SIZE

PRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application claims the benefit of priority to United States

Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/476,338, filed March 24, 2017, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirely.

TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] Embodiments pertain to wireless networks and wireless communications. Some embodiments relate to wireless local area networks (WLANs) and Wi-Fi networks including networks operating in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. Some embodiments relate to IEEE 802.1 lax. Some embodiments relate to methods, computer readable media, and apparatus for scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size.

BACKGROUND [0003] Efficient use of the resources of a wireless local-area network

(WLAN) is important to provide bandwidth and acceptable response times to the users of the WLAN. However, often there are many devices trying to share the same resources and some devices may be limited by the communication protocol they use or by their hardware bandwidth. Moreover, wireless devices may need to operate with both newer protocols and with legacy device protocols. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like references indicate similar elements and in which:

[0005] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a radio architecture in accordance with some embodiments;

[0006] FIG. 2 illustrates a front-end module circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG. 1 in accordance with some embodiments;

[0007] FIG. 3 illustrates a radio IC circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG 1 in accordance with some embodiments;

[0008] FIG. 4 illustrates a baseband processing circuitry for use in the radio architecture of FIG.1 in accordance with some embodiments;

[0009] FIG. 5 illustrates a WLAN in accordance with some

embodiments;

[0010] FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussed herein may perform;

[0011] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example wireless device upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies or operations) discussed herein may perform;

[0012] FIG. 8 illustrates a quality of service (QoS) control field in accordance with some embodiments;

[0013] FIG. 9 illustrates a system for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size in accordance with some embodiments;

[0014] FIG. 10 illustrates a physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size, in accordance with some embodiments; [0015] FIG. 11 illustrates a high-efficiency (HE) access point (AP) for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size in accordance with some embodiments;

[0016] FIG. 12 illustrates a method for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size in accordance with some embodiments; and

[0017] FIG. 13 illustrates a method for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size in accordance with some embodiments.

DESCRIPTION

[0018] The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0019] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a radio architecture 100 in accordance with some embodiments. Radio architecture 100 may include radio front-end module (FEM) circuitry 104, radio IC circuitry 106 and baseband processing circuitry 108. Radio architecture 100 as shown includes both Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) functionality and Bluetooth (BT) functionality although embod ments are not so limited. In this disclosure, "WLAN" and "Wi-Fi" are used interchangeably.

[0020] FEM circuitry 104 may include a WLAN or Wi-Fi FEM circuitry 104 A and a Bluetooth (BT) FEM circuitry 104B. The WLAN FEM circuitry 104 A may include a receive signal path comprising circuitry configured to operate on WLAN RF signals received from one or more antennas 101 , to amplify the received signals and to provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the WLAN radio IC circuitry 106 A for further processing. The BT FEM circuitry 104B may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on BT RF signals received from one or more antennas 101, to amplify the received signals and to provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the BT radio IC circuitry 106B for further processing. FEM circuitry 104 A may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify WLAN signals provided by the radio IC circuitry 106 A for wireless transmission by one or more of the antennas 101. In addition, FEM circuitry 104B may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify BT signals provided by the radio IC circuitry 106B for wireless transmission by the one or more antennas. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, although FEM 104A and FEM 104B are shown as being distinct from one another, embodiments are not so limited, and include within their scope the use of an FEM (not shown) that includes a transmit path and/or a receive path for both WLAN and BT signals, or the use of one or more FEM circuitries where at least some of the FEM circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths for both WLAN and BT signals.

[0021] Radio IC circuitry 106 as shown may include WLAN radio IC circuitry 106A and BT radio IC circuitry 106B. The WLAN radio IC circuitry 106 A may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down- convert WLAN RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 104A and provide baseband signals to WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108 A. BT radio IC circuitry 106B may in turn include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert BT RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 104B and provide baseband signals to BT baseband processing circuitry 108B.

WLAN radio IC circuitry 106 A may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert WLAN baseband signals provided by the WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108 A and provide WLAN RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 104 A for subsequent wireless transmission by the one or more antennas 101. BT radio IC circuitry 106B may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert BT baseband signals provided by the BT baseband processing circuitry 108B and provide BT RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 104B for subsequent wireless transmission by the one or more antennas 101. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, although radio IC circuitries 106 A and 106B are shown as being distinct from one another, embodiments are not so limited, and include within their scope the use of a radio IC circuitry (not shown) that includes a transmit signal path and/or a receive signal path for both WLAN and BT signals, or the use of one or more radio IC circuitries where at least some of the radio IC circuitries share transmit and/or receive signal paths for both WLAN and BT signals.

[0022] Baseband processing circuity 108 may include a WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108 A and a BT baseband processing circuitry 108B. The WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108 A may include a memory, such as, for example, a set of RAM arrays in a Fast Fourier Transform or Inverse Fast Fourier Transform block (not shown) of the WLAN baseband processing circuitry 108A. Each of the WLAN baseband circuitry 108A and the BT baseband circuitry 108B may further include one or more processors and control logic to process the signals received from the corresponding WLAN or BT receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry 106, and to also generate corresponding WLAN or BT baseband signals for the transmit signal path of the radio IC circuitry 106. Each of the baseband processing circuitries 108 A and 108B may further include physical layer (PHY) and medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry, and may further interface with application processor 111 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the radio IC circuitry 106.

[0023] Referring still to FIG. 1, according to the shown embodiment,

WLAN-BT coexistence circuitry 113 may include logic providing an interface between the WLAN baseband circuitry 108 A and the BT baseband circuitry 108B to enable use cases requiring WLAN and BT coexistence. In addition, a switch 103 may be provided between the WLAN FEM circuitry 104 A and the BT FEM circuitry 104B to allow switching between the WLAN and BT radios according to application needs. In addition, although the antennas 101 are depicted as being respectively connected to the WLAN FEM circuitry 104 A and the BT FEM circuitry 104B, embodiments include within their scope the sharing of one or more antennas as between the WLAN and BT FEMs, or the provision of more than one antenna connected to each of FEM 104A or 104B.

[0024] In some embodiments, the front-end module circuitry 104, the radio IC circuitry 106, and baseband processing circuitry 108 may be provided on a single radio card, such as wireless radio card 102. In some other embodiments, the one or more antennas 101, the FEM circuitry 104 and the radio IC circuitry 106 may be provided on a single radio card. In some other embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 106 and the baseband processing circuitry 108 may be provided on a single chip or integrated circuit (IC), such as IC 112.

[0025] In some embodiments, the wireless radio card 102 may include a

WLAN radio card and may be configured for Wi-Fi communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some of these embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to receive and transmit orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) or orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) communication signals over a multi carrier communication channel. The OFDM or OFDMA signals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

[0026] In some of these multicarrier embodiments, radio architecture 100 may be part of a Wi-Fi communication station (STA) such as a wireless AP, a base station or a mobile device including a Wi-Fi device. In some of these embodiments, radio architecture 100 may be configured to transmit and receive signals in accordance with specific communication standards and/or protocols, such as any of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards including, IEEE 802.11n-2009, IEEE 802.11-2012, IEEE 802.11- 2016, , IEEE 802.1 lac, and/or IEEE 802.1 lax standards and/or proposed specifications for WLANs, although the scope of embodiments is not limited in this respect. Radio architecture 100 may also be suitable to transmit and/or receive communications in accordance with other techniques and standards.

[0027] In some embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured for HE Wi-Fi (HEW) communications in accordance with the IEEE 802.11 ax standard. In these embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to communicate in accordance with an OFDMA technique, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0028] In some other embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to transmit and receive signals transmitted using one or more other modulation techniques such as spread spectrum modulation (e.g., direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) and/or frequency hopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA)), time-division multiplexing (TDM) modulation, and/or frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) modulation, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. [0029] In some embodiments, as further shown in FIG. 1, the BT baseband circuitry 108B may be compliant with a Bluetooth (BT) connectivity standard such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth 5.0, or any other iteration of the Bluetooth Standard. In embodiments that include BT functionality as shown for example in Fig. 1, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to establish a BT synchronous connection oriented (SCO) link and or a BT low energy (BT LE) link. In some of the embodiments that include functionality, the radio architecture 100 may be configured to establish an extended SCO (eSCO) link for BT communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some of these embodiments that include a BT functionality, the radio architecture may be configured to engage in a BT Asynchronous Connection-Less (ACL) communications, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, the functions of a BT radio card and WLAN radio card may be combined on a single wireless radio card, such as single wireless radio card 102, although embodiments are not so limited, and include within their scope discrete WLAN and BT radio cards

[0030] In some embodiments, the radio-architecture 100 may include other radio cards, such as a cellular radio card configured for cellular (e.g., 3GPP such as LTE, LTE-Advanced or 5G communications).

