Link activation and deactivation in multi-link devices

Abstract

The invention relates to link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device. Methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media for activation and deactivation of links in a multi-link device (MLD), where the apparatus of an access point (AP) MLD includes processing circuitry configured to encode an announcement traffic identification (TID) to link mapping for transmission to a non-AP MLD, the announcement TID to link mapping indicating that a first AP affiliated to the AP MLD is disabled, the non-AP MLD indicating that the first AP affiliated to the AP MLD is disabled, and the TID to link mapping indicating that the first AP affiliated to the AP MLD is disabled. The first AP is associated with a first link of the AP MLD; and decoding a request from the non-AP MLD to enable the first AP on a second link of the AP MLD, the second link being associated with a second AP. The processing circuitry is further configured to encode a response to the request to enable the first AP for transmission to the non-AP MLD. Devices of non-AP MLD are also similarly configured.

Description

[0001] Priority claim

[0002] This application claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 525,545, filed on July 7, 2023, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] Embodiments relate to link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device (MLD) in accordance with wireless local area networks (WLANs) and Wi-Fi networks, including networks operating in accordance with different versions or generations of the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. Background Art

[0004] Efficient use of the resources of a wireless local area network (WLAN) is very important to provide bandwidth and acceptable response times to users of the WLAN without consuming too much power. However, there are often many devices trying to share the same resources, and some devices may be limited by the communication protocols they use or by their hardware bandwidth. In addition, wireless devices may need to operate using both newer protocols and older device protocols. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which:

[0006] Figure 1 is a block diagram of a radio architecture according to some embodiments.

[0007] Figure 2 A method for Figure 1 Front-end module circuits in radio architectures.

[0008] Figure 3 A method for Figure 1 Radio IC circuit in the radio architecture.

[0009] Figure 4 A method for Figure 1 Baseband processing circuitry in a radio architecture.

[0010] Figure 5 A WLAN according to some embodiments is shown.

[0011] Figure 6 A block diagram of an example machine is shown upon which any one or more of the techniques (eg, methodologies) discussed herein may be performed.

[0012] Figure 7A block diagram of an example wireless device is shown upon which any one or more of the techniques (eg, methods, or operations) discussed herein may be performed.

[0013] Figure 8 A multi-link device (MLD) is shown in accordance with some embodiments.

[0014] Fig. 9 Collocated MLDs and non-collocated MLDs are shown according to some embodiments.

[0015] Fig.10 A method for link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device (MLD) according to some embodiments is shown.

[0016] Fig.11 A TID to link mapping element is shown in accordance with some embodiments.

[0017] Fig.12 TWT elements according to some embodiments are shown.

[0018] Fig.13 An ultra high reliability (UHR) element is shown in accordance with some embodiments.

[0019] Fig.14 A method for link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device according to some embodiments is shown.

[0020] Fig.15 A method for link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device according to some embodiments is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0021] The following description and accompanying drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice these embodiments. Other embodiments may include structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in portions and features of other embodiments, or may replace portions and features of other embodiments. The embodiments set forth in the claims include all available equivalents of these claims.

[0022] Some embodiments relate to methods, computer-readable media, and apparatus for adjusting a duration field of a CTS frame. Some embodiments relate to methods, computer-readable media, and apparatus for responding to an adjustment to a duration field of a CTS frame.

[0023] Figure 1 1 is a block diagram of a radio architecture 100 according to some embodiments. The radio architecture 100 may include a radio front end module (FEM) circuit 104, a radio IC circuit 106, and a baseband processing circuit 108. The radio architecture 100 as shown includes wireless local area network (WLAN) functionality and (BT) functionality, although embodiments are not limited thereto. In the present disclosure, "WLAN" and "Wi-Fi" may be used interchangeably.

[0024] The FEM circuit 104 may include a WLAN or Wi-Fi FEM circuit 104A and (BT) FEM circuitry 104B. The WLAN FEM circuitry 104A may include a receive signal path including circuitry configured to operate on WLAN RF signals received from one or more antennas 101, amplify the receive signals, and provide an amplified version of the receive signals to the WLAN radio IC circuitry 106A for further processing. The BT FEM circuitry 104B may include a receive signal path including circuitry configured to operate on BT RF signals received from one or more antennas 101, amplify the receive signals, and provide an amplified version of the receive signals to the BT radio IC circuitry 106B for further processing. The FEM circuitry 104A may also include a transmit signal path including circuitry configured to amplify WLAN signals provided by the radio IC circuitry 106A for wireless transmission by the one or more antennas 101. Additionally, the FEM circuitry 104B may also include a transmit signal path including circuitry configured to amplify BT signals provided by the radio IC circuitry 106B for wireless transmission by the one or more antennas. Figure 1 In the embodiments, although FEM circuit 104A and FEM circuit 104B are shown as being different from each other, the embodiments are not limited thereto and include within their scope the use of a FEM (not shown) that includes a transmit path and / or receive path for both WLAN signals and BT signals, or the use of one or more FEM circuits where at least some of the FEM circuits share transmit and / or receive signal paths for both WLAN signals and BT signals.

[0025] As shown, the radio IC circuit 106 may include a WLAN radio IC circuit 106A and a BT radio IC circuit 106B. The WLAN radio IC circuit 106A may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry for down-converting a WLAN RF signal received from the FEM circuit 104A and providing a baseband signal to the WLAN baseband processing circuit 108A. The BT radio IC circuit 106B may in turn include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry for down-converting a BT RF signal received from the FEM circuit 104B and providing a baseband signal to the BT baseband processing circuit 108B. The WLAN radio IC circuit 106A may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry for up-converting a WLAN baseband signal provided by the WLAN baseband processing circuit 108A and providing a WLAN RF output signal to the FEM circuit 104A for subsequent wireless transmission by one or more antennas 101. The BT radio IC circuit 106B may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry for up-converting the BT baseband signal provided by the BT baseband processing circuit 108B and providing a BT RF output signal to the FEM circuit 104B for subsequent wireless transmission by one or more antennas 101. Figure 1 In the embodiment of the present invention, although the radio IC circuits 106A and 106B are shown as being different from each other, the embodiments are not limited thereto and include within their scope the use of a radio IC circuit (not shown) that includes a transmit signal path and / or receive signal path for both WLAN signals and BT signals, or includes the use of one or more radio IC circuits in which at least some of the radio IC circuits share transmit and / or receive signal paths for both WLAN signals and BT signals.

[0026] The baseband processing circuit 108 may include a WLAN baseband processing circuit 108A and a BT baseband processing circuit 108B. The WLAN baseband processing circuit 108A may include a memory, such as a set of RAM arrays in a fast Fourier transform or inverse fast Fourier transform block (not shown) of the WLAN baseband processing system 108A. Each of the WLAN baseband processing circuit 108A and the BT baseband processing circuit 108B may further include one or more processors and control logic to process signals received from a corresponding WLAN receive signal path or BT receive signal path of the radio IC circuit 106, and also generate corresponding WLAN baseband signals or BT baseband signals for use in a transmit signal path of the radio IC circuit 106. Each of the baseband processing circuits 108A and 108B may further include a physical layer (PHY) and a medium access control layer (MAC) circuit, and may further interface with the application processor 111 for baseband signal generation and processing and for controlling the operation of the radio IC circuit 106.

[0027] Still reference Figure 1 According to the illustrated embodiment, the WLAN-BT coexistence circuit 113 may include logic to provide an interface between the WLAN baseband processing circuit 108A and the BT baseband processing circuit 108B to enable use cases requiring WLAN and BT coexistence. In addition, a switch 103 may be provided between the WLAN FEM circuit 104A and the BT FEM circuit 104 to allow switching between WLAN and BT radios as required by the application. In addition, although the antenna 101 is described as being connected to the WLAN FEM circuit 104A and the BT FEM circuit 104, respectively, embodiments include within their scope sharing one or more antennas between the WLAN and BT FEMs, or providing more than one antenna connected to each of the FEM circuit 104A or the FEM circuit 104B.

[0028] In some embodiments, the front end module circuit 104, the radio IC circuit 106, and the baseband processing circuit 108 may be provided on a single radio card, such as the wireless radio card 102. In some other embodiments, the one or more antennas 101, the FEM circuit 104, and the radio IC circuit 106 may be provided on a single radio card. In some other embodiments, the radio IC circuit 106 and the baseband processing circuit 108 may be provided on a single chip or IC, such as on IC 112.

