WO2026019751A2 - Data forwarding within a transmission opportunity - Google Patents

Description

TITLE

Data Forwarding Within a Transmission Opportunity

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/671 ,977, filed July 16,

2024, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present disclosure are described herein with reference to the drawings.

[0003] FIG. 1 illustrates example wireless communication networks in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

[0004] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating example implementations of a station (STA) and an access point (AP).

[0005] FIG. 3 illustrates a non-High Throughput (non-HT) Physical Layer Protocol Data Unit (PPDU), a High Throughput (HT) mixed PPDU, and a Very High Throughput (VHT) PPDU.

[0006] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a Quality of Service (QoS) null frame indicating buffer status information.

[0007] FIG. 5 illustrates an example format of a physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU).

[0008] FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an application that operates via relaying application data between a head mounted display (HMD) and a personal computer (PC) via an AP.

[0009] FIG. 7 provides an example that illustrates using transmission opportunity (TXOP) sharing by a STA for forwarding of communications via an AP to another STA

[0010] FIG. 8 provides another example that illustrates forwarding a communication by a STA via an AP to another STA.

[0011] FIG. 9 illustrates an example problem that may arise when using the forwarding procedures illustrated in FIG. 8.

[0012] FIG. 10 illustrates an example forwarding procedure according to an embodiment.

[0013] FIG. 11 illustrates an example forwarding procedure according to an embodiment.

[0014] FIG. 12 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment.

[0015] FIG. 13 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment.

[0016] FIG. 14 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment.

[0017] FIG. 15 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment.

[0018] FIG. 16 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment.

[0019] FIG. 17 illustrates an example process according to an embodiment.

[0020] FIG. 18 illustrates another example process according to an embodiment.

[0021] FIG. 19 illustrates another example process according to an embodiment. [0022] FIG. 20 illustrates Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) and Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA).

[0023] FIG. 21 illustrates an example of a Multi-User Request-to-Send (MU-RTS) trigger frame which may be used in a triggered Transmit Opportunity (TXOP) sharing (TXS) procedure.

[0024] FIG. 22 illustrates an example of a triggered TXS procedure (Mode =1 ).

[0025] FIG. 23 illustrates an example of a triggered TXS procedure (Mode =2).

[0026] FIG. 24 illustrates an example of a Co-TDMA procedure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] In the present disclosure, various embodiments are presented as examples of how the disclosed techniques may be implemented and/or how the disclosed techniques may be practiced in environments and scenarios. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the scope. After reading the description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art how to implement alternative embodiments. The present embodiments may not be limited by any of the described exemplary embodiments. The embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Limitations, features, and/or elements from the disclosed example embodiments may be combined to create further embodiments within the scope of the disclosure. Any figures which highlight the functionality and advantages, are presented for example purposes only. The disclosed architecture is sufficiently flexible and configurable, such that it may be utilized in ways other than that shown. For example, the actions listed in any flowchart may be re-ordered or only optionally used in some embodiments.

[0028] Embodiments may be configured to operate as needed. The disclosed mechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met, for example, in a station, an access point, a radio environment, a network, a combination of the above, and/or the like. Example criteria may be based, at least in part, on for example, wireless device or network node configurations, traffic load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics, a combination of the above, and/or the like. When the one or more criteria are met, various example embodiments may be applied. Therefore, it may be possible to implement example embodiments that selectively implement disclosed protocols.

[0029] In this disclosure, “a” and “an” and similar phrases are to be interpreted as “at least one” and “one or more.” Similarly, any term that ends with the suffix “(s)” is to be interpreted as “at least one” and “one or more.” In this disclosure, the term “may” is to be interpreted as “may, for example.” In other words, the term “may” is indicative that the phrase following the term “may” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed by one or more of the various embodiments. The terms “comprises” and “consists of’, as used herein, enumerate one or more components of the element being described. The term “comprises” is interchangeable with “includes" and does not exclude unenumerated components from being included in the element being described. By contrast, “consists of provides a complete enumeration of the one or more components of the element being described. The term “based on”, as used herein, may be interpreted as “based at least in part on” rather than, for example, “based solely on". The term “and/or” as used herein represents any possible combination of enumerated elements. For example, “A, B, and/or C” may represent A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; or A, B, and C.

[0030] If A and B are sets and every element of A is an element of B, A is called a subset of B. In this specification, only non-empty sets and subsets are considered. For example, possible subsets of B = {STA1 , STA2) are: {STA1 }, {STA2}, and {STA1 , STA2}. The phrase “based on” (or equally “based at least on”) is indicative that the phrase following the term “based on” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments. The phrase “in response to” (or equally “in response at least to”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “in response to” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments. The phrase “depending on” (or equally “depending at least to”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “depending on” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments. The phrase “employing/using” (or equally “employing/using at least”) is indicative that the phrase following the phrase “employing/using” is an example of one of a multitude of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one or more of the various embodiments.

[0031] The term configured may relate to the capacity of a device whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state. Configured may refer to specific settings in a device that effect the operational characteristics of the device whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state. In other words, the hardware, software, firmware, registers, memory values, and/or the like may be “configured” within a device, whether the device is in an operational or nonoperational state, to provide the device with specific characteristics. Terms such as “a control message to cause in a device" may mean that a control message has parameters that may be used to configure specific characteristics or may be used to implement certain actions in the device, whether the device is in an operational or non-operational state.

[0032] In this disclosure, parameters (or equally called, fields, or Information elements: IBs) may comprise one or more information objects, and an information object may comprise one or more other objects. For example, if parameter (IE) N comprises parameter (IE) M, and parameter (IE) M comprises parameter (IE) K, and parameter (IE) K comprises parameter (information element) J. Then, for example, N comprises K, and N comprises J. In an example embodiment, when one or more messages/frames comprise a plurality of parameters, it implies that a parameter in the plurality of parameters is in at least one of the one or more messages/frames but does not have to be in each of the one or more messages/frames.

[0033] Many features presented are described as being optional through the use of “may” or the use of parentheses. For the sake of brevity and legibility, the present disclosure does not explicitly recite each and every permutation that may be obtained by choosing from the set of optional features. The present disclosure is to be interpreted as explicitly disclosing all such permutations. For example, a system described as having three optional features may be embodied in seven ways, namely with just one of the three possible features, with any two of the three possible features or with three of the three possible features

[0034] Many of the elements described in the disclosed embodiments may be implemented as modules. A module is defined here as an element that performs a defined function and has a defined interface to other elements. The modules described in this disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software in combination with hardware, firmware, wetware (e.g., hardware with a biological element) or a combination thereof, which may be behaviorally equivalent. For example, modules may be implemented as a software routine written in a computer language configured to be executed by a hardware machine (such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, Basic, MatLab or the like) or a modeling/simulation program such as Simulink, Stateflow, GNU Octave, or LabVIEW MathScript. It may be possible to implement modules using physical hardware that incorporates discrete or programmable analog, digital and/or quantum hardware. Examples of programmable hardware comprise computers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs); field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs). Computers, microcontrollers, and microprocessors are programmed using languages such as assembly, C, C++ or the like. FPGAs, ASICs and CPLDs are often programmed using hardware description languages (HDL) such as VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) or Verilog that configure connections between internal hardware modules with lesser functionality on a programmable device. The mentioned technologies are often used in combination to achieve the result of a functional module.

[0035] FIG. 1 illustrates example wireless communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. As shown in FIG 1 , the example wireless communication networks may include an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1 (WLAN) infra-structure network 102. WLAN infra-structure network 102 may include one or more basic service sets (BSSs) 110 and 120 and a distribution system (DS) 130.

[0036] BSS 110-1 and 110-2 each includes a set of an access point (AP or AP STA) and at least one station (STA or non-AP STA). For example, BSS 110-1 includes an AP 104-1 and a STA 106-1 , and BSS 1 10-2 includes an AP 104-2 and STAs 106-2 and 106-3. The AP and the at least one STA in a BSS perform an association procedure to communicate with each other.

[0037] DS 130 may be configured to connect BSS 110-1 and BSS 1 10-2. As such, DS 130 may enable an extended service set (ESS) 150. Within ESS 150, APs 104-1 and 104-2 are connected via DS 130and may have the same service set identification (SSID).

[0038] WLAN infra-structure network 102 may be coupled to one or more external networks. For example, as shown in FIG. 1 , WLAN infra-structure network 102 may be connected to another network 108 (e.g., 802.X) via a portal 140. Portal 140 may function as a bridge connecting DS 130 of WLAN infra-structure network 102 with the other network 108. [0039] The example wireless communication networks illustrated in FIG. 1 may further include one or more ad-hoc networks or independent BSSs (IBSSs). An ad-hoc network or IBSS is a network that includes a plurality of STAs that are within communication range of each other. The plurality of STAs are configured so that they may communicate with each other using direct peer-to-peer communication (e.g., not via an AP). [0040] For example, in FIG. 1 , STAs 106-4, 106-5, and 106-6 may be configured to form a first IBSS 112- 1. Similarly, STAs 106-7 and 106-8 may be configured to form a second IBSS 112-2. Since an IBSS does not include an AP, it does not include a centralized management entity. Rather, STAs within an IBSS are managed in a distributed manner. STAs forming an IBSS may be fixed or mobile.

[0041] A STA as a predetermined functional medium may include a medium access control (MAC) layer that complies with an IEEE 802.11 standard. A physical layer interface for a radio medium may be used among the APs and the non-AP stations (STAs). The STA may also be referred to using various other terms, including mobile terminal, wireless device, wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile subscriber unit, or user. For example, the term "user” may be used to denote a STA participating in uplink Multi-user Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MU MIMO) and/or uplink Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) transmission.

[0042] A physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) may be a composite structure that includes a PHY preamble and a payload in the form of a PLOP service data unit (PSDU). For example, the PSDU may include a PHY Convergence Protocol (PLCP) preamble and header and/or one or more MAC protocol data units (MPDUs). The information provided in the PHY preamble may be used by a receiving device to decode the subsequent data in the PSDU. In instances in which PPDUs are transmitted over a bonded channel (channel formed through channel bonding), the preamble fields may be duplicated and transmitted in each of the multiple component channels. The PHY preamble may include both a legacy portion (or "legacy preamble”) and a non-legacy portion (or "non-legacy preamble”). The legacy preamble may be used for packet detection, automatic gain control and channel estimation, among other uses. The legacy preamble also may generally be used to maintain compatibility with legacy devices. The format of, coding of, and information provided in the non-legacy portion of the preamble is based on the particular IEEE 802.1 1 protocol to be used to transmit the payload.

[0043] A frequency band may include one or more sub-bands or frequency channels. For example, PPDUs conforming to the IEEE 802.11 n, 802.1 1ac, 802.11 ax and/or 802.11 be standard amendments may be transmitted over the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and/or 6 GHz bands, each of which may be divided into multiple 20 MHz channels. The PPDUs may be transmitted over a physical channel having a minimum bandwidth of 20 MHz. Larger channels may be formed through channel bonding. For example, PPDUs may be transmitted over physical channels having bandwidths of 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, or 520 MHz by bonding together multiple 20 MHz channels. [0044] FIG. 2 is a block diagram 200 illustrating example implementations of a STA 210 and an AP 260. As shown in FIG. 2, STA 210 may include at least one processor 220, a memory 230, and at least one transceiver 240 AP 260 may include at least one processor 270, a memory 280, and at least one transceiver 290. Processor 220/270 may be operatively connected to memory 230/280 and/or to transceiver 240/290.

[0045] Processor 220/270 may implement functions of the PHY layer, the MAC layer, and/or the logical link control (LLC) layer of the corresponding device (STA 210 or AP 260). Processor 220/270 may include one or more processors and/or one or more controllers. The one or more processors and/or one or more controllers may comprise, for example, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a microcontroller, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a logic circuit, or a chipset, for example.

[0046] Memory 230/280 may include a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (RAM), a flash memory, a memory card, a storage medium, and/or other storage unit. Memory 230/280 may comprise one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums. Memory 230/280 may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by processor 220/270 to carry out one or more of the operations/embodiments discussed in the present application. Memory 230/280 may be implemented (or positioned) within processor 220/270 or external to processor 220/270. Memory 230/280 may be operatively connected to processor 220/270 via various means known in the art.

[0047] Transceiver 240/290 may be configured to transmit/receive radio signals. In an example, transceiver 240/290 may implement a PHY layer of the corresponding device (STA 210 or AP 260). In an example, STA 210 and/or AP 260 may be a multi-link device (MLD), that is a device capable of operating over multiple links as defined by the IEEE 802.11 standard. As such, STA 210 and/or AP 260 may each implement multiple PHY layers. The multiple PHY layers may be implemented using one or more of transceivers 240/290.

[0048] As shown in FIG. 3, MAC frame 300 includes a MAC header, a variable length frame body, and a frame check sequence (FCS).

[0049] The MAC header includes a frame control field, an optional duration/ID field (not in PS-Poll frames), address fields, an optional sequence control field, an optional QoS control field (only in QoS Data frames), and an optional high throughput (HT) control field (only in +HTC frames).

[0050] The frame control field includes the following subfields: protocol version, type, subtype, To DS, From DS, more fragments, retry, power management, more data, protected frame, and high throughput control (+HTC).

[0051] The protocol version subfield is invariant in size and placement across all revisions of the IEEE 802.1 1 standard. The value of the protocol version subfield is 0 for MAC frames.

