TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wireless communications and, more particularly, to enhancements to Wi-Fi high-bandwidth signaling.

BACKGROUND

Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and are increasingly requesting access to wireless channels. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is developing one or more standards that utilize Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in channel allocation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environment using high- bandwidths, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 depicts a format of an extremely high throughput (EHT) Operation element in a Wi-Fi transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3A depicts a format of a Control Information subfield in an EHT Operating Management (OM) Control subfield in a Wi-Fi transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3B depicts a format of a Control Information subfield in an OM Control subfield in a Wi-Fi transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 depicts a format of an EHT multi-user (MU) physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (EHT MU PPDU) , in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example scrambler, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 depicts a format of a trigger frame, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example diagram of a process for signaling high bandwidth for WiFi communications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 8 illustrates a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station that may be suitable for use as a user device, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine upon which any of one or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a radio architecture in accordance with some examples.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example front-end module circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG. 10, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example radio IC circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG. 10, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example baseband processing circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG. 10, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, algorithm, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

Wi-Fi 8 is exploring methods to increase peak throughput and reduce latency. Some of the proposed solutions require significant hardware change or may not have direct boost on throughput and latency. For example, adding a 60 GHz band requires an additional radio and suffers a coexistence problem with existing 802.11ad/llay devices. In another example, a scheduled operation to achieve low latency requires total control of the wireless medium to achieve the best performance and has questionable performance when there is interference from overlapping basic service set (OBSS) and legacy devices. For wireless technology, bandwidth and number of spatial streams are always the natural way to increase throughput and should be explored before turning to other complicated technology.

The IEEE 802.11 technical standards define wireless communications, including the way that Wi-Fi devices signal the use of bandwidth being used. For example, the current highest bandwidth signaled for use in Wi-Fi under the 802.11 standards in 6 GHz bandwidth commuincations is 320 MHz. In 5 GHz bandwidth Wi-Fi communications, the highest bandwidth that is signaled is 160 MHz. In 5 GHz, the only bandwidth option greater than 160 MHz is 240 MHz, for which there is no current signaling. In 6 GHz, any communication over 500 MHz is considered ultra- wide bandwidth (UWB), and therefore subject to a power spectral density emission limit of 41.3 dBm/MHz. This is significantly lower than the power spectral density emission limit in current Wi-Fi transmissions, such as 17 dBm or 5 dBm for Wi-Fi 6E low-power indoor devices. As a result, being classified as UWB for Wi-Fi is not a viable solution. To use a bandwidth higher than 320 MHz in 6 GHz 802.11 communications, any use over 500 MHz (e.g., using 640 MHz) would trigger the power spectral density limit, leaving 480 MHz as the only option over 320 MHz, and below the 500 MHz limit.

For example, in the 5 GHz channelization defined by the 802.1 lac technical standard, 160 MHz is the largest contiguous channel bandwidth that exists and can be signaled even though the 5 GHz bandwidth includes portions of larger than 160 MHz. There is no way to signal 320 MHz (e.g., a 160 MHz + 160 MHz allocation) in the 5 GH channel allocation because the 160 MHz portions of the bandwidth are not contiguous. Therefore, there currently is no way to signal 240 MHz by signaling 320 MHz with puncturing of an 80 MHz portion because there is no contiguous 320 MHz to use.

There is therefore a need to signal the use of bandwidths in 802.11 Wi-Fi communications that are higher than 160 MHz in 5 GHz communications and higher than 320 MHz in 6 GHz communications.

In one or more embodiments, to signal the use of bandwidths in 802.11 Wi-Fi communications that are higher than 160 MHz in 5 GHz communications (e.g., 240 MHz) and higher than 320 MHz in 6 GHz communications (e.g., 480 MHz), puncturing and nonpuncturing options may be implemented as described herein. In puncturing options, the bandwidth signaling may signal a larger bandwidth with punturing, such as a 320 MHz bandwidth with 80 MHz of the 320 MHz bandwidth punctured to result in 240 MHz. In a non- punturing option, the 240 MHz bandwidth may be signaled directly.

According to the 802.11be 2.1 technical standard, the operation of extremely high throughput (EHT) station devices (STAs) in an EHT basic service set (BSS) is controlled by an EHT Operation element (e.g., in an 802.11 beacon) when operating in the 2.4 GHz band, in the 5 GHz band, or in the 6 GHz band. The EHT Operation element includes an EHT Operation Parameters field using one octet. The EHT Operation Parameters field includes a Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield set to 1 when the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap field is present. The EHT Operation element also includes an EHT Operation Information field (e.g., using 0, 3, or 5 octets). The EHT Operation Information field includes a Disabled Subchannel Bitmap of 0 or 2 octets. The Disabled Subchannel Bitmap is a 16-bit subfield bitmap where the lowest numbered bit corresponds to the 20 MHz subchannel that lies within the BSS bandwidth and that has the lowest frequency of the set of all the 20 MHz subchannels within the BSS bandwidth.

In one or more embodiments, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap may be modified so that the lowest numbered bit corresponds to the 20 MHz subchannel that lies within the BSS bandwidth - identified in the EHT Operation Information field - and that has the lowest frequency of the set of all the 20 MHz subchannels within the BSS bandwidth - identified in the EHT Operation Information field. Each successive bit in the bitmap corresponds to the next highest frequency 20 MHz subchannel. In this manner, the BSS bandwidth announcement and subchannel bitmap design may be enhanced to facilitate higher bandwidth signaling without changing the meaning of the existing Disabled Subchannel Bitmap. Currently, the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap only uses 16 bits. To signal 240 MHz would require using 12 bits instead of the 16-bit Disabled Subchannel Bitmap, and to signal 480 MHz would require expanding the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap to 24 bits.

802.1 Ibe 2.1 defines a Control Information subfield in an EHT Operating Magenement (OM) Control subfield as including information related to changes for bandwidth. The Control Information subfield format, as defined by 802.1 lax, includes a Channel Width Extension field of one bit. The Channel Width Extension field combined with the Channel Width subfield in the OM Control subfield indicates the operating channel width supported by the STA for reception and transmission. For example, a 1 bit for the Channel Width Extension subfield in combination with a bit 1-3 for the Channel Width subfield is reserved in 802.1 Ibe 2.1. In one or more embodiments, because the OM Control subfield is addressed to individual STAs, the reserved bits may be used to signal the higher bandwidths to preserve the existing format of the OM Control subfield.

In one or more embodiments, the Channel Width Extension field combined with the Channel Width subfield may indicate 480 MHz or 640 MHz when the Channel Width field in the EHT Operation Information field is present and indicates 320 MHz. The Channel Width Extension field combined with the Channel Width subfield may indicate 240 MHz when the Channel Width field in the EHT Operation Information field is present and indicates 160 MHz. For example, the Channel Width Extension subfield may be set to 1, and the Channel Width subfield may be set to larger than or equal to 1 to indicate the higher bandwidth of 240 MHz, 480 MHz, or 640 MHz. 802.1 Ibe 2.1 defines the EHT Operation Information field as also including a CCFSO subfiend and CCFS1 subfield, each of one octet. In one or more embodiments, a new CCFS2 subfield (e.g., a CCFS Extension subfield) may be defined to indicate a center frequency of the high bandwidth - either 240 MHz, 480 MHz, or 640 MHz - and is present only when the Channel Width Extension field is present.

