阅读说明：本技术 一种对多链路接收数据响应的方法及装置 (Method and device for responding to multilink received data ) 是由 吴昊 谢芳 廖杨 于 2020-06-03 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请公开了一种对多链路接收数据响应的方法及装置,该方法包括：消息发起方分别在多条链路上发送添加块确认(ADDBA)请求消息给消息响应方；消息发起方分别从多条链路上接收消息响应方发送的ADDBA响应消息,所述ADDBA响应消息包含参数ML-BA Policy,用于指示消息响应方同意多链路协同块确认策略的使用方式；消息发起方分别在多条链路上发送汇聚数据包给消息响应方。本申请通过统一数据管理,降低了数据发送和接收管理的复杂度,并提高了网络吞吐率和效率。(The application discloses a method and a device for responding to multilink received data, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the message initiator sends an add block acknowledgement (ADDBA) request message to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively; the message initiator receives ADDBA response messages sent by the message responder from the multi-link respectively, wherein the ADDBA response messages comprise parameters ML-BA Policy and are used for indicating the use mode of the multi-link cooperation block confirmation strategy agreed by the message responder; the message initiator sends the aggregated data packet to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively. By unified data management, the complexity of data sending and receiving management is reduced, and the network throughput rate and efficiency are improved.)

1. A method for responding to multilink received data, comprising:

the message initiator sends an add block acknowledgement (ADDBA) request message to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively;

the message initiator receives ADDBA response messages sent by the message responder from the multi-link respectively, wherein the ADDBA response messages comprise parameters ML-BA Policy and are used for indicating the use mode of the multi-link cooperation block confirmation strategy agreed by the message responder;

the message initiator sends the aggregated data packet to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multilink cooperative block acknowledgment policy is used in a manner that includes at least one of:

a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is not used;

using a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy, and the link transmitting a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy message;

a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and the link does not transmit multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy messages.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy is used and the link transmits the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message, the message initiator sends a BA request message to the message responder on the link;

if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgment Policy is used and the link does not transmit the multilink cooperative block acknowledgment Policy message, the message originator does not send a BA request message to the message responder on the link.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the message originator sends the BA request message to the message responder in a explicit block ack request manner or an implicit block ack request manner, wherein the explicit block ack request manner is to send a separate BA request message packet, and the implicit block ack request manner is to include an implicit BA request message in the sent packet.

5. A method for responding to multilink received data according to any of claims 1-4, further comprising:

one or more logic entities (STA) respectively operating on different links in a message initiator receives BA messages sent by a message responder from one or more links, and sends successfully received data packets or/and unsuccessfully received data packet information in the BA messages to a data packet transceiving management unit (PDU-TRMU) of the message initiator;

and the PDU-TRMU of the message initiator sets a data packet of a next aggregated data packet of a plurality of links, and respectively sends the aggregated data packet to a plurality of STAs of the message initiator, or respectively sends the information of the data packet to the plurality of STAs of the message initiator.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the ADDBA request message includes a parameter ML-BA Policy for indicating how the message originator requests the use of the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgment Policy.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of logic entities (STA) respectively operating on different links in a message responder respectively receive an ADDBA request message sent by a message initiator from the multiple links and send a message containing parameter information in the ADDBA request message to a data packet transceiving management unit (PDU-TRMU) of the message responder;

a PDU-TRMU of a message responder determines a multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table, and sends a message to a plurality of STAs of the message responder according to the multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table;

and the plurality of STAs of the message responder respectively set the parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message according to the received message sent by the PDU-TRMU of the message responder.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the implementation table of the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy includes a parameter ML-BA enable indicating whether a multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and a parameter ML-BA STA list indicating a list of message responder STAs that need to send block acknowledgements,

the message responder PDU-TRMU sends a message to the message responder STA, and the message responder STA sets a parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message, which comprises the following steps:

if the parameter ML-BA enable indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is used, the message response party PDU-TRMU sends a message to the STA in the ML-BA STA list, indicates that the parameter ML-BA Policy is set to indicate that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is used in the ADDBA response message of the reply message initiator, and the link transmits the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy message;

if the message responder STA receives the setting of the parameter ML-BA Policy in the message responder PDU-TRMU message, the setting is carried out according to the message sent by the message responder PDU-TRMU, otherwise, the setting is carried out to indicate that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is not used.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmitting the message to the message responder STA according to the PDU-TRMU further comprises:

