Asymmetric OFDMA tone mapping and dynamic channel access using non-primary channels

A method for communicating a frame, wherein the method comprises:

• by an electronic device:
• using physical layer in an interface circuit of the electronic device:
• transmitting, to an access point, an association request with an information element that specifies:
• i) whether the electronic device currently only operates using a bandwidth of 20 MHz,
• ii) a preferred 20 MHz channel that the electronic device chooses to operate on, and
• iii) whether the electronic device can be assigned by the access point to a non-primary channel;
• and
• receiving, from the access point, an association response that assigns the electronic device to a primary channel or the non-primary channel;
• using a media access control (MAC) layer in the interface circuit of the electronic device, providing information specifying a channel access mode of the electronic device to the physical layer in the interface circuit, wherein the channel access mode indicates to the physical layer to transmit using:
• a scheduled-access technique when communicating, in a multi-user (MU) physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (MU-PPDU), a frame via the non-primary channel and without using the primary channel;
• a contention-based channel access technique when communicating, in a single-user PPDU (SU-PPDU), the frame via the primary channel;
• and
• the scheduled-access technique when communicating, in another MU-PPDU, the frame using the primary channel;
• and
• using the physical layer, transmitting an information frame with the information specifying the channel access mode of the electronic device to an access point, using a Quality of Service (QoS) queue-size field value reserved for an unspecified queue size.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by circuitry of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform steps that include:

• using physical layer in an interface circuit of the electronic device:
• transmitting, to an access point, an association request with an information element that specifies:
• i) whether the electronic device currently only operates using a bandwidth of 20 MHz,
• ii) a preferred 20 MHz channel that the electronic device chooses to operate on, and
• iii) whether the electronic device can be assigned by the access point to a non-primary channel;
• and
• receiving, from the access point, an association response that assigns the electronic device to a primary channel or the non-primary channel;
• using a media access control (MAC) layer in the interface circuit of the electronic device, providing information specifying a channel access mode of the electronic device to the physical layer in the interface circuit, wherein the channel access mode indicates to the physical layer to transmit using:
• a scheduled-access technique when communicating, in a multi-user (MU) physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (MU-PPDU), a frame via the non-primary channel and without using the primary channel;
• a contention-based channel access technique when communicating, in a single-user PPDU (SU-PPDU), the frame via the primary channel;
• and
• the scheduled-access technique when communicating, in another MU-PPDU, the frame using the primary channel;
• and
• using the physical layer, transmitting an information frame with the information specifying the channel access mode of the electronic device to an access point, using a Quality of Service (QoS) queue-size field value reserved for an unspecified queue size.