In one or more embodiments, a Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Extension field may be defined and may be present only when the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap is present. The Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Extension field may be defined and may be present when an access point (AP) signaling the bandwidth puncture any subchanel outside the channel width identified in the EHT Operation Information field, and the size may be one or two bytes. The lowest numbered bit of the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Extension field may correspond to the 20 MHz subchannel that lies outside of the 1BSS bandwidth identified in the EHT Operation Information field and that has the lowest frequency of the set of all 20 MHz subchannels outside the BSS bandwidth identified in the EHT Operation Information field. Each successive bit in the bitmap may correspond to the next higher frequency 20 MHz subchannel.

In one or more embodiments, the Chennel Width Extension field, the CCFS Extension field, and the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Extension field may be included in an Wi-Fi 8 Operation element.

The 802.1 Ibe 2.1 standard defines the U-SIG field (universal signal field) is defined as carrying informaiton necessary to interpret EHT physical layer (PHY) protocol data units (PPDUs), and is designed to bring forward compatability to the EHT preamble. Bits B3-B5 of the U-SIG field are used to signal the bandwidth. Values 6 and 7 of the three bit combination are not used for any bandwidth, but in one or more embodiments may be used to signal bandwidth higher than 160 and 320 MHz. For example, a bit value of 6 may be used to indicate high bandwidth 1. A bit value of 7 may be used to indicate a high bandwidth 2. The high bandwidths 1 and 2 may be 240 MH, 480 MHz, or 640 MHz. Bit value 6 may be used for 240 MHz because there is only one 240 MHz in the 5 GHz bandwidth. 480-1 and 480-2 MHz may be defined in the 6 GHz bandwidth, 640-1 MHz may be UNII 5, UNII 6, 6, 7, and 640-2 MHz may be UNII 6, 6, 7, UNII 7, 7, 8, UNII 8. In this manner, there may be some bit reuse of values 6 and 7 in bits B3-B5 of the U-SIG field.

In one or more embodiments, to signal the higher bandwidth using puncturing, the AP may signal the puncturing pattern to be used for the bandwidth. The puncturing may be 0 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz puncturing, or 80 MHz + 160 MHz puncturing. The 802.11be 2.1 standard defines a Punctured Control Information field of the U-SIG field of an EHT PPDU as signaling whether bandwidth portions of the PPDU are punctured (e.g., a 20 MH bandwidth, a 40 MH bandwidth, an 80 MHz bandwidth, a 160 MHz bandwidth, a 320 MHz bandwidth). For each bandwidth, there may be one or multiple puncturing patterns defining each 20 MHz portion. The 20 MHz and 40 MHz bandwidths each may have one puncturing pattern for no puncturing. The 80 MHz bandwidth may have four puncturing patterns for 20 MHz puncturing, and one non-puncturing pattern. The 160 MHz bandwidth may have eight puncturing patterns for 20 MHz puncturing, four puncturing patterns for 40 MHz puncturing and one non-puncturing pattern. The 320 MHz bandwidth may have eight puncturing patterns for 40 MHz puncturing, four puncturing patterns for 80 MHz puncturing, twelve puncturing patterns for concurrent 80 MHz and 40 MHz puncturing, and one nonpuncturing pattern. In a puncturing pattern, a 1 denoes a non-punctured subchannel, and a x denotes a punctured subchannel.

In one or more embodiments, puncturing for 160 MHz and concurrent 160 MHz and 80 MHz puncturing may be defined for 480 MHz bandwidth. The puncturing granularity may be 80 MHz, so each 1 or x value in the puncturing pattern may correspond to a 80 MHz portion. For 240 MHz, the puncturing granularity may be 40 MHz. The puncturing portions correspond to the existing defined channeliztion for 5 GHz and 6 GHz so that the signaling does not need to be redefined for those bandwidths.

In one or more embodiments, a scrambler seed indication may be used to signal higher bandwidth. Bandwidth signaling transmitter address (TA) under a non-high throughput (HT) is for an individually address frame and only for peers that support higher bandwidth of either 240 MHz, 480 MHz, or 640 MHz. For legacy non-EHT devices, a primary 20 MHz channel may be covered, so signaling it as any value in bit 0 or 1 in the scrambler seed does not matter. For EHT and non- Wi-Fi 8, there may be questions on behavior seeing a ll configuration for the scrambler seed indication. Therefore, two options may be used for the scrambler: 1) Reusing bits 0, 1, and 2 to signal 240 MHz, 480 MHz, or 640 MHz. Option 2) may include reusing bits 0, 1, and 2, and adding a bit 3.

In one or more embodiments, the uplink (UL) Bandwidth Indication in a trigger frame sent by the AP may use two bits in the Special User Information field for an extension. The Special User Information field may include a new UL Bandwidth Further Extension of two bits in addition to the existing UL Bandwidth Extension field of two bits. The UL Bandwidth for all receiving STAs is in the Common Information field of the trigger frame, wherein the UL Bandwdith Extension is in a Special User Information field in the trigger frame. A UL Bandwidth Extention field value of 1 in combination with a UL Bandwidth Further Extension field value of 0, 2, or 3 when the Bandwdith for HE TB PPDU (High Efficiency Trigger-Based PPDU) field value is 160 MHz and the Bandwidth for EHT TB PPDU is 160 MHz may signal a 240 MHz bandwidth for a Wi-Fi 8 TB PPDU. A UL Bandwidth Extention field value of 2 in combination with a UL Bandwidth Further Extension field value of 2 or 3 when the Bandwdith for HE TB PPDU (High Efficiency Trigger-Based PPDU) field value is 160 MHz and the Bandwidth for EHT TB PPDU is 320 MHz may signal a 480 MHz bandwidth for a WiFi 8 TB PPDU. A UL Bandwidth Extention field value of 3 in combination with a UL Bandwidth Further Extension field value of 2 or 3 when the Bandwdith for HE TB PPDU (High Efficiency Trigger-Based PPDU) field value is 160 MHz and the Bandwidth for EHT TB PPDU is 320 MHz may signal a 480 MHz bandwidth for a Wi-Fi 8 TB PPDU.

In one or more embodiments, the following changes to 802.11 may be implemented to signal 240 MHz or 480 MHz bandwidth:

Extend Disabled Subchannel Bitmap to include bitmap for potentially at least 480 MHz.

Extend BSS bandwidth indication to 240 MHz and potentially at least 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extend OM indication to include 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extend U-SIG indication to include 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extend puncturing pattern for 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extend scrambler seed indication to include for 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extend UL Bandwidth indication in Trigger frame to include 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Compared to 160 MHz in the 5 GHz band and 320 MHz in the 6 GHz band, 240 MHz or 480 MHz bandwidths will increase the maximum speed by 50% in Wi-Fi 8.

The above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations, processes, algorithms, etc., may exist, some of which are described in greater detail below. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures. FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environment 100 using high-bandwidths, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. Wireless network 100 may include one or more user devices 120 and one or more access points(s) (AP) 102, which may communicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 communication standards. The user device(s) 120 may be mobile devices that are non- stationary (e.g., not having fixed locations) or may be stationary devices.

In some embodiments, the user devices 120 and the AP 102 may include one or more computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram of FIG. 8 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 9.

