WO2019132947A1

WO2019132947A1 - Enhanced acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications

Info

Publication number: WO2019132947A1
Application number: PCT/US2017/068837
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mohammad Mamunur Rashid; Dave Cavalcanti; Dibakar Das; Javier Perez-Ramirez; Laurent Cariou
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 2017-12-28
Filing date: 2017-12-28
Publication date: 2019-07-04
Also published as: DE112017008179T5

Abstract

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus related to enhanced acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications. A physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a station device may be identified. The PPDU may include an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU). The A-MPDU may include a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs). A status for each of the plurality of MPDUs may be determined. An acknowledgement (ACK) report based on the status for each of the plurality of MPDUs may be determined. A response PPDU that includes a lightweight (LW) ACK may be sent to the station device.

Description

ENHANCED ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS FOR TIME SENSITIVE APPLICATIONS

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] This disclosure generally relates to systems, methods, and devices for wireless communications and, more particularly, enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications. BACKGROUND

[0002] Time sensitive networking (TSN) includes networks that provide time synchronization and timeliness, with focus on deterministic latency and reliability/redundancy to critical data flows. Traditionally TSN applications have been using wired connectivity. However, wiring has several limitations, such as, high maintenance cost, weight, or limited mobility.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0003] FIG. 1 depicts a diagram illustrating an example network environment for an illustrative wireless TSN (WTSN) system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0004] FIG. 2 depicts a diagram illustrating components for devices in an illustrative

WTSN system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0005] FIG. 3A depicts an illustrative schematic diagram of an indication for solicitation of lightweight acknowledgement for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0006] FIG. 3B depicts an illustrative diagram for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0007] FIG. 4A depicts an illustrative diagram for lightweight acknowledgement transmission in response to a PHY protocol data unit (PPDU) for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. [0008] FIG. 4B depicts an illustrative diagram for lightweight acknowledgement transmission in response to a triggered PPDU for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0009] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative diagram of an example format of an NDP type lightweight acknowledgment PPDU for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0010] FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative diagram of an example trigger frame format for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0011] FIG. 7 A depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0012] FIG. 7B depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0013] FIG. 8 illustrates a functional diagram of an example communication station that may be suitable for use as a user device, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0014] FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example machine upon which any of one or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] Example embodiments described herein provide certain systems, methods, and devices, for providing messaging to wireless devices in various wireless networks, including but not limited to Wi-Fi, TSN, Wireless USB, Wi-Fi peer-to-peer (P2P), Bluetooth, NFC, or any other communication standard.

[0016] 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. [0017] As Wi-Fi technology increases in technical complexity and a broadening feature set, it may be necessary to address the need of new applications and services where wireless technology are relied upon for timeliness and reliability, such as for time sensitive networking (TSN) applications (e.g., wireless virtual reality (VR), audio video bridging (AVB), industrial control, automation, etc.) that generate packets with time sensitive data, some of which require low latency and high reliability. For such applications, accumulating a large number of packets (e.g., medium access control (MAC) service data units (MSDU)) into aggregate MAC protocol data units (A-MPDU) over time is not feasible due to the strict delay bounds for each of the arriving packets, after which such data packets become less useful. In some embodiments, it is likely that A-MPDUs generated for TSN application may only include a single or a small number of MPDUs. Additionally, many of TSN applications may generate periodic short packets (e.g., industrial control, VR haptics feedback, etc.) which could be only a few bytes long. Traditional acknowledgements (ACKs) or block- ACK mechanism for data packets that are very short or cannot be accumulated in numbers to form A-MPDU will introduce a very large overhead. Sometimes, resource consumed in the acknowledgement overheads might become higher than the resource utilized for sending the data itself. This extraneous overhead could significantly limit the ability of the wireless networks in supporting the TSN applications at a reasonable scale. However, many TSN applications require high reliability, which is enabled by automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanisms.

[0018] The systems and methods described herein are directed to a lightweight ACK signaling that has less overhead than the currently standardized acknowledgement signaling. For TSN applications, delayed ACKs may not be an option because of the extremely time- sensitive nature of the packets. Accordingly, the systems and methods described herein are directed to a mechanism for immediate acknowledgement signaling. The currently available standardized mechanisms for ACK signaling is through compressed block ACK mechanism. However, such mechanisms add significant overhead in the data transmission and are not always feasible for packets that have a low latency requirement.

[0019] Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems, methods, and devices for enhanced acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications.

[0020] The systems and methods described herein enable immediate acknowledgments for small packets that are time bounded and cannot be aggregated in large numbers. Instead of sending a full MAC Block Acknowledgement frame, the receiver may send an immediate acknowledgement through a bitmap that reflects the reception status in the order of MPDUs inside the A-MPDU being acknowledged. [0021] In some embodiments, the size of the bitmap may be shorter than a full MAC Block ACK frame, which may result in a lightweight immediate acknowledgment.

[0022] In some embodiments, a transmitting device may create a mapping between the sequence identifiers (IDs) of the MPDUs and their order inside the A-MPDU that is to be transmitted to a receiving device.

[0023] In some embodiments, upon receipt of decoded data from a PHY component of the receiving device, the MAC component of the receiving device may send to the PHY component an ACK report using a primitive. The ACK report may contain a set of ACK values, where each of these values could be either positive or negative based on whether the MPDUs in the corresponding order (e.g., inside the A-MPDU) are successfully received or not.

[0024] In some embodiments, the PHY component of the receiving device may create and transmit to the sending device a newly defined LW-ACK PHY protocol data unit (PPDU), which may be an NDP type PPDU containing the bitmap reflecting the positive/negative values of the ACK report received from MAC.

[0025] In some embodiments, the MAC component of the sending device may identify, from the received bitmap, which MPDUs inside the AMPDU were successfully delivered because the order of bits in the bitmap reflects the order of MPDUs inside the A-MPDU being acknowledged.

