CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/385,682 filed September 9, 2016, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in full.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for wireless communications and, more particularly, to acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels. BACKGROUND

[0003] Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and are increasingly requesting access to wireless channels. The growing density of wireless deployments requires increased network and spectrum availability. Wireless devices may communicate with each other using directional transmission techniques, including but not limited to beamforming techniques. Wireless devices may communicate over a next generation 60 GHz (NG60) network, an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) network, and/or any other network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0004] FIG. 1 depicts a network diagram illustrating an example network environment for acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0005] FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative diagram associated with an acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0006] FIG. 3 depicts illustrative transmission mode tables associated with an acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0007] FIG. 4A illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process for an illustrative acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0008] FIG. 4B illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process for an illustrative acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0009] FIG. 5 illustrates a functional diagram of an example communication station that may be suitable for use as a user device, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0010] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example machine upon which any of one or more techniques (e.g., methods) may be performed, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[001 1] Example embodiments described herein provide certain systems, methods, and devices for acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels. The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

[0012] Devices may communicate over a next generation 60 GHz (NG60) network, an enhanced directional multi-gigabit (EDMG) network, and/or any other network. Devices operating in an EDMG network may be referred to herein as EDMG devices. This may include user devices, and/or access points (APs) or other devices capable of communicating in accordance with a communication standard.

[0013] Multiple channel access is a technique widely used to increase link bitrate and capacity in different 802.1 1 standards, for example IEEE 802.1 1η and IEEE 802.1 l ac. An important part of this technique is to provide all levels of clear channel assessment (CCA), physical and virtual, to all stations that are active in the channels, including stations that belong to different basic service sets (BSSs) and legacy stations that are not aware of multiple channel access. Means are included in the multiple channel access protocol for this purpose. One example is the transmission of control response frames, like acknowledgment (ACK) and block ACK (BA), in a so-called duplicate mode (D) over all channels intended for multiple channel data transaction. Another example is the transmission of control frames in a so-called wide mode (W) over one or more bonded channels. Channel bonding is when two or more channels within a given frequency band are combined to increase throughput between two or more wireless devices. The two or more channels may be adjacent or may be separated by another channel. Conversely, a D transmission is a same signal simultaneously transmitted on multiple channels. A D transmission may increase the peak to average power ratio (PAPR). For example, it may increase the PAPR by approximately 101og ₁₀ (n), in dB, where n is the number of channels used for the D transmission.

[0014] There is an important issue, however, with the D transmission, in comparison with a contiguously bonded W transmission: (1) in D, only half the power is useful; (2) in W, the receiver integrates twice as much noise; (3) the situations in (1) and (2) may more or less cancel each other; and (4) in D, a larger transmit power backoff from the PA (power amplifier) saturation power may be needed. Summing all together, D may have a worse link budget than W. It should be understood that a link budget is an accounting of all of the gains and losses from the transmitting device, through the medium (free space, cable, waveguide, fiber, etc.) to the receiving device in a communication system.

[0015] An immediate result of the aforementioned issue is that the propagation range of the data frame delivered in a wide channel may be longer than the propagation range of a response frame sent in a duplicate mode. If that happens, no acknowledgement is received even if a data frame transmission succeeds, specifically when the same or similar modulation and coding scheme (MCS) is used to transmit the data and response frames.

[0016] Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems, methods, and devices for acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels.

[0017] A directional multi -gigabyte (DMG) communication may involve one or more directional links to communicate at a rate of multiple gigabits per second, for example, at least 1 gigabit per second, 4 gigabits per second, or any other rate. An amendment to a DMG operation in a 60 GHz band, e.g., according to an IEEE 802. Had standard, may be defined, for example, by an IEEE 802.1 lay project.

[0018] Distributed coordination function (DCF) is a media access control (MAC) technique of an IEEE 802.11 based WLAN standard. According to DCF, before transmitting a data frame, a station (STA) must sense the channel to determine whether any other station is transmitting. If the medium is found to be idle for an interval longer than the Distributed InterFrame Space (DIFS), the STA continues with its transmission. If the medium is busy, the transmission may be deferred until the end of the ongoing transmission. A random interval, referred to as the backoff time, is then selected, which is used to initialize the backoff timer. The backoff timer is decreased for as long as the channel is sensed as idle, stopped when a transmission is detected on the channel, and reactivated when the channel is sensed as idle again for more than a DIFS. The STA is enabled to transmit its frame when its backoff timer reaches zero.