One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may be operable by one or more user(s) 110. It should be noted that any addressable unit may be a station (STA). An STA may take on multiple distinct characteristics, each of which shape its function. For example, a single addressable unit might simultaneously be a portable STA, a quality-of- service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and the AP(s) 102 may be STAs. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may operate as a personal basic service set (PBSS) control point/access point (PCP/AP). The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/or AP(s) 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device including, but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile, e.g., a static device. For example, user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may include, a user equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point (AP), a software enabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer (PC), a wearable wireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabookTM computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, an internet of things (loT) device, a sensor device, a PDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular phone functionalities with PDA device functionalities), a consumer device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a PCS device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively small computing device, a non-desktop computer, a “carry small live large” (CSLL) device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC (UMPC), a mobile internet device (MID), an “origami” device or computing device, a device that supports dynamically composable computing (DCC), a context-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A/V device, a set-top-box (STB), a blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digital video disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVD recorder, a HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), a broadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, an audio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat panel display, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), a digital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier, a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera (DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, or the like. Other devices, including smart devices such as lamps, climate control, car components, household components, appliances, etc. may also be included in this list.

As used herein, the term “Internet of Things (loT) device” is used to refer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has an addressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, a Bluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.) and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wired or wireless connection. An loT device may have a passive communication interface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an active communication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, a transmitter-receiver, or the like. An loT device can have a particular set of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether the loT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available for task execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, an environmental monitoring or recording function, a lightemitting function, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded in and/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to an loT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example, loT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators, toasters, ovens, micro waves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools, clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners, thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers, electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices are equipped with an addressable communications interface for communicating with the loT network. loT devices may also include cell phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the loT network may be comprised of a combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop or desktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do not typically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

The user device(s) 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may also include mesh stations in, for example, a mesh network, in accordance with one or more IEEE 802.11 standards and/or 3 GPP standards. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one or more communications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. The user device(s) 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly with each other with or without the AP(s) 102. Any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include, but not limited to, any one of a combination of different types of suitable communications networks such as, for example, broadcasting networks, cable networks, public networks (e.g., the Internet), private networks, wireless networks, cellular networks, or any other suitable private and/or public networks. Further, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may have any suitable communication range associated therewith and may include, for example, global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), or personal area networks (PANs). In addition, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic may be carried including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communication mediums, white space communication mediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums, satellite communication mediums, or any combination thereof.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP(s) 102 may include one or more communications antennas. The one or more communications antennas may be any suitable type of antennas corresponding to the communications protocols used by the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126 and 128), and AP(s) 102. Some non-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include Wi-Fi antennas, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards compatible antennas, directional antennas, non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, omnidirectional antennas, quasi- omnidirectional antennas, or the like. The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupled to a radio component to transmit and/or receive signals, such as communications signals to and/or from the user devices 120 and/or AP(s) 102.

Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/or directional reception in conjunction with wirelessly communicating in a wireless network. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform such directional transmission and/or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays (e.g., DMG antenna arrays or the like). Each of the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and/or reception in a particular respective direction or range of directions. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform any given directional transmission towards one or more defined transmit sectors. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

MIMO beamforming in a wireless network may be accomplished using RF beamforming and/or digital beamforming. In some embodiments, in performing a given MIMO transmission, user devices 120 and/or AP(s) 102 may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or more communications antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP(s) 102 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver for transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in the bandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communications protocols utilized by any of the user device(s) 120 and AP(s) 102 to communicate with each other. The radio components may include hardware and/or software to modulate and/or demodulate communications signals according to pre-established transmission protocols. The radio components may further have hardware and/or software instructions to communicate via one or more Wi-Fi and/or Wi-Fi direct protocols, as standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards. In certain example embodiments, the radio component, in cooperation with the communications antennas, may be configured to communicate via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.1 In, 802.1 lax), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax), 6 GHz channels and Wi-Fi channels defined in 802.11ax (e.g., Wi-Fi 6E), or 60 GHZ channels (e.g. 802.11ad, 802.11ay). 800 MHz channels (e.g. 802.11 ah). The communications antennas may operate at 28 GHz and 40 GHz. It should be understood that this list of communication channels in accordance with certain 802.11 standards is only a partial list and that other 802.11 standards may be used (e.g., Next Generation Wi-Fi, or other standards). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fi protocols may be used for communications between devices, such as Bluetooth, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), Ultra- High Frequency (UHF) (e.g. IEEE 802.11af, IEEE 802.22), white band frequency (e.g., white spaces), or other packetized radio communications. The radio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via the communications protocols. The radio component may further include a low noise amplifier (LNA), additional signal amplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers, and digital baseband. As used herein, the term “Internet of Things (loT) device” is used to refer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has an addressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, a Bluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.) and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wired or wireless connection. An loT device may have a passive communication interface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an active communication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, a transmitter-receiver, or the like. An loT device can have a particular set of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether the loT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available for task execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, an environmental monitoring or recording function, a lightemitting function, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded in and/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to an loT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example, loT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators, toasters, ovens, micro waves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools, clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners, thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers, electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices are equipped with an addressable communications interface for communicating with the loT network. loT devices may also include cell phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the loT network may be comprised of a combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop or desktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do not typically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

In one or more embodiments, the AP 102 and the user devices 120 may exchange frames 140. The frames 140 may include bandwidth signaling 142 provided by the AP 102 to signal to the user devices 120 the bandwidth used for transmissions between the AP 102 and the user devices 120. For example, the bandwidth signaling 142 may signal 240 MHz in a 5 GHz bandwidth or 480 MHz in a 6 GHz bandwidth.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 2 depicts a format 200 of an extremely high throughput (EHT) Operation element in a Wi-Fi transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 2, the EHT Operation element may include frames such as an Element ID 202, a length field 204, an Element ID Extension field 206, an EHT Operation Parameters field 208, a Basic EHT-MCH and Nss Set field 210, and an EHT Operation Information field 212. The Element ID Extension field 206 may include an EHT Information Present subfield 214 (e.g., to indicate that the EHT Information is present), a Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield 216 (e.g., to indicate that a Disabled Subchannel Bitmap is present), an EHT Default PE Duration subfield 218, a Group Addressed BU Indication Limit subfield 220, a Group Addressed BU Indication Exponent subfield 222, and a Reserved subfield 224. The EHT Operation Information field 212 may include a Control subfield 226, a CCFSO subfield 228, a CCFS1 subfield 230, a CCFS2 subfield 231, and a Disabled Subchannel Bitmap subfield 232 (e.g., whose presence is indicated by the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap Present subfield 216). The Control subfield 226 may include a Channel Width subfield 234 and a Reserved subfield 236.

The Disabled Subchannel Bitmap subfield 232 may be a 16-bit bitmap where the lowest numbered bit corresponds to the 20 MHz subchannel that lies within the BSS bandwidth identified in the Channel Width subfield 234 and that has the lowest frequency of the set of all 20 MHz subchannels within the BSS bandwidth identified the Channel Width subfield 234. Each successive bit in the bitmap corresponds to the next higher frequency 20 MHz subchannel.

FIG. 3A depicts a format 300 of a Control Information subfield in an EHT Operating Management (OM) Control subfield in a Wi-Fi transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3A, the Control Information subfield may include a Rx Nss Extension subfield 302, a Channel Width Extension subfield 304, a Tx NSTS Extension subfield 306, and a Reserved subfield 308.