[0026] In some embodiments, because the MAC of the sending device maintains the mapping between the orders of the MPDUs (e.g., inside the A-MPDU) with their sequence IDs, it may infer the sequence IDs of the MPDUs successfully delivered.

[0027] The above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations, processes, etc., may exist, some of which are described in detail below. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures.

[0028] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example network environment, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. Wireless network 100 may include one or more user devices 120 and one or more access point(s) (AP) 102, which may communicate in accordance with and compliant with various communication standards and protocols, such as, Wi-Fi, TSN, Wireless USB, P2P, Bluetooth, NFC, or any other communication standard. The user device(s) 120 may be mobile devices that are non stationary (e.g., not having fixed locations) or may be stationary devices. [0029] In some embodiments, the user devices 120 and AP 102 may include one or more computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram of FIG. 8 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 9.

[0030] One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP 102 may be operable by one or more user(s) 110. It should be noted that any addressable unit may be a station (STA). An STA may take on multiple distinct characteristics, each of which shape its function. For example, a single addressable unit might simultaneously be a portable STA, a quality-of- service (QoS) STA, a dependent STA, and a hidden STA. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and the AP(s) 102 may be STAs. The one or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP 102 may operate as a personal basic service set (PBSS) control point/access point (PCP/AP). The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/or AP 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device including, but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile, e.g., a static, device. For example, user device(s) 120 and/or AP 102 may include, a user equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point (AP), a software enabled AP (SoftAP), a personal computer (PC), a wearable wireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabook^tm computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, an internet of things (IoT) device, a sensor device, a robotic device, an actuator, a robotic arm, an industrial robotic device, a PDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular phone functionalities with PDA device functionalities), a consumer device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a PCS device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively small computing device, a non-desktop computer, a“carry small live large” (CSLL) device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC (UMPC), a mobile internet device (MID), an“origami” device or computing device, a device that supports dynamically composable computing (DCC), a context-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A/V device, a set-top-box (STB), a blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digital video disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVD recorder, a HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), a broadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, an audio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat panel display, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), a digital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier, a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera (DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, or the like. Other devices, including smart devices such as lamps, climate control, car components, household components, appliances, etc. may also be included in this list.

[0031] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one or more communications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. The user device(s) 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly with each other with or without the AP 102. Any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include, but not limited to, any one of a combination of different types of suitable communications networks such as, for example, broadcasting networks, cable networks, public networks (e.g., the Internet), private networks, wireless networks, cellular networks, or any other suitable private and/or public networks. Further, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may have any suitable communication range associated therewith and may include, for example, global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), or personal area networks (PANs). In addition, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic may be carried including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communication mediums, white space communication mediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums, satellite communication mediums, or any combination thereof.

[0032] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128) and AP 102 may include one or more communications antennas. The one or more communications antennas may be any suitable type of antennas corresponding to the communications protocols used by the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126 and 128), and AP 102. Some non-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include Wi-Fi antennas, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of standards compatible antennas, directional antennas, non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, omnidirectional antennas, quasi- omnidirectional antennas, or the like. The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupled to a radio component to transmit and/or receive signals, such as communications signals to and/or from the user devices 120 and/or AP 102.

[0033] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/or directional reception in conjunction with wirelessly communicating in a wireless network. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform such directional transmission and/or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays (e.g., DMG antenna arrays or the like). Each of the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and/or reception in a particular respective direction or range of directions. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform any given directional transmission towards one or more defined transmit sectors. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

[0034] MIMO beamforming in a wireless network may be accomplished using RF beamforming and/or digital beamforming. In some embodiments, in performing a given MIMO transmission, user devices 120 and/or AP 102 may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or more communications antennas to perform MIMO beamforming.

[0035] Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver for transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in the bandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communications protocols utilized by any of the user device(s) 120 and AP 102 to communicate with each other. The radio components may include hardware and/or software to modulate and/or demodulate communications signals according to pre-established transmission protocols. The radio components may further have hardware and/or software instructions to communicate via one or more communication standards and protocols, such as, Wi-Fi, TSN, Wireless USB, Wi-Fi P2P, Bluetooth, NFC, or any other communication standard. In certain example embodiments, the radio component, in cooperation with the communications antennas, may be configured to communicate via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g. 802.1 lb, 802. llg, 802.11h, 802.1 lax), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11h, 802.1 lac, 802.1 lax), or 60 GHZ channels (e.g. 802.1 lad). In some embodiments, non-Wi-Fi protocols may be used for communications between devices, such as Bluetooth, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) (e.g. IEEE 802.llaf, IEEE 802.22), white band frequency (e.g., white spaces), or other packetized radio communications. The radio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via the communications protocols. The radio component may further include a low noise amplifier (LNA), additional signal amplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers, and digital baseband.

[0036] When an AP (e.g., AP 102) establishes communication with one or more user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, and/or 128), the AP 102 may communicate in a downlink direction and the user devices 120 may communicate with the AP 102 in an uplink direction by sending frames in either direction. The user devices 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly with each other with or without the AP 102. The data frames may be preceded by one or more preambles that may be part of one or more headers. These preambles may be used to allow a device (e.g., AP 102 and/or user devices 120) to detect a new incoming data frame from another device. A preamble may be a signal used in network communications to synchronize transmission timing between two or more devices (e.g., between the APs and user devices).

