Signaling support for redundancy capabilities for EHT

Abstract

An Very High Throughput (EHT) Station (STA) encodes a management frame to include a Quality of Service (QoS) capability element, where the Quality of Service (QoS) capability element includes a QoS information field configured to advertise QoS redundancy capabilities. The EHT STA may set a QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capability element to indicate (i.e., advertise) that the EHT STA supports redundancy for QoS data frames. The EHT STA may include an extended capability element in the management frame and set a new redundancy indicator bit in the extended capability element to indicate (i.e., advertise) that the EHT STA supports redundancy for a selected subset of IEEE 802.11 management frames.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] [CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 056,019, filed July 24, 2020 [Reference No.: AD1284-Z], and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 133,645, filed January 4, 2021 [Reference No.: AD4389-Z], the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] [Technical field] Some embodiments relate to wireless communications. Some of the embodiments relate to IEEE P802.11be and extreme-high throughput (EHT) networks. Some of the embodiments apply to signaling redundancy capabilities. Some of the embodiments relate to the operation of a multi-link device (MLD). [Background technology]

[0003] One issue related to communicating data over wireless networks is redundancy. Redundancy has become an essential part of time-sensitive networking and contributes to meeting high reliability and bounded latency requirements for time-sensitive traffic. A wireless network requires a mechanism for peers to signal in order for them to recognize support or otherwise for redundancy. Currently, there is no standard mechanism for indicating support for redundancy in a wireless network. Thus, there is a general need to indicate support for redundancy. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0004] [Figure 1] 1 illustrates a QoS Capabilities Element according to some embodiments. [Figure 2A] 1 illustrates a QoS information field for a STA according to some embodiments. [Figure 2B] 1 illustrates a QoS information field for an AP according to some embodiments. [Figure 3] 1 illustrates an Extended Capabilities Element according to some embodiments. [Figure 4] 1 illustrates the semantics of service primitives according to some embodiments. [Figure 5]1 illustrates an Intra-Access Priority field according to some embodiments. [Figure 6] 1 illustrates a functional block diagram of a wireless communication device according to some of the embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0005] The following description and drawings sufficiently illustrate several specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice those specific embodiments. Other embodiments may include structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some of the embodiments may be included within or substituted for portions and features of other embodiments. The embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available and equivalents of those claims.

[0006] Some of the embodiments relate to an extremely high-throughput (EHT) station (STA). In these embodiments, the EHT STA may be configured to encode a management frame for transmission. The management frame may be encoded to include a quality-of-service (QoS) capability element, the QoS capability element including a QoS information field, and the QoS information field is configured to signal a QoS redundancy capability. In these embodiments, the EHT STA may set a QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capability element to indicate (i.e., signal) that the EHT STA supports redundancy for QoS data frames. In some of these embodiments, the EHT STA may include an Extended Capabilities element in a management frame and set a new redundancy indicator bit in the Extended Capabilities element to indicate (i.e., advertise) that the EHT STA supports redundancy for a selected subset of IEEE 802.11 management frames. In these embodiments, this advertising may allow peer stations to know when the EHT STA supports redundancy for specific management frames as well as for QoS traffic. This advertising can be useful for providing high reliability and bounded latency requirements for time-sensitive traffic, although the scope of these embodiments is not limited in this respect. These embodiments are described in more detail below.

[0007] In some embodiments, if an EHT STA indicates support for QoS data frame redundancy, the EHT STA may encode duplicates of QoS data frames for transmission when indicated in the MAC header of the QoS data frame or for a traffic stream based on a traffic stream identifier (TID). In these embodiments, the EHT STA may decode duplicates of QoS data frames received from other EHT STAs when indicated in the MAC header of the QoS data frame or for a traffic stream based on a TID.

[0008] In some embodiments, when an EHT STA indicates support for redundancy of a subset of management frames, the EHT STA may encode a copy of the subset of management frames for transmission when indicated in the MAC header of the management frame or based on an agreement with another EHT STA (e.g., an EHT access point (AP) STA). In some embodiments, the EHT STA may decode a copy of the subset of management frames received from another EHT STA when indicated in the MAC header of the management frame or based on an agreement with the other EHT STA.