[0052] The type and subtype subfields together identify the function of the MAC frame. There are three frame types: control, data, and management. Each of the frame types has several defined subtypes. Bits within the subtype subfield are used to indicate a specific modification of the basic data frame (subtype 0). For example, in data frames, the most significant bit (MSB) of the subtype subfield, bit 7 (B7) of the frame control field, is defined as the QoS subfield. When the QoS subfield is set to 1 , it indicates a QoS subtype data frame, which is a data frame that contains a QoS control field in its MAC header. The second MSB of the subtype field, bit 6 (B6) of the frame control field, when set to 1 in data subtypes, indicates a data frame that contains no frame body field.

[0053] The To DS subfield indicates whether a data frame is destined to the DS. The From DS subfield indicates whether a data frame originates from the DS.

[0054] The more fragments subfield is set to 1 in all data or management frames that have another fragment to follow of the MAC service data unit (MSDU) or MAC management protocol data unit (MMPDU) carried by the MAC frame. It is set to 0 in all other frames in which the more fragments subfield is present.

[0055] The retry subfield is set to 1 in any data or management frame that is a retransmission of an earlier frame. It is set to 0 in all other frames in which the retry subfield is present. A receiving STA uses this indication to aid it in the process of eliminating duplicate frames. These rules do not apply for frames sent by a STA under a block agreement.

[0056] The power management subfield is used to indicate the power management mode of a STA.

[0057] The More Data subfield indicates to a STA in power save (PS) mode that bufferable units (BUs) are buffered for that STA at the AP. The more data subfield is valid in individually addressed data or management frames transmitted by an AP to a STA in PS mode. The more data subfield is set to 1 to indicate that at least one additional buffered BU is present for the STA.

[0058] The protected frame subfield is set to 1 if the frame body field contains information that has been processed by a cryptographic encapsulation algorithm.

[0059] The +HTC subfield indicates that MAC frame 300 contains an HT control field. A frame that contains the HT Control field is referred to as a +HTC frame. A Control Wrapper frame is a +HTC frame.

[0060] The duration/ID field of the MAC header indicates various contents depending on frame type and subtype and the QoS capabilities of the sending STA. For example, in control frames of the power save poll (PS-Poll) subtype, the duration/ID field carries an association identifier (AID) of the STA that transmitted the frame in the 14 least significant bits (LSB), and the 2 most significant bits (MSB) are both set to 1 . In other frames sent by STAs, the duration/ID field contains a duration value (in microseconds) which is used by a recipient to update a network allocation vector (NAV). The NAV is a counter that indicates to a STA an amount of time during which it must defer from accessing the shared medium.

[0061] There can be up to four address fields in the format of MAC frame 300. These fields are used to indicate the basic service set identifier (BSSID), source address (SA), destination address (DA), transmitter address (TA), and receiver address (RA). Certain frames might not contain some of the address fields. Certain address field usage may be specified by the relative position of the address field (1-4) within the MAC header, independent of the type of address present in that field. Specifically, the address 1 field always identifies the intended receiver(s) of the frame, and the address 2 field, where present, always identifies the transmitter of the frame.

[0062] The sequence control field includes two subfields, a sequence number subfield and a fragment number subfield. The sequence number subfield in data frames indicates the sequence number of the MSDU (if not in an Aggregated MSDU (A-MSDU)) or A-MSDU. The sequence number subfield in management frames indicates the sequence number of the frame. The fragment number subfield indicates the number of each fragment of an MSDU or MMPDU. The fragment number is set to 0 in the first or only fragment of an MSDU or MMPDU and is incremented by one for each successive fragment of that MSDU or MMPDU. The fragment number is set to 0 in an MPDU containing an A-MSDU, or in an MPDU containing an MSDU or MMPDU that is not fragmented. The fragment number remains constant in all retransmissions of the fragment.

[0063] The QoS control field identifies the traffic category (TC) or traffic stream (TS) to which MAC frame 300 belongs. The QoS control field may also indicate various other QoS related, A-MSDU related, and mesh- related information about the frame. This information can vary by frame type, frame subtype, and type of transmitting STA. The QoS control field is present in all data frames in which the QoS subfield of the subtype subfield is equal to 1.

[0064] The HT control field is present in QoS data, QoS null, and management frames as determined by the +HTC subfield of the frame control field. The control frame subtype for which HT control field is present is the control wrapper frame. A control frame that is described as +HTC (e.g., a request to send (RTS)+HTC, clear to send (CTS)+HTC, block acknowledgment (BlockAck or BA)+HTC or block acknowledgment request (BlockAckReq or BAR)+HTC frame) implies the use of the control wrapper frame to carry that control frame. [0065] The frame body field is a variable length field that contains information specific to individual frame types and subtypes. It may include one or more MSDUs or MMPDUs. The minimum length of the frame body is 0 octets.

[0066] The FCS field contains a 32-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) code. The FCS field value is calculated over all of the fields of the MAC header and the frame body field.

[0067] FIG. 4 illustrates an example 400 of a QoS null frame indicating buffer status information. A QoS null frame refers to a QoS data frame with an empty frame body. A QoS null frame includes a QoS control field and an optional HT control field which may contain a buffer status report (BSR) control subfield. A QoS null frame indicating buffer status information may be transmitted by a STA to an AP.

[0068] The QoS control field may include a traffic identifier (TID) subfield, an ack policy indicator subfield, and a queue size subfield (or a transmission opportunity (TXOP) duration requested subfield).

[0069] The TID subfield identifies the TC or TS of traffic for which a TXOP is being requested, through the setting of the TXOP duration requested or queue size subfield. The encoding of the TID subfield depends on the access policy (e.g., Allowed value 0 to 7 for enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) access policy to identify user priority for either TC or TS).

[0070] The ack policy indicator subfield, together with other information, identifies the acknowledgment policy followed upon delivery of the MPDU (e.g., normal ack, implicit block ack request, no ack, block ack, etc.)

[0071] The queue size subfield is an 8-bit field that indicates the amount of buffered traffic for a given TC or TS at the STA for transmission to the AP identified by the receiver address of the frame containing the subfield. The queue size subfield is present in QoS null frames sent by a STA when bit 4 of the QoS control field is set to 1 . The AP may use information contained in the queue size subfield to determine t TXOP duration assigned to the STA or to determine the uplink (UL) resources assigned to the STA.

[0072] In a frame sent by or to a non-High Efficiency (non-HE) STA, the following rules may apply to the queue size value:

[0073] The queue size value is the approximate total size, rounded up to the nearest multiple of 256 octets and expressed in units of 256 octets, of all MSDUs and A-MSDUs buffered at the STA (excluding the MSDU or A-MSDU contained in the present QoS Data frame) in the delivery queue used for MSDUs and A-MSDUs with TID values equal to the value indicated in the TID subfield of the QoS Control field.

[0074] A queue size value of 0 is used solely to indicate the absence of any buffered traffic in the queue used for the specified TID.

[0075] A queue size value of 254 is used for all sizes greater than 64 768 octets.

[0076] A queue size value of 255 is used to indicate an unspecified or unknown size.

[0077] In a frame sent by an HE STA to an HE AP, the following rules may apply to the queue size value.

[0078] The queue size value, QS, is the approximate total size in octets, of all MSDUs and A-MSDUs buffered at the STA (including the MSDUs or A-MSDUs contained in the same PSDU as the frame containing the queue size subfield) in the delivery queue used for MSDUs and A-MSDUs with TID values equal to the value indicated in the TID subfield of the QoS control field.

[0079] The queue size subfield includes a scaling factor subfield in bits B14-B15 of the QoS control field and an unsealed value, UV, in bits B8-B13 of the QoS control field. The scaling factor subfield provides the scaling factor, SF.

[0080] A STA obtains the queue size, QS, from a received QoS control field, which contains a scaling factor, SF, and an unsealed value, UV, as follows:

[0081] QS =

[0082] 16 VoUV, if SF is equal to 0;

[0083] 1024 + 256 Vo UV, if SF is equal to 1 ;

[0084] 17 408 + 2048 Vo UV, if SF is equal to 2;

[0085] 148 480 + 32 768 Vo UV, if SF is equal to 3 and UV is less than 62; [0086] > 2 147 328, if SF equal to is 3 and UV is equal to 62;

[0087] Unspecified or Unknown, if SF is equal to 3 and UV is equal to 63.

[0088] The TXOP duration requested subfield, which may be included instead of the queue size subfield, indicates the duration, in units of 32 microseconds (us), that the sending STA determines it needs for its next TXOP for the specified TID. The TXOP duration requested subfield is set to 0 to indicate that no TXOP is requested for the specified TID in the current service period (SP). The TXOP duration requested subfield is set to a nonzero value to indicate a requested TXOP duration in the range of 32 us to 8160 us in increments of 32 us.

[0089] The HT control field may include a BSR control subfield which may contain buffer status information used for UL MU operation. The BSR control subfield may be formed from an access category index (ACI) bitmap subfield, a delta TID subfield, an ACI high subfield, a scaling factor subfield, a queue size high subfield, and a queue size all subfield of the HT control field.

[0090] The ACI bitmap subfield indicates the access categories for which buffer status is reported (e.g., B0: best effort (AC_BE), B1 : background (AC_BK), B2: video (AC_VI), B3: voice (AC_VO), etc.). Each bit of the ACI bitmap subfield is set to 1 to indicate that the buffer status of the corresponding AC is included in the queue size all subfield, and set to 0 otherwise, except that if the ACI bitmap subfield is 0 and the delta TID subfield is 3, then the buffer status of all 8 TIDs is included.

[0091] The delta TID subfield, together with the values of the ACI bitmap subfield, indicate the number of TIDs for which the STA is reporting the buffer status.

[0092] The ACI high subfield indicates the ACI of the AC for which the BSR is indicated in the queue size high subfield. The ACI to AC mapping is defined as ACI value 0 mapping to AC_BE, ACI value 1 mapping to AC_BK, ACI value 2 mapping to AC_VI, and ACI value 3 mapping to AC_VO.

[0093] The scaling factor subfield indicates the unit SF, in octets, of the queue size high and queue size all subfields.

[0094] The queue size high subfield indicates the amount of buffered traffic, in units of SF octets, for the AC identified by the ACI high subfield, that is intended for the STA identified by the receiver address of the frame containing the BSR control subfield.

[0095] The queue size all subfield indicates the amount of buffered traffic, in units of SF octets, for all Acs identified by the ACI Bitmap subfield, that is intended for the STA identified by the receiver address of the frame containing the BSR control subfield.

[0096] The queue size values in the queue size high and queue size all subfields are the total sizes, rounded up to the nearest multiple of SF octets, of all MSDUs and A-MSDUs buffered at the STA (including the MSDUs or A-MSDUs contained in the same PSDU as the frame containing the BSR control subfield) in delivery queues used for MSDUs and A-MSDUs associated with AC(s) that are specified in the ACI high and ACI bitmap subfields, respectively. [0097] A queue size value of 254 in the queue size high and queue size all subfields indicates that the amount of buffered traffic is greater than 254 "Vo SF octets. A queue size value of 255 in the queue size high and queue size all subfields indicates that the amount of buffered traffic is an unspecified or unknown size. The queue size value of QoS data frames containing fragments may remain constant even if the amount of queued traffic changes as successive fragments are transmitted.

[0098] MAC service provides peer entities with the ability to exchange MSDUs. To support this service, a local MAC uses the underlying PHY-level service to transport the MSDUs to a peer MAC entity. Such asynchronous MSDU transport is performed on a connectionless basis.

[0099] FIG. 5 illustrates an example 500 format of a PPDU. As shown, the PPDU may include a PHY preamble, a PHY header, a PSDU, and tail and padding bits.

[0100] The PSDU may include one or more MPDUs, such as a QoS data frame, an MMPDU, a MAC control frame, or a QoS null frame. In the case of an MPDU carrying a QoS data frame, the frame body of the MPDU may include a MSDU or an A-MSDU.

[0101] By default, MSDU transport is on a best-effort basis. That is, there is no guarantee that a transmitted MSDU will be delivered successfully. However, the QoS facility uses a traffic identifier (TID) to specify differentiated services on a per-MSDU basis.

[0102] A STA may differentiate MSDU delivery according to designated traffic category (TC) or traffic stream (TS) of individual MSDUs. The MAC sublayer entities determine a user priority (UP) for an MSDU based on a TID value provided with the MSDU. The QoS facility supports eight UP values. The UP values range from 0 to 7 and form an ordered sequence of priorities, with 1 being the lowest value, 7 the highest value, and 0 falling between 2 and 3.

[0103] An MSDU with a particular UP is said to belong to a traffic category with that UP. The UP may be provided with each MSDU at the medium access control service access point (MAC SAP) directly in an UP parameter. An A-MPDU may include MPDUs with different TID values.

[0104] A STA may deliver buffer status reports (BSRs) to assist an AP in allocating UL MU resources. The STA may either implicitly deliver BSRs in the QoS control field or BSR control subfield of any frame transmitted to the AP (unsolicited BSR) or explicitly deliver BSRs in a frame sent to the AP in response to a BSRP Trigger frame (solicited BSR).

[0105] The buffer status reported in the QoS control field includes a queue size value for a given TID. The buffer status reported in the BSR control field includes an ACI bitmap, delta TID, a high priority AC, and two queue sizes.

[0106] A STA may report buffer status to the AP, in the QoS control field, of transmitted QoS null frames and QoS data frames and, in the BSR control subfield (if present), of transmitted QoS null frames, QoS data frames, and management frames as defined below. [0107] The STA may report the queue size for a given TID in the queue size subfield of the QoS control field of transmitted QoS data frames or QoS null frames; the STA may set the queue size subfield to 255 to indicate an unknown/unspecified queue size for that TID. The STA may aggregate multiple QoS data frames or QoS null frames in an A-MPDU to report the queue size for different TIDs.