[0037] In one embodiment, and with reference to FIG. 1, an AP 102 may communicate with user devices 120. The user devices 120 may include one or more wireless devices (e.g., user device 124 and user device 128) and one or more wireless TSN devices (e.g., user device 126). In some embodiments, the AP 102 may communicate to the user device 120 a PPDU that includes an indication that a lightweight (LW) ACK is sought from the user device 120 as a trigger-based response. The user device 120 may send an immediate acknowledgement through a bitmap that reflects the receipt status in the order of MAC protocol data units (MPDUs) inside the aggregate MPDU (A-MPDU) received from the AP 102 and being acknowledged by the user device 120. In some embodiments, the AP 102 may create a mapping between the sequence identifiers (IDs) of the MPDUs and their order inside the A- MPDU that is to be transmitted to the user device 120.

[0038] In some embodiments, upon receipt of decoded data from a PHY component of the user device 120, the MAC component of the user device 120 may send to the PHY component an acknowledgement (ACK) report using a primitive. The ACK report may contain a set of ACK values, where each of these values could be either positive or negative based on whether the MPDUs in the corresponding order (e.g., inside the A-MPDU) are successfully received or not. In some embodiments, the PHY component of the user device 120 may create and transmit to the AP device 102 a newly defined LW-ACK PPDU, which may be an NDP type PPDU containing the bitmap reflecting the positive/negative values of the ACK report received from MAC. In some embodiments, the MAC component of the AP 102 may identify, from the received bitmap, which MPDUs inside the AMPDU were successfully delivered because the order of bits in the bitmap reflects the order of MPDUs inside the A-MPDU being acknowledged. In some embodiments, because the MAC of the AP 102 maintains the mapping between the orders of the MPDUs (e.g., inside the A-MPDU) with their sequence IDs, it may infer the sequence IDs of the MPDUs successfully delivered.

[0039] FIG. 2 depicts a diagram 200 illustrating components for devices in an illustrative WTSN system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the AP 202 may be configured to communicate with one or more user devices 208. The AP 202 may include, among other components, a MAC component 204 and a PHY component 206. A MAC component 204 of the AP may be responsible for incorporating MAC headers at the start of an upper layer IP packet and cyclic redundancy code (CRC) at the end of the IP packet. A MAC header may include different fields, such as a packet length field, which will help the receiver know about the total length of packet it is going to receive. CRC may help in error detection by indicating whether a receiver knows whether the received packet is erroneous or not. For the systems and methods described herein, the MAC component 204 for the AP 202 may store the order in which MPDUs for a given user device 208 has been placed inside an A-MPDU targeted for the user device 208. It may generate a mapping between the sequence identifiers of the MPDUs and their order inside the A-MPDU. The generated mapping may be stored to infer the sequence IDs from the LW ACK received from the targeted user device 208. In some embodiments, the PPDU generated by the MAC component 204 may include an indication in a subfield of a MAC header of the PPDU to be transmitted to the user device 208.

[0040] The user device 208 may be configured to receive the PPDU from the AP 202. The PHY component 212 of the user device 208 may decode the A-MPDU from the PPDU and transmit it to the MAC component 210. The MAC component 210 may determine which MPDUs were successfully received by checking a field (e.g., frame check sequence field) of the MPDUs received inside the A-MPDU, further discussed in the remainder of this disclosure. The MAC component 210 may determine from the indication in the MAC header received from the A-MPDU that a LW ACK is requested by the AP 202. Instead of creating a MAC ACK frame, the MAC component 210 may communicate with the PHY component 212 to generate a LW ACK. The PHY component 212 may generate a LW ACK PPDU that includes a bitmap indicating the receipt status of the MPDUs in the A-MPDU to transmit to the AP 202.

[0041] The PHY component 206 of the AP 202 may receive the LW ACK PPDU, decode the bitmap and construct an ACK report based on the bitmap. The PHY component 206 may transmit the ACK report to the MAC component 204, which may determine the MPDUs that have been received by the user device 208 based on the ACK report from the PHY component 206 and the mappings generated by the MAC component 204.

[0042] FIG. 3A depicts an illustrative schematic diagram an indication 300 for solicitation of lightweight acknowledgement for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. The signaling for solicitation of an LW ACK from a user device 120 may be indicated in a MAC header included in the PPDU transmitted to the user device 120. For example, in some embodiments, the solicitation for LW ACK may be done by using control information subfield format when control identifier subfield is 0. Setting the LW ACK request subfield 305 to 1 may indicate that a LW ACK is sought from the targeted user device 120 in the trigger-based response PPDU following the transmitted PPDU.

[0043] FIG. 3B depicts an illustrative diagram 350 for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. A PHY component of the user device 120 that received a PPDU from the AP 102 may decode the A-MPDU from the PPDU and transmit the A-MPDU to the MAC component. The MAC component may check the frame sequence check (FSC) fields of the MPDUs received inside the A-MPDU and generate an acknowledgement (ACK) report 352. In an example embodiment, the ACK report 352 may include the values ‘POSITIVE’ and‘NEGATIVE’ in the n^lh index of the ACK report 352 which correspond to the MPDU located in the n^lh position in the A-MPDU and whether the MPDU was correctly received or not correctly received (e.g., 354, 356, 358, 360). In other words, the ACK report 352 may contain a set of ACK values, where each of the values indicates whether the MPDU in the corresponding order inside the A-MPDU was correctly received or not.

[0044] In some embodiments, the ACK report 352 may be transformed into a bitmap, which may be referred to as an ACK-BITMAP 362. The PHY component may construct the ACK-BITMAP 362 by converting the POSITIVE and NEGATIVE values of the ACK report 352 into“1” and“0,” respectively, while maintaining the order of the ACK report 352. The PHY component may generate an LW ACK PPDU which may include the ACK-BITMAP 362 in an LW-ACK subfield 364. In some embodiments, the LW-ACK field of the LW ACK PPDU may be set to 1, which identifies the PPDU as a LW ACK PPDU. Additionally, when the value is set to 1, the B0-B9 of LW-ACK subfield may carry the ACK-BITMAP 362 for the LW ACK.