[0029] In some embodiments, wireless radio card 102 may include a WLAN radio card and may be configured for Wi-Fi communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some of these embodiments, radio architecture 100 may be configured to receive and transmit orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication signals over a multi-carrier communication channel. OFDM or OFDMA signals may include multiple orthogonal subcarriers.

[0030] In some of these multi-carrier embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be part of a Wi-Fi communication station (STA), such as a wireless access point (AP), a base station, or a mobile device including a Wi-Fi device. In some of these embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to send and receive signals according to a specific communication standard and / or protocol, such as any one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards (including IEEE 802.11n-2009, IEEE 802.11-2012, IEEE 802.11-2016, IEEE 802.11ac, and / or IEEE 802.11ax standards) and / or specifications proposed for WLAN. The radio architecture 100 may also be suitable for sending and / or receiving communications according to other technologies and standards.

[0031] In some embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured for high-efficiency (HE) Wi-Fi (HEW) communications in accordance with the IEEE 802.11ax standard. In these embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to communicate in accordance with OFDMA techniques, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0032] In some other embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques, including, for example, spread spectrum modulation (e.g., direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) and / or frequency hopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA)), time division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and / or frequency division multiplexing (FDM) modulation, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0033] In some embodiments, Figure 1 As further shown in FIG. 1 , the BT baseband circuit 108B may comply with (BT) connection standards, e.g. or or Any other iteration of the standard. In an embodiment including BT functionality, for example, Figure 1As shown, the radio architecture 100 can be configured to establish a BT synchronous connection oriented (SCO) link and / or a BT low energy (BT LE) link. In some embodiments including functionality, the radio architecture 100 can be configured to establish an extended SCO (eSCO) link for BT communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some of these embodiments including BT functionality, the radio architecture can be configured to participate in BT asynchronous connectionless (ACL) communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, as Figure 1 As shown, the functionality of the BT radio card and the WLAN radio card may be combined on a single wireless radio card, such as on a single wireless radio card 102, although embodiments are not limited thereto and include separate WLAN radio cards and BT radio cards within their scope.

[0034] In some embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may include other radio cards, such as a cellular radio card configured for cellular (e.g., 3GPP such as LTE, LTE-Advanced, or 5G) communications.

[0035] In some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, the radio architecture 100 can be configured to communicate over a variety of channel bandwidths, including bandwidths with center frequencies of about 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and bandwidths of about 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 4 MHz, 5 MHz, 8 MHz, 10 MHz, 16 MHz, 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz (with continuous bandwidth), or 80+80 MHz (160 MHz) (with non-continuous bandwidth). In some embodiments, a channel bandwidth of 320 MHz can be used. However, the scope of the embodiments is not limited to the above center frequencies.

[0036] Figure 2 FIG. 2 shows a FEM circuit 200 according to some embodiments. The FEM circuit 200 is a circuit that can be suitable for use as a WLAN FEM circuit 104A and / or a BT FEM circuit 104B ( Figure 1 ) is an example of a circuit, although other circuit configurations may also be suitable.

[0037] In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 200 may include a TX / RX switch 202 for switching between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit 200 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuit 200 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) 206 to amplify the received RF signal 203 and provide the amplified received RF signal 207 as an output (e.g., to the radio IC circuit 106 ( Figure 1)). The transmit signal path of circuit 200 may include a power amplifier (PA) for amplifying an input RF signal 209 (e.g., provided by radio IC circuit 106), and may include one or more filters 212, such as a bandpass filter (BPF), a lowpass filter (LPF), or other types of filters, to generate a signal for subsequent transmission (e.g., through one or more antennas 101 ( Figure 1 ) transmits an RF signal 215.

[0038] In some dual-mode embodiments for Wi-Fi communications, the FEM circuit 200 can be configured to operate in the 2.4 GHz spectrum or the 5 GHz spectrum. In these embodiments, the receive signal path of the FEM circuit 200 can include a receive signal path duplexer 204 to separate the signals from each spectrum and provide a separate LNA 206 for each spectrum, as shown. In these embodiments, the transmit signal path of the FEM circuit 200 can also include a power amplifier 210 and a filter 212 (e.g., a BPF, LPF, or another type of filter) for each spectrum and provide the signal of one of the different spectrums to a single transmit path for one or more antennas 101 ( Figure 1 ) The transmit signal path duplexer 214 for subsequent transmissions. In some embodiments, BT communications may utilize a 2.4 GHZ signal path and may utilize the same FEM circuit 200 as the FEM circuit used for WLAN communications.

[0039] Figure 3 1 shows a radio integrated circuit (IC) circuit 300 according to some embodiments. The radio IC circuit 300 is a circuit that can be suitable for use as a WLAN radio IC circuit 106A or a BT radio IC circuit 106B ( Figure 1 ) is an example of a circuit, although other circuit configurations may also be suitable.

[0040] In some embodiments, the radio IC circuit 300 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the radio IC circuit 300 may include at least a mixer circuit 302 (e.g., a down-conversion mixer circuit), an amplifier circuit 306, and a filter circuit 308. The transmit signal path of the radio IC circuit 300 may include at least a filter circuit 312 and a mixer circuit 314 (e.g., an up-conversion mixer circuit). The radio IC circuit 300 may also include a synthesizer circuit 304 for synthesizing a frequency 305 for use by the mixer circuit 302 and the mixer circuit 314. According to some embodiments, each of the mixer circuits 302 and / or 314 may be configured to provide a direct conversion function. The latter type of circuit presents a much simpler architecture than a standard superheterodyne mixer circuit, and any flicker noise introduced therefrom may be mitigated, for example, by using OFDM modulation. Figure 3 Only a simplified version of the radio IC circuit is shown, and may include (although not shown) embodiments in which each of the shown circuits may include more than one component. For example, as required by the application, mixer circuits 302 and / or 314 may each include one or more mixers, and filter circuits 308 and / or 312 may each include one or more filters, such as one or more BPFs and / or LPFs. For example, when the mixer circuits are of the direct conversion type, they may each include two or more mixers.

[0041] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 302 may be configured to generate a synthesized frequency 305 from FEM circuit 104 based on the synthesized frequency 305 provided by synthesizer circuit 304. Figure 1 ) down-converts the received RF signal 207. The amplifier circuit 306 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal, and the filter circuit 308 may include an LPF configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal 307. The output baseband signal 307 may be provided to the baseband processing circuit 108 ( Figure 1 ) for further processing. In some embodiments, output baseband signal 307 may be a zero frequency baseband signal, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 302 may include a passive mixer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0042] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 314 may be configured to up-convert input baseband signal 311 based on synthesized frequency 305 provided by synthesizer circuit 304 to generate RF output signal 209 for FEM circuit 104. Baseband signal 311 may be provided by baseband processing circuit 108 and may be filtered by filter circuit 312. Filter circuit 312 may include an LPF or a BPF, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0043] In some embodiments, mixer circuit 302 and mixer circuit 314 may each include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and / or up-conversion, respectively, with the aid of synthesizer circuit 304. In some embodiments, each of mixer circuit 302 and mixer circuit 314 may include two or more mixers, each mixer being configured for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, mixer circuit 302 and mixer circuit 314 may be arranged for direct down-conversion and / or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, mixer circuit 302 and mixer circuit 314 may be configured for superheterodyne operation, although this is not a requirement.

[0044] According to one embodiment, mixer circuit 302 may include quadrature passive mixers (e.g., for an in-phase (I) path and a quadrature-phase (Q) path). In such an embodiment, Figure 3 The RF input signal 207 in the baseband is down-converted to provide an I baseband output signal and a Q baseband output signal for transmission to the baseband processor.

[0045] The quadrature passive mixers can be driven by 0 and 90 degree time-varying LO switching signals provided by a quadrature circuit that can be configured to receive LO frequencies (f LO ), for example, synthesizer circuit 304 ( Figure 3 ) LO frequency 305. In some embodiments, the LO frequency can be the carrier frequency, while in other embodiments the LO frequency can be a fraction of the carrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency, one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the 0 degree and 90 degree time-varying switching signals can be generated by a synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0046] In some embodiments, the duty cycle (percentage of a period that the LO signal is high) and / or the offset (difference between the starting points of the period) of the LO signal may be different. In some embodiments, the LO signal may have a 25% duty cycle and a 50% offset. In some embodiments, each branch of the mixer circuit (e.g., the in-phase (I) path and the quadrature-phase (Q) path) may operate at a 25% duty cycle, which may result in a significant reduction in power consumption.

