Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatuses for associating a wireless communication device such as a wireless station (STA) of a STA multi-link device (MLD) with an access point (AP) MLD that includes a first AP associated with a first communication link of the AP MLD and includes one or more secondary APs associated with one or more respective secondary communication links of the first AP MLD. The first AP includes one or more virtual APs, and the first AP and the one or more virtual APs of the first AP belong to a first multiple basic service set identifier (BSSID) set associated with the first communication link.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods, apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for orthogonal multiplexing of high efficiency (HE) and extremely high throughput (EHT) wireless traffic. Devices in a wireless local area network (WLAN) may operate under HE or EHT conditions. An access point (AP) may support both HE and EHT communications with WLAN devices. To enable substantially simultaneous downlink HE and EHT transmissions and substantially simultaneous uplink HE and EHT transmissions, the AP may support orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) of HE and EHT transmissions. For example, pre-HE and pre-EHT modulated fields, HE and EHT modulated fields, and payloads may be aligned in time for the HE and EHT transmissions. The AP may ensure orthogonality for multiplexing the HE and EHT transmissions based on the alignment. In some implementations, a trigger frame may be utilized to indicate uplink transmission alignments.

Abstract: This disclosure provides methods, devices and systems for sharing resources of a wireless medium. Various implementations relate generally to coordinated transmit power control for sharing time and frequency resources of a wireless medium. Particular implementations relate more specifically to coordinated access point spatial-reuse-multiple-access techniques for sharing the time and frequency resources of a transmission opportunity. According to such techniques, an access point that wins contention and gains access to the wireless medium for the duration of a transmission opportunity may limit the transmit powers of the access points selected to share the time and frequency resources such that interference from the selected access points does not prevent stations associated with the winning access point from successfully decoding packets transmitted by it.

Abstract: An access point (AP) may signal management frames that include two operation information fields indicating two channel widths for different classes of wireless stations (STAs). STAs may identify one of the two operation information fields based on capabilities of the STA (e.g., whether or not the STA is capable of dual band channel bonding, resource unit or physical channel puncturing, etc.). In some cases, one operation information field may indicate a channel width within a first and second frequency band (e.g., within the 5 GHz band and the 6 GHz band), as well as a puncturing scheme associated with the channel width. In some cases, the operation information field may indicate a dual band channel bonding configuration, where two frequency segments associated with the channel bonding configuration are in two different frequency bands. In some cases, a tightened spectral mask may be used for such dual band channel bonding configurations.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable media, for signaling between an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) and a non-AP MLD that support multi-link communication in a wireless local area network (WLAN). In some implementations, a multi-link association may include a first link (referred to as an anchor link) and one or more other links (referred to as auxiliary links). The signaling may include control information to activate or deactivate auxiliary links dynamically based on communication load, throughput requirements, or quality of service (QoS). The signaling also may include requests, acknowledgments, or negotiation regarding multi-link connections. Furthermore, signaling and timing information may be used to coordinate when auxiliary links are used for communication or when to promote an auxiliary link to an anchor link.

Abstract: One innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed, for example, by a first multi-link device (MLD), that includes a first station (STA) and a second STA, to generate and provide block acknowledgment (BA) status reports for Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) transmitted by the first STA of the first MLD and the second STA of the first MLD. Another innovative aspect of the subject matter described in this disclosure may be implemented in a method for wireless communication. The method may be performed, for example, by a logical entity of a first MLD to receive and process a BA status report.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus to support scheduled access control for an electronic lock are described herein. An initiating central wireless device obtains an ephemeral identity resolving key (IRK) to use in resolving an ephemeral resolvable private address (RPA) of a peripheral wireless device. The initiating central wireless device can subsequently connect securely to the peripheral wireless device in order to unlock an electronic lock controlled by the peripheral wireless device to gain access during a scheduled time period. The ephemeral IRK and ephemeral RPA can be used for a limited period of time and/or for a predetermined number of usages during the scheduled time period.