[0019] In some demonstrative embodiments, one or more devices may be configured to communicate over a next generation 60 GHz (NG60) network, an enhanced DMG (EDMG) network, and/or any other network. For example, the one or more devices may be configured to communicate over the NG60 or EDMG networks.

[0020] In one embodiment, an acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system may use a duplicate mode to transmit a response frame when the gain of the MCS in which the response frame is transmitted compensates for the lower link budget of the duplicate mode. Otherwise, transmit the response frame using the same channel bandwidth of the data frame that was received. This new requirement addresses all wide channel bandwidths and frame transmission MCSs.

[0021] In one embodiment, an acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system may facilitate a receiving device accessing a table of mandatory MCS indices that are correlated with a transmission mode (e.g., W or D). The correlation may be predetermined such that for various MCS indices associated with a received frame there may be one or more corresponding MCS indices. Each of these corresponding MCS indices may be associated with a transmission mode (e.g., W or D). For example, when a receiving device receives a frame having a certain MCS index, the receiving device may access the table of mandatory MCS indices and determine which MCS index to use when responding to the received frame based on the received frame's MCS index and based on link budget consideration. Additionally, for that selected MCS index, the table may correlate a specific transmission mode (e.g., W or D).

[0022] In one embodiment, in order to decide whether to use D or W transmission mode, a criterion based on the transmit (TX) MCS and receive (RX) MCS of a transceiver of a device, and channel bandwidth is employed when the transceiver transmits or receives data. For example, a device may transmit a data frame using a data frame MCS and another device responds with an ACK/BA frame using an ACK/BA MCS. [0023] In one embodiment, the criterion may be based on the difference between the receiver sensitivity associated with the data frame MCS index and the receiver sensitivity associated with the ACK/BA MCS index of a response frame.

[0024] In one embodiment, the criterion may be based on the difference in the required backoff between W and D with the specified BW.

[0025] In one embodiment, the criterion may be based on the difference between the TX MCS index and the RX MCS index, and the number of channels used by the transmitting device to send the frame. More specifically a criterion may be based on (DATA MCS index) - (ACK/BA_MCS_index) - (number of channels).

[0026] In one embodiment, this table may be modified for various transmission modes associated with the MCS indices of the data frame received by the receiving device or the MCS indices selected by the receiving device when sending a control frame.

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

[0028] FIG. 1 is a network diagram illustrating an example network environment for acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. Wireless network 100 may include one or more user device(s) 120 and one or more access point(s) (APs) 102, which may communicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 communication standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 ad and/or IEEE 802.11 ay specifications. The user device(s) 120 may be referred to as stations (STAs). The user device(s) 120 may be mobile devices that are non-stationary and do not have fixed locations. Although the AP 102 is shown to be communicating on multiple antennas with the user devices 120, it should be understood that this is only for illustrative purposes and that any user device 120 may also communicate using multiple antennas with other user devices 120 and/or the AP 102.

[0029] In some embodiments, the user device(s) 120 and the AP 102 may include one or more computer systems similar to that of the functional diagram of FIG. 5 and/or the example machine/system of FIG. 6.

[0030] One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 and/or AP 102 may be operable by one or more user(s) 110. The user device(s) 120 (e.g., 124, 126, or 128) and/or AP 102 may include any suitable processor-driven device including, but not limited to, a mobile device or a non-mobile, e.g., a static, device. For example, user device(s) 120 and/or AP 102 may include, a user equipment (UE), a station (STA), an access point (AP), a personal computer (PC), a wearable wireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, an ultrabooktm computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, an internet of things (IoT) device, a sensor device, a PDA device, a handheld PDA device, an on-board device, an off-board device, a hybrid device (e.g., combining cellular phone functionalities with PDA device functionalities), a consumer device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a PCS device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable GPS device, a DVB device, a relatively small computing device, a non-desktop computer, a "carry small live large" (CSLL) device, an ultra mobile device (UMD), an ultra mobile PC (UMPC), a mobile internet device (MID), an "origami" device or computing device, a device that supports dynamically composable computing (DCC), a context-aware device, a video device, an audio device, an A/V device, a set-top-box (STB), a blu-ray disc (BD) player, a BD recorder, a digital video disc (DVD) player, a high definition (HD) DVD player, a DVD recorder, a HD DVD recorder, a personal video recorder (PVR), a broadcast HD receiver, a video source, an audio source, a video sink, an audio sink, a stereo tuner, a broadcast radio receiver, a flat panel display, a personal media player (PMP), a digital video camera (DVC), a digital audio player, a speaker, an audio receiver, an audio amplifier, a gaming device, a data source, a data sink, a digital still camera (DSC), a media player, a smartphone, a television, a music player, or the like. It is understood that the above is a list of devices. However, other devices, including smart devices, Internet of Things (IoT), such as lamps, climate control, car components, household components, appliances, etc. may also be included in this list.

