Uplink data fragmentation for multi-user networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016100421-A1
Application number	US-201514871888-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Oct 3, 2014
Publication date	Apr 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An apparatus for wireless communication includes data generation logic configured to generate data to be transmitted to an access point and to determine that a size of the data exceeds a size of a first transmit opportunity (TX_OP). The apparatus includes data fragmentation logic configured to generate at least a first data fragment and a second data fragment based on the data, where a size of the first data fragment is selected based on the size of the first TX_OP. The apparatus further includes a wireless interface configured to transmit, during the first TX_OP, a first data packet to the access point, the first data packet including the first data fragments.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising:
data generation logic configured to generate data to be transmitted to an access point and to determine that a size of the data exceeds a size of a first transmit opportunity (TX_OP); data fragmentation logic configured to generate at least a first data fragment and a second data fragment based on the data, wherein a size of the first data fragment is selected based on the size of the first TX_OP; and a wireless interface configured to transmit, during the first TX_OP, a first data packet to the access point, the first data packet including the first data fragment.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the data generation logic is further configured to determine, based on a modulation and coding scheme, a threshold amount of data capable of being transmitted during the first TX_OP; and the data fragmentation logic is further configured generate the first data fragment to have a size that is less than or equal to the threshold amount of data.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the wireless interface is further configured to receive, from the access point, a trigger frame that includes timing information corresponding to a second TX_OP and to transmit a second data packet that includes the second data fragment to the access point during the second TX_OP.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the wireless interface is further configured to receive, from the access point, a block acknowledgement frame that includes a first uncompressed block acknowledgement bitmap or a first semicompressed block acknowledgement bitmap.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the wireless interface is further configured to transmit, to the access point during a second TX_OP, a second data packet that includes the second data fragment.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the data generation logic is further configured to generate the data to be transmitted to the access point by generating a first media access control (MAC) layer service data unit, and the data fragmentation logic is further configured to generate the first data fragment by generating a first fragment of the first MAC layer service data unit and to generate the second data fragment by generating a second fragment of the first MAC layer service data unit.

7 . A method for wireless communication, the method comprising:
generating, at a first device, first data to be transmitted to an access point; determining that a size of the first data exceeds a size of a first transmit opportunity (TX_OP); generating at least a first data fragment and a second data fragment based on the first data, wherein a size of the first data fragment is selected based on the size of the first TX_OP; and transmitting, during the first TX_OP, a first data packet from the first device to the access point, the first data packet including the first data fragment.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the first data packet includes a first physical layer protocol data unit, a payload of the first physical layer protocol data unit includes a first MAC layer protocol data unit, and the first MAC layer protocol data unit includes the first data fragment.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising transmitting a second data packet to the access point during a second TX_OP, the second data packet including a second physical layer protocol data unit, a payload of the second physical layer protocol data unit including a second MAC layer protocol data unit, and the second MAC layer protocol data unit including the second data fragment.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the second physical layer protocol data unit includes an aggregated MAC layer protocol data unit that includes the second MAC layer protocol data unit, a third MAC layer protocol data unit, and a fourth MAC layer protocol data unit, and further comprising combining the second data fragment, a second MAC layer service data unit of the third MAC layer protocol data unit, and a first fragment of a third MAC layer service data unit of the fourth MAC layer protocol data unit to have a size that is less than or equal to a size of the second TX_OP.

11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the first data includes a second MAC layer service data unit, the first data packet includes a first physical layer protocol data unit, a payload of the first physical layer protocol data unit includes an aggregated MAC layer protocol data unit, the aggregated MAC layer protocol data unit includes a first MAC layer protocol data unit and a second MAC layer protocol data unit, the first MAC layer protocol data unit includes the first data fragment, and the second MAC layer protocol data unit includes the second MAC layer service data unit.

12 . An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus comprising:
data defragmentation logic configured to receive, during a first transmit opportunity (TX_OP), a first data packet from a first device and a second data packet from a second device, the first data packet including a first data fragment, and the second data packet including a second data fragment; block acknowledgement generation logic configured to generate a block acknowledgement frame including a first block acknowledgement bitmap and a second block acknowledgement bitmap, wherein the first block acknowledgement bitmap indicates at least the first data fragment received from the first device, and wherein the second block acknowledgement bitmap indicates at least the second data fragment received from the second device; and a wireless interface configured to transmit the block acknowledgement frame to the first device and to the second device.

13 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:
the block acknowledgement generation logic is further configured to generate the block acknowledgement frame in accordance with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics (IEEE) 802.11 standard, and the wireless interface is further configured to transmit the block acknowledgement frame via a wireless network that operates in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 standard.

14 . The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the data defragmentation logic is further configured to identify fragmentation information included in the first data packet, the fragmentation information including a sequence identifier number, a fragment number, and a more fragments indicator.

15 . The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the data defragmentation logic is further configured to:
determine whether a particular data fragment corresponding to the sequence identifier number has been received from the first device, and set a particular bit of the first block acknowledgement bitmap to a first value in response to determining that the particular data fragment has not been received.

16 . The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the data defragmentation logic is further configured to set the particular bit to a second value in response to determining that the particular data fragment corresponding to the sequence identifier number has been received.

17 . A method for wireless communication, the method comprising:
receiving, at an access point during a first transmit opportunity (TX_OP) used by a first device and a second device, at least a first data packet from the first device and a second data packet from the second device, the first data packet including a first data fragment and the second data packet including a second data fragment; generating, at the access point, a block acknowledgement frame including at least a

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Ding Gang
• Merlin Simone
• Barriac Gwendolyn Denise
• Cherian George
• Asterjadhi Alfred

Classifications

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W28/065 Primary

  using assembly or disassembly of packets · CPC title

• H04L47/36

  by determining packet size, e.g. maximum transfer unit [MTU] · CPC title

• H04L1/1685

  the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title