Abstract: This disclosure provides methods, devices and systems for sharing resources of a wireless medium. Various implementations relate generally to coordinated transmit power control for sharing time and frequency resources of a wireless medium. Particular implementations relate more specifically to coordinated access point spatial-reuse-multiple-access techniques for sharing the time and frequency resources of a transmission opportunity. According to such techniques, an access point that wins contention and gains access to the wireless medium for the duration of a transmission opportunity may limit the transmit powers of the access points selected to share the time and frequency resources such that interference from the selected access points does not prevent stations associated with the winning access point from successfully decoding packets transmitted by it.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods, apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media for orthogonal multiplexing of high efficiency (HE) and extremely high throughput (EHT) wireless traffic. Devices in a wireless local area network (WLAN) may operate under HE or EHT conditions. An access point (AP) may support both HE and EHT communications with WLAN devices. To enable substantially simultaneous downlink HE and EHT transmissions and substantially simultaneous uplink HE and EHT transmissions, the AP may support orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) of HE and EHT transmissions. For example, pre-HE and pre-EHT modulated fields, HE and EHT modulated fields, and payloads may be aligned in time for the HE and EHT transmissions. The AP may ensure orthogonality for multiplexing the HE and EHT transmissions based on the alignment. In some implementations, a trigger frame may be utilized to indicate uplink transmission alignments.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable media, for implementing a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) protocol in a wireless local area network (WLAN). In some aspects, a first WLAN device may transmit a first HARQ frame to a second WLAN device. The first WLAN device may determine whether a first feedback message received from the second WLAN device includes HARQ acknowledgement information or non-HARQ acknowledgment information. The first feedback message may be a HARQ Block Acknowledgement (H-BA) message having a multi-station Block ACK (M-BA) frame format that includes HARQ acknowledgment information. The first WLAN device may transmit a second HARQ frame to the second WLAN device in response to determining the first feedback message includes the HARQ acknowledgment information. The first WLAN device may transmit a non-HARQ frame in response to determining the first feedback message includes non-HARQ acknowledgement information.

Abstract: An access point (AP) may signal management frames that include two operation information fields indicating two channel widths for different classes of wireless stations (STAs). STAs may identify one of the two operation information fields based on capabilities of the STA (e.g., whether or not the STA is capable of dual band channel bonding, resource unit or physical channel puncturing, etc.). In some cases, one operation information field may indicate a channel width within a first and second frequency band (e.g., within the 5 GHz band and the 6 GHz band), as well as a puncturing scheme associated with the channel width. In some cases, the operation information field may indicate a dual band channel bonding configuration, where two frequency segments associated with the channel bonding configuration are in two different frequency bands. In some cases, a tightened spectral mask may be used for such dual band channel bonding configurations.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatuses for associating a wireless communication device such as a wireless station (STA) of a STA multi-link device (MLD) with an access point (AP) MLD that includes a first AP associated with a first communication link of the AP MLD and includes one or more secondary APs associated with one or more respective secondary communication links of the first AP MLD. The first AP includes one or more virtual APs, and the first AP and the one or more virtual APs of the first AP belong to a first multiple basic service set identifier (BSSID) set associated with the first communication link.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for group formation and sounding for distributed multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO). Some implementations include a method of wireless communication. The method includes a sounding preparation phase that includes transmitting, to the plurality of access points, a first frame inviting the plurality of access points to perform a beamformed distributed transmission from the plurality of access points to a group of stations; receiving a second frame from at least one of the plurality of access points based on transmitting the first frame, the second frame including at least one identifier of at least one station in a different basic service set than a basic service set of the first access point; and identifying the group of stations based on the at least one identifier included in the second frame.