a message is sent to STAs not in the ML-BA status indicating that they set the parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message of the reply message originator to indicate use of the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy, and that the link does not transmit the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

a plurality of STAs in a message responder respectively receive aggregated data packets sent by a message initiator from a plurality of links and send messages containing data packet numbers and service identification (TID) in the aggregated data packets to a message responder PDU-TRMU;

the method comprises the steps that a message responder PDU-TRMU counts data packets successfully received by a plurality of STAs in the message responder or/and unsuccessfully received data packets, local information is inquired according to TID or/and TA, if corresponding ML-BA enable indicates that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is used, the successfully received data packets or/and unsuccessfully received data packet information is fed back to the STAs in an ML-BA STA list, and the TA is used for indicating the address of a message initiator;

the STA in the ML-BA STA list sends BA information to the message initiator.

11. An apparatus for receiving data in response to a multilink, comprising a plurality of logical entities (STAs) respectively operating on different links,

when the device is used as a message initiator, the STA is used for executing the following operations:

transmitting an add block acknowledgement (ADDBA) request message; receiving an ADDBA response message, wherein the ADDBA response message comprises a parameter ML-BA Policy and is used for indicating that a message response party agrees to the use mode of the multi-link cooperative block confirmation strategy; sending a converged data packet;

when the device is used as a message responder, the STA is used for executing the following operations:

receiving an ADDBA request message; sending an ADDBA response message; an aggregated data packet is received.

12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the STA, when acting as a message initiator, is further configured to:

if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy is used and the link transmits the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message, sending a BA request message to the message responder on the link;

if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy is used and the link does not transmit the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message, then the BA request message is not sent on the link to the message responder.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a packet Transmit/receive management Unit (PDU-TRMU),

when the apparatus is acting as a message initiator, the STA is further configured to: receiving a BA message; the successfully received data packet or/and the unsuccessfully received data packet information in the BA message is sent to the PDU-TRMU; the PDU-TRMU performs the following operations: setting a data packet of a next aggregated data packet of a plurality of links, and respectively sending the aggregated data packet to the STA, or respectively sending data packet information to the STA;

when the apparatus is acting as a message responder, the STA is further configured to: sending a message containing the parameter information in the ADDBA request message to a PDU-TRMU; setting a parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message according to the received message sent by the PDU-TRMU; the PDU-TRMU performs the following operations: and determining a multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table, and sending a message to the STA according to the multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the STA is further configured to perform the following operations when the apparatus is acting as a message responder: sending a message containing a data packet number and a service identification (TID) in the aggregated data packet to a PDU-TRMU; the STA needing to send the block acknowledgement is also used for sending a BA message;

the PDU-TRMU is further configured to: counting successfully received data packets or/and unsuccessfully received data packets, inquiring local information according to the TID or/and the TA, if the corresponding parameters indicate that a multilink cooperation block acknowledgement strategy is used, feeding back the successfully received data packets or/and the unsuccessfully received data packet information to the STA needing to send block acknowledgement, wherein the TA is used for indicating the address of a message initiator.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for responding to multilink received data.

Background

802.11be networks, also known as Extreme High Throughput (EHT) networks, are enhanced by a range of system features and a variety of mechanisms to achieve very High Throughput. As the use of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to provide wireless data services in many environments, such as homes, businesses, and hot spots. In particular, video traffic will continue to be the dominant type of traffic in many WLAN deployments. With the advent of 4k and 8k video (uncompressed rates of 20 Gbps), the throughput requirements for these applications are constantly evolving. New high throughput, low latency applications such as virtual reality or augmented reality, gaming, remote office and cloud computing will proliferate (e.g., latency for real-time gaming is less than 5 milliseconds).

In view of the high throughput and stringent real-time latency requirements of these applications, users expect higher throughput, higher reliability, less latency and jitter, and higher power efficiency when supporting their applications over a WLAN. Users desire improved integration with Time Sensitive Networks (TSNs) to support applications on heterogeneous ethernet and wireless LANs. 802.11be networks aim to ensure the competitiveness of WLANs by further increasing overall throughput and reducing latency, while ensuring backward compatibility and coexistence with legacy technology standards. 802.11 compatible devices operating in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands.

In the 802.11be network, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, it is proposed that a plurality of data transmission links can be established between a terminal and an access point, and transmission is performed through the plurality of links simultaneously, so as to improve the transmission rate.

