Fragmentation of service data units in a high-efficiency wireless local-area network

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors, the instructions to configure the one or more processors to cause an access point or station to:

• fragment a media access control (MAC) service data unit (MSDU) into two or more MSDU fragments;
• encode a delimiter in front of a first fragment of the two or more MSDU fragments, wherein the delimiter indicates a length of the two or more MSDU fragments;
• encode the two or more MSDU fragments into two or more aggregated MSDUs (A-MSDUs), one or more A-MSDUs and one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs), or two or more MPDUs;
• encapsulate the two or more aggregated MSDUs (A-MSDUs) or the one or more A-MSDUs into the one or more MPDUs or the two or more MPDUs;
• and
• encode a start of message field in each MPDU of the one or more MPDUs or two or more MPDUs to indicate if the MPDU comprises a fragment of the one or more fragments that does not comprise a delimiter as a first portion of the MPDU.

A method performed by an access point or station, the method comprising:

• fragmenting a media access control (MAC) service data unit (MSDU) into two or more MSDU fragments;
• encapsulating the two or more MSDU fragments into two or more aggregated MSDUs (A-MSDUs), one or more A-MSDUs and one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs), or two or more MPDUs;
• encoding a delimiter in front of a first fragment of the two or more MSDU fragments, wherein the delimiter indicates a length of the two or more MSDU fragments;
• encapsulating the two or more aggregated MSDUs (A-MSDUs) or the one or more A-MSDUs into the one or more MPDUs or the two or more MPDUs;
• encoding a start of message field in each MPDU of the one or more MPDUs or two or more MPDUs to indicate if the MPDU comprises a fragment of the one or more fragments that does not comprise a delimiter as a first portion of the MPDU;
• and
• encoding each MPDU of the one or more MPDUs or two or more MPDUs to comprise a sequence number indicating a cardinal number of the MPDU in a stream of MPDUs or A-MPDUs.

An apparatus of a first access point or station comprising:

• memory;
• and, processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuitry configured to:
• order two or more media access control (MAC) protocol data units (MPDUs) to be received from a second access point or station by a sequence number of each MPDU of the MPDUs, and wherein each MPDU comprises a MAC service data units (MSDU) or an aggregated (A-MSDU);
• and
• de-aggregate the A-MSDU, wherein a delimiter field of the A-MSDU indicates a length of an MSDU, and if the length indicates that the MSDU comprises a first fragment of two or more fragments across one or more subsequent A-MSDUs or MSDUs, then concatenate the two or more fragments together from the one or more subsequent A-MSDUs or MSDUs to form a defragmented MSDU, and if a start of message (SOM) subfield of each MPDU of the MPDUs is set, then the A-MSDU comprises the delimiter at a start of the A-MSDU and there are no fragments in the MPDU from a previous MPDU.