[0031] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to communicate with each other via one or more communications networks 130 and/or 135 wirelessly or wired. Any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include, but not limited to, any one of a combination of different types of suitable communications networks such as, for example, broadcasting networks, cable networks, public networks (e.g., the Internet), private networks, wireless networks, cellular networks, or any other suitable private and/or public networks. Further, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may have any suitable communication range associated therewith and may include, for example, global networks (e.g., the Internet), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), or personal area networks (PANs). In addition, any of the communications networks 130 and/or 135 may include any type of medium over which network traffic may be carried including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, optical fiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrial transceivers, radio frequency communication mediums, white space communication mediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums, satellite communication mediums, or any combination thereof.

[0032] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may include one or more communications antennas. The one or more communications antennas may be any suitable type of antennas corresponding to the communications protocols used by the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126 and 128), and AP 102. Some non-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas include Wi-Fi antennas, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1 family of standards compatible antennas, directional antennas, non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, or the like. The one or more communications antennas may be communicatively coupled to a radio component to transmit and/or receive signals, such as communications signals to and/or from the user devices 120 and/or AP 102.

[0033] Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may include multiple antennas that may include one or more directional antennas. The one or more directional antennas may be steered to a plurality of beam directions. For example, at least one antenna of a user device 120 (or an AP 102) may be steered to a plurality of beam directions. For example, a user device 120 (or an AP 102) may transmit a directional transmission to another user device 120 (or another AP 102).

[0034] Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform directional transmission and/or directional reception in conjunction with wirelessly communicating in a wireless network. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform such directional transmission and/or reception using a set of multiple antenna arrays (e.g., DMG antenna arrays or the like). Each of the multiple antenna arrays may be used for transmission and/or reception in a particular respective direction or range of directions. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform any given directional transmission towards one or more defined transmit sectors. Any of the user device(s) 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may be configured to perform any given directional reception from one or more defined receive sectors.

[0035] MIMO beamforrning in a wireless network may be accomplished using RF beamforrning and/or digital beamforrning. In some embodiments, in performing a given MIMO transmission, user devices 120 and/or AP 102 may be configured to use all or a subset of its one or more communications antennas to perform MIMO beamforrning.

[0036] Any of the user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 102 may include any suitable radio and/or transceiver for transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals in the bandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communications protocols utilized by any of the user device(s) 120 and AP 102 to communicate with each other. The radio components may include hardware and/or software to modulate and/or demodulate communications signals according to pre-established transmission protocols. The radio components may further have hardware and/or software instructions to communicate via one or more Wi-Fi and/or Wi-Fi direct protocols, as standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1 standards. In certain example embodiments, the radio component, in cooperation with the communications antennas, may be configured to communicate via 2.4 GHz channels (e.g., 802.11b, 802. l lg, 802.11η, 802.1 l ax), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.1 1η, 802.1 lac, 802.1 lax), or 60 GHZ channels (e.g., 802.11 ad, 802.1 lay). In some embodiments, non- Wi-Fi protocols may be used for communications between devices, such as Bluetooth, dedicated short-range communication (DSRC), Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) (e.g. IEEE 802.1 1af, IEEE 802.22), white band frequency (e.g., white spaces), or other packetized radio communications. The radio component may include any known receiver and baseband suitable for communicating via the communications protocols. The radio component may further include a low noise amplifier (LNA), additional signal amplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, one or more buffers, and digital baseband.

