Multicast negative acknowledgements using high-energy long-training fields for feedback

1. An apparatus of an access point, the apparatus comprising: memory and processing circuitry couple to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to:

encode one or more packets in accordance with multicast or broadcast;

configure the access point for transmission of the one or more packets to one or more stations; and

decode feedback comprising one or more resource blocks from the one or more stations, the feedback to be received simultaneously from the one or more stations, wherein each resource block of the one or more resource blocks corresponds to feedback for one packet of the one or more packets from each of the one or more stations, and wherein each resource block is one resource block of a thirty-six resource block 20 MHz subchannel allocation comprising nine (9) resource blocks in a frequency domain with four (4) resource blocks in a spatial domain.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

retransmit to the one or more stations packets of the one or more packets that were not received as indicated by the feedback, wherein the retransmit is to be in accordance with the multicast or broadcast.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more packets are media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) or an aggregate MPDU (A-MPDU).

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein energy on a resource block of the one or more resource blocks indicates a negative acknowledgment of the corresponding packet from at least one of the one or more stations.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the frequency resource allocation and the spatial stream allocation are part of a high-efficiency long-training field (HE-LTF).

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein energy on a resource block of the one or more resource blocks indicates an acknowledgment of the corresponding packet from at least one station of the one or more stations.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode a packet with a resource block assignment for the feedback.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

encode a block acknowledgment request or block negative acknowledgment request; and

cause the block acknowledgement or block negative acknowledgment to be transmitted.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the block acknowledgment request or the negative block acknowledgment request comprises one or more of an indication that the one or more stations are to provide feedback simultaneously on one or more resource blocks, and an indication of a number of packets the one or more stations are to provide feedback for.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to: transmit a legacy block acknowledgement or a legacy negative block acknowledgment.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the access point and the one or more stations are each one from the following group: an access point, an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11ax access point, an IEEE 802.11ax station, and a station.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein processing circuitry is further configured to:

cause the one or more packets to be transmitted in accordance with orthogonal division multiple-access (OFDMA) and in accordance with multiple-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO).

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising one or more antenna couple to the processing circuitry.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the memory is configured to store the one or more packets.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors, the instructions to configure the one or more processors to cause an access point to:

encode one or more packets in accordance with multicast or broadcast;

cause to be transmitted the one or more packets to one or more stations; and

decode feedback comprising one or more resource blocks from the one or more stations, the feedback to be received simultaneously from the one or more stations, wherein each resource block of the one or more resource blocks corresponds to feedback for one packet of the one or more packets from each of the one or more stations, and wherein each resource block is one resource block of a thirty-six resource block 20 MHz subchannel allocation comprising nine (9) resource blocks in a frequency domain with four (4) resource blocks in a spatial domain.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions cause the wireless device to:

cause to be retransmitted to the one or more stations packets of the one or more packets that were not received as indicated by the feedback, wherein the retransmit is to be in accordance with the multicast or broadcast.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the one or more packets are media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) or an aggregate MPDU (A-MPDU).

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein energy on a resource block indicates a negative acknowledgment of a corresponding packet from at least one station of the one or more stations.

19. A method performed by an access point, the method comprising:

encoding one or more packets in accordance with multicast or broadcast;

transmitting the one or more packets to one or more stations; and

decoding feedback comprising one or more resource blocks from the one or more stations, the feedback to be received simultaneously from the one or more stations, wherein each resource block of the one or more resource blocks corresponds to feedback for one packet of the one or more packets from each of the one or more stations, and wherein each resource block is one resource block of a thirty-six resource block 20 MHz subchannel allocation comprising nine (9) resource blocks in a frequency domain with four (4) resource blocks in a spatial domain.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the method further comprises:

retransmitting to the one or more stations packets of the one or more packets that were not received as indicated by the feedback, wherein the retransmit is to be in accordance with the multicast or broadcast, wherein energy on a resource block indicates a negative acknowledgment of a corresponding packet from at least one station of the one or more stations.

21. An apparatus of a station, the apparatus comprising memory and processing circuitry couple to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to:

decode one or more packets;

encode feedback comprising one or more resource blocks, the feedback to be transmitted on one or more resource blocks, wherein each resource block of the one or more resource blocks corresponds to feedback for one packet of the one or more packets, and wherein each resource block is one resource block of a thirty-six resource block 20 MHz subchannel allocation comprising nine (9) resource blocks in a frequency domain with four (4) resource blocks in a spatial domain.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein one resource block is assigned to each of the one or more packets, and wherein energy on the resource block indicates a negative acknowledgment of the corresponding packet from the wireless device.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the frequency resource allocation and the spatial stream allocation are part of a high-efficiency long-training field (HE-LTF).

24. The apparatus of claim 21 , further comprising one or more antenna couple to the processing circuitry.

25. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the memory is configured to store the one or more packets.