The Channel Width Extension subfield 304 may indicate 480 MHz or 640 MHz, and is present only when the Channel Width subfield 234 of FIG. 2 is present and indicates 320 MHz. The Channel Width Extension subfield 304 may indicate 240 MHz and is present only when the Channel Width subfield 234 is present and indicates 160 MHz. When the Channel Width Extension subfield 304 is present, the CCFS2 subfield 231 of FIG. 2 may be present to indicate the center frequency of the 240 MHz bandwidth, the 480 MHz bandwidth, or the 640 MHz bandwidth.

FIG. 3B depicts a format 320 of a Control Information subfield in an OM Control subfield in a Wi-Fi transmission, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 3B, the Control Information subfield may include a Rx NSS subfield 322, a Channel Width subfield 324, a UL MU Disable subfield 326, a Tx NSTS subfield 328, an ER SU Disable subfield 330, a DL MU-MIMO Resound Recommendation subfield 332, and a UL MU Data Disable subfield 334.

FIG. 4 depicts a format 400 of an EHT multi-user (MU) physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (EHT MU PPDU), in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Referring to FIG. 4, the EHT MU PPDU may include a L-STF field 402, a L-LTF field 404, a L-SIG field 406, a RL-SIG field 408, a U-SIG field 410, an EHT-SIG field 411, an EHT- STF field 412, EHT-LTF fields 414,..., 416, etc., an EHT-LTF field 418, a data field 420, and a PE 422.

The bit value 6 of the U-SIG field 410 may be used to indicate a high bandwidth 1, and a bit value of 7 of the U-SIG field 410 may be used to indicate a high bandwidth 2. The High bandwidth can be 240 MHz, 480 MHz, or 640 MHz. There is only one 240 MHz in 5 GHz, so can use value 6. 640-1 is UNII 5, UNII 6, 6, 7. 640-2 is UNII 6, 6, 7, UNII 7, 7, 8, UNII 8.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example scrambler 500, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Ther are two scrambler options for a scrambler seed indication for a high bandwidth of 240 MHz in 5 GHz bandwidth, or for 480 MHz in 6 GHz bandwidth. Option 1 is shown in Table 1 and in Table 2 below.

Table 1: Option 1 for Scrambler to Indicate High Bandwidth Table 2: Option 1 for for Scrambler to Indicate High Bandwidth

Option 2 for is represented by the scrambler 500 in FIG. 5. Bit 0, 1, and 2 are reused, and a bit 3 is added as shown in Tables 3 and 4 below. Table 3: Option 2 for for Scrambler to Indicate High Bandwidth Table 4: Option 2 for for Scrambler to Indicate High Bandwidth

FIG. 6 depicts a format 600 of a trigger frame, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

In 802.11, a trigger frame may be sent by an AP (e.g., the AP 102 of FIG. 1) to one or multiple station devices (e.g., the user devices 120 of FIG. 1) to trigger the station devices to send uplink (UL) traffic to the AP.

Referring to FIG. 6, a trigger frame may include a Frame Control field 602, a Duration field 604, a receiver address (RA) field 606, a transmitter address (TA) field 608, Common Information 610 (e.g., information that is relevant to all the devices that receive the trigger frame), user-specific fields (e.g., User Information 612, . . ., User Information 614) that are specific to a STA addressed in the respective user-specific field, Padding 616, and a frame control sequence (FCS) 618. Any user-specific field (e.g., the User Information 612) may include a Special User Information field 620, which does not carry user-specific information, but rather carries extended common information (e.g., for all recipient devices) that is not provided in the Common Information 610.

Still referring to FIG. 6, the Special User Information field 620 may include an AID12 (assoication identifier) 622, a PHY Version Identifier 624, a UL Bandwidth Extension (BE) 626, an EHT Spatial Reusel field 628, an EHT Spatial Reuse2 field 630, a U-SIG Disregard and Validate field 632, a UL Bandwidth Further Extension field 634, a Reserved field 636, and Trigger Dependent User Information 638 for the addressed user of the AID12 622. The Common Information 610 may include a UL Bandwidth (BW) subfield 640 to indicate the bandwidth to the recipient devices. The UL BE subfield 626, together with the UL BW subfield 640 in the Common Information 610, indicates the bandwidth of the solicited TB PPDU from the addressed EHT STA (i.e., the bandwidth in the U-SIG field of the EHT TB PPDU). Two of the bits of the Reserved field 636 may be used to create the UL Bandwidth Further Extension field 634 for higher bandwidth signaling. An example of the higher bandwidth signaling using the trigger frame is shown below in Table 5.

Table 5: Trigger Frame Higher Bandwidth Signaling FIG. 7 illustrates an example diagram of a process 700 for signaling high bandwidth for Wi-Fi communications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

At block 702, a device (e.g., the AP 102 of FIG. 1, the enhanced signaling devices 919 of FIG. 9) may determine a channel consisting of a contiguous 240 MHz in a 5 GHz bandwidth or a contiguous 480 MHz in a 6 GHz bandwidth for use by one or more STAs (e.g., the user devices 120 of FIG. 1) of a BSS. When using the 5 GHz bandwidth, there is currently not a contiguous 240 MHz channel that can be allocated; the highest contiguous channel that can be allocated currently is 160 MHz. When using the 6 GHz bandwidth, there is currently not a contiguous 480 MHz channel that can be allocated; the highest contiguous channel that can be allocated currently is 320 MHz. In the 6 GHz bandwidth, a 640 MHz channel allocation may exceed the regulatory limit of 500 MHz at which a power spectral density emission limit may render the transmission useless, but a 480 MHz transmission would avoid that limit if it could be signaled.

At block 704, the device may generate a frame that includes an indication of the channel (e.g., may signal the allocation of the contiguous 240 MHz channel in the 5 GHz bandwidth or the contiguous 480 MHz channel in the 6 GHz bandwidth). The signaling may be according to the description above, and may include the following changes to 802.11 :

Extending the Disabled Subchannel Bitmap to include bitmap for potentially at least 480 MHz.

Extending the BSS bandwidth indication to 240 MHz and potentially at least 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extending the OM indication to include 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extending the U-SIG indication to include 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extending the puncturing pattern for 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extending the scrambler seed indication to include for 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz.

Extending the UL Bandwidth indication in Trigger frame to include 240 MHz and potentially either 480 MHz or 640 MHz. At block 706, the device may transmit the frame to the station devices of the BSS, establishing the channel for subsequent transmissions between the device and the station devices.

It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 8 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station 800, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, FIG. 8 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as an AP 102 (FIG. 1) or a user device 120 (FIG. 1) in accordance with some embodiments. The communication station 800 may also be suitable for use as a handheld device, a mobile device, a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a wearable computer device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device.

The communication station 800 may include communications circuitry 802 and a transceiver 810 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from other communication stations using one or more antennas 801. The communications circuitry 802 may include circuitry that can operate the physical layer (PHY) communications and/or medium access control (MAC) communications for controlling access to the wireless medium, and/or any other communications layers for transmitting and receiving signals. The communication station 800 may also include processing circuitry 806 and memory 808 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the communications circuitry 802 and the processing circuitry 806 may be configured to perform operations detailed in the above figures, diagrams, and flows.

