In some embodiments, the method 1600 from a root AP 1506 , from the satellite AP 1508 , the multi-AP facility 820 , a device of a root AP 1506 , a device of a satellite AP 1508 or a device of the multi-AP device 820 be performed.

The 17 illustrates a method 1700 for delegating autonomy based on network conditions in a multiple AP environment, in accordance with some embodiments. The procedure 1700 begins in the operation 1702 decoding a first PPDU, wherein the first PPDU comprises capability information of a second AP, the capability information indicating functions that the second AP is capable of performing. For example, the root AP 1506 the skills information element 1504 in the operation 1502.1 of the 15 receive.

The procedure 1700 drives in the operation 1704 with the encoding of a second PPDU, the second PPDU comprising an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the second access point is authorized to perform the function, and where the function is one of the functions that the second AP is capable of performing. For example, the root AP 1506 the autonomy grant information item 1402.2 to the satellite AP 1408 where the Autonomy Permit Information Element 1402.2 N Functional 1102 and conditional 1104 pairs 1106 may include.

The procedure 1700 drives in the operation 1706 with configuring the first AP to transmit the second PPDU to the second AP. For example, a device of the root AP 1506 the root AP 1506 to interpret the grant permission information item 1402.2 transferred to.

In some embodiments, the order of operations of the method 1700 be different, and one or more operations may be omitted. In addition, the process can 1700 contain one or more additional operations. In some embodiments, the method 1700 from the root AP 1506 , from the satellite AP 1508 , the multi-AP facility 820 , a device of a root AP 1506 , a device of a satellite AP 1508 or a device of the multi-AP device 820 be performed.

Some embodiments provide a technical solution to the problem of how the system (e.g. 800 ) Network throughput is maintained as the network quality degrades by allowing satellite APs to perform the functions or services. Some embodiments allow more efficient use of the system (e.g. 800 ) by enabling satellite APs to perform functions or services they would not be able to do if the satellite AP relied on the root AP.

The following examples relate to further embodiments. Example 1 is a device of a first access point (AP) comprising: memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: decode a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a second AP, wherein the first PPDU an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is met, the first AP is authorized by the second AP to perform the function; to determine if the condition is met; decode a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the condition is satisfied to perform the function for the station.

Example 2 includes the subject of the example 1 optionally, the condition is one of the following group: if a measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a third PPDU from the second AP is above a first threshold when the measured RSSI of the third PPDU is below a second threshold, if the first AP is disconnected from the second AP when a number of hops between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when latency between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when there is a response from the second AP a third PPDU is not received by the first AP in a threshold period when a response from the second AP to a service request from the first AP is not received in a threshold number of retries when communication with the second AP and the first AP terminates due to timeout has been, if an elapsed time since the decoding of the first PPDU is less than a time durc h the condition is specified and if a connection metric between the first AP and the second AP is below a threshold.

In Example 3, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-2 optionally includes the function being one of the following: handover of the station from the first AP to a third AP, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1v faster Basic Service Set (BSS) transition from the first AP to a third AP, associating with a second station, performing beamforming, and connecting to a server.

In Example 4, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-3 optionally includes the grant of autonomy in an allow-for-consent information item, wherein the grant-of-autonomy information item comprises one or more pairs of functions and conditions.

In Example 5, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-4 optionally includes the first AP being a satellite AP and the second AP being a root AP.

In Example 6, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-5 optionally includes the processing circuitry further configured to: encode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises an autonomy grant request; configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and decode a fourth PPDU, wherein the fourth PPDU comprises a response to the request for the grant of autonomy.

In Example 7, the subject matter of Example 6 optionally includes that the response includes a second condition and a second function, and that the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine whether the second condition is met; decode a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the second condition is satisfied to perform the second function for the station.

In Example 8, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-7 optionally includes that the processing circuitry is further configured to: a third one PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a service request for a second function; configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and decode a fourth PPDU, wherein the fourth PPDU comprises a response to the service request for the second function.

In Example 9, the subject matter of Example 8 optionally includes that the answer includes an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the first AP, and that the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine whether the second function has been granted ; decode a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and if the determination is made that the second function has been granted to perform the second function for the station.