[0031] In some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, the radio architecture 100 may be configured for communication over various channel bandwidths including bandwidths having center frequencies of about 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and bandwidths of about 1 MHz, 2 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 4 MHz, 5MHz, 8 MHz, 10 MHz, 16 MHz, 20 MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz (with contiguous bandwidths) or 80+80MHz (160MHz) (with non-contiguous bandwidths). In some embodiments, a 320 MHz channel bandwidth may be used. The scope of the embodiments is not limited with respect to the above center frequencies however.

[0032] FIG. 2 illustrates FEM circuitry 200 in accordance with some embodiments. The FEM circuitry 200 is one example of circuitry that may be suitable for use as the WLAN and/or BT FEM circuitry 104A/104B (FIG. 1), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable. [0033] In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 200 may include a

TX RX switch 202 to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 200 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 200 may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) 206 to amplify received RF signals 203 and provide the amplified received RF signals 207 as an output (e.g., to the radio IC circuitry 106 (FIG. 1)). The transmit signal path of the circuitry 200 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals 209 (e.g., provided by the radio IC circuitry 106), and one or more filters 212, such as band-pass filters (BPFs), low-pass filters (LPFs) or other types of filters, to generate RF signals 215 for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the antennas 101 (FIG. 1)).

[0034] In some dual-mode embodiments for Wi-Fi communication, the

FEM circuitry 200 may be configured to operate in either the 2.4 GHz frequency spectrum or the 5 GHz frequency spectrum In these embodiments, the receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 200 may include a receive signal path duplexer 204 to separate the signals from each spectrum as well as provide a separate LNA 206 for each spectrum as shown. In these embodiments, the transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 200 may also include a power amplifier 210 and a filter 212, such as a BPF, a LPF or another type of filter for each frequency spectrum and a transmit signal path duplexer 214 to provide the signals of one of the different spectrums onto a single transmit path for subsequent transmission by the one or more of the antennas 101 (FIG. 1). In some embodiments, BT communications may utilize the 2.4 GHZ signal paths and may utilize the same FEM circuitry 200 as the one used for WLAN communications.

[0035] FIG. 3 illustrates radio IC circuitry 300 in accordance with some embodiments. The radio IC circuitry 300 is one example of circuitry that may be suitable for use as the WLAN or BT radio IC circuitry 106A/106B (FIG. 1), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable.

[0036] In some embodiments, the radio IC circuitry 300 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the radio IC circuitry 300 may include at least mixer circuitry 302, such as, for example, down-conversion mixer circuitry, amplifier circuitry 306 and filter circuitry 308. The transmit signal path of the radio IC circuitry 300 may include at least filter circuitry 312 and mixer circuitry 314, such as, for example, up- conversion mixer circuitry. Radio IC circuitry 300 may also include synthesizer circuitry 304 for synthesizing a frequency 305 for use by the mixer circuitry 302 and the mixer circuitry 314. The mixer circuitry 302 and/or 314 may each, according to some embodiments, be configured to provide direct conversion functionality. The latter type of circuitry presents a much simpler architecture as compared with standard super-heterodyne mixer circuitries, and any flicker noise brought about by the same may be alleviated for example through the use of OFDM modulation. Fig. 3 illustrates only a simplified version of a radio IC circuitry, and may include, although not shown, embodiments where each of the depicted circuitries may include more than one component. For instance, mixer circuitry 320 and/or 314 may each include one or more mixers, and filter circuitries 308 and/or 312 may each include one or more filters, such as one or more BPFs and/or LPFs according to application needs. For example, when mixer circuitries are of the direct-conversion type, they may each include two or more mixers.

[0037] In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 302 may be configured to down-convert RF signals 207 received from the FEM circuitry 104 (FIG. 1) based on the synthesized frequency 305 provided by synthesizer circuitry 304. The amplifier circuitry 306 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 308 may include a LPF configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals 307. Output baseband signals 307 may be provided to the baseband processing circuitry 108 (FIG. 1) for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals 307 may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 302 may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0038] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 314 may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals 311 based on the synthesized frequency 305 provided by the synthesizer circuitry 304 to generate RF output signals 209 for the FEM circuitry 104. The baseband signals 311 may be provided by the baseband processing circuitry 108 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 312. The filter circuitry 312 may include a LPF or a BPF, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0039] In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 may each include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion and/or up-conversion respectively with the help of synthesizer 304. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 may each include two or more mixers each configured for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 may be arranged for direct down- conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 302 and the mixer circuitry 314 may be configured for superheterodyne operation, although this is not a requirement.

[0040] Mixer circuitry 302 may comprise, according to one embodiment: quadrature passive mixers (e.g., for the in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) paths). In such an embodiment, RF input signal 207 from Fig. 3 may be down- converted to provide I and Q baseband output signals to be sent to the baseband processor

[0041] Quadrature passive mixers may be driven by zero and ninety- degree time-varying LO switching signals provided by a quadrature circuitry which may be configured to receive a LO frequency (fLo) from a local oscillator or a synthesizer, such as LO frequency 305 of synthesizer 304 (FIG. 3). In some embodiments, the LO frequency may be the carrier frequency, while in other embodiments, the LO frequency may be a fraction of the carrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency, one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the zero and ninety-degree time-varying switching signals may be generated by the synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0042] In some embodiments, the LO signals may differ in duty cycle (the percentage of one period in which the LO signal is high) and/or offset (the difference between start points of the period). In some embodiments, the LO signals may have a 25% duty cycle and a 50% offset. In some embodiments, each branch of the mixer circuitry (e.g., the in-phase (I) and quadrature phase (Q) path) may operate at a 25% duty cycle, which may result in a significant reduction is power consumption.

[0043] The RF input signal 207 (FIG. 2) may comprise a balanced signal, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect The I and Q baseband output signals may be provided to low-nose amplifier, such as amplifier circuitry 306 (FIG. 3) or to filter circuitry 308 (FIG. 3).

[0044] In some embodiments, the output baseband signals 307 and the input baseband signals 311 may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate

embodiments, the output baseband signals 307 and the input baseband signals 311 may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the radio IC circuitry may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry.

[0045] In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, or for other spectrums not mentioned here, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

[0046] In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 304 may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 304 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. According to some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 304 may include digital synthesizer circuitry. An advantage of using a digital synthesizer circuitry is that, although it may still include some analog components, its footprint may be scaled down much more than the footprint of an analog synthesizer circuitry. In some embodiments, frequency input into synthesizer circuity 304 may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. A divider control input may further be provided by either the baseband processing circuitry 108 (FIG 1) or the application processor 111 (FIG. 1) depending on the desired output frequency 305. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table (e.g., within a Wi-Fi card) based on a channel number and a channel center frequency as determined or indicated by the application processor 1 11.

[0047] In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 304 may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output f equency 305, while in other embodiments, the output frequency 305 may be a fraction of the carrier frequency (e.g., one-half the carrier frequency, one-third the carrier frequency). In some embodiments, the output frequency 305 may be a LO frequency (fLo).

[0048] FIG. 4 illustrates a functional block diagram of baseband processing circuitry 400 in accordance with some embodiments. The baseband processing circuitry 400 is one example of circuitry that may be suitable for use as the baseband processing circuitry 108 (FIG. 1), although other circuitry configurations may also be suitable. The baseband processing circuitry 400 may include a receive baseband processor (RX BBP) 402 for processing receive baseband signals 309 provided by the radio IC circuitry 106 (FIG. 1) and a transmit baseband processor (TX BBP) 404 for generating transmit baseband signals 311 for the radio IC circuitry 106. The baseband processing circuitry 400 may also include control logic 406 for coordinating the operations of the baseband processing circuitry 400.