In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 802 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames or packets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communications circuitry 802 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. The communications circuitry 802 may also include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 806 of the communication station 800 may include one or more processors. In other embodiments, two or more antennas 801 may be coupled to the communications circuitry 802 arranged for sending and receiving signals. The memory 808 may store information for configuring the processing circuitry 806 to perform operations for configuring and transmitting message frames and performing the various operations described herein. The memory 808 may include any type of memory, including non-transitory memory, for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, the memory 808 may include a computer-readable storage device, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices and other storage devices and media.

In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computer device, or another device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly.

In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may include one or more antennas 801. The antennas 801 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna with multiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture may be considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated for spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result between each of the antennas and the antennas of a transmitting station.

In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may include one or more of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touch screen.

Although the communication station 800 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be 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), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements of the communication station 800 may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media. In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 900 or system upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments, the machine 900 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 900 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 900 may act as a peer machine in peer-to- peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environments. The machine 900 may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device, a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer cluster configurations.

Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations when operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardware may be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurable execution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computer readable medium containing instructions where the instructions configure the execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation. The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units or a loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units are communicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium when the device is operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member of more than one module. For example, under operation, the execution units may be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a first module at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set of instructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

The machine (e.g., computer system) 900 may include a hardware processor 902 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 904 and a static memory 906, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 908. The machine 900 may further include a power management device 932, a graphics display device 910, an alphanumeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 914 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the graphics display device 910, alphanumeric input device 912, and UI navigation device 914 may be a touch screen display. The machine 900 may additionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 916, a signal generation device 918 (e.g., a speaker), an enhanced signaling device 919, a network interface device/transceiver 920 coupled to antenna(s) 930, and one or more sensors 928, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 900 may include an output controller 934, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, a card reader, etc.)). The operations in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure may be carried out by a baseband processor. The baseband processor may be configured to generate corresponding baseband signals. The baseband processor may further include physical layer (PHY) and medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry, and may further interface with the hardware processor 902 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the main memory 904, the storage device 916, and/or the enhanced signaling device 919. The baseband processor may be provided on a single radio card, a single chip, or an integrated circuit (IC).

The storage device 916 may include a machine readable medium 922 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 924 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 924 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 904, within the static memory 906, or within the hardware processor 902 during execution thereof by the machine 900. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 902, the main memory 904, the static memory 906, or the storage device 916 may constitute machine-readable media.

The enhanced signaling device 919 may carry out or perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., process 700) described and shown above.

It is understood that the above are only a subset of what the enhanced signaling device 919 may be configured to perform and that other functions included throughout this disclosure may also be performed by the enhanced signaling device 919.

While the machine-readable medium 922 is illustrated as a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 924.

Various embodiments may be implemented fully or partially 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. Those instructions may then be read and executed by one or more processors to enable 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-transitory medium for storing information in a form 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; a flash memory, etc.

The term “machine-readable medium” may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 900 and that cause the machine 900 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examples may include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. In an example, a massed machine -readable medium includes a machine-readable medium with a plurality of particles having resting mass. Specific examples of massed machine -readable media may include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD- ROM disks. The instructions 924 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 926 using a transmission medium via the network interface device/transceiver 920 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communications networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), plain old telephone (POTS) networks, wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 920 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 926. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 920 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multipleoutput (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term “transmission medium” shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 900 and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of such software.

The operations and processes described and shown above may be carried out or performed in any suitable order as desired in various implementations. Additionally, in certain implementations, at least a portion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore, in certain implementations, less than or more than the operations described may be performed.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a radio architecture 105 A, 105B in accordance with some embodiments that may be implemented in any one of the example APs 102 and/or the example STAs 120 of FIG. 1. Radio architecture 105A, 105B may include radio front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1004a-b, radio IC circuitry 1006a-b and baseband processing circuitry 1008a- b. Radio architecture 105A, 105B as shown includes both Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality and Bluetooth (BT) functionality although embodiments are not so limited. In this disclosure, “WLAN” and “Wi-Fi” are used interchangeably.

FEM circuitry 1004a-b may include a WLAN or Wi-Fi FEM circuitry 1004a and a Bluetooth (BT) FEM circuitry 1004b. The WLAN FEM circuitry 1004a may include a receive signal path comprising circuitry configured to operate on WLAN RF signals received from one or more antennas 1001, to amplify the received signals and to provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the WLAN radio IC circuitry 1006a for further processing. The BT FEM circuitry 1004b may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on BT RF signals received from one or more antennas 1001, to amplify the received signals and to provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the BT radio IC circuitry 1006b for further processing. FEM circuitry 1004a may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify WLAN signals provided by the radio IC circuitry 1006a for wireless transmission by one or more of the antennas 1001. In addition, FEM circuitry 1004b may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify BT signals provided by the radio IC circuitry 1006b for wireless transmission by the one or more antennas. In the embodiment of FIG. 10, although FEM 1004a and FEM 1004b are shown as being distinct from one another, embodiments are not so limited, and include within their scope the use of an FEM (not shown) that includes a transmit path and/or a receive path for both WLAN and BT signals, or the use of one or more FEM circuitries where at least some of the FEM circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths for both WLAN and BT signals.

Radio IC circuitry 1006a-b as shown may include WLAN radio IC circuitry 1006a and BT radio IC circuitry 1006b. The WLAN radio IC circuitry 1006a may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert WLAN RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1004a and provide baseband signals to WLAN baseband processing circuitry 1008a. BT radio IC circuitry 1006b may in turn include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert BT RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1004b and provide baseband signals to BT baseband processing circuitry 1008b. WLAN radio IC circuitry 1006a may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert WLAN baseband signals provided by the WLAN baseband processing circuitry 1008a and provide WLAN RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1004a for subsequent wireless transmission by the one or more antennas 1001. BT radio IC circuitry 1006b may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert BT baseband signals provided by the BT baseband processing circuitry 608b and provide BT RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1004b for subsequent wireless transmission by the one or more antennas 1001. In the embodiment of FIG. 10, although radio IC circuitries 1006a and 1006b are shown as being distinct from one another, embodiments are not so limited, and include within their scope the use of a radio IC circuitry (not shown) that includes a transmit signal path and/or a receive signal path for both WLAN and BT signals, or the use of one or more radio IC circuitries where at least some of the radio IC circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths for both WLAN and BT signals.

Baseband processing circuity 1008a-b may include a WLAN baseband processing circuitry 1008a and a BT baseband processing circuitry 1008b. The WLAN baseband processing circuitry 1008a may include a memory, such as, for example, a set of RAM arrays in a Fast Fourier Transform or Inverse Fast Fourier Transform block (not shown) of the WLAN baseband processing circuitry 1008a. Each of the WLAN baseband circuitry 1008a and the BT baseband circuitry 1008b may further include one or more processors and control logic to process the signals received from the corresponding WLAN or BT receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b, and to also generate corresponding WLAN or BT baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b. Each of the baseband processing circuitries 1008a and 1008b may further include physical layer (PHY) and medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry, and may further interface with a device for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b.

