Multicast reliability enhancement

A method for receiving feedback on quality of multicast transmissions, the method comprising:

• transmitting, by a source electronic device, a set-up frame to a plurality of electronic devices, the set-up frame comprising information for a concurrent reception of a plurality of block acknowledgements (BAs), wherein the information for the concurrent reception comprises sub-channel assignment or spatial stream assignment;
• after transmitting the set-up frame, transmitting, by the source electronic device, a plurality of multicast packets in a Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN) comprising the source electronic device and the plurality of electronic devices;
• concurrently polling a subset of the plurality of electronic devices;
• and
• concurrently receiving, at the source electronic device, the plurality of BAs from at least the subset of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein each BA comprises information on quality of reception of at least one of the plurality of multicast packets at an electronic device in the subset of the plurality of electronic devices,
• wherein the subset of the plurality of electronic devices comprises at least two electronic devices.

A source electronic device comprising:

• a transceiver;
• and
• a processing subsystem coupled to the transceiver and configured to:
• transmit a set-up frame to a plurality of electronic devices, the set-up frame comprising information for a concurrent reception of a plurality of block acknowledgements (BAs);
• after transmitting the set-up frame, transmit a plurality of multicast packets in a Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN) comprising the plurality of electronic devices;
• concurrently poll a subset of the plurality of electronic devices in the WLAN;
• concurrently receive the plurality of BAs from at least the subset of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein each BA comprises information on quality of reception of at least one of the plurality of multicast packets at an electronic device in the subset of the plurality of electronic devices;
• and
• receive an unsolicited BA from an electronic device in the plurality of electronic devices and outside of the subset of the plurality of electronic devices,
• wherein the subset of the plurality of electronic devices comprises at least two electronic devices,
• wherein the info nation for the concurrent reception comprises information assigning at least one sub-channel to the electronic device in the subset of the plurality of electronic devices to transmit a BA or comprises infounation assigning at least one spatial stream to the electronic device in the subset of the plurality of electronic devices to transmit the BA.

A source electronic device comprising:

• a transceiver;
• and
• a processing subsystem coupled to the transceiver and configured to:
• transmit a set-up frame to a plurality of electronic devices, the set-up frame comprising information for a concurrent reception of a plurality of block acknowledgements (BAs), wherein the information for the concurrent reception comprises sub-channel assignment or spatial stream assignment;
• after transmitting the set-up frame, transmit a plurality of multicast packets in a Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN) comprising the plurality of electronic devices;
• concurrently poll a subset of the plurality of electronic devices in the WLAN;
• and
• receive the plurality of BAs from at least the subset of the plurality of electronic devices,
• wherein each BA comprises information on quality of reception of at least one of the plurality of multicast packets at an electronic device in the subset of the plurality of electronic devices, the information on quality of reception comprising a frame-check-sequence (FSC) error ratio,
• wherein the BAs are received concurrently from the subset of the plurality of electronic devices, and
• wherein the subset of the plurality of electronic devices comprises at least two electronic devices.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium at a source electronic device, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing subsystem, causes a transceiver unit coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium to perform operations comprising:

• transmitting, by the source electronic device, a plurality of multicast packets to a plurality of electronic devices;
• concurrently polling a subset of the plurality of electronic devices;
• and
• concurrently receiving, at the source electronic device, a plurality of block acknowledgements (BAs) from at least the subset of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein each BA comprises information on quality of reception of at least one of the plurality of multicast packets at an electronic device in the subset of the plurality of electronic devices,
• wherein the information on quality of reception comprises a number of non-duplicate bits passed to a layer higher than a Media Access Control (MAC) layer over a time interval, and
• wherein the subset of the plurality of electronic devices comprises at least two electronic devices.