In Example 10, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-9 optionally includes the processing circuitry further configured to: decode a third PPDU from the second AP, wherein the third PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, wherein the grant of autonomy indicates a function, the autonomy grant indicating that the first access point is authorized to perform the function; decode a second PPDU from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and perform the function for the station.

In Example 11, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-10 optionally includes the first PPDU being received by a multi-AP controller of the second AP.

In Example 12, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-11 optionally includes that each of the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station is one of the following: An Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1ax access point; an IEEE 802.1 1ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station, an IEEE 802.11 access point, and an IEEE multi-AP device.

In Example 13, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-12 optionally includes transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; and one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry, the memory configured to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

Example 14 is a non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a first access point (AP) device, the instructions configuring the one or more processors to: a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP); ) Protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a second AP, the first PPDU comprising an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the first AP is authorized by the second AP to perform the function to determine if the condition is met; decode a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the condition is satisfied to perform the function for the station.

In Example 15, the subject matter of Example 14 optionally includes the instructions further configuring the one or more processors to: encode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises an autonomy grant request; configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and decode a fourth PPDU, wherein the fourth PPDU comprises a response to the request for the grant of autonomy.

In Example 16, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 14-15 optionally includes the instructions further configuring the one or more processors to: determine whether the second condition is met; decode a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the second condition is satisfied to perform the second function for the station.

Example 17 is a method performed by a first access point (AP) device, the method comprising: a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a second AP; wherein the first PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the autonomy grant indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the first AP is authorized by the second AP to perform the function, whether the condition is fulfilled; decode a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and, if that Determination is made that the condition is fulfilled to perform the function for the station.

In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 17 optionally includes that the condition is one of the following group: that a measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a third PPDU from the second AP is above a first threshold that the measured RSSI of the third PPDU is below a second threshold, and that the function is one of the following: handover of the station from the first AP to a third AP, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11v Fast Basic Service Set (BSS) transition from the first AP to a third AP.

Example 19 is a first access point (AP) device that includes: memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to: decode a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU), the first PPDU comprising capability information of a second AP, the capability information indicating functions which the second AP is able to carry out; a second PPDU, wherein the second PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the second access point is authorized to perform the function, and wherein the Function is one of the functions that the second AP is capable of performing; and configure the first AP to transmit the second PPDU to the second AP, wherein the memory is configured to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 19 optionally includes the processing circuitry further configured to: decode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a request for an autonomy grant from the second AP; encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the request for the grant of autonomy; and configure the first AP to transmit the fourth PPDU to the second AP.

In Example 21, the subject matter of Example 20 optionally includes that the answer includes a second condition and a second function.

In Example 22, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 19-21 optionally includes the processing circuitry further configured to: decode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a service request for a second function; determine if the second AP is to grant the second function; to encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the service request for the second function; and configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP, the response comprising an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the second AP.

In Example 23, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 19-22 optionally includes the grant of autonomy in an autonomy grant information item, wherein the permit of autonomy information item comprises one or more authority grants.

In Example 24, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 20-23 optionally includes the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station each being one of the following: an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax access point; an IEEE 802.11ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station and an IEEE 802.11 access point.

In Example 25, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 20-24 optionally includes transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; and one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

Example 26 is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a device of a first wireless device, the instructions for configuring the one or more processors to: a first physical layer convergence procedure Decode (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU), the first PPDU comprising capability information of a second AP, the capability information indicating functions that the second AP is capable of performing; a second PPDU, wherein the second PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the second access point is authorized to perform the function, and wherein the Function is one of the functions that the second AP is capable of performing; and configure the first AP to transmit the second PPDU to the second AP, wherein the memory is configured to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In Example 27, the subject matter of Example 26 optionally includes the instructions further configuring the one or more processors to: decode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a request for an autonomy grant from the second AP; encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the request for the grant of autonomy; and configure the first AP to transmit the fourth PPDU to the second AP.

In Example 28, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 26-27 optionally includes that the response includes a second condition and a second function.

