Acknowledgment management techniques for uplink multi-user transmissions
Acknowledgment management techniques for UL MU transmissions are described. In various embodiments, an AP may observe a limit with respect to a number of TIDs for which corresponding A-MPDUs are to be acknowledged in a given immediate/compressed multi-user (MU) block ACK (BA). In some embodiments, the AP may indicate such a TID limit in a broadcast transmission, such as a beacon or management frame. In various other embodiments, the AP may indicate such a TID limit in a response for a capability request, such as a Probe Response, or in a specific allocation frame, such as a trigger frame, for all STAs participating in UL MU transmissions. In various embodiments, a single TID limit may be indicated that is understood to apply to each STA. In some other embodiments, the AP may indicate a respective TID limit for each of multiple STAs. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
1. An apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and
logic for a station (STA), at least a portion of the logic comprised in circuitry coupled to the memory, the logic to:
receive a frame from an access point (AP) addressed to more than one associated STAs, wherein the frame comprises, for each of the more than one associated STAs, a resource unit allocation and a traffic identifier (TID) limit, wherein the frame comprises a trigger frame, wherein the resource unit allocation comprises different orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) resource units for each of the more than one associated STAs;
identify, from the frame, the TID limit for the STA, wherein the TID limit for the STA comprises a number of TIDs that can be aggregated by the STA in an aggregate medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (A-MPDU) for which the STA can request immediate response via acknowledgement policy fields;
generate the A-MPDU for transmission to the AP during an uplink (UL) transmission interval in response to the frame, the A-MPDU comprising MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) associated with multiple TIDs;
wherein a total number of TIDs in the A-MPDU having values in the acknowledgment policy fields indicating that immediate acknowledgment is requested, does not exceed the TID limit; and
cause transmission of the A-MPDU.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the A-MPDU further comprises one or more MPDUs having a value in an acknowledgment policy field indicating a different acknowledgement policy.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein cause transmission of the A-MPDU comprises cause transmission of the A-MPDU as part of an UL multi-user transmission.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising receipt of another TID limit in a management frame from the AP.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising the logic to initiate a negotiation procedure to negotiate the TID limit with the AP.
6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the MPDUs comprise MAC service protocol data unit (MSDU) fragments for multiple MSDUs.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , the TID limit to comprise a STA-specific limit.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the frame comprises a second TID limit associated with a second associated STA of the more than one associated STAs.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 , comprising at least one radio frequency (RF) transceiver.
10. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions that, in response to being executed by a processor of a station (STA), cause the processor to:
receive a frame from an access point (AP) addressed to more than one associated STAs, wherein the frame comprises, for each of the more than one associated STAs, a resource unit allocation and a traffic identifier (TID) limit, wherein the frame comprises a trigger frame, wherein the resource unit allocation comprises different orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) resource units for each of the more than one associated STAs;
identify, from the frame, the TID limit for the STA, wherein the TID limit for the STA comprises a number of TIDs that can be aggregated by the STA in an aggregate medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (A-MPDU) for which the STA can request immediate response via acknowledgement policy fields;
generate the A-MPDU for transmission to the AP during an uplink (UL) transmission interval in response to the frame, the A-MPDU comprising MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) associated with multiple TIDs;
wherein a total number of TIDs in the A-MPDU having values in the acknowledgment policy fields indicating that immediate acknowledgment is requested, does not exceed the TID limit; and
cause transmission of the A-MPDU.
11. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the A-MPDU further comprises one or more MPDUs having a value in an acknowledgment policy field indicating a different acknowledgement policy.
12. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein cause transmission of the A-MPDU comprises cause transmission of the A-MPDU as part of an UL multi-user transmission.
13. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the processor to further receive of another TID limit in a management frame from the AP.
14. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the processor to further initiate a negotiation procedure to negotiate the TID limit with the AP.
15. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the MPDUs comprise MAC service protocol data unit (MSDU) fragments for multiple MSDUs.
16. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the TID limit to comprise a STA-specific limit.
17. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the frame comprises a second TID limit associated with a second associated STA of the more than one associated STAs.
18. A method, comprising:
receiving a frame from an access point (AP) addressed to more than one associated STAs, wherein the frame comprises, for each of the more than one associated STAs, a resource unit allocation and a traffic identifier (TID) limit, wherein the frame comprises a trigger frame, wherein the resource unit allocation comprises different orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) resource units for each of the more than one associated STAs;
identifying, from the frame, the TID limit for the STA, wherein the TID limit for the STA comprises a number of TIDs that can be aggregated by the STA in an aggregate medium access control (MAC) protocol data unit (A-MPDU) for which the STA can request immediate response via acknowledgement policy fields;
generating the A-MPDU for transmission to the AP during an uplink (UL) transmission interval in response to the frame, the A-MPDU comprising MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) associated with multiple TIDs;
wherein a total number of TIDs in the A-MPDU having values in the acknowledgment policy fields indicating that immediate acknowledgment is requested, does not exceed the TID limit; and
causing transmission of the A-MPDU.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the A-MPDU further comprises one or more MPDUs having a value in an acknowledgment policy field indicating a different acknowledgement policy.
20. The method of claim 18 , wherein cause transmission of the A-MPDU comprises cause transmission of the A-MPDU as part of an UL multi-user transmission.
21. The method of claim 18 , further comprising receipt of another TID limit in a management frame from the AP.
22. The method of claim 18 , further comprising initiation of a negotiation procedure to negotiate the TID limit with the AP.
23. The method of claim 18 , wherein the MPDUs comprise MAC service protocol data unit (MSDU) fragments for multiple MSDUs.
24. The method of claim 18 , the TID limit to comprise a STA-specific limit.
25. The method of claim 18 , wherein the frame comprises a second TID limit associated with a second associated STA of the more than one associated STAs.