Managing orthogonal frequency division multiple access uplink operations

1. An electronic device, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

one or more processors communicatively coupled to the interface circuit, wherein the one or more processors are configured to:

assemble a physical layer convergence protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising a physical layer preamble, a first sub-channel field corresponding to a first station, and a second sub-channel field corresponding to a second station, wherein the first sub-channel field carries a first data payload and first trigger information specifying a first resource unit allocation for the first station, wherein the first trigger information replaces at least a portion of a variant high-throughput control field of a media access control (MAC) header, and wherein the second sub-channel field carries a second data payload and second trigger information specifying a second resource unit allocation for the second station;

cause the interface circuit to transmit the PPDU to the first station and the second station; and

receive a first uplink (UL) transmission from the first station over a first frequency range specified by the first resource unit allocation and a second UL transmission from the second station over a second frequency range specified by the second resource unit allocation.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first sub-channel and the second sub-channel are allocated in the PPDU using an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) scheme.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first sub-channel field and the second sub-channel field are allocated in the PPDU using a multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) scheme.

4. The electronic device of claim 3 , wherein the first UL transmission and the second UL transmission are received using different spatial streams and using the MU MIMO scheme.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first trigger information and the first data payload are included in a single MAC frame.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the second sub-channel field carries a broadcast trigger frame specifying resource unit allocations for a plurality of stations.

7. The electronic device of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of stations comprises the second station and does not include the first station.

8. A method, comprising:

generating, by an interface circuit, a physical layer convergence protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising a physical layer preamble, a first sub-channel field corresponding to a first station, and a second sub-channel field corresponding to a second station, wherein the first sub-channel field carries a first data payload and first trigger information specifying a first resource unit allocation for the first station, wherein the first trigger information replaces at least a portion of a variant high-throughput control field of a media access control (MAC) header, and wherein the second sub-channel field carries a second data payload and second trigger information specifying a second resource unit allocation for the second station;

transmitting at least partially simultaneously, by the interface circuit, the PPDU to a plurality of stations comprising the first station and the second station; and

receiving, by the interface circuit, a first uplink (UL) transmission from the first station over a first frequency or spatial range specified by the first resource unit allocation and a second UL transmission from the second station over a second frequency or spatial range specified by the second resource unit allocation.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first trigger information and the first data payload are included in a combined frame.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the generating comprises:

inserting the trigger information at a beginning MPDU of the combined frame.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the generating comprises:

appending the trigger information at an end MPDU of the combined frame.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first trigger information and the first data payload are included in separate frames.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the generating comprises:

inserting a broadcast trigger frame into the PPDU.

14. A method, comprising:

determining, by an interface circuit, resource unit allocations for a plurality of stations;

assembling a physical layer convergence protocol data unit (PPDU) having sub-channels corresponding to respective stations, wherein the sub-channels carry data payloads and trigger information for the respective stations, wherein the trigger information replaces at least a portion of a variant high-throughput control field of a media access control (MAC) header; and

transmitting the PPDU to the respective stations.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the resource unit allocations specify a subset of resource units allocated to a first station of the plurality of stations.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising determining a bandwidth of a sub-channel in the PPDU corresponding to the first station of the plurality of stations.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the determining the bandwidth of the sub-channel corresponding to the first station is based at least on a size and a number of resource units allocated to the first station.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein determining the resource unit allocations comprises: receiving, by the interface circuit, the resource unit allocations.

19. The method of claim 14 , further comprising receiving an uplink transmission from a first station of the plurality of stations, over a frequency range specified by the resource unit allocation determined for the first station of the plurality of stations.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein the trigger information includes parameters regarding: compressed or uncompressed uplink (UL) MAC format, or transmit time of an UL acknowledgement.