Patent ID: 11924101
Assignee: ATLAS GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  Y | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A network device to function as a station in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), the station configured to acknowledge a downlink (DL) multi-user (MU) physical layer (PHY) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) transmitted by an access point, comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors coupled to the one or more memories, configured to:
receive the DL MU PPDU;
decode a data frame from the DL MU PPDU, the data frame comprising a media access control (MAC) header;
determine whether an acknowledgement (ACK) policy indicated in the MAC header signals a trigger-based immediate acknowledgement policy;
determine whether a trigger indication for an uplink (UL) MU transmission has been obtained from a payload of a data frame;
responsive to the processor determines that the ACK policy indication signals the trigger-based immediate acknowledgement policy and determines that the trigger indication has been obtained, the processor is configured to:
transmit a trigger-based immediate acknowledgement frame to the access point in an UL MU PPDU, based on the trigger indication; and

responsive to the processor determines that the ACK policy signals the trigger-based immediate acknowledgement policy and determines that the trigger indication has not been obtained, the processor is configured to:
not transmit an immediate acknowledgement to the access point, wherein in response to the trigger indication has not been obtained but the station has obtained a transmission opportunity, the station returns an ACK/Block ACK frame in an unsolicited manner.