Disclosure of Invention

In an 802.11 network, in order to ensure the reliability of the network, each time a sender sends a data packet, a receiver needs to return an ACK message to the sender to tell the sender whether the data packet is correctly received. As the data rate of the network increases, the network allows the sender to send a plurality of data packets, and then the receiver feeds back the plurality of data packets, and the message fed back for the plurality of data packets is called a Block acknowledgement (Block ACK, BA) message.

In a multilink operation scenario, implemented according to the prior art, each link needs to feed back Block ACK, and actually there is only one physical entity for receiving and sending, that is, there is only one main distribution body of a data packet, and feeding back ACK on multiple links needs to strictly divide the data packet and then distribute the data packet to each link for sending, because a sender needs to adjust a window of the sent data packet according to the Block ACK fed back by a receiver, therefore:

firstly, the complexity of data sending and receiving management is increased, data distribution is required to be carried out according to network conditions before data distribution is carried out, and data receiving and sending management is required to be carried out by using a plurality of sets of data packet sequence numbers, so that not only is the complexity increased for a data sending party, but also the complexity is increased for a receiving party in the operation of data merging and reordering;

secondly, when the network condition is changed, the data transceiving scheme cannot be flexibly adjusted, which may cause more data cache on a link due to the deterioration of the network condition, but must comply with a strict data distribution policy, and cannot transmit using other links with good network conditions, thereby reducing the network throughput rate and efficiency.

The application provides a scheme for managing data packet receiving and sending in a multilink scene, and the problem is solved through unified data management.

In a first aspect, a method for responding to multilink received data is provided, including: the message initiator sends an add block acknowledgement (ADDBA) request message to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively; the message initiator receives ADDBA response messages sent by the message responder from the multi-link respectively, wherein the ADDBA response messages comprise parameters ML-BA Policy and are used for indicating the use mode of the multi-link cooperation block confirmation strategy agreed by the message responder; the message initiator sends the aggregated data packet to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively.

Wherein, the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is as follows: in a scenario where multiple links transmit and receive data, it is necessary to integrate the receiving states of data packets on different links, and then send a BA message on one link or multiple links, where the BA message includes the receiving states of data packets on all links.

Illustratively, the manner of use of the link coordination block acknowledgement policy includes at least one of: a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is not used; using a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy, and the link transmitting a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy message; a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and the link does not transmit multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy messages.

Optionally, the method further includes: if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy is used and the link transmits the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message, the message initiator sends a BA request message to the message responder on the link; if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgment Policy is used and the link does not transmit the multilink cooperative block acknowledgment Policy message, the message originator does not send a BA request message to the message responder on the link.

Illustratively, a message initiator sends a BA request message to a message responder in a display block acknowledgement request mode or an implicit block acknowledgement request mode, where the display block acknowledgement request mode refers to sending a separate BA request message data packet, and the implicit block acknowledgement request mode refers to including an implicit BA request message in the sent data packet.

Optionally, the method further includes: one or more logic entities (STA) respectively operating on different links in a message initiator receives BA messages sent by a message responder from one or more links, and sends successfully received data packets or/and unsuccessfully received data packet information in the BA messages to a data packet transceiving management unit (PDU-TRMU) of the message initiator; and the PDU-TRMU of the message initiator sets a data packet of a next aggregated data packet of a plurality of links, and respectively sends the aggregated data packet to a plurality of STAs of the message initiator, or respectively sends the information of the data packet to the plurality of STAs of the message initiator.

In one possible design, the ADDBA request message includes a parameter ML-BA Policy to indicate the manner in which the message originator requests the use of the multi-link coordination block acknowledgment Policy.

Optionally, the method further includes: a plurality of logic entities (STA) respectively operating on different links in a message responder respectively receive an ADDBA request message sent by a message initiator from the multiple links and send a message containing parameter information in the ADDBA request message to a data packet transceiving management unit (PDU-TRMU) of the message responder; a PDU-TRMU of a message responder determines a multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table, and sends a message to a plurality of STAs of the message responder according to the multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table; and the plurality of STAs of the message responder respectively set the parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message according to the received message sent by the PDU-TRMU of the message responder.

