Transmission protection mechanism in 6 GHz

A method of wireless communication through a WIFI LAN, comprising,

• acquiring a first transmission opportunity (TXOP);
• after a clear channel assessment (CCA) process and responsive to a determination that:
• said first TXOP is free of any non-high throughput (non-HT) Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) transmission, wherein said first TXOP is free of any Request to Send (RTS)/Clear to Send (CTS) exchange;
• and PPDUs transmitted in said first TXOP have a value indicating duration unspecified for network allocation vector (NAV) setting and protection of said first TXOP in a first field of the PPDUs transmitted in said first TXOP, wherein said first field comprises at least one of:
• a plurality of duration values;
• and a value indicating duration unspecified;
• setting a second field in a non-initial high efficiency (HE) PPDU to indicate a first channel bandwidth of said non-initial HE PPDU, wherein said first channel bandwidth is equal to or narrower than a channel bandwidth of a preceding HE PPDU that has been transmitted in said first TXOP;
• and
• transmitting said non-initial HE PPDU in said first TXOP using said first channel bandwidth.

A wireless communication device comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor coupled to the memory, wherein said memory comprises instructions that, when executed, cause said wireless communication device to perform a method comprising:
• acquiring a first transmission opportunity (TXOP), wherein said first TXOP is free of any Request to Send (RTS)/Clear to Send (CTS) exchange;
• after a clear channel assessment (CCA) process, setting a first field in an initial high efficiency (HE) Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) to specify a first duration value for Network Allocation Vector (NAV) setting and protection of said first TXOP, wherein said first field is defined to specify one of:
• a plurality of duration values comprising said first duration value;
• and a value indicating duration unspecified;
• setting a second field in said initial HE PPDU to specify a first channel bandwidth of said initial HE PPDU;
• transmitting said initial HE PPDU;
• determining that said first TXOP is free of transmission of any non-high throughput (non-HT) PPDU;
• after said initial HE PPDU is transmitted and responsive to the determining, setting said second field in a second HE PPDU to specify a second channel bandwidth of said second HE PPDU, wherein said second channel bandwidth is equal to or narrower than said first channel bandwidth;
• and
• transmitting said second HE PPDU in said first TXOP using said second channel bandwidth, wherein said second HE PPDU comprises multiple frames.