[0047] RF input signal 207 ( Figure 2 ) may include balanced signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The I baseband output signal and the Q baseband output signal may be provided to amplifier circuit 306 ( Figure 3 ) or provided to a filter circuit 308 ( Figure 3 ).

[0048] In some embodiments, output baseband signal 307 and input baseband signal 311 may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternative embodiments, output baseband signal 307 and input baseband signal 311 may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the radio IC circuit may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuits.

[0049] In some dual-mode embodiments, separate radio IC circuits may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, or for other spectrums not mentioned herein, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0050] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 304 may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N / N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuit 304 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. According to some embodiments, synthesizer circuit 304 may include a digital synthesizer circuit. One advantage of using a digital synthesizer circuit is that, although it may still include some analog components, its footprint may be much smaller than the footprint of an analog synthesizer circuit. In some embodiments, the frequency input to synthesizer circuit 304 may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not a requirement. Depending on the desired output frequency 305, the divider control input may be further controlled by baseband processing circuit 108 ( Figure 1 ) or application processor 111 ( Figure 1 In some embodiments, the divider control input (eg, N) may be determined from a lookup table (eg, within a Wi-Fi card) based on the channel number and channel center frequency determined or indicated by the application processor 111.

[0051] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 304 can be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency 305, while in other embodiments, the output frequency 305 can be a fraction of the carrier frequency (e.g., one-half of the carrier frequency, one-third of the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the output frequency 305 can be the LO frequency (f LO ).

[0052] Figure 4 4 is a functional block diagram of a baseband processing circuit 400 according to some embodiments. The baseband processing circuit 400 is a circuit that can be suitable for use as the baseband processing circuit 108 ( Figure 1) is an example of a circuit that may be used to process signals received by radio IC circuit 106 ( Figure 1 ) provides a receive baseband processor (RX BBP) 402 for providing a receive baseband signal 309 and a transmit baseband processor (TX BBP) 404 for generating a transmit baseband signal 311 for the radio IC circuit. The baseband processing circuit 400 may also include control logic 406 for coordinating the operation of the baseband processing circuit 400.

[0053] In some embodiments (e.g., when analog baseband signals are exchanged between baseband processing circuit 400 and radio IC circuit 106), baseband processing circuit 400 may include ADC 410 to convert analog baseband signals received from radio IC circuit 106 into digital baseband signals for processing by RX BBP 402. In these embodiments, baseband processing circuit 400 may also include DAC 412 to convert digital baseband signals from TX BBP 404 into analog baseband signals.

[0054] In some embodiments, for example, in which an OFDM signal or an OFDMA signal is transmitted by the baseband processing circuit 108A, the transmit baseband processor 404 may be configured to generate an OFDM or OFDMA signal suitable for transmission by performing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT). The receive baseband processor 402 may be configured to process the received OFDM signal or OFDMA signal by performing an FFT. In some embodiments, the receive baseband processor 402 may be configured to detect the presence of an OFDM signal or OFDMA signal by performing an autocorrelation to detect a preamble (e.g., a short preamble) and by performing a cross-correlation to detect a long preamble. The preamble may be part of a predetermined frame structure for Wi-Fi communication.

[0055] refer to Figure 1 In some embodiments, antenna 101 ( Figure 1 ) can each include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas can be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result. Each of the antennas 101 can include a set of phased array antennas, although the embodiments are not limited thereto.

[0056] Although the radio architecture 100 is shown as having several separate functional elements, one or more of these functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by a combination of software-configured elements, for example, a processing element including a digital signal processor (DSP) and / or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), and combinations of various hardware and logic circuits for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, a functional element may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0057] Figure 5 A WLAN 500 is shown in accordance with some embodiments. The WLAN 500 may include a basic service set (BSS) that may include an access point (AP) AP 502, a plurality of stations (STAs) 504, and a plurality of legacy devices 506. In some embodiments, the STA 504 and / or the AP 502 are configured to operate in accordance with IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT) and / or High Efficiency (HE) IEEE 802.11ax. In some embodiments, the STA 504 and / or the AP 502 are configured to operate in accordance with IEEE802.11az. In some embodiments, the STA 504, the AP 502, the AP MLD 808, and / or the non-AP MLD 809 are configured to operate in accordance with IEEE P802.11be. TM / D3.2 (May 2023) and / or IEEE P802.11-REVme TM / D2.0 (October 2022), all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0058] AP 502 may be an AP that transmits and receives using IEEE 802.11. AP 502 may be a base station. AP 502 may use other communication protocols as well as IEEE 802.11 protocols. According to some embodiments, the EHT protocol may be referred to by different names. The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include the use of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), and / or code division multiple access (CDMA). The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include multiple access technologies. For example, the IEEE 802.11 protocol may include space division multiple access (SDMA) and / or multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO). There may be more than one EHT AP 502, which are part of an extended service set (ESS). A controller (not shown) may store information common to more than one AP 502, and may control more than one BSS, for example, assigning a primary channel, color, etc. AP 502 may be connected to the Internet.

[0059] The legacy device 506 may operate according to one or more of IEEE 802.11a / b / g / n / ac / ad / af / ah / aj / ay / ax or another legacy wireless communication standard. The legacy device 506 may be a STA or an IEEE STA. The STA 504 may be a wireless transmitting and receiving device, such as a cellular phone, a portable electronic wireless communication device, a smart phone, a handheld wireless device, wireless glasses, a wireless watch, a wireless personal device, a tablet device, or another device that can transmit and receive using an IEEE 802.11 protocol (e.g., IEEE 802.11be) or another wireless protocol.

[0060] The AP 502 may communicate with the legacy device 506 according to conventional IEEE 802.11 communication techniques. In an example embodiment, the AP 502 may also be configured to communicate with the STA 504 according to conventional IEEE 802.11 communication techniques.

[0061] In some embodiments, the HE or EHT frame may be configured to have the same bandwidth as the channel. The HE or EHT frame may be a physical layer convergence process (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU). In some embodiments, PPDU may be an abbreviation of a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU). In some embodiments, there may be different types of PPDUs, which may have different fields and different physical layers and / or different media access control (MAC) layers. For example, a single user (SU) PPDU, a multi-user (MU) PPDU, an extended range (ER) SU PPDU, and / or a trigger-based (TB) PPDU. In some embodiments, the EHT may be the same or similar to the HE PPDU.

[0062] The bandwidth of the channel can be 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, 160MHz, 160+160MHz, 320MHz, 320+320MHz, 640MHz bandwidth. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of a channel less than 20MHz can be 1MHz, 1.25MHz, 2.03MHz, 2.5MHz, 4.06MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz, or a combination thereof, or another bandwidth less than or equal to the available bandwidth can also be used. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channel can be based on the number of active data subcarriers. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channel is based on 26, 52, 106, 242, 484, 996, or 2x996 active data subcarriers or tones spaced apart by 20MHz. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channel is 256 tones spaced apart by 20MHz. In some embodiments, the channel is a multiple of 26 tones or a multiple of 20MHz. In some embodiments, a 20 MHz channel may include 242 active data subcarriers or tones, which may determine the size of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).According to some embodiments, the allocation of bandwidth or number of tones or subcarriers may be referred to as a Resource Unit (RU) allocation.

[0063] In some embodiments, 26 subcarrier RUs and 52 subcarrier RUs are used for OFDMA HE PPDU formats of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, and 80+80MHz. In some embodiments, 106 subcarrier RUs are used for OFDMA and MU-MIMO HE PPDU formats of 20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, and 80+80MHz. In some embodiments, 242 subcarrier RUs are used for OFDMA and MU-MIMO HE PPDU formats of 40MHz, 80MHz, 160MHz, and 80+80MHz. In some embodiments, 484 subcarrier RUs are used for OFDMA and MU-MIMO HE PPDU formats of 80MHz, 160MHz, and 80+80MHz. In some embodiments, 996 subcarrier RUs are used for OFDMA and MU-MIMO HE PPDU formats of 160MHz and 80+80MHz.

[0064] HE or EHT frames may be configured to transmit multiple spatial streams, which may be based on MU-MIMO and may be based on OFDMA. In other embodiments, the AP 502, STA 504, and / or legacy device 506 may also implement different technologies, such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000, CDMA 2000 IX, CDMA 2000 Evolution Data Optimized (EV-DO), Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), Low power consumption or other techniques.