Illustratively, the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy enforcement table includes a parameter ML-BA enable indicating whether a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and a parameter ML-BA STA list indicating a list of message responder STAs which need to transmit block acknowledgements,

the message responder PDU-TRMU sends a message to the message responder STA, and the message responder STA sets a parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message, which comprises the following steps:

if the parameter ML-BA enable indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is used, the message response party PDU-TRMU sends a message to the STA in the ML-BA STA list, indicates that the parameter ML-BA Policy is set to indicate that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is used in the ADDBA response message of the reply message initiator, and the link transmits the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy message;

if the message responder STA receives the setting of the parameter ML-BA Policy in the message responder PDU-TRMU message, the setting is carried out according to the message sent by the message responder PDU-TRMU, otherwise, the setting is carried out to indicate that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is not used.

Optionally, the sending, by the message responder PDU-TRMU, the message to the message responder STA further includes: a message is sent to STAs not in the ML-BA STA list indicating that they set the parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message of the reply message originator to indicate that the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy is used, and that the link does not transmit the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message.

Optionally, the method further includes: a plurality of STAs in a message responder respectively receive aggregated data packets sent by a message initiator from a plurality of links and send messages containing data packet numbers and service identification (TID) in the aggregated data packets to a message responder PDU-TRMU; the method comprises the steps that a message responder PDU-TRMU counts data packets successfully received by a plurality of STAs in the message responder or/and unsuccessfully received data packets, local information is inquired according to TID or/and TA, if corresponding ML-BA enable indicates that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is used, the successfully received data packets or/and unsuccessfully received data packet information is fed back to the STAs in an ML-BA STA list, and the TA is used for indicating the address of a message initiator; the STA in the ML-BA STA list sends BA information to the message initiator.

In a second aspect, an apparatus for receiving data response to multiple links is provided, including a plurality of logical entities (STAs) respectively operating on different links, and when the apparatus is acting as a message initiator, the STAs being configured to: transmitting an add block acknowledgement (ADDBA) request message; receiving an ADDBA response message, wherein the ADDBA response message comprises a parameter ML-BA Policy and is used for indicating that a message response party agrees to the use mode of the multi-link cooperative block confirmation strategy; sending a converged data packet;

when the device is used as a message responder, the STA is used for executing the following operations: receiving an ADDBA request message; sending an ADDBA response message; an aggregated data packet is received.

Optionally, when the apparatus is acting as a message initiator, the STA is further configured to: if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy is used and the link transmits the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message, sending a BA request message to the message responder on the link; if the ML-BA Policy parameter in the ADDBA response message indicates that the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy is used and the link does not transmit the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy message, then the BA request message is not sent on the link to the message responder.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes a data packet transmission and reception management unit (PDU-TRMU), and when the apparatus is used as a message initiator, the STA is further configured to: receiving a BA message; the successfully received data packet or/and the unsuccessfully received data packet information in the BA message is sent to the PDU-TRMU; the PDU-TRMU performs the following operations: setting a data packet of a next aggregated data packet of a plurality of links, and respectively sending the aggregated data packet to the STA, or respectively sending data packet information to the STA;

when the apparatus is acting as a message responder, the STA is further configured to: sending a message containing the parameter information in the ADDBA request message to a PDU-TRMU; setting a parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message according to the received message sent by the PDU-TRMU; the PDU-TRMU performs the following operations: and determining a multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table, and sending a message to the STA according to the multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table.

Optionally, when the apparatus is acting as a message responder, the STA is further configured to: sending a message containing a data packet number and a service identification (TID) in the aggregated data packet to a PDU-TRMU; the STA needing to send the block acknowledgement is also used for sending a BA message;

the PDU-TRMU is further configured to: counting successfully received data packets or/and unsuccessfully received data packets, inquiring local information according to the TID or/and the TA, if the corresponding parameters indicate that a multilink cooperation block acknowledgement strategy is used, feeding back the successfully received data packets or/and the unsuccessfully received data packet information to the STA needing to send block acknowledgement, wherein the TA is used for indicating the address of a message initiator.

According to the method, the parameter ML-BA Policy is added in the ADDBA response message (or the ADDBA response message and the ADDBA request message) to indicate the use mode of the multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy, whether the multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy is used or not is confirmed, and then the PDU-TRMU logical unit for coordinating and receiving and sending data packets is introduced, so that unified data management is realized, the complexity of data sending and receiving management is reduced, and the network throughput rate and efficiency are improved.

