CN108234093A

CN108234093A - Control information indicating method and network element

Info

Publication number: CN108234093A
Application number: CN201611156084.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴伟民; 章雪婷; 于健
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2016-12-14
Filing date: 2016-12-14
Publication date: 2018-06-29
Anticipated expiration: 2036-12-14
Also published as: CN108234093B; CN113014366B; CN113014366A

Abstract

The embodiment of the present application provides a kind of control information indicating method and network element, this method include：First network element generates mac frame；Wherein, mac frame includes HTC fields, and HTC fields include the first control ID, are used to indicate when the first control ID is equal to the first default value：Mac frame includes HTC expansions；Further, mac frame is sent to the second network element by the first network element, so that the second network element obtains the control information of HTC expansions.As it can be seen that the embodiment of the present application realizes the extension to HTC fields, the ability that HTC fields carry control information is improved, so as to carry the control information of more bits and/or further types of control information.

Description

Control information indication method and network element

Technical Field

The present invention relates to communications technologies, and in particular, to a control information indication method and a network element.

Background

In the existing communication technology, in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) or a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) system, an Access Point (AP) and a Station (STA), an STA and an STA, or an AP and an AP interact through a Media Access Control (MAC) frame. Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a frame format of a MAC frame defined in an 802.11 standard protocol, as shown in fig. 1A, in addition to carrying Data, management, and control information through a frame body, a part of the MAC frame, such as a management frame and a Quality of Service Data (QoS Data for short), further includes a High Throughput Control (HTC) field for carrying some control signaling to complete certain functions (such as link adaptation or antenna selection) when transmitting Data or management information.

With the development of communication systems, an HTC field of a High Throughput (HT) variant (variable) proposed in an 802.11n standard protocol, an HTC field of a Very High Throughput (VHT) variant proposed in an 802.11ac standard protocol, and an HTC field of a High Efficiency (HE) variant proposed in an 802.11ax standard protocol are limited, but each HTC field (occupying 32 bits) proposed in the existing standard protocol has a limited capability of carrying control information, and therefore, how to extend the HTC field is a technical problem to be solved by the present invention.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a device network element for indicating control information, which realize the expansion of an HTC field and improve the capability of the HTC field to carry control information, thereby being capable of carrying more bits of control information and/or more types of control information.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a control information indication method, including:

a first network element generates a Media Access Control (MAC) frame; wherein, the MAC frame comprises a high throughput rate control (HTC) field, the HTC field comprises a first control Identifier (ID), and the first control ID is used for indicating that: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

and the first network element sends the MAC frame to the second network element so that the second network element acquires the control information of the HTC extended part.

By the control information indication method provided by the first aspect, the first network element generates an MAC frame; the MAC frame comprises a high throughput rate control (HTC) field, the HTC field comprises a first control ID, and when the first control ID is equal to a first preset value, the HTC field is used for indicating that: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension; further, the first network element sends the MAC frame to the second network element, so that the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension. Therefore, the extension of the HTC field is realized, the capability of carrying the control information by the HTC field is improved, and more bits of control information and/or more types of control information can be carried.

In one possible design, the HTC extension includes: an HTC extension field.

In one possible design, the control information corresponding to the first control ID includes: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

In one possible design, the first control ID is located in any one of the control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field.

In one possible design, the first control ID is located in a last control subfield in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field, and the first control ID is also used to indicate that the control subfield is the last control subfield of the HTC field.

In one possible design, the HTC extension field is located after the HTC field of the MAC frame and before the frame check sequence FCS.

In one possible design, the HTC extension field is located after the frame check sequence FCS of the MAC frame.

In one possible design, the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by: cyclic redundancy check CRC.

In one possible design, the control information corresponding to the first control ID further includes: mode indication information for indicating whether the first network element redundantly encodes the HTC extension field.

In one possible design, the HTC extension field includes: a reserved field and an aggregation control part, the aggregation control part including at least one control subfield; each control subfield includes: a second control ID and corresponding control information.

By the control information indication method provided by the embodiment, the MAC frame carries the HTC extension part by adding the HTC extension field after the HTC field of the MAC frame, so that more bits of control information can be carried.

In one possible design, the HTC extension includes: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield;

wherein the control subfield includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset numerical value, or different numerical values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4.

In one possible design, the HTC extension further includes: and an HTC extension field which is located after the aggregation control part and belongs to the VHE aggregation control part.

In one possible design, the HTC extension further includes: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

By the control information indication method provided by this embodiment, the MAC frame is implemented to carry the HTC extension portion by redefining the aggregation control portion in the HTC field of the MAC frame (the aggregation control portion includes the first control ID and the VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion includes at least one control subfield, the number of bits occupied by the third control ID of each control subfield is the second preset value, or different values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information). Further, by setting the HTC extension field after the aggregation control part, the capability of carrying control information is further improved, thereby enabling to carry more bits of control information and/or more types of control information.

In one possible design, the HTC extension includes: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield;

According to the control information indication method provided by the embodiment, the MAC frame carries the HTC extension part in a manner of redefining the aggregation control frame body part of the MAC frame (the aggregation control frame body part comprises the first control ID and the VHE aggregation control part, and the VHE aggregation control part comprises at least one control subfield, wherein the control field comprises the third control ID and corresponding control information, the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset value, or different values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information), so that more bits of control information and/or more types of control information can be carried.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a control information indication method, including:

the second network element receives a Media Access Control (MAC) frame from the first network element; the second network element determines that the MAC frame includes a high throughput control, HTC, field and that the HTC field includes a first control identifier, ID; wherein the first control ID is used to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

and the second network element acquires the control information of the HTC extension part.

With the control information indication method provided by the second aspect, after the second network element receives the MAC frame, when it is determined that the MAC frame includes the HTC field and the HTC field includes the first control ID indicating that the MAC frame includes the HTC extension, the control information of the HTC extension is acquired. Therefore, the extension of the HTC field is realized, the capability of carrying the control information by the HTC field is improved, and more bits of control information and/or more types of control information can be carried.

In one possible design, the HTC extension includes: an HTC extension field.