[0108] The STA may report buffer status in the BSR control subfield of transmitted frames if the AP has indicated its support for receiving the BSR control subfield

[0109] A High-Efficiency (HE) STA may report the queue size for a preferred AC, indicated by the ACI high subfield, in the queue size high subfield of the BSR control subfield. The STA may set the queue size high subfield to 255 to indicate an unknown/unspecified queue size for that AC.

[0110] A HE STA may report the queue size for ACs indicated by the ACI bitmap subfield in the queue size all subfield of the BSR control subfield. The STA may set the queue size all subfield to 255 to indicate an unknown/unspecified BSR for those ACs.

[0111] FIG. 6 illustrates an example 600 of an application that operates via relaying application data between a head-mounted display (HMD) 610 and a personal computer (PC) 630 via an AP 620.

[0112] In an implementation, an extended reality (XR) application utilizes built-in sensors of HMD 610 to capture movement data corresponding to head movements of an application user. For computation offloading, this movement data, also known as pose data 615, may be wirelessly relayed via an IEEE 802.11 wireless connection to an AP 620. AP 620 may relay this movement data to PC 630 via an IEEE 802.11 wireless connection established between AP 620 and PC 630. With the computations offloaded to PC 630, render data 625, co-related to pose data 615, may be wirelessly relayed back to HMD 610 via AP 620.

[0113] In this example, to facilitate the operation of HMD 610 with computations wirelessly offloaded to PC 630, operation of example 600 may benefit from approaches that reduce end to end (E2E) latency for the wireless connections between AP 620 and HMD 610, and AP 620 and PC 630. In this example, because of different factors, HMD 610 and PC 630 may or may not be capable of receiving wireless signals from the other device.

[0114] FIG. 7 provides an example 700 that illustrates using TXOP sharing by a STA for forwarding of communications via an AP to another STA. As shown in FIG. 7, example 700 includes an AP 704, a STA 702, and a STA 706. Similar to example 600, in this example, STA 702 and STA 706 may be components in an application that benefits from low-latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0115] Example 700 may begin with the transmission by STA 702 to AP 704 of a data frame 760A In this example, data frame 760A may be application data to be forwarded by AP 704 to STA 706 for processing.

[0116] As depicted, STA 702 has been assigned a TXOP 750 and transmits data frame 760A to AP 704. After a SIFS 766A, in response to the transmission of data frame 760A, AP 704 transmits a BA frame 720 to STA 702. After a SIFS 766B, TXOP 750 is shared with AP 704 using a control (CTRL) frame 770. CTRL frame 770 assigns a portion of TXOP 750 labeled as an allocation duration 752 to AP 704 for forwarding, after a SIFS 766C, information corresponding to data frame 760A to STA 706 as data frame 760B. In response to the receipt of data frame 760 B, STA 706 transmits a BA 721 to AP 704.

[0117] FIG. 8 provides another example 800 that illustrates forwarding a communication by a STA via an AP to another STA. As shown in FIG. 8, example 800 includes an AP 804, a STA 802, and a STA 806. Similar to the examples of FIGs. 6-7, in this example, STA 802 and STA 806 may be components in an application that benefits from low-latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0118] Example 800 commences with the transmission by STA 802 to AP 804 of a frame 880. In an implementation, frame 880 may be one or more of an initial control frame (ICF), a data forwarding (DF) ICF, a request to send (RTS) frame, a multi-user RTS (MU-RTS) frame, or a BlockAck Request (BAR) frame. Frame 880 may indicate to AP 804 that STA 802 has a data frame 860A to communicate to STA 806 via AP 804.

[0119] Continuing example 800, AP 804 responds to frame 880 by transmitting a frame 882 to STA 802. In an implementation, frame 882 may be an initial control response (ICR) frame, a DF frame, a CTS frame, a BA frame, or a BAR frame. After receiving frame 882 from AP 804, STA 802 transmits data frame 860A to AP 804. In response to data frame 860A, AP 804 transmits a BA frame 870 to STA 802.

[0120] After receiving data frame 860A and in accordance with data forwarding indications included with frame 880, AP 804 transmits a data frame 860B to STA 806. Data frame 860B includes the data payload of data frame 860A. STA 806 transmits a BA frame 870 in response to data frame 860B.

[0121] FIG. 9 illustrates an example 900 that highlights a problem that may arise when using the data forwarding procedure illustrated in FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 9, example 900 includes an AP 904, a STA 902, and a STA 906. Similar to the example of FIGS. 6-8, in this example, STA 902 and STA 906 may be components in an application that benefits from low-latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0122] Example 900 commences with the transmission by STA 902 to AP 904 of a frame 980. In an implementation, frame 980 may be one or more of an ICF, a DF ICF, an RTS frame, an MU-RTS frame, or a BAR frame. Frame 980 may indicate to AP 904 that STA 902 has a data frame 960A to communicate to STA 906 via AP 904.

[0123] Continuing example 900, AP 904 responds to frame 980 by transmitting a frame 982 to STA 902. In an implementation, frame 982 may be an ICR frame, a DF frame, a CTS frame, a BA frame, or a BAR frame. After receiving frame 982 from AP 904, STA 902 transmits data frame 960A to AP 904. In response to data frame 960A, AP 904 transmits a BA frame 970 to STA 902.

[0124] After receiving data frame 960A and in accordance with data forwarding indications included with frame 980, AP 904 transmits data frame 960B to STA 906. Data frame 960B includes the data payload of data frame 960A. Due to interference 999 at STA 906 while AP 904 transmits data frame 960B to STA 906, STA 906 may fail to receive data frame 960B successfully, resulting in a receive failure 997 for one or more MPDUs of data frame 960B at STA 906. Depending on the severity of interference 999, STA 906 may or may not transmit a BA frame 971 to AP 904.

[0125] Receive failure 997 for data frame 960B may cause an inefficient and wasteful use of network resources, including wireless channel resources required to retransmit data frame 960B, and the processing and power resources of AP 904 to process and retransmit data frame 960B.

[0126] Embodiments of the present disclosure, as further described below, address the above-described problem of existing technologies. In an aspect, an AP may receive, from a first STA, a first frame comprising, a first indication comprising a request that the AP solicit a second frame from a second STA, and an identifier of the second STA. The first STA may be a source STA and the second STA may be a destination STA. The AP may be configured to forward to the second STA a data frame received from the first STA. Based on the first indication, the AP may transmit to the first STA, a third frame comprising the identifier of the second STA and a second indication comprising a request that the second STA transmit the second frame to the AP. In an aspect, the AP may receive the second frame from the second STA in response to the third frame, indicating that the second STA is available to receive the data frame Based on receiving the second frame from the second STA, the AP may forward the data frame to the second STA. In another aspect, when the AP does not receive the second frame from the second STA, the AP may delay transmission to the second STA of the data frame received from the first STA. Thus, based on the second frame being solicited from the AP. After transmitting the third frame, the AP may receive the data frame from the first STA. from the second STA, the problem described above may be avoided by embodiments.

[0127] FIG. 10 illustrates an example forwarding procedure according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 10, example 1000 includes an AP 1004, a STA 1002, and a STA 1006. Similar to the examples of FIGs. 6- 8, in this example, STA 1002 and STA 1006 may be components in an application that benefits from low- latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0128] Example 1000 commences with the transmission by STA 1002 to AP 1004 of a frame 1080. In an implementation, frame 1080 may be one or more of an ICF, a DF-ICF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU- RTS triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, frame 1080 comprises a receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of AP 1004. In an additional or alternative embodiment, first frame 1080 comprises a receiver address field set to a basic service set identifier (BSSID) of a BSS that includes AP 1004.

[0129] In an embodiment, frame 1080 may include an indication 1081 comprising a request that AP 1004 solicit a frame from STA 1006. Frame 1080 may further include an identifier of STA 1006. AP 1004 may respond to frame 1080 by transmitting a BA frame 1070 to STA 1002. In an implementation, a SIFS from STA 1002 receiving BA frame 1070, STA 1002 may transmit a data frame 1060A to AP 1004 for forwarding to STA 1006. AP 1004 may respond to data frame 1060A by transmitting a BA frame 1071 to STA 1002. [0130] Continuing example 1000, based on indication 1081 , AP 1004 transmits a frame 1082A to STA 1006, with frame 1082A soliciting a frame from STA 1006. In an implementation, frame 1082A may be one or more of an ICF, a DF-ICF, a RTS frame, a MU-RTS trigger frame, a MU-RTS TXS trigger frame, a BAR frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an ICR, a DF-ICR frame, a CTS frame, a modified CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an implementation, the solicited frame may be one or more of an ICR, a CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0131] In an embodiment, the solicitation by AP 1004 of the frame from STA 1006 allows AP 1004 to determine whether STA 1006 is available to receive a data frame to be forwarded by AP 1004 from STA 1002. That is, if STA 1006 transmits the solicited frame in response to frame 1082A, AP 1004 may determine that STA 1006 was able to receive frame 1082A and is not subject to interference that may prevent STA 1006 from receiving the forwarded data frame.

[0132] As depicted, in example 1000, due to interference 1099 at STA 1006, STA 1006 may fail to receive frame 1082A successfully, resulting in a receive failure 1097 at STA 1006. In an example, interference 1099 may be due to an overlapping BSS (OBSS) transmission. As such, STA 1006 may not transmit the frame solicited in frame 1082A. Based on not receiving the solicited frame from STA 1006 in response to frame 1082A, AP may wait a pre-determined time interval before re-transmitting frame 1082A. In another example (not shown in FIG. 10), STA 1006 may receive frame 1082A successfully and may transmit a frame 1084A in response to frame 1082A, but AP 1004 may fail to receive frame 1084A. Based on not receiving frame 1084A from STA 1006 in response to frame 1082A, AP 1004 may wait a pre-determined time interval before re-transmitting frame 1082A to STA 1006.

[0133] In example 1000, it is assumed that AP 1004 does not receive the solicited frame from STA 1006 in response to frame 1082A. Accordingly, AP 1004 waits an interval (e.g., a SIFS) before retransmitting frame 1082A to STA 1006 as a frame 1082B. Like frame 1082A, frame 1082B solicits a frame from STA 1006. In this example, interference 1099 at STA 1006 ended before the transmission of frame 1082B, and thus frame 1082B is received successfully by STA 1006. In response to frame 1082B, STA 1006 transmits the solicited frame as a frame 1084B to AP 1004. Based on receiving frame 1084B from STA 1006, AP 1004 may proceed to transmit a data frame 1060B to STA 1006. For example, AP 1004 may transmit data frame 1060B a SIFS after receiving frame 1084B. Data frame 1060B includes the data payload of data frame 1060A. STA 1006 may respond to data frame 1060B by transmitting a BA frame 1072 to AP 1004.

[0134] In contrast to example 900, where, when data frame 960B was transmitted to STA 906, interference 999 caused receive failure 997 for the receiving of data frame 960B by STA 906, in example 1000, because frame 1084B was received from STA 1006, AP 1004 had an indication that STA 1006 is available to receive data frame 1060B before the transmission of data frame 1060B. Thus, at least based on the foregoing, embodiments depicted with FIG. 10 may avoid the problem described above with FIG. 9. [0135] FIG. 11 illustrates an example forwarding procedure according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 11 , example 1100 includes an AP 1 104, STA 1102, and STA 1 106. Similar to the examples of FIGs. 6-8, in this example, STA 1 102 and STA 1 106 may be components in an application that benefits from low-latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0136] Example 1100 commences with the transmission by STA 1102 to AP 1104 of a frame 1 180. In an implementation, frame 1180 may be one or more of an IGF, a DF IGF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU- RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, frame 1180 comprises a receiver address field set to a first MAC address of AP 1104. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1180 comprises a receiver address field set to a BSSID of a BSS that includes AP 1 104.

[0137] In an embodiment, frame 1180 may include an indication 1 181 comprising a request that AP 1 104 solicit a frame from STA 1 106. Frame 1180 may further include an identifier of STA 1106. After AP 1104 receives frame 1 180, AP 1 104 transmits a frame 1 182 to STA 1102. In an implementation, frame 1 182 may be one or more of an ICF, a DF-ICF, a RTS frame, a MU-RTS trigger frame, a MU-RTS TXS trigger frame, a BAR frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an ICR, a DF-ICR frame, a GTS frame, a modified GTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an implementation, the solicited frame may be one or more of an ICR, a CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0138] In an implementation, the receiver address of frame 1182 is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of STA 1 102. Frame 1 182 comprises an identifier corresponding to STA 1106. In an implementation, the identifier of STA 1106 comprises an association identifier (AID) of STA 1106. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1182 comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

[0139] Frame 1 182 is transmitted to STA 1102 in accordance with the receiver address of frame 1182 being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1102. STA 1106 also receives frame 1 182 and parses 1197 (e.g., detects, decodes, and/or reads) frame 1 182 to identify the receiver address of frame 1182 as corresponding STA 1102 and to identify an identifier corresponding to STA 1106.

[0140] In an embodiment, to identify the identifier corresponding to STA 1106, after identifying the receiver address of frame 1182 being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1102, STA 1106 identifies the identifier corresponding to STA 1106 in a remaining part of frame 1 182 after the receiver address of frame 1 182.

[0141] In an embodiment, frame 1 182 may further include an indication 1183 comprising a solicitation of a frame 1184. Based on frame 1 182 including the identifier corresponding to STA 1106, STA 1106 identifies indication 1183 as comprising a request that solicits transmission of frame 1184 from STA 1106 to AP 1 104. In accordance with indication 1183, STA 1 106 transmits frame 1184 to AP 1104. In an implementation, frame 1184 may be one or more of an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0142] In an implementation, a specific period after STA 1 102 receives frame 1182, data frame 1160A may be transmitted by STA 1 102 to AP 1104 for forwarding to STA 1106. In an example, the specific period may be duration based on a SIPS and the transmission time of the second frame, e.g., twice a SIFS added to the transmission time of the second frame. AP 1 104 may respond to data frame 1 160A by transmitting a BA frame 1170 to STA 1102.