[0009] In some embodiments, an EHT STA may be configured to not set the QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capabilities element when the EHT STA does not support redundancy for QoS data frames. In some embodiments, an EHT STA may not set the redundancy indicator bit in the extended capabilities element when the EHT STA does not support redundancy for a subset of management frames.

[0010] In some embodiments, an EHT STA is configured to negotiate a block-acknowledge (BA) agreement with other EHT STAs, which may indicate whether QoS data frames should be replicated and / or whether a subset of management frames should be replicated.

[0011] In some embodiments, when an EHT STA is operating as an EHT access point STA (AP STA), the management frame may be a beacon frame, and a subset of management frames includes at least beacon frames, but may also include other management frames, so the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, when an EHT STA is operating as a non-AP STA, the management frame may be an association request frame or a reassociation request frame.

[0012] In these embodiments, a QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capability element may be used to indicate whether the EHT STA supports redundancy. Whether the EHT STA actually needs to replicate data frames (on a per frame basis) may be indicated by a bit in the MAC header traffic stream (on a per TID basis), and whether the EHT STA actually needs to replicate data frames may be pre-negotiated between the AP and the STA. Whether the EHT STA actually needs to replicate management frames may be pre-defined, pre-negotiated, or indicated by a bit in the MAC header. In some of the embodiments, the redundant transmission requirement may be indicated by a bit in the MAC header, or by a redundancy header while integrated with a redundant EtherType protocol such as 802.1CB, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0013] In some embodiments, in the case of multi-link device (MLD) operation (MLO) when an EHT STA is operating as an STA associated with a multi-link device (MLD), the EHT STA may be configured to encode management frames to include an Intra-Access Category Priority element to indicate a redundant transmission requirement. In these embodiments, an MLD may include multiple associated STAs. In some embodiments, based on the indication of a redundant transmission requirement, the EHT STA may be configured to cause the MLD to initiate redundant packet transmissions over multiple links with other MLDs. These embodiments will enable IEEE 802.11 networks to provide reliable and low-latency services, enabling ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) and TSN services via 802.11be.

[0014] In some of these embodiments, the redundant transmission requirement is a transmission requirement for a particular access category or traffic stream. In some of the embodiments, the management frame encoded to include an Intra-Access Category Priority element includes one or more of an add traffic stream (ADDTS) request frame, a quality-of-service (QoS) Map Configure frame, and a stream classification service (SCS) request frame.

[0015] In some of the embodiments, the redundant transmission requirement is a requirement of an established block acknowledgement (BA) arrangement that enables QoS data frames of TIDs aggregated in an A-MPDU to be exchanged between two MLDs on an available link.

[0016] In some embodiments, an EHT STA may be configured to encode an Intra-Access Category Priority element to indicate a redundant transmission requirement and include a redundancy indication (RI) subfield in the Intra-Access Priority field of the Intra-Access Category Priority element. In some embodiments, the RI, when set, indicates that a particular traffic stream (TS) should be duplicated and transmitted over more than one link.

[0017] In some embodiments, the MLD is either a STA MLD or an AP MLD. In some embodiments, the MLD may have a single medium access control (MAC) service access point (SAP) to a logical link control (LLC), where the logical link control (LLC) includes a MAC data service.

[0018] Some of the embodiments relate to a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of an Very High Throughput (EHT) Station (STA).

[0019] Some of the embodiments relate to an very high throughput (EHT) station (STA) configured for multi-link device (MLD) operation (MLO) when the EHT STA is operating as an STA associated with a multi-link device (MLD). In these embodiments, an MLD may include multiple associated STAs. In these embodiments, the EHT STA may be configured to encode a management frame to include an Intra-Access Category Priority element to indicate a redundant transmission requirement. Based on the indication of the redundant transmission requirement, the EHT STA may be configured to cause the MLD to initiate redundant packet transmissions between it and other MLDs over more than one link. These embodiments are described in more detail below.