In one possible design, the control information corresponding to the first control ID includes: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of an HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field;

the second network element acquires control information of the HTC extension part, and the control information comprises the following steps:

and the second network element acquires the control information of the HTC extension part according to the HTC extension position information and/or the HTC extension length information.

In one possible design, the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by: cyclic redundancy check, CRC;

after the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension, the method further includes:

and the second network element checks the control information of the HTC extension part according to the CRC.

wherein the control subfield includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset numerical value, or different numerical values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4;

and the second network element determines a third control ID and control information according to a preset rule.

In one possible design, after the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension, the method further includes:

and the second network element sends feedback information to the first network element through a preset service identifier TID in the multi-site block acknowledgement frame M-BA, wherein the feedback information is used for indicating whether the second network element correctly receives the control information of the HTC extended part.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a network element, where the network element is a first network element, and the first network element includes:

a generation module for generating a media intervention control, MAC, frame; wherein, the MAC frame comprises a high throughput rate control (HTC) field, the HTC field comprises a first control Identifier (ID), and the first control ID is used for indicating that: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

and the sending module is used for sending the MAC frame to the second network element so that the second network element can acquire the control information of the HTC extended part.

In one possible design, the HTC extension includes: an HTC extension field.

The beneficial effects of the first network element provided by the third aspect and the possible embodiments of the third aspect may refer to the beneficial effects brought by the possible embodiments of the first aspect, and are not described herein again.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a network element, where the network element is a second network element, and the second network element includes:

a receiving module, configured to receive a media access control MAC frame from a first network element; the second network element determines that the MAC frame includes a high throughput control, HTC, field and that the HTC field includes a first control identifier, ID; wherein the first control ID is used to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

and the acquisition module is used for acquiring the control information of the HTC extension part.

In one possible design, the HTC extension includes: an HTC extension field.

the acquisition module is specifically configured to:

and acquiring control information of the HTC extension part according to the HTC extension position information and/or the HTC extension length information.

the second network element further comprises:

and the checking module is used for checking the control information of the HTC extension part according to the CRC.

the acquisition module is specifically configured to:

and determining the third control ID and the control information according to a preset rule.

In one possible design, the second network element further includes:

and the feedback module is used for sending feedback information to the first network element through a preset service identifier TID in the multi-site block acknowledgement frame M-BA, and the feedback information is used for indicating whether the second network element correctly receives the control information of the HTC extended part.

The beneficial effects of the second network element provided by the fourth aspect and the possible embodiments of the fourth aspect may refer to the beneficial effects brought by the possible embodiments of the second aspect, and are not described herein again.

Drawings

FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating a frame format of a MAC frame defined in the 802.11 standard protocol;

FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating a frame format of an HTC field of an HT variant defined in the 802.11n standard protocol;

FIG. 1C is a diagram of a frame format for the HTC field of a VHT variant as defined in the 802.11ac standard protocol;

FIG. 1D is a diagram of a frame format for the HTC field of the HE variant as defined in the 802.11ax standard protocol;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture in one embodiment;

FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating a first embodiment of a control information indication method;

FIG. 3B is a diagram of a MAC frame format including an HTC extension;

fig. 3C is a diagram illustrating another MAC frame format including an HTC extension;

fig. 3D is a diagram of another MAC frame format including an HTC extension;

FIG. 3E is a diagram of a frame format of an HE-A-control frame;

FIG. 3F is a diagram of a frame format for a chain indicator HTC extension field;

fig. 3G is a diagram of another MAC frame format including an HTC extension;

fig. 3H is a diagram illustrating a fifth frame format of another MAC frame including an HTC extension;

fig. 3I is a diagram illustrating a sixth frame format of another MAC frame including an HTC extension;

fig. 3J is a diagram illustrating a seventh frame format of another MAC frame including an HTC extension;

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a frame format of an M-BA frame;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of a frame format for a multi-user transmission;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network element according to a first embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a second network element embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a third embodiment of a network element of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a fourth network element embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Introduction is performed on various HTC fields in different existing standard protocols:

1) HTC field of HT variants defined in the 802.11n standard protocol

Fig. 1B is a diagram illustrating a frame format of an HTC field of an HT variant defined in an 802.11n standard protocol. As shown in fig. 1B, the HTC field of the HT variant occupies 32 bits, wherein the link adaptation control is used to perform the link adaptation function, the alignment position and alignment sequence are used to perform the antenna alignment function, the channel state information/control and high throughput null data packet announcement is used to perform the channel sounding, and the reverse grant/more physical protocol data units are used to perform the reverse grant function.

2) HTC field of VHT variant defined in 802.11ac standard protocol

Fig. 1C is a frame format diagram of the HTC field of the VHT variant defined in the 802.11ac standard protocol. As shown in fig. 1C, the HTC field of the VHT variant also occupies 32 bits; compared with the HTC field of the HT variant, the HTC field of the VHT variant redefines the field in the middle of the high throughput rate control to complete the link adaptation function based on the 802.11ac physical packet; in addition, a reserved bit is added in the redefined field for the extension of the subsequent standard.

The HTC field of the VHT variant is another variant of the HTC field, the two variants being distinguished by the first bit VHT of the HTC field; 1) if the VHT bit indicates 0, then the HTC field of the HT variant; 2) if the VHT bit indicates 1, it is the HTC field of the VHT variant. For example, for an 802.11ac STA, it may use both the HT variant and the VHT variant HTC fields, and indicate via the VHT bit which variant HTC field it is transmitting.

3) HTC field of HE variant defined in 802.11ax standard protocol

In the 802.11ax standard protocol, the reserved bits in the HTC fields of the VHT variants are further used to extend the HTCs again, define the HE variants, and redefine the contents subsequent to the reserved bits.