[0049] In some embodiments (e.g., when analog baseband signals are exchanged between the baseband processing circuitry 400 and the radio IC circuitry 106), the baseband processing circuitry 400 may include ADC 410 to convert analog baseband signals received from the radio IC circuitry 106 to digital baseband signals for processing by the RX BBP 402. In these embodiments, the baseband processing circuitry 400 may also include DAC 412 to convert digital baseband signals from the TX BBP 404 to analog baseband signals.

[0050] In some embodiments that communicate OFDM signals or

OFDMA signals, such as through baseband processor 108A„ the transmit baseband processor 404 may be configured to generate OFDM or OFDMA signals as appropriate for transmission by performing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT). The receive baseband processor 402 may be configured to process received OFDM signals or OFDMA signals by performing an FFT. In some embodiments, the receive baseband processor 402 may be configured to detect the presence of an OFDM signal or OFDMA signal by performing an autocorrelation, to detect a preamble, such as a short preamble, and by performing a cross-correlation, to detect a long preamble. The preambles may be part of a predetermined frame structure for Wi-Fi communication.

[0051] Referring back to FIG. 1, in some embodiments, the antennas 101

(FIG. 1) may each comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

Antennas 101 may each include a set of phased-array antennas, although embodiments are not so limited.

[0052] Although the radio-architecture 100 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0053] FIG. 5 illustrates a WLAN 500 in accordance with some embodiments. The WLAN 500 may comprise a basis service set (BSS) that may include a HE access point (AP) 502, which may be an AP, a plurality of high- efficiency wireless (e.g., IEEE 802.1 lax) (HE) stations 504, and a plurality of legacy (e.g., IEEE 802.11n/ac) devices 506.

[0054] The HE AP 502 may be an AP using the IEEE 802.11 to transmit and receive. The HE AP 502 may be a base station. The HE AP 502 may use other communications protocols as well as the IEEE 802.11 protocol. The IEEE 802.11 protocol may be IEEE 802.1 lax. The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include using orthogonal frequency division multiple-access (OFDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), and/or code division multiple access (CDMA). The IEEE 802.11 protocol may include a multiple access technique. For example, the IEEE 802.11 protocol may include space-division multiple access (SDMA) and/or multiple-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO). There may be more than one HE AP 502 that is part of an extended service set (ESS). A controller (not illustrated) may store information that is common to the more than one HE APs 502.

[0055] The legacy devices 506 may operate in accordance with one or more of IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ad/af/ah/aj/ay, or another legacy wireless communication standard. The legacy devices 506 may be STAs or IEEE STAs. The HE STAs 504 may be wireless transmit and receive devices such as cellular telephone, portable electronic wireless communication devices, smart telephone, handheld wireless device, wireless glasses, wireless watch, wireless personal device, tablet, or another device that may be transmitting and receiving using the IEEE 802.11 protocol such as IEEE 802.1 lax or another wireless protocol. In some embodiments, the HE STAs 504 may be termed high efficiency (HE) stations.

[0056] The HE AP 502 may communicate with legacy devices 506 in accordance with legacy IEEE 802.11 communication techniques. In example embodiments, the HE AP 502 may also be configured to communicate with HE

STAs 504 in accordance with legacy IEEE 802.11 communication techniques.

[0057] In some embodiments, a HE frame may be configurable to have the same bandwidth as a channel. The HE frame may be a PPDU. In some embodiments, there may be different types of PPDUs that may have different fields and different physical layers and/or different media access control (MAC) layers.

[0058] The bandwidth of a channel may be 20MHz, 40MHz, or 80MHz,

160MHz, 320MHz contiguous bandwidths or an 80+80MHz (160MHz) non- contiguous bandwidth. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of a channel may be 1 MHz, 1.25MHz, 2.03MHz, 2.5MHz, 4.06 MHz, 5 MHz and 10MHz, or a combination thereof or another bandwidth that is less or equal to the available bandwidth may also be used. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channels may be based on a number of active data subcarriers. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channels is based on 26, 52, 106, 242, 484, 996, or 2x996 active data subcarriers or tones that are spaced by 20 MHz. In some embodiments, the bandwidth of the channels is 256 tones spaced by 20 MHz. In some embodiments, the channels are multiple of 26 tones or a multiple of 20 MHz. In some embodiments, a 20 MHz channel may comprise 242 active data subcarriers or tones, which may determine the size of a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). An allocation of a bandwidth or a number of tones or sub- carriers may be termed a resource unit (RU) allocation in accordance with some embodiments.

[0059] In some embodiments, the 26-subcarrier RU and 52-subcarrier

RU are used in the 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz and 80+80 MHz OFDMA HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 106-subcarrier RU is used in the 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz and 80+80 MHz OFDMA and MU-MIMO HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 242-subcarrier RU is used in the 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz and 80+80 MHz OFDMA and MU- MIMO HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 484-subcarrier RU is used in the 80 MHz, 160 MHz and 80+80 MHz OFDMA and MU-MIMO HE PPDU formats. In some embodiments, the 996-subcarrier RU is used in the 160 MHz and 80+80 MHz OFDMA and MU-MIMO HE PPDU formate.

[0060] A HE frame may be configured for transmitting a number of spatial streams, which may be in accordance with MU-MIMO and may be in accordance with OFDMA. In other embodiments, the HE AP 502, HE STA 504, and/or legacy device 506 may also implement different technologies such as code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000, CDMA 2000 IX, CDMA 2000 Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO), Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Long Term Evolution (LTE), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), BlueTooth®, or other technologies.

[0061] Some embodiments relate to HE communications. In accordance with some IEEE 802.11 embodiments, e.g, IEEE 802.11 ax embodiments, a HE AP 502 may operate as a master station which may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium (e.g., during a contention period) to receive exclusive control of the medium for an HE control period. In some embodiments, the HE control period may be termed a transmission opportunity (TXOP). The HE AP 502 may transmit a HE master-sync transmission, which may be a trigger frame or HE control and schedule transmission, at the beginning of the HE control period. The HE AP 502 may transmit a time duration of the TXOP and sub-channel information. During the HE control period, HE STAs 504 may communicate with the HE AP 502 in accordance with a non-contention based multiple access technique such as OFDMA or MU-MIMO. This is unlike conventional WLAN communications in which devices communicate in accordance with a contention- based communication technique, rather than a multiple access technique. During the HE control period, the HE AP 502 may communicate with HE stations 504 using one or more HE frames. During the HE control period, the HE STAs 504 may operate on a sub-channel smaller than the operating range of the HE AP 502. During the HE control period, legacy stations refrain from communicating. The legacy stations may need to receive the communication from the HE AP 502 to defer from communicating.

[0062] In accordance with some embodiments, during the TXOP the HE STAs 504 may contend for the wireless medium with the legacy devices 506 being excluded from contending for the wireless medium during the master-sync transmission. In some embodiments, the trigger frame may indicate an uplink (UL) UL-MU-MIMO and/or UL OFDMA TXOP. In some embodiments, the trigger frame may include a DL UL-MU-MIMO and/or DL OFDMA with a schedule indicated in a preamble portion of trigger frame.

[0063] In some embodiments, the multiple-access technique used during the HE TXOP may be a scheduled OFDMA technique, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, the multiple access technique may be a time-division multiple access (TDMA) technique or a frequency division multiple access (FDMA) technique. In some embodiments, the multiple access technique may be a space-division multiple access (SDMA) technique. In some embodiments, the multiple access technique may be a Code division multiple access (CDMA). [0064] The HE AP 502 may also communicate with legacy stations 506 and/or HE stations 504 in accordance with legacy IEEE 802.11 communication techniques. In some embodiments, the HE AP 502 may also be configurable to communicate with HE stations 504 outside the HE TXOP in accordance with legacy IEEE 802.11 communication techniques, although this is not a requirement.

[0065] In some embodiments, the HE station 504 may be a "group owner" (GO) for peer-to-peer modes of operation. A wireless device may be a HE station 502 or a HE AP 502.

[0066] In some embodiments, the HE station 504 and/or HE AP 502 may be configured to operate in accordance with IEEE 802.1 lmc. In example embodiments, the radio architecture of FIG. 1 is configured to implement the HE station 504 and/or the HE AP 502. In example embodiments, the front-end module circuitry of FIG. 2 is configured to implement the HE station 504 and/or the HE AP 502. In example embodiments, the radio IC circuitry of FIG. 3 is configured to implement the HE station 504 and/or the HE AP 502. In example embodiments, the base-band processing circuitry of FIG. 4 is configured to implement the HE station 504 and/or the HE AP 502.

