Block Acknowledgement with Out-of-Order Packets
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsSu Khiong Yong, Yigal Eliaspur, Yong Liu, Koby Vainapel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wireless device can perform Out-of-Order packet processing and block acknowledgement. Multiple packets may be received at a lower layer of the wireless device. Identifying information may be determined for the received packets. It may be determined that the packets were received out of sequential order, based at least in part on the identifying information. Despite being received out of sequential order, payload information from the packets may be provided to a higher layer of the wireless device in a non-sequential order, such as the order of receipt.
Claims20
An apparatus, comprising a processing element configured to cause a media access control (MAC) layer of a first wireless device to:
- receive a plurality of first MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) from a second wireless device, wherein the plurality of first MPDUs comprise a plurality of first MAC service data units (MSDUs);
- and
- provide, to a higher layer above the MAC layer of the first wireless device, the plurality of first MSDUs in a non-sequential sequence number order.
A wireless device, comprising:
- an antenna;
- a radio communicatively coupled to the antenna;
- and
- a processing element communicatively coupled to the radio;
- wherein the antenna, radio, and processing element are configured to:
- receive, from a second device, one or more Media Access Control (MAC) Protocol Data Units (MPDUs), wherein the one or more MPDUs include one or more MAC Service Data Units (MSDUs) and a traffic identifier;
- determine a sequence number for each of the one or more MPDUs;
- determine that at least one other MPDU was not successfully received by the wireless device based at least in part on the sequence numbers for each of the one or more MPDUs;
- and
- pass, to a higher layer of the device, at least one MSDU associated with a first MPDU of the one or more MPDUs having a higher sequence number than the at least one other MPDU prior to receiving the other MPDU.
A method for processing received packets at a wireless device, comprising:
- receiving, at a lower layer of the wireless device, a plurality of packets, wherein the plurality of packets is received in a received order;
- determining identifying information for each of the plurality of packets;
- determining, based at least in part on the identifying information, that the received order of the plurality of packets is not the same as a sent order of the plurality of packets;
- and
- providing payload information from the plurality of packets to a higher layer of the wireless device in the received order.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.