[0020] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems, methods, and devices suitable for a framework for advertising support for redundancy capabilities in wireless networks. In some embodiments, the redundancy capabilities system can facilitate a mechanism for advertising redundancy support for quality of service (QoS) traffic in a QoS Capabilities element and for advertising redundancy support for a selected subset of IEEE 802.11 Management frames in an extended capabilities element. The proposed mechanism allows two peer devices to discover support for redundancy, thereby enabling multiple redundant paths to provide high reliability and bounded latency for the transmission of payloads over the IEEE 802.11 medium.

[0021] In one or more embodiments, the redundancy capability system can facilitate inclusion of a QoS capability element in beacon frames when an AP that is QoS Capable transmits the QoS capability element, and can facilitate inclusion of a QoS capability element in association request frames or re-association request frames when a QoS capable STA transmits the QoS capability element.

[0022] FIG. 1 illustrates a QoS Capabilities Element in accordance with some embodiments. In one or more embodiments, the QoS Info field needs to be extended to two octets in length to accommodate the additional bits needed to signal QoS redundancy capability. In one or more embodiments, the redundancy capability system can facilitate the definition of the QoS information field when the transmitter is a STA. FIG. 2A illustrates a QoS information field for a STA in accordance with some embodiments. In one or more embodiments, the redundancy capability system can facilitate the definition of the QoS information field when the transmitter is an AP. FIG. 2B illustrates a QoS information field for an AP in accordance with some embodiments. In one or more embodiments, the redundancy capability system can facilitate setting the QoS redundancy bit to 1 to indicate that the implementation supports redundancy for QoS data frames, and can facilitate setting the QoS redundancy bit to 0 to indicate that the implementation does not support redundancy for QoS data frames.

[0023] In one or more embodiments, the redundancy capabilities system may define a new bit in an Extended Capabilities element to facilitate indicating support for redundancy for a selected subset of IEEE 802.11 Management frames. When set to 1, this bit indicates that the underlying implementation supports redundancy for the selected subset of IEEE 802.11 Management frames, and when set to 0, this bit indicates that the underlying implementation does not support redundancy for the selected subset of IEEE 802.11 Management frames. Figure 3 illustrates an Extended Capabilities Element according to some of the embodiments.

[0024] One of the key challenges for next-generation Wi-Fi technology is supporting time-sensitive networking (TSN) and real-time applications (RTA), which require high reliability with low and bounded latency and jitter. Defining better support for TSN and RTA applications is part of the scope of next-generation Wi-Fi being developed by the 802.11be task group.

[0025] Although multi-link operation (MLO) is defined in 802.11be, there is no mechanism for (higher layer) applications to request / negotiate the service of delivering redundant data frames over more than one link and achieve high reliability and low latency bounds by using this multi-link capability. In 802.11be, the established block ACK (BA) agreement achieves an agreement that allows two MLDs on any available link to exchange QoS data frames of TIDs aggregated in an A-MPDU. This agreement means that data frames can be transmitted on any available link, but no specific rules / requirements for implementing redundancy capabilities are specified in 802.11be. To support redundancy in 802.11be using multi-link operation, the following additional requirements must be met: (1) Interfaces and mechanisms that indicate redundant transmission requirements; (2) Rules for an 802.11be multi-link device (MLD) to handle frames or traffic streams with indications of redundancy requirements, including transmission over more than one available link and duplication of frames; The ability needs to be defined.

[0026] The embodiments disclosed herein provide one or more approaches to indicating redundancy requirements by using an in-access category priority element. Some of the embodiments propose reusing the in-access category priority element optionally present in an ADDTS Request, QoS Map Configure, or Stream Classification Service (SCS) Request frame. This element is used by the STA to convey to the AP the relative priority of streams within an AC.

[0027] There are three different approaches to expressing redundancy requirements, and these three different approaches include (1) to (3) below.

[0028] (1) Data flows requiring redundancy requirements may be identified by including the redundancy requirements as part of a mechanism for signaling low latency or other QoS, which may also be identified by a particular TID (either an existing or new TID value) associated with the traffic flow requiring high reliability.

[0029] (2) Enhancements to the IEEE 802.1 layer protocol.