[0067] In example embodiments, the HE stations 504, HE AP 502, an apparatus of the HE stations 504, and/or an apparatus of the HE AP 502 may include one or more of the following: the radio architecture of FIG. 1, the front- end module circuitry of FIG. 2, the radio IC circuitry of FIG. 3, and/or the baseband processing circuitry of FIG. 4.

[0068] In example embodiments, the radio architecture of FIG. 1, the front-end module circuitry of FIG. 2, the radio IC circuitry of FIG. 3, and/or the base-band processing circuitry of FIG. 4 may be configured to perform the methods and operations/functions herein described in conjunction with FIGS. 1- 13.

[0069] In example embodiments, the HE station 504 and/or the HE AP 502 are configured to perform the methods and operations/functions described herein in conjunction with FIGS. 1-13. In example embodiments, an apparatus of the HE station 504 and/or an apparatus of the HE AP 502 are configured to perform the methods and functions described herein in conjunction with FIGS. 1-13. The term Wi-Fi may refer to one or more of the IEEE 802.11

communication standards. AP and STA may refer to HE access point 502 and/or HE station 504 as well as legacy devices 506.

[0070] In some embodiments, a HE AP STA may refer to a HE AP 502 and a HE ST As 504 that is operating a HE APs 502. In some embodiments, when an HE STA 504 is not operating as a HE AP, it may be referred to as a HE non-AP STA or HE non-AP. In some embodiments, HE STA 504 may be referred to as either a HE AP STA or a HE non-AP.

[0071] FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine 600 upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussed herein may perform. In alternative embodiments, the machine 600 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 600 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 600 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The machine 600 may be a HE AP 502, HE station 504, personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable communications device, a mobile telephone, a smart phone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

[0072] Machine (e.g., computer system) 600 may include a hardware processor 602 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 604 and a static memory 606, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 608.

[0073] Specific examples of main memory 604 include Random Access

Memory (RAM), and semiconductor memory devices, which may include, in some embodiments, storage locations in semiconductors such as registers.

Specific examples of static memory 606 include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; RAM; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

[0074] The machine 600 may further include a display device 610, an input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 614 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the display device 610, input device 612 and Ul navigation device 614 may be a touch screen display. The machine 600 may additionally include a mass storage (e.g., drive unit) 616, a signal generation device 618 (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device 620, and one or more sensors 621, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 600 may include an output controller 628, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared(IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.). In some embodiments, the processor 602 and/or instructions 624 may comprise processing circuitry and/or transceiver circuitry.

[0075] The storage device 616 may include a machine readable medium

622 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 624 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 624 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 604, within static memory 606, or within the hardware processor 602 during execution thereof by the machine 600. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 602, the main memory 604, the static memory 606, or the storage device 616 may constitute machine readable media

[0076] Specific examples of machine readable media may include: nonvolatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., EPROM or EEPROM) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; RAM; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

[0077] While the machine readable medium 622 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "machine readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 624.

[0078] An apparatus of the machine 600 may be one or more of a hardware processor 602 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 604 and a static memory 606, sensors 621 , network interface device 620, antennas 660, a display device 610, an input device 612, a UI navigation device 614, a mass storage 616, instructions 624, a signal generation device 618, and an output controller 628. The apparatus may be configured to perform one or more of the methods and/or operations disclosed herein. The apparatus may be intended as a component of the machine 600 to perform one or more of the methods and/or operations disclosed herein, and/or to perform a portion of one or more of the methods and/or operations disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the apparatus may include a pin or other means to receive power. In some embodiments, the apparatus may include power conditioning hardware.

[0079] The term "machine readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 600 and that cause the machine 600 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non- limiting machine readable medium examples may include solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine readable media may include: non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; Random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, machine readable media may include non-transitory machine readable media In some examples, machine readable media may include machine readable media that is not a transitory propagating signal.

[0080] The instructions 624 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 626 using a transmission medium via the network interface device 620 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others.

[0081] In an example, the network interface device 620 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 626. In an example, the network interface device 620 may include one or more antennas 660 to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MJMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device 620 may wirelessly communicate using Multiple User MIMO techniques. The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 600, and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible medium to facilitate communication of such software.

[0082] Examples, as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In an example, circuits may be arranged (e.g., internally or with respect to external entities such as other circuits) in a specified manner as a module. In an example, the whole or part of one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client or server computer system) or one or more hardware processors may be configured by firmware or software (e.g., instructions, an application portion, or an application) as a module that operates to perform specified operations. In an example, the software may reside on a machine readable medium In an example, the software, when executed by the underlying hardware of the module, causes the hardware to perform the specified operations.

[0083] Accordingly, the term "module" is understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or to perform part or all of any operation described herein. Considering examples in which modules are temporarily configured, each of the modules need not be instantiated at any one moment in time. For example, where the modules comprise a general-purpose hardware processor configured using software, the general-purpose hardware processor may be configured as respective different modules at different times. Software may accordingly configure a hardware processor, for example, to constitute a particular module at one instance of time and to constitute a different module at a different instance of time.

[0084] Some embodiments may be implemented fully or partially in software and/or firmware. This software and/or firmware may take the form of instructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Those instructions may then be read and executed by one or more processors to enable performance of the operations described herein. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as but not limited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readable medium may include any tangible non- transitory medium for storing information in a form readable by one or more computers, such as but not limited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory, etc. [0085] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example wireless device

700 upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies or operations) discussed herein may perform The wireless device 700 may be a HE device. The wireless device 700 may be a HE STA 504 and/or HE AP 502 (e.g., FIG. 5). A HE STA 504 and/or HE AP 502 may include some or all of the components shown in FIGS. 1-7. The wireless device 700 may be an example machine 600 as disclosed in conjunction with FIG. 6.

[0086] The wireless device 700 may include processing circuitry 708.

The processing circuitry 708 may include a transceiver 702, physical layer circuitry (PHY circuitry) 704, and MAC layer circuitry (MAC circuitry) 706, one or more of which may enable transmission and reception of signals to and from other wireless devices 700 (e.g., HE AP 502, HE STA 504, and/or legacy devices 506) using one or more antennas 712. As an example, the PHY circuitry 704 may perform various encoding and decoding functions that may include formation of baseband signals for transmission and decoding of received signals. As another example, the transceiver 702 may perform various transmission and reception functions such as conversion of signals between a baseband range and a Radio Frequency (RF) range.

[0087] Accordingly, the PHY circuitry 704 and the transceiver 702 may be separate components or may be part of a combined component, e.g., processing circuitry 708. In addition, some of the described functionality related to transmission and reception of signals may be performed by a combination that may include one, any or all of the PHY circuitry 704 the transceiver 702, MAC circuitry 706, memory 710, and other components or layers. The MAC circuitry 706 may control access to the wireless medium The wireless device 700 may also include memory 710 arranged to perform the operations described herein, e.g., some of the operations described herein may be performed by instructions stored in the memory 710.

[0088] The antennas 712 (some embodiments may include only one antenna) may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas 712 may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

[0089] One or more of the memory 710, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuitry 704, the MAC circuitry 706, the antennas 712, and/or the processing circuitry 708 may be coupled with one another. Moreover, although memory 710, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuitry 704, the MAC circuitry 706, the antennas 712 are illustrated as separate components, one or more of memory 710, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuitry 704, the MAC circuitry 706, the antennas 712 may be integrated in an electronic package or chip.

[0090] In some embodiments, the wireless device 700 may be a mobile device as described in conjunction with FIG. 6. In some embodiments, the wireless device 700 may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more wireless communication standards as described herein (e.g., as described in conjunction with FIGS. 1-6, IEEE 802.11). In some embodiments, the wireless device 700 may include one or more of the components as described in conjunction with FIG. 6 (e.g., display device 610, input device 612, etc.) Although the wireless device 700 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0091] In some embodiments, an apparatus of or used by the wireless device 700 may include various components of the wireless device 700 as shown in FIG. 7 and/or components from FIGS. 1-6. Accordingly, techniques and operations described herein that refer to the wireless device 700 may be applicable to an apparatus for a wireless device 700 (e.g., HE AP 502 and/or HE STA 504), in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the wireless device 700 is configured to decode and/or encode signals, packets, and/or frames as described herein, e.g., PPDUs.

