WLAN sensing frame exchange protocol

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of a wireless communication device configurable for WLAN sensing, wherein the processing circuitry is to configure the wireless communication device to perform a WLAN sensing protocol within a basic service set (BSS) comprising one or more stations (STAs) (STA1 and STA2) including an access point station (AP STA), the WLAN sensing protocol performed to estimate features of one or more objects in an area of interest, the WLAN sensing protocol comprising:

• a discovery phase, a negotiation phase, a measurement phase, and a reporting phase,
• wherein to perform the WLAN sensing protocol, the processing circuitry configures the wireless communication device to operate as either a sensing initiator or a sensing responder, and to operate as a sensing transmitter and/or a sensing receiver,
• wherein during the discovery phase, the STAs of the BSS that support WLAN sensing are discovered, at least one of the STAs is identified as a sensing receiver, and one or more of the STAs are identified as potential sensing transmitters,
• wherein during the negotiation phase, a measurement frequency is determined and one or more of the STAs, identified as the potential sensing transmitters, are designated as sensing transmitters, and
• wherein during the measurement phase, the one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing transmitters are configured to transmit sensing packets for sensing measurements by one or more STAs that are designated as the sensing receivers;
• and
• wherein during the reporting phase, the sensing measurements are provided to the sensing initiator, and
• wherein when the wireless communication device is an AP STA and is operating as the sensing initiator, the processing circuitry is configured to process the sensing measurements to estimate the features of the one or more objects in the area of interest, the features estimated based on changes in channel state information (CSI) of radio links over time between the AP STA and the one or more STAs.

An apparatus of an access point station (AP STA), the apparatus comprising:

• processing circuitry;
• and memory, wherein the processing circuitry is to configure the AP STA to perform a WLAN sensing protocol within a basic service set (BSS) comprising one or more stations (STAs) (STA1 and STA2) including the AP STA, the WLAN sensing protocol performed to estimate features of one or more objects in an area of interest, the WLAN sensing protocol comprising:
• a discovery phase, a negotiation phase, a measurement phase, and a reporting phase, wherein to perform the WLAN sensing protocol, the processing circuitry configures the AP STA to operate as either a sensing initiator or a sensing responder, and to operate as a sensing transmitter and/or a sensing receiver,
• wherein if the AP STA is operating as the sensing initiator and if the AP STA is designated as the sensing receiver during the negotiation phase, during the measurement phase, the AP STA is configured to encode a trigger frame for transmission to the STAs (STA1 and STA2) that have been designated as sensing transmitters during the negotiation phase, the trigger frame to trigger the STAs to transmit uplink sensing frames to the AP STA in accordance with either an UL OFDMA or UL MU-MIMO technique, and the AP STA is configured to determine the sensing measurements from the UL sensing frames, and
• wherein when the AP STA and is operating as the sensing initiator, the processing circuitry is configured to process the sensing measurements to estimate the features of the one or more objects in the area of interest, the features estimated based on changes in channel state information (CSI) of radio links over time between the AP STA and the one or more STAs.