[0045] FIG. 4A depicts an illustrative diagram for lightweight acknowledgement transmission 400 in response to a PPDU for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, a LW ACK mechanism may be used for downlink PPDU transmissions requiring immediate acknowledgment. In some embodiments, a MAC component of an AP 102 may store the order in which MPDUs for a user device 120 has been placed inside the A-MPDU targeted for that user device 120. A mapping between the sequence IDs of the MPDUs and their order inside the A-MPDU may be generated. This mapping may later be used to determine the sequence IDs from the LW ACK received from the target user device 120. Inside the A-MPDUs carried inside the downlink (DL) PPDU, the AP 102 may include an indication that an immediate LW ACK is sought from the target user device 120 as a trigger-based response. The AP 102 may generate multiple PPDUs 405 for different user devices 120, where each PPDU may include a MAC header containing a LW ACK request in the uplink response scheduling. The AP 102 may transmit the multiple PPDUs 405 to the respective user devices 120. Each user device 120 that receives a DL PPDU may process the received DL PPDU during the short interframe space (SIFS) 410. For example, the PHY component of the respective user device 120 may decode the A-MPDU from the DL PPDU and deliver it to the MAC component. The MAC component may determine which MPDUs are successfully received inside the A-MPDU. The MAC component may determine from the LW ACK request field in the MAC header of the received A-MPDU that a LW ACK is requested by the AP 120. The MAC component may generate an ACK report and obtain the AP identifier from the A-MPDU and may transmit the ACK report and AP identifier to the PHY component of the user device 120. The PHY component may generate a response LW ACK uplink (UL) PPDU which includes an ACK-BITMAP generated from the ACK report. Each respective user device 120 may transmit their respective LW ACK UL PPDU 415 to the AP 120 as trigger-based responses.

[0046] The AP 102 may receive the multiple LW ACK UL PPDUs from the different user devices 120 and may process them. The PHY component of the AP 102 may decode the ACK- BITMAP from the LW ACK UL PPDU and determine the user device identifier that corresponds to the received LW ACK UL PPDU. The PHY may construct an ACK report using the ACK-BITMAP and may transmit the ACK report to the MAC component of the AP 102. The MAC component may determine the MPDUs that were successfully received by the user device 120 based on the ACK report and the mapping generated prior to transmitting the DL PPDU 405.

[0047] FIG. 4B depicts an illustrative diagram for LW ACK transmission 450 in response to a triggered PPDU for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, LW ACK may be used by the AP 102 in uplink (UL) data transmissions in response to trigger-based UL PPDUs. In some embodiments, the AP 102 may transmit a trigger frame 455. The trigger frame 455 may contain an indication that an AP 102 will respond with LW ACK to triggered uplink PPDUs. After a short interframe space (SIFS) 460 and after a user device 120 receives the trigger frame 455 from the AP indicating that the AP will respond with a LW ACK, a MAC component of the user device 120 may store the order in which the MPDUs addressed to the AP 102 has been placed inside the A-MPDU. The MAC component may generate a mapping between the sequence identifiers of the MPDUs and their order in the A-MPDU. The mapping may later be used to infer the sequence IDs from the LW ACK received from the AP 102. After the generation of the mapping, the user device 120 may transmit the A-MPDU to the AP. The AP 102 may receive multiple A-MPDUs 465 from different user devices. During the SIF 460 after the AP 102 receives the multiple A-MPDUs 465, the PHY of the AP 102 may decode the A-MPDU received from the user device 120 and transmit the A-MPDU to the MAC component. The MAC component may determine which of the MPDUs of the A-MPDU were successfully received and may create an ACK report. The MAC component of the AP may transmit the ACK report and the user device identifier from the A-MPDU to the PHY component. The PHY component may generate an LW-ACK downlink PPDU which may include an ACK-BITMAP generated from the ACK report from the MAC component. This process may be used for each A-MPDU 465 received from the different user devices 120. The AP 102 may transmit a respective LW ACK DL PPDU 470 to the user device 120 corresponding to each of the A-MPDUs. The user device 120 may process the received LW ACK DL PPDU to obtain the ACK-BITMAP and construct an ACK report using the ACK-BITMAP. The user device 120 may determine which MPDUs were successfully received by the AP 102 based on the ACK report generated from the LW ACK DL PPDU.

[0048] FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative diagram of an example format 500 of an NDP type lightweight acknowledgment PPDU for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the HE-SIG-A field 502 may be used to indicate that the PPDU is a LW ACK PPDU. The HE-SIG-B field(s) 504 may be used to include ACK- BITMAPS for different user devices 120. Thus, each HE-SIG-B field may correspond to a different user device 120.

[0049] FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative diagram of an example trigger frame format 600 for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. For uplink (UL) data transmissions (e.g., from the user device 120 to the AP 102), the LW ACK may be used by the AP 102 in response to trigger-based UL PPDUs. The AP 102 may initiate the process for LW ACK by indicating in a trigger frame that the AP 102 will respond with a LW ACK to triggered UL PPDUs. In some embodiments, the trigger frame format 600 may be modified so that an indication that the AP will respond with a LW ACK can be indicated in a reserved field 605.

[0050] FIG. 7A depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process 700 for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. At block 702, a MAC component of an AP may generate a mapping of sequence identifiers for MPDUs and their order inside an A-MPDU. The mapping may be stored and later used to infer the sequence identifiers from a LW ACK received from the target user device 120. The AP 102 may generate a downlink (DL) PPDU that includes the A-MPDU. The DL PPDU may include an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested from the user device 120 as a trigger-based response. In some embodiments, the solicitation of the LW ACK may be indicated in a subfield of the MAC header of the A-MPDU, as shown in FIG. 3 A. At block 704, the AP 102 may transmit the DL PPDU that includes the A-MPDU and the indication to the targeted user device 120.