Fig. 1D is a frame format diagram of the HTC field of the HE variant defined in the 802.11ax standard protocol. As shown in fig. 1D, the HTC field of the HE variant also occupies 32 bits; further distinguishing whether the HTC field of the VHT variant or the HTC field of the HE variant is by the HE bit following the VHT bit; 1) if the VHT bit indicates 0, then the HTC field of the HT variant; 2) an HTC field of the VHT variant if the VHT bit indicates 1 and the HE bit indicates 0; 3) if the VHT bit and the HE bit are both indicated as 1, it is an HTC field of the HE variant. As shown in fig. 1D, the HTC field of the HE variant flexibly carries one Control subfield or aggregates a plurality of Control subfields, and thus, the HTC field of the HE variant is also called a High efficiency aggregated Control (HE-a-Control) field or directly called an a-Control field; in each Control subfield of the aggregation Control part, the type and the length of the subsequent Control information are indicated by carrying a Control Identifier (CID), which is convenient for a receiving network element to determine the length and the type of the subsequent Control information. Table 1 is a table of relations between the control ID and the control information, and as shown in table 1, if the control ID of the control subfield a is equal to 1, the receiving network element may determine, according to the table of relations between the control ID and the control information, that the type of the control information of the control subfield a is "operation indication" and the length of the control information is 16 bits.

Table 1 is a table of relationships between control IDs and control information

Each HTC field proposed by the existing standard protocol only has 32 bits, and the bit number of the HTC field carrying control information is limited; in addition, the HTC field of the HE variant can indicate only 15 types of control information, and cannot indicate more types of control information. In summary, the HTC fields proposed by the existing standard protocol have limited capability of carrying control information, and therefore how to extend the HTC fields is a technical problem to be solved by the present invention.

Introducing a system architecture and a network element of the application:

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture in one embodiment. As shown in fig. 2, the network element related to the present application includes: an AP and/or a STA. As shown in fig. 2, the communication between the transceiving network elements may be communication between an AP and an STA, communication between an AP and an AP, or communication between an STA and an STA; optionally, the communication comprises any one of: point-to-point communication, point-to-multipoint communication, multipoint-to-point communication.

The AP referred to in this application may also be referred to as a wireless access point, a bridge, a hotspot, or the like, and may access a server, a communication network, or the like.

The STA referred to in this application, which may also be referred to as a user, may be a Wireless sensor, a Wireless communication terminal or a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone (or referred to as a "cellular" phone) supporting a (WiFi) communication function and a computer having a Wireless communication function. For example, the wireless communication devices may be portable, pocket-sized, hand-held, computer-embedded, wearable, or vehicle-mounted devices that support WiFi communication functionality, which exchange voice, data, etc. communication data with a radio access network.

Fig. 3A is a flowchart illustrating a control information indication method according to a first embodiment. As shown in fig. 3A, the method of the present embodiment may include:

s301, the first network element generates a Media Access Control (MAC) frame.

In this step, the first network element generates a media access control MAC frame, where the MAC frame includes a high throughput control HTC field, and the HTC field includes a first control identifier ID, and optionally, if the first control ID is equal to a first preset value, it indicates that the MAC frame includes an HTC extension part (for carrying more control information); so that the second network element knows from the first control ID that the MAC frame includes the HTC extension. Alternatively, the first preset value may be any one of the reserved bits (5-15) (e.g., 15) in table 1, which is not limited in this embodiment.

The HTC extension is described in detail below:

one), first implementable manner of the HTC extension: the HTC extension portion includes: an HTC extension field, optionally comprising: a reserved field and an aggregation control portion, the aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield, each control subfield comprising: a second control ID and corresponding control information. Alternatively, the second control ID may be referred to as the control ID in the HTC field of the HE variant defined in the 802.11ax standard protocol. Of course, the HTC extension field may also include other contents, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Optionally, the length of the aggregation control part in the HTC extension field may be 30 bits or indicated by the HTC field part, which is not limited in this embodiment of the application.

Fig. 3B is a diagram showing a first frame format of a MAC frame including an HTC extension, fig. 3C is a diagram showing a second frame format of another MAC frame including an HTC extension, and fig. 3D is a diagram showing a third frame format of another MAC frame including an HTC extension. Optionally, the HTC extension field is located after the HTC field of the MAC Frame and before a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) (as shown in fig. 3B and 3C), or the HTC extension field is located after the FCS of the MAC Frame (as shown in fig. 3D). Optionally, the first control ID is located in any one of the control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field, as shown in fig. 3B-3D, for example, the first control ID is located in the control subfield K, where the other control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field except for the control subfield K include: a second control ID and corresponding control information. Of course, the first control ID may be located in any control subfield other than the control subfield K in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Wherein K is an integer of 1 or more and N or less, and N is an integer of 1 or more.

If the HTC extension field is located after the FCS of the MAC (as shown in fig. 3D), since the HTC extension field does not belong to the check range of the FCS, the HTC extension field further includes: cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) for checking the HTC extension field. Optionally, the control information corresponding to the first control ID further includes: and the mode indication information is used for indicating whether the first network element carries out redundant coding on the HTC extension field, so that the robustness of extension is enhanced. For example, if the value of the mode indication information is 0, it indicates that the first network element does not redundantly encode the HTC extension field; if the value of the mode indication information is 1, indicating that the first network element carries out 1-time redundancy coding on the HTC extension field; and if the value of the mode indication information is 2, indicating that the first network element performs 2-time redundancy coding and the like on the HTC extension field. Alternatively, the redundancy coding may be implemented by performing duplicate transmission on the transmitted bits, and may also be implemented by other ways, which is not limited in this embodiment of the application.