Referring still to FIG. 10, according to the shown embodiment, WLAN-BT coexistence circuitry 1013 may include logic providing an interface between the WLAN baseband circuitry 1008a and the BT baseband circuitry 1008b to enable use cases requiring WLAN and BT coexistence. In addition, a switch 1003 may be provided between the WLAN FEM circuitry 1004a and the BT FEM circuitry 1004b to allow switching between the WLAN and BT radios according to application needs. In addition, although the antennas 1001 are depicted as being respectively connected to the WLAN FEM circuitry 1004a and the BT FEM circuitry 1004b, embodiments include within their scope the sharing of one or more antennas as between the WLAN and BT FEMs, or the provision of more than one antenna connected to each of FEM 1004a or 1004b.

In some embodiments, the front-end module circuitry 1004a-b, the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b, and baseband processing circuitry 1008a-b may be provided on a single radio card, such as wireless radio card 1002. In some other embodiments, the one or more antennas 1001, the FEM circuitry 1004a-b and the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b may be provided on a single radio card. In some other embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b and the baseband processing circuitry 1008a-b may be provided on a single chip or integrated circuit (IC), such as IC 1012.

In some embodiments, the wireless radio card 1002 may include a WLAN radio card and may be configured for Wi-Fi communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some of these embodiments, the radio architecture 105 A, 105B may be configured to receive and transmit orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication signals over a multicarrier communication channel. The OFDM or OFDMA signals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some of these multicarrier embodiments, radio architecture 105A, 105B may be 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, radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured to transmit and receive signals in accordance with specific communication standards and/or protocols, such as any of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards including, 802.11n-2009, IEEE 802.11-2012, IEEE 802.11-2016, 802.11n-2009, 802.11ac, 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay and/or 802.11ax standards and/or proposed specifications for WLANs, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. Radio architecture 105 A, 105B may also be suitable to transmit and/or receive communications in accordance with other techniques and standards.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured for high- efficiency Wi-Fi (HEW) communications in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 ax standard and EHT communications in accordance with the IEEE 802.11be standard. In these embodiments, the radio architecture 105 A, 105B may be configured to communicate in accordance with an OFDMA technique, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some other embodiments, the radio architecture 105A, 105B may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques such as spread spectrum modulation (e.g., direct sequence code division multiple access (DS- CDMA) and/or frequency hopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA)), time-division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) modulation, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, as further shown in FIG. 10, the BT baseband circuitry 1008b may be compliant with a Bluetooth (BT) connectivity standard such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth 8.0 or Bluetooth 6.0, or any other iteration of the Bluetooth Standard.

In some embodiments, the radio architecture 105 A, 105B may include other radio cards, such as a cellular radio card configured for cellular (e.g., 5 GPP such as LTE, LTE- Advanced or 7G communications).

In some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, the radio architecture 105 A, 105B may be configured for communication over various channel bandwidths including bandwidths having center frequencies of about 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, and bandwidths of about 2 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, 5.5 MHz, 6 MHz, 8 MHz, 10 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz (with contiguous bandwidths) or 80+80 MHz (160MHz) (with non-contiguous bandwidths). In some embodiments, a 920 MHz channel bandwidth may be used. The scope of the embodiments is not limited with respect to the above center frequencies however.

FIG. 11 illustrates WLAN FEM circuitry 1104a in accordance with some embodiments. Although the example of FIG. 11 is described in conjunction with the WLAN FEM circuitry 1004a, the example of FIG. 11 may be described in conjunction with the example BT FEM circuitry 1004b (FIG. 10), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1004a may include a TX/RX switch 1102 to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 1004a may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1004a may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) 1106 to amplify received RF signals 1103 and provide the amplified received RF signals 1107 as an output (e.g., to the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b (FIG. 10)). The transmit signal path of the circuitry 1004a may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals 1109 (e.g., provided by the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b), and one or more filters 1112, such as band-pass filters (BPFs), low-pass filters (LPFs) or other types of filters, to generate RF signals 1115 for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the antennas 1001 (FIG. 10)) via an example duplexer 1114.

In some dual-mode embodiments for Wi-Fi communication, the FEM circuitry 1004a may be configured to operate in the 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum, the 5 GHz frequency spectrum, and/or the 6 GHz frequency spectrum. In these embodiments, the receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1004a may include a receive signal path duplexer 1104 to separate the signals from each spectrum as well as provide a separate LNA 1106 for each spectrum as shown. In these embodiments, the transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1004a may also include a power amplifier 1110 and a filter 1112, such as a BPF, an LPF or another type of filter for each frequency spectrum and a transmit signal path duplexer 1104 to provide the signals of one of the different spectrums onto a single transmit path for subsequent transmission by the one or more of the antennas 1001 (FIG. 10). In some embodiments, BT communications may utilize the 2.4 GHz signal paths and may utilize the same FEM circuitry 1004a as the one used for WLAN communications.

FIG. 12 illustrates radio IC circuitry 1006a in accordance with some embodiments. The radio IC circuitry 1006a is one example of circuitry that may be suitable for use as the WLAN or BT radio IC circuitry 1006a/1006b (FIG. 10), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable. Alternatively, the example of FIG. 12 may be described in conjunction with the example BT radio IC circuitry 1006b.

In some embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 1006a may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry 1006a may include at least mixer circuitry 1202, such as, for example, down-conversion mixer circuitry, amplifier circuitry 1206 and filter circuitry 1208. The transmit signal path of the radio IC circuitry 1006a may include at least filter circuitry 1212 and mixer circuitry 1214, such as, for example, up- conversion mixer circuitry. Radio IC circuitry 1006a may also include synthesizer circuitry 1204 for synthesizing a frequency 1205 for use by the mixer circuitry 1202 and the mixer circuitry 1214. The mixer circuitry 1202 and/or 1214 may each, according to some embodiments, be configured to provide direct conversion functionality. The latter type of circuitry presents a much simpler architecture as compared with standard super-heterodyne mixer circuitries, and any flicker noise brought about by the same may be alleviated for example through the use of OFDM modulation. FIG. 12 illustrates only a simplified version of a radio IC circuitry, and may include, although not shown, embodiments where each of the depicted circuitries may include more than one component. For instance, mixer circuitry 1214 may each include one or more mixers, and filter circuitries 1208 and/or 1212 may each include one or more filters, such as one or more BPFs and/or LPFs according to application needs. For example, when mixer circuitries are of the direct-conversion type, they may each include two or more mixers.

In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1202 may be configured to down-convert RF signals 1107 received from the FEM circuitry 1004a-b (FIG. 10) based on the synthesized frequency 1205 provided by synthesizer circuitry 1204. The amplifier circuitry 1206 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1208 may include an LPF configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals 1207. Output baseband signals 1207 may be provided to the baseband processing circuitry 1008a-b (FIG. 10) for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals 1207 may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 1202 may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1214 may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals 1211 based on the synthesized frequency 1205 provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1204 to generate RF output signals 1109 for the FEM circuitry 1004a-b. The baseband signals 1211 may be provided by the baseband processing circuitry 1008a-b and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1212. The filter circuitry 1212 may include an LPF or a BPF, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1202 and the mixer circuitry 1214 may each include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up- conversion respectively with the help of synthesizer 1204. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1202 and the mixer circuitry 1214 may each include two or more mixers each configured for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1202 and the mixer circuitry 1214 may be arranged for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1202 and the mixer circuitry 1214 may be configured for super-heterodyne operation, although this is not a requirement.