[0051] At block 706, the AP 102 may receive a response uplink (UL) PPDU from the user device 120. In some embodiments, the PHY component of the AP 102 may receive the response UL PPDU and decode the ACK-BITMAP from a field of the MAC header of the response UL PPDU (e.g., from the LW-ACK field) and may determine the device identifier associated with the received response UL PPDU. The PHY component may construct an acknowledgement report based on the ACK-BITMAP by decoding the bitmap. For example, the PHY component may replace the 0 with NEGATIVE and 1 with POSITIVE and maintaining the order of the values from the ACK-BITMAP in the acknowledgement report.

[0052] At block 708, the MAC component of the AP may receive ACK report from the PHY component. Using the mapping generated at block 702, the MAC component may determine the MPDUs that have been received by the user device 120 because the order of the entries in the ACK report correspond to the order of the MPDUs transmitted to the user device 120 in the A-MPDU. Thus, the MAC component of the AP may determine the sequence of the identifiers of the successfully received MPDUs at the user device 120.

[0053] FIG. 7B depicts a flow diagram of an illustrative process 750 for enhancing acknowledgements for wireless networks for time sensitive applications, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. At block 752, a user device 120 may receive a DL PPDU from an AP 102. The DL PPDU may include an A-MPDU and an indication that an immediate LW ACK is sought. The PHY component of the user device 120 may decode the A-MPDU from the DL PPDU and may transmit the A-MPDU to the MAC component of the user device 120. [0054] At block 754, a status indicating receipt of each of the MPDUs of the A-MPDU may be determines. The MAC component may determine which of the MPDUs of the A- MPDUs are successfully received. In some embodiments, the MAC component may check the frame check sequence field of the MPDUs received inside the A-MPDU and, at block 756, may generate an ACK report, as described in FIG. 3B. The MAC component may transmit the ACK report and an identifier that identifies the AP (e.g., obtained from the A-MPDU) to the PHY component. At block 758, the PHY component may generate an LW ACK UL PPDU, which may have a special format for the LW ACK, which includes an ACK-BITMAP generated by the PHY component using the ACK report, as described in FIG. 3B. In some embodiments, the LW-ACK field of the LW ACK UL PPDU may indicate that the response PPDU is a LW ACK PPDU. Additionally, the LW-ACK subfield may include the ACK-BITMAP corresponding to the AP identifier when the LW ACK is sent in the uplink direction (e.g., from the user device 120 to the AP 102). At block 760, the response LW ACK UL PPDU that includes the ACK-BITMAP may be transmitted to the AP 102. In some embodiments, the LW ACK UL PPDU may be transmitted after the guard time by the user device 120, similar to a trigger-based UL PPDU.

[0055] FIG. 8 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station 800 in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, FIG. 8 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as an AP 102 (FIG. 1) or a user device 120 (FIG. 1) in accordance with some embodiments. The communication station 800 may also be suitable for use as a handheld device, a mobile device, a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a wearable computer device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device.

[0056] The communication station 800 may include communications circuitry 802 and a transceiver 810 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from other communication stations using one or more antennas 801. The communications circuitry 802 may include circuitry that can operate the physical layer (PHY) communications and/or media access control (MAC) communications for controlling access to the wireless medium, and/or any other communications layers for transmitting and receiving signals. The communication station 800 may also include processing circuitry 806 and memory 808 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the communications circuitry 802 and the processing circuitry 806 may be configured to perform operations detailed in FIGs. 2-7B.

[0057] In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 802 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames or packets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communications circuitry 802 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. The communications circuitry 802 may also include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 806 of the communication station 800 may include one or more processors. In other embodiments, two or more antennas 801 may be coupled to the communications circuitry 802 arranged for sending and receiving signals. The memory 808 may store information for configuring the processing circuitry 806 to perform operations for configuring and transmitting message frames and performing the various operations described herein. The memory 808 may include any type of memory, including non-transitory memory, for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, the memory 808 may include a computer-readable storage device, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices and other storage devices and media.

[0058] In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computer device, or another device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly.

[0059] In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may include one or more antennas 801. The antennas 801 may include 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 embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna with multiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture may be considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated for spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result between each of the antennas and the antennas of a transmitting station.

[0060] In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may include one or more of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touch screen. [0061] Although the communication station 800 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, two 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 include 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 of the communication station 800 may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0062] Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media. In some embodiments, the communication station 800 may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device memory.

[0063] FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 900 or system upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments, the machine 900 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 900 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 900 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environments. The machine 900 may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device, a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. 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), or other computer cluster configurations.

[0064] 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 when operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardware may be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurable execution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computer readable medium containing instructions where the instructions configure the execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation. The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units or a loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units are communicatively coupled to the computer-readable medium when the device is operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member of more than one module. For example, under operation, the execution units may be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a first module at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set of instructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

[0065] The machine (e.g., computer system) 900 may include a hardware processor 902 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 904 and a static memory 906, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 908. The machine 900 may further include a power management device 932, a graphics display device 910, an alphanumeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 914 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the graphics display device 910, alphanumeric input device 912, and UI navigation device 914 may be a touch screen display. The machine 900 may additionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 916, a signal generation device 918 (e.g., a speaker), a LW ACK device 919, a network interface device/transceiver 920 coupled to antenna(s) 930, and one or more sensors 928, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 900 may include an output controller 934, 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 with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, a card reader, etc.)).

[0066] The storage device 916 may include a machine readable medium 922 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 924 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 924 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 904, within the static memory 906, or within the hardware processor 902 during execution thereof by the machine 900. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 902, the main memory 904, the static memory 906, or the storage device 916 may constitute machine-readable media.