[0037] Some demonstrative embodiments may be used in conjunction with a wireless communication network communicating over a frequency band of 60 GHz. However, other embodiments may be implemented utilizing any other suitable wireless communication frequency bands, for example, an extremely high frequency (EHF) band (the millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band), a frequency band within the frequency band of between 20 GHz and 300 GHz, a WLAN frequency band, a WPAN frequency band, a frequency band according to the WGA specification, and the like.

[0038] The phrases, "directional multi -gigabit (DMG)" and "directional band (DBand)," as used herein, may relate to a frequency band wherein the channel starting frequency is above 45 GHz. In one example, DMG communications may involve one or more directional links to communicate at a rate of multiple gigabits per second, for example, at least 1 gigabit per second, 4 gigabits per second, or any other rate.

[0039] In some demonstrative embodiments, the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more specifications, including one or more IEEE 802.11 specifications, (e.g., an IEEE 802.11 ad specification, an IEEE 802. Hay specification, and/or any other specification and/or protocol). For example, an amendment to a DMG operation in the 60 GHz band, according to an IEEE 802. Had standard, may be defined, for example, by an IEEE 802.11 ay project.

[0040] It is understood that a basic service set (BSS) provides the basic building block of an 802.1 1 wireless LAN. For example, in an infrastructure mode, a single access point (AP) together with all associated stations (STAs) is called a BSS.

[0041] Various modulation schemes and coding rates may be defined by a wireless standard, which may be represented by a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index value. MCS index values may be used to determine the likely data rate of a Wi-Fi connection during a wireless communication between two devices (e.g., between the AP 102 and a user device 120). The MCS index essentially determines the modulation type (e.g., BPSK, QPSK, 16- QAM, 64-QAM), the coding rate (e.g., 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6), also in WiGig the used coding rates are 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 13/16, 7/8„ and the repetition factor that is possible when connecting to an access point (e.g., AP 102), where BPSK stands for binary phase shift keying, QPSK stands for quadrature phase shift keying, and QAM stands for quadrature amplitude modulation). It is understood that modulation is the method by which data is communicated through the air. The more complex the modulation, the higher the data rate. Modulations that are more complex may require better conditions such as less interference and a good line of sight. The coding rate may be an indication of how much of a data stream is actually being used to transmit usable data. This may be expressed as a fraction with the most efficient rate being 5/6 or 83.3% of the data stream being used. The repetition factor is the number of times the data is repeated to improve reliability. The actual MCS may depend on variables such as hardware design and local interferences that may affect the rate and the network performance during the communication. For example, if a wireless or Wi-Fi connection cannot be maintained when there are too many errors being experienced during the communication between two devices, the MCS index may be lowered by selecting a different modulation type and/or coding rate and/or repetition factor in order to reduce the error rate. Although the MCS may indicate the data rate of the wireless or Wi-Fi connection, it may not determine the actual throughput of the network.

[0042] IEEE 802.1 lad and/or IEEE 802.1 l ay require that an ACK or a BA be sent using mandatory MCS indices. Mandatory MCS indices are MCS indices that various device vendors must support in order to be compliant with the IEEE 802.11 standards.

[0043] For example, a transmitting device may send a frame to a receiving device. After successfully receiving the frame, the receiving device may send an ACK or BA frame to the transmitting device. It should be understood that the BA is an acknowledgment used to acknowledge that multiple media access control protocol data units (MPDUs) together are using a single BA frame instead of transmitting an individual ACK for every MPDU.

[0044] In IEEE 802.11 ad, a transmitting device may only transmit on a single channel. However, in IEEE 802.1 1 ay channel bonding, channel aggregation may be used such that a transmitting device may transmit on a wider bandwidth in order to get a larger throughput. For example, instead of sending 5 gigabits per second, a transmitting device may send 10 gigabits per second. The frame sent from the transmitting device to the receiving device may be associated with an MCS index. The receiving device would have to determine which MCS index to use when sending the ACK or BA frames. These frames have to be sent using mandatory MCS indices (e.g., values 1 , 2, 3, and 4). For example, if the transmitting device sends a frame using a first MCS index, the transmitting device sends the ACK or BA frames using the same first MCS index or lower.

[0045] In one embodiment, a receiving device may not decide on its own, independently, which possible MCS indices to use for ACK or BA frames. Instead, the receiving device may access predetermined entries to determine which of the possible options to use for an MCS index when responding with an ACK or BA frame.