[0092] In some embodiments, the MAC circuitry 706 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium during a contention period to receive control of the medium for a HE TXOP and encode or decode an HE PPDU. In some embodiments, the MAC circuitry 706 may be arranged to contend for the wireless medium based on channel contention settings, a transmitting power level, and a clear channel assessment level (e.g., an energy detect level).

[0093] The PHY circuitry 704 may be arranged to transmit signals in accordance with one or more communication standards described herein. For example, the PHY circuitry 704 may be configured to transmit a HE PPDU. The PHY circuitry 704 may include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 708 may include one or more processors. The processing circuitry 708 may be configured to perform functions based on instructions being stored in a RAM or ROM, or based on special purpose circuitry. The processing circuitry 708 may include a processor such as a general purpose processor or special purpose processor. The processing circuitry 708 may implement one or more functions associated with antennas 712, the transceiver 702, the PHY circuitry 704, the MAC circuitry 706, and/or the memory 710. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 708 may be configured to perform one or more of the functions/operations and/or methods described herein.

[0094] In mmWave technology, communication between a station (e.g., the HE stations 504 of FIG. 5 or wireless device 700) and an access point (e.g., the HE AP 502 of FIG. 5 or wireless device 700) may use associated effective wireless channels that are highly directionally dependent. To accommodate the directionality, beamforming techniques may be utilized to radiate energy in a certain direction with certain beamwidth to communicate between two devices. The directed propagation concentrates transmitted energy toward a target device in order to compensate for significant energy loss in the channel between the two communicating devices. Using directed transmission may extend the range of the millimeter-wave communication versus utilizing the same transmitted energy in omni-directional propagation.

[0095] FIG. 8 illustrates a quality of service (QoS) control field 800 in accordance with some embodiments. The QoS control subfield 800 includes a traffic identification (TTD) subfield 802, a type subfield 804, an acknowledgment (Ack) policy subfield 806, an aggregated media access control (MAC) sendee data unit (A-MSDU) present/reserved subfield 808, and a queue size subfield 810.

[0096] The TID subfield 802 may be 0-3 bits 816 of the QoS control field 800. In some embodiments, the TID subfield 802 identifies the traffic class (TC) or traffic stream (TS) for which the queue size subfield 810 is reporting.

[0097] For example, Table 1 below illustrates an example of usage of a

TID subfield 802. Table 1 illustrates an access policy, usage, and allowed values. The access policies used by the HE station 504 and/or HE AP 502 may be on one of Enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA), HCF Controlled

Channel Access (HCCA), service period channel access (SPCA), HCCA, EDCA mixed mode (HEMM), and Symbol's Enterprise Mobility Manager (SEMM).

[0098] The usage may be user priorhy (UP) for TC or TS, or TS identification (TSID). The values in bits 0-3 may be 0-7 for EDCA, and 8-15 for HCCA, SPCA, HEMM, or SEMM.

[0099] The type subfield 804 may be the 4th bit of the QoS control field

800. The type subfield 804 may be set to one (1) to indicate a format of the QoS control field 800. For example, a value of the type subfield 804 may be set to one to indicate the format of the QoS control field 800 as illustrated in FIG. 8. In some embodiments, a value of the type subfield 804 set to one may indicate the presence of the queue size subfield 810. [00100] The Ack policy subfield 806 may- be the 5th and 6th bits 816 of the QoS control subfield 800. The Ack policy subfield 806 may have a value of zero and zero (0 and 0) to indicate normal Ack or implicit block Ack request. The Ack policy subfield 806 may have a value of one and zero (1 and 0) to indicate no Ack is necessary for the packet that includes the QoS control field 800. The Ack policy subfield 806 may have a value of zero and one (0 and 1) to indicate no explicit Ack policy or Power Save Multi-Poll (PSMP) Ack. The Ack policy subfield 806 may have a value of one and one (1 and 1) to indicate block Ack. In some embodiments, the bits of the Ack policy subfield 806 may be set differently. In some embodiments, there may be different Ack policies indicated by the Ack policy subfield 806.

[00101] A-MSDU present/reserved subfield 808 may be the 7th bit 816 of the QoS control field 800. The A-MSDU present/reserved subfield 808 may indicate the presence of an A-MSDU. In some embodiments, the A-MSDU present/reserved subfield 808 indicates that the f ame body field that carries the QoS control field 800 contains an entire A-MSDU. In some embodiments, A- MSDU present reserved subfield 808 may be reserved, e.g., not currently used. In some embodiments, A-MSDU present/reserved subfield 808 may be changed from reserved to another use.

[00102] The queue size subfield 810 may comprise a scaling factor (SF) subfield 812 and an unsealed size subfield 814. The queue size subfield 810 may be the 8th through 15th bits 816 of QoS control field 800, in accordance with some embodiments. The queue size subfield 810 indicates an amount of buffered traffic for a TID indicated by the value of the TID subfield 802 (e.g., TC, or TS) at a HE station 504 (that encodes the QoS control field 800) for the HE AP 502 identified by the receive address (e.g., receive address 1002 of FIG. 10) of the frame containing the QoS control field 800 (e.g., QoS control field 1004). The scaling factor subfield 812 may be the 8th and 9th bits 818 of QoS control field 800. The queue size subfield 814 may be the 10th through 15th bits 818 of QoS control field 800. In some embodiments, the queue size subfield 810 is present in QoS data and QoS null frames sent by non-AP STAs (e.g., HE station 504) with the type subfield 804 set to one (1). In some embodiments, a value of the queue size subfield 810 may be an unsealed value (UV). [00103] The scaling factor subfield 812 provides an indication of how the value of the queue size subfield 810 should be scaled. In some embodiments, the scaling factor subfield 812 defines four (4) different scaling factors (e.g., 128, 256, 2048, and 16384). In some embodiments, the scaling factor subfield 812 defines (4) different scaling factors (e.g., 16, 128, 2048, and 16384, or different values). Those skilled in the art would recognize that other values may be used.

[00104] In some embodiments, an actual queue size (e.g., 922) value for a HE non-AP STA (e.g., HE station 504) is determined as follows. Actual queue size 922 is equal to 16 x UV when the value of the scaling factor subfield 812 is zero (0). The actual queue size 922 is equal to 1024 + 256 x UV when the value of the scaling factor subfield is one (1). The actual queue size 922 is equal to 17,408 + 2,048 x UV when the value of the scaling factor subfield is 2. The actual queue size 922 is equal to 148,480 + 32,768 x UV when the value of the scaling factor subfield 812 is three (3). In some embodiments, an actual queue size (e.g., 922) value for a HE non-AP STA (e.g., HE station 504) is determined based on a constant + SF * UV. The constant may be a positive number and may be based on the SF used. The SF may be a number for a value of the scaling factor field 812, e.g., SF may be 1024 for a value of 2 of the scaling factor field 812. The actual queue size (e.g., 922) value be adjusted by another constant, e.g., constant_2 + (constant l + SF * UV). In some embodiments, the actual queue size (e.g., 922) may be in a unit greater than a bit, e.g., octet or kilobits.

[00105] In some embodiments, each bit of the TID subfield 802 may indicate a different AC, e.g., B0 AC BK, Bl AC BE, B2 AC VI, and B3 AC VO. In some embodiments, the actual queue size 922 value is rounded up to the nearest multiple of scaling factor octets and expressed in units of SF octets of all MSDUs and A-MSDUs buffered at the HE station 504 that are to be transmitted to a wireless device (e.g., HE AP 502 or HE station 504, with receive address 1002 of FIG. 10) where the value of the TID subfield 802 matches a value of a priority or TID field 908 of the MSDU/A-MSDU 904 (see FIG. 9). In some embodiments, one or more of the fields 802, 804, 806, 808, 810, may not be present or may represent different information. In some embodiments, QoS control field 800 may include one or more additional fields.

[00106] FIG. 9 illustrates a system 900 for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size in accordance with some embodiments. Illustrated in FIG. 9 is HE station 504, UL traffic 902, and HE MAC capabilities 912.