[0030] High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP), and 802.1CB are redundancy protocols defined for time-sensitive networks to improve reliability with bounded latency. When applying any of these redundancy protocols to the 802.1 layer, packets subsequently forwarded to the 802.11 layer will have a redundancy tag added as an EtherType. Therefore, for devices that support the 802.1 layer redundancy protocol, this redundancy protocol may be applied to add a redundancy tag to indicate redundancy requirements. As a result, 802.11be MLD may transmit over more than one available link and duplicate frames based on the redundancy tag.

[0031] Note: Parameters related to other QoS requirements such as packet delivery rate, latency bound, etc. may be able to be defined using reserved bits in the Redundancy tag information field.

[0032] (3) Add redundancy requirements in MA-UNITDATA. 802.11 MAC data service primitive requirements. Figure 4 illustrates the semantics of service primitives according to some embodiments.

[0033] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems, methods, and devices for enabling redundancy in 802.11be to support low-latency and reliable services using multilink. In one embodiment, the redundancy system can reuse the intra-access category priority element to facilitate an approach for a multi-link device (MLD) to indicate redundancy requirements for initiating transmission of redundant packets over more than one available link. This approach may enable 802.11 networks to provide low-latency and reliable services. This new capability is expected to be one of the major new features in 802.11be and will enable time-sensitive networking (TSN) services and ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) in 802.11be.

[0034] High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP), and 802.1CB are redundancy protocols defined for time-sensitive networks to improve reliability with bounded latency. When applying any of these redundancy protocols to the 802.1 layer, packets subsequently forwarded to the 802.11 layer will have a redundancy tag added as an EtherType (see Figure 4). Therefore, for devices that support the redundancy protocol, this redundancy protocol may be applied to add a redundancy tag to indicate the redundancy requirement. As a result, 802.11be MLD may transmit over more than one available link and duplicate frames based on the redundancy tag.

[0035] FIG. 5 illustrates an Intra-Access Priority field according to some embodiments. Some embodiments disclosed herein define a redundancy requirement using one of the reserved bits between B5 and B7 in the Intra-Access Priority field of the Intra-Access Category Priority element. As shown in FIG. 5, one example may define bit 5 (B5) as a "Redundancy Indication" (RI) subfield. When the bit is equal to 1, the bit indicates that this TS needs to be duplicated and transmitted over more than one available link.

[0036] In one or more embodiments, redundancy may reuse the B0-B2 bits in the intra-access priority field to define a "TID" value instead of the baseline definition of "user priority."

[0037] It is proposed to define eight new TIDs (TID8 through TID15) that will be used to distinguish EHT traffic requiring QoS management (e.g., low latency, jitter, frame rate, etc.) from the traditional VI, VO, BE, and BK traffic identified by the lower eight TIDs (TID0 through TID7).

[0038] Essentially, the TID values ​​in the B0 to B2 subfields indicate the TID of the MSDU or A-MSDU of the stream to which this intra-access category priority element is associated.

[0039] In one or more embodiments, redundancy can facilitate setting a primary EDCA queue for traffic identified by the TID subfield in the Intra-Access Priority field to AC_VO. When the value in the Alternate Queue subfield is set to 0, traffic corresponding to the TID in the B0-B2 subfields is queued in the AC_VO queue. When the Alternate Queue subfield is set to 1, the alternate EDCA queue is used for that AC. Such use may help optimize queuing when the primary queue is not empty.

[0040] In one or more embodiments, redundancy may be facilitated such that if the B5 (Redundancy) value is set to 1, the Drop Eligibility subfield is set to 0. In other words, for traffic requiring redundancy, the packet shall not be dropped due to resource limitations.

[0041] In one or more embodiments, redundancy can be facilitated by defining a subfield in bit position B6 as the "Access Policy." When this bit is set to 1, channel access corresponding to traffic with the TID value indicated in bits B0-B2 shall be trigger-based (in the case of non-AP MLD) or shall use DL MU PPDUs (in the case of AP MLD). When this bit is set to 0, a preference is selected between EDCA-based access or trigger-based access based on QoS requirements.