[0065] According to some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, for example, IEEE 802.11 EHT / ax / be embodiments, HE AP 502 may operate as a master station that may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium (e.g., during a contention period) to receive exclusive control of the medium to obtain a transmission opportunity (TXOP). AP 502 may send an EHT / HE trigger frame transmission, which may include a schedule for simultaneous UL / DL transmissions from STA 504. AP 502 may send the duration and subchannel information of the TXOP. During the TXOP, STA 504 may communicate with AP 502 according to a non-contention-based multiple access technology such as OFDMA or MU-MIMO. This is different from traditional WLAN communications, in which devices communicate according to contention-based communication technologies rather than multiple access technologies. During the HE or EHT control period, AP 502 may communicate with STA 504 using one or more HE or EHT frames. During the TXOP, HE STA 504 may operate on a subchannel that is smaller than the operating range of AP 502. During the TXOP, legacy stations refrain from communicating. Legacy stations may need to receive communications from the HE AP 502 to defer communications.

[0066] According to some embodiments, during the TXOP, the STA 504 may contend for the wireless medium, while during the primary synchronization transmission, the legacy device 506 is excluded from contending for the wireless medium. In some embodiments, the trigger frame may indicate a UL-MU-MIMO and / or UL OFDMA TXOP. In some embodiments, the trigger frame may include a DL UL-MU-MIMO and / or DL ​​OFDMA, wherein the scheduling is indicated in the preamble of the trigger frame.

[0067] In some embodiments, the multiple access technology used during the HE or EHT TXOP may be a scheduled OFDMA technology, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, the multiple access technology may be a time division multiple access (TDMA) technology or a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) technology. In some embodiments, the multiple access technology may be a space division multiple access (SDMA) technology. In some embodiments, the multiple access technology may be a code division multiple access (CDMA).

[0068] AP 502 may also communicate with legacy devices 506 and / or STA 504 according to conventional IEEE 802.11 communication techniques. In some embodiments, AP 502 may also be configured to communicate with STA 504 outside of a TXOP according to conventional IEEE 802.11 or IEEE 802.11 EHT / ax communication techniques, although this is not a requirement.

[0069] In some embodiments, STA 504 may be a group owner (GO) of peer-to-peer operation mode. The wireless device may be STA 504 or HE AP 502. According to some embodiments, STA 504 may be referred to as non-access point (AP) STA 504.

[0070] In some embodiments, STA 504 and / or AP 502 may be configured to operate in accordance with IEEE 802.11mc. In an example embodiment. Figure 1 The radio architecture of is configured to implement STA 504 and / or AP 502. In an example embodiment, Figure 2 The front-end module circuit is configured to implement STA 504 and / or AP 502. In an example embodiment, Figure 3 The radio IC circuit is configured to implement HE STA 504 and / or AP 502. In an example embodiment, Figure 4 The baseband processing circuit is configured to implement STA 504 and / or AP 502.

[0071] In an example embodiment, the STA 504, the AP 502, the apparatus of the STA 504, and / or the apparatus of the AP 502 may include one or more of the following: Figure 1 The radio architecture Figure 2 Front-end module circuit, Figure 3 Radio IC circuits, and / or Figure 4 Baseband processing circuit.

[0072] In an example embodiment, Figure 1 The radio architecture Figure 2 Front-end module circuit, Figure 3Radio IC circuits, and / or Figure 4 The baseband processing circuitry may be configured to perform the Figures 1 to 15 Describes the method and operation / function.

[0073] In an example embodiment, STA 504 and / or AP 502 are configured to perform the Figures 1 to 15 In an example embodiment, the apparatus of STA 504 and / or the apparatus of AP 502 are configured to perform the methods and operations / functions described herein. Figures 1 to 15 The term Wi-Fi may refer to one or more of the IEEE 802.11 communication standards. AP and STA may refer to EHT / HE access points and / or EHT / HE stations as well as legacy devices 506.

[0074] In some embodiments, HE AP STA may refer to AP 502 and / or STA 504 operating as EHT AP 502. In some embodiments, when STA 504 does not operate as an AP, it may be referred to as a non-AP STA or a non-AP. In some embodiments, STA 504 may be referred to as an AP STA or a non-AP. AP 502 may be part of a non-collocated AP MLD (e.g., non-collocated AP MLD3 912), collocated AP MLD1 904, or collocated AP MLD2 908. STA 504 may be part of a non-AP MLD 809, which may be referred to as an ML non-AP logical entity. A BSS may be part of an extended service set (ESS), which may include multiple APs and may include one or more management devices. BSSs in an ESS may communicate with each other and / or may be managed by another device or one or more BSSs. In addition, an ESS may have a gateway, a router, or another network device that connects the ESS to other networks (such as the Internet).

[0075] Figure 6A block diagram of an example machine 600 is shown on which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methods) discussed herein may be performed. In alternative embodiments, the machine 600 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 600 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in a server-client network environment. In one example, the machine 600 may operate as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The machine 600 may be a HE AP 502, an EVT STA 504, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable communication device, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a network appliance, a network router, a switch or a bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequentially or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by the machine. Further, while a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines (e.g., cloud computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations) that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

[0076] The machine (e.g., computer system) 600 may include a hardware processor 602 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 604, and a static memory 606, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interconnect (e.g., a bus) 608.

[0077] Specific examples of main memory 604 include random access memory (RAM) and semiconductor memory devices, which in some embodiments may include storage locations in a semiconductor, such as registers. Specific examples of static memory 606 include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; RAM; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

[0078] The machine 600 may also include a display device 610, an input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 614 (e.g., a mouse). In one example, the display device 610, the input device 612, and the UI navigation device 614 may be a touch screen display. The machine 600 may also include a mass storage device (e.g., a drive unit) 616, a signal generating device 618 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 620, and one or more sensors 621, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensors. The machine 600 may include an output controller 628, such as a serial (e.g., a universal serial bus (USB)), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, a card reader, etc.). In some embodiments, the processor 602 and / or the instruction 624 may include a processing circuit and / or a transceiver circuit.

[0079] The mass storage 616 device may include a machine-readable medium 622 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 624 (e.g., software) that embody or are utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functionality described herein. The instructions 624 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 604, within the static memory 606, or within the hardware processor 602 during execution by the machine 600. In one example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 602, the main memory 604, the static memory 606, or the mass storage 616 device may constitute a machine-readable medium.

[0080] Specific examples of machine-readable media may include: nonvolatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM or EEPROM) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; RAM; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

[0081] Although the machine-readable medium 622 is illustrated as a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” may include a single medium or multiple media (eg, a centralized or distributed database, and / or associated caches and servers) configured to store one or more instructions 624 .

[0082] The apparatus of the machine 600 may be one or more of a hardware processor 602 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 604, a static memory 606, a sensor 621, a network interface device 620, an antenna 660, a display device 610, an input device 612, a UI navigation device 614, a mass storage device 616, instructions 624, a signal generation device 618, and an output controller 628. The apparatus may be configured to perform one or more of the methods and / or operations disclosed herein. The apparatus may be intended to be a component of the machine 600 to perform one or more of the methods and / or operations disclosed herein, and / or to perform a portion of one or more of the methods or operations disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the apparatus may include a pin or other means for receiving power. In some embodiments, the apparatus may include power regulation hardware.

[0083] The term "machine-readable medium" may include any medium capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 600 and causing the machine 600 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or any medium capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used by these instructions or data structures associated with these instructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examples may include solid-state memory and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine-readable media may include: non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; random access memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, the machine-readable medium may include non-transitory machine-readable media. In some examples, the machine-readable medium may include machine-readable media that is not a transient propagation signal.

[0084] The instructions 624 may also be sent or received using a transmission medium over a communication network 626 via the network interface device 620 using any of a variety of transmission protocols including, for example, frame relay, Internet Protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc. Example communication networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), a mobile telephone network (e.g., a cellular network), a plain old telephone (POTS) network, a wireless data network (e.g., known as a wireless network), a wireless data network (e.g., a wireless network such as a Wi-Fi network), a wireless cellular network (e.g., ... The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards, known as IEEE 802.16 family of standards, IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards), Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, etc.

