Packet-level erasure protection coding in aggregated packet transmissions

1. A method comprising:

removing from each MPDU (MAC Protocol Data Unit) in a legacy section a corresponding MAC FCS (Frame Check Sequence) to provide a plurality of source symbols;

encoding the plurality of source symbols with a Fountain coding scheme to generate error correction coding information;

forming at least one EC-Block (Error Correction Block), wherein the at least one EC-Block includes the error correction coding information;

generating an A-MPDU (Aggregated MPDU), the A-MPDU including the legacy section and said at least one EC-Block;

transmitting the A-MPDU; and

determining that an error rate is more likely due to collisions than low SNR (Signal-To-Noise Ratio), and in response adjusting a number of EC-Blocks in a next transmitted A-MPDU.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a block acknowledgement for the transmitted A-MPDU.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the block acknowledgement conforms to an IEEE 802.11 standard, and wherein the block acknowledgement includes a bitmap that indicates a status of each MPDU in the legacy section.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the Fountain coding scheme is taken from the group consisting of: a Raptor forward error correction coding scheme, a RaptorQ forward error correction coding scheme.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one EC-Block is at least one MPDU.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one EC-Block is a block that includes no header.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating the A-MPDU involves including the A-MPDU into a physical layer packet, wherein the physical layer packet includes a physical layer header portion and a physical layer payload portion, wherein the A-MPDU is the physical layer payload portion of the physical layer packet.

8. A transmitter device, comprising:

an antenna;

means for removing, the means for removing to remove from each MPDU (MAC Protocol Data Unit) in a legacy section a corresponding MAC FCS (Frame Check Sequence) to provide a plurality of source symbols;

means for encoding, the means for encoding to encode the plurality of source symbols with a Fountain coding scheme to generate error correction coding information;

means for forming a parity section, the means for forming a parity section to form at least one EC-Block (Error Correction Block), wherein the at least one EC-Block includes the error correction coding information;

means for generating an aggregated packet, the means for generating an aggregated packet to generate an A-MPDU (Aggregated MPDU) to include the legacy section and the at least one EC-Block; and

means for transmitting the A-MPDU via the antenna; and

means for determining that an error rate is more likely due to collisions than low SNR (Signal-To-Noise Ratio), and in response adjusting a number of EC-Blocks in a next transmitted A-MPDU.

9. The transmitter device of claim 8 , wherein the transmitter device is an Access Point device (AP) that operates in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard.

10. A processor-readable non-transitory medium storing a set of processor-executable instructions, wherein execution of the set of processor-executable instructions by a processor performs a process comprising:

removing from each MPDU (MAC Protocol Data Unit) in a legacy section a corresponding MAC FCS (Frame Check Sequence) to provide a plurality of source symbols;

encoding the plurality of source symbols with a Fountain coding scheme to generate error correction coding information;

forming at least one EC-Block (Error Correction Block), wherein the at least one EC-Block includes the error correction coding information;

generating an A-MPDU (Aggregated MPDU), wherein the A-MPDU includes the legacy section and said at least one EC-Block; and

determining that an error rate is more likely due to collisions than low SNR (Signal-To-Noise Ratio), and in response adjusting a number of EC-Blocks in a next transmitted A-MPDU.

11. A method comprising:

(a) determining that a change in a transmission error rate has occurred;

(b) in response to (a) making a determination of whether to change an MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) index value or whether to change an amount of error correction information carried per A-MPDU (Aggregated Medium Access Control Protocol Data Unit), wherein the determination of (b) is a function of one or more Block-Acknowledgements (BA); and

(c) transmitting the A-MPDU packets from access point.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein (a) and (b) are performed by an Access Point device (AP), and wherein the AP device is adapted to change the amount of error correction information carried per A-MPDU by changing a number of EC-Blocks (Error Correction Blocks) included in each A-MPDU.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the determination of (b) is also a function of Channel State Information (CSI).

14. An apparatus comprising:

an antenna via which the apparatus receives one or more Block-Acknowledgements (BAs) and via which the apparatus outputs one or more A-MPDUs (Aggregated Medium Access Control Protocol Data Units), wherein each A-MPDU carries an amount of error correction information; and

a processor that makes a determination of whether to change an MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) index value or whether to change an amount of error correction information carried per A-MPDU, wherein the determination is a function of said one or more BAs.

15. An apparatus comprising:

an antenna via which the apparatus receives one or more Block-Acknowledgements (BAs) and via which the apparatus outputs a plurality of A-MPDUs (Aggregated Medium Access Control Protocol Data Units), wherein each A-MPDU carries an amount of error correction information; and

means for making a determination of whether to change an MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme) index value or whether to change an amount of error correction information carried per A-MPDU, wherein the determination is a function of said one or more BAs.