Methods, apparatus and device-readable mediums relating to wireless access in a network requiring a carrier-sense mechanism

A transmitting device for transmitting to a receiving device in a wireless communications network, the transmitting device comprising a plurality of antenna elements and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry being configured to:

• perform a directional carrier-sense assessment in a particular direction to decide whether to perform a subsequent Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) transmission in the particular direction for the receiving device, the directional carrier-sense assessment comprising sensing a level of wireless activity in the particular direction for each sub-band among two or more sub-bands that subdivide a full bandwidth associated with the OFDM transmission, each sub-band frequency-wise containing one or more subcarriers among a plurality of subcarriers used for the OFDM transmission and each sub-band detected as being an idle sub-band or a busy sub-band in dependence on the level of wireless activity sensed for the sub-band in the particular direction;
• determine whether there is at least a threshold number of idle subcarriers, wherein each subcarrier in each sub-band is deemed idle or busy in dependence on whether the sub-band was detected as being idle or busy;
• and
• responsive to determining that there is at least the threshold number of idle sub-carriers, perform the OFDM transmission in the particular direction, including selecting a respective transmit power for each sub-band in dependence on whether the sub-band was detected as being idle or busy.

A non-transitory device-readable non-transitory medium storing instructions which, when executed by processing circuitry of a transmitting device, the transmitting device further comprising a plurality of antenna elements, cause the processing circuitry to:

• perform a directional carrier-sense assessment in a particular direction to decide whether to perform a subsequent Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) transmission in the particular direction for the receiving device, the directional carrier-sense assessment comprising sensing a level of wireless activity in the particular direction for each sub-band among two or more sub-bands that subdivide a full bandwidth associated with the OFDM transmission, each sub-band frequency-wise containing one or more subcarriers among a plurality of subcarriers used for the OFDM transmission and each sub-band detected as being an idle sub-band or a busy sub-band in dependence on the level of wireless activity sensed for the sub-band in the particular direction;
• determine whether there is at least a threshold number of idle subcarriers, wherein each subcarrier in each sub-band is deemed idle or busy in dependence on whether the sub-band was detected as being idle or busy;
• and
• responsive to determining that there is at least the threshold number of idle sub-carriers, perform the OFDM transmission in the particular direction, including selecting a respective transmit power for each sub-band in dependence on whether the sub-band was detected as being idle or busy.