In Example 29, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 26-28 optionally includes the instructions further configuring the one or more processors to: decode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a service request for a second function; determine if the second AP is to grant the second function; to encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the service request for the second function; and configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP, the response comprising an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the second AP.

In Example 30, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 26-29 optionally includes the grant of autonomy in an autonomy grant information item, wherein the grant permission information item comprises one or more granted permissions.

In Example 31, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 26-30 optionally includes the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station each being one of the following: an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax access point; an IEEE 802.11ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station and an IEEE 802.11 access point.

Example 32 is a method performed by a device of a first wireless device, the method comprising: decoding a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU), wherein the first PPDU comprises capability information of a second AP wherein the capability information indicates functions that the second AP is capable of performing; a second PPDU, wherein the second PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the second access point is authorized to perform the function, and wherein the Function is one of the functions that the second AP is capable of performing; and configure the first AP to transmit the second PPDU to the second AP, wherein the memory is configured to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In Example 33, the subject matter of Example 32 optionally includes that the method further comprises: decoding a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a request for an autonomy grant from the second AP; encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the request for the grant of autonomy; and configure the first AP to transmit the fourth PPDU to the second AP.

In Example 34, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 32-33 optionally includes that the response includes a second condition and a second function.

In Example 35, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 32-34 optionally includes the method further comprising: decoding a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a service request for a second function; determine if the second AP is to grant the second function; to encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the service request for the second function; and configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP, the response comprising an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the second AP.

In Example 36, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 32-35 optionally includes the grant of autonomy in an allowance information element, wherein the grant permission information element comprises one or more allowances of autonomy.

In Example 37, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 32-36 optionally includes the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station each being one of the following: an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax access point; an IEEE 802.11ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station and an IEEE 802.11 access point.

Example 38 is a device of a first wireless device, wherein the device Comprising: means for decoding a first Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU), the first PPDU comprising capability information of a second AP, the capability information indicating functions that the second AP is capable of performing; Means for encoding a second PPDU, wherein the second PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the second access point is authorized to perform the function, and wherein the function is one of the functions that the second AP is capable of performing; and means for configuring the first AP to transmit the second PPDU to the second AP, wherein the memory is configured to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU.

In example 39, the subject-matter of example 38 optionally includes that the apparatus further comprises: means for decoding a third PPDU, the third PPDU comprising a request for an autonomy grant from the second AP; Means for encoding a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the request for the grant of autonomy; and means for configuring the first AP to transmit the fourth PPDU to the second AP.

In Example 40, the subject matter of Example 39 optionally includes that the answer includes a second condition and a second function.

In example 41, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 39-40 optionally includes that the apparatus further comprises: means for decoding a third PPDU, the third PPDU comprising a service request for a second function; Means for determining if the second function is to be granted to the second AP; Means for encoding a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the service request for the second function; and means for configuring the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP, the response comprising an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the second AP.

In Example 42, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 39-41 optionally includes the granting of the grant of autonomy in a grant-of-consent information item, wherein the grant-of-consent information item comprises one or more grant-of-autonomy grants.

In Example 43, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 39-42 optionally includes the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station each being one of the following: an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax access point; an IEEE 802.11ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station and an IEEE 802.11 access point.

Example 44 is a first access point (AP) device comprising: means for decoding a first Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a second AP, wherein the first PPDU is an autonomy grant wherein the autonomy grant indicates a function and a condition, the autonomy grant indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the first AP is authorized by the second AP to perform the function, means for determining whether the condition is met; Means for decoding a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed on the station; and, if the determination is made that the condition is met, means for performing the function for the station.

In Example 45, the subject matter of Example 44 optionally includes the condition being one of the following group: if a measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a third PPDU from the second AP is above a first threshold, if the measured RSSI is the third PPDU is below a second threshold when the first AP is disconnected from the second AP when a number of hops between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when latency between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when a response from the second AP to a third PPDU is not received by the first AP in a threshold period when a response from the second AP to a service request from the first AP is not received in a threshold number of retries when communicating with the second AP AP and the first AP has timed out if an elapsed time since the decode The first PPDU is less than a time indicated by the condition and when a connection metric between the first AP and the second AP is below a threshold.