[0143] In an embodiment, the solicitation by AP 1104 of frame 1184 from STA 1106 allows AP 1 104 to determine whether STA 1 106 is available to receive a data frame to be forwarded by AP 1104 from STA 1102. That is, if STA 1106 transmits frame 1 184 in response to frame 1 182, AP 1104 may determine that STA 1106 was able to receive frame 1182 and is not subject to interference that may prevent STA 1106 from receiving the forwarded data frame, e.g., labeled no interference 1191 in FIG. 11 .

[0144] Based on receiving frame 1 184 from STA 1106, AP 1104 may proceed to transmit a data frame 1160B to STA 1106. For example, AP 1104 may transmit data frame 1160B a SIFS after receiving frame 1184. Data frame 1160B may include the data payload of data frame 1 160A. STA 1 106 may respond to data frame 1160B by transmitting a BA frame 1171 to AP 1 104.

[0145] In contrast to example 900, where, when data frame 960B was transmitted to STA 906, interference 999 caused receive failure 997 for the receiving of data frame 960B by STA 906, in example 1100, because frame 1184 was received from STA 1 106, AP 1 104 had an indication that STA 1106 is available to receive data frame 1 160B before the transmission of data frame 1 160B. Thus, at least based on the foregoing, embodiments depicted with FIG. 11 may avoid the problem described above with FIG. 9.

[0146] FIG. 12 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 12, example 1200 includes an AP 1204, STA 1202, and STA 1206. Similar to the examples of FIGS. 6-8, in this example, STA 1202 and STA 1206 may be components in an application that benefits from low- latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0147] Example 1200 commences with the transmission by STA 1202 to AP 1204 of a frame 1280. In an implementation, frame 1280 may be one or more of an IGF, a DF IGF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU- RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, frame 1280 comprises a receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of AP 1204. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1280 comprises a receiver address field set to a BSSID of a BSS that includes AP 1204.

[0148] In an embodiment, frame 1280 may include an indication 1281 comprising a request that AP 1204 solicit a frame from STA 1206. Frame 1280 may further include an identifier of STA 1206. Based on indication 1281 , AP 1204 transmits a frame 1282A to STA 1202. In an implementation, frame 1282A may be one or more of an IGF, a DF-ICF, a RTS frame, a MU-RTS trigger frame, a MU-RTS TXS trigger frame, a BAR frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an ICR, a DF-ICR frame, a CTS frame, a modified CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an implementation, the solicited frame may be one or more of an ICR, a CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0149] In an embodiment, AP 1204 transmits frame 1282A to STA 1202 as an acknowledgement in response to receiving, from STA 1202, frame 1280. In an implementation, the receiver address of frame 1282A is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1202. Frame 1282A comprises an identifier corresponding to STA 1206. In an implementation, the identifier of STA 1206 comprises an association identifier (AID) of STA 1206. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1282A comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

[0150] In an implementation, a specific period after STA 1202 receives frame 1282A, data frame 1260A may be transmitted by STA 1202 to AP 1204 for forwarding to STA 1206. In an example, the specific period may be duration based on a SIFS and the transmission time of the second frame, e.g., twice a SIFS added to the transmission time of the second frame. AP 1204 may respond to data frame 1260A by transmitting a BA frame 1270 to STA 1202.

[0151] In an embodiment, the solicitation by AP 1204 of frame 1284A from STA 1206 allows AP 1204 to determine whether STA 1206 is available to receive data frame 1260A to be forwarded by AP 1204 from STA 1202. That is, if AP 1204 receives frame 1284A in response to frame 1282A, AP 1204 may determine that STA 1206 was able to receive frame 1282A and is not subject to interference that may prevent STA 1206 from receiving the forwarded data frame.

[0152] As depicted, in example 1200, due to interference 1299 at STA 1206, STA 1206 may fail to receive frame 1282A successfully, resulting in a receive failure at STA 1206. In an example, interference 1299 may be due to an overlapping BSS (OBSS) transmission. As such, STA 1206 may not transmit frame 1284A solicited by frame 1282A. In another example (not shown in FIG. 12), STA 1206 receives frame 1282A and successfully parses 1297 (e.g., detects, decodes, and/or reads) frame 1282A to identify the receiver address of frame 1284A as corresponding STA 1202 and to further identify that frame 1282A is soliciting a frame to be transmitted to AP 1204 by STA 1206 Based on this solicitation, STA 1206 transmits the solicited frame 1284A to AP 1204, but, based on interference 1299, but AP 1204 may fail to receive frame 1284A. In an implementation, frame 1284A may be one or more of an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. [0153] In example 1200, it is assumed that STA 1202 does not receive the solicited frame from STA 1206 in response to frame 1282A. Accordingly, AP 1204 waits an interval (e.g., a SIFS) before retransmitting frame 1282A to STA 1206 as a frame 1282B. Like frame 1282A, frame 1282B solicits a frame from STA 1206. In this example, interference 1299 at STA 1206 ended before the transmission of frame 1282B, and thus frame 1282B is received successfully by STA 1206. In response to frame 1282B, STA 1206 transmits the solicited frame as a frame 1284B to AP 1204. Based on receiving frame 1284B from STA 1206, AP 1204 may proceed to transmit a data frame 1260B to STA 1206. For example, AP 1204 may transmit data frame 1260B a SIFS after receiving frame 1284B. Data frame 1260B includes the data payload of data frame 1260A. STA 1206 may respond to data frame 1260B by transmitting a BA frame 1271 to AP 1204.

[0154] In contrast to example 900, where, when data frame 960B was transmitted to STA 906, interference 999 caused receive failure 997 for the receiving of data frame 960B by STA 906, in example 1200, because solicited frame 1284A was not received from STA 1206, AP 1204 had an indication that interference 1299 would interfere with data frame 1260B upon transmission to STA 1206. Thus, at least based on the foregoing, embodiments depicted with FIG. 12 may avoid the problem described above with FIG. 9.

[0155] FIG. 13 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 13, example 1300 includes an AP 1304, STA 1302, and STA 1306. Similar to the examples of FIGs. 6- 8, in this example, STA 1302 and STA 1306 may be components in an application that benefits from low- latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0156] Example 1300 commences with the transmission by STA 1306 to AP 1304 of a request frame 1342. Request frame 1342 comprises STA capability information 1331 which may indicate to AP 1304 whether STA 1306 is able to detect (/parse/decode/read) one or more subfields of a control frame not addressed (/intended/destinated) to STA 1306. In an embodiment, STA capability information 1331 may be included in a capability field of request frame 1342 that indicates whether STA 1306 supports detecting (/parsing/decoding/reading) the one or more subfields of the control frame not addressed (/intended/destinated) to STA 1306. STA capability information 1331 may be further included an operation mode field of request frame 1342 that indicates whether STA 1306 enables or disables detecting (/parsing/decoding/reading) of the one or more subfields of the control frame not addressed (/intended/destinated) to STA 1306. In an implementation, the one or more subfields of the control frame may correspond to the remaining fields of the control frame to be presented after at least one of a frame control field, a duration field, or a receiver address field of the control frame. In an implementation, request frame 1342 may be one or more of an ICF, a DF ICF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU-RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, a BAR frame, or an action frame.

[0157] AP 1304 may respond to request frame 1342 by transmitting a response frame 1344 having AP capability information 1332. In an embodiment, AP capability information 1332 may indicate that AP 1304 is able to transmit a control frame such as frame 1382, having the one or more subfields not addressed (/intended/destinated) to STA 1306. In an additional or alternative embodiment, AP capability information 1332 may be further included in an operation mode field of response frame 1344 indicating whether AP 1304 enables or disables transmission of frame 1382.

[0158] Example 1300 continues with the transmission by STA 1302 to AP 1304 of a frame 1380. In an implementation, frame 1380 may be one or more of an IGF, a DF IGF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU- RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, frame 1380 comprises a receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of AP 1304. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1380 comprises a receiver address field set to a BSSID of a BSS that includes AP 1304.

[0159] In an embodiment, frame 1380 may include an indication (not shown) comprising a request that AP 1304 solicit a frame 1384 from STA 1306. Frame 1380 may further include an identifier of STA 1306. After AP 1304 receives frame 1380, AP 1304 transmits a frame 1382 to STA 1302. In an implementation, frame 1382 may be one or more of an IGF, a DF-ICF, a RTS frame, a MU-RTS trigger frame, a MU-RTS TXS trigger frame, a BAR frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an ICR, a DF-ICR frame, a CTS frame, a modified CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an implementation, the solicited frame may be one or more of an ICR, a CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0160] In an embodiment, AP 1304 transmits frame 1382 to STA 1302 as an acknowledgement in response to receiving, from STA 1302, frame 1380. In an implementation, the receiver address of frame 1382 is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1302. Frame 1382 comprises an identifier corresponding to the second STA. In an implementation, the identifier of STA 1306 comprises an association identifier (AID) of STA 1306. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1382 comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

[0161] Frame 1382 is transmitted to STA 1302 in accordance with the receiver address of frame 1382 being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1302. STA 1306 also receives frame 1382 and parses 1397 (e.g. , detects, decodes, and/or reads) frame 1382 to identify the receiver address of frame 1382 as corresponding STA 1302 and to identify an identifier corresponding to STA 1306.

[0162] In an implementation, a specific period after STA 1302 receives frame 1382, data frame 1360A may be transmitted by STA 1302 to AP 1304 for forwarding to STA 1306. In an example, the specific period may be duration based on a SIFS and the transmission time of the second frame, e.g., twice a SIFS added to the transmission time of the second frame. AP 1304 may respond to data frame 1360A by transmitting a BA frame 1370 to STA 1302. [0163] In an embodiment, the solicitation by AP 1304 of frame 1384 from STA 1306 allows AP 1304 to determine whether STA 1306 is available to receive a data frame to be forwarded by AP 1304 from STA 1302. That is, if AP 1304 receives frame 1384 in response to frame 1382, AP 1304 may determine that STA 1306 was able to receive frame 1382 and is not subject to interference that may prevent STA 1306 from receiving the forwarded data frame. In an implementation, frame 1384 may be one or more of an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0164] As depicted, in example 1300, frame 1382 is transmitted to STA 1302 in accordance with the receiver address of frame 1382 being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1302. STA 1306 also receives frame 1382 and parses 1397 (e.g., detects, decodes, and/or reads) frame 1382 to identify the receiver address of frame 1382 as corresponding STA 1302 and to identify that frame 1384 is solicited by AP 1304 from STA 1306. In an embodiment, to identify the identifier corresponding to STA 1306, after identifying the receiver address of frame 1382 being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1302, STA 1306 identifies the identifier corresponding to STA 1306 in a remaining part of frame 1382 after the receiver address of frame 1382.

[0165] In an implementation, a specific period after STA 1302 receives frame 1382, data frame 1360A may be transmitted by STA 1302 to AP 1304 for forwarding to STA 1306. In an example, the specific period may be duration based on a SIPS and the transmission time of the second frame, e.g., twice a SIPS added to the transmission time of the second frame. AP 1304 may respond to data frame 1360A by transmitting a BA frame 1370 to STA 1302.

[0166] Based on receiving frame 1384 from STA 1306, AP 1304 may proceed to transmit a data frame 1360B to STA 1306. For example, AP 1304 may transmit data frame 1360B a SIPS after receiving frame 1384. Data frame 1360B may include the data payload of data frame 1360A. STA 1306 may respond to data frame 1360B by transmitting a BA frame 1371 to AP 1304.

[0167] In contrast to example 900, where, when data frame 960B was transmitted to STA 906, interference 999 caused receive failure 997 for the receiving of data frame 960B by STA 906, in example 1300, because frame 1384 was received from STA 1306, AP 1304 had an indication that STA 1306 is available to receive data frame 1360B before the transmission of data frame 1360B. Thus, at least based on the foregoing, embodiments depicted with FIG. 13 may avoid the problem described above with FIG. 9.

[0168] FIG. 14 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 14, example 1400 includes an AP 1404, STA 1402, and STA 1406. Similar to the example of FIGS. 6- 8, in this example, STA 1402 and STA 1406 may be components in an application that benefits from low- latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0169] Example 1400 commences with the transmission by STA 1402 to AP 1404 of a frame 1480. In an implementation, frame 1480 may be one or more of an ICF, a DF ICF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU- RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, frame 1480 comprises a receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of AP 1404. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1480 comprises a receiver address field set to a BSSID of a BSS that includes AP 1404.

[0170] In an embodiment, frame 1480 may include a first indication (not shown) comprising a request that AP 1404 solicit a frame 1484 from STA 1406. Frame 1480 may further include an identifier of STA 1406. After AP 1404 receives frame 1480, AP 1404 transmits a frame 1482 to STA 1402. In an implementation, frame 1482 may be one or more of an ICF, a DF-ICF, a RTS frame, a MU-RTS trigger frame, a MU-RTS TXS trigger frame, a BAR frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an ICR, a DF-ICR frame, a CTS frame, a modified CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an implementation, the solicited frame may be one or more of an ICR, a CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0171] In an implementation, the receiver address of frame 1482 is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1402. Frame 1482 comprises an identifier corresponding to STA 1406. In an implementation, the identifier of STA 1406 comprises an association identifier (AID) of STA 1406. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1482 comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

[0172] Frame 1482 is transmitted to STA 1402 in accordance with the receiver address of frame 1482 being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1402. STA 1406 also receives frame 1482 and parses 1497 (e.g., detects, decodes, and/or reads) frame 1482 to identify the receiver address of the frame 1482 as corresponding STA 1402 and to identify an identifier corresponding to STA 1406, e.g., in a remaining part of frame 1482 after the receiver address of frame 1482.

