Master station and method for hew communication with signal field configuration for hew ofdma mu-mimo wideband channel operation

A method performed by a master station configured for high-efficiency WLAN (HEW) communication, the method comprising:

• transmitting an indication to one or more of a plurality of HEW stations to indicate which one of a plurality of 20 MHz channels to monitor for a HEW signal field;
• configuring the HEW signal field to indicate which of a plurality of subchannels of the indicated 20 MHz channel is allocated to the HEW stations for communication;
• transmitting the configured HEW signal field in the indicated one of the 20 MHz channels;
• and
• communicating with the HEW stations on the indicated subchannels in accordance with an orthogonal-frequency divisional multiple access (OFDMA) technique.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of a master station to perform operations for high-efficiency WLAN (HEW) communication, the operations to configure the one or more processors for:

• transmitting an indication to one or more of a plurality of HEW stations to indicate which one of a plurality of 20 MHz channels to monitor for a HEW signal field;
• configuring the HEW signal field to indicate which of a plurality of subchannels of the indicated 20 MHz channel is allocated to the HEW stations for communication;
• transmitting the configured HEW signal field in the indicated one of the 20 MHz channels;
• and
• communicating with the HEW stations on the indicated subchannels in accordance with an orthogonal-frequency divisional multiple access (OFDMA) technique.

A high-efficiency WLAN (HEW) station comprising physical layer and medium access control layer circuitry configured to:

• receive a STA OFDMA grouping information element (IE) from a master station that indicates which one of a plurality of 20 MHz channels to monitor for a HEW signal field;
• monitor the indicated 20 MHz channel for the HEW signal field;
• determine from the HEW signal field which of a plurality of subchannels of the indicated 20 MHz channel is allocated for communication;
• communicate with the master station on the indicated one or more subchannels in accordance with an orthogonal-frequency divisional multiple access (OFDMA) technique based on configuration information received in the HEW signal field.