In example 46, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 44-45 optionally includes the function being one of the following group: a handover of the station from the first AP to a third AP, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1v faster Basic Service Set (BSS) transition from the first AP to a third AP, associate with a second station, Perform beamforming and connect to a server.

In example 47, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 44-46 optionally includes the granting of autonomy permission in an authorization grant information item, wherein the granting allowance information item comprises one or more pairs of functions and conditions.

In example 48, the subject matter of any one or more of examples 44-47 optionally includes that the first AP is a satellite AP and the second AP is a root AP.

In Example 49, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 44-48 optionally includes that the apparatus further comprises: means for encoding a third PPDU, the third PPDU comprising an Autonomy Approval Request; Means for configuring the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and means for decoding a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the request for the grant of autonomy.

In Example 50, the subject matter of Example 49 optionally includes the response including a second condition and a second function, and the apparatus further comprising: means for determining whether the second condition is met; Means for decoding a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the second condition is met, means for performing the second function for the station.

In Example 51, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 44-50 optionally includes that the apparatus further comprises: means for encoding a third PPDU, the third PPDU comprising a service request for a second function; Means for configuring the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and means for decoding a fourth PPDU, wherein the fourth PPDU comprises a response to the service request for the second function.

In Example 52, the subject matter of Example 51 optionally includes the answer comprising an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the first AP, and the apparatus further comprises: means for determining whether the second function has been granted; Means for decoding a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the second function has been granted, means for performing the second function for the station.

In Example 53, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 44-52 optionally includes the apparatus further comprising: means for decoding a third PPDU from the second AP, wherein the third PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function the grant of autonomy indicates that the first access point is authorized to perform the function; Means for decoding a second PPDU from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and means for performing the function for the station.

In Example 54, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 44-53 optionally includes the first PPDU being received by a multi-AP controller of the second AP.

In Example 55, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 44-54 optionally includes the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station each being one of the following: an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax access point; an IEEE 802.11ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station, an IEEE 802.11 access point, and an IEEE multi-AP device.

In Example 56, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 44-55 optionally includes means for processing radio frequency signals coupled to means for storing and retrieving the first PPDU; and means for transmitting and receiving the radio frequency signals coupled to the means for processing the radio frequency signals.

The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 CFR Section 1.72 (b), which requires a summary that will allow the reader to determine the nature and key message of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• US 62465365 [0001]

Claims (26)