[0042] When an SCS (or MSCS) Descriptor element is configured with an In-Access Category Priority element, the classifier parameter (User Priority) in the Frame Classifier field of the TCLAS element is ignored. In addition, the UP subfield in the TS Info field of the TSPC element is reserved.

[0043] When an Intra-Access Category Priority element is aggregated with an MSCS Descriptor element, it is proposed to reuse the "User Priority Bitmap" subfield in the MSCS Descriptor element as the "TID Priority Bitmap" subfield. In some embodiments, each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a TID, such that the least significant bit corresponds to a TID value of 15, the most significant bit corresponds to a TID value of 8, and so on. In some embodiments, a value of 1 in a bit position in the bitmap indicates that the corresponding TID is to be used when assigning TIDs to streams classified by the MSCS, and a value of 0 in a bit position indicates that the corresponding TID is not to be used for such purposes. In some embodiments, a TID value having a value of 1 in the bitmap corresponds to a TID value indicated in the Intra-Access Category Priority element.

[0044] In the case of device-centric QoS management, following an MSCS (or SCS) request (carrying an MSCS or SCS descriptor element) and response frame exchange between the non-AP MLD and the AP MLD, the STA (or non-AP MLD) may indicate a preferred TID value (which is a bit set to 1 in the bitmap) in its UL PPDU, so that the AP MLD mirrors the corresponding TID in its DL PPDU. The AP and non-AP MLD associate redundancy requirements with traffic streams as part of the QoS negotiation. In the case of a traffic stream with redundancy requirements, the non-AP MLD will also add in-access category priority elements in the MSCS request frame with B0 through B2 equal to the traffic stream's corresponding preferred TID, B4 equal to 0, and B5 equal to 1. It should be noted that the in-access category priority elements may also be indicated in the QoS Map Configure or in the ADDTS request frame. As a result, the AP MLD will trigger redundant data transmission in the DL PPDU for the corresponding TID.

[0045] In the case of network-centric QoS management, when the AP sends an MSCS descriptor element (in a request frame) or a descriptor element included in a response frame, the AP may indicate a preferred TID value (which is a bit set to 1 in the bitmap) in its DL PPDU so that the non-AP MLD mirrors the corresponding TID in its UL PPDU. In the case of a traffic stream with redundancy requirements, the AP MLD will also add an in-access category priority element in the MSCS request frame with B0 to B2 equal to the traffic stream's corresponding preferred TID, B4 equal to 0, and B5 equal to 1. The in-access category priority element may also be indicated in the QoS Map Configure or in the ADDTS request frame. As a result, the non-AP MLD will trigger redundant data transmission in the UL PPDU for the corresponding TID.

[0046] When a MAC SAP receives an MSDU, if the associated intra-access category priority element with the corresponding TID for this MSDU is set so that B5 = 1, the MAC SAP will schedule transmission of this MSDU over more than one available link before receiving an acknowledgment. The number of links is an implementation decision.

[0047] In some embodiments, the physical layer protocol data unit may be a physical layer conformance procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU). In some embodiments, the AP and STA may communicate in accordance with any one of the IEEE 802.11 standards. IEEE 802.11-2016 is incorporated herein by reference. IEEE P802.11-REVmd / D2.4 (August 2019) and IEEE draft specification IEEE P802.11ax / D5.0 (October 2019) are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

[0048] The Extended Capabilities element (of Figure 3) carries information about the STA's capabilities that augment those specified in the Capability Information field. The Extended Capabilities field is a bit field that indicates the extended capabilities advertised by the STA transmitting the element.

[0049] In some embodiments, a station (STA) may refer to a logical entity that is a singly addressable instance of a medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) interface to a wireless medium (WM). A communication link (or simply, a "link"), in the context of an IEEE 802.11 medium access control (MAC) entity, may refer to just one physical path across the wireless medium (WM) that can be used to transfer MAC service data units (MSDUs) between two STAs.