In general, since the aggregation control portion of the HTC extension field includes: 1 or more control subfields, and a padding field (e.g., the padding field is all 0), so that a receiving network element needs to know the number of control subfields, or the end position of the control subfields, after receiving a MAC frame containing an HTC field. As shown in fig. 3B-3D, determining how the control subfield ends in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field may be as follows: 1) the control subfield for which the predefined control ID is all 0 (i.e., the control ID is 0000) must be positioned at the foremost edge in the respective control subfields included in the HTC field; 1a) determining that the current control subfield is the last control subfield if the bits behind the current control subfield are less than 4 bits (the number of bits occupied by the control ID) or not (namely, one control ID cannot be carried and the other control subfield cannot be carried); 1b) and if the bit behind the current control subfield is more than or equal to 4 bits and when all 0 s appear again subsequently, determining the current control subfield as the last control subfield. 2) The first control ID is located in the last control subfield in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field (the first control ID is modified to be located in the control subfield N as shown in fig. 3B-3D), and the first control ID is also used to indicate that the control subfield (e.g., the control subfield N) is the last control subfield of the HTC field. Of course, the end of the control subfield in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field may also be determined in other ways, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Similarly, after receiving the MAC frame including the HTC extension field, the receiving network element needs to know the number of the control subfields in the HTC extension field or the end positions of the control subfields. As shown in fig. 3B-3D, determining the ending of the control subfield in the aggregation control portion of the HTC extension field may be as follows: 1) see the first way in the above "determining the ending way of the control subfield in the aggregation control part of the HTC field", which is not described herein again. 2) Specifically, the instruction is performed through the control information corresponding to the first control ID, and optionally, the control information corresponding to the first control ID includes: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

For example, the case that the HTC extension location information occupies 2 bits is taken as an example for explanation, and the HTC extension location information is used to indicate that the HTC extension field is located at the following different locations when corresponding to different values: 00. indicating a location between the HTC field and the frame body field; 01. indicating a location between a frame body field and the FCS; 10. indicating the location after the FCS. Optionally, the HTC extension location information is equal to 11 for indicating that the MAC frame is followed by an aggregated HE-a-control frame. Fig. 3E is a schematic diagram of a frame format of an HE-a-control frame, as shown in fig. 3E, the HE-a-control frame has a variable length, and the aggregation control is a frame body of the HE-a-control frame, where the aggregation control frame body includes: a reserved bit and a plurality of control subfields, each control subfield including: a control ID and corresponding control information; alternatively, the control ID may be found in the HTC field of the HE variant defined in the 802.11ax standard protocol. Of course, the HTC extension field may also be located at a preset position, and correspondingly, the position of the HTC extension field does not need to be indicated in the MAC frame.

Alternatively, the HTC extension length information may be indicated with different finenesses, such as:

I) indicating how many bytes the length of the HTC extension field is, e.g., the HTC extension length information is 4 bits, which may indicate 16 cases (indicating the length of the HTC extension field from 1 to 16 bytes, respectively);

II) how many times the length of the HTC extension field is 4 bytes, e.g., the HTC extension length information is 4 bits, may indicate 16 cases (indicating the length of the HTC extension field from 4, 8, …, 64 bytes, respectively);

III) how many bits the length of the HTC extension field is. The overhead indicated may be different for different levels of refinement. If the number of bits is accurately indicated, the overhead is relatively large, but the advantages are that: the end position of the control information bit of the HTC extension field can be explicitly indicated, and thus the end position of the padding information can be inferred. The inference method is that the control information + padding information is a complete byte, or a multiple of 4 bytes.

If the complete byte is padded, assuming that the control information is X bits, the required padding bits Y are:wherein,is to round up; if padding is to a multiple of 4 bytes, then the padding requiredThe charge bit Y is:

for example, if the control information is 70 bits, if padding to a multiple of a full byte, 2 bits of padding information need to be added, so that the entire HTC extension field is 9 bytes (72 bits); if padding is to a multiple of 4 bytes, 26 bits of padding information need to be added, so that the entire HTC extension field is 12 bytes (96 bits).

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present application, the HTC extension field may also be indicated by a chain. Fig. 3F is a schematic diagram of a frame format of a chain indication HTC extension field, as shown in fig. 3F, taking the example that the first control ID is located in the control subfield K of the HTC field, where the other control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field except for the control subfield K include: a second control ID and corresponding control information; the first control ID of the HTC field is further used to indicate whether there is an HTC extension field 1 of a next preset byte (e.g., 4 bytes), and if the first control ID of the HTC field indicates that there is an HTC extension field 1, the first control ID of the HTC extension field 1 continues to indicate whether there is an HTC extension field 2 of a next preset byte, and so on until the first control ID of the HTC extension field K indicates that there is no HTC extension field of a next preset byte.

Of course, the end of the control subfield in the aggregation control portion of the HTC extension field may also be determined in other ways, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In summary, in the first implementation manner of the HTC extension portion, the MAC frame is implemented to carry the HTC extension portion by adding the HTC extension field after the HTC field of the MAC frame.

As standard technology evolves, there may be a problem in the existing standard protocol that the control ID (taking 4 bits to indicate 16 control types) may be used up, and therefore, the following second implementation of the HTC extension is proposed in this application.

Second), a second implementable manner of the HTC extension: the HTC extension portion includes: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield; wherein the control subfield includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset numerical value, or different numerical values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4. Fig. 3G is a diagram illustrating another frame format of a MAC frame including an HTC extension portion, and as shown in fig. 3G, in this embodiment, the HTC field having the HTC extension portion is called a Very High Efficient Aggregated Control (VHE-a-Control) field.

As shown in fig. 3G, when all of the VHT bit and the HE bit indicate 1, the control ID is an HTC field of the HE variant, and further, if the first control ID indicates that the content of the subsequent control ID is a VHE aggregation control part, that is, an HTC field of the VHE variant, where the VHE aggregation control part includes at least one control subfield, and each control field includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the number of bits occupied by the third control ID is a second preset number (for example, 5, which is used to indicate 32 control types), or the number of bits occupied by the third control ID is the same as the number of bits occupied by the second control ID in the existing protocol (i.e., 4 bits), but a different number of the third control ID indicates the type of the redefined control information, so as to introduce more types of control information. For example, when the second control ID is 2, the current standard defines that the subsequent control information is high-efficiency link adaptation (HE link adaptation) information, which includes a Number of Spatial Streams (NSS) and a high-efficiency modulation and Coding Scheme (HE-MCS); for the redefined third control ID, when the third control ID is 2, link adaptation information indicating a plurality of resource units completes the extension from 1 resource unit to the plurality of resource units. For another example, when the second control ID is 0, scheduling indicating uplink multi-user response is defined in the current standard; for the redefined third control ID, when the third control ID is 0, uplink transmission of an Internet of Things (IoT) STA is indicated.

