Sequence number expansion
This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for identifying frames or packets of data that were received in error (such as incorrectly decoded or not received at all) by a receiving device for purposes of retransmission. In one aspect, a wireless device may form a number of frames for wireless transmission. Each of the frames may include a frame header and may be associated with a unique sequence number. In some implementations, for each of the frames, the wireless device may embed at least a portion of the unique sequence number into a portion of a control field or a delimiter field of the frame header. In some other implementations, for each of the frames, the wireless device may signal at least a portion of the unique sequence number using bit locations unassociated with a sequence number field of the frame header.
1 . A method of wireless communication, comprising:
forming a plurality of frames, each of the plurality of frames including a frame header, each of the plurality of frames being associated with one of a plurality of unique sequence numbers, each of the plurality of frames indicating a first portion of a respective unique sequence number using a sequence control field of the frame header, each of the plurality of frames indicating a second portion of the respective unique sequence number using a field that does not comprise the sequence control field, wherein the field comprises a reserved octet; and
transmitting the plurality of frames.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the field comprises one of a A-Control type field, a counter (CTR) mode with cipher block chaining message authentication code (CBC-MAC) protocol (CCMP) header of an expanded CCMP medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), or a Galois counter mode protocol (GCMP) header of an expanded GCMP MPDU.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the field comprises repurposed packet number (PN) bits of the CCMP header or the GCMP header.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the repurposed PN bits are repurposed to include one or more of a traffic identifier (TIO), the respective unique sequence number, or one or more pool bits.
5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
incrementing a value of the one or more pool bits for each retransmission of a respective frame associated with the respective unique sequence number.
6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein one or more least significant bits (LSBs) of the respective unique sequence number are included in the sequence control field of the frame header.
7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the TIO is included in the frame header.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the field comprises a counter (CTR) mode with cipher block chaining message authentication code (CBC-MAC) protocol (CCMP) header, or a Galois counter mode protocol (GCMP) header.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein each of the CCMP header and the GCMP header includes the reserved octet and a key identifier octet.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sequence control field contains 12 bits of a respective unique sequence number, and the field contains at least one bit of the respective unique sequence number.
11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
embedding a bit sequence into the sequence control field of the frame header of a respective frame, the bit sequence indicating that a respective unique sequence number is carried in a counter (CTR) mode with cipher block chaining message authentication code (CBC-MAC) protocol (CCMP) header or a Galois counter mode protocol (GCMP) header.
12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the bit sequence comprises a special, fixed, or specification-defined value.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame header comprises a medium access control (MAC) header, and each of the plurality of frames comprises a MAC protocol data unit (MPDU).
14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
encapsulating the MPDU into a packet; and
transmitting the packet.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the packet comprises an aggregated MPDU (A-MPDU), and wherein one or more bit locations of the field are provided in an MPDU delimiter of the A-MPDU.
16 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the packet comprises a single MPDU (S-MPDU), and wherein one or more bit locations of the field are provided in an MPDU delimiter of the S-MPDU.
17 . A wireless communication device, comprising:
at least one transceiver,
at least one processor, and
at least one memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the wireless communication device to:
form a plurality of frames for wireless transmission, each of the plurality of frames including a frame header, each of the plurality of frames being associated with one of a plurality of unique sequence number, each of the plurality of frames indicating a first portion of a respective unique sequence number using a sequence control field of the frame header, each of the plurality of frames indicating a second portion of the respective unique sequence number using a field that does not comprise the sequence control field, wherein the field comprises a reserved octet; and
transmit, via the at least one transceiver, the plurality of frames.
18 . The wireless communication device of claim 17 , wherein the field comprises one of a A-Control type field, a counter (CTR) mode with cipher block chaining message authentication code (CBC-MAC) protocol (CCMP) header of an expanded CCMP medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (MPDU), or a Galois counter mode protocol (GCMP) header of an expanded GCMP MPDU.
19 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication, the code comprising instructions executable by one or more processors to cause a wireless communication device to:
form a plurality of frames for wireless transmission, each of the plurality of frames including a frame header, each of the plurality of frames associated with one of a plurality of unique sequence number, each of the plurality of frames indicating a first portion of a respective unique sequence number using a sequence control field of the frame header, each of the plurality of frames indicating a second portion of the respective unique sequence number using a field that does not comprise the sequence control field, wherein the field comprises a reserved octet; and
transmit the plurality of frames.