Drawings

The present application will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a method for responding to multilink received data according to one embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating a method for responding to multilink received data according to another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the embodiments of the present application, the words "exemplary," "for example," and the like are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the term using examples is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application is further described in detail with reference to specific embodiments below. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application.

In this application, we refer to a Multi-link Device (MLD) initiating data transmission as a message initiator and an MLD responding to data transmission as a message responder. In the following embodiments, in order to make the scheme clearer, the present application is illustrated by taking only two links as an example, but the present application concept is not limited thereto and is also applicable to the case of more than two links.

In the following embodiments, MLD1 is a message originator, STA1 and STA2 are logical entities within MLD1 operating on link 1 and link 2, respectively, MLD2 is a message responder, and STA3 and STA4 are logical entities within MLD2 operating on link 1 and link 2, respectively.

Multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy: in a scenario where multiple links transmit and receive data, it is necessary to integrate the receiving states of data packets on different links, and then send a BA message on one link or multiple links, where the BA message includes the receiving states of data packets on all links.

The method for responding to multilink received data comprises the following steps: the message initiator sends an add block acknowledgement (ADDBA) request message to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively; the message initiator receives ADDBA response messages sent by the message responder from the multi-link respectively, wherein the ADDBA response messages comprise parameters ML-BA Policy and are used for indicating the use mode of the multi-link cooperation block confirmation strategy agreed by the message responder; the message initiator sends the aggregated data packet to the message responder on a plurality of links respectively.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises the message originator sending a BA request (BAR) message to the message response method on one or more links according to the parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message, and the message responder sending a BA message to the message originator on one or more links.

In some embodiments, the message initiator and the message responder may each include a data packet transmit receive management unit (PDU-TRMU), which may be an internal logical unit of the message initiator and the message responder or an external logical unit of the message initiator and the message responder. The message response party sends the received ADDBA request message and corresponding information in the aggregated data packet to the PDU-TRMU of the message response party, and the PDU-TRMU of the message response party determines a multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy execution table to determine a specific use mode of the multilink cooperative block confirmation strategy, indicates the setting of a parameter ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message, and counts the receiving states of the data packets of the message response party on all links. The message initiator sends the corresponding information in the received BA message to the PDU-TRMU, and the PDU-TRMU sets the data packet of the next aggregated data packet of a plurality of links.

Fig. 1 is a diagram illustrating a method for responding to multilink received data according to an embodiment of the present application. In this embodiment, the message initiator sends a BAR message to the message responder in a display block acknowledgement request manner, that is, the message initiator sends a separate BAR message data packet to the message responder. The method for receiving data response to the multilink comprises the following steps:

STA1 sends an ADDBA request (request) message to STA3, the message including:

TID: the service identifier is used for identifying the service to which the current sending data belongs;

TA: indicating the address of the originator of the message.

In some embodiments, the ADDBA request message may further include a parameter ML-BA Policy for indicating a usage manner in which the message originator requests the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy. For example, the parameter ML-BA Policy may be set to:

"0": indicating that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is not used;

"1": indicating that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and the link transmits a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy message;

"2": indicating that the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and that the link does not transmit the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy message.

STA3 sends an ACK message to STA1 indicating that STA3 has received the ADDBA request message sent by STA 1.

STA2 sends ADDBA request message to STA4, the message contains:

TID: the service identifier is used for identifying the service to which the current sending data belongs;

TA: indicating the address of the originator of the message.

In some embodiments, the ADDBA request message may further include a parameter ML-BA Policy for indicating a usage manner in which the message originator requests the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy. Exemplarily, the setting of the parameter values is the same as in step 1.

STA4 sends an ACK message to STA2 indicating that STA4 has received the ADDBA request message sent by STA 2.

STA3 sends an ADDBA response (response) message to STA1, which contains:

ML-BA Policy: and the method is used for indicating the use mode of the multilink collaboration block acknowledgement strategy agreed by the message response party.

For example, the parameter ML-BA Policy may be set to:

"0": indicating that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is not used;

"1": indicating that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and the link transmits a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy message;

"2": indicating that the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and that the link does not transmit the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy message.

STA1 sends an ACK message to STA3 indicating that STA1 has received the ADDBA response message sent by STA 3.

STA4 sends ADDBA response message to STA2, which contains:

ML-BA Policy: and the method is used for indicating the use mode of the multilink collaboration block acknowledgement strategy agreed by the message response party. Exemplarily, the setting of the parameter values is the same as in step 5.