[0085] In one example, the network interface device 620 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or telephone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communication network 626. In one example, the network interface device 620 may include one or more antennas 660 to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) technology. In some examples, the network interface device 620 may use multi-user MIMO technology for wireless communication. The term "transmission medium" should be deemed to include any intangible medium that can store, encode, or carry instructions for execution by the machine 600, and includes digital or analog communication signals or other intangible media to facilitate the communication of such software.

[0086] As described herein, examples may include logic or multiple components, modules, or mechanisms, or may be operated on them. A module is a tangible entity (e.g., hardware) that can perform a specified operation, and may be configured or arranged in some way. In one example, a circuit may be arranged as a module in a specified manner (e.g., arranged internally, or arranged relative to an external entity such as other circuits). In one example, all or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., independent, client or server computer systems) or one or more hardware processors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g., instructions, application parts, or applications) to operate to perform a specified operation of the module. In one example, the software may reside on a machine-readable medium. In one example, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to perform a specified operation.

[0087] Thus, the term "module" is understood to include a tangible entity, referring to an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transient) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a particular manner or to perform part or all of any operations described herein. Considering an example where a module is temporarily configured, each module need not be instantiated at any one time. For example, where a module includes a general-purpose hardware processor configured using software, the general-purpose hardware processor can be configured as corresponding different modules at different times. The software can configure the hardware processor accordingly, for example, to constitute a particular module at one time and to constitute a different module at a different time.

[0088] Some embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in software and / or firmware. The software and / or firmware may take the form of instructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. These instructions may then be read and executed by one or more processors to enable the operations described herein to be performed. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as, but not limited to, source code, compiled code, parsed code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, etc. Such a computer-readable medium may include any tangible, non-transitory medium for storing information in one or more computer-readable forms, such as, but not limited to, read-only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory, etc.

[0089] Figure 7 A block diagram of an example wireless device 700 is shown on which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methods or operations) discussed herein may be performed. The wireless device 700 may be a HE device or a HE wireless device. The wireless device 700 may be a HE STA 504, a HE AP 502, and / or a HE STA or HE AP. The HE STA 504, the HE AP 502, and / or the HE AP or HE STA may include Figures 1 to 7 The wireless device 700 may be a device that incorporates Figure 6 An example machine 600 is disclosed.

[0090] The wireless device 700 may include processing circuitry 708. The processing circuitry 708 may include a transceiver 702, a physical layer circuitry (PHY circuitry) 704, and a MAC layer circuitry (MAC circuitry) 706, one or more of which may enable the transmission and reception of signals to and from other wireless devices 700 (e.g., HE AP 502, HE STA 504, and / or legacy device 506) using one or more antennas 712. For example, the PHY circuitry 704 may perform various encoding and decoding functions, which may include forming baseband signals for transmission and decoding received signals. As another example, the transceiver 702 may perform various transmission and reception functions, such as signal conversion between a baseband range and a radio frequency (RF) range.

[0091] Thus, the PHY circuit 704 and the transceiver 702 may be separate components or may be part of a combined component (e.g., the processing circuit 708). In addition, some of the functions described in connection with the transmission and reception of signals may be performed by a combination including any one or all of the following: the PHY circuit 704, the transceiver 702, the MAC circuit 706, the memory 710, and other components or layers. The MAC circuit 706 may control access to the wireless medium. The wireless device 700 may also include a memory 710, which is arranged to perform the operations described herein, for example, some of the operations described herein may be performed by instructions stored in the memory 710.

[0092] Antenna 712 (some embodiments may include only one antenna) may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, antennas 712 may be effectively separated to exploit spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

[0093] One or more of the memory 710, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuit 704, the MAC circuit 706, the antenna 712, and / or the processing circuit 708 may be coupled to each other. In addition, although the memory 710, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuit 704, the MAC circuit 706, the antenna 712 are shown as separate components, one or more of the memory 710, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuit 704, the MAC 706, and the antenna 712 may be integrated into an electronic package or chip.

[0094] In some embodiments, the wireless device 700 may be a combination of Figure 6 In some embodiments, the wireless device 700 may be configured to communicate with the user in accordance with one or more wireless communication standards described herein (e.g., as described in conjunction with Figures 1 to 6 11), the wireless device 700 may include a Figure 6One or more of the components described herein (e.g., display device 610, input device 612, etc.). Although wireless device 700 is shown as having several separate functional elements, one or more of these functional elements can be combined and can be implemented by a combination of software configuration elements (such as, a processing element including a digital signal processor (DSP) and / or other hardware elements). For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), and combinations of various hardware and logic circuits for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, a functional element may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0095] In some embodiments, the apparatus of the wireless device 700 or the apparatus used by the wireless device 700 may include Figure 7 The wireless device 700 and / or Figures 1 to 6 Thus, in some embodiments, the techniques and operations described herein relating to the wireless device 700 may be applicable to an apparatus of the wireless device 700 (e.g., HE AP 502 and / or HESTA 504). In some embodiments, the wireless device 700 is configured to decode and / or encode signals, packets, and / or frames, such as PPDUs, as described herein.

[0096] In some embodiments, the MAC circuit 706 may be arranged to contend for the wireless medium during a contention period to receive control of the medium for the HE TXOP and to encode or decode the HE PPDU. In some embodiments, the MAC circuit 706 may be arranged to contend for the wireless medium based on a channel contention setting, a transmit power level, and a clear channel assessment level (e.g., an energy detection level).

[0097] The PHY circuit 704 may be arranged to send a signal according to one or more communication standards described herein. For example, the PHY circuit 704 may be configured to send a HE PPDU. The PHY circuit 704 may include circuits for modulation / demodulation, up-conversion / down-conversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 708 may include one or more processors. The processing circuit 708 may be configured to perform functions based on instructions stored in a RAM or ROM or based on a dedicated circuit. The processing circuit 708 may include a processor such as a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor. The processing circuit 708 may implement one or more functions associated with the antenna 712, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuit 704, the MAC circuit 706, and / or the memory 710. In some embodiments, the processing circuit 708 may be configured to perform one or more of the functions / operations and / or methods described herein.

[0098] In millimeter wave technology, stations (e.g. Figure 5 HE STA 504 or wireless device 700) and access point (e.g., Figure 5 Communications between HE AP 502 or wireless device 700]) can use an associated effective wireless channel that is highly directionally dependent. To accommodate the directivity, beamforming techniques can be used to radiate energy in a specific direction with a specific beam width to communicate between the two devices. Directional propagation focuses the transmitted energy to the target device to compensate for significant energy losses in the channel between the two communicating devices. Using directional transmission can extend the range of millimeter wave communications compared to using the same transmission energy in omnidirectional propagation.

[0099] The technical problem is how to communicate with STAs and other devices that can only listen to one frequency band at a time but are associated with more than one frequency band. Some embodiments enable the MLD to ensure that STAs and other wireless devices communicating with the MLD do not miss important fields or elements. Some STAs or other wireless devices communicating with the MLD may be associated with the MLD on several different frequency bands but only receive or listen to one frequency band. However, the MLD and the STAs or other wireless devices may need to follow the procedures transmitted on other frequency bands of the MLD. An embodiment includes a field or element sent by a first AP of the MLD operating on a first frequency band being sent by other APs operating on different frequency bands. In this case, the STAs and other wireless devices can follow the procedures (if any) as if the STA or other wireless device received the field or element from the first AP.

[0100] Figure 8 A multi-link device (MLD) 800 is shown in accordance with some embodiments. Figure 8ML logical entity 1 806, ML logical entity 2 807, AP MLD 808, and non-AP MLD 809 are shown. ML logical entity 1 806 includes three STAs: STA1.1 814.1, STA1.2 814.2, and STA1.3 814.3, which operate according to link 1 802.1, link 2 802.2, and link 3 802.3, respectively.

[0101] These links are different frequency bands, for example, 2.4 GHz band, 5 GHz band, 6 GHz band, etc. ML logic entity 2 807 includes STA2.1 816.1, STA2.2 816.2, and STA2.3 816.3, which operate according to link 1 802.1, link 2 802.2, and link 3 802.3, respectively. In some embodiments, ML logic entity 1 806 and ML logic entity 2 807 operate according to a mesh network. Using three links enables ML logic entity 1 806 and ML logic entity 2 807 to operate more reliably using a larger bandwidth because they can switch to using a different link if there is interference or if one link is superior due to operating conditions.