Further, the HTC extension further comprises: and an HTC extension field which is located after the aggregation control part and belongs to the VHE aggregation control part. Fig. 3H is a diagram illustrating a fifth frame format of another MAC frame including an HTC extension part, where, as shown in fig. 3G-3H, an HTC extension field is added after an aggregation control part in a VHE-a-control field with an HTC extension field and added to the VHE aggregation control part.

Further, the HTC extension further comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field. Optionally, the specific indication manner may refer to the related content of the "HTC extension position information, and/or the HTC extension length information," which is not described herein again.

Fig. 3I is a sixth schematic diagram of a frame format of another MAC frame including an HTC extension portion, where, as shown in fig. 3I, a VHE aggregation control has a total length of 26+ x-y bits in a VHE-a-control field with an HTC extension field, where the length of the HTC extension field is x bits, and the length of HTC extension indication information (e.g., HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information) is y bits. Of course, x may also be a preset value and the HTC extension field is located at a preset position, the position of the HTC extension field need not be indicated, and/or the length of the HTC extension field, i.e., y is equal to 0. For example, if x is 32 bits, the total length of the VHE aggregation control is 58 bits, and the VHE-a-control field (including the HTC field and the HTC extension field) is 8 bytes in total.

In summary, in the second implementable manner of the HTC extension portion, the MAC frame is implemented to carry the HTC extension portion by redefining the aggregation control portion in the HTC field of the MAC frame (the aggregation control portion includes the first control ID and the VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion includes at least one control subfield, the number of bits occupied by the third control ID of each control subfield is the second preset value, or a different value of the third control ID indicates the type of the redefined control information). Further, by setting the HTC extension field after the aggregation control part, the ability to carry control information is further improved.

Third), third realizable mode: the HTC extension portion includes: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield; wherein the control field includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset numerical value, or different numerical values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4. Fig. 3J is a diagram illustrating another frame format of a MAC frame including an HTC extension portion, as shown in fig. 3J, in this embodiment, the MAC frame having the HTC extension portion is called a very high Efficient Aggregated Control (VHE-a-Control) frame.

Of course, the HTC extension portion may also be implemented in other ways (such as the other modified frame formats of the MAC frames shown in fig. 3B-3J described above), which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

S302, the first network element sends the MAC frame to the second network element so that the second network element can obtain the control information of the HTC extension part.

In this step, the first network element sends the MAC frame generated in step S301 to the second network element, so that the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension.

S303, the second network element receives the media access control MAC frame from the first network element.

Optionally, the frame format of the MAC frame refers to the description of the frame format of the MAC frame in step S301 described above in this application, and is not described herein again.

S304, the second network element determines that the MAC frame includes a high throughput control HTC field and that the HTC field includes a first control identifier ID.

In this embodiment, after receiving the MAC frame sent by the first network element, the second network element reads the MAC frame and recognizes that the MAC frame includes the HTC field and the HTC field includes the first control identifier ID, where the first control ID is equal to the first preset value and is used to indicate that the MAC frame includes the HTC extension.

As can be seen from the above description of step S301 in the present application, optionally, the HTC extension portion includes at least the following three realizations:

the first realizable way: the HTC extension portion includes: an HTC extension field;

the second realizable way: the HTC extension portion includes: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield; wherein the control subfield includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset numerical value, or different numerical values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4;

the third way of realization: the HTC extension portion includes: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield; wherein each control subfield includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset numerical value, or different numerical values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4.

Of course, the HTC extension may be implemented in other ways, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

S305, the second network element acquires the control information of the HTC extension part.

In this step, the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension according to the indication information (e.g., the first control ID and/or the control information corresponding to the first control ID) in the MAC frame.

The second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension part in the following realizable manner:

the first realizable way: if the HTC extension includes: and the second network element directly acquires the control information in the HTC extension field from a preset position. Or, the second network element obtains the control information in the HTC extension field according to the HTC extension position information and/or the HTC extension length information, and the specific implementation manner refers to the relevant content in step S301, which is not described herein again. Optionally, the HTC extension field is located after said HTC field of the MAC frame and before the frame check sequence FCS (as shown in fig. 3B-3C), or the HTC extension field is located after the frame check sequence FCS of the MAC frame (as shown in fig. 3D).

The second realizable way: if the aggregation control part of the HTC field comprises: a first control ID and VHE aggregation control part (as shown in fig. 3G), where the second network element determines a third control ID and corresponding control information according to a preset rule, and optionally, the preset rule includes one of: the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset value (the second preset value is a positive integer larger than 4), and different values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; of course, the preset rule may also include other rules, which are not limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, if the second network element determines that the bit number occupied by the third control ID is 5 according to the preset rule, the target value corresponding to 5 bits occupied by the third control ID is obtained, and the control information corresponding to the target value is determined according to the mapping relationship between the preset control ID and the control information. For another example, the second network element determines, according to a preset rule, that a different value of the third control ID indicates the type of the redefined control information, and if the value of the third control ID is 2, the second network element determines, according to a mapping relationship between the redefined control ID and the control information, that the control information corresponding to the third control ID includes link adaptation information of multiple resource units, so as to complete expansion from 1 resource unit to multiple resource units.

Further, if the HTC extension further comprises: and an HTC extension field located after the aggregation control part and belonging to the VHE aggregation control part (as shown in fig. 3H), wherein the second network element directly obtains the control information in the HTC extension field from a preset position. Or, if the HTC extension further comprises: HTC extension position information and/or HTC extension length information (as shown in fig. I), and the second network element obtains the control information in the HTC extension field according to the HTC extension position information and/or the HTC extension length information.

The third way of realization: the HTC extension portion includes: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: a first control ID and VHE aggregation control part (as shown in fig. 3J), where the second network element determines a third control ID and corresponding control information according to a preset rule, and optionally, the preset rule includes one of: the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset value (the second preset value is a positive integer larger than 4), and different values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; for a specific implementation, reference may be made to corresponding parts of the second implementation, and details are not described here. Of course, the preset rule may also include other rules, which are not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Of course, the second network element may also obtain the control information of the HTC extension portion through other implementation manners, which is not limited in this embodiment of the application.

