ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOR MULTIPLE USER COMMUNICATION IN A WLAN
A first communication device generates respective media access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) that include respective data for a respective second communication devices, and determines respective resource units (RUs) via which at least some of the second communication devices are to transmit as part of an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer (PHY) transmission to respectively acknowledge receipt of the respective MPDUs. The first communication device generates respective control frames that are configured to prompt the at least some of the second communication devices to transmit the UL OFDMA PHY transmission, and that include indicators of the RUs via which the at least some of the second communication devices are to transmit as part of the UL OFDMA PHY transmission. The first communication device generates and transmits a single multi user (MU) PHY data unit that includes i) the MPDUs, and ii) the control frames.
1 . A method for communicating in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:
generating, at a first communication device, respective media access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs), each MPDU including respective data for a respective second communication device among a plurality of second communication devices;
determining, at the first communication device, respective resource units (RUs) via which at least some of the second communication devices are to transmit as part of an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer (PHY) transmission to respectively acknowledge receipt of the respective MPDUs, wherein the respective RUs correspond to respective frequency portions of a communication channel;
generating, at the first communication device, respective control frames corresponding to at least some of the second communication devices, wherein the respective control frames are configured to prompt the at least some of the second communication devices to transmit the UL OFDMA PHY transmission, and wherein the control frames include indicators of the RUs via which the at least some of the second communication devices are to transmit as part of the UL OFDMA PHY transmission;
generating, at the first communication device, a single multi user (MU) PHY data unit that includes i) the MPDUs, and ii) the control frames;
transmitting, by the first communication device and to the plurality of second communication devices, the single MU PHY data unit;
receiving, at the first communication device, the UL OFDMA PHY transmission from the at least some of the second communication devices, the UL OFDMA PHY transmission corresponding to an acknowledgment of at least some of the MPDUs by the at least some of the second communication devices, wherein the UL OFDMA PHY transmission includes respective transmissions from respective second communication devices via respective RUs indicated by the control frames in the single MU PHY data unit; and
processing, at the first communication device, the UL OFDMA PHY data unit to determine whether the at least some of the second communication devices received the respective MPDUs.