eMLSR Secondary Channel Operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025311033-A1
Application number	US-202418616430-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 26, 2024
Priority date	Mar 31, 2023
Publication date	Oct 2, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems, methods, and mechanisms for secondary channel (SC) operation enhancements for enhanced multilink single-radio (eMLSR). An access point may transmit, to one or more wireless stations, one or more ICFs that may indicate that eMLSR-SC capable wireless stations are to switch to a secondary channel. The ICFs may be transmitted on a primary channel and one or more secondary channel(s). Further, the ICF may include a user information field that may include a resource unit index and a bandwidth index that in combination indicate that eMLSR-SC capable wireless stations are to switch to an indicated secondary channel. In addition, the access point may receive, from at least one wireless station of the one or more wireless stations, an IR frame that may indicate that the at least one wireless station has switched to the indicated secondary channel. Additionally, the access point may communicate on the secondary channel with the at least one wireless station.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for wireless communication, comprising:
transmitting, to one or more wireless stations, one or more initial control frames (ICFs) indicating that enhanced multilink single-radio (eMLSR) secondary channel (SC) capable wireless stations are to switch to a secondary channel; receiving, from at least one wireless station of the one or more wireless stations, an immediate response (IR) frame that indicates that the at least one wireless station has switched to the secondary channel; and communicating on the secondary channel with the at least one wireless station.

2 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the one or more ICFs are transmitted on a primary channel and the secondary channel.

3 . The method of claim 2 ,
wherein the primary channel has an 80 megahertz (MHz) bandwidth and the secondary channel has an 80 MHz bandwidth; or wherein the primary channel has a 160 MHz bandwidth and the secondary channel has a 160 MHz bandwidth.

4 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein communicating on the secondary channel with the at least one wireless station comprises the access point transmitting, to the at least one wireless station, downlink (DL) multi-user (MU) physical layer packet data units (PPDUs) via DL Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) or via DL MU multi-input-multi-output (MIMO).

5 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein at least one of the one or more ICFs includes a user information field indicating that eMLSR-SC capable wireless stations are to switch to the secondary channel.

6 . The method of claim 5 ,
wherein the user information field comprises a resource unit index and a bandwidth index, and wherein the resource unit index in combination with the bandwidth index indicates that eMLSR-SC capable wireless stations are to switch to the secondary channel.

7 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein at least one of the one or more ICFs includes padding to allow eMLSR-SC capable wireless stations to switch to the secondary channel.

8 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein communicating on the secondary channel with the at least one wireless station comprises:
receiving, from the at least one wireless station on the secondary channel, an acknowledgement (ACK) or a block acknowledgment (BA) frame; and.
transmitting, to the at least one wireless station after transmitting downlink data on the secondary channel and prior to receiving the BA frame, a multi-user (MU) block acknowledgment request (BAR) frame.

9 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein communicating on the secondary channel with the at least one wireless station comprises:
transmitting, to the at least one wireless station on the secondary channel, a trigger frame that includes a user information field that comprises a resource unit index and a bandwidth index, wherein the resource unit index in combination with the bandwidth index indicates one or more resources for data transmission; and
receiving, from the at least one wireless station on the secondary channel, data via a trigger-based physical layer packet data unit (TB PPDU) format on the indicated one or more resources.

10 . The method of claim 9 ,
wherein end-of-frame padding is used to align an end point of the data from the at least one wireless station with data received from another wireless station of the one or more wireless stations on a primary channel.

11 . The method of claim 9 ,
wherein multiple traffic identifier (MTID) aggregation is used to combine higher priority quality of service (QOS) data for latency sensitive applications with the data to align an end point of the data from the at least one wireless station with data received from another wireless station of the one or more wireless stations on a primary channel.

12 . An apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and at least one processor in communication with the memory and configured to cause a device to:
transmit, to one or more wireless stations, one or more initial control frames (ICFs) indicating that enhanced multilink single-radio (eMLSR) secondary channel (SC) capable wireless stations are to switch to a secondary channel;
receive, from at least one wireless station of the one or more wireless stations, an immediate response (IR) frame that indicates that the at least one wireless station has switched to the secondary channel; and
communicate on the secondary channel with the at least one wireless station.

13 . The apparatus of claim 12 ,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the device to:
transmit, to the one or more wireless stations, null data packet announcement (NDPA) frames on a primary channel and the secondary channel;
transmit, to the one or more wireless stations, null data packet (NDP) frames on the primary channel and the secondary channel; and
receive, from the at least one wireless station on the secondary channel, a compressed beamforming frame and/or a compressed channel quality index (CQI) frame.

14 . The apparatus of claim 12 ,
wherein at least one of the one or more ICFs includes a user information field that includes a frame check sum (FCS) field.

15 . The apparatus of claim 12 ,
wherein at least one of the one or more ICFs comprises a multi-user (MU) request-to-send (RTS) frame, and wherein the MU-RTS frame comprises one or more user information fields, and wherein each user information field of the one or more user information fields includes a check sum (FCS) field.

16 . The apparatus of claim 12 ,
wherein at least one of the one or more ICFs comprises a buffer status report poll (BSRP) frame, and wherein the BSRP frame comprises one or more user information fields, and wherein each user information field of the one or more user information fields includes a check sum (FCS) field.

17 . A device, comprising:
at least one antenna; at least one radio coupled to the at least one antenna; and at least one processing element coupled to the at least one radio; wherein the processing element is configured to cause the device to:
receive, from an access point, an initial control frame (ICF) indicating that the device is to switch to a secondary channel, wherein the device is enhanced multilink single-radio (eMLSR) secondary channel (SC) capable;
switch to the secondary channel;
transmit, to the access point, an immediate response (IR) frame indicating the switch to the secondary channel; and
communicate on the secondary channel with the access point.

18 . The device of claim 17 ,
wherein, to communicate on the secondary channel with the access point, the at least one processing element is further configured to cause the device to receive, from the access point, downlink (DL) multi-user (MU) physical layer packet data units (PPDUs) via DL Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) or via DL MU multi-input-multi-output (MIMO).

19 . The device of claim 17 ,
wherein the at least one processing element is further configured to cause the device to:
receive, from the access point, a null data packet announcement (NDPA) frame on the secondary channel;
receive, from the access point, a null data packet (NDP) frame on the secondary channel; and
transmit, to the access point on the secondary channel, a compressed beamforming frame and/or a compressed channel quality index (CQI) frame.

20 . The device of claim 17 ,
wherein the ICF comprises a multi-user (MU) request-to-send (RTS) frame or a buffer status report poll (BSRP) frame.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Lan Zhou
• Batra Anuj
• Abouelseoud Mohamed
• Yamanaka Akira
• Dominguez Charles F
• Kneckt Jarkko L
• Wang Qi
• Ho Keangpo R
• Yang Baoguo
• Boger Yoel
• Shani Oren
• Liu Yong
• Yong Su Khiong
• Epstein Leonid
• Jiang Jinjing
• Ginsburg Noam
• Fan Wen

Classifications

• H04L45/24

  Multipath · CPC title

• H04W28/082

  among bearers or channels · CPC title

• H04W72/21

  in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network · CPC title

• H04W76/15 Primary

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04L5/0091

  Signalling for the administration of the divided path, e.g. signalling of configuration information · CPC title