In this embodiment of the present application, a MAC frame including an HTC field is generated by a first network element, and the MAC frame is sent to a second network element, where the HTC field includes a first control identifier ID, and the first control ID is equal to a first preset value, and is used to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension; further, after the second network element receives the MAC frame, when it is determined that the MAC frame includes the HTC field and the HTC field includes the first control identifier ID indicating that the MAC frame includes the HTC extension, the control information of the HTC extension is acquired. Therefore, the embodiment of the application realizes the extension of the HTC field, improves the capability of carrying the control information by the HTC field, and can carry more bits of control information and/or more types of control information.

When the HTC extension field is located after the frame check sequence FCS of the MAC frame, further, if the HTC extension field of the MAC frame further includes: cyclic redundancy check, CRC;

after step S305, the method further includes: and the second network element checks the control information of the HTC extension part according to the CRC and is used for determining whether the HTC extension part is transmitted successfully. Optionally, if it is determined that the HTC extension is unsuccessfully transmitted, the first network element is notified to retransmit until the second network element successfully acquires the control information of the HTC extension. Therefore, the reliability of the communication system is improved.

Further, the control information corresponding to the first control ID further includes: and the second network element determines whether the first network element performs redundant coding on the HTC extension field according to the mode indication information, so that the robustness of the HTC extension field is enhanced.

Further, after step S305, the method further includes:

the second network element sends feedback information to the first network element through a preset service identifier TID in a Multi-STA Block acknowledgement frame (M-BA for short).

In this embodiment, before explaining this step, the M-BA is explained as follows:

the M-BA is used to reply to multiple STAs simultaneously, whether the aggregated frame of multiple Traffic Identifications (TIDs) is correctly received. Fig. 4 is a frame format diagram of an M-BA frame, and as shown in fig. 4, the BA type is used to indicate that the ack frame is a variant of M-BA to distinguish it from other variants. If the field is M-BA, the acknowledgement information in the BA information may be repeated for each TID for an Association identifier (AID for short) of each STA, where each AID TID information includes an AID for identifying a destination STA of the acknowledgement information, and the ACK type is used to identify whether a subsequent field is acknowledgement frame (ACK for short) or Block acknowledgement (BA for short). 1) If the field is ACK, the subsequent field has no control field of the block acknowledgement starting sequence and no field of the block acknowledgement bitmap, and the one-by-one sub-field is used for acknowledging the non-aggregated frames of the TID or used for indicating that all MAC frames of the aggregated frames are correctly received; 2) if the field is a BA, a block acknowledgement starting sequence control field and a block acknowledgement bitmap field exist in subsequent fields of the site-by-site sub-fields, and the TID is used for indicating the TID corresponding to the subsequent acknowledgement information. In fig. 4, "B" represents the first bit.

In this embodiment of the application, after acquiring the control information of the HTC extension, the second network element sends feedback information to the first network element through a preset service identifier TID (for example, any one of 13,12,11,10,9, and 8) in the multi-site block acknowledgement frame M-BA, where the feedback information is used to indicate whether the second network element correctly receives the control information of the HTC extension. Optionally, if the feedback information is used to indicate that the second network element does not correctly receive the control information of the HTC extension portion, the first network element retransmits the control information of the HTC extension portion until the second network element successfully acquires the control information of the HTC extension portion. Therefore, the reliability of the communication system is improved.

Optionally, the method for sending the feedback information to the first network element by the second network element in the above-mentioned part of this application may be applied to an application scenario in which the HTC extension field in the first implementable manner of the HTC extension portion is located after the FCS of the MAC frame, and confirm the HTC extension field, or applied to an application scenario in the third implementable manner of the HTC extension portion, and confirm the VHE-a-control frame. Of course, the method for sending the feedback information to the first network element by the second network element, which is proposed in the above section, may also be applied to other scenarios, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Alternatively, if the HTC extension includes: and an HTC extension field, which is located after the HTC field of the MAC and before the FCS (as shown in fig. 3B and fig. 3C), when multiple MAC frames of this type are aggregated, any one MAC frame may be selected for HTC extension, or each MAC frame with the HTC field may be extended.

Optionally, in an application scenario of multi-user transmission, data of different users need to be aligned, and therefore padding alignment needs to be performed after MAC frames of different users, as shown in fig. 5 (fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a frame format of multi-user transmission). The transmission efficiency of data is increased by carrying additional extension information in the padding bit part, as shown in fig. 5, the first half part is a preamble part, and the following data part carries the MAC frame of the response.

Alternatively, if the HTC extension includes: and the HTC extension field is located after the FCS of the MAC (as shown in fig. 3D), when multiple MAC frames of this type are aggregated, the last MAC frame may be selected for extension, so as not to affect the length indication of the delimiter length field (when the delimiter length field indicates the length of the MAC frame, the FCS of the MAC frame is still indicated), so as not to affect the flow of parsing the MAC frame by the receiving network element.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network element according to a first embodiment of the present application. The network element 60 provided in this embodiment is a first network element, and as shown in fig. 6, the first network element 60 includes:

a generating module 601, configured to generate a media access control MAC frame; wherein, the MAC frame comprises a high throughput rate control (HTC) field, the HTC field comprises a first control Identifier (ID), and the first control ID is used for indicating that: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

a sending module 602, configured to send the MAC frame to the second network element, so that the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension.

Optionally, the HTC extension portion comprises: an HTC extension field.

Optionally, the control information corresponding to the first control ID includes: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

Optionally, the first control ID is located in any one of the control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field.

Optionally, the first control ID is located in a last control subfield in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the first control ID further indicating that the control subfield is the last control subfield of the HTC field.

Optionally, the HTC extension field is located after the HTC field of the MAC frame and before the frame check sequence FCS.

Optionally, the HTC extension field is located after the frame check sequence FCS of the MAC frame.

Optionally, the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by: cyclic redundancy check CRC.

Optionally, the control information corresponding to the first control ID further includes: mode indication information for indicating whether the first network element redundantly encodes the HTC extension field.

Optionally, the HTC extension field includes: a reserved field and an aggregation control part, the aggregation control part including at least one control subfield; each control subfield includes: a second control ID and corresponding control information.