[0173] Based on frame 1482 including the identifier corresponding to STA 1406, STA 1406 identifies frame 1482 as comprising a request that STA 1406 transmit the frame 1484 to AP 1404. In an embodiment, the solicitation by AP 1404 of frame 1484 from STA 1406 allows AP 1404 to determine whether STA 1406 is available to receive a data frame to be forwarded by AP 1404 from STA 1402. That is, if AP 1404 receives frame 1484 in response to frame 1482, AP 1404 may determine that STA 1406 was able to receive frame 1482 and is not subject to interference that may prevent STA 1406 from receiving the forwarded data frame. In an implementation, frame 1484 may be one or more of an ICR, a CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0174] In example 1400, in accordance with frame 1482, STA 1406 transmits frame 1484 to AP 1404. In an embodiment, based on the receipt of frame 1484 by AP 1404, confirmation frame 1475 may be transmitted by AP 1404 to STA 1402, e.g., confirming that STA 1406 is available to receive a data frame to be forwarded by AP 1404 from STA 1402. In an implementation, a SIPS from STA 1402 receiving confirmation frame 1475, data frame 1460A may be transmitted by STA 1402 to AP 1404 for forwarding to STA 1406. AP 1404 may respond to data frame 1460A by transmitting a BA frame 1470 to STA 1402.

[0175] Based on receiving data frame 1460A from STA 1402, AP 1404 may proceed to transmit a data frame 1460B to STA 1406. For example, AP 1404 may transmit data frame 1460B a SIFS after receiving data frame 1460A. Data frame 1460B may include the data payload of data frame 1460A. STA 1406 may respond to data frame 1460B by transmitting a BA frame 1471 to AP 1404.

[0176] In contrast to example 900, where, when data frame 960B was transmitted to STA 906, interference 999 caused receive failure 997 for the receiving of data frame 960B by STA 906, in example 1400, because frame 1484 was received from STA 1406, AP 1404 had an indication that STA 1406 is available to receive data frame 1460B before the transmission of data frame 1460B. Thus, at least based on the foregoing, embodiments depicted with FIG. 14 may avoid the problem described above with FIG. 9.

[0177] FIG. 15 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 15, example 1500 includes an AP 1504, STA 1502, and STA 1506. Similar to the example of FIGS. 6- 8, in this example, STA 1502 and STA 1506 may be components in an application that benefits from low- latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs.

[0178] Example 1500 commences with the transmission by STA 1502 to AP 1504 of a frame 1580. In an implementation, frame 1580 may be one or more of an IGF, a DF ICF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU- RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, frame 1580 comprises a receiver address field set to a MAC address of AP 1504. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1580 comprises a receiver address field set to a BSSID of a BSS that includes AP 1504.

[0179] In an embodiment, frame 1580 may include a request that AP 1504 solicit a frame 1584 from STA 1506. Frame 1580 may further include an identifier of STA 1506. After AP 1504 receives frame 1580, AP 1504 transmits a frame 1582 to STA 1506. In an implementation, frame 1582 may be one or more of ICF, a DF-ICF, a RTS frame, a MU-RTS trigger frame, a MU-RTS TXS trigger frame, a BAR frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an ICR, a DF-ICR frame, a CTS frame, a modified CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an implementation, the solicited frame may be one or more of an ICR, a CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0180] In an implementation, the receiver address of frame 1582 is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of STA 1506. Frame 1582 comprises an identifier corresponding to STA 1506.

[0181] In an implementation, the identifier of STA 1506 comprises an association identifier (AID) of STA 1506. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1582 comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address. [0182] Frame 1582 is transmitted to STA 1506 in accordance with the receiver address of frame 1582 being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of STA 1506. STA 1502 also receives third frame 1582 and parses 1597 (e.g., detects, decodes, and/or reads) frame 1582 to identify the receiver address of the third frame as corresponding STA 1506 and to identify an identifier corresponding to STA 1502.

[0183] In an embodiment, to identify the identifier corresponding to STA 1502, after identifying the receiver address of third frame being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1506(or after a frame control field, a duration field, and a receiver address field), STA 1502 identifies the identifier corresponding to STA 1502 in a remaining part of the third frame after the receiver address of the third frame. STA 1502 may assume that the third frame 1582 is transmitted in response to first frame 1580.

[0184] Based on frame 1582, STA 1506 identifies the request that STA 1506 transmit the frame 1584 to AP 1504. In accordance with the second indication, STA 1506 transmits frame 1584 to AP 1504. In an implementation, frame 1584 may be one or more of an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0185] In an implementation, an interval from STA 1502 receiving frame 1582, data frame 1560A may be transmitted by STA 1502 to AP 1504 for forwarding to STA 1506. AP 1504 may respond to data frame 1560A by transmitting a BA frame 1570 to STA 1502.

[0186] In an embodiment, the solicitation by AP 1504 of frame 1584 from STA 1506 allows AP 1504 to determine whether STA 1506 is available to receive a data frame to be forwarded by AP 1504 from STA 1502. That is, if STA 1506 transmits frame 1584 in response to frame 1582, AP 1504 may determine that STA 1506 was able to receive frame 1582 and is not subject to interference that may prevent STA 1506 from receiving the forwarded data frame.

[0187] Based on receiving frame 1584 from STA 1506, AP 1504 may proceed to transmit a data frame 1560B to STA 1506. For example, AP 1504 may transmit data frame 1560B a SIFS after receiving frame 1584. Data frame 1560B may include the data payload of data frame 1560A. STA 1506 may respond to data frame 1560B by transmitting a BA frame 1571 to AP 1504.

[0188] In contrast to example 900, where, when data frame 960B was transmitted to STA 906, interference 999 caused receive failure 997 for the receiving of data frame 960B by STA 906, in example 1500, because frame 1584 was received from STA 1506, AP 1504 had an indication that STA 1506 is available to receive data frame 1560B before the transmission of data frame 1560B. Thus, at least based on the foregoing, embodiments depicted with FIG. 15 may avoid the problem described above with FIG. 9.

[0189] FIG. 16 illustrates an example data forwarding procedure according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 16, example 1600 includes an AP 1604, STA 1602, and STA 1606. Similar to the example of FIGS. 6- 8, in this example, STA 1602 and STA 1606 may be components in an application that benefits from low- latency exchange of co-related application data between the STAs. [0190] Example 1600 commences with the transmission by STA 1602 to AP 1604 of a frame 1680. In an implementation, frame 1680 may be one or more of an IGF, a DF IGF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU- RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, frame 1680 comprises a receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of AP 1604. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1680 comprises a receiver address field set to a BSSID of a BSS that includes AP 1604.

[0191] In an embodiment, frame 1680 may include a first indication (not shown) comprising a request that AP 1604 solicit a frame 1684A from STA 1606 and a frame 1684B from STA 1602. Continuing example 1600, after AP 1604 receives frame 1680, AP 1604 transmits a frame 1682 to STA 1602. In an embodiment, AP 1604 transmits frame 1682 to STA 1602 as an acknowledgement in response to receiving, from STA 1602, frame 1680. In an implementation, the receiver address of frame 1682 is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1602. Frame 1682 comprises an identifier corresponding to STA 1606. In an implementation, the identifier of STA 1606 comprises an association identifier (AID) of STA 1606.

[0192] In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1682 comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group MAC address or a multicast group MAC address. In an implementation, frame 1682 may be one or more of an ICF, a DF-ICF, an RTS frame, a MU-RTS trigger frame, a MU-RTS TXS trigger frame, a BAR frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an ICR, a DF-ICR frame, a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a modified CTS frame, a BA frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. Frame 1682 may comprise a request that STA 1602 transmits frame 1684B to AP 1604 as well as a request that STA 1606 transmit frame 1684A to AP 1604.

[0193] Frame 1682 is transmitted to STA 1602 in accordance with the receiver address of third frame being set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the STA 1602. STA 1606 also receives frame 1682 and parses 1697 (e.g., detects, decodes, and/or reads) frame 1682 to identify the receiver address of the third frame as corresponding STA 1602 and to identify an identifier corresponding to STA 1606. In an additional or alternative embodiment, frame 1682 comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

[0194] In an embodiment, to identify the identifier corresponding to STA 1606, after identifying the receiver address of third frame being set to a MAC address of STA 1602 (or after a frame control field, a duration field, and a receiver address field), STA 1606 identifies the identifier corresponding to STA 1606 in a remaining part of the third frame after the receiver address of the third frame.

[0195] In an embodiment, frame 1682 may further include a second indication (not shown) comprising a request that STA 1606 transmit a frame 1684A to AP 1604. Based on frame 1682 including the identifier corresponding to STA 1606, STA 1606 identifies the second indication as comprising a request that STA 1606 transmit the frame 1684A to AP 1604. In accordance with the second indication, STA 1606 transmits frame 1684A to AP 1604. In an implementation, frame 1684A may be one or more of an ICF, a DF ICF, an MU-RTS trigger frame, an MU-RTS triggered TXS trigger frame, a BSRP Trigger frame, an RTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0196] In an example, based on the solicitation, a SIFS after frame 1682 is received by STA 1602 and STA 1606, second frames 1684A-B may be transmitted to AP 1604 by both STA 1602 and STA 1606 simultaneously. In an implementation, second frames 1684A-B may be transmitted to AP 1604 at the same time via the same subchannels, with both frames 1684A-B being the same. Additionally or alternatively, second frames 1684A-B may be transmitted to AP 1604 by both STA 1602 and STA 1606 via different subchannels.

[0197] In an implementation, a specific period after STA 1602 receives frame 1682, data frame 1660A may be transmitted by STA 1602 to AP 1604 for forwarding to STA 1606. In an example, the specific period may be duration based on a SIFS and the transmission time of the second frame, e.g., twice a SIFS added to the transmission time of the second frame. AP 1604 may respond to data frame 1660A by transmitting a BA frame 1670 to STA 1602.

[0198] In an embodiment, the solicitation by AP 1604 of frame 1684A from STA 1606 allows AP 1604 to determine whether STA 1606 is available to receive a data frame to be forwarded by AP 1604 from STA 1602. That is, if STA 1606 transmits frame 1684A in response to frame 1682, AP 1604 may determine that STA 1606 was able to receive frame 1682 and is not subject to interference that may prevent STA 1606 from receiving the forwarded data frame.

[0199] Based on receiving frame 1684A from STA 1606, AP 1604 may proceed to transmit a data frame 1660B to STA 1606. For example, AP 1604 may transmit data frame 1660B a SIFS after receiving frame 1684A. Data frame 1660B may include the data payload of data frame 1660A. STA 1606 may respond to data frame 1660B by transmitting a BA frame 1671 to AP 1604.

[0200] In contrast to example 900, where, when data frame 960B was transmitted to STA 906, interference 999 caused receive failure 997 for the receiving of data frame 960B by STA 906, in example 1600, because frame 1684A was received from STA 1606, AP 1604 had an indication that STA 1606 is available to receive data frame 1660B before the transmission of data frame 1660B. Thus, at least based on the foregoing, embodiments depicted with FIG. 16 may avoid the problem described above with FIG. 9.

[0201] FIG. 17 illustrates another example process 1700 according to an embodiment. Example process 1700 may be performed by a first (source) STA, such as STA 1002, STA 1102, STA 1202, STA 1302, STA 1402, STA 1502, or STA 1602, for example. The first STA may be an AP STA or a non-AP STA. Example process 1700 may be performed by a second (destination) STA, such as STA 1006, STA 1106, STA 1206, STA 1306, STA 1406, STA 1506, or STA 1606, for example. The second STA may be an AP STA or a non- AP STA. Example process 1700 may be performed by an AP STA, such as AP 1004, AP 1104, AP 1204, AP 1304, AP 1404, AP 1504, or AP 1604, for example. As shown in FIG. 17, process 1700 may include steps 1702, 1704, and 1706.

[0202] Step 1702 includes receiving, by an access point (AP) from a first station (STA), a first frame comprising: a first indication comprising a request that the AP solicit a second frame from a second STA, and an identifier of the second STA. Step 1704 includes, based on the first indication, transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, a third frame comprising the identifier of the second STA. Step 1706 includes receiving, by the AP from the second STA, the second frame.

[0203] In an embodiment, the AP may comprise a capability to forward, to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA. In an embodiment, the first STA is a source STA of the data frame. In an embodiment, the second STA is a destination STA of the data frame. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control frame (IGF), a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0204] In an embodiment, first frame enables forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, of a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU- RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to- send (RTS) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0205] In an embodiment, the third frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame. In an embodiment, the second frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0206] In an embodiment, the second frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second indication comprising a request that the second STA transmit the second frame to the AP.

[0207] In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second indication indicating that the AP solicits the second STA to transmit the second frame. In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA is valid for the second indication equal to a specific value. In an embodiment, the specific value is 0 or 1. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second indication comprising a request that the AP solicit the second frame from the second STA. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second indication comprising a notification for the second STA to transmit the second frame to the AP. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise a first receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of the AP. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise a first receiver address field set to a basic service set identifier (BSSID) of a BSS comprising the AP. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second receiver address field set to a second medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second receiver address field set to a broadcast group MAC address or a multicast group MAC address. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise an identifier of the first STA.