[0046] In one embodiment, and with reference to FIG. 1 , when an AP (e.g., AP 102) establishes communication with one or more user devices 120 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, and/or 128), the AP 102 may communicate in a downlink direction, and the user devices 120 may communicate with the AP 102 in an uplink direction by sending frames (e.g., frame 140) in either direction. A device (e.g., user devices 120 and/or the AP 102) may respond to receiving a frame by sending a response frame 142. The user devices 120 may also communicate peer-to-peer or directly with each other with or without the AP 102. The data frames may be preceded by one or more preambles that may be part of one or more headers. These preambles may be used to allow a device (e.g., the AP 102 and/or the user devices 120) to detect a new incoming data frame from another device. A preamble may be a signal used in network communications to synchronize transmission timing between two or more devices (e.g., between the APs and user devices).

[0047] FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0048] Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown an AP 202, which may be in communication with a user device 222. In this example, the AP 202 may send a data frame 230, which may be sent using a certain MCS index (e.g., MCS 231). When the receiving device (e.g., user device 222) successfully receives the data frame 230, the receiving device may identify the MCS 231 index and, based in part on that information, may determine what transmission mode and MCS index to use when responding to the AP 202.

[0049] In one embodiment, the receiving device (e.g., user device 222) may access a table of mandatory MCS indexes that may be correlated with a transmission mode (e.g., W or D). The correlation may be predetermined such that, for various MCS indices associated with a received frame, there may be one or more corresponding MCS indices associated with a response frame (e.g., an ACK or a BA frame). Each of these corresponding MCS indices may be associated with a transmission mode (e.g., W or D). For example, when a receiving device (e.g., user device 222) receives a frame having a certain MCS index (e.g., MCS 231), the receiving device may access the table of mandatory MCS indices and may determine an MCS index to use when responding to the received frame based on the received frame's (e.g., data frame 230) MCS 231 index, and based on a link budget consideration or other considerations. Additionally, for a selected MCS index, the table may correlate a specific transmission mode (e.g., W or D). In some scenarios, the MCS index may be unavailable for the receiving device to use when transmitting a response frame to the transmitting device based at least in part on the criterion.

[0050] In this example, when the user device 222 receives the data frame 230, the user device 222 may determine, based on the MCS 231 index, how to transmit a response control frame (e.g., an ACK or a BA frame). For example, the user device 222 may send the ACK or BA frame using a W transmission (e.g., using bandwidth 236, where the ACK or BA frame may be sent over one or more bonded channels) or may send the ACK or BA frame using a D transmission (e.g., using bandwidth 238, where the ACK or BA frame is duplicated on two different channels). In order to decide whether to use a D or W transmission, a criterion based at least in part on the MCS 231 index, the receive (RX) MCS or the channel bandwidth of the data frame 230 is employed. Other conditions may be used for the criterion.

[0051] In one example, the user device 222 may select an MCS index from the table of mandatory MCS indices in order to send an ACK or BA frame that would meet a certain criterion. The criterion may assist the user device 222 in determining which transmission mode (e.g., W or D) to use and which corresponding MCS index to use when sending the control frame (e.g., ACK/BA frame). The criterion may be based at least in part on the MCS 231 index associated with the data frame 230 and/or the bandwidth 234 of the data frame 230. For example, if the MCS 231 index is equal to 3, and the bandwidth 234 of the data frame 230 is equal to two channels, the user device 222 may select an MCS index to transmit its ACK or BA frame using a D transmission mode (e.g., using bandwidth 238) or a W transmission mode (using bandwidth 236) based on applying the criterion. For example, if the difference between the MCS 231 index and the MCS index used to transmit the ACK or BA frame is less than 2, the user device 222 may use a W transmission mode and if the MCS 231 index and the MCS index to transmit the ACK or BA frame is greater than or equal to 2, the user device 222 may use a D transmission mode. It should be understood that this criterion is only an example, and other criterions may be utilized.

[0052] In one embodiment, the criterion may be based on the difference in sensitivity between the receiver sensitivity associated with the data frame (e.g., data frame 230) MCS index and the receiver sensitivity associated with the ACK/BA MCS index. For example, for an MCS index of 1, the receiver sensitivity may be -68 dBm, while for an MCS index of 3, the receiver sensitivity may be -65 dBm. In that case, if the AP 202 uses an MCS index of 1 to send the data frame 230 to the user device 222, and the user device 222 sends an ACK frame using an MCS index of 3, the sensitivity difference may be about 3 dBm. This sensitivity difference may be tested against a threshold. Based on the comparison to the threshold, either transmission mode D or transmission mode W is used. The threshold may be based on user preference, system preference, network preference, or by a standard, such as the IEEE 802.11 family of standards.