Optionally, the HTC extension portion comprises: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield;

Optionally, the HTC extension further comprises: and an HTC extension field which is located after the aggregation control part and belongs to the VHE aggregation control part.

Optionally, the HTC extension further comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

Optionally, the HTC extension portion comprises: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: a first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion including at least one control subfield;

The first network element of this embodiment may be configured to execute the technical solution of the above-mentioned control information indication method embodiment of this application, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, which are not described herein again.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a second network element embodiment of the present application. The network element 70 provided in this embodiment is a first network element, and as shown in fig. 7, the first network element 70 may include: a processor 701, a memory 702, and a transceiver 703. Wherein the memory 702 and the transceiver 703 are both coupled to the processor 701. The memory 702 is configured to store execution instructions, and the processor 701 is configured to execute the execution instructions in the memory 702, so as to perform the following operations: generating a media intervention control (MAC) frame; wherein, the MAC frame comprises a high throughput rate control (HTC) field, the HTC field comprises a first control Identifier (ID), and the first control ID is used for indicating that: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

the transceiver 703 is configured to send the MAC frame to the second network element, so that the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension.

Optionally, the HTC extension portion comprises: an HTC extension field.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a third embodiment of a network element in the present application. The network element 80 provided in this embodiment is a second network element, and as shown in fig. 8, the second network element 80 includes:

a receiving module 801, configured to receive a media access control MAC frame from a first network element; the second network element determines that the MAC frame includes a high throughput control, HTC, field and that the HTC field includes a first control identifier, ID; wherein the first control ID is used to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

an obtaining module 802, configured to obtain control information of the HTC extension.

Optionally, the HTC extension portion comprises: an HTC extension field.

Optionally, the control information corresponding to the first control ID includes: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; the HTC extension position information is used for indicating the position of an HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field;

the obtaining module 802 is specifically configured to:

Optionally, the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by: cyclic redundancy check, CRC;

the second network element 80 further comprises:

the obtaining module 802 is specifically configured to:

Optionally, the second network element further includes:

The second network element of this embodiment may be configured to execute the technical solution of the above-mentioned control information indication method embodiment of this application, and its implementation principle and technical effect are similar, which are not described herein again.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a fourth network element embodiment of the present application. The network element 90 provided in this embodiment is a second network element, and as shown in fig. 9, the second network element 90 may include: a processor 901, a memory 902, and a transceiver 903. Wherein the memory 902 and the transceiver 903 are both connected to the processor 901. Wherein the memory 902 is configured to store execution instructions, and the transceiver 903 is configured to receive a media access control MAC frame from a first network element; the second network element determines that the MAC frame includes a high throughput control, HTC, field and that the HTC field includes a first control identifier, ID; wherein the first control ID is used to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

the processor 901 is configured to execute the execution instructions in the memory 902 to perform the following operations: control information of the HTC extension is acquired.

Optionally, the HTC extension portion comprises: an HTC extension field.

acquiring control information of an HTC extension part, comprising:

the processor 901 is further configured to: and checking the control information of the HTC extension part according to the CRC.

acquiring control information of an HTC extension part, comprising:

Optionally, the transceiver 903 is further configured to: and sending feedback information to the first network element through a preset service identifier TID in the multi-site block acknowledgement frame M-BA, wherein the feedback information is used for indicating whether the second network element correctly receives the control information of the HTC extended part.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, or in a form of hardware plus a software functional unit.

The integrated unit implemented in the form of a software functional unit may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The software functional unit is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) or a processor (processor) to execute some steps of the methods according to the embodiments of the present application.

It is obvious to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and simplicity of description, the foregoing division of the functional modules is merely used as an example, and in practical applications, the above function distribution may be performed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to perform all or part of the above described functions. For the specific working process of the device described above, reference may be made to the corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiment, which is not described herein again.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: the various numerical designations of first, second, etc. referred to herein are merely used for descriptive purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: all or a portion of the steps of implementing the above-described method embodiments may be performed by hardware associated with program instructions. The program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When executed, the program performs steps comprising the method embodiments described above; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as ROM, RAM, magnetic or optical disks.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and not to limit the same; while the invention has been described in detail and with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; and the modifications or the substitutions do not make the essence of the corresponding technical solutions depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for indicating control information, comprising:

a first network element generates a Media Access Control (MAC) frame; wherein the MAC frame comprises a High Throughput Control (HTC) field, the HTC field comprising a first control Identifier (ID), the first control ID being equal to a first predetermined value to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

and the first network element sends the MAC frame to a second network element so that the second network element acquires the control information of the HTC extension part.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the HTC extension comprises: an HTC extension field.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

4. The method of any of claims 2-3, wherein the first control ID is located in any one of the control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field.

5. The method of any of claims 2-4, wherein the first control ID is located in a last control subfield in an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, and wherein the first control ID is further used to indicate that the control subfield is the last control subfield of the HTC field.

6. The method of any of claims 2-5, wherein the HTC extension field is located after the HTC field and before a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) of the MAC frame.

7. The method of any of claims 2-5, wherein the HTC extension field is located after a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) of the MAC frame.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by: cyclic redundancy check CRC.

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID further comprises: mode indication information, where the mode indication information is used to indicate whether the first network element redundantly encodes the HTC extension field.

10. The method of any of claims 2-9, wherein the HTC extension field comprises: a reserved field and an aggregation control portion, the aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield; each of the control subfields includes: a second control ID and corresponding control information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the HTC extension comprises: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

wherein the control subfield includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset value, or different values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: an HTC extension field located after the aggregation control part and belonging to the VHE aggregation control part.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the HTC extension comprises: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

15. A method for indicating control information, comprising:

the second network element receives a Media Access Control (MAC) frame from the first network element; the second network element determining that the MAC frame includes a High Throughput Control (HTC) field and that the HTC field includes a first control Identifier (ID); wherein the first control ID is to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the HTC extension comprises: an HTC extension field.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field;

the second network element obtaining the control information of the HTC extension portion includes:

18. The method of any of claims 16-17, wherein the first control ID is located in any of the control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field.