[00107] The UL traffic 902 may include MSDU/A-MSDU 904. The UL traffic 902 may be a queue for UL traffic 902 that is waiting to be transmitted by the HE station 504 to another device, e.g., HE AP 502 or another HE station 504. The MSDU/A-MSDU 904 may be MSDUs where some may be A-MSDUs. In some embodiments, only MSDUs are present. The MSDU/A-MSDU 904 may include receive address (ADDR) 906, priorily/TlD field 908, and length 910. The receive address 906 may be an address of the wireless device (e.g., HE AP 502, HE station 504, or legacy device 506) that the MSDU/A-MSDU 904 is to be transmitted to. In some embodiments, the receive address 906 may be termed a destination address. The MSDUs/A-MSDUs 904 may be termed outgoing MSDUs/ A-MSDUs in accordance with some embodiments.

[00108] The priority/TID field 908 may be an integer from 0 to 15.

Values from 0 to 7 may be interpreted as UPs for the MSDU/A-MSDU 904. Values of 8 to 15 may specify TIDs that are also TSIDs that may have associated traffic specification (TSPEC), which may indicate parameters for how QoS to use for the traffic, e.g., MSDU/A-MSDU 904. In some embodiments, the values from 0 to 7 correspond to ACs, e.g., 0 and 1 may be AC BK, 2 and 3 to AC BE, 4 and 5 AC VI, and 6 and 7 AC VO. The values of the prioriry/TID field 908 may be interpreted as indicated in conjunction with FIG. 8.

[00109] One or more of the receive address 906, priority/TID field 908, and length field 910 may be part of a MAC portion of a PPDU, e.g., a trigger based (TB) PPDU, a QoS data frame, QoS null frame, a single user (SU) PPDU, a multi-user PPDU, or an extended range (ER) SU PPDU.

[00110] The length field 910 may be a size of the MSDU/A-MSDUs 904. The length 910 may be in octets. The length 910 may be a MAC field or a PHY field. In some embodiments, the length 910 may be part of a PPDU and may indicate the size of the PPDU, e.g. PPDU 1000. [00111] The HE MAC capabilities 912 may include scaling factor 918, which may be the same or similar to scaling factor 812. The HE station 504 may receive or transmit packets (e.g., PPDUs) that include an element or field with an update for the scaling factor 918.

[00112] The HE station 504 may include an encoder of QoS control field 916 and received TC/TS field 920. The encoder of QoS control field 916 may include an actual queue size 922. In some embodiments, the TC/TS field 920 may be a received TS or TC. The encoder of QoS control field 916 may encode the QoS control field 800. The encoder of QoS control field 916 may search through the UL traffic 902 for MSDUs/MSDUs 904 with a priority/TID field 908 lhat matches the received TC/TS field 920.

[00113] The encoder of QoS control field 916 may then determine an actual queue size 922 which may be an amount of buffered traffic intended for a HE AP 502 or another HE station 504. In some embodiments, the encoder of QoS control field 916 determines an actual queue size 922 based on a receive address (e.g., 1002) matching the receive address 906 and with the priority /TID field 908 matching the received TC/TS 920. The actual queue size 922 may not include the size of the MSDU or A-MSDU of PPDU 1000 that includes the QoS control 1004. The encoder of QoS control field 916 encodes QoS control field 1004 of PPDU 1000. The encoder of QoS control field 916 may encode the actual queue size 922 in queue size 810.

[00114] In some embodiments, the encoder of QoS control field 916 may determine a match based on each bit of the TID field 802 indicating a different AC, e.g., B0 AC BK, Bl AC BE, B2 AC VI, and B3 AC VO. For example, if bits 0 and 1 are set, then if the priority/TID field 908 has a value of 0 or 1 then the priorhy/TID field 908 matches the TID field 802.

[00115] The encoder of QoS control field 916 may determine or select the scaling factor 812 so that size of the buffered traffic (e.g., actual queue size 922) may be represented by the queue size subfield 810. In some embodiments, a value of the scaling factor subfield 812 to use is determined based on scaling factor field 918.

[00116] The encoder of QoS control field 916 encodes the actual queue size 922 with the scaling factor subfield 812 and unsealed value subfield 814. In some embodiments, the encoder of QoS control field 916 determines one of four scaling factors and encodes the scaling factor subfield 812 to indicate the determined or selected one of four scaling factors, e.g., the scaling factors disclosed in conjunction with FIG. 8. The encoder of QoS control field 916 sets the unsealed value subfield 814 so that the unsealed value subfield 814 times the scaling factor subfield 812 is equal to or approximately equal (e.g., a constant may be added or subtracted and rounding may be used) to the actual queue size 922. In some embodiments, the encoder of QoS control field 916 may encode scaling factor subfield 812 and unsealed value subfield 814 as described in conjunction with FIG. 8. In some embod ments, the encoder of QoS control field 916 may approximate the value of the actual queue size 922 by rounding up to the nearest scaling factor indicated by the value of the scaling factor subfield 812 or rounding down to the nearest scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor subfield 812. In some embodiments, the value of the actual queue size subfield 922 is reduced by an amount of the scaling factor indicated by the value of the scaling factor subfield 812, and then the value of the actual queue size 922 is divided by the scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor subfield 812 and rounded up to the nearest number of scaling factors indicated by the scaling factor subfield 812. For example, for a scaling factor of 1024 and actual queue size of 4050, the calculation would be performed as follows: 4050 - 1024 =

3026, divided by 1024 and rounded up to the nearest 1024 = 3. So, the value of the unsealed value subfield 814 is 3 with the scaling factor of 1024. A reverse calculation to determine may multiple 3 times 1024 and add 1024 = 4096. So, the values communicated to the HE AP 502 may be an approximation of the UL traffic 902.

[00117] In some embodiments, a queue size subfield 810 value of 0 indicates there is no UL traffic 902 for the receive address 906 and priority ΠΊΏ 908. In some embodiments, the encoder of QoS control field 916 includes the size of the length field 1006 of the MSDU/A-MSDU 1008 that includes the QoS control field 1004 in determining the value of the queue size field 810. In some embodiments, there is a value of the queue size subfield 810 that indicates that UL traffic 902 is unknown or unspecified. [00118] In some embodiments, the encoder of QoS control field 916 may encode the type subfield 804 equal to 1, which may indicate the queue size 810 field is present and indicates the amount of buffer traffic intended for a receive address 1002 matching receive address 906 and with the priority/T D field 908 matching the received TC/TS 920.

[00119] In some embodiments, the received TC/TS 920 may be determined or selected by the HE station 504, e.g., as part of a request for UL resource from a HE AP 502.

[00120] FIG. 10 illustrates a physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) 1000 for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size, in accordance with some embodiments. The PPDU 1000 includes a receiver address 1002, transmitter address 1110, and a MSDU/A-MSDU 1008. The MSDU/A-MSDU 1008 includes a length field 1006 and QoS control field 1004. The QoS control field 1004 may be the same or similar as QoS control field 800. In some embodiments, the MSDU/A- MSDU 1008 may be either an MSDU or an A-MSDU. The length field 1006 may indicate the length of the MSDU or A-MSDU. In some embodiments, the length 1006 indicates an approximate length of all MSDUs and A-MSDUs that are included in the PPDU 1000.

[00121] In some embodiments, the PPDU 1000 is a HE PPDU that is encoded or generated to comply with the IEEE 802.1 lax communication standard. In some embodiments, the PPDU 1000 is one or more of a TB PPDU, a QoS data frame, QoS null frame, a single user (SU) PPDU, a multi-user PPDU, and/or an ER SU PPDU. In some embodiments, the queue size size 810 is included in every QoS data PPDU. The transmitter address field 1110 may be the address of the device that transmits the PPDU, e.g., HE station 504 of FIG. 9. In some embodiments, the receive 1002 address may be a BSS identification (BSSID) or a MAC address. In some embodiments, the transmitter address 1110 may be an association ID (AID) or a MAC address.

