EFFICIENT MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL (MAC) HEADER

• US 20130294431A1
• Filed: 05/02/2013
• Published: 11/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Xiaofei, Zhang, Guodong
• Granted Patent: US 9,538,420 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

A medium access control (MAC) frame having a short MAC header with at least two address fields and an indicator field that indicates it is a short MAC header is provided. The indicator field may indicate a presence of a third or fourth address field in the short MAC header. The indication may be a one, two, or any number of bits indicator.

Claims

1. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) configured to operate in an IEEE 802.11 network, the WTRU comprising:

circuitry configured to receive, from a wireless access point (AP), a medium access control (MAC) frame having a short MAC header, wherein the short MAC header comprises at least two address fields and a plurality of other fields, and at least one of the plurality of other fields is an indicator field that indicates the short MAC header; and

wherein the indicator field comprises at least one bit indicating a presence of a third address field in the short MAC header.

2. The WTRU of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured to decode the third address field in the short MAC header if the at least one bit of the indicator field is set to 1.

3. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the short MAC header further comprises an option subfield in the indicator field, wherein the option subfield comprises a fragmentation field, a transmission opportunity (TXOP) field, a very high throughput (VHT) control field, or a MAC Header (MH) option field.

4. The WTRU of claim 3, wherein the MH option field indicates different types of MAC headers.

5. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the indicator field further comprises an additional field indicating a presence of a fourth address field in the short MAC header.

6. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the indicator field further comprises an additional field with at least two bits indicating time units used in a duration field in the short MAC header.

7. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the indicator field further comprises a plurality of subfields, wherein at least one of the plurality of subfields and at least one of the plurality fields are multiplied to provide a larger range of values.

8. The WTRU of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured to negotiate a MAC header type with another WTRU.

9. The WTRU of claim 1, further comprising:

circuitry configured to negotiate compression of the short MAC header with another WTRU.

10. The WTRU of claim 1, wherein the short MAC header further comprises a sequence control field.

11. A method performed by a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) configured to operate in an IEEE 802.11 network, the method comprising:

receiving, by the WTRU from a wireless access point (AP), a medium access control (MAC) frame having a short MAC header, wherein the short MAC header comprises at least two address fields and a plurality of other fields, and at least one of the plurality of other fields is an indicator field that indicates the short MAC header; and

wherein the indicator field comprises at least one bit indicating a presence of a third address field in the short MAC header.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

decoding, by the WTRU, the third address field in the short MAC header if the at least one bit of the indicator field is set to 1.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the short MAC header further comprises an option subfield in the indicator field, wherein the option subfield comprises a fragmentation field, a transmission opportunity (TXOP) field, a very high throughput (VHT) control field, or a MAC Header (MH) option field.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the MH option field indicates different types of MAC headers.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the indicator field further comprises an additional field indicating a presence of a fourth address field in the short MAC header.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the indicator field further comprises an additional field with at least two bits indicating time units used in a duration field in the short MAC header.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the indicator field further comprises a plurality of subfields, wherein at least one of the plurality of subfields and at least one of the plurality fields are multiplied to provide a larger range of values.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

negotiating, by the WTRU, a MAC header type with another WTRU.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

negotiating, by the WTRU, compression of the short MAC header with another WTRU.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the short MAC header further comprises a sequence control field.

21. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) configured to operate in an IEEE 802.11 network, the WTRU comprising:

circuitry configured to receive a medium access control (MAC) header from an access point (AP), wherein the MAC header includes an option field that includes an address 3 field, an address 4 field, a duration option field, a fragmentation field, a transmission opportunity (TXOP) field, a very high throughput (VHT) control field, or a MAC Header (MH) option field; and

circuitry configured to decode the MAC header based on the option field.