[0067] The LW ACK device 919 may carry out or perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., processes 700 and 750) described and shown above. For example, the LW ACK device 919 may be configured to provide a lightweight ACK signaling that has less overhead than the currently standardized acknowledgement signaling. The LW ACK device 919 may enable immediate acknowledgments for small packets that are time bounded and cannot be aggregated in large numbers. Instead of sending a full Media Access Control (MAC) Block Acknowledgement frame, the LW ACK device 919 may send an immediate acknowledgement through a bitmap that reflects the reception status in the order of MPDUs inside the A-MPDU being acknowledged. In some embodiments, the LW ACK device 919 may create a mapping between the sequence identifiers (IDs) of the MPDUs and their order inside the A-MPDU that is to be transmitted to a receiving device. In some embodiments, the LW ACK device 919 may send to the PHY component an acknowledgement (ACK) report using a primitive. The ACK report may contain a set of ACK values, where each of these values could be either positive or negative based on whether the MPDUs in the corresponding order (e.g., inside the A-MPDU) are successfully received or not. In some embodiments, the PHY component of the LW ACK device 919 may create and transmit to the sending device a newly defined LW-ACK PPDU, which may be an NDP type PPDU containing the bitmap reflecting the positive/negative values of the ACK report received from MAC. In some embodiments, the MAC component of the LW ACK device 919 may identify, from the received bitmap, which MPDUs inside the AMPDU were successfully delivered because the order of bits in the bitmap reflects the order of MPDUs inside the A-MPDU being acknowledged. In some embodiments, because the MAC of the LW ACK device 919 maintains the mapping between the orders of the MPDUs (e.g., inside the A-MPDU) with their sequence IDs, it may infer the sequence IDs of the MPDUs successfully delivered.

[0068] It is understood that the above are only a subset of what the LW ACK device 919 may be configured to perform and that other functions included throughout this disclosure may also be performed by the LW ACK device 919. [0069] While the machine -readable medium 922 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 924.

[0070] Example 1 may include a device, the device comprising memory and processing circuitry, configured to: identify a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a station device, the PPDU comprising an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU), wherein the A-MPDU comprises a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); determine a status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; determine an acknowledgement (ACK) report based on the status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and cause to transmit a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) ACK to the station device.

[0071] Example 2 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein, to determine the acknowledgement report, the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to: determine a value from a frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and generate the ACK report based at least in part on the value from the frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs.

[0072] Example 3 may include the device of example 2 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to: generate a bitmap based on the ACK report; and wherein the LW ACK comprises the bitmap.

[0073] Example 4 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[0074] Example 5 may include the device of example 4 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

[0075] Example 6 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to determine the A- MPDU from the PPDU.

[0076] Example 7 may include the device of example 6 and/or some other example herein, wherein a PHY component determines the A-MPDU from the PPDU.

[0077] Example 8 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[0078] Example 9 may include the device of example 1 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. [0079] Example 10 may include the device of example 9 and/or some other example herein, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

[0080] Example 11 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising: generating an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); causing to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and receiving a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device.

[0081] Example 12 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise: generating a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[0082] Example 13 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

12 and/or some other example herein, wherein the operations further comprise: processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[0083] Example 14 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

13 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprises: determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; generating an ACK report based on the bitmap; and determining a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[0084] Example 15 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[0085] Example 16 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 15 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

[0086] Example 17 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 11 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored in the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[0087] Example 18 may include a method comprising: generating an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); causing to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and receiving a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device.

[0088] Example 19 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: generating a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[0089] Example 20 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[0090] Example 21 may include the method of example 20 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprises: determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; and generating an ACK report based on the bitmap.

[0091] Example 22 may include the method of example 21 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: determining a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[0092] Example 23 may include the method of example 19 and/or some other example herein, wherein a media access control (MAC) component generates the mapping.

[0093] Example 24 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[0094] Example 25 may include the method of example 18 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: receiving, from the first device, a trigger frame with an indication that the device will respond with the LW ACK.

[0095] Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any one of examples 18-25.

[0096] Example 27 may include a system, comprising at least one memory device having programmed instruction that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any one of examples 18-25.

[0097] Example 28 may include a machine readable medium including code, when executed, to cause a machine to perform the method of any one of examples 18-25.

[0098] Example 29 may include a device, the device comprising memory and processing circuitry configured to: generate an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A- MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); cause to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and receive a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device. [0099] Example 30 may include the device of example 29 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry configured to: generate a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[00100] Example 31 may include the device of example 30 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry configured to: process, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[00101] Example 32 may include the device of example 31 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further configured to: determine a bitmap from the LW ACK; and generate an ACK report based on the bitmap.

[00102] Example 33 may include the device of example 32 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry configured to: determine a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[00103] Example 34 may include the device of example 30 and/or some other example herein, wherein a media access control (MAC) component generates the mapping.

[00104] Example 35 may include the device of example 29 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00105] Example 36 may include the device of example 29 and/or some other example herein, wherein the memory and processing circuitry configured to: receive, from the first device, a trigger frame with an indication that the device will respond with the LW ACK.

[00106] Example 37 may include the device of example 30 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals [00107] Example 38 may include the device of example 38 and/or some other example herein, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

[00108] Example 39 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising: generating an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); causing to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and receiving a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device.

[00109] Example 40 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: generating a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[00110] Example 41 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

40 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[00111] Example 42 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

41 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprises: determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; and generating an ACK report based on the bitmap.

[00112] Example 43 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

42 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: determining a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[00113] Example 44 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 40 and/or some other example herein, wherein a media access control (MAC) component generates the mapping.

[00114] Example 45 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00115] Example 46 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 39 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: receiving, from the first device, a trigger frame with an indication that the device will respond with the LW ACK.

[00116] Example 47 may include an apparatus comprising: means for generating an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); means for causing to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and means for receiving a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device.

