Abstract: This disclosure provides methods, devices and systems for wireless communication, and particularly, methods, devices and systems for multi-link operation. A first wireless local area network (WLAN) device (such as an AP) may establish a multi-link association between the first WLAN device and a second WLAN device. The multi-link association may coordinated by an upper media access control (U-MAC) layer of the first WLAN device that is capable of transmitting data to the second WLAN device via a first wireless communication link using a first WLAN interface and a second wireless communication link using a second WLAN interface. This disclosure provides several alternatives for handling packet numbering and fragmentation at the U-MAC layer or at each of the first WLAN interface and the second WLAN interface.

Abstract: This disclosure provides methods, devices and systems for wireless communication, and particularly, methods, devices and systems for multi-link operation. In some aspects, a first WLAN device (such as a non-AP STA) may establish with a second WLAN device (such as an AP) a multi-link association by which the first WLAN device can simultaneously transmit information to the second WLAN device via a first wireless communication link and a second wireless communication link. The first WLAN device may coordinate contention for the first wireless communication link by a first WLAN interface of the first WLAN device to be concurrent with contention for the second wireless communication link by a second WLAN interface of the first WLAN device.

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 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, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for managing high volumes of space-time-streams in Wi-Fi systems. An access point (AP) may transmit packets including long training field (LTF) sections using a number of space-time-streams greater than eight. Mobile stations (STAs) in the system may or may not be capable of processing this number of streams. The AP may modulate an LTF section using a matrix with dimensions smaller than the number of streams by using tone-interleaving or by performing modulation with separate matrices in time and frequency. In some other implementations, the AP may split the antennas for transmission into groups, each group transmitting either different packets in a subset of streams or a same packet in a subset of tones. In further implementations, the AP may combine multiple space-time-streams into a super stream that supports reception at different types of STAs.

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, 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 storage media, for identifying frames or packets of data that were received in error (such as incorrectly decoded or not received at all) by a receiving device for purposes of retransmission. In one aspect, a wireless device may form a number of frames for wireless transmission. Each of the frames may include a frame header and may be associated with a unique sequence number. In some implementations, for each of the frames, the wireless device may embed at least a portion of the unique sequence number into a portion of a control field or a delimiter field of the frame header. In some other implementations, for each of the frames, the wireless device may signal at least a portion of the unique sequence number using bit locations unassociated with a sequence number field of the frame header.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatuses, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable media, for reporting Quality of Service (QoS) feedback information. A method of wireless communication at an apparatus may include selecting, from a variable number of control fields, one or more control fields for inclusion in a frame, each control field comprising a control identifier field and a control information field. The control identifier field may include an indicator indicating a type of information for communication is QoS feedback information. The control information field may include one or more subfields containing the QoS feedback information. The method may further include generating the frame comprising the selected number of control fields, and outputting the frame for transmission.

Abstract: This disclosure provides methods, devices and systems for synchronized channel access. Some implementations more specifically relate to facilitating coexistence among wireless communication devices that support synchronized channel access and those that do not. A group of access points may schedule periodically recurring, synchronized channel access periods by periodically transmitting quiet elements. The quiet elements establish recurring quiet periods during which legacy devices are not permitted to transmit. In some implementations, an access point may transmit one or more quiet override elements each associated with a respective quiet element and indicating to other access points supporting synchronized channel access that they are permitted to contend for access during the respective quiet period.

Abstract: A method and device for discovering a WiFi display service in a Wi-Fi direct (WFD) network, the method includes: generating a service discovery request frame for discovering a service supported by a second WFD device in the WFD network; transmitting the service discovery request frame to the second WFD device; and receiving a service discovery response frame from the second WFD device in response to the service discovery request frame, wherein the service discovery request frame and the service discovery response frame are generated by using a generic advertising service (GAS) initial request frame of 802.11u and a GAS initial response frame of 802.11u, respectively.

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: Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques that may allow multiple access points (APs) to coordinate to send simultaneous OFDMA transmissions to a single user (SU). A set of APs participating in such a coordinated effort may be referred to as a coordinated AP (CAP) set. Hence, the transmissions according to this scheme may be referred to as CAP SU OFDMA transmissions.

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 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 AP MLD transmits a frame including an advertising information element carrying discovery information for the first AP of the AP MLD, including a first portion carrying discovery information for each secondary AP of the one or more secondary APs of the AP MLD, and including a second portion carrying common attributes of the one or more secondary APs of the AP MLD.

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: 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 receive a first feedback message from the second WLAN device. The first feedback message may be a HARQ Block Acknowledgement (H-BA) message. The first WLAN device may determine to enable the HARQ protocol based on the first feedback message. The first WLAN device may receive an indication of an amount of memory available at the second WLAN device for processing HARQ transmissions. The first WLAN device may transmit a second HARQ frame to the second WLAN device based, at least in part, on the amount of memory available at the second WLAN device for processing HARQ transmissions.

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: This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer-readable media, for multiplexing clients in a wireless communication network. In one aspect, a wireless station (STA) receives a preamble including a first wireless local area network (WLAN) signaling field from an access point (AP). The first WLAN signaling field includes first and second indications of first and second channel bandwidths. The first channel bandwidth includes a first set of subchannels and used by the AP to communicate with a first set of stations. The second channel bandwidth may include the first set of subchannels and a second set of subchannels and used by the AP to communicate with a second set of stations. The STA may identify a location of at least one second WLAN signaling field for the STA based on the first and second indications of the first and second channel bandwidths.

Abstract: This disclosure provides systems, methods and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for adjusting a packet duration for triggered uplink (UL) transmissions to an access point (AP) from one or more stations (STAs). In one aspect, the AP may estimate an amount of data that a STA has queued for UL transmission and select the packet duration based on the estimated amount of queued UL data. The AP may transmit a trigger frame that solicits UL data from the STA and indicates the selected packet duration. In response, the AP may receive an UL packet from the STA and determine an amount of UL data queued in the STA based on the UL packet. In some implementations, the AP may selectively adjust the packet duration for UL transmissions based on the UL packet, the determined amount of UL data queued in the STA, or both.