STA2 sends an ACK message to STA4 indicating that STA2 has received the ADDBA response message sent by STA 4.

STA1 and STA2 send aggregate packets to STA3 and STA4 on link 1 and link 2, respectively. Alternatively, the end time of the packet transmission on both links may be kept the same in the transmission data.

10. After the two link packets are sent, the STA1 and the STA2 determine whether to send the BA request message according to the ML-BA Policy parameter in the received ADDBA response message. As an example of this, the following is given,

if the ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message received by the STA1 is '1', a BA request message is sent to the STA 3; if the ML-BA Policy is "2", then no BA request message is sent to the STA 3;

if the ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message received by the STA2 is '1', a BA request message is sent to the STA 4; if the ML-BA Policy is "2," then the BA request message is not sent to the STA 4.

In some embodiments, MLD1 and MLD2 may further include a packet transmit receive management unit (PDU-TRMU), where the PDU-TRMU may be a logic unit included in MLD1 and MLD2, or may be another device independent from MLD1 and MLD2, and in this embodiment, the PDU-TRMU is a logic unit included in MLD1 and MLD2, as shown in fig. 1. When MLD1 and MLD2 include PDU-TRMU, a method of responding to multilink received data includes:

STA1 sends an ADDBA request (request) message to STA3, the message including:

TID: the service identifier is used for identifying the service to which the current sending data belongs;

TA: indicating the address of the originator of the message.

In some embodiments, the ADDBA request message may further include a parameter ML-BA Policy for indicating a usage manner in which the message originator requests the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy. For example, the parameter ML-BA Policy may be set to:

"0": indicating that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is not used;

"1": indicating that a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and the link transmits a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy message;

"2": indicating that the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy is used and that the link does not transmit the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy message.

STA3 sends an ACK message to STA1 indicating that STA3 has received the ADDBA request message sent by STA 1.

STA2 sends ADDBA request message to STA4, the message contains:

TID: the service identifier is used for identifying the service to which the current sending data belongs;

TA: indicating the address of the originator of the message.

In some embodiments, the ADDBA request message may further include a parameter ML-BA Policy for indicating a usage manner in which the message originator requests the multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement Policy. Exemplarily, the setting of the parameter values is the same as in step 1.

STA4 sends an ACK message to STA2 indicating that STA4 has received the ADDBA request message sent by STA 2.

STA3 and STA4 transmit parameter information in the respective received ADDBA request messages to the PDU-TRMU of MLD 2. For example, STA3 and STA4 may send the TID and TA in the received ADDBA request message to the PDU-TRMU of MLD2, and if the ADDBA request message also includes the parameter ML-BA Policy, STA3 and STA4 may also send ML-BA Policy along with the TID and TA.

6. And the message responder PDU-TRMU determines a multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy execution table.

For example, the PDU-TRMU may be determined according to a local capability or policy, or according to parameters in the ADDBA request of the message initiator provided by the STA3 and the STA4, such as whether TIDs in the ADDBA request are the same, whether a multi-link cooperative block acknowledgement policy needs to be used is indicated in the ADDBA request, or the like, which is not limited in this application. Illustratively, the setting of the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement policy enforcement table is shown in table 1.

TABLE 1

Or, when the TID is uniquely allocated to one message initiator, the TID may also identify the message initiator, or TA information may not be needed, and at this time, the setting of the multilink cooperative block acknowledgment policy execution table is shown in table 2.

TABLE 2

7. And the message responder PDU-TRMU sends a message to the message responder STA according to the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy execution table. Illustratively, the details are as follows:

if the ML-BA enable is "1", a message is sent to the STAs in the ML-BA STA list instructing them to set the ML-BA Policy to "1" in the ADDBA response message of the reply message originator and a message is sent to the STAs not in the ML-BA STA list instructing them to set the ML-BA Policy to "2" in the ADDBA response message of the reply message originator.

STA3 sends an ADDBA response (response) message to STA1, the message containing:

ML-BA Policy: and the method is used for indicating the use mode of the multilink collaboration block acknowledgement strategy agreed by the message response party. Illustratively, if the setting of the parameter in the PDU-TRMU message is received, the setting is performed according to the message sent by the PDU-TRMU, otherwise, the setting is "0".

