Patent ID: 9270457
Filing Date: 2016-02-23
CPC Classification: H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method of providing security information in a media access control (MAC) header by a wireless station, comprising: generating a data unit including the MAC header, the MAC header including: two bits that denote both whether the data unit is encrypted and an encryption key sequence (EKS) state for the data unit, the EKS state to comprise a permitted state according to a forward-only transition enforced for an EKS, the permitted state to comprise either an EKS state for a preceding encrypted data unit or a next EKS state after the EKS state for the preceding encrypted data unit according to the EKS, wherein the MAC header does not include a separate encryption control (EC) bit whose state denotes whether the data unit is encrypted, wherein three of four possible states of the two bits each denote one of three positions in the EKS state; encrypting at least a portion of the data unit with a current encryption key or with a new encryption key in accordance with the EKS state of the two bits before transmitting; and transmitting the data unit to a remote wireless station.