Mixer circuitry 1202 may comprise, according to one embodiment: quadrature passive mixers (e.g., for the in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) paths). In such an embodiment, RF input signal 1107 from FIG. 11 may be down-converted to provide I and Q baseband output signals to be sent to the baseband processor.

Quadrature passive mixers may be driven by zero and ninety-degree time-varying LO switching signals provided by a quadrature circuitry which may be configured to receive a LO frequency (fLO) from a local oscillator or a synthesizer, such as LO frequency 1205 of synthesizer 1204 (FIG. 12). 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 (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency, one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the zero and ninety-degree time- varying switching signals may be generated by the synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the LO signals may differ in duty cycle (the percentage of one period in which the LO signal is high) and/or offset (the difference between start points of the period). In some embodiments, the LO signals may have an 85% duty cycle and an 80% offset. In some embodiments, each branch of the mixer circuitry (e.g., the in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) path) may operate at an 80% duty cycle, which may result in a significant reduction is power consumption.

The RF input signal 1107 (FIG. 11) 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 low-noise amplifier, such as amplifier circuitry 1206 (FIG. 12) or to filter circuitry 1208 (FIG. 12). In some embodiments, the output baseband signals 1207 and the input baseband signals 1211 may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals 1207 and the input baseband signals 1211 may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the radio IC circuitry may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry.

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

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1204 may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 1204 may be 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 1204 may include digital synthesizer circuitry. An advantage of using a digital synthesizer circuitry is that, although it may still include some analog components, its footprint may be scaled down much more than the footprint of an analog synthesizer circuitry. In some embodiments, frequency input into synthesizer circuity 1204 may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. A divider control input may further be provided by either the baseband processing circuitry 1008a-b (FIG. 10) depending on the desired output frequency 1205. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table (e.g., within a Wi-Fi card) based on a channel number and a channel center frequency as determined or indicated by the example application processor 1010. The application processor 1010 may include, or otherwise be connected to, one of the example secure signal converter 101 or the example received signal converter 103 (e.g., depending on which device the example radio architecture is implemented in).

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 804 may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency 805, while in other embodiments, the output frequency 805 may be a fraction of the carrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency, one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the output frequency 805 may be a LO frequency (fLO).

FIG. 13 illustrates a functional block diagram of baseband processing circuitry 1008a in accordance with some embodiments. The baseband processing circuitry 1008a is one example of circuitry that may be suitable for use as the baseband processing circuitry 1008a (FIG. 10), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable. Alternatively, the example of FIG. 12 may be used to implement the example BT baseband processing circuitry 1008b of FIG. 10.

The baseband processing circuitry 1008a may include a receive baseband processor (RX BBP) 1302 for processing receive baseband signals 1209 provided by the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b (FIG. 10) and a transmit baseband processor (TX BBP) 1304 for generating transmit baseband signals 1211 for the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b. The baseband processing circuitry 1008a may also include control logic 1306 for coordinating the operations of the baseband processing circuitry 1008a.

In some embodiments (e.g., when analog baseband signals are exchanged between the baseband processing circuitry 1008a-b and the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b), the baseband processing circuitry 1008a may include ADC 1310 to convert analog baseband signals 1309 received from the radio IC circuitry 1006a-b to digital baseband signals for processing by the RX BBP 1302. In these embodiments, the baseband processing circuitry 1008a may also include DAC 1312 to convert digital baseband signals from the TX BBP 1304 to analog baseband signals 1311.

In some embodiments that communicate OFDM signals or OFDMA signals, such as through baseband processor 1008a, the transmit baseband processor 1304 may be configured to generate OFDM or OFDMA signals as appropriate for transmission by performing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT). The receive baseband processor 1302 may be configured to process received OFDM signals or OFDMA signals by performing an FFT. In some embodiments, the receive baseband processor 1302 may be configured to detect the presence of an OFDM signal or OFDMA signal by performing an autocorrelation, to detect a preamble, such as a short preamble, and by performing a cross-correlation, to detect a long preamble. The preambles may be part of a predetermined frame structure for Wi-Fi communication.

Referring back to FIG. 10, in some embodiments, the antennas 1001 (FIG. 10) may each comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of 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. Antennas 1001 may each include a set of phased- array antennas, although embodiments are not so limited. Although the radio architecture 105A, 105B is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be 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 comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. The terms “computing device,” “user device,” “communication station,” “station,” “handheld device,” “mobile device,” “wireless device” and “user equipment” (UE) as used herein refers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, a printer, a point of sale device, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device. The device may be either mobile or stationary.

As used within this document, the term “communicate” is intended to include transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving. This may be particularly useful in claims when describing the organization of data that is being transmitted by one device and received by another, but only the functionality of one of those devices is required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchange of data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive during the exchange) may be described as “communicating,” when only the functionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term “communicating” as used herein with respect to a wireless communication signal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/or receiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wireless communication unit, which is capable of communicating a wireless communication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit the wireless communication signal to at least one other wireless communication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receive the wireless communication signal from at least one other wireless communication unit.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinal adjectives “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., to describe a common object, merely indicates that different instances of like objects are being referred to and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

The term “access point” (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. An access point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station, an evolved node B (eNodeB), or some other similar terminology known in the art. An access terminal may also be called a mobile station, user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similar terminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein generally pertain to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wireless networks that operate in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices and systems, for example, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, an onboard device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehicular device, a non- vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumer device, a non- mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communication station, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP), a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device, an audio device, an audio- video (A/V) device, a wired or wireless network, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal area network (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-way radio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communication systems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, a personal communication system (PCS) device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable global positioning system (GPS) device, a device which incorporates a GPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFID element or chip, a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transceiver or device, a single input multiple output (SIMO) transceiver or device, a multiple input single output (MISO) transceiver or device, a device having one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, digital video broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multistandard radio devices or systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a smartphone, a wireless application protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types of wireless communication signals and/or systems following one or more wireless communication protocols, for example, radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM (OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access (TDMA), extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS), extended GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi- tone (DMT), Bluetooth®, global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra- wideband (UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3 GPP, long term evolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), or the like. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices, systems, and/or networks.

The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

Embodiments according to the disclosure are in particular disclosed in the attached claims directed to a method, a storage medium, a device and a computer program product, wherein any feature mentioned in one claim category, e.g., method, can be claimed in another claim category, e.g., system, as well. The dependencies or references back in the attached claims are chosen for formal reasons only. However, any subject matter resulting from a deliberate reference back to any previous claims (in particular multiple dependencies) can be claimed as well, so that any combination of claims and the features thereof are disclosed and can be claimed regardless of the dependencies chosen in the attached claims. The subjectmatter which can be claimed comprises not only the combinations of features as set out in the attached claims but also any other combination of features in the claims, wherein each feature mentioned in the claims can be combined with any other feature or combination of other features in the claims. Furthermore, any of the embodiments and features described or depicted herein can be claimed in a separate claim and/or in any combination with any embodiment or feature described or depicted herein or with any of the features of the attached claims.

The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Various examples of the present disclosure are provided below.

Example 1 may include an access point device for signaling a channelization to one or more station devices, the device comprising processing circuitry coupled to memory, the processing circuitry configured to: determine a channel consisting of a contiguous 240 MHz in a 5 GHz bandwidth or contiguous 480 MHz in a 6 GHz bandwidth for use by a basic service set of one or more station devices; generate a frame comprising an indication of the channel; and cause the access point device to transmit the frame to the one or more station devices of the basic service set.