STA1 sends an ACK message to STA3 indicating that STA1 has received the ADDBA response message sent by STA 3.

STA4 sends ADDBA response message to STA2, the message contains:

ML-BA Policy: and the method is used for indicating the use mode of the multilink collaboration block acknowledgement strategy agreed by the message response party. Illustratively, if the setting of the parameter in the PDU-TRMU message is received, the setting is performed according to the message sent by the PDU-TRMU, otherwise, the setting is "0".

STA2 sends an ACK message to STA4 indicating that STA2 has received the ADDBA response message sent by STA 4.

STA1 and STA2 send aggregate packets to STA3 and STA4 on link 1 and link 2, respectively. Alternatively, the end time of the packet transmission on both links may be kept the same in the transmission data.

13. After the two link packets are sent, the STA1 and the STA2 determine whether to send the BA request message according to the ML-BA Policy parameter in the received ADDBA response message. As an example of this, the following is given,

if the ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message received by the STA1 is '1', a BA request message is sent to the STA 3; if the ML-BA Policy is "2", then no BA request message is sent to the STA 3;

if the ML-BA Policy in the ADDBA response message received by the STA2 is '1', a BA request message is sent to the STA 4; if the ML-BA Policy is "2," then the BA request message is not sent to the STA 4.

After receiving the aggregated packet, STA3 and STA4 send the packet number and TID in the aggregated packet to PDU-TRMU of MLD 2.

Counting successfully received data packets in STA3 and STA4 or/and unsuccessfully received data packets by PDU-TRMU of MLD2, inquiring local information according to TID or/and TA, and feeding back the successfully received data packets or/and unsuccessfully received data packet information to the STA in the ML-BA STA list if the corresponding ML-BA enable indicates that the multilink cooperative block acknowledgement strategy is used;

and 16, the STA in the ML-BA STA list sends the BA message to the corresponding STA in the message initiator.

For example:

if the ML-BA STA list is 'STA 3', the STA3 sends a BA message to the STA 1;

if the ML-BA STA list is 'STA 4', the STA4 sends a BA message to the STA 2;

if "STA 3, STA 4" in the ML-BA STA list, STA3 sends a BA message to STA1, and STA4 sends a BA message to STA 2.

The STA1 or/and the STA2 sends the successfully received data packet in the BA message or/and the unsuccessfully received data packet information to a message initiator PDU-TRMU;

18. the message initiator PDU-TRMU sets the data packets of the next aggregated data packet on the link 1 and the link 2, and respectively sends the aggregated data packets to the STA1 and the STA2, or respectively sends the information of the data packets to the STA1 and the STA 2.

STA1 and STA2 send corresponding aggregate packets based on the received information.

Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating a method for responding to multilink received data according to another embodiment of the present application. In this embodiment, the message initiator sends the BAR message to the message responder in a hidden indication block acknowledgement request manner, that is, the message initiator includes the hidden BAR message in the sent data packet to the message responder. For example, in the QoS control field of a packet, the ACK policy field is set to "00" indicating that a message responder is required to send a BA message. The remainder of this embodiment is the same as the embodiment shown in fig. 1 and will not be described again here.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a device for responding to multilink received data, where the device may serve as a message initiator or a message responder, and includes a plurality of logical entities (STAs) respectively operating on different links, and in some embodiments, the device may further include a packet transmit receive management unit (PDU-TRMU).

The device for responding to multilink received data provided in this embodiment is used to implement the method for responding to multilink received data in the embodiment shown in fig. 1 or fig. 2, and the implementation principle and technical effect of the device for responding to multilink received data provided in this embodiment are similar, and are not described here again.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, some or all of the steps may be executed in parallel or executed sequentially, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device or a terminal device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: u disk, removable hard disk, ROM, RAM) magnetic or optical disk, or the like.

The terminology used in the embodiments of the present application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in the examples of this application and the appended claims, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

The word "if" or "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "when … …" or "in response to a determination" or "in response to a detection", depending on the context. Similarly, the phrases "if determined" or "if detected (a stated condition or event)" may be interpreted as "when determined" or "in response to a determination" or "when detected (a stated condition or event)" or "in response to a detection (a stated condition or event)", depending on the context.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps in the method for implementing the above embodiments may be implemented by instructing the relevant hardware through a program, which may be stored in a storage medium readable by a device and includes all or part of the steps when executed, such as: FLASH, EEPROM, etc.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.