[0208] In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA may comprise an association identifier (AID) of the second STA. In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA may comprise a partial association identifier (AID) of the second STA. In an embodiment, the partial AID may comprise a part of the AID of the second STA. In an embodiment, the part of the AID may comprise N least significant bits of the AID. In an embodiment, the N may comprise a value less than 12. In an embodiment, the second STA parses (/detects/decodes/reads) a receiver address of the third frame. In an embodiment, the receiver address may comprise a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address. In an embodiment, the receiver address may comprise a medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA. In an embodiment, the receiver address does not match the MAC address of the second STA. In an embodiment, the second STA parses (/detects/decodes/reads) a remaining part of the third frame after the receiver address of the third frame. In an embodiment, the remaining part may comprise one or more fields after a frame control (FC) field, a duration field, and the receiver address field in the third frame. In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA is comprised in the remaining parts. In an embodiment, the second STA transmits to the AP the second frame SIPS after the third frame when the remaining part may comprise the identifier of the second STA.

[0209] In an embodiment, process 1700 may further comprise, receiving, by AP from the first STA, a fourth frame a specific period after transmitting the third frame, and transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, a fifth frame in response to the fourth frame SIPS after the fourth frame. In an embodiment, the fourth frame may comprise at least one of: a data frame, a management frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, the specific period may comprise 2 x SIPS + a transmission time of the second frame. In an embodiment, the fifth frame may comprise at least one of: an acknowledgement (ACK) frame, or a block ACK frame. In an embodiment, the SIPS may be 16us. In an embodiment, the first STA does not transmit to the AP the fourth frame SIPS after receiving the third frame.

[0210] In an embodiment, process 1700 may further comprise, after transmitting the third frame, not receiving, by the AP from the second STA, the second frame, and after receiving the fourth frame, transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, the fifth frame indicating that the AP did not receive the second frame. [0211] In an embodiment, process 1700 may further comprise, after transmitting the fifth frame, transmitting, by AP to the second STA, an initial control frame, receiving, by the AP from the second STA, an initial control response frame, transmitting, by the AP to the second STA, a sixth frame, and receiving, by the AP from the second STA, an Ack frame or a block Ack frame in response to the sixth frame.

[0212] In an embodiment, process 1700 may further comprise, before receiving the first frame, receiving, by AP from the second STA, a seventh frame indicating whether the second STA is able to detect (/parse/decode/read) one or more subfields of a control frame not addressed (/intended/destinated) to the second STA, and after the seventh frame, transmitting, by the AP to the second STA, an eighth frame indicating that the AP is able to transmit the third frame. In an embodiment, the seventh frame may comprise at least one of: a request frame, a management frame, a control frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0213] In an embodiment, the seventh frame may comprise a capability field indicating whether the second STA supports of detecting (/parsing/decoding/reading) the one or more subfields of the control frame. In an embodiment, the seventh frame may comprise an operation mode field indicating whether the second STA enables or disables detecting (/parsing/decoding/reading) the one or more subfields of the control frame. In an embodiment, the one or more subfields are the remaining fields to be presented after a frame control field, a duration field, and a receiver address field of the control frame. In an embodiment, the eighth frame may comprise at least one of: a response frame, a management frame, a control frame, a QoS data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, the eighth frame may comprise an operation mode field indicating whether the AP enables or disables transmission of the third frame by the AP.

[0214] In an embodiment, process 1700 may further comprise, in response to the second frame, transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, a confirmation frame, receiving, by the AP from the first STA, the fourth frame, and transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, the fifth frame.

[0215] In an embodiment, process 1700 may further comprise, transmitting, by the AP, the third frame requesting the first STA to transmit a ninth frame, a short interframe space (SIFS) after the third frame is transmitted by the AP, receiving, by the AP: the ninth frame from the first STA, and the second frame from the second STA, and receiving, by the AP from the first STA, the fourth frame. In an embodiment, the second frame and the ninth frame are transmitted at the same time via the same subchannels. In an embodiment, contents of the second frame and the ninth frame are same. In an embodiment, the second frame and the ninth frame are transmitted at the same time via different subchannels. In an embodiment, the ninth frame may comprise at least one of: a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, an initial control response frame (ICR), a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, or a QoS null frame, or an action frame. [0216] FIG. 18 illustrates another example process 1800 according to an embodiment. Example process 1800 may be performed by a first (source) STA, such as STA 1002, STA 1102, STA 1202, STA 1302, STA 1402, STA 1502, or STA 1602, for example. The first STA may be an AP STA or a non-AP STA. Example process 1800 may be performed by a second (destination) STA, such as STA 1006, STA 1106, STA 1206, STA 1306, STA 1406, STA 1506, or STA 1606, for example. The second STA may be an AP STA or a non- AP STA. Example process 1800 may be performed by an AP STA, such as AP 1004, AP 1104, AP 1204, AP 1304, AP 1404, AP 1504, or AP 1604, for example. As shown in FIG. 18, process 1800 may include steps 1802, 1804, 1806, and 1808.

[0217] Step 1802 includes transmitting, by a first station (STA) to an access point (AP), a first frame comprising: a first indication requesting that the AP solicit a second frame from a second STA, and an identifier of the second STA. Step 1804 includes, based on the first indication, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a third frame comprising the identifier of the second STA. Step 1806 includes transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a fourth frame after a specific time period. Step 1808 includes receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a fifth frame in response to the fourth frame.

[0218] In an embodiment, the AP may comprise an AP being able to forward, to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA. In an embodiment, the first STA may comprise a source STA of the data frame. In an embodiment, the second STA may comprise a destination STA of the data frame. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a multi-user request- to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0219] In an embodiment, the first frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU- RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to- send (RTS) frame, an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0220] In an embodiment, the third frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame. In an embodiment, the second frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, the second frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame. In an embodiment, the first indication requests the AP to solicit the second frame for the second STA. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second indication indicating that the third frame solicits the second frame from the second STA.

[0221] In an embodiment, the second indication indicates that the AP solicits the second STA to transmit the second frame. In an embodiment, the second indication requests the AP to solicit the second STA. In an embodiment, the second indication requests the AP to solicit the second frame from the second STA. In an embodiment, the second indication requests the second STA to transmit the second frame to the AP. In an embodiment, the second indication may comprise a notification to the second STA to transmit the second frame to the AP. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise a first receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of the AP. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise a first receiver address field set to a basic service set identifier (BSSID) of a basic service set (BSS) that includes the AP. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a second receiver address field set to a second medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA.

[0222] In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a first receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise an identifier of the first STA. In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA may comprise an association identifier (AID) of the second STA. In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA may comprise a partial association identifier (AID) of the second STA. In an embodiment, the partial AID may comprise a part of the AID of the second STA. In an embodiment, the part of the AID may comprise N least significant bits of the AID. In an embodiment, the N is less than 12. In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA is valid for the second indication equal to a specific value. In an embodiment, the specific value may comprise 0 or 1 . In an embodiment, the second STA parses (/detects/decodes/reads) a receiver address of the third frame. In an embodiment, the receiver address is set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

[0223] In an embodiment, the receiver address is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA. In an embodiment, the receiver address does not match the MAC address of the second STA. In an embodiment, the second STA parses (/detects/decodes/reads) a remaining part of the third frame after the receiver address of the third frame. In an embodiment, the remaining part may comprise one or more fields after a frame control (FC) field, a duration field, and a receiver address field in the third frame. In an embodiment, the identifier of the second STA is comprised in the remaining parts. In an embodiment, the second STA transmits to the AP a second frame short interframe space (SIFS) after the third frame when the remaining part may comprise the identifier of the second STA. In an embodiment, the fourth frame may comprise at least one of: a data frame, a management frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, the specific period may comprise 2 x short interframe space (SIFS) + a transmission time of the second frame. In an embodiment, the fifth frame may comprise at least one of an acknowledgement (ACK) frame or a block ACK frame. In an embodiment, the first STA does not transmit to the AP a fourth frame short interframe space (SIFS) after receiving the third frame.

[0224] In an embodiment, process 1800 may further comprise, in response to the fourth frame, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, the fifth frame indicating that the AP did not receive the second frame. In an embodiment, process 1800 may further comprise, in response to the second frame, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a confirmation frame, transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, the fourth frame, and receiving, by the first STA from the AP, the fifth frame.

[0225] In an embodiment, process 1800 may further comprise, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, the third frame requesting the first STA to transmit a sixth frame, transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a sixth frame short interframe space (SIPS) after the third frame, and transmitting, by the AP from the first STA, the fourth frame. In an embodiment, the second frame and the sixth frame are transmitted at a same time via same subchannels. In an embodiment, contents of the second frame and the sixth frame are same. In an embodiment, the second frame and the sixth frame are transmitted at a same time via different subchannels. In an embodiment, the sixth frame may comprise at least one of: a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, an initial control response frame (ICR), a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0226] FIG. 19 illustrates another example process 1900 according to an embodiment. Example process 1900 may be performed by a first (destination) STA, such as STA 1006, STA 1 106, STA 1206, STA 1306, STA 1406, STA 1506, or STA 1606, for example. The second STA may be an AP STA or a non-AP STA. Example process 1900 may be performed by a second (source) STA, such as STA 1002, STA 1102, STA 1202, STA 1302, STA 1402, STA 1502, or STA 1602, for example. The first STA may be an AP STA or a non-AP STA. Example process 1900 may be performed by an AP STA, such as AP 1004, AP 1 104, AP 1204, AP 1304, AP 1404, AP 1504, or AP 1604, for example. As shown in FIG. 19, process 1900 may include steps 1902, 1904, 1906, and 1908.

[0227] Step 1902 includes receiving, by a first station (STA) from an access point (AP), a first frame comprising an identifier of the first STA. Step 1904 includes transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a second frame in response to the first frame. Step 1906 includes receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a third frame. Step 1908 includes transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a fourth frame.

[0228] In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise a data frame, and the AP is an AP with a capability to forward, to the first STA, the data frame received from a second STA. In an embodiment, the first STA may comprise a destination STA of the data frame. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0229] In an embodiment, the first frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the first STA. In an embodiment, the second frame may comprise at least one of: an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, the second frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the first STA, the data frame received from the third STA. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise an indication indicating that the first frame solicits the second frame from the first STA. In an embodiment, the indication indicates that the AP solicits the first STA to transmit the second frame.

[0230] In an embodiment, the indication requests the AP to solicit the first STA. In an embodiment, the indication requests the AP to solicit the second frame from the first STA. In an embodiment, the indication requests the first STA to transmit the second frame to the AP. In an embodiment, the indication notifying the first STA to transmit the second frame to the AP. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise a receiver address field set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the third STA. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address. In an embodiment, the first frame may comprise an identifier of the third STA. In an embodiment, the identifier of the first STA may comprise an association identifier (AID) of the first STA.

[0231] In an embodiment, the identifier of the first STA may comprise a partial association identifier (AID) of the first STA. In an embodiment, the partial AID may comprise a part of the AID of the first STA. In an embodiment, the part of the AID may comprise N least significant bits of the AID. In an embodiment, the N corresponds to a value less than 12. In an embodiment, the identifier of the first STA is valid for the indication equal to a specific value. In an embodiment, the specific value may comprise 0 or 1 . In an embodiment, the first STA parses (/detects/decodes/reads) a receiver address of the first frame. In an embodiment, the receiver address is set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address. In an embodiment, the receiver address is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA. In an embodiment, the receiver address does not match the medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA. In an embodiment, the first STA parses (/detects/decodes/reads) a remaining part of the first frame after the receiver address of the first frame. In an embodiment, the remaining part may comprise one or more fields after, in the first frame: a frame control (FC) field, a duration field, and a receiver address field. In an embodiment, the identifier of the first STA is comprised in the remaining parts. In an embodiment, the first STA transmits to the AP the second frame short interframe space (SIFS) after the first frame when the remaining part may comprise the identifier of the third STA. In an embodiment, the third frame may comprise at least one of: a data frame, a management frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, the fourth frame may comprise at least one of an acknowledgement (ACK) frame or a block ACK frame.

[0232] In an embodiment, process 1900 may further comprise receiving, by the first STA from the AP, an initial control frame, transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, an initial control response frame, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, the third frame, and transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, the fourth frame in response to the third frame. [0233] In an embodiment, process 1900 may further comprise transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a fifth frame indicating whether the first STA is able to detect (/parse/decode/read) one or more subfields of a control frame not addressed to the first STA, and after the fifth frame, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a sixth frame indicating that the AP is able to transmit the first frame. In an embodiment, the fifth frame may comprise at least one of: a request frame, a management frame, a control frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame. In an embodiment, the sixth frame may comprise at least one of: a response frame, a management frame, a control frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

[0234] FIG. 20 illustrates Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) and Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA). In an example Co-TDMA enables an AP (generally referred to as a master AP or a sharing AP) to allocate a portion of an obtained TXOP sequentially to one or more non-colocated APs (generally referred to as slave APs or shared APs). An AP that receives a time allocation from another AP as part of the Co-TDMA procedure exchanges one or more PPDUs during the allocated time. Specifically, the sharing AP may assign/allocate each of the one or more APs a respective time period within the TXOP of the sharing AP. A shared AP may use its allocated time period to communicate with one or more STA. Co- TDMA is illustrated in FIG. 20 as a multi-AP channel access scheme, compared with Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA). As shown in FIG. 20, in EDCA, channel access by multiple APs (e.g., AP1 , AP2) may occur in consecutive time periods (e.g., TXOPs), where each AP has its own TXOP. During a given channel access, the channel in its entirety may be used by a single AP for the duration of the TXOP. In contrast, in Co-TDMA, access by multiple APs may take place in a same TXOP over consecutive time periods. For example, as shown in FIG. 20, a TXOP may be divided into two non-overlapping time periods, each assigned to a respective AP of the multiple APs. The multiple APs may transmit in a coordinated manner in the same TXOP consecutively. In an example, as shown in FIG. 20, a master/sharing AP (e.g., AP1 ) may use itself a first portion of a first TXOP and may share a second portion of the first TXOP with a slave/shared AP (e.g., AP2). In another example, the master/shared AP (e.g., AP1) may share a first portion of a second TXOP with a slave/shared AP (e.g., AP2) and may use itself a second portion of the second TXOP.