[00122] FIG. 11 illustrates a high-efficiency (HE) access point (AP) for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size, in accordance with some embodiments. Illustrated in FIG. 11 is a HE AP 502, QoS control field 1104, and UL resource allocations 1108. The HE AP 502 may include a TC/TS field 1102 and a scaling factor field 1110. The HE AP 502 may set the TOTS field 1 102 and send one or more PPDUs to HE stations 504. The HE stations 504 may transmit QoS control fields 1104 to the HE AP 502 where the queue size field 1106 indicates traffic for the HE AP 502 that match the TC/TS 1102. The HE AP 502 may be configured to determine queue size fields 1112 from the queue size fields 1106, e.g., by multiplying scaling factor indicated by a value of scaling factor field 812 times an unsealed value indicated by a value of the unsealed value field 814 and making one or more offset adjustments and adding in one or more constants. The HE AP 502 may be configured to reverse the calculations made by the HE station 502 as disclosed in conjunction with FIGS. 8 and 9. The HE AP 502 may determine UL resource allocations 1108 for the HE stations 504 based on the queue size field 1112.

[00123] In some embodiments, the HE AP 502 may determine a scaling factor field 1110 and transmit it to the HE stations 502, e.g., in an information element of a PPDU for HE MAC capabilities 912 (FIG. 9). The HE AP 502 may encode a trigger frame (not illustrated) with the UL resource allocations 1108.

[00124] FIG. 12 illustrates a method 1200 for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size in accordance with some embodiments. The method 1200 begins at operation 1202 with determining an amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for a HE AP. For example, HE station 504 may determine UL traffic 902 as disclosed in conjunction with FIG. 9.

[00125] The method 1200 continues at operation 1204 with encoding the amount of uplink buffered traffic in a QoS control subfield, the QoS control subfield including a queue size field, and the queue size field comprising a scaling factor field and an unsealed value field. For example, HE station 504 (e.g., encoder of QoS control field 916) may encode QoS control 1004 including scaling factor 812 and unsealed value 814. In some embodiments, a value of the queue size field (which may be adjust by a constant and/or rounded up or down) is determined based on multiplying a scaling factor (which may be adjusted by a constant) indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field (which may be adjust by a constant and/or rounded up or down). For example, as disclosed in conjunction with FIGS. 8-10, an actual queue size 922 may be encoded into a queue size 810 with a scaling factor 812 and unsealed value 814 as disclosed in conjunction with FIGS. 8-11.

[00126] The method 1200 continues at operation 1206 with encoding a packet to comprise the QoS control subfield and a receive address of the HE AP. For example, HE station 504 (e.g., encoder of QoS control field 916) may encode the QoS control field 1004 and the receive address 1002 of HE AP 502.

[00127] The method 1200 continues at operation 1208 with configuring the HE station to transmit the packet to the HE AP. For example, an apparatus of the HE station 504 may configure the HE station 504 (FIG. 9) to transmit PPDU 1000 to HE AP 502 with the receive address 1002 set to the address of the HE AP 502.

[00128] One or more of the operations of method 1200 may be optional. One or more of the operations of method 1200 may be performed by an apparatus of a HE station 504, an apparatus of a HE AP 502, a HE station 504, and/or a HE AP 502.

[00129] FIG. 13 illustrates a method 1300 for a scaling factor for reporting quality of service queue size in accordance with some embodiments. The method 1300 begins at operation 1302 with decoding a first packet from an HE station, the packet comprising a QoS control subfield, where the QoS control subfield comprises a queue size field.

[00130] For example, HE AP 502 (FIG. 11) may decode packets (e.g., PPDUs 1000) that include QoS control fields 1104 that include queue size 1106 that include scaling factor 812 and unsealed value 814. The value of the queue sizes 1106 indicate an amount or approximate amount of UL traffic for the HE AP 502.

[00131] The method 1300 continues at operation 1303 with determining a value of the queue size field based on multiplying a scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field, where the value of the queue size field indicates an amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station.

[00132] In some embodiments, a value of the queue size field is determined based on multiplying a scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field. For example, as disclosed in conjunction with FIGS. 8-11, the queue size 1112 (which may be adjusted by a constant and/or rounded up or down) may be determined based on the unsealed value 814 (which may be adjusted by a constant and/or rounded up or down) times the scaling factor 812 (which may be adjusted by a constant and/or rounded up or down) plus or minus a constant.

[00133] In some embodiments, the method 1300 continues at operation 1304 with determining an uplink resource allocation for the HE station based on the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station. For example, HE AP 502 may determine UL resource allocations 1108 as disclosed in conjunction with FIG. 11.

[00134] The method 1300 may continue at operation 1306 with encoding a second packet, the second packet comprising the uplink resource allocation for the HE station. For example, as disclosed in conjunction with FIG. 11, HE AP 502 may encode a trigger frame with the UL resource allocation 1108 which enables the HE stations 504 to transmit the traffic indicated in the queue size 1106 (or at least some of it) to the HE AP 502.

[00135] The method 1300 may continue at operation 1308 with configuring the HE AP to transmit the second packet to the HE station. For example, an apparatus of the HE AP 502 may configure the HE AP 502 to transmit the trigger frame.

[00136] One or more of the operations of method 1300 may be optional. One or more of the operations of method 1300 may be performed by an apparatus of a HE station 504, an apparatus of a HE AP 502, a HE station 504, and/or a HE AP 502.

[00137] Some embodiments provide a solution to the technical problem of sending quality of service queue size. The solution may condense the field reporting the size of the quality of service queue by using a scaling factor and unsealed value. Moreover, the solution provides a means for determining which packets should be included in the report for quality of service queue size by including a type field that may be used to select different quality of service packets.

[00138] The following examples pertain to further embodiments. In Example 1, the subject matter optionally includes where the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine the amount of uplink buffered traffic for a traffic category (TC) or traffic stream (TS) at the HE station for the HE AP.

[00139] In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 optionally includes where the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode a value of a traffic identification (TID) field of the QoS control subfield with a value of the TC or a value of the TS.

[00140] In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 2 optionally includes where the value of the TID is a value from zero through seven.

[00141] In Example 4, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-3 optionally include where the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode a second packet from the HE AP, the second packet including the TC or the TS.

[00142] In Example 5, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-4 optionally include where the TC or TS is one from the following group: an access category (AC) of background (BK), an AC of best effort (BE), an AC of video, and an AC of voice.

[00143] In Example 6, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 1-5 optionally includes, where the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine the amount of uplink buffered traffic with a traffic identification (TID) at the HE station for the HE AP; and encode a val ue of a TID field of the QoS control subfield with the TID.

[00144] In Example 7, the subject matter of Example 6 optionally includes where the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode a second packet from the HE AP, the second packet including the TC or the TS.

[00145] In Example 8, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 6-7 optionally include where the processing circuitry is further configured to: determine the amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for the HE AP based on media access control (MAC) service data units (MSDUs) and aggregated MSDUs (A-MSDUs) that have an TID that matches the value of the TID field.

[00146] In Example 9, the subject matter of Example 8 optionally includes where the MSDUs and A-MSDUs are queued in a background access class (AC) queue, best effort AC queue, video AC queue, or voice AC queue of an enhanced disturbed channel access (EDCA) system.

[00147] In Example 10, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1-

9 optionally includes, where the processing circuitry is further configured to: encode bit 3 of the QoS control subfield to be one to indicate the QoS control subfield is reporting the queue size for the amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for the HE AP.

[00148] In Example 11, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1-

10 optionally includes, where the packet is one of the following group: a trigger based (TB) physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit

(PPDU), a QoS data frame, a single user (SU) PPDU, a multi-user PPDU, and an extended range (ER) SU PPDU.

[00149] In Example 12, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1-

11 optionally includes, where the QoS control subfield is part of a media access control (MAC) of the packet.

[00150] In Example 13, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1-

12 optionally includes, where the unsealed value field is expressed in units of more than one octet.

[00151] In Example 14, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1- 13 optionally includes, where the scaling factor field indicates one of four different scaling factors with a value of zero of the scaling field indicating a smallest scaling factor and a value of three of the scaling field indicating a largest scaling factor, and where the memory is configured to store the scaling factor.

[00152] In Example 15, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1-

14 optionally includes, where the processing circuitry is further configured to: decode a second packet from the HE AP, the second packet including an indication of a request for the amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for the HE AP.