[00117] Example 48 may include the apparatus of example 47 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for generating a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[00118] Example 49 may include the apparatus of example 48 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[00119] Example 50 may include the apparatus of example 49 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprising: means for determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; and means for generating an ACK report based on the bitmap. [00120] Example 51 may include the apparatus of example 50 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for determining a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[00121] Example 52 may include the apparatus of example 48 and/or some other example herein, wherein a media access control (MAC) component generates the mapping.

[00122] Example 53 may include the apparatus of example 47 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00123] Example 54 may include the apparatus of example 47 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for receiving, from the first device, a trigger frame with an indication that the device will respond with the LW ACK.

[00124] Example 55 may include a method comprising: identifying a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a station device, the PPDU comprising an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU), wherein the A-MPDU comprises a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); determining a status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; determining an acknowledgement (ACK) report based on the status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and causing to transmit a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) ACK to the station device.

[00125] Example 56 may include the method of example 55 and/or some other example herein, wherein, to determine the acknowledgement report, further comprising: determining a value from a frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and generating the ACK report based at least in part on the value from the frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs.

[00126] Example 57 may include the method of example 56 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: generating a bitmap based on the ACK report; and wherein the LW ACK comprises the bitmap.

[00127] Example 58 may include the method of example 55 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[00128] Example 59 may include the method of example 58 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

[00129] Example 60 may include the method of example 55 and/or some other example herein, further comprising determining the A-MPDU from the PPDU.

[00130] Example 61 may include the method of example 60 and/or some other example herein, wherein a PHY component determines the A-MPDU from the PPDU. [00131] Example 62 may include the method of example 55 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00132] Example 63 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any one of examples 55-62.

[00133] Example 64 may include a system, comprising at least one memory device having programmed instruction that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any one of examples 55-62.

[00134] Example 65 may include a machine readable medium including code, when executed, to cause a machine to perform the method of any one of examples 55-62.

[00135] Example 66 may include a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising: identifying a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a station device, the PPDU comprising an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU), wherein the A-MPDU comprises a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); determining a status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; determining an acknowledgement (ACK) report based on the status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and causing to transmit a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) ACK to the station device.

[00136] Example 67 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

66 and/or some other example herein, wherein, to determine the acknowledgement report, further comprising: determining a value from a frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and generating the ACK report based at least in part on the value from the frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs.

[00137] Example 68 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

67 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: generating a bitmap based on the ACK report; and wherein the LW ACK comprises the bitmap.

[00138] Example 69 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 66 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[00139] Example 70 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 69 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU. [00140] Example 71 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 66 and/or some other example herein, further comprising determining the A-MPDU from the PPDU.

[00141] Example 72 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 71 and/or some other example herein, wherein a PHY component determines the A-MPDU from the PPDU.

[00142] Example 73 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 66 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00143] Example 74 may include an apparatus comprising: means for identifying a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a station device, the PPDU comprising an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU), wherein the A-MPDU comprises a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); means for determining a status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; means for determining an acknowledgement (ACK) report based on the status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and means for causing to transmit a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) ACK to the station device

[00144] Example 75 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

74 and/or some other example herein, wherein, to determine the acknowledgement report, further comprising: means for determining a value from a frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and means for generating the ACK report based at least in part on the value from the frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs.

[00145] Example 76 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example

75 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for generating a bitmap based on the ACK report; and means for wherein the LW ACK comprises the bitmap.

[00146] Example 77 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[00147] Example 78 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 77 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

[00148] Example 79 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 74 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a means for determining the A-MPDU from the PPDU. [00149] Example 80 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 79 and/or some other example herein, wherein a PHY component determines the A-MPDU from the PPDU.

[00150] Example 81 may include the non-transitory computer-readable medium of example 74 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00151] Example 82 may include a method comprising: generating an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); causing to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and receiving a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device.

[00152] Example 83 may include the method of example 82 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: generating a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[00153] Example 84 may include the method of example 83 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[00154] Example 85 may include the method of example 84 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprising: determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; generating an ACK report based on the bitmap; and determining a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[00155] Example 86 may include the method of example 82 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[00156] Example 87 may include the method of example 86 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

[00157] Example 88 may include the method of example 85 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored in the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00158] Example 89 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any one of examples 82-88.

[00159] Example 90 may include a system, comprising at least one memory device having programmed instruction that, in response to execution, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any one of examples 82-88. [00160] Example 91 may include a machine readable medium including code, when executed, to cause a machine to perform the method of any one of examples 82-88.

[00161] Example 92 may include a device, the device comprising memory and processing circuitry configured to: generate an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A- MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); cause to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and receive a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device.

[00162] Example 93 may include the device of example 92 and/or some other example herein, further configured to: generate a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[00163] Example 94 may include the device of example 93 and/or some other example herein, further configured to: process, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[00164] Example 95 may include the device of example 94 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprises: determine a bitmap from the LW ACK; generate an ACK report based on the bitmap; and determine a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[00165] Example 96 may include the device of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[00166] Example 97 may include the device of example 96 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

[00167] Example 98 may include the device of example 92 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored in the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00168] Example 99 may include the device of example 92 and/or some other example herein, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

[00169] Example 100 may include the device of example 99 and/or some other example herein further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

[00170] Example 101 may include an apparatus comprising: means for generating an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); means for cause to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A-MPDU to a device; and means for receive a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device. [00171] Example 102 may include the apparatus of example 101 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for generating a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

[00172] Example 103 may include the apparatus of example 102 and/or some other example herein, further comprising: means for processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

[00173] Example 104 may include the apparatus of example 103 and/or some other example herein, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprising: means for determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; means for generating an ACK report based on the bitmap; and means for determining a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

[00174] Example 105 may include the apparatus of example 101 and/or some other example herein, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

[00175] Example 106 may include the apparatus of example 105 and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

[00176] Example 107 may include the apparatus of example 101 and/or some other example herein, wherein the LW ACK is stored in the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

[00177] Example 108 may include an apparatus comprising means for performing a method as claimed in any one of the preceding examples.

