Apparatus and methods for block acknowledgment compression

• US 9,432,879 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2012
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Asterjadhi, Alfred, Merlin, Simone, Wentink, Maarten Menzo, Abraham, Santosh Paul, Quan, Zhi
• Primary Examiner(s): Renner, Brandon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rangel, Manuel
• Application Number:
  US13/693,436
• Publication Number:
  US 20130223210A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,365 Days
• Field of Search: 370/230
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0025 Transmission of mode-switching indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/003 Adaptive formatting arrangements particular to signalling, e.g. variable amount of bits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/009 arrangements specific to transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1614 using bitmaps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• 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 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices for compressing block acknowledgment (ACK) frames/packets are described herein. In some aspects, a method of communicating in a wireless network includes generating a compressed block acknowledgment frame comprising one or more local addresses. The method further includes transmitting the compressed block acknowledgment frame.

Claims

1. A method of communicating in a wireless network, the method comprising:

generating a block acknowledgment frame comprising one or more local addresses identifying one or more wireless stations within a basic service set and one or more global addresses identifying one or more wireless stations globally;

generating a physical layer (PHY) header comprising a signal (SIG) field including an identifier of the block acknowledgment portion, a bitmap, and a starting sequence number of a packet acknowledged in the bitmap; and

transmitting the PHY header and the block acknowledgment frame in a message, the block acknowledgment frame omitting each of a duration field, a traffic identifier field (TID), and a reserved subfield.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the block acknowledgement frame includes compressing the block acknowledgment frame, wherein compressing the block acknowledgment frame comprises:

generating a bitmap using run-length encoding; and

including the bitmap in the block acknowledgment frame.

3. A wireless device, comprising:

a processor configured to;

generate a block acknowledgment frame comprising one or more local addresses identifying one or more wireless stations within a basic service set and one or more global addresses identifying one or more wireless stations globally;

generate a physical layer (PHY) header comprising a signal (SIG) field including an identifier of the block acknowledgment portion, a bitmap, and a starting sequence number of a packet acknowledged in the bitmap; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the PHY header and the block acknowledgment frame in a message, the block acknowledgement frame omitting each of a duration field, a traffic identifier field (TID), and a reserved subfield.

4. The wireless device of claim 3, wherein generating the block acknowledgement frame includes compressing the block acknowledgment frame, wherein compressing the block acknowledgment frame comprises:

generating a bitmap using run-length encoding; and

including the bitmap in the block acknowledgment frame.

5. A wireless device, comprising:

means for generating a block acknowledgment frame comprising one or more local addresses identifying one or more wireless stations within a basic service set and one or more global addresses identifying one or more wireless stations globally;

means for generating a physical layer (PHY) header comprising a signal (SIG) field including an identifier of the block acknowledgment portion, a bitmap, and a starting sequence number of a packet acknowledged in the bitmap; and

means for transmitting the PHY header and the block acknowledgment frame in a message, the block acknowledgement frame omitting each of a duration fielder traffic identifier field (TID), and a reserved subfield.

6. The wireless device of claim 5, wherein generating the block acknowledgement frame includes compressing the block acknowledgment frame, wherein compressing the block acknowledgment frame comprises:

generating a bitmap using run-length encoding; and

including the bitmap in the block acknowledgment frame.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising code that, when executed, causes an apparatus to:

generate a block acknowledgment frame comprising one or more local addresses identifying one or more wireless stations within a basic service set and one or more global addresses identifying one or more wireless stations globally;

generate a physical layer (PHY) header comprising a signal (SIG) field including an identifier of the block acknowledgment portion, a bitmap, and a starting sequence number of a packet acknowledged in the bitmap; and

transmit the PHY header and the block acknowledgment frame in a message, the block acknowledgment frame omitting each of a duration field, a traffic identifier field (TID), and a reserved subfield.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein generating the block acknowledgement frame includes compressing the block acknowledgment frame, wherein compressing the block acknowledgment frame comprises:

generating a bitmap using run-length encoding; and

including the bitmap in the block acknowledgment frame.