[0053] In another embodiment, the criterion may be based on the difference in required backoff between W and D with the specified BW (e.g., bandwidth 236 or bandwidth 238). Specifically, a criterion may be based on the difference between the MCS 231 of the data frame 230 and the MCS selected (e.g., MCS 233, 235 or 237) for the ACK or BA frames by the user device 222, and on the number of channels used. More specifically a criterion may be based on (DATA MC S index) - (ACK/BA_MCS_index) - (number of channels used by the data frame 230). For example, if the MCS 231 index is equal to 4, the MCS 233 index is equal to 1 and the number of channels used by the data frame 230 is 2, then applying this criterion would yield a value of 1. Assuming a threshold of 2 is applied, and since the criterion resulted in a value of 1 indicating that it is less than the threshold, then the user device 222 may utilize the W transmission mode. However, if the criterion yields a value greater than 2, then the user device 222 may utilize the D transmission mode. However, if the criterion yields a negative value for a specific MCS index to be used when transmitting the ACK or BA frames, this may indicate that the MCS index may not be used. It should be understood that in the D transmission mode having bandwidth 238 where the ACK or BA frame is duplicated, each of the duplicated frames may utilize a separate MCS index or may have the same MCS index. That is, in the D transmission mode, the MCS 235 index and the MCS 237 index may be equal, or may be different. For example, in IEEE 802.11 ay, when a frame is duplicated, both channels have the same data and same MCS index. It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0054] FIG. 3 depicts illustrative transmission mode tables associated with an acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0055] Referring to FIG. 3, there is shown tables 300, 302 and 304, which define the use of a D transmission mode or a W transmission mode for each channel bandwidth as illustrated, where NA refers to an MCS that cannot be used by the receiving device when sending control frames (e.g., ACK or BA frames). In that case, the receiving device must choose another MCS index.

[0056] In one embodiment, in order to decide whether to use D or W transmission mode, a criterion based on the transmit (TX) MCS and receive (RX) MCS of a transceiver of a device, and channel bandwidth is employed when the transceiver transmits or receives data. For example, a device may transmit a data frame using a data frame MCS and another device responds with an ACK/BA frame using an ACK/BA MCS.

[0057] In one embodiment, each table may be implemented in an IEEE 802.11 specification such that devices that follow that specification would implement the selection of a D or a W transmission mode based on the values within the various tables. An example implementation in the standard may be as follows: "the duplicate mode shall be used if the difference between the MCS of the received data frame and the mandatory MCS to send response is greater than or equal to N, where N is a constant value defined per each channel BW." In the example of tables 300, 302, and 304, the value of N is 2, 3, and 4 respectively.

[0058] For example, in table 300, the bandwidth 324 used for a data frame sent from a transmitting device to a receiving device is shown. Column 322 may show the list of MCS indices that may have been used by the data frame sent from the transmitting device to the receiving device. Row 326 shows the mandatory MCS indices to be used by the receiving device, when responding to the data frame received from the transmitting device. In this case, row 326 shows mandatory MCS indices of 1, 2, 3, and 4. The receiving device would then make a decision on whether to use a D transmission mode or a W transmission mode based on, at least in part, the selected mandatory MCS index from row 326. In an illustrative example shown in row 328 where the data frame MCS is 3, the receiving device may select a D transmission mode or a W transmission mode based on selecting one of the four mandatory MCS indices in row 326. In this example, if the receiving device selects MCS index 1, the receiving device should use a D transmission mode when responding to the data frame received from the transmitting device. If the receiving device selects MCS index 2 or 3, the receiving device should use a W transmission mode when responding to the data frame received from the transmitting device. However, the receiving device may not use MCS index 4 when the MCS index used by the data frame is equal to 3 since the table 300 shows NA.

