Wireless communication device and method for communicating voice over a wireless network using bidirectional multiple receiver aggregation

1. A method for communicating multiple streams of traffic comprising:

transmitting a clear-to-send (CTS) to self transmission;

transmitting, as part of a multiple destination burst, aggregated traffic of one or more types to a plurality of mobile stations, the multiple destination burst including a mapping frame and a downlink sequence of data units individually addressed to the mobile stations;

receiving a sequence of uplink frames from the mobile stations after the downlink sequence, each uplink frame optionally including QoS data and including a piggyback acknowledgement to acknowledge receipt of an associated one of the data units of the downlink sequence; and

transmitting a plurality of downlink acknowledge frames to the mobile stations amongst the sequence of received uplink frames, each downlink acknowledge frame to acknowledge receipt of a preceding one of the uplink frames of the sequence,

wherein each acknowledge frame of the plurality is transmitted to a mobile station after receipt of an uplink frame of the sequence of uplink frames and prior to receipt of a next uplink frame of the sequence of uplink frames from another mobile station,

wherein each uplink frame of the sequence and its associated acknowledge frame are separated by a short interframe spacing (SIFS),

wherein each acknowledge frame and a next uplink frame of the sequence are separated by a spacing greater than or equal to a SIFS,

wherein the data units of the downlink sequence are transmitted at times indicated by the mapping frame and are separated by a reduced interframe spacing (RIFS), and

wherein the mapping frame and the CTS to self transmission are separated by a point coordination function interframe spacing (PIFS).

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the mapping frame is to indicate to the mobile stations timing parameters for the multiple destination burst for use by the mobile stations to identify locations of the data units,

wherein transmitting the aggregated traffic comprises transmitting downlink aggregated data units to the mobile stations, at least some of the downlink aggregated data units including aggregated voice traffic.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the downlink aggregated data units further include at least one of best effort traffic or background traffic aggregated with at least one of voice traffic or video traffic, and

wherein each of the downlink aggregated data units is associated with one of the mobile stations.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the timing parameters of the mapping frame include downlink and uplink offsets with respect to a service start time for the mobile stations, and

wherein the downlink aggregated data units and the acknowledge frames each include a duration field to indicate a remaining transmission opportunity time of the multiple destination burst.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the multiple destination burst comprises the mapping frame, the downlink aggregated data units, the uplink frames and the acknowledge frames, and

wherein prior to transmitting the mapping frame, the method further comprises transmitting the CTS to self transmission to help prevent collisions with the mapping frame.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the CTS to self transmission is to initialize a network allocation vector of the mobile stations of the plurality.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein at least some of the mobile stations transition from a lower-power state to a higher-power state at a service period start time to synchronize with and receive the mapping frame, and

wherein at least some of the mobile stations return to the lower-power state after processing the mapping frame until a time associated with receipt of an aggregated data unit based on offsets indicated in the mapping frame, and

wherein at least some of the mobile station returns to the lower-power state until a time associated with a transmission of an uplink data frame based on the offsets indicated in the mapping frame.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising aggregating frames of either voice or video packets that were not successfully received into downlink aggregated data units of a next multiple destination burst.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the multiple destination burst is transmitted using orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signals comprising a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers, and

wherein the multiple destination burst is transmitted using a plurality of antennas, each of the antennas being weighted to compensate, at least in part, for channel characteristics with the mobile stations.

10. A wireless communication station comprising:

a data unit aggregator to aggregate traffic of one or more types for transmission to a plurality of mobile stations as part of a multiple destination burst, the multiple destination burst including a downlink sequence of data units individually addressed to the mobile stations; and

physical layer circuitry to transmit a clear-to-send (CTS) to self transmission and the multiple destination burst, the multiple destination burst including a mapping frame,

wherein the physical layer circuitry is configured to receive a sequence of uplink frames from the mobile stations after the downlink sequence, each uplink frame optionally including QoS data and including a piggyback acknowledgement to acknowledge receipt of an associated one of the data units of the downlink sequence,

wherein the physical layer circuitry is further configured to transmit a plurality of downlink acknowledge frames to the mobile stations amongst the sequence of received uplink frames, each downlink acknowledge frame to acknowledge receipt of a preceding one of the uplink frames of the sequence,

wherein each acknowledge frame of the plurality is transmitted to a mobile station after receipt of an uplink frame of the sequence of uplink frames and prior to receipt of a next uplink frame of the sequence of uplink frames from another mobile station,

wherein each uplink frame of the sequence and its associated acknowledge frame are separated by a short interframe spacing (SIFS), and

wherein each acknowledge frame and a next uplink frame of the sequence are separated by a spacing greater than or equal to a SIFS,

wherein the data units of the downlink sequence are transmitted at times indicated by the mapping frame and are separated by a reduced interframe spacing (RIFS), and

wherein the mapping frame and the CTS to self transmission are separated by a point coordination function interframe spacing (PIFS).

11. The wireless communication station of claim 10 further comprising a mapping frame generator to generate the mapping frame to indicate to the mobile stations timing parameters for the multiple destination burst for use by the mobile stations to identify locations of the data units,

wherein the physical layer circuitry transmits the aggregated traffic comprises downlink aggregated data units to the mobile stations, at least some of the downlink aggregated data units including aggregated voice traffic.

12. The wireless communication station of claim 11 wherein the downlink aggregated data units further include at least one of best effort traffic or background traffic aggregated with at least one of voice traffic or video traffic, and

wherein each of the downlink aggregated data units is associated with one of the mobile stations.

13. The wireless communication station of claim 11 wherein the timing parameters of the mapping frame include downlink and uplink offsets with respect to a service start time for the mobile stations, and

wherein the downlink aggregated data units and the acknowledge frames each include a duration field to indicate a remaining transmission opportunity time of the multiple destination burst.

14. The wireless communication station of claim 11 wherein prior to transmitting the mapping frame, the wireless communication station transmits the CTS to self transmission to help prevent collisions with the mapping frame.

15. The wireless communication station of claim 14 wherein the clear-to-send to self transmission is to initialize a network allocation vector of the mobile stations of the plurality.

16. The wireless communication station of claim 11 wherein at least some of the mobile stations transition from a lower-power state to a higher-power state at a service period start time to synchronize with and receive the mapping frame, and

wherein at least some of the mobile stations return to the lower-power state after processing the mapping frame until a time associated with receipt of an aggregated data unit based on offsets indicated in the mapping frame, and

wherein at least some of the mobile station returns to the lower-power state until a time associated with a transmission of an uplink data frame based on the offsets indicated in the mapping frame.

17. The wireless communication station of claim 10 wherein the data unit aggregator further aggregates frames of voice or video packets that were not successfully received into downlink aggregated data units of a next multiple destination burst.

18. The wireless communication station of claim 10 wherein the multiple destination burst is transmitted by the physical layer circuitry using orthogonal frequency division multiplexed signals comprising a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers, and

wherein the multiple destination burst is transmitted by the physical layer circuitry using a plurality of antennas, each of the antennas being weighted to compensate, at least in part, for channel characteristics with the mobile stations.