Medium Access Recovery Mechanism For Non-Simultaneous-Transmission-And-Reception Peer Multi-Link Devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2026046930-A1
Application number	US-202519366569-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 23, 2025
Priority date	Oct 4, 2021
Publication date	Feb 12, 2026
Grant date	—

Abstract

A station (STA) affiliated with a non-simultaneous-transmission-and-reception (NSTR) multi-link device (MLD) obtains a transmission opportunity (TXOP) on a first link of an NSTR link pair as a TXOP initiator while a medium synchronization delay timer of the STA is non-zero. STA determines that an intended TXOP responder has lost medium synchronization. The STA then transmits a control frame as an initial frame in the TXOP to the intended TXOP responder on the first link responsive to the determining.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
obtaining, by a station (STA) affiliated with a first non-simultaneous-transmission-and-reception (NSTR) multi-link device (MLD), a transmission opportunity (TXOP) on a first link of an NSTR link pair as a TXOP initiator while a first medium synchronization delay (MediumSyncDelay) timer of the STA is non-zero, wherein the first link is a non-primary link of the NSTR link pair; transmitting, by the STA, a control frame as an initial control frame in the TXOP to an intended TXOP responder on the first link, wherein a second MediumSyncDelay timer of the intended TXOP responder is non-zero; receiving, by the STA, a control response frame from the intended TXOP responder in responding to the initial control frame, wherein the intended TXOP responder uses a modified clear channel assessment energy detection (CCA-ED) threshold and a network allocation vector (NAV) mechanism in responding to the initial control frame; and resetting, by the STA, the first MediumSyncDelay timer to zero after receiving a response frame from the intended TXOP responder.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the control frame comprises a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a multi-user RTS (MU-RTS) frame, or a trigger frame.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the intended TXOP responder has lost medium synchronization comprises determining based on at least one of:
the intended TXOP responder being affiliated with a second NSTR MLD operating on the NSTR link pair; another STA affiliated with the second NSTR MLD as another intended TXOP responder on a second link of the NSTR link pair having participated in another TXOP; the intended TXOP responder meeting a condition to start the second MediumSyncDelay timer of the intended TXOP responder; and the second MediumSyncDelay timer of the intended TXOP responder having not counted down to zero.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the condition comprises a transmission time being greater than a medium synchronization threshold.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing, by the STA, a backoff procedure using the modified CCA-ED threshold to detect a channel condition.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the STA, a backoff procedure using the modified CCA-ED threshold to detect a channel condition.

7 . A method, comprising:
receiving, by a station (STA) affiliated with a first non-simultaneous-transmission-and-reception (NSTR) multi-link device (MLD), a control frame as an initial control frame in a transmission opportunity (TXOP) on a first link of an NSTR link pair from a TXOP initiator, wherein the first link is a non-primary link of the NSTR link pair; and transmitting, by the STA as an intended TXOP responder, a control response frame or a trigger-based response frame to the TXOP initiator responsive to receiving the control frame, wherein the control frame is received when a first medium synchronization delay (MediumSyncDelay) timer of the STA is non-zero, and wherein the STA uses a modified clear channel assessment energy detection (CCA-ED) threshold and a network allocation vector (NAV) mechanism in responding to the control frame.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining, by the STA, whether the TXOP initiator has lost medium synchronization based on at least one of: the TXOP initiator being affiliated with a second NSTR MLD operating on the NSTR link pair; another STA affiliated with the second NSTR MLD as another TXOP initiator on a second link of the NSTR link pair having participated in another TXOP; the TXOP initiator meeting a condition to start a second MediumSyncDelay timer of the TXOP initiator; and the second MediumSyncDelay timer of the TXOP initiator having not counted down to zero.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the condition comprises a transmission time being greater than a medium synchronization threshold.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the determining comprises determining prior to transmitting the control response frame or the trigger-based response frame, and wherein, responsive to determining that the TXOP initiator has lost medium synchronization, the STA uses a modified clear channel assessment energy detection (CCA-ED) threshold and a network allocation vector (NAV) mechanism in responding to the control frame.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
resetting, by the STA, the first MediumSyncDelay timer to zero after transmitting the control response frame or the trigger-based response frame or after an end of the TXOP.

Assignees

• Mediatek Singapore Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Lu Kai Ying
• Yee James Chih-Shi
• Seok Yongho

Classifications

• H04W56/0055

  determining timing error of reception due to propagation delay · CPC title

• H04W74/0816 Primary

  with collision avoidance · CPC title

• H04W56/0015 Primary

  one node acting as a reference for the others · CPC title