Multi-receiver frame aggregation
First Claim
1. An apparatus, comprisinga wireless communications device to communicate in a wireless network using a multi-receiver aggregation protocol, wherein the protocol includes a sub-header comprising:
- multiple information segments, each information segment describing a receiver address of an intended recipient device for a group of consecutive data units in a payload; and
one or more respective information elements within each information segment, each information element describing respective information associated with a sub-group of one or more data units within the group that have the same characteristics, wherein the respective information comprises a common modulation/coding rate, a common length of one or more consecutively-transmitted data units, and a count of the one or more data units in the sub-group for receipt by the intended recipient device at the described receiver address;
wherein a particular information segment comprises a field indicating a type of acknowledgment and a time period associated with the type of acknowledgement to be transmitted by the intended recipient device, wherein the time period is based at least in part on the transmitted data units.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
When using a multi-receiver aggregation protocol in a wireless communications network, a sub-header may be used to identify groups of data units that share common parameters, such as destination addresses, acknowledgement modes, modulation/coding rates, lengths, etc. The layout of this sub-header may permit each receiving device to identify the portion of the aggregated payload that is addressed to that receiving device, where that portion is located, how long that portion is, and how to demodulate it. In addition, by controlling the selection and timing of various acknowledgement modes used by the mobile stations, a base station may improve overall network efficiency and throughput.
-
Citations
27 Claims
-
1. An apparatus, comprising
a wireless communications device to communicate in a wireless network using a multi-receiver aggregation protocol, wherein the protocol includes a sub-header comprising: -
multiple information segments, each information segment describing a receiver address of an intended recipient device for a group of consecutive data units in a payload; and one or more respective information elements within each information segment, each information element describing respective information associated with a sub-group of one or more data units within the group that have the same characteristics, wherein the respective information comprises a common modulation/coding rate, a common length of one or more consecutively-transmitted data units, and a count of the one or more data units in the sub-group for receipt by the intended recipient device at the described receiver address; wherein a particular information segment comprises a field indicating a type of acknowledgment and a time period associated with the type of acknowledgement to be transmitted by the intended recipient device, wherein the time period is based at least in part on the transmitted data units. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. A method, comprising:
-
accumulating multiple data units for transmission from a wireless communications device; organizing the data units into groups, each group containing only data units with a common destination address associated with an intended recipient device; organizing each group into sub-groups comprising a respective portion of the data units, each sub-group associated with a respective common modulation/coding rate; creating one or more information elements for each sub-group, the one or more information elements describing respective information associated with the respective portion of the data units in the group that have the same characteristics, wherein the respective information comprises the common modulation/coding rate, a common length for the sub-group, and a count of the respective portion of the data units in the sub-group for receipt by the intended recipient device at the common destination address; assembling the information elements into information segments, each information segment associated with a respective common destination address and containing information elements indicating respective common modulation/coding rates, respective common lengths, and respective counts associated with data units addressed to the intended recipient device; assembling the information segments into a sub-header; and placing the sub-header into a transmission buffer for transmission before the data units; wherein a particular information segment indicates a type of acknowledgment and a time period associated with the type of acknowledgement expected in response to the transmission. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A tangible machine-readable non-transitory medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:
-
receiving, by a wireless communications device, a wireless communication containing multiple data units and formatted with a multi-receiver aggregation protocol; reading a sub-header in the communication to identify one or more particular segments identifying consecutive data units in the communication that are addressed to the wireless communications device; reading, within the particular segments, information elements each indicating respective information associated with a sub-group of one or more data units of the consecutive data units that have the same characteristics, wherein the respective information comprises a common modulation/coding rate, a common length, and a count of the one or more data units in the sub-group for receipt by the wireless communications device; receiving the identified data units, using the respective common modulation/coding rates, the respective common lengths, and the respective counts; and not receiving at least a portion of data units not identified by the one or more particular segments; wherein the information segment indicates a type of acknowledgement and a time period associated with the type of acknowledgement expected in response to the wireless communication. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A tangible machine-readable non-transitory medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:
-
accumulating multiple data units for transmission from a wireless communications device; organizing the data units into groups, each group containing only data units with a common destination address associated with an intended recipient device; organizing each group into sub-groups comprising a respective portion of the data units, each sub-group associated with a respective common modulation/coding rate; creating one or more information elements for each sub-group, the information elements describing respective information associated with each sub-group of the respective portion of data units within the group that have the same characteristics, wherein the respective information comprises the modulation/coding rate, a length, and a count of the respective portion of the data units in the sub-group for receipt by the intended recipient device; assembling the information elements into information segments, each information segment associated with a respective common destination address and containing information elements indicating respective common modulation/coding rates, respective common lengths, and respective counts associated with the respective portion of data units addressed to the intended recipient device; assembling the information segments into a sub-header; and placing the sub-header into a transmission buffer for transmission before the data units; wherein a particular information segment indicates a type of acknowledgment and a time period associated with the type of acknowledgement expected in response to the transmission. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
Specification