[0102] Distribution system (DS) 810 indicates how communications are distributed, and DS medium (DSM) 812 indicates the medium used for DS 810, in this case the wireless spectrum.

[0103] AP MLD 808 includes AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834, which operate on link 1 804.1, link 2 804.2, and link 3 804.3, respectively. AP MLD 808 includes MAC address 854, which can be used by an application to send and receive data on one or more of AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834. Each link can have an associated link ID. For example, as shown, link 3 804.3 has link ID 870.

[0104] AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834 include frequency bands, which are 2.4 GHz band 836, 5 GHz band 838, and 6 GHz band 840, respectively. AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834 include different BSSIDs, which are BSSID 842, BSSID 844, and BSSID 846, respectively. AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834 include different media access control (MAC) addresses (addr), which are MAC address 848, MAC address 850, and MAC address 852, respectively. According to some embodiments, AP 502 is APMLD 808. According to some embodiments, STA 504 is non-AP MLD 809.

[0105] The non-AP MLD 809 includes non-AP STA1 818, non-AP STA2 820, and non-AP STA3 822. Each non-AP STA may have a MAC address, and the non-AP MLD 809 may have a different MAC address used by an application in which data traffic is divided among non-AP STA1 818, non-AP STA2 820, and non-AP STA3 822.

[0106] According to some embodiments, STA 504 is non-AP STA1 818, non-AP STA2 820, or non-AP STA3 822. Non-AP STA1 818, non-AP STA2 820, and non-AP STA3 822 may operate on link 1 804.1, link 2 804.2, and link 3 804.3, respectively, as if they were associated with the BSS of AP1 830, AP2 832, or AP3 834, respectively.

[0107] A multi-link device such as ML logical entity 1 806 or ML logical entity 2 807 is a logical entity that includes STA1.1 814.1, STA1.2 814.2, STA1.3 814.3, STA2.1 816.1, STA2.2 816.2, and STA2.3 816.3. ML logical entity 1 806 and ML logical entity 2 807 each have a MAC data service interface and primitives to logical link control (LLC) and a single address associated with the interface that can be used to communicate on DSM 812. The multi-link logical entity allows STAs within the multi-link logical body to have the same MAC address. In some embodiments, the same MAC address is used for the application layer, and a different MAC address is used for each link.

[0108] In the infrastructure framework, the AP MLD 808 on one side includes APs 830 , 832 , 834 , while the non-AP MLD 809 on the other side includes non-AP STAs 818 , 820 , 822 .

[0109] According to some embodiments, the ML AP device (AP MLD) is an ML logical entity in which each STA is an EHT AP 502. The ML non-AP device (non-AP MLD) is an ML logical entity in which each STA is a non-AP EHT STA 504. AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834 may operate on different frequency bands, and there may be fewer or more APs. There may be fewer or more STAs as part of the non-AP MLD 809.

[0110] In some embodiments, AP MLD 808 is referred to as AP MLD or MLD. In some embodiments, non-AP MLD 809 is referred to as MLD or non-AP MLD. Each AP of MLD (e.g., AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834) sends a beacon frame that includes: a description of its capabilities, an operational element, a basic description of other collocated APs of the same MLD (which may be a report in a reduced neighbor report element or another element such as a basic multilink element). AP1 830, AP2 832, and AP3 834 send information about other APs in beacons and probe response frames so that STAs of non-AP MLDs can discover APs of AP MLDs.

[0111] Fig. 9 Collocated MLDs and non-collocated MLDs are shown according to some embodiments. Collocated AP MLD1 904 includes a collocated set 902 of AP1, AP2, and AP3. Collocated AP MLD2 908 includes a collocated set 906 of AP4, AP5, and AP6. According to some embodiments, collocated AP MLD1 904 and collocated AP MLD2 908 are AP MLDs 808 and / or as described in conjunction with IEEE P802.11be. TM / D3.0 (January 2023). AP1 to AP6 may be the same as or similar to AP 502. Collocated set 902 may have ID 905, and collocated set 906 may have ID 907. ID 905 and ID 907 may be used as part of the identification of the AP in the collocated set ID or collocated AP MLD ID field.

[0112] Non-collocated AP MLD3 912 includes AP MLD1 916, which in turn includes collocated set 910, and AP MLD2 918, which in turn includes collocated set 914. According to some embodiments, non-collocated AP MLD3 912 may be implemented as a IEEE P802.11be TM / D3.2, May 2023 ("IEEE 802.11be") or Wi-Fi 8. For example, AP MLD1 916 and AP MLD2 918 may be implemented on separate electronic devices and may be physically separated from each other. Non-collocated AP MLD3 may include hundreds or more AP MLDs. If APs 502 such as AP1, AP2, ..., AP6 are associated with the same MLD, they may be referred to as affiliated.

[0113] Enterprise-planned BSSs may be referred to as ESSs, Wi-Fi deployments, networks, or other terms may be used. Enterprise-planned Wi-Fi deployments are developed to achieve a certain degree of frequency reuse to improve overall system throughput. The reuse factor or spatial reuse (SR) factor is the ratio at which the same carrier frequency can be reused in a network deployment. A reuse factor (which may be referred to as K) of 1 means that all APs in the network can reuse any frequency. The number of cells that cannot use the same frequency is represented by K. For example, if K is three, every three cells can reuse frequency, but two cells cannot. In some embodiments, the spatial reuse factor is the ratio between the BSS transmit / receive radius (R) and the distance (D) between APs on the same channel.

[0114] The technical question is how to increase the reuse factor, which tends to increase the overall throughput of the network. Achieving a reuse factor K of 1 is very difficult due to interference. In addition, in the case of Wi-Fi or IEEE 802.11 with multiple transmission bandwidths as options (e.g., 20MHz to 320MHz), increasing the frequency reuse factor allows each AP to use a larger bandwidth without interference from nearby APs. Some Wi-Fi enterprise planned deployments use frequency reuse factors between 7 and 9.

[0115] In some embodiments, APs that are a certain distance apart from each other (reuse factor) reduce their transmit power or desensitize their receivers (reduce their minimum sensitivity) to increase spatial reuse. This mechanism can be used to obtain a certain degree of reuse in a certain area. In these embodiments, there is no coordination between APs except for occasional transmit power or receiver desensitization adjustments. Each AP performs normal enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) and spatial reuse is achieved by transmit power (TX power) adjustments (e.g., reducing TX power) and / or increasing the value of the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) before the signal is considered to have been received.

[0116] Some embodiments use AP coordination to achieve SR gains at lower reuse factors. In some embodiments, the spatial reuse factor is defined as the ratio between the BSS transmit / receive radius (R) and the distance (D) between APs on the same channel. In some embodiments, the spatial reuse factor is less than 0.2, which field experience shows provides a certain level of network throughput gain.

[0117] AP 502, STA 504, non-AP MLD 809, AP MLD 808, and other network devices consume more power and are more complex in features and hardware / software design. A technical challenge is how to reduce power consumption within non-AP MLD 809 and AP MLD 808.

[0118] In some embodiments, a mechanism for saving power using a traffic identifier (TID) to link mapping 1002 and an advertised TID to link mapping 1002 is disclosed. The TID to link mapping 1002 specifies the mapping of TIDs to different links 804 of a non-AP MLD 809. If no TID is mapped to a link, the link is disabled, and if at least one TID is mapped to a link, the link is enabled. The TID to link mapping 1004 can be negotiated for each non-AP MLD 809 and its associated AP MLD 808.

[0119] The advertised TID-to-link mapping 1002 allows the AP 502 or AP MLD 808 to include in its transmitted beacon frames the TID-to-link mapping 1002 that is employed on all associated non-AP MLDs 809. The AP MLD 808 may configure the advertised TID-to-link mapping 1002 such that some links 804 are disabled for all associated non-AP MLDs 809. All associated non-AP MLDs 809 will update their TID-to-link mappings 1004 to treat the links 804 as disabled, and will not allow frame exchanges with the AP MLD 808 on the disabled links 804, so that the AP (e.g., AP1 830, AP2 832, or AP3 834 on link 1 804.1, link 2 804.2, or link 804.3, respectively) may enter a dormant state or become unavailable and save power.

[0120] For example, in a home environment at night, an AP MLD 808 with three APs (AP1 830, AP2 832, or AP3 834 operating on 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz, respectively) is active during the day, and then at night the AP MLD 808 configures the advertised TID to link mapping 1002 so that only the 2.4 GHz AP1 830 will remain active on link 1 804.1, and AP2 832 operating on link 2 804.2 on 5 GHz and AP3 834 operating on link 3 804.3 on 6 GHz are disabled.