[0235] Triggered TXOP sharing (TXS) is a technique introduced in the IEEE 802.1 1be standard amendment. TXS allows an AP to allocate a time duration within an obtained TXOP to a STA for transmitting one or more non-trigger-based (non-TB) PPDUs. For the TXS procedure, the AP may transmit a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame with a triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield set to a non-zero value. The MU-RTS trigger frame is a trigger frame for triggering clear-to-send (CTS) frame(s) from multiple users. An MU-RTS trigger frame with the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield set to a non-zero value is called an MU-RTS TXS trigger (MRTT) frame.

[0236] In an example, when the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield is set to 1 , the STA may transmit the one or more non-TB PPDUs to the AP during the allocated time duration. In an example, when the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield is set to 2, the STA may transmit the one or more non-TB PPDUs to the AP or a peer STA during the allocated time duration. The peer STA may be a STA with a connection for peer-to-peer (P2P) communication or direct communication with the STA. In an example, the direct wireless link is established according to the tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) protocol.

[0237] FIG. 21 illustrates an example of a Multi-User Request-to-Send (MU-RTS) trigger frame which may be used in a triggered Transmit Opportunity (TXOP) sharing (TXS) procedure. As shown in FIG. 21 , example MU-RTS trigger frame 2100 may comprise a frame control field, a duration field, a receiver address (RA) field, a transmitter address (TA) field, a common info field, a user info list field, a padding field, and/or frame check sequence (FCS) field.

[0238] In an example, the common info field may be a high-efficiency (HE) variant common info field or an extremely high throughput (EHT) variant common info field. An EHT variant common info field may comprise, as shown in FIG. 21 , one or more of the following subfields: trigger type, UL length, more TF, OS required, UL BW, Gl and HE/EHT-LTF Type/Triggered TXOP sharing mode, number of HE/EHT-LTF symbols, LDPC extra symbol segment, AP Tx Power, Pre-FEC padding factor, PE disambiguity, UL spatial reuse, HE/EHT P160, special user info field flag, EHT reserved, reserved, or trigger dependent common info.

[0239] The trigger type subfield indicates that frame 2100 is an MU-RTS trigger frame.

[0240] The Gl and HE/EHT-LTF Type/Triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield may include a triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield. In an example, the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield may be set to a nonzero value (e.g., 1 or 2). When the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield is set to a non-zero value, an MU- RTS trigger frame is an MRTT frame. In an example, the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield may be set to 1. As such, the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield may indicate that a STA indicated by an AID12 subfield of a user info field (of the user info list field) may transmit one or more non-TB PPDUs to the AP during a time indicated in the allocation duration subfield of the user info field. In another example, the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield may be set to 2. As such, the triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield may indicate that a STA indicated by an AID12 subfield of a user info field (of the user info list field) may transmit one or more non-TB PPDUs to the AP or to a peer STA during the time indicated by the allocation duration subfield of the user info field. In an example, the peer STA may be a STA with a connection for P2P communication or direct communication with the STA.

[0241] The user info list field may include one or more user info fields. In an example, an EHT variant user info field may comprise, as shown in FIG. 21 , one or more of the following subfields: AID12, RU allocation, allocation duration, reserved, or PS160.

[0242] The AID12 subfield may indicate an association identifier (AID) of a STA that may use a time indicated by the allocation duration subfield.

[0243] The RU allocation subfield may indicate the location and size of the RU allocated for a STA indicated by the AID12 subfield. [0244] The allocation duration subfield may indicate a time allocated by an AP transmitting MU-RTS trigger frame 2100 (when triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield is a non-zero value). The allocated time may be a portion of a TXOP obtained by the AP. In an example embodiment, the allocation duration subfield may indicate a first time period.

[0245] FIG. 22 illustrates an example 2200 of a TXS procedure (Mode =1 ). As shown in FIG. 22, the TXS procedure may begin by an AP 2210 transmitting an MRTT frame 2220 to a STA 2211. MRTT frame 2220 may allocate a portion of a TXOP obtained by AP 2210 to STA 221 1 and may indicate a TXS mode equal to

1 . STA 221 1 receiving MRTT frame 2220 may use the allocated time to transmit one or more non-TB PPDUs to AP 2210. The one or more non-TB PPDUs may comprise a data frame, a control frame, a management frame, or an action frame.

[0246] In an example, MRTT frame 2220 may comprise a triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield that indicates the TXS mode and/or subfield that indicates a first time period corresponding to the allocated time. In an example, the first time period may be set to a value of X microseconds (us).

[0247] STA 221 1 may respond to MRTT frame 2220 by transmitting a CTS frame 2221 to AP 2210. Subsequently, STA 2211 may transmit non-TB PPDUs 2222, 2224 comprising one or more data frame to AP 2210 during the first time period indicated in MRTT frame 2220. In an example, AP 2210 may transmit one or more Block Ack (BA) frames 2223, 2225 in response to the one or more data frames contained in non-TB PPDUs 2222, 2224 received from STA 2211 .

[0248] FIG. 23 illustrates an example 2300 of a TXS procedure (Mode =2). As shown in FIG. 23, the TXS procedure may begin by an AP 2310 transmitting an MRTT frame 2320 to a STA 2311. MRTT frame 2320 may allocate a portion of a TXOP obtained by AP 2310 to STA 231 1 and may indicate a TXS mode equal to

2. STA 231 1 receiving MRTT frame 2320 may use the allocated time to transmit one or more non-TB PPDUs to STA 2312. The one or more non-TB PPDUs may comprise a data frame, a control frame, a management frame, or an action frame.

[0249] In an example, MRTT frame 2320 may comprise a triggered TXOP sharing mode subfield that indicates the TXS mode and/or subfield that indicates a first time period corresponding to the allocated time. In an example, the first time period may be set to a value of Y microseconds (us).

[0250] STA 231 1 may respond to MRTT frame 2320 by transmitting a CTS frame 2321 to AP 2310. Subsequently, STA 2311 may transmit non-TB PPDUs 2322, 2324 comprising one or more data frame to STA 2312 during the first time period indicated in MRTT frame 2320. In an example, STA 2312 may transmit one or more BA frames 2323, 2325 in response to the one or more data frames contained in non-TB PPDUs 2322, 2324 received from STA 2311 .

[0251] In Co-TDMA, one approach for TXOP sharing may be achieved via the TXS procedure described above. The TXS procedure may be used to allow a sharing AP, which obtains a TXOP and is the TXOP owner, to allocate a time duration within its obtained TXOP to a shared AP for downlink and/or uplink transmission between the shared AP and its associated STAs.

[0252] FIG. 24 illustrates an example 2400 of a Co-TDMA procedure As shown in FIG. 24, example 2400 may include APs 2402, 2404, and 2406. Each of APs 2402, 2404, and 2406 may serve one or more associated STAs (not shown in FIG. 24). AP 2402, AP 2404, and AP 2406 may be members of a multi-AP group. AP 2402 may be a sharing/master AP of the multi-AP group. In an example, AP 2402 may be a Co- TDMA sharing AP, where a Co-TDMA sharing AP is a sharing AP that intends to share a time portion of its obtained TXOP with a set of APs as part of a Co-TDMA operation. AP 2404 and AP 2406 may be shared/slave APs of the multi-AP group. In an example, AP 2404 and AP 2406 may be candidates for Co- TDMA coordinated APs, where a Co-TDMA coordinated AP is an AP with which the Co-TDMA sharing AP shares a time portion of its obtained TXOP. In example 2400, it is assumed that APs 2402, 2404, and 2406 are within communication range of each other.

[0253] As explained in example 2400, the Co-TDMA procedure enables an AP to share a time portion of an obtained TXOP with another AP, that belongs to a set of APs, to transmit one or more PPDUs. In example 2400, the Co-TDMA procedure includes a polling phase, a TXOP allocation phase, and a TXOP return phase as will be further detailed.

[0254] As shown in FIG. 24, the procedure may begin with AP 2402 transmitting a frame 2412 after obtaining a TXOP 2410. In an example, frame 2412 may be an initial control frame (ICF) that is sent to poll one or more non-AP STAs or APs to determine their availability and/or willingness to participate during the TXOP. In one example, frame 2412 may be a Co-TDMA trigger based (TB) ICF. In an example, a Co-TDMA TB ICF is an ICF that polls AP(s) as part of the Co-TDMA procedure and solicits a response from a polled AP in a TB PPDU. In another example, frame 2412 may be a Co-TDMA non-trigger based (NTB) ICF. The Co-TDMA NTB ICF may be a BSRP NTB trigger frame (e.g., with a Gl and HE/UHR-LTF Type field set to 3). In an example, a Co-TDMA NTB ICF is an ICF that, as part of the Co-TDMA procedure, solicits a response from a polled AP in a non-HT PPDU or a non-HT duplicate PPDU. By transmitting frame 2412, AP 2402 may solicit, from another AP, a poll response. In an example the poll response may be sent by the other AP in a TB PPDU only if the other AP has indicated support for responding in a TB PPDU. In example 2400, AP 2402 solicits a poll response from AP 2404 and AP 2406.

[0255] AP 2402, being a Co-TDMA sharing AP, may announce its intention of allocating/sharing a portion (e.g , a time portion) of the obtained TXOP 2410 with another AP in an ICF (e.g., frame 2412) sent at the beginning of the TXOP 2410. The ICF may poll one or more APs (e.g., AP 2404 and AP 2406) to solicit a response to determine the intent of the polled AP(s) of receiving a time allocation from AP 2402 within the TXOP 2410. For example, the ICF may poll one or more APs that have established multi-access point coordination (MAPC) agreements for Co-TDMA with the Co-TDMA sharing AP. The duration field of the ICF may be set to one SIFS plus the time required to transmit the solicited response from the polled AP(s). [0256] Frame 2412 that polls AP 2404 and AP 2406 to determine their intent of receiving a time allocation from AP 2402 within the TXOP 2410 may be a trigger frame. For example, frame 2412 may be a buffer status report poll (BSRP) trigger frame. AP 2402 may identify each AP to be polled by setting, in the trigger frame, the AID12 subfield of the polled AP's user info field to the polled AP's AP ID. In an example, AP 2402 may transmit an IGF (e.g., frame 2412) as part of the Co-TDMA procedure.

[0257] In a response to a received ICF (e.g., frame 2412), a polled AP may provide its intention to receive or not to receive time allocation from the Co-TDMA sharing AP during the current TXOP. In an example, if a Co-TDMA sharing AP does not receive a response from the polled AP, the Co-TDMA sharing AP may consider that the polled AP does not intend to receive time allocation from the Co-TDMA sharing AP during the current TXOP. In example 2400, in response to frame 2412, AP 2404 may transmit to AP 2402 a frame 2414 providing its intention to receive time allocation from AP 2402 during TXOP 2410. Similarly, AP 2406 may transmit to AP 2402 a frame 2416 providing its intention to receive time allocation from AP 2402 during TXOP 2410. In an example, frame 2414 and frame 2416 may be Multi-STA BlockAck frames.

[0258] After receiving frame 2414 and frame 2416, AP 2402 may determine one or more of AP 2404 and AP 2406 to be allocated one or more portions of TXOP 2410 based on information about the buffered traffic of AP 2404 and AP 2406 (including priorities of the buffered traffic of AP 2404 and AP 2406). In an example, AP 2402 may have obtained information about the buffered traffic of AP 2404 and AP 2406 by polling AP 2404 and AP 2406 about the buffered traffic of AP 2404 and AP 2406 in frame 2412 and receiving responses in frames 2414 and 2416 respectively, in addition to receiving responses from AP 2404 and AP 2406 about their intents of receiving a time allocation from AP 2402 within the TXOP 2410 in frames 2414 and 2416 respectively. In another example, AP 2402 may have obtained information about the buffered traffic of AP 2404 and AP 2406 in one or more buffer status reports (BSRs) transmitted by AP 2404 and AP 2406 to AP 2402 before AP 2402 transmitted frame 2412 (not shown in FIG. 24). In an example, before allocating a time portion of TXOP 2410 to AP 2404 or AP 2406, AP 2402 may communicate with one or more of its associated STAs during a time period 2418 of TXOP 2410. In an example, during time period 2418, AP 2402 may transmit to one or more of its associated STAs downlink frames, and/or may trigger one or more of its associated STAs to transmit uplink frames to AP 2402.

[0259] In an example, after time period 2418, AP 2402 may allocate a time portion within TXOP 2410 to another AP that is not colocated with AP 2402. To share a time portion of TXOP 2410 obtained by AP 2402, AP 2402 may transmit an MRTT frame to the other AP that is not colocated with AP 2402. In example 2400, AP 2402 may transmit a frame 2420. In an example, frame 2420 may comprise an MRTT frame. In an example, frame 2420 may comprise/indicate an allocation for AP 2404. AP 2402 may identify AP 2404 by setting the AID12 subfield of the user info field of the MRTT frame (e.g., frame 2420) to the AP ID of AP 2404. The allocation may indicate a first duration (denoted T1 in FIG. 24) of the time allocation. In an example, the first duration may be indicated in an allocation duration subfield of a user info list field of the MRTT frame. In an example, the duration field of the MRTT frame may be set to one SIFS plus a time required to transmit a solicited response frame in response to frame 2420. In an example, the time allocation to the Co-TDMA coordinated AP may start at the end of the PPDU that contains the MRTT frame.

