Ultra-low latency (ULL) communications using a dedicated resource unit (RU)

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of a station (STA), the processing circuitry is configured to

• decode a trigger frame received from an access point station (AP),
• the trigger frame encoded to indicate resource units (RUs) of an UL PPDU for an uplink multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiple access (UL MU OFDMA) data transmission by a first and a second station STA,
• the trigger frame further encoded to indicate a dedicated RU for time-critical ultra-low latency (ULL) UL data, the dedicated RU being one RU of one or more RUs of the UL PPDU that are reserved for time-critical communications;
• and
• encode the time-critical ULL UL data for transmission on the dedicated RU during the uplink MU OFDMA data transmission by the first and second STAs, the time-critical ULL UL data configured to start at a time during transmission of the UL PPDU,
• wherein for transmission of the time-critical ULL UL data during the UL MU OFDMA data transmission, the processing circuitry is configured to:
• encode an UL trigger-based PPDU (UL TB PPDU) for transmission on the dedicated RU by:
• include medium access control layer (MAC) padding in a MAC payload of the UL TB PPDU until the time-critical ULL UL data is available at a MAC layer from an upper layer, the MAC padding comprising one or more MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) with a length field set to zero;
• and
• include a data frame MPDU within the MAC payload when the time-critical ULL UL data is available at the MAC layer, the MAC payload of the data frame MPDU comprising the time-critical ULL UL data and having a length field set to a non-zero value.

An apparatus for an access point station (AP), the apparatus comprising:

• processing circuitry;
• and memory, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
• encode a trigger frame for transmission to a third station (STA3), the trigger frame encoded to indicate resource units (RUs) of an UL PPDU for an uplink multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiple access (UL MU OFDMA) data transmission by a first and a second station STA,
• the trigger frame further encoded to indicate a dedicated RU for time-critical ultra-low latency (ULL) UL data, the dedicated RU being one RU of one or more RUs of the UL PPDU that are reserved for CRITICAL time-critical communications;
• and
• decode the time-critical ULL UL data received from the STA3 on the dedicated RU during the uplink MU OFDMA data transmission by the first and second STAs, the time-critical ULL UL data configured to start at a time during transmission of the UL PPDU,
• wherein for reception of the time-critical ULL UL data during the UL MU OFDMA data transmission, the processing circuitry is configured to:
• decode an UL trigger-based PPDU (UL TB PPDU) received on the dedicated RU from the STA3, the UL TB PPDU initially including medium access control layer (MAC) padding in a MAC payload of the UL TB PPDU, the MAC padding comprising one or more MAC Protocol Data Units (MPDUs) with a length field set to zero, the UL TB PPDU subsequently including a data frame MPDU within the MAC payload, the MAC payload of the data frame MPDU comprising the time-critical ULL UL data and having a length field set to a non-zero value.