[0050] In the case of multi-link communications, a multi-link device (MLD), also referred to as a multi-link logical entity (MLLE), may refer to a device having more than one associated STA and having a media access control (MAC) layer (e.g., of a communication layer stack) service access point (SAP) to a logical link control (LLC), which may include MAC data services. An AP MLD (A MLD) may refer to an AP device, and each STA associated with that MLD is a non-AP STA. An MLD may be considered a logical / virtual entity having multiple STAs (e.g., AP STAs or non-AP STAs), each of which may simultaneously use a separate communication link with a corresponding STA in another MLD. In this way, an MLD may simultaneously communicate over multiple communication links without having to drop one communication link to enable the establishment of another.

[0051] Multi-link operation (MLO) is an important 802.11be feature that allows devices to communicate with other devices using multiple links on different channels / bands. A device that supports multiple links is an MLO.

[0052] 6 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station (STA), which may be suitable for use as an AP STA, a non-AP STA, or other user device, according to some of the embodiments. The communication station 600 may also be suitable for use as a handheld device, a mobile device, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a wearable computing device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or other personal communications system (PCS) device.

[0053] The communication station 600 may include communication circuitry 602 and a transceiver 610 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from other communication stations using one or more antennas 601. The communication circuitry 602 may include circuitry capable of operating physical layer (PHY) communications and / or media access control (MAC) communications for controlling access to a wireless medium, and / or any other communication layer for transmitting and receiving signals. The communication station 600 may also include processing circuitry 606 and memory 608 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In some of the embodiments, the communication circuitry 602 and the processing circuitry 606 may be configured to perform the operations described in detail in the figures, diagrams, and flows above.

[0054] According to some embodiments, the communication circuitry 602 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and to compose frames or packets for communication over the wireless medium. The communication circuitry 602 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. The communication circuitry 602 may also include circuitry for modulation / demodulation, upconversion / downconversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 606 of the communication station 600 may include one or more processors. In other embodiments, two or more antennas 601 may be coupled to the communication circuitry 602 arranged to transmit and receive signals. The memory 608 may store information for configuring the processing circuitry 606 to perform operations for composing and transmitting message frames and for performing various operations described herein. The memory 608 may include any type of memory, including non-transitory memory, for storing information in a machine-readable form (e.g., a computer). For example, memory 608 may include computer-readable storage devices, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, and other storage devices and media.

[0055] In some embodiments, communication station 600 may be part of a portable wireless communication device such as, for example, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capabilities, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computing device, or other device capable of receiving and / or transmitting information wirelessly.

[0056] In some embodiments, the communication station 600 may include one or more antennas 601. The antenna 601 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, a dipole antenna, a monopole antenna, a patch antenna, a loop antenna, a microstrip antenna, or other types of antennas suitable for transmitting RF signals. In some embodiments, a single antenna with multiple apertures may be used instead of two or more antennas. In these embodiments, each aperture may be considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, it is possible to effectively separate the antennas due to the different channel characteristics and spatial diversity that may occur between each of the multiple antennas and the antenna of the transmitting station.

[0057] In some embodiments, communication station 600 may include one or more of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, a speaker, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen, including a touch screen.

[0058] Although communication station 600 is illustrated as having multiple separate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements may be combined, or two or more of the functional elements may be implemented by a combination of software-configured elements and / or other hardware elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs). For example, some of the elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), and various combinations of hardware and logic circuits to perform at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements of communication station 600 may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0059] The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 CFR Section 1.72(b), which requires that the Abstract will enable the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claimed invention. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. 1. An apparatus for an Very High Throughput (EHT) Station (STA), the apparatus including a processing circuit and a memory, the processing circuit comprising: encoding a management frame for transmission, the management frame encoded to include a quality of service (QoS) capability element, the quality of service (QoS) capability element including a QoS information field configured to indicate QoS redundancy capabilities; setting a QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capability element to indicate that the EHT STA supports redundancy for QoS data frames; generating an extended capabilities element for inclusion in the management frame, and setting a redundancy indicator bit in the extended capabilities element to indicate that the EHT STA supports redundancy for a subset of management frames. Device.

2. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein if the EHT STA indicates support for redundancy for QoS data frames, the processing circuitry is configured to configure the EHT STA to encode a duplicate of a QoS data frame for transmission when indicated in a MAC header or for a traffic stream based on a traffic stream identifier (TID).