[00153] In Example 16, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1-

15 optionally includes access point. In Example 17, the subject matter of one or more of Examples 1-15 optionally includes, further including transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; and, one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

[00154] Example 18 is 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 a high-efficiency (HE) station to: determine an amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for a HE access point (AP); encode the amount in a quality of service (QoS) control subfield, the QoS control subfield including a queue size field, the queue size field including a scaling factor field and an unsealed value field, where a value of the queue size field is determined based on multiplying scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field; encode a packet to comprise the QoS control subfield and a receive address of the HE AP; and configure the HE station to transmit the packet to the HE AP.

[00155] In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 18 optionally includes where the instructions further configure the one or more processors to cause the HE station to: determine the amount of uplink buffered traffic for a traffic category (TC) or traffic stream (TS) at the HE station for the HE AP.

[00156] Example 20 is a method performed by a high-efficiency (HE) station, the method including: determining an amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for a HE access point (AP); encoding the amount in a quality of service (QoS) control subfield, the QoS control subfield including a queue size field, the queue size field including a scaling factor field and an unsealed value field, where a value of the queue size field is determined based on multiplying scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field; encoding a packet to comprise the QoS control subfield and a receive address of the HE AP; and configuring the HE station to transmit the packet to the HE AP.

[00157] In Example 21, the subject matter of Example 20 optionally includes where the method further comprises: determining the amount of uplink buffered traffic for a traffic category (TC) or traffic stream (TS) at the HE station for the HE AP, or determining the amount of uplink buffered traffic for a traffic identification (TID) at the HE station for the HE AP, and encode a value of a TID field of the QoS control subfield with the TID. [00158] Example 22 is an apparatus of a high-efficiency (HE) access point (AP), the apparatus including: memory; and, processing circuitry coupled to the memory, the processing circuity configured to: decode a first packet from an HE station, the packet including a quality of service (QoS) control subfield, where the QoS control subfield comprises a queue size field, the queue size field including a scaling factor field and an unsealed value field; determine a value of the queue size field based on multiplying a scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field, where the value of the queue size field indicates an amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station; determine an uplink resource allocation for die HE station based on the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station; encode a second packet, the second packet including the uplink resource allocation for the HE station; and configure the HE AP to transmit the second packet to the HE station.

[00159] In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 22 optionally includes where the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP is for data with a traffic category (TC) or data with a traffic stream (TS) at the HE station for the HE AP, where a value of the TC and TS is from zero to seven.

[00160] In Example 24, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 22-23 optionally include transceiver circuitry, the transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; and, one or more antennas, the one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

[00161] Example 25 is 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 a high-efficiency (HE) access point (AP) to: decode a first packet from an HE station, the packet including a quality of service (QoS) control subfield, where the QoS control subfield comprises a queue size field, the queue size field including a scaling factor field and an unsealed value field; determine a value of the queue size field based on multiplying a scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field, where the value of the queue size field indicates an amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station;

determine an uplink resource allocation for the HE station based on the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station; encode a second packet, the second packet including the uplink resource allocation for the HE station; and configure the HE AP to transmit the second packet to the HE station.

[00162] In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 25 optionally includes where the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP is for data with a traffic category (TC) or data with a traffic stream (TS) at the HE station for the HE AP, where a value of the TC and TS is from zero to seven.

[00163] In Example 27, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 25-26 optionally include where the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP for the HE AP is for data with a traffic identification (TID) at the HE station for the HE AP, where a value of the TID is from zero to seven.

[00164] Example 28 is an of a high-efficiency (HE) access point (AP), the apparatus including: means for decoding a first packet from an HE station, the packet including a quality of service (QoS) control subfield, where the QoS control subfield comprises a queue size field, the queue size field including a scaling factor field and an unsealed value field; means for determining a value of the queue size field based on multiplying a scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field, where the value of the queue size field indicates an amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station; means for determining an uplink resource allocation for the HE station based on the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP from the HE station; means for encoding a second packet, the second packet including the uplink resource allocation for the HE station; and means for configuring the HE AP to transmit the second packet to the HE station.

[00165] In Example 29, the subject matter of Example 28 optionally includes where the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP is for data with a traffic category (TC) or data with a traffic stream (TS) at the HE station for the HE AP, where a value of the TC and TS is from zero to seven.

[00166] In Example 30, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 28-29 optionally include where the amount of uplink traffic for the HE AP for the HE AP is for data with a traffic identification (TID) at the HE station for the HE AP, where a value of the TID is from zero to seven.

[00167] In Example 31, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 28-30 optionally include the apparatus further including: means for processing radio-frequency signals coupled to means for storing and retrieving data; and, means for transmitting and receiving radio-frequency signals coupled to the means for processing the radio-frequency signals.

[00168] Example 32 is an apparatus of a high-efficiency (HE) station, the apparatus including: means for determining an amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for a HE access point (AP); means for encoding the amount in a quality of service (QoS) control subfield, the QoS control subfield including a queue size field, the queue size field including a scaling factor field and an unsealed value field, where a value of the queue size field is determined based on multiplying scaling factor indicated by the scaling factor field with a value of the unsealed value field; means for encoding a packet to comprise the QoS control subfield and a receive address of the HE AP; and means for configuring the HE station to transmit the packet to the HE AP.

[00169] In Example 33, the subject matter of Example 32 optionally includes means for determining the amount of uplink buffered traffic for a traffic category (TC) or traffic stream (TS) at the HE station for the HE AP.

[00170] In Example 34, the subject matter of Example 33 optionally includes where the apparatus further comprise: means for encoding a value of a traffic identification (TID) field of the QoS control subfield with a value of the TC or a value of the TS.

[00171] In Example 35, the subject matter of Example 34 optionally includes where the value of the TID is a value from zero through seven.

[00172] In Example 36, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 33-35 optionally include the apparatus further including: means for decoding a second packet from the HE AP, the second packet including the TC or the TS.

[00173] In Example 37, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 33-36 optionally include where the TC or TS is one from the following group: an access category (AC) of background (BK), an AC of best effort (BE), an AC of video, and an AC of voice.

[00174] In Example 38, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 32-37 optionally include the apparatus further including: means for determining the amount of uplink buffered traffic with a traffic identification (TID) at the HE station for the HE AP; and means for encoding a value of a TID field of the QoS control subfield with the ΎΙΌ.

[00175] In Example 39, the subject matter of Example 38 optionally includes the apparatus further including: means for decoding a second packet from the HE AP, the second packet including the TC or the TS.

[00176] In Example 40, the subject matter of Example 39 optionally includes the apparatus further including: means for determining the amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for the HE AP based on media access control (MAC) service data units (MSDUs) and aggregated MSDUs (A- MSDUs) that have an Ήϋ that matches the value of the Ήϋ field.

[00177] In Example 41, the subject matter of Example 40 optionally includes where the MSDUs and A-MSDUs are queued in a background access class (AC) queue, best effort AC queue, video AC queue, or voice AC queue of an enhanced disturbed channel access (EDCA) system

[00178] In Example 42, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 32-41 optionally include the apparatus further including: means for encoding bit 3 of the QoS control subfield to be one to indicate the QoS control subfield is reporting the queue size for the amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for the HE AP.

[00179] In Example 43, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 32-42 optionally include where the packet is one of the following group: a trigger based (TB) physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU), a QoS data frame, a single user (SU) PPDU, a multiuser PPDU, and an extended range (ER) SU PPDU.

[00180] In Example 44, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 32-43 optionally include where the QoS control subfield is part of a media access control (MAC) of the packet.

[00181] In Example 45, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 32-44 optionally include where the unsealed value field is expressed in units of more than one octet.

[00182] In Example 46, the subject matter of any one or more of Examples 32-45 optionally include where the scaling factor field indicates one of four different scaling factors with a value of zero of the scaling field indicating a smallest scaling factor and a value of three of the scaling field indicating a largest scaling factor.

[00183] In Example 47, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 32-46 optionally include the apparatus further including: means for decoding a second packet from the HE AP, the second packet including an indication of a request for the amount of uplink buffered traffic at the HE station for the HE AP.

[00184] In Example 48, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 32-47 optionally include access point.

[00185] In Example 49, the subject matter of any one or more of

Examples 32-48 optionally include the apparatus further including: means for processing radio-frequency signals coupled to means for storing and retrieving data; and, means for transmitting and receiving radio-frequency signals coupled to the means for processing the radio-frequency signals.

[00186] The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. Section

1.72(b) requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to limit or interpret the scope or meaning of the claims. The following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.