[0260] On receiving frame 2420 from AP 2402 and identifying AP 2404 from the user info field of the MRTT frame, AP 2404 may transmit and/or receive one or more PPDUs within the time allocation signaled in the MRTT frame. In response to frame 2420, AP 2404 may transmit a frame 2422. In an example, frame 2422 may be a CTS frame. After transmitting frame 2422, AP 2404 may communicate with its associated STA(s) during a time period 2424 of the first duration of the time allocation. In an example, during time period 2424, AP 2404 may transmit downlink frames to one or more of its associated STAs and/or may trigger one or more of its associated STAs to transmit uplink frames to AP 2404.

[0261] In an example, AP 2404 may finish communicating with its one or more associated STAs before an end of the first duration (T1 ) of the TXOP allocated to AP 2404. In an example, AP 2404 may be configured to return the TXOP to AP 2402, if a remaining time of the first duration of the TXOP is greater than a threshold. In an example, AP 2402 may solicit a TXOP return from AP 2404 by setting a TXOP return Solicited field of the Co-TDMA TB ICF or the Co-TDMA NTB ICF to 1 . In example 2400, AP 2404 may transmit a frame 2426 to AP 2402 based on finishing communicating with its one or more associated STAs before the end of the first duration. In an example, frame 2426 may be a TXOP return frame. For example, frame 2426 may be a MAPC TXOP return frame. In an example, a MPAC TXOP return frame is transmitted by a Co-TDMA coordinated AP to return the TXOP back to the Co-TDMA sharing AP. As one example, the MAPC TXOP return frame includes an action field in the frame body, where the action field may include a category field (e.g., one octet) and a public action field (e.g., one octet). In an example, AP 2402 responds with an Ack frame (not shown in FIG. 24) when AP 2402 receives the TXOP return frame from AP 2404. In another example (not shown in FIG. 24), AP 2404 may communicate until the end of first duration and may not return the TXOP to AP 2402.

[0262] In an example, AP 2402 may be configured to allocate a portion of TXOP 2410 to only one AP during a Co-TDMA procedure. On receiving frame 2420, from AP 2402, addressed to AP 2404, AP 2406 may identify that AP 2406 is not allocated a portion of TXOP 2410, despite AP 2406 transmitted frame 2416 providing its intention to receive time allocation from AP 2402 during TXOP 2410. As such, AP 2406 may determine that AP 2406 will not be allocated a portion of TXOP 2410 and may perform one or more operations in response, including but not limited to switching to a non-primary channel access (NPCA) primary channel, switching to a power save mode, and/or managing internal processing until the end of the first duration or the end of TXOP 2410.

Claims

1. A method comprising: receiving, by an access point (AP) from a first station (STA), an initial control frame comprising: a first receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of the AP; a first indication comprising a request that the AP solicit a first initial control response frame

(ICR) from a second STA; and an identifier of the second STA; based on the first indication, transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, a second ICR comprising: a second receiver address field set to a second MAC address of the first STA; a second indication comprising a request that the second STA transmit the first ICR; and the identifier of the second STA; and receiving, by the AP from the second STA, the first ICR in response to the second ICR.

2. A method comprising: receiving, by an access point (AP) from a first station (STA), a first frame comprising: a first indication comprising a request that the AP solicit a second frame from a second STA; and an identifier of the second STA; based on the first indication, transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, a third frame comprising the identifier of the second STA; and receiving, by the AP from the second STA, the second frame.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the AP comprises a capability to forward, to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first STA is a source STA of the data frame.

5. The method of any of claims 3-4, wherein the second STA is a destination STA of the data frame.

6. The method of any of claims 2-5, wherein the first frame comprises at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a data forwarding (DF)-ICF frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a blockack request (BAR) frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the first frame is used for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the third frame comprises at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a data forwarding (DF)-ICF frame, an initial control response frame (ICR), a DF-ICR frame, a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a modified CTS frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the third frame is used for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the second frame comprises at least one of: an initial control response frame (ICR), a DF-ICR frame, a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a modified CTS frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

11 . The method of claim 2, wherein the second frame is used for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the third frame comprises a second indication comprising a request that the second STA transmit the second frame to the AP.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the third frame comprises a second indication indicating that the AP solicits the second STA to transmit the second frame.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the first frame comprises a first receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of the AP.

15. The method of claim 2, wherein the third frame comprises a second receiver address field set to a second medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA.

16. The method of claim 2, wherein the third frame comprises a second receiver address field set to a broadcast group MAC address or a multicast group MAC address.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein the third frame comprises an identifier of the first STA.

18. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifier of the second STA comprises an association identifier (AID) of the second STA.

19. The method of claim 2, wherein the second STA parses a receiver address of the third frame.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the receiver address comprises a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

21 . The method of claim 19, wherein the receiver address comprises a medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the receiver address does not match the MAC address of the second STA.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the second STA parses a remaining part of the third frame after the receiver address of the third frame.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the remaining part comprises one or more fields after a frame control (FC) field, a duration field, and the second receiver address field in the third frame.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the identifier of the second STA is comprised in the remaining parts.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the second STA transmits to the AP the second frame SIPS after the third frame when the remaining part comprises the identifier of the second STA.

27. The method of claim 2, further comprising: receiving, by AP from the first STA, a fourth frame a specific period after transmitting the third frame; and transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, a fifth frame in response to the fourth frame SIFS after the fourth frame.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the fourth frame comprises at least one of: a data frame, a management frame, or an action frame.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the fifth frame comprises at least one of: an acknowledgement (ACK) frame, or a block ACK frame.

30. The method of claim 2, further comprising: before receiving the first frame, receiving, by AP from the second STA, a seventh frame indicating whether the second STA is able to detect one or more subfields of a control frame not addressed to the second STA; and after the seventh frame, transmitting, by the AP to the second STA, an eighth frame indicating that the AP is able to transmit the third frame.

31. The method of any of claims 2-30, further comprising: in response to the second frame, transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, a confirmation frame; receiving, by the AP from the first STA, the fourth frame; and transmitting, by the AP to the first STA, the fifth frame.

32. The method of any of claims 2-31, further comprising: transmitting, by the AP, the third frame requesting the first STA to transmit a ninth frame; a short interframe space (SIPS) after the third frame is transmitted by the AP, receiving, by the AP: the ninth frame from the first STA; and the second frame from the second STA; and receiving, by the AP from the first STA, the fourth frame.

33. A method comprising: transmitting, by a first station (STA) to an access point (AP), an initial control frame comprising: a first receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of the AP; a first indication requesting that the AP solicit a first initial control response frame (ICR) from a second STA; and an identifier of the second STA; based on the first indication, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a second ICR comprising: a second receiver address field set to a second MAC address of the first STA; a second indication requesting that the second STA transmit the first ICR; and the identifier of the second STA; and transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a data frame after a specific time period; and receiving, by the first STA from the AP, an (block) acknowledgement frame in response to the data frame.

34. A method comprising: transmitting, by a first station (STA) to an access point (AP), a first frame comprising: a first indication requesting that the AP solicit a second frame from a second STA; and an identifier of the second STA; based on the first indication, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a third frame comprising the identifier of the second STA; transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a fourth frame after a specific time period; and receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a fifth frame in response to the fourth frame.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein the AP comprises an AP being able to forward, to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the first STA comprises a source STA of the data frame.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the second STA comprises a destination STA of the data frame.

38. The method of claim 34, wherein the first frame comprises at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

39. The method of claim 34, wherein the first frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame.

40. The method of claim 34, wherein the third frame comprises at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

41 . The method of claim 34, wherein the third frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame.

42. The method of claim 34, wherein the second frame comprises at least one of: an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

43. The method of claim 34, wherein the second frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the second STA, a data frame received from the first STA after receiving the third frame.

44. The method of claim 34, wherein the first indication requests the AP to solicit the second frame for the second STA.

45. The method of claim 34, wherein the third frame comprises a second indication indicating that the third frame solicits the second frame from the second STA.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the second indication indicates that the AP solicits the second STA to transmit the second frame.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the second indication requests the AP to solicit the second STA.

48. The method of claim 34, wherein the first frame comprises a first receiver address field set to a first medium access control (MAC) address of the AP.

49. The method of claim 34, wherein the third frame comprises a second receiver address field set to a second medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA.

50. The method of claim 34, wherein the third frame comprises a first receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

51 . The method of claim 34, wherein the third frame comprises an identifier of the first STA.

52. The method of claim 34, wherein the identifier of the second STA comprises an association identifier (AID) of the second STA.

53. The method of claim 34, wherein the second STA parses a receiver address of the third frame.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the receiver address is set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the receiver address is set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the receiver address does not match the MAC address of the second STA.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the second STA parses a remaining part of the third frame after the receiver address of the third frame.

58. The method of claim 57, wherein the remaining part comprises one or more fields after a frame control (FC) field, a duration field, and a receiver address field in the third frame.

59. The method of claim 57, wherein the identifier of the second STA is comprised in the remaining parts.

60. The method of claim 57, wherein the second STA transmits to the AP a second frame short interframe space (SIFS) after the third frame when the remaining part comprises the identifier of the second STA.

61 . The method of claim 34, wherein the fourth frame comprises at least one of: a data frame, a management frame, or an action frame.

62. The method of claim 34, wherein the fifth frame comprises at least one of an acknowledgement (ACK) frame or a block ACK frame.

63. The method of any of claims 34-62, further comprising: in response to the second frame, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a confirmation frame; transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, the fourth frame; and receiving, by the first STA from the AP, the fifth frame.

64. The method of claim 34, further comprising: receiving, by the first STA from the AP, the third frame requesting the first STA to transmit a sixth frame; transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a sixth frame short interframe space (SIFS) after the third frame; and transmitting, by the AP from the first STA, the fourth frame

65. A method comprising: receiving, by a first station (STA) from an access point (AP), a first initial control response frame (ICR) comprising: a receiver address field set to a MAC address of a second STA; an indication requesting that the first STA transmit a second ICR; and an identifier of the first STA; transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, the second ICR in response to the first ICR short interframe space (SIPS) after the first ICR; receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a data frame; and transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, an acknowledgement frame.

66. A method comprising: receiving, by a first station (STA) from an access point (AP), a first frame comprising an identifier of the first STA; transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a second frame in response to the first frame; receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a third frame; and transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a fourth frame.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the third frame comprises a data frame, and wherein the AP is an

AP with a capability to forward, to the first STA, the data frame received from a second STA.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the first STA comprises a destination STA of the data frame.

69. The method of claim 67, wherein the first frame comprises at least one of: an initial control frame (ICF), a multi-user request-to-send (MU-RTS) trigger frame, a MU-RTS transmission status (TXS) trigger frame, a buffer status report poll (BSRP) Trigger frame, a request-to-send (RTS) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

70. The method of claim 67, wherein the first frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the first STA.

71 . The method of claim 64, wherein the second frame comprises at least one of: an initial control response frame (ICR), a clear-to-send (CTS) frame, a block acknowledgement (BA) frame, a control frame, a management frame, a quality of service (QoS) data frame, a QoS null frame, or an action frame.

72. The method of claim 67, wherein the second frame is for forwarding, by the AP to the first STA, the data frame received from the third STA.

73. The method of claim 66, wherein the first frame comprises an indication indicating that the first frame solicits the second frame from the first STA.

74. The method of claim 73, wherein the indication indicates that the AP solicits the first STA to transmit the second frame.

75. The method of claim 73, wherein the indication requests the AP to solicit the first STA.

76. The method of any of claims 66-75, wherein the first frame comprises a receiver address field set to a medium access control (MAC) address of the third STA.

77. The method of any of claims 64-75, wherein the first frame comprises a receiver address field set to a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

78. The method of claim 77, wherein the first frame comprises an identifier of the third STA.

79. The method of claim 66, wherein the identifier of the first STA comprises an association identifier

(AID) of the first STA.

80. The method of claim 66, wherein the first STA parses a receiver address of the first frame.

81 . The method of claim 80, wherein the receiver address comprises a broadcast group medium access control (MAC) address or a multicast group MAC address.

82. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiver address comprises a medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA.

83. The method of claim 80, wherein the receiver address does not match a medium access control (MAC) address of the first STA

84. The method of claim 83, wherein the first STA parses a remaining part of the first frame after the receiver address of the first frame.

85. The method of claim 84, wherein the remaining part comprises one or more fields after, in the first frame: a frame control (FC) field, a duration field, and a receiver address field.

86. The method of claim 85, wherein the identifier of the first STA is comprised in the remaining parts.

87. The method of claim 85, wherein the first STA transmits to the AP the second frame short interframe space (SIPS) after the first frame when the remaining part comprises the identifier of the third STA.

88. The method of claim 66, wherein the third frame comprises at least one of: a data frame, a management frame, or an action frame.

89. The method of claim 66, wherein the fourth frame comprises at least one of an acknowledgement (ACK) frame or a block ACK frame.

90. The method of claim 66, further comprising: receiving, by the first STA from the AP, an initial control frame; transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, an initial control response frame; receiving, by the first STA from the AP, the third frame; and transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, the fourth frame in response to the third frame.

91 . The method of claim 66, further comprising: transmitting, by the first STA to the AP, a fifth frame indicating whether the first STA is able to detect one or more subfields of a control frame not addressed to the first STA; and after the fifth frame, receiving, by the first STA from the AP, a sixth frame indicating that the AP is able to transmit the first frame.

92. A device comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to perform a method according to any of claims 1 -91 .

93. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method according to any of claims 1-91 .