[00178] Example 109 may include a machine -readable storage including machine-readable instructions, when executed, to implement a method as claimed in any preceding example.

[00179] Example 110 may include a machine -readable storage including machine-readable instructions, when executed, to implement a method of realize an apparatus as claimed in any preceding example.

[00180] Various 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; a flash memory, etc.

[00181] The term“machine-readable medium” may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 900 and that cause the machine 900 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. In an example, a massed machine-readable medium includes a machine -readable medium with a plurality of particles having resting mass. Specific examples of massed machine -readable media may include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD- ROM disks.

[00182] The instructions 924 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 926 using a transmission medium via the network interface device/transceiver 920 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communications 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, 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, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 920 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 926. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 920 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple- input multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) 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 900 and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of such software. The operations and processes (e.g., processes 700 and 750) described and shown above may be carried out or performed in any suitable order as desired in various implementations. Additionally, in certain implementations, at least a portion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore, in certain implementations, less than or more than the operations described may be performed.

[00183] The word“exemplary” is used herein to mean“serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. The terms“computing device,” “user device,” “communication station,” “station,” “handheld device,” “mobile device,”“wireless device” and“user equipment” (UE) as used herein refers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, a printer, a point of sale device, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device. The device may be either mobile or stationary.

[00184] As used within this document, the term“communicate” is intended to include transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving. This may be particularly useful in claims when describing the organization of data that is being transmitted by one device and received by another, but only the functionality of one of those devices is required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchange of data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive during the exchange) may be described as“communicating,” when only the functionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term“communicating” as used herein with respect to a wireless communication signal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/or receiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wireless communication unit, which is capable of communicating a wireless communication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit the wireless communication signal to at least one other wireless communication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receive the wireless communication signal from at least one other wireless communication unit.

[00185] As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinal adjectives“first,” “second,”“third,” etc., to describe a common object, merely indicates that different instances of like objects are being referred to and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

[00186] The term“access point” (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. An access point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station, or some other similar terminology known in the art. An access terminal may also be called a mobile station, user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similar terminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein generally pertain to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wireless networks that operate in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

[00187] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices and systems, for example, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, an on board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehicular device, a non- vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumer device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communication station, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP), a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device, an audio device, an audio- video (A/V) device, a wired or wireless network, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal area network (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

[00188] Some embodiments may be used in conj unction with one way and/or two-way radio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communication systems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, a personal communication system (PCS) device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable global positioning system (GPS) device, a device which incorporates a GPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFID element or chip, a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transceiver or device, a single input multiple output (SIMO) transceiver or device, a multiple input single output (MISO) transceiver or device, a single input single output (SISO) transceiver or device, a device having one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, digital video broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi- standard radio devices or systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a smartphone, a wireless application protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

[00189] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types of wireless communication signals and/or systems following one or more wireless communication protocols, for example, radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM (OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access (TDMA), extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS), extended GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi- tone (DMT), Bluetooth®, global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra- wideband (UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3 GPP, long term evolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), or the like. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices, systems, and/or networks.

[00190] Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference to block and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or computer program products according to various implementations. It will be understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flow diagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executable program instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the order presented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, according to some implementations.

[00191] These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto a special- purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage media or memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage media produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certain implementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising a computer- readable storage medium having a computer-readable program code or program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements or steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks.

[00192] Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose, hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, or combinations of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

[00193] Conditional language, such as, among others,“can,”“could,”“might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain implementations could include, while other implementations do not include, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or operations are in any way required for one or more implementations or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to be performed in any particular implementation.

[00194] Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forth herein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to the specific implementations disclosed and that modifications and other implementations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A device, the device comprising memory and processing circuitry, configured to:

identify a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) received from a station device, the PPDU comprising an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU), wherein the A-MPDU comprises a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs); determine a status for each of the plurality of MPDUs;

determine an acknowledgement (ACK) report based on the status for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and

cause to transmit a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) ACK to the station device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein, to determine the acknowledgement report, the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to:

determine a value from a frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs; and

generate the ACK report based at least in part on the value from the frame check sequence field for each of the plurality of MPDUs.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to:

generate a bitmap based on the ACK report; and

wherein the LW ACK comprises the bitmap.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an

immediate LW ACK is requested.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A-MPDU.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the memory and the processing circuitry are further configured to determine the A-MPDU from the PPDU.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein a PHY component determines the A-MPDU from the PPDU.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

9. The device of any one of claims 1-8, further comprising a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals.

10. The device of claim 9, further comprising one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations

comprising:

generating an aggregate media access control protocol data unit (A-MPDU) comprising a plurality of media access control protocol data units (MPDUs);

causing to send a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) comprising the A- MPDU to a device; and

receiving a response PPDU comprising a lightweight (LW) acknowledgement (ACK) from the device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a mapping based on a sequence identifier for each of the plurality of MPDUs and an order of the plurality of MPDUs of the A-MPDU.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprises:

determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; generating an ACK report based on the bitmap; and

determining a status of each of the plurality of MPDUs based on the ACK report and the mapping.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the PPDU comprises an indication that an immediate LW ACK is requested.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the indication is a trigger type specified in a subfield of a media access control (MAC) header of the A- MPDU.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any one of claims 11-16, wherein the LW ACK is stored in the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

18. A method comprising:

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

processing, by a PHY component, the LW ACK of the response PPDU.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein processing the LW ACK further comprises:

determining a bitmap from the LW ACK; and

generating an ACK report based on the bitmap.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

23. The method of claim 19, wherein a media access control (MAC) component generates the mapping.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the LW ACK is stored to the LW-ACK field of the response PPDU.

25. The method of any one of claims 18-24, further comprising:

receiving, from the first device, a trigger frame with an indication that the device will respond with the LW ACK.