# US 2016/0366254 A1 · Methods and apparatus for communicating high efficiency control information > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2016/0366254 A1 - Document ID: US20160366254A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 15/181,364 - Filed: 2016-06-13 - Published: 2016-12-15 - Earliest claimed: 2015-06-15 - Assignees: QUALCOMM Incorporated - Applicants: QUALCOMM Incorporated - Inventors: Alfred Asterjadhi; Simone Merlin; George Cherian; Gwendolyn Denise Barriac; Gang Ding; Qingjiang Tian; Yan Zhou - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20160366254A1 ## CPC - H04L 69/324: in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC - H04L 5/0053: {Allocation of signalling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals} - H04L 5/0091: {Signalling for the administration of the divided path, e.g. signalling of configuration information} - H04L 5/0055: {Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK (for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861)} - H04L 5/0094: {Indication of how sub-channels of the path are allocated} - Y02D 30/70: in wireless communication networks - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - Y02D: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE ## Abstract Methods, devices, and computer program products for traffic information signaling in a wireless communications network are disclosed. In one aspect, a method of wireless communication network is disclosed. The method includes selecting, from a variable number of control fields, one or more control fields for inclusion in a frame. The method further includes generating the frame comprising the selected number of control fields, each control field comprising an end of control field, the end of control field storing an indicator indicative of an end of the selected number of control fields or a presence of another control field in the frame. The method further includes transmitting the frame. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method of wireless communication, comprising: selecting, from a variable number of control fields, one or more control fields for inclusion in a frame; generating the frame comprising the selected number of control fields; and transmitting the frame. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein each control field further comprises a first field, the first field storing an indicator indicative of the control field comprising a variant of the control field. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein the variant comprises a high efficiency (HE) variant of a very high throughput (VHT) variant of the control field. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein each control field further comprises: a control identifier field; and a control information field, the control information field including information for communication, the control identifier field including an indicator indicating a type of the information. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, wherein the type of information comprises at least one of an acknowledgment, a not acknowledgement, a block acknowledgement request, a block acknowledgement, channel quality information, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) feedback, a power save (PS) poll, and a cyclic redundancy check, wherein the control field indicates at least one of: a channel quality information and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) feedback and wherein the control information field comprises a control field, a channel bitmap field, a subchannel field and a feedback field, wherein the content of the feedback field is based on the channel/MCS indication field, and wherein the feedback field comprises a number of spatial streams field, a MCS field, a multi-user/coding field, and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) field, a request/response field, a dialog token field, a subchannel bitmap present field, and a channel/MCS indication field, a power save poll field, and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and wherein the control information field comprises a CRC field. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein generating the frame comprises generating the frame within a physical layer header portion of a physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame, and wherein the physical layer header portion comprises one or more of a signal field, a long training field and a short training field. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein generating the frame comprises generating the frame within an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe containing the one or more control fields. ### Claim 8 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, wherein the control identifier field indicates a buffer status (BS) request or BS report and wherein the control information field comprises one or more subfields containing a report on buffer status information or a request for buffer status information. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The method of claim 8, wherein the control information field comprises a quality of service (QoS) control field, and wherein the QoS control field comprises a traffic identifier (TID) field indicating whether BS polling is per-TID or all-TID, a transmission opportunity field, and a queue size field. ### Claim 10 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, wherein the control identifier field indicates trigger information and wherein the control information field comprises a trigger information field. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The method of claim 10, wherein the trigger information field indicates subchannel information for a station or indicates a compressed or uncompressed uplink medium access control (MAC) format. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the selected number of control fields comprises one or more first control fields addressed to a first device and one or more second control fields addressed to a second device. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more first control fields and the one or more second control fields are multiplexed in code, frequency, or time. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the frame comprises transmitting the frame using an uplink multiple user physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the frame comprises transmitting the frame using a downlink multiple user physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame. ### Claim 16 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, wherein the control identifier field indicates uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) response scheduling and wherein the control information field includes scheduling information for transmitting an UL physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame including acknowledgement information. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The method of claim 16, wherein the control information field comprises a UL PPDU length field indicating a length of the UL PPDU frame and a resource allocation field indicating a resource unit assigned for transmitting the UL PPDU frame. ### Claim 18 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the frame further comprises a padding field that follows the one or more control fields so that a length of the one or more control fields satisfies a length requirement or a boundary requirement. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The method of claim 18, wherein the length requirement is 30 bits and the boundary requirement is a multiple of octets. ### Claim 20 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the frame comprises multiple-station block acknowledgement (BA) frame. ### Claim 21 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the frame comprises a trigger frame. ### Claim 22 (depends on 21) The method of claim 21, wherein the frame comprises a value of the AID field indicating the presence of one or more control fields following that value of the AID field. ### Claim 23 (depends on 22) The method of claim 22, wherein the value of the AID field is 2047. ### Claim 24 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the frame further comprise a per association identifier (AID) traffic identifier (TID) information field, the per AID TID information field indicating a presence of the selected number of control fields. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) The method of claim 24, wherein the per AID TID information field comprises a type field indicating a number of bytes for the selected number of control fields. ### Claim 26 (depends on 24) The method of claim 24, wherein the per AID TID information field comprises a value of the TID subfield indicating the presence of one or more control fields for the STA identified by the AID subfield of the per AID TID Information field. ### Claim 27 A device for communicating in a wireless network, the device comprising: a processor configured to select, from a variable number of control fields, one or more control fields for inclusion in a frame, the processor further configured to generate the frame comprising the selected number of control fields; and a transmitter configured to transmit the frame. ### Claim 28 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein each control field further comprises a first field, the first field storing an indicator indicative of the control field comprising a variant of the control field. ### Claim 29 (depends on 28) The device of claim 28, wherein the variant comprises a high efficiency (HE) variant of a very high throughput (VHT) variant of the control field. ### Claim 30 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein each control field further comprises: a control identifier field; and a control information field, the control information field including information for communication, the control identifier field including an indicator indicating a type of the information. ### Claim 31 (depends on 30) The device of claim 30, wherein the type of information comprises at least one of an acknowledgment, a not acknowledgement, a block acknowledgement request, a block acknowledgement, channel quality information, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) feedback, a power save (PS) poll, and a cyclic redundancy check, wherein the control field indicates at least one of: a channel quality information and modulation and coding scheme (MCS) feedback and wherein the control information field comprises a control field, a channel bitmap field, a subchannel field and a feedback field, wherein the content of the feedback field is based on the channel/MCS indication field, and wherein the feedback field comprises a number of spatial streams field, a MCS field, a multi-user/coding field, and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) field, a request/response field, a dialog token field, a subchannel bitmap present field, and a channel/MCS indication field, a power save poll field, and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and wherein the control information field comprises a CRC field. ### Claim 32 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the frame within a physical layer header portion of a physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame, and wherein the physical layer header portion comprises one or more of a signal field, a long training field and a short training field. ### Claim 33 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the frame within an aggregated media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) subframe containing the one or more control fields. ### Claim 34 (depends on 30) The device of claim 30, wherein the control identifier field indicates a buffer status (BS) request or BS report and wherein the control information field comprises one or more subfields containing a report on buffer status information or a request for buffer status information. ### Claim 35 (depends on 34) The device of claim 34, wherein the control information field comprises a quality of service (QoS) control field, and wherein the QoS control field comprises a traffic identifier (TID) field indicating whether BS polling is per-TID or all-TID, a transmission opportunity field, and a queue size field. ### Claim 36 (depends on 30) The device of claim 30, wherein the control identifier field indicates trigger information and wherein the control information field comprises a trigger information field. ### Claim 37 (depends on 36) The device of claim 36, wherein the trigger information field indicates subchannel information for a station or indicates a compressed or uncompressed uplink medium access control (MAC) format. ### Claim 38 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the selected number of control fields comprises one or more first control fields addressed to a first device and one or more second control fields addressed to a second device. ### Claim 39 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the one or more first control fields and the one or more second control fields are multiplexed in code, frequency, or time. ### Claim 40 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein transmitting the frame comprises transmitting the frame using an uplink multiple user physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame. ### Claim 41 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein transmitting the frame comprises transmitting the frame using a downlink multiple user physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame. ### Claim 42 (depends on 30) The device of claim 30, wherein the control identifier field indicates uplink (UL) multi-user (MU) response scheduling and wherein the control information field includes scheduling information for transmitting an UL physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) frame including acknowledgement information. ### Claim 43 (depends on 42) The device of claim 42, wherein the control information field comprises a UL PPDU length field indicating a length of the UL PPDU frame and a resource allocation field indicating a resource unit assigned for transmitting the UL PPDU frame. ### Claim 44 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the frame further comprises a padding field that follows the one or more control fields so that a length of the one or more control fields satisfies a length requirement or a boundary requirement. ### Claim 45 (depends on 44) The device of claim 44, wherein the length requirement is 30 bits and the boundary requirement is a multiple of octets. ### Claim 46 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the frame comprises multiple-station block acknowledgement (BA) frame. ### Claim 47 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the frame comprises a trigger frame. ### Claim 48 (depends on 47) The device of claim 47, wherein the frame comprises a value of the AID field indicating the presence of one or more control fields following that value of the AID field. ### Claim 49 (depends on 48) The device of claim 48, wherein the value of the AID field is 2047. ### Claim 50 (depends on 27) The device of claim 27, wherein the frame further comprise a per association identifier (AID) traffic identifier (TID) information field, the per AID TID information field indicating a presence of the selected number of control fields. ### Claim 51 (depends on 50) The device of claim 50, wherein the per AID TID information field comprises a type field indicating a number of bytes for the selected number of control fields. ### Claim 52 (depends on 50) The device of claim 50, wherein the per AID TID information field comprises a value of the TID subfield indicating the presence of one or more control fields for the STA identified by the AID subfield of the per AID TID Information field ### Claim 53 A device for communicating in a wireless network, the device comprising: means for selecting, from a variable number of control fields, one or more control fields for inclusion in a frame; means for generating the frame comprising the selected number of control fields, each control field comprising an end of control field, the end of control field storing an indicator indicative of an end of the selected number of control fields or a presence of another control field in the frame; and means for transmitting the frame. ### Claim 54 A computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform a method of wireless communication, the method comprising: selecting, from a variable number of control fields, one or more control fields for inclusion in a frame; generating the frame comprising the selected number of control fields, each control field comprising an end of control field, the end of control field storing an indicator indicative of an end of the selected number of control fields or a presence of another control field in the frame; and transmitting the frame.