19. The method of any of claims 16-18, wherein the first control ID is located in a last control subfield in an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, and wherein the first control ID is further used to indicate that the control subfield is the last control subfield of the HTC field.

20. The method of any of claims 16-19, wherein the HTC extension field is located after the HTC field and before a frame check sequence, FCS, of the MAC frame.

21. The method of any of claims 16-19, wherein the HTC extension field is located after a frame check sequence, FCS, of the MAC frame.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by: cyclic redundancy check, CRC;

after the second network element obtains the control information of the HTC extension portion, the method further includes:

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID further comprises: mode indication information, where the mode indication information is used to indicate whether the first network element redundantly encodes the HTC extension field.

24. The method of any of claims 16-23, wherein the HTC extension field comprises: a reserved field and an aggregation control portion, the aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield; each of the control subfields includes: a second control ID and corresponding control information.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the HTC extension comprises: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

wherein the control subfield includes: a third control ID and corresponding control information; the bit number occupied by the third control ID is a second preset value, or different values of the third control ID indicate the type of the redefined control information; wherein the second preset value is a positive integer greater than 4;

and the second network element determines the third control ID and the control information according to a preset rule.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: an HTC extension field located after the aggregation control part and belonging to the VHE aggregation control part.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

28. The method of claim 15, wherein the HTC extension comprises: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

29. The method according to any of claims 21-23 and 28, wherein after obtaining the control information of the HTC extension, the second network element further comprises:

and the second network element sends feedback information to the first network element through a preset service identifier TID in a multi-site block acknowledgement frame M-BA, wherein the feedback information is used for indicating whether the second network element correctly receives the control information of the HTC extended part.

30. A network element, wherein the network element is a first network element, and wherein the first network element comprises:

a generation module for generating a media intervention control, MAC, frame; wherein the MAC frame comprises a High Throughput Control (HTC) field, the HTC field comprising a first control Identifier (ID), the first control ID being equal to a first predetermined value to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

and the sending module is used for sending the MAC frame to a second network element so that the second network element can acquire the control information of the HTC extended part.

31. The first network element of claim 30, wherein the HTC extension portion comprises: an HTC extension field.

32. The first network element of claim 31, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

33. The first network element of any one of claims 31-32, wherein the first control ID is located in any one of the control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field.

34. The first network element of any one of claims 31-33, wherein the first control ID is located in a last control subfield in an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, and wherein the first control ID is further used to indicate that the control subfield is the last control subfield of the HTC field.

35. The first network element of any one of claims 31-34, wherein the HTC extension field is located after the HTC field and before a frame check sequence, FCS, of the MAC frame.

36. The first network element of any one of claims 31-34, wherein the HTC extension field is located after a frame check sequence, FCS, of the MAC frame.

37. The first network element of claim 36, wherein the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by further comprising: cyclic redundancy check CRC.

38. The first network element of claim 36 or 37, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID further comprises: mode indication information, where the mode indication information is used to indicate whether the first network element redundantly encodes the HTC extension field.

39. The first network element of any one of claims 31-38, wherein the HTC extension field comprises: a reserved field and an aggregation control portion, the aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield; each of the control subfields includes: a second control ID and corresponding control information.

40. The first network element of claim 30, wherein the HTC extension portion comprises: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

41. The first network element of claim 40, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: an HTC extension field located after the aggregation control part and belonging to the VHE aggregation control part.

42. The first network element of claim 41, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

43. The first network element of claim 30, wherein the HTC extension portion comprises: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

44. A network element, wherein the network element is a second network element, and wherein the second network element comprises:

a receiving module, configured to receive a media access control MAC frame from a first network element; the second network element determining that the MAC frame includes a High Throughput Control (HTC) field and that the HTC field includes a first control Identifier (ID); wherein the first control ID is to indicate: the MAC frame includes an HTC extension;

45. The second network element of claim 44, wherein the HTC extension portion comprises: an HTC extension field.

46. The second network element of claim 45, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field;

the acquisition module is specifically configured to:

47. The second network element of any one of claims 45-46, wherein the first control ID is located in any one of the control subfields in the aggregation control portion of the HTC field.

48. A second network element according to any of claims 45-47, wherein the first control ID is located in a last control subfield in an aggregation control part of the HTC field, and wherein the first control ID is further used to indicate that the control subfield is the last control subfield of the HTC field.

49. The second network element of any one of claims 45-48, wherein the HTC extension field is located after the HTC field and before a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) of the MAC frame.

50. The second network element of any one of claims 45-48, wherein the HTC extension field is located after a Frame Check Sequence (FCS) of the MAC frame.

51. The second network element of claim 50, wherein the HTC extension field of the MAC frame is followed by further comprising: cyclic redundancy check, CRC;

the second network element further comprises:

52. The second network element of claim 50 or 51, wherein the control information corresponding to the first control ID further comprises: mode indication information, where the mode indication information is used to indicate whether the first network element redundantly encodes the HTC extension field.

53. The second network element of any one of claims 45-52, wherein the HTC extension field comprises: a reserved field and an aggregation control portion, the aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield; each of the control subfields includes: a second control ID and corresponding control information.

54. The second network element of claim 44, wherein the HTC extension portion comprises: an aggregation control portion of the HTC field, the aggregation control portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

the acquisition module is specifically configured to:

55. The second network element of claim 54, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: an HTC extension field located after the aggregation control part and belonging to the VHE aggregation control part.

56. The second network element of claim 55, wherein the HTC extension further comprises: HTC extension location information, and/or HTC extension length information; wherein the HTC extension location information is used for indicating the location of the HTC extension field, and the HTC extension length is used for indicating the length of the HTC extension field.

57. The second network element of claim 54, wherein the HTC extension portion comprises: an aggregate control frame body portion of the MAC frame, the aggregate control frame body portion comprising: the first control ID and a VHE aggregation control portion, the VHE aggregation control portion comprising at least one control subfield;

58. The second network element of any of claims 50-52, 57, wherein the second network element further comprises:

and the feedback module is used for sending feedback information to the first network element through a preset service identifier TID in a multi-site block acknowledgement frame M-BA, wherein the feedback information is used for indicating whether the second network element correctly receives the control information of the HTC extended part.