The following is claimed: A first access point (AP) device comprising: memory; and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to: decoding a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a second AP, the first PPDU comprising an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition indicating the grant of autonomy; if the condition is met, the first AP is authorized by the second AP to perform the function; to determine if the condition is met; decode a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the condition is satisfied to perform the function for the station. Device after Claim 1 wherein the condition is one of the following group: if a measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a third PPDU from the second AP is above a first threshold, if the measured RSSI of the third PPDU is below a second threshold, if the first one AP is disconnected from the second AP when a number of hops between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when latency between the first AP and the second AP is greater than a threshold when responding from the second AP to a second AP third PPDU is not received by the first AP in a threshold period when a response from the second AP to a service request from the first AP is not received in a threshold number of retries when communication with the second AP and the first AP has timed out if an elapsed time since the decoding of the first PPDU is less than a time determined by the Bedi and when a connection metric between the first AP and the second AP is below a threshold. Device after Claim 1 where the function is one of the following group: a station handover from the first AP to a third AP, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1v Fast Basic Service Set (BSS) transition from the first AP to a third AP Associate with a second station, perform beamforming, and connect to a server. Device after Claim 1 wherein the authorization of autonomy is included in an autonomy grant information element, wherein the autonomy grant information element comprises one or more pairs of functions and conditions. Device after Claim 1 wherein the first AP is a satellite AP and the second AP is a root AP. Device after Claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a request for an autonomy grant; configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and decode a fourth PPDU, wherein the fourth PPDU comprises a response to the request for the grant of autonomy. Device after Claim 6 wherein the response comprises a second condition and a second function, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine whether the second condition is met; decode a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the second condition is satisfied to perform the second function for the station. Device after Claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode a third PPDU, the third PPDU comprising a service request for a second function; configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and decode a fourth PPDU, wherein the fourth PPDU comprises a response to the service request for the second function. Device after Claim 8 wherein the response includes an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the first AP and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine whether the second function has been granted; decode a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and if the determination is made that the second function has been granted to perform the second function for the station. Device after Claim 1 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode a third PPDU from the second AP, wherein the third PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function, wherein the granting of autonomy indicates that the first access point is authorized to perform the function ; decode a second PPDU from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and perform the function for the station. Device after Claim 1 wherein the first PPDU is received by a multi-AP controller of the second AP. Device after Claim 1 wherein the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station are each one of the following: an IEEE 802.11ax access point, an IEEE 802.11ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station, an IEEE 802.11 access point and an IEEE multi-AP device. Devices after Claim 1 , further comprising: transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; and one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry, the memory configured to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by one or more processors of a first access point (AP) device, the instructions configuring the one or more processors to: decoding a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a second AP, the first PPDU comprising an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition indicating the grant of autonomy; if the condition is met, the first AP is authorized by the second AP to perform the function; to determine if the condition is met; decode a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the condition is satisfied to perform the function for the station. Non-volatile computer readable storage medium after Claim 14 wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to: encode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises an autonomy grant request; configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP; and decode a fourth PPDU, wherein the fourth PPDU comprises a response to the request for the grant of autonomy. Non-volatile computer readable storage medium after Claim 14 wherein the instructions further configure the one or more processors to: determine whether the second condition is met; decode a fifth PPDU from the station, the fifth PPDU requesting the second function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the second condition is satisfied to perform the second function for the station. A method performed by a first access point (AP) device, the method comprising: decoding a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a second AP, the first PPDU comprising an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition indicating the grant of autonomy; if the condition is met, the first AP is authorized by the second AP to perform the function; to determine if the condition is met; decode a second PPDU received from a station, the second PPDU requesting the function to be performed for the station; and, if the determination is made that the condition is satisfied to perform the function for the station. Method according to Claim 17 wherein the condition is one of the following group: whether a measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of a third PPDU from the second AP is above a first threshold, if the measured RSSI of the third PPDU is below a second threshold, and where the one of the following is a handover of the station from the first AP to a third AP and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11v fast Basic Service Set (BSS) transition from the first AP to a third AP. A first access point (AP) device comprising: memory; and processing circuitry associated with the memory wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: decode a first physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU), wherein the first PPDU comprises capability information of a second AP, the capability information indicating functions to which the second AP in capable of a second PPDU, wherein the second PPDU comprises an autonomy grant, the autonomy grant indicating a function and a condition, the granting of autonomy indicating that, if the condition is satisfied, the second access point is authorized to perform the function, and wherein the Function is one of the functions that the second AP is capable of performing; and configure the first AP to transmit the second PPDU to the second AP, wherein the memory is configured to store the first PPDU and the second PPDU. Device after Claim 19 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a request for an autonomy grant from the second AP; encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the request for the grant of autonomy; and configure the first AP to transmit the fourth PPDU to the second AP. Device after Claim 20 wherein the response comprises a second condition and a second function. Device after Claim 19 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode a third PPDU, wherein the third PPDU comprises a service request for a second function; determine if the second AP is to grant the second function; to encode a fourth PPDU, the fourth PPDU comprising a response to the service request for the second function; and configure the first AP to transmit the third PPDU to the second AP, the response comprising an indication of whether the second function has been granted to the second AP. Device after Claim 19 wherein the autonomy grant is included in an autonomy grant information element, wherein the autonomy grant information element comprises one or more autonomy grants. Device after Claim 20 wherein the first AP, the second AP, and the wireless station are each one of the following: an IEEE 802.11ax access point, an IEEE 802.11ax station, an IEEE 802.11 station, and an IEEE 802.11 access point , Device after Claim 20 , further comprising: transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; and one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

Images