Abstract: This disclosure provides methods, devices and systems for sharing time resources of a wireless medium. Particular implementations relate more specifically to coordinated AP (CAP) time-division-multiple-access (TDMA) techniques for sharing the time resources of a transmission opportunity (TXOP). According to such techniques, a coordinated AP that wins contention and gains access to the wireless medium for the duration of a TXOP may share its time resources with other coordinated APs. To share its time resources, the winning AP may partition the TXOP into multiple TXOP segments each including respective time resources representing a sub-duration of the TXOP. For example, the winning AP may assign, grant or allocate (hereinafter used interchangeably) itself one or more of the time resources and also allocate each of one or more remaining time resources to one or more other ones of the coordinated APs.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, devices, apparatus and methods, including computer programs encoded on storage media, for high efficiency (HE) beacons. HE supported access points (APs) and stations (STAs) may operate on resource deployments used for Wi-Fi technology and without support for legacy devices, also referred to as a greenfield deployment. An AP may identify updated capability information and transmit a HE physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) including a beacon frame. A STA may receive, from the AP, the HE or EHT PPDU and identify an indication of change to a content or format of the beacon frame relative to a reference beacon frame. Based on the identified indication, the STA may then determine an updated content or format for the beacon frame and process the beacon frame or skip processing for one or more portions of the beacon frame.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for multi-link aggregation in wireless communications. In one aspect, an apparatus includes a multi-link operation device configured to generate and output for transmission a message indicating a mapping of each of a plurality of traffic identifiers (TIDs) to one or more parameters associated with each of a plurality of wireless links. In some aspects, another apparatus may obtain a message via at least one of a plurality of wireless links indicating a mapping of each of a plurality of TIDs to one or more parameters associated with each the plurality of wireless links, obtain a sequence of packets associated with at least one of the plurality of TIDs via one or more of the plurality of wireless links, and process the sequence of packets based on the mapping indicated via the message.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatuses for indicating a data rate of a packet. The transmitting device may select the data rate of a data field of the packet to be transmitted to the receiving device, and may select a pattern to embed within a preamble of the packet based on the selected data rate. In some implementations, the transmitting device may select a first structure including a first number of instances of a sequence or its logical complement if the selected data rate is a low data rate, and may select a second structure including a second number of instances of the sequence or its logical complement if the selected data rate is a high data rate.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, devices, apparatus and methods, including computer programs encoded on storage media, for high efficiency (HE) beacons. HE supported access points (APs) and stations (STAs) may operate on resource deployments used for Wi-Fi technology and without support for legacy devices, also referred to as a greenfield deployment. An AP may identify updated capability information and transmit a HE physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) including a beacon frame. A STA may receive, from the AP, the HE or EHT PPDU and identify an indication of change to a content or format of the beacon frame relative to a reference beacon frame. Based on the identified indication, the STA may then determine an updated content or format for the beacon frame and process the beacon frame or skip processing for one or more portions of the beacon frame.

Abstract: Some embodiments include an apparatus, method, and computer program product for Extremely High Throughput (EHT) medium reservation. Some embodiments include a first station configured to exchange EHT-Request to Send (RTS) and/or EHT-Clear to Send (CTS) capabilities with a second station, and determine CTS response mode (e.g., rules) for the first station based at least on the RTS and CTS capabilities of the first and the second stations. Some embodiments include transmitting RTS frames and receiving CTS frames in the presence of punctured channels, implementing a flexible channel reservation scheme, reserving punctured bandwidths, and receiving CTS frames even when a primary channel is busy. Some embodiments include an RTS or an CTS frame that includes an EHT bandwidth puncture (BnP) signaling address and/or a modified scrambler seed that enable channel reservations for an EHT bandwidth.

Abstract: During operation, an electronic device may encrypt an A-control subfield. Then, the electronic device may provide the frame addressed to a second electronic device, where the frame includes a media access control (MAC) header and the MAC header includes the A-control subfield that is encrypted. Note that the encrypted A-control subfield may be jointly encrypted with data in a payload in the frame. Moreover, the encrypted A-control subfield may be separated from the payload in the frame by one or more additional subfields or may be adjacent to the payload in the frame. Furthermore, the MAC header may include an indicator that indicates whether the A-control subfield is encrypted. Additionally, the frame may include a preamble that indicates whether the A-control subfield is encrypted. The frame may be received by the second electronic device. After receiving the frame, the second electronic device may decrypt the A-control subfield.