# US 10,313,090 B2 · Tone mapping signaling in a preamble > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,313,090 B2 - Document ID: US10313090B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 15/133,952 - Filed: 2016-04-20 - Published: 2016-10-20 - Granted: 2019-06-04 - Earliest claimed: 2015-04-20 - Assignees: Apple Inc. - Applicants: Apple Inc. - Inventors: Joonsuk Kim; Guoqing Li; Syed Aon Mujtaba - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10313090B2 ## CPC - H04L 5/0094: {Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated} - H04L 27/2613: {Structure of the reference signals} - H04L 27/26136: {Pilot sequence conveying additional information} - H04L 27/2647: {Arrangements specific to the receiver only (equalisation H04L27/01)} - H04L 5/0007: {the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A) or DMT} - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) ## Abstract Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for providing an efficient way to signal a tone mapping in a wireless communication protocol. Embodiments operate by receiving a frame for a wireless communications protocol. The embodiments extract a unique value from a tone mapping field in a preamble of the frame. The embodiments look up a resource block allocation for a portion of the tone space in a lookup table using the unique value. The embodiments map the tones of the portion of the tone space to one or more resource blocks based at least in part on the determined resource block allocation. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer implemented method for performing tone mapping for a wireless communications protocol, comprising: receiving, by at least one processor, a preamble of a frame corresponding to the wireless communications protocol, wherein the preamble comprises a tone mapping field; extracting, by the least one processor, a unique value from the tone mapping field, wherein a bit size of the tone mapping field is based at least in part on a plurality of potential resource block mappings for a portion of a tone space corresponding to the wireless communications protocol; determining, by the least one processor, a particular resource block mapping among the plurality of potential resource block mappings for the portion of the tone space using a lookup table based at least in part on the unique value, wherein the particular resource block mapping defines a different number of resource blocks allocated to the portion of the tone space than another resource block mapping in the plurality of potential resource block mappings; and mapping, by the least one processor, a plurality of tones to a resource block in the portion of the tone space based at least in part on the particular resource block mapping. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: assigning, by the least one processor, the resource block to a receiver device based at least in part on the frame corresponding to the wireless communications protocol. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communications protocol uses an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) modulation scheme and the tone mapping field is stored in a high-efficiency-signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field of the preamble. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the bit size of the tone mapping field is 5 bits. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the size of the portion of the tone space corresponds to a 20 MHz band. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the tone space of the wireless communications protocol is divided into a plurality of portions. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein a resource block mapping of a first portion of the plurality of portions is different than a resource block mapping of a second portion of the plurality of portions. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein each portion of the plurality of portions of the tone space corresponds to a respective tone space field in the preamble of the frame. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the tone mapping field corresponds to the portion of the tone space, and the size of the portion of the tone space is less than an entire bandwidth of the wireless communication protocol. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the at least one processor, a size of the resource block in the portion of the tone space using the lookup table based at least in part on the unique value. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the particular resource block mapping defines 26 or 52 tones for a resource block in the number of resource blocks allocated to the portion of the tone space. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the particular resource block mapping is unique among the plurality of potential resource block mappings for the portion of the tone space. ### Claim 13 A system, comprising: a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to: receive a preamble of a frame corresponding to a wireless communications protocol, wherein the preamble comprises a tone mapping field; extract a unique value from the tone mapping field, wherein a bit size of the tone mapping field is based at least in part on a plurality of potential resource block mappings for a portion of a tone space corresponding to the wireless communications protocol; and determine a particular resource block mapping among the plurality of potential resource block mappings for the portion of the tone space based at least in part on the unique value, wherein the particular resource block mapping defines a different number of resource blocks allocated to the portion of the tone space than another resource block mapping in the plurality of potential resource block mappings. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: map a plurality of tones to a resource block in the portion of the tone space based at least in part on the particular resource block mapping. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: assign the resource block to a receiver device based at least in part on the frame corresponding to the wireless communications protocol. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein the wireless communications protocol uses an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) modulation scheme and the tone mapping field is stored in a high-efficiency-signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field of the preamble. ### Claim 17 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein the bit size of the tone mapping field is 5 bits and the size of the portion of the tone space corresponds to a 20 MHz band. ### Claim 18 (depends on 13) The system of claim 13, wherein the tone space of the wireless communications protocol is divided into a plurality of portions. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The system of claim 18, wherein a resource block mapping of a first portion of the plurality of portions is different than a resource block mapping of a second portion of the plurality of portions. ### Claim 20 A tangible computer-readable device having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising: receiving a preamble of a frame corresponding to a wireless communications protocol, wherein the preamble comprises a tone mapping field; extracting a unique value from the tone mapping field, wherein a bit size of the tone mapping field is based at least in part on a plurality of potential resource block mappings for a portion of a tone space corresponding to the wireless communications protocol; determining a particular resource block mapping among the plurality of potential resource block mappings for the portion of the tone space based at least in part on the unique value, wherein the particular resource block mapping defines a different number of resource blocks allocated to the portion of the tone space than another resource block mapping in the plurality of potential resource block mappings; mapping, by the least one processor, a plurality of tones to a resource block in the portion of the tone space based at least in part on the particular resource block mapping; and assigning the resource block to a receiver device based at least in part on the frame corresponding to the wireless communications protocol. ### Claim 21 (depends on 20) The computer-readable device of claim 20, wherein the wireless communications protocol uses an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) modulation scheme and the tone mapping field is stored in a high-efficiency-signal-B (HE-SIG-B) field of the preamble. ### Claim 22 (depends on 20) The computer-readable device of claim 20, wherein the bit size of the tone mapping field is 5 bits and the size of the portion of the tone space corresponds to a 20 MHz band. ### Claim 23 (depends on 20) The computer-readable device of claim 20, wherein the tone space of the wireless communications protocol is divided into a plurality of portions. ### Claim 24 (depends on 23) The computer-readable device of claim 23, wherein a resource block mapping of a first portion of the plurality of portions is different than a resource block mapping of a second portion of the plurality of portions. ### Claim 25 (depends on 20) The computer-readable device of claim 20, wherein the portion of the tone space comprises fewer than 10 resource blocks.