AP live upgrading mechanism in WiFi-7

An Access Point (AP) having Multi-Link Operation (MLO), the AP having a Multi-Link Device (MLD) comprising an Upper Media Access Control (UMAC) sublayer (MLD UMAC) and a Lower Media Access Control (LMAC) sublayer (MLD LMAC), the AP comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• one or more processors that are configured to execute machine-readable instructions stored in the memory to:
• determine whether the MLD is in a tunnel mode that provides a tunnel between the MLD UMAC and a location external to the upgrading AP with communications that are compliant with IEEE 802.11, and when the MLD is not in the tunnel mode, switch the MLD to the tunnel mode;
• transfer contents of the MLD UMAC including frames compliant with IEEE 802.11 to the external location;
• transfer contents of the MLD LMAC, comprising one or more MLD links, to one or more neighbor APs;
• and
• perform a live upgrade of the AP.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium, storing instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to upgrade an Access Point (AP) having Multi-Link Operation (MLO), the AP having a Multi-Link Device (MLD) comprising an Upper Media Access Control (UMAC) sublayer (MLD UMAC) and a Lower Media Access Control (LMAC) sublayer (MLD LMAC), the instructions causing the processor to:

• determine whether the MLD is in a tunnel mode, and when the MLD is not in the tunnel mode, switch the MLD to the tunnel mode;
• transfer contents of the MLD UMAC to a location external to the upgrading AP using the tunnel;
• transfer contents of the MLD LMAC, comprising one or more MLD links, to one or more neighbor APs;
• perform a live upgrade of the AP;
• reboot the upgrading AP after the live upgrade is completed;
• transfer the MLD links previously transferred to the one or more neighbor APs back to the upgraded AP;
• and
• copy the contents of the MLD UMAC from the external location to the UMAC of the upgraded AP.