Hew communication station and method for communicating longer duration ofdm symbols using minimum bandwidth units having tone allocations

Abstract

Embodiments of a communication station and method for communicating in a wireless network are generally described herein. In some embodiments, the communication station may be to communicate longer-duration orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique. The channel resources may comprise one or more minimum bandwidth units with each minimum band-width unit having a predetermined number of data subcarriers. The station may also configure the minimum bandwidth units in accordance with one of a plurality of subcarrier allocations for one of a plurality of interleaver configurations for communication of the longer-duration OFDM symbols. The longer-duration OFDM symbols may have symbols duration that is either 2× or 4× the standard OFDM symbol duration.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A high-efficiency WLAN (HEW) communication station (STA) comprising physical layer and medium access control layer circuitry to:
 communicate longer-duration orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising one or more minimum bandwidth units, each minimum bandwidth unit having a predetermined number of data subcarriers; and   configure the minimum bandwidth units in accordance with one of a plurality of subcarrier allocations for one of a plurality of interleaver configurations for communication of the longer-duration OFDM symbols,   wherein the longer-duration OFDM symbols have symbol duration that is either 2× or 4× a standard OFDM symbol duration.   
     
     
         22 . The communication station of  claim 21  wherein the station is to process the longer-duration OFDM symbols with a fast-Fourier Transform (FFT),
 wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with a 256-point FFT without code-rate exclusions, the predetermined number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 48, 54 or 60 data subcarriers, and 
 wherein for processing the longer-duration (ADM symbols with a 128-point FFT without code-rate exclusions, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 28 or 30 data subcarriers. 
 
     
     
         23 . The communication of station of  claim 22 , wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with the 256-point FFT with a code-rate exclusion of 5/6 for 256-QAM, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 48, 50, 54, 57, 54, 56, 60 or 62 data subcarriers, and
 wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with the 128-point FFT with a code-rate exclusion of 5/6 for 256-QAM, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 24, 26, 28 or 30 data subcarriers.   
     
     
         24 . The communication station of  claim 23  wherein the station is further to concurrently communicate using up to four of the minimum bandwidth units over channels of 20 MHz or 40 MHz during a control period in accordance with the OFDMA technique. 
     
     
         25 . The communication station of  claim 24 , wherein for a minimum bandwidth unit having 54 data subcarriers for 256-point FFT processing, the subcarrier allocation comprises 256 total subcarriers including:
 54 data subcarriers and 3 pilot subcarriers for each of the four minimum bandwidth units used for communicating within either channels of 20 MHz or 40 MHz,   2-4 null-subcarriers at DC, and   12-13 guard subcarriers at each band edge.   
     
     
         26 . The communication station of  claim 24  wherein the physical-layer circuitry includes a block interleaver having a depth of one OFDM symbol, the block interleaver being configurable to interleave a block of encoded data, and
 wherein the interleaver configurations comprise a number of columns and a number of rows, the number of rows based on a number of coded bits per subcarrier per stream. 
 
     
     
         27 . The communication station of  claim 26 , wherein for a minimum bandwidth unit having 54 data subcarriers for 256-point FFT processing, the interleaver configuration has 9 columns and a number of rows equaling 3 times a number of coded bits per single subcarrier. 
     
     
         28 . The communication station of  claim 26 , wherein the communication station further comprises:
 an encoder to encode input data prior to interleaving in accordance with one of a plurality of code rates; and   a constellation mapper to map the encoded data after the interleaving to a QAM constellation,   wherein the encoder and mapper operate in accordance with one of a plurality of predetermined modulation and coding scheme (MCS) combinations for the subcarrier allocation,   wherein the plurality of predetermined MCS combinations for the subcarrier allocation are restricted to an integer number of coded bits per OFDM symbol (Ncbps) and an integer number of data bits per OFDM symbol (Ndbps).   
     
     
         29 . The communication station of  claim 21  wherein the longer-duration OFDM symbols are to be selected for larger delay spread environments, and
 wherein standard-duration OFDM symbols are to be selected for smaller delay-spread environments. 
 
     
     
         30 . The communication station of  claim 29  wherein the standard-duration OFDM symbols have a symbol duration that ranges from 3.6 micro-seconds (us) including a 400 nanosecond (ns) short guard interval to 4 us including an 800 ns guard interval, and
 wherein the longer-duration OFDM symbols have a symbol duration is one of either 2× or 4× the duration of the standard-duration OFDM symbols. 
 
     
     
         31 . The communication station of  claim 21  further comprising one or more processors and memory, and
 wherein the physical layer circuitry includes a transceiver. 
 
     
     
         32 . The communication station of  claim 31  further comprising two antennas coupled to the transceiver. 
     
     
         33 . A method performed by a high-efficiency WLAN (HEW) communication station (STA) comprising:
 communicating longer-duration orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising one or more minimum bandwidth units, each minimum bandwidth unit having a predetermined number of data subcarriers; and   configuring the minimum bandwidth units in accordance with one of a plurality of subcarrier allocations for one of a plurality of interleaver configurations for communication of the longer-duration OFDM symbols,   wherein the longer-duration OFDM symbols have symbol duration that is either 2× or 4× a standard OFDM symbol duration.   
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 33  further comprising processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with a fast-Fourier Transform (FFT),
 wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with a 256-point FFT without code-rate exclusions, the predetermined number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 48, 54 or 60 data subcarriers, and 
 wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with a 128-point FFT without code-rate exclusions, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 28 or 30 data subcarriers. 
 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with the 256-point FFT with a code-rate exclusion of 5/6 for 256-QAM, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 48, 50, 54, 52, 54, 56, 60 or 62 data subcarriers, and
 wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with the 128-point FFT with a code-rate exclusion of 5/6 for 256-QAM, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 24, 26, 28 or 30 data subcarriers.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 33  further comprising:
 selecting the longer-duration OFDM symbols for larger delay spread environments; and 
 selecting the standard-duration OFDM symbols for smaller delay-spread environments. 
 
     
     
         37 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors to perform operations to configure a high-efficiency WLAN (HEW) communication station (STA) to:
 communicate longer-duration orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) symbols on channel resources in accordance with an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) technique, the channel resources comprising one or more minimum bandwidth units, each minimum bandwidth unit having a predetermined number of data subcarriers; and   configure the minimum bandwidth units in accordance with one of a plurality of subcarrier allocations for one of a plurality of interleaver configurations for communication of the longer-duration OFDM symbols;   wherein the longer-duration OFDM symbols have symbol duration that is either 2× or 4× a standard OFDM symbol duration.   
     
     
         38 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 37 , wherein the longer-duration OFDM symbols are processed with a fast-Fourier Transform (FFT),
 wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with a 256-point FFT without code-rate exclusions, the predetermined number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 48, 54 or 60 data subcarriers, and   wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with a 128-point FFT without code-rate exclusions, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 28 or 30 data subcarriers.   
     
     
         39 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 38 , wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with the 256-point FFT with a code-rate exclusion of 5/6 for 256-QAM, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 48, 50, 54, 52, 54, 56, 60 or 62 data subcarriers, and wherein for processing the longer-duration OFDM symbols with the 128-point FFT with a code-rate exclusion of 5/6 for 256-QAM, the number of data subcarriers for the minimum bandwidth unit is to be of 24, 26, 28 or 30 data subcarriers. 
     
     
         40 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 37 , wherein the longer-duration OFDM symbols are to be selected for larger delay spread environments, and the standard-duration OFDM symbols are to be selected for smaller delay-spread environments.