[0121] With this configuration of the AP MLD 808, non-AP MLDs 809 or STAs 504 (typically IoT devices) that need to maintain AP activity at night connect primarily at 2.4 GHz, with these services being retained on the AP1 830 operating at 2.4 GHz on Link 1 804.1, and high throughput links (e.g., Link 2 804.2 and Link 3 804.3) being dedicated to more intensive communication needs, such as laptops, smartphones, etc. The AP MLD 808 may assign or negotiate a separate TID-to-link mapping 1002 to each non-AP MLD 809 and / or STA 504 of the non-AP MLD 809.

[0122] In some embodiments, the AP MLD 808 advertises a TID-to-link mapping 1002, wherein the non-AP MLD 809 is required to observe the advertised TID-to-link mapping 1002. In some embodiments, the non-AP MLD 809 may negotiate or request a change to the TID-to-link mapping 1002.

[0123] In some embodiments, the non-AP MLD 809 and / or the STA 504 may request a different TID to link mapping 1004. For example, the non-AP MLD 809 requires higher throughput and / or capacity to provide streaming video services to client devices such as smart phones. The non-AP MLD 809 may request a different TID to link mapping 1004, which may enable one or more links 804 that are currently disabled and / or disable one or more links 804 that are currently enabled. The signaling sent by both the AP MLD 808 and the non-AP MLD 809 to change the TID to link mapping 1002 may enable the AP MLD 808 to maintain one or more APs (e.g., AP1 830, AP2 832, or AP3 834) of the AP MLD 808 in a power saving mode. The AP MLD 808 may place the AP in a power saving mode by disabling the corresponding link, while the non-AP MLD 809 may request that the link be enabled, which causes the AP to exit the power saving mode. The power saving mode may be more important for soft or mobile AP MLD 808, which may be a mobile device with limited power capabilities (eg, battery). In addition, there is a need to reduce the power used by AP MLD 808 and / or non-AP MLD 809.

[0124] Fig.10 A method for link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device (MLD) according to some embodiments is shown. Fig.11 A TID-to-link mapping element 1102 is shown in accordance with some embodiments. Fig.12 A TWT element 1202 is shown according to some embodiments. The TWT element 1202 and / or the TID to link mapping element 1102 can be different elements or frames. The TWT element 1302 describes the TWT SP. The scheduling of the SP is calculated based on the timing synchronization function (TSF) of the AP sending the frame. The service period field 1204, the duration 1208, and the periodicity field 1210 indicate one or more SPs.

[0125] Fig.11 A TID to Link Map element 1102 is shown in accordance with some embodiments. The TID to Link Map element 1102 includes an element ID 1106 field, a length 1108 field, an element ID extension 1110 field, a TID to Link Map Control 1112 field, a Map Switch Time 1114 field, an expected duration 1116 field, and a Link Map for TID 0 1118 field to Link Map for TID 7 1120 field. Octet 1104 indicates the number of octets of the field.

[0126] The TID to Link Mapping Control 1112 field includes a Direction 1126 field, a Default Link Mapping 1128 field, a Mapping Switch Time Present 1130 field, an Expected Duration Present 1132 field, a Link Mapping Size 1134 field, a Reserved 1136 field, and a Link Mapping Present Indicator 1138 field. Bit 1124 indicates the number of bits in each field. One or more of these fields may be as described in IEEE P802.11be. TM / D3.2, as released in mid-May 2023.

[0127] In some embodiments, the AP MLD 808 sends an advertised TID to link mapping 1006 to one or more non-AP MLDs 809. The advertised TID to link mapping 1006 may be included in a beacon frame or another frame. The advertised TID to link mapping 1006 may be a frame or element such as a TID to link mapping element 1102. The non-AP MLD 809 decodes the advertised TID to link mapping 1006 and operates according to the TID to link mapping 1006.

[0128] AP MLD 808 may disable link 804 by not assigning a TID to link 804. The associated non-AP MLDs 809 will update their TID-to-link mappings 1004 and treat link 804 (without a TID assigned to it) as a disabled link 804. According to some embodiments, AP MLD 808 and non-AP MLD 809 do not exchange frames on disabled link 804 (or link 804 that is not assigned a TID in TID-to-link mappings 1002). AP1 830, AP2 832, and / or AP3 834 may then be placed in a power saving mode because they are disabled and not servicing any TID of AP MLD 808. AP MLD 808 may be a non-collocated AP MLD3 912 or a collocated AP MLD1 904.

[0129] For example, AP MLD 808 may assign all TIDs in TID-to-link mapping 1002 (which may be sent in advertised TID-to-link mapping 1006) to AP1 830 (2.4 GHz), which enables AP2 832 (5 GHz) and AP3 834 (6 GHz) to enter power saving mode. AP MLD 808 may enable AP2 832 and AP3 834 to enter power saving mode during periods of low or no usage, such as at night. AP1 830 may be configured to handle traffic such as IoT devices.

[0130] In some embodiments, the non-AP MLD 809 requests to re-enable the disabled link. For example, during the period when the link was disabled, the non-AP MLD 809 may need some additional capacity (eg, the non-AP MLD 809 needs higher throughput and / or capacity).

[0131] In some embodiments, the non-AP MLD 809 sends an element, frame, and / or packet indicating the requested TID-to-link mapping 1004 and / or one or more APs (e.g., AP1 830, AP2 832, and / or AP3 834) to be enabled (either with a new TID mapping or to be disabled) or one or more links 804 (e.g., link 1 804.1, link 2 804.2, and / or link 3 804.3) and / or including TIDs mapped to the links.

[0132] In some embodiments, the request 1008 frame is a TID to link mapping request frame that includes a TID to link mapping 1004 element. The request 1008 may be a different element, a new frame (for this type of request only), or another type of packet or frame. In some embodiments, a TID to link mapping request frame is used as the request 1008. The TID to link mapping request frame 1152 may include a field such as a change request 1150 that indicates that the request is for changing an existing advertised TID to link mapping 1002.

[0133] Explicit signaling, such as field change request 1150, can be a simple flag (1-bit field) using a reserved bit in the TID to link control field, called a TID to link mapping change request such as notification.

[0134] In some embodiments, the request 1008 is a TID-to-link mapping request frame 1152 and the AP MLD 808 determines that this is a request to enable the AP or to change the TID-to-link mapping because the TID-to-link mapping within the request 1008 is different than the TID-link mapping 1002 included in the advertised TID-to-link mapping 1006 .

[0135] In some embodiments, in the request 1008 frame, which may be a TID-to-link mapping request frame 1152, the TID-to-link mapping element 1102 in the request 1008 frame includes a new proposed mapping by mapping all TIDs to links that are currently disabled by the advertised TID-to-link mapping 1006. In some embodiments, the TID-to-link mapping element 1102 maps the desired TID to the link that the non-AP MLD 809 wants. The TID-to-link mapping may be incomplete and may include TIDs for links that are currently disabled or have no TIDs mapped to a link.

[0136] In some embodiments, the request 1008 frame includes a modified element or additional elements describing the requested usage (e.g., high throughput application, real-time application, etc.). The description may include a quality of service (QoS) characteristic element. The AP MLD 808 may determine a new TID to link mapping 1002 based on the description of the requested usage.

[0137] In some embodiments, the request 1008 frame includes the requested duration. For example, the non-AP MLD 809 or one of the STAs can learn this information (using the expected duration subfield), or even learn the service period (if the STA knows the requested duration) by including a field describing the requested service period (e.g., the target wake time (TWT) element 1202).

[0138] The AP MLD 808 decodes the request 1008 frame. According to some embodiments, the AP MLD 808 sends a response 1010 frame. The response 1010 frame may be a new frame, a TID to link mapping request or response frame, an advertised TID to link mapping 1006 frame, a new element, a TWT frame, or another type of response. The AP MLD 808 may change the advertised TID to link mapping 1006 to enable the link indicated in the request 1008 frame. In some embodiments, the AP MLD 808 does not enable the requested link and does not enable any disabled links, or enables a link different from the requested link. In some embodiments, the AP MLD 808 indicates any changes by sending another advertised TID to link mapping 1006. In some embodiments, the response 1010 is an acknowledgment of receiving the request 1008 frame.

