Systems and Methods for a Sounding Frame in an IEEE 802.11AX Compliant Network

Abstract

System and method embodiments for generating and transmitting a sounding frame in wireless network. In an embodiment, a method for uplink multi-user feedback polling in a wireless network includes generating, by an access point (AP) in the wireless network, a sounding frame including a physical layer (PHY) trigger and a list of stations (STAs) to provide feedback, the PHY trigger indicating that the STAs in the list of STAs are to perform channel estimation; transmitting, by the AP, the sounding frame to one or more STAs; and receiving, by the AP, one or more uplink multi-user feedback frames from the STAs.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a first station (STA) from an access point (AP), a sounding frame comprising a physical layer (PHY) trigger, a list of STAs including the first STA, and a padding field;   performing, by the first STA, sounding operations in response to the sounding frame, wherein the performing comprises performing, by the first STA, at least a part of the sounding operations during a period when the first STA receives the padding field; and   transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a first uplink multi-user feedback frame based on the sounding operations.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the padding field is at an end of the sounding frame. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the padding field is at the end of the sounding frame, and the performing comprises completing, by the first STA, computation of beamforming (BF) feedback information in the first uplink multi-user feedback frame during the period when the first STA receives the padding field. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the first STA, data transmitted by the AP using BF determined based on at least the BF feedback information in the first uplink multi-user feedback frame.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the sounding frame comprises a high efficiency signal A (HE-SIG-A) field comprising the PHY trigger. 
     
     
         6 . A method, the method comprising:
 generating, by an access point (AP), a sounding frame comprising a physical layer (PHY) trigger, a list of STAs including a first STA, and a padding field;   transmitting, by the AP to the list of STAs, the sounding frame, wherein the first STA performs at least a part of the sounding operations during a period when the first STA receives the padding field; and   receiving, by the AP, one or more uplink multi-user feedback frames comprising a first uplink multi-user feedback frame from the first STA.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the padding field is at an end of the sounding frame. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the padding field is at the end of the sounding frame, and the first STA completes computation of beamforming (BF) feedback information in the first uplink multi-user feedback frame during the period when the first STA receives the padding field. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 determining, by the AP, BF parameters based on at least the BF feedback information in the uplink multi-user feedback frames; and   transmitting, by the AP, data to one of the list of STAs using BF determined according to the BF parameters.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the sounding frame comprises a high efficiency signal A (HE-SIG-A) field comprising the PHY trigger. 
     
     
         11 . A first station (STA), the first STA comprising:
 a processor, and   a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions for:
 receiving, from an access point (AP), a sounding frame comprising a physical layer (PHY) trigger, a list of STAs including the first STA, and a padding field; 
 performing sounding operations in response to the sounding frame, wherein the performing comprises performing at least a part of the sounding operations during a period when the first STA receives the padding field; and 
 transmitting, to the AP, a first uplink multi-user feedback frame based on the sounding operations. 
   
     
     
         12 . The first STA of  claim 11 , wherein the padding field is at an end of the sounding frame. 
     
     
         13 . The first STA of  claim 12 , wherein the padding field is at the end of the sounding frame, and the performing comprises completing computation of beamforming (BF) feedback information in the first uplink multi-user feedback frame during the period when the first STA receives the padding field. 
     
     
         14 . The first STA of  claim 13 , the programming further including instructions for:
 receiving data transmitted by the AP using BF determined based on at least the BF feedback information in the first uplink multi-user feedback frame.   
     
     
         15 . The first STA of  claim 11 , wherein the sounding frame comprises a high efficiency signal A (HE-SIG-A) field comprising the PHY trigger. 
     
     
         16 . An access point (AP), the AP comprising:
 a processor, and   a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing programming for execution by the processor, the programming including instructions for:
 generating a sounding frame comprising a physical layer (PHY) trigger, a list of STAs including a first STA, and a padding field; 
 transmitting, to the list of STAs, the sounding frame, wherein the first STA performs at least a part of the sounding operations during a period when the first STA receives the padding field; and 
 receiving one or more uplink multi-user feedback frames comprising a first uplink multi-user feedback frame from the first STA. 
   
     
     
         17 . The AP of  claim 16 , wherein the padding field is at an end of the sounding frame. 
     
     
         18 . The AP of  claim 17 , wherein the padding field is at the end of the sounding frame, and the first STA completes computation of beamforming (BF) feedback information in the first uplink multi-user feedback frame during the period when the first STA receives the padding field. 
     
     
         19 . The AP of  claim 18 , the programming further including instructions for:
 determining BF parameters based on at least the BF feedback information in the uplink multi-user feedback frames; and   transmitting data to one of the list of STAs using BF determined according to the BF parameters.   
     
     
         20 . The AP of  claim 16 , wherein the sounding frame comprises a high efficiency signal A (HE-SIG-A) field comprising the PHY trigger.