Example 2 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a disabled subchannel bitmap of an extremely high throughput (EHT) operation information field of the frame, wherein each bit of the disabled subchannel bitmap corresponds to a 20 MHz subchannel of the 5 GHz bandwidth or the 6 GHz bandwidth, and wherein the lowest numbered bit of the disabled subchannel bitmap corresponds to the lowest frequency of all 20 MHz subchannels of the 5 GHz bandwidth or the 6 GHz bandwidth identified in the EHT operation information field.

Example 3 may include the access point device of example 1 or example 2 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel width extension field indicative of the contiguous 480 MHz channel when a channel width field of an EHT operation information field is present in the frame and indicates 320 MHz.

Example 4 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel width extension field indicative of the contiguous 240 MHz channel when a channel width field is present in the frame and indicates 160 MHz.

Example 5 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel center frequency segment (CCFS) extension field indicative of a center frequency of the 5 GHz bandwidth or the 6 GHz bandwidth when a channel width extension field is present in the frame, and wherein the center frequency is 240 MH or 480 MHz.

Example 6 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel width extension field set to one and a channel width subfield of an operating mode (OM) control subfield of the frame is set to larger than or equal to 1 to indicate 240 MHz or 480 MHz.

Example 7 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a universal signaling (U-SIG) indicative of the contiguous 240 MHz or the contiguous 480 MHz.

Example 8 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises an indication of a 480 MHz bandwidth with an 80 MHz punctured granularity or a 240 MHz bandwidth with a 40 MHz punctured granularity. Example 9 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein to generate the frame is based on a scrambler seed, wherein the first bit and the second bit of the scrambler seed for a channel bandwidth field of the frame are set to a value of 1, 2, or 3, and wherein the third bit of the scrambler seed for the channel bandwidth field is set to a value of 1.

Example 10 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein to generate the frame is based on a scrambler seed, wherein the first bit and the second bit of the scrambler seed for a channel bandwidth field of the frame are set to a value of 0, wherein the third bit of the scrambler seed for the channel bandwidth field is set to a value of 1, and wherein the fourth bit of the scrambler seed for the channel bandwidth field is set to a value of 1.

Example 11 may include the access point device of example 1 and/or any other example herein, wherein the frame is a trigger frame comprising an uplink bandwidth extension field, and wherein the indication of the channel comprises an uplink bandwidth further extension field.

Example 12 may include the access point device of example 11 and/or any other example herein, wherein the trigger frame further comprises a special user information field comprising extended common information for the one or more station devices in addition to a common information field of the trigger frame, and wherein the uplink bandwidth further extension field is indicative of the contiguous 240 MHz or the contiguous 480 MHz.

Example 13 may include a computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause processing circuitry of a wireless device, upon execution of the instructions by the processing circuitry, to: determine a channel consisting of a contiguous 240 MHz in a 5 GHz bandwidth or contiguous 480 MHz in a 6 GHz bandwidth for use by a basic service set of one or more station devices; generate a frame comprising an indication of the channel; and cause to transmit the frame to the one or more station devices of the basic service set.

Example 14 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a disabled subchannel bitmap of an extremely high throughput (EHT) operation information field of the frame, wherein each bit of the disabled subchannel bitmap corresponds to a 20 MHz subchannel of the 5 GHz bandwidth or the 6 GHz bandwidth, and wherein the lowest numbered bit of the disabled subchannel bitmap corresponds to the lowest frequency of all 20 MHz subchannels of the 5 GHz bandwidth or the 6 GHz bandwidth identified in the EHT operation information field. Example 15 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 or example 14 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel width extension field indicative of the contiguous 480 MHz channel when a channel width field of an EHT operation information field is present in the frame and indicates 320 MHz.

Example 16 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel width extension field indicative of the contiguous 240 MHz channel when a channel width field is present in the frame and indicates 160 MHz.

Example 17 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel center frequency segment (CCFS) extension field indicative of a center frequency of the 5 GHz bandwidth or the 6 GHz bandwidth when a channel width extension field is present in the frame, and wherein the center frequency is 240 MH or 480 MHz.

Example 18 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a channel width extension field set to one and a channel width subfield of an operating mode (OM) control subfield of the frame is set to larger than or equal to 1 to indicate 240 MHz or 480 MHz.

Example 19 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises a universal signaling (U-SIG) indicative of the contiguous 240 MHz or the contiguous 480 MHz.

Example 20 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein the indication of the channel comprises an indication of a 480 MHz bandwidth with an 80 MHz punctured granularity or a 240 MHz bandwidth with a 40 MHz punctured granularity.

Example 21 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein to generate the frame is based on a scrambler seed, wherein the first bit and the second bit of the scrambler seed for a channel bandwidth field of the frame are set to a value of 1, 2, or 3, and wherein the third bit of the scrambler seed for the channel bandwidth field is set to a value of 1.

Example 22 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein to generate the frame is based on a scrambler seed, wherein the first bit and the second bit of the scrambler seed for a channel bandwidth field of the frame are set to a value of 0, wherein the third bit of the scrambler seed for the channel bandwidth field is set to a value of 1, and wherein the fourth bit of the scrambler seed for the channel bandwidth field is set to a value of 1.

Example 23 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 13 and/or any other example herein, wherein the frame is a trigger frame comprising an uplink bandwidth extension field, and wherein the indication of the channel comprises an uplink bandwidth further extension field.

Example 24 may include the computer-readable storage medium of example 23 and/or any other example herein, wherein the trigger frame further comprises a special user information field comprising extended common information for the one or more station devices in addition to a common information field of the trigger frame, and wherein the uplink bandwidth further extension field is indicative of the contiguous 240 MHz or the contiguous 480 MHz.

Example 25 may include a method for signaling a channelization to one or more station devices, the method comprising: determining, by processing circuitry of an access point (AP), a channel consisting of a contiguous 240 MHz in a 5 GHz bandwidth or contiguous 480 MHz in a 6 GHz bandwidth for use by a basic service set of one or more station devices; generating, by the processing circuitry, a frame comprising an indication of the channel; and causing, by the processing circuitry, the AP to transmit the frame to the one or more station devices of the basic service set.

Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising means for: determining a channel consisting of a contiguous 240 MHz in a 5 GHz bandwidth or contiguous 480 MHz in a 6 GHz bandwidth for use by a basic service set of one or more station devices; generating a frame comprising an indication of the channel; and causing the access point device to transmit the frame to the one or more station devices of the basic service set.

Example 27 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 28 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or any other method or process described herein. Example 29 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 30 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-26, or portions thereof.

Example 31 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 32 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example 33 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference to block and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or computer program products according to various implementations. It will be understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flow diagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executable program instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the order presented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, according to some implementations.

These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto a special-purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage media or memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage media produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certain implementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising a computer- readable storage medium having a computer-readable program code or program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements or steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks.

Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose, hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, or combinations of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or “may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain implementations could include, while other implementations do not include, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or operations are in any way required for one or more implementations or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to be performed in any particular implementation.

Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forth herein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to the specific implementations disclosed and that modifications and other implementations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.