Method for signaling information by modifying modulation constellations

An apparatus of a station comprising:

• memory;
• and physical circuitry coupled to the memory, the physical circuitry configured to:
• process a preamble of a packet, the preamble comprising a legacy portion comprising a legacy signal field (L-SIG) and a subsequent portion comprising a non-legacy signal field;
• determine whether a symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using binary phase shift keying (BPSK) or modulated using quadrature binary phase shift keying (QBPSK);
• and
• process the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with a first packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using QBPSK, and process the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with a different packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using BPSK.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors, the instructions to configure the one or more processors to cause a station to:

• process a preamble of a packet, the preamble comprising a legacy portion comprising a legacy signal field (L-SIG) and a subsequent portion comprising a non-legacy signal field;
• determine whether a symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using binary phase shift keying (BPSK) or modulated using quadrature binary phase shift keying (QBPSK);
• and
• process the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with a first packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using QBPSK, and process the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with a different packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using BPSK.

A method performed by an apparatus of a station, the method comprising:

• processing a preamble of a packet, the preamble comprising a legacy portion comprising a legacy signal field (L-SIG) and a subsequent portion comprising a non-legacy signal field;
• determining whether a symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using binary phase shift keying (BPSK) or modulated using quadrature binary phase shift keying (QBPSK);
• and
• processing the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with a first packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using QBPSK, or process the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with a different packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using BPSK.

An apparatus of an access point comprising:

• memory;
• and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to:
• encode a preamble of a frame, the preamble comprising a legacy portion comprising a legacy signal field and a subsequent portion comprising a non-legacy signal field, wherein a symbol of the non-legacy signal field is either modulated using binary phase shift keying (QBPSK) to indicate a first packet format or modulated using quaternary (BPSK) to indicate a different packet format;
• and
• encode the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with the first packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using QBPSK, or encode the subsequent portion of the packet in accordance with the different packet format if the symbol of the non-legacy signal field is modulated using BPSK.