Multi-Link Association Response Signaling for Fewer Setup Attempts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Multi-link communication setups in wireless devices are inefficient due to the lack of clear indication of why a link is not accepted during the association process, leading to unnecessary attempts on all links.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a status code field in the association response frame to indicate why a link is not accepted, allowing the non-AP MLD to prioritize successful link attempts and reduce unnecessary attempts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the non-AP MLD sends association request frames on all links to attempt multi-link setup, then the probability of successful link establishment is improved, but the setup time and number of attempts increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by having the AP MLD pre-evaluate all candidate links and determine their acceptability before the non-AP MLD begins its association attempts. The AP MLD generates an indication message containing link evaluation results in advance, allowing the non-AP MLD to skip unnecessary association attempts on links that will definitely fail, thus reducing setup time while maintaining high success rate.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by having the AP MLD provide link evaluation results back to the non-AP MLD through an indication message. This feedback mechanism allows the non-AP MLD to adjust its association strategy based on the AP MLD's pre-evaluation, avoiding wasted attempts on unacceptable links and focusing resources on links with high probability of success.
2Reliability
If the non-AP MLD attempts association on multiple links without knowing which links are acceptable, then link establishment reliability is improved, but the complexity of the setup process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism where the AP MLD acts as a coordinator that pre-evaluates all links and provides guidance information to the non-AP MLD. This intermediary role simplifies the non-AP MLD's decision-making process by providing clear indications about which links are acceptable, reducing the complexity of the setup process while maintaining high reliability through comprehensive link evaluation.
3Productivity
If the AP MLD evaluates all links before association, then the efficiency of multi-link setup is improved, but the processing load on the AP MLD increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the link evaluation task into manageable units. The AP MLD evaluates each candidate link independently and generates individual evaluation results for each link. This segmented approach allows the evaluation process to be organized systematically, making it easier to manage the processing load while maintaining comprehensive evaluation of all links for improved setup efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of this application relates to a multi-link communication setup method and a related apparatus. The method includes: a non-AP MLD sends an association request frame on a first link, to request multi-link setup. An AP MLD returns an association response frame on the first link, to notify whether multi-link setup succeeds. The AP MLD sets a second status code field of a multi-link element of the association response frame to a newly defined value, to indicate that a cause why a link is not accepted is that the first link is not accepted. This application is applied to a WLAN system that supports a next generation Wi-Fi protocol of 802.11ax, for example, 802.11be, Wi-Fi 7, or EHT, and other 802.11 series protocols; and for another example, a next generation protocol of 802.11be: Wi-Fi 8.