Fec padding process

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when processed by one or more processors, configure an apparatus for an access point (AP), to perform operations comprising:

• determine, for encoding a multi-user (MU) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) (MU-PPDU), a number of data bits left in last Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols for a plurality of users, the number of data bits left in the last OFDM symbols determined based on numbers of bytes to encode for the plurality of users modulus corresponding summations of data bits per symbol per user and per spatial stream;
• determine initial numbers of symbol segments in the last OFDM symbols based on the number of data bits in the last OFDM symbols;
• determine, based on the numbers of bytes to encode for the plurality of users, initial numbers of symbols for the plurality of users;
• and
• determine, based on the initial numbers of symbol segments and the initial numbers of symbols, users of the plurality of users having a longest encoded packet duration.

An apparatus for a station (STA) of a non-AP multi-link device (MLD), the apparatus comprising memory;

• and processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to:
• determine, for encoding a multi-user (MU) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) (MU-PPDU), a number of data bits left in last Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols for a plurality of users, the number of data bits left in last OFDM symbols determined based on numbers of bytes to encode for the plurality of users modulus corresponding summations of data bits per symbol per user and per spatial stream;
• determine initial numbers of symbol segments in the last OFDM symbols based on the number of data bits in the last OFDM symbols;
• determine, based on the numbers of bytes to encode for the plurality of users, initial numbers of symbols for the plurality of users;
• and
• determine, based on the initial numbers of symbol segments and the initial numbers of symbols, users of the plurality of users having a longest encoded packet duration.