Channel access based on uplink virtual queues

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by an interface circuit included in a communication device, cause the communication device to transmit a trigger frame, by carrying out one or more operations that comprise:

• receiving, from a set of electronic devices in a wireless local area network (WLAN), one or more buffer status reports that indicate that at least a subset of the set of electronic devices have uplink data, the uplink data having one or more associated access categories;
• creating a group of uplink virtual queues for electronic devices in the subset based on the one or more buffer status reports, wherein a given uplink virtual queue corresponds to a particular access category for which there is pending uplink data at a given electronic device;
• starting one or more backoff counters with a one-to-one correspondence to uplink virtual queues in the group of uplink virtual queues;
• when a given backoff counter for the given uplink virtual queue reaches a predefined count value, transmitting the trigger frame to an electronic device in the subset that corresponds to the given uplink virtual queue, wherein the communication device is compatible with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard that includes trigger-based channel access;
• and
• providing, to the electronic device during a target wake time (TWT) negotiation, a request that the electronic device disable transmissions during a subsequent TWT window.

A method for increasing a channel-access priority, the method comprising:

• using an interface circuit in an access point:
• creating, when the interface circuit initiates a cascaded operation in which a single backoff occurs at a beginning of the cascaded operation, followed by downlink, uplink and block acknowledgment operations, multiple backoff counters associated with the access point in order to increase the channel-access priority of the access point;
• and
• accessing the channel when any of the multiple backoff counters reaches a predefined count value.