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US 12,114,383 B2Granted
Apparatus and method for multi-link communications
AssigneeNXP USA, Inc.
InventorsYoung Hoon Kwon, Liwen Chu, Hongyuan Zhang, Hui-Ling Lou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments of an apparatus and method are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method of multi-link communications involves at an access point (AP) multi-link device, allocating Association IDs (AIDs) to non-AP multi-link devices, including allocating one of the AIDs to each of the non-AP multi-link devices, and at the AP multi-link device, generating a first indication element for the AIDs to indicate a buffered data configuration at the AP multi-link device for the non-AP multi-link devices.
Claims25
A method of multi-link communications, the method comprising:
- at an access point (AP) multi-link device, allocating a plurality of Association IDs (AIDs) to a plurality of non-AP multi-link devices, wherein each non-AP multi-link device is assigned a corresponding AID of the plurality of the AIDs;
- and
- at the AP multi-link device, generating a first indication element to indicate a buffered data configuration at the AP multi-link device for the non-AP multi-link devices, wherein each AID is associated with a respective component of the first indication element, the respective component set to a first value to indicate buffered data for an associated AID and set to a second value to indicate no buffered data for the associated AID, the components ordered in the first indication element by AID from lowest AID to highest AID.
A multi-link communications system comprising:
- an access point (AP) multi-link device configured to:
- allocate a plurality of Association IDs (AIDs) to a plurality of non-AP multi-link devices, wherein each non-AP multi-link device is assigned a corresponding AID of the plurality of the AIDs;
- and
- generate an indication element to indicate a buffered data configuration at the AP multi-link device for the non-AP multi-link devices, wherein each AID is associated with a respective component of the indication element, the respective component set to a first value to indicate buffered data for an associated AID and set to a second value to indicate no buffered data for the associated AID, the components ordered in the indication element by AID from lowest AID to highest AID.
1 more element
A method of multi-link communications, the method comprising:
- at an access point (AP) multi-link device, mapping a plurality of communications links that are affiliated with the AP multi-link device to a plurality of traffic identifiers (TIDs) for a non-AP multi-link device;
- at the AP multi-link device, generating a component of an indication element to indicate that the AP multi-link device has buffered data for a first TID of the TIDs for the non-AP multi-link device, wherein the component of the indication element is set to a first value to indicate that the AP multi-link device has buffered data for the first TID and set to a second value to indicate that the AP multi-link device has no buffered data for the first TID;
- and
- transmitting the indication element from the AP multi-link device to the non-AP multi-link device based on the mapped communication link to the first TID,
- wherein Association IDs (AIDs) are allocated to the non-AP multi-link devices, the indication element comprising a respective component for each AID, the components ordered in the indication element by AID from lowest AID to highest AID.
2 more elements
A method of multi-link communications, the method comprising:
- at an access point (AP) multi-link device, mapping a first group of communications links to a first traffic identifier (TID) and a second group of communications links to a second TID for transmission of data to a non-AP multi-link device, wherein the first group of communications links and the second group of communications links are subset of communications links that are affiliated with the AP multi-link device;
- at the AP multi-link device, generating an indication element to indicate that the AP multi-link device has buffered data for the first TID and the second TID, wherein a component of the indication element is set to a first value to indicate that the AP multi-link device has buffered data for the respective TID and set to a second value to indicate that the AP multi-link device has no buffered data for the respective TID;
- at the AP multi-link device, receiving an indication from the non-AP multi-link device that the non-AP multi-link device is in sleep state for all of the first group of communications links, and that the non-AP multi-link device is in active state on a third communications link, wherein the third communications link is within the second group of communications links;
- and
- from the AP multi-link device, transmitting the buffered data to the non-AP multi-link device through the third communications link,
- wherein Association IDs (AIDs) are allocated to the non-AP multi-link devices, the indication element comprising a respective component for each AID, the components ordered in the indication element by AID from lowest AID to highest AID.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.