3. 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein when the EHT STA indicates support for redundancy for a subset of management frames, the processing circuitry is configured to configure the EHT STA to encode replicas of the subset of management frames for transmission as indicated in MAC headers of the management frames or based on agreement with other EHT STAs.

4. the processing circuitry is configured to not set the QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capability element when the EHT STA does not support redundancy for QoS data frames; 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to not set the redundancy indicator bit in the extended capabilities element when the EHT STA does not support redundancy for the subset of management frames.

5. 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein an EHT STA is configured to negotiate a block acknowledgement (BA) agreement with other EHT STAs, the BA agreement indicating whether the QoS data frames should be replicated and whether the subset of management frames should be replicated.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein when the EHT STA operates as an EHT Access Point STA (AP STA), the management frames are beacon frames, and the subset of management frames includes at least beacon frames.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein when the EHT STA is operating as a non-AP STA, the management frame is an association request frame or a reassociation request frame.

8. In the case of multi-link device (MLD) operation (MLO), when the EHT STA operates as an STA associated with a multi-link device (MLD), the MLD includes a plurality of associated STAs, and the processing circuitry is configured to encode a management frame to include an in-access category priority element to indicate a redundant transmission requirement; The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein based on the indication of redundant transmission requirements, the processing circuitry is configured to cause the MLD to initiate redundant packet transmissions over more than one link to other MLDs.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the redundant transmission requirement is a redundant transmission requirement for a particular access category or traffic stream.

10. 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the management frames encoded to include the in-access category priority element include one or more of an add traffic stream (ADDTS) request frame, a quality of service (QoS) map configuration frame, and a stream classification service (SCS) request frame.

11. 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the redundant transmission requirement is a requirement of an established block acknowledgement (BA) arrangement, and the established block acknowledgement (BA) arrangement enables QoS data frames of TIDs aggregated in an A-MPDU to be exchanged between two MLDs present on an available link.

12. the processing circuitry is configured to encode the intra-access category priority element to indicate the redundant transmission requirement to include a redundancy indicator (RI) subfield in an intra-access priority field of the intra-access category priority element; 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein, when set, the RI indicates that a traffic stream (TS) should be duplicated and transmitted over more than one link.

13. The MLD is either a STA MLD or an AP MLD; 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the MLD has a single media access control (MAC) service access point (SAP) to a logical link control (LLC) that includes one MAC data service.

14. 1. A computer program comprising instructions for execution by a processing circuit of an Very High Throughput (EHT) Station (STA), the instructions, when executed by the processing circuit, causing the processing circuit to: encoding a management frame for transmission, the management frame encoded to include a quality of service (QoS) capability element, the quality of service (QoS) capability element including a QoS information field configured to indicate QoS redundancy capabilities; setting a QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capability element to indicate that the EHT STA supports redundancy for QoS data frames; generating an extended capabilities element for inclusion in the management frame, and setting a redundancy indicator bit in the extended capabilities element to indicate that the EHT STA supports redundancy for a subset of management frames; Computer program.

15. 15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein if the EHT STA indicates support for redundancy for QoS data frames, the processing circuitry is configured to configure the EHT STA to encode a duplicate of a QoS data frame for transmission when indicated in a MAC header or for a traffic stream based on a traffic stream identifier (TID).

16. 16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein when the EHT STA indicates support for redundancy for a subset of management frames, the processing circuitry is configured to configure the EHT STA to encode replicas of the subset of management frames for transmission as indicated in a MAC header of the management frame or based on an agreement with another EHT STA.

17. the processing circuitry is configured to not set the QoS redundancy bit in the QoS information field of the QoS capabilities element when the EHT STA does not support redundancy for QoS data frames; 17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to not set the redundancy indicator bit in the extended capabilities element when the EHT STA does not support redundancy for the subset of management frames.

18. 18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein an EHT STA is configured to negotiate a block acknowledgement (BA) agreement with other EHT STAs, the BA agreement indicating whether the QoS data frames should be replicated and whether the subset of management frames should be replicated.

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