[0139] AP MLD 808 may not update the advertised TID-to-link mapping 1006. For example, AP MLD 808 may be a soft AP, whose AP is currently in a critical power state, such as a battery that is nearly depleted, currently limited, or has no excess power to continue operating.

[0140] In some embodiments, the AP MLD 808 and the non-AP MLD 809 perform TWT negotiation 1012 via frames exchanged on an enabled link, for example, assigning a TID to a link 804 in an advertised TID-to-link mapping 1006 to describe a service period (e.g., a service period indicated in a service period field 1204, which may have a duration indicated by a duration field 1208 and a periodicity indicated by a periodicity field 1210) for operating on another link 804 that is currently advertised as disabled by the AP MLD 808.

[0141] The TWT negotiation 1012 may be conducted over one link 806 that may be disabled and another link 804. The APMLD 808 may send an acceptance of the proposed SP for the link 804 in response to the TWT element 1202. Fig.13 An ultra high reliability (UHR) element 1302 is shown in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, to enable negotiation for a disabled link 804, for example using TWT negotiation 1012, a flag 1304 is used to indicate that negotiation for a disabled link is allowed.

[0142] The UHR operation element 1302 may indicate the operation parameters of the UHR operation. If the flag 1304 is set, the AP MLD 808 allows the STAs of the non-AP MLD 809 and the AP of the AP MLD 806 to request and negotiate TWT operation on the disabled link, for example, the TWT negotiation 1012.

[0143] According to some embodiments, if the negotiation (e.g., TWT negotiation 1012) is successful, the AP for link 804 will be active and available during the TWT SP of the STA, but unavailable at other times. According to some embodiments, other STAs may not be able to use disabled links during the TWT SP.

[0144] In some embodiments, the AP or AP MLD 808 does not send beacon frames on the disabled link during the TWT SP. In some embodiments, the AP or AP MLD 808 sends mini-beacon 1014 frames, which will be addressed to the STAs individually or in groups at the beginning of each TWT SP (as part of the TWT SP negotiation) and will only contain dynamic parameters required for operation, such as traffic indication map (TIM) elements, etc. Alternatively, the mini-beacon 1014 frames will be sent at the TBTT (target beacon frame transmission time) without sending beacon frames (especially when there is more than one STA with a TWT SP for the disabled link 804). In this way, the AP or AP MLD 808 can operate on this disabled link during the TWT SP.

[0145] Fig.14A method 1400 for link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device is shown in accordance with some embodiments. The method 1400 begins at operation 1402, encoding an advertised traffic identification (TID) to link mapping for transmission to a non-AP MLD, the advertised TID to link mapping indicating that a first AP affiliated with an AP MLD is disabled, the first AP being associated with a first link of the AP MLD. For example, the AP MLD 808 may encode an advertised TID to link mapping 1006 for transmission, the TID to link mapping 1006 may indicate that the link 804 is disabled. For example, AP2 832 or AP3 834 on link 2 804.2 or link 3 804.3, respectively, may be indicated as disabled because no TID is assigned to the link.

[0146] Method 1400 continues at operation 1404 by decoding a request to enable the first AP from the non-AP MLD on a second link of the AP MLD, the second link being associated with the second AP. For example, AP MLD 808 may decode request 1008 from non-AP MLD 809 on link 1 804.1.

[0147] Method 1400 continues at operation 1406 by encoding a response to the request to enable the first AP for transmission to the non-APMLD. Fig.10 As disclosed, the AP MLD 808 may encode the response 1010 and send it to the non-AP MLD 809 .

[0148] The method 1400 may be performed by an apparatus of an AP, an apparatus of an AP of an MLD, or other devices. The method 1400 may include one or more additional instructions. The method 1400 may be performed in a different order. One or more operations of the method 1400 may be optional.

[0149] Fig.15 A method 1500 for link activation and deactivation in a multi-link device according to some embodiments is shown. The method 1500 may begin at operation 1502 by decoding an advertised traffic identifier (TID) to link mapping from an AP MLD, the advertised TID to link mapping indicating that a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD is disabled, the first AP being associated with a first link of the AP MLD. For example, as described in conjunction with Fig.10 As disclosed, the non-AP MLD 809 may decode the advertised TID-to-link mapping 1006 .

[0150] Method 1500 continues at operation 1504 by encoding a request to enable the first AP for the AP MLD on a second link of the non-AP MLD, the second link being associated with a second AP of the AP MLD. For example, non-AP MLD 809 may encode request 1008 for transmission to AP MLD 808.

[0151] The method 1500 continues at operation 1506 by decoding a response from the AP MLD to the request to enable the first AP. For example, the non-AP MLD 809 may decode the response 1010 from the AP MLD 808.

[0152] The method 1500 may be performed by an apparatus of a STA, an apparatus of a non-AP MLD, or other devices. The method 1500 may include one or more additional instructions. The method 1500 may be performed in a different order. One or more operations of the method 1500 may be optional.

[0153] The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 CFR 1.72(b), which requires an abstract that will allow the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. It should be understood that the Abstract is not intended to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. An apparatus for an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (AP MLD), the apparatus comprising a memory and a processing circuit coupled to the memory, the processing circuit being configured to: encoding a notification traffic identifier (TID) to link mapping for transmission to a non-AP MLD, the notification TID to link mapping indicating that a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD is disabled, the first AP being associated with a first link of the AP MLD; decoding a request from the non-AP MLD to enable the first AP on a second link of the AP MLD, the second link being associated with a second AP; as well as A response to the request to enable the first AP is encoded for sending to the non-AP MLD.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The TID-to-link mapping indicates that the first AP is disabled by indicating that no TID is mapped to the first AP.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The request includes an indication of a request for a TID to be mapped to the first link.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The request includes a TID-to-link mapping including a field indicating that the TID-to-link mapping is a request to change a current TID-to-link mapping.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The request includes a TID to link mapping, and wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: In response to the TID-to-link mapping being different than the advertised TID-to-link mapping, a TID is assigned to the first link.

6. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The request includes a target wake time (TWT) element including a service period field indicating a time when the first link is active for the non-APMLD.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein: The TWT element is a first TWT element, and wherein the response includes a second TWT element indicating acceptance of the time.

8. The device according to claim 6, wherein: The request also includes an indication of a TID to link mapping.

9. The device according to claim 6, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: A beacon frame is encoded for transmission to the non-AP MLD on the first link at the beginning of the time, the beacon frame comprising a traffic indication map (TIM) element.

10. The device according to claim 6, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: A beacon frame is encoded for transmission on the first link to the non-AP MLD at a target beacon transmission time, the beacon frame including a traffic indication map (TIM) element.

11. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The response is an acknowledgement of the request.

12. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The non-AP MLD is one of a plurality of non-AP MLDs associated with the AP MLD.

13. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The request and the response are part of a target wake time (TWT) negotiation that determines a TID to be assigned to link one and the duration for which the TID is assigned to link one.

14. The device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein: The AP MLD is a non-collocated AP MLD.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for execution by one or more processors of an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (APMLD), the instructions being configured to: encoding a notification traffic identifier (TID) to link mapping for transmission to a non-AP MLD, the notification TID to link mapping indicating that a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD is disabled, the first AP being associated with a first link of the AP MLD; decoding a request from the non-AP MLD to enable the first AP on a second link of the AP MLD, the second link being associated with a second AP; as well as A response to the request to enable the first AP is encoded for sending to the non-AP MLD.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein: The TID-to-link mapping indicates that the first AP is disabled by indicating that no TID is mapped to the first AP.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 15 or 16, wherein: The request includes an indication of a request for a TID to be mapped to the first link.

18. An apparatus for a non-access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (non-AP MLD), the apparatus comprising a memory and a processing circuit coupled to the memory, the processing circuit being configured to: decoding an advertised traffic identifier (TID) to link mapping from an AP MLD, the advertised TID to link mapping indicating that a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD is disabled, the first AP being associated with a first link of the AP MLD; encoding a request for the AP MLD to enable the first AP over a second link of the non-AP MLD, the second link being associated with a second AP of the AP MLD; as well as A response from the AP MLD to the request to enable the first AP is decoded.

19. The device according to claim 18, wherein: The TID-to-link mapping indicates that the first AP is disabled by indicating that no TID is mapped to the first AP.

20. The device according to claim 18 or 19, wherein: The request includes an indication of a request for a TID to be mapped to the first link.

Images