[0059] Similarly and referring to table 302, row 330 shows the possible MCS indices and the corresponding transmission modes that a receiving device may choose when the data frame received from the transmitting device has an MCS index of 4. Further, referring to table 304, row 332 shows the possible MCS indices and the possible transmission modes that a receiving device may utilize when responding to the received data frame from the transmitting device. It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0060] FIG. 4A illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process 400 for an illustrative acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0061] At block 402, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1) may identify a frame received from a first device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1) on a first communication link having a first bandwidth. For example, the first device may have sent a data frame to the device. In this example, it is assumed that the frame has been received successfully by the device.

[0062] At block 404, the device may identify an MCS index associated with the frame. For example, the frame received from the first device may be a data frame that is sent using an MCS index. The MCS index may be used to determine at least in part the likely data rate of a Wi-Fi connection during a wireless communication between two devices (e.g., between the AP 102 and a user device 120 of FIG. 1). When the device receives the data frame, it may determine the MCS index in order to determine how to transmit response frames to the first device. For example, the device may access from its memory or from an external device or server a table of mandatory MCS indices that are correlated with a transmission mode. The correlation may be predetermined such that for various MCS indices associated with a received frame there may be one or more corresponding MCS indices. Transmission modes may be selected based on one or more factors. One example is the transmission of control response frames, like ACK or BA frames, in a duplicate transmission mode (D) over all channels intended for multiple channel data transactions. Another example is the transmission of control frames in a clear wide transmission mode (W) over one or more bonded channels. It should be understood that channel bonding is when two or more channels within a given frequency band are combined to increase throughput between two or more wireless devices. The two or more channels may be adjacent or may be separated by another channel. Conversely, a D transmission is a same signal simultaneously transmitted on multiple channels. A D transmission may increase the peak to average power ratio (PAPR). For example, it may increase the PAPR by approximately 101og ₁₀ (n), in dB, where n is the number of channels used for the D transmission.

[0063] At block 406, the device may select a transmission mode (e.g., D or W transmission modes) to be used on a second communication link based at least in part on the identified first MCS index. The communication link may be comprised of one or more channels that may be used to transmit the response frame. For example, if the communication link is made up of two channels, the device may send its response frame over the two channels using either the D or W transmission mode. The decision to select a D or W transmission mode may be based on one or more criterions that may assist the device in determining the best mode to transmit the response frame. For example, the criterion may be based on the difference of the MCS index of the received frame and the desired MCS index to be used for sending the response frame. Another factor that may be taken into consideration is the number of channels in which the received frame was sent. For example, a data frame may be sent by the first device that may have been sent on two channels, three channels or any other number of channels. The device may take that information in determining whether to send the response frame to the first device. Other factors in determining which MCS index and which transmission mode to use when transmitting the response frame to the first device may include, but are not limited to, a difference in sensitivity between the receiver sensitivity associated with the data frame MCS index and the receiver sensitivity associated with the response frame MCS index. In addition, a difference in the required transmit power backoff from the PA (power amplifier) saturation power between a W transmission and a D transmission with a specified bandwidth may be considered when selecting the MCS index. The user device 120 may select the MCS index and the transmission mode to be used when transmitting the response frame to the AP 102 based on the outcome of the criterion.

[0064] At block 408, the device may cause to send a response frame based at least in part on the selected transmission mode to the first device. It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0065] FIG. 4B illustrates a flow diagram of an illustrative process 450 for an illustrative acknowledgement in a bonded or duplicated channel system, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0066] At block 452, a device (e.g., the user device(s) 120 and/or the AP 102 of FIG. 1) may determine a first MCS index associated with a data frame, the data frame to be sent to a device using one or more channels of a communication link. Using the AP 102 as an example of the device that wants to send a data frame to a user device 120, the AP 102 may determine an MCS index to use when sending the frame.

[0067] At block 454, the device may determine a bandwidth associated with the one or more channels. The bandwidth may be determined by the number of channels that the AP 102 may use when sending the data frame to the user device 120. For example, the bandwidth may be two channels, three channels, four channels, etc.

[0068] At block 456, the device may cause to send the data frame to the device using the one or more channels of the communication link. When the user device 120 receives that data frame, it may identify the MCS index and the number of channels used by the AP 102 to send the data frame to the user device 120. The user device 120 may select a transmission mode (e.g., D or W transmission modes) on a communication link based at least in part on the MCS. The communication link may be comprised of one or more channels that may be used to transmit a response frame to the received data frame. For example, if the communication link is made up of two channels, the user device 120 may send its response frame over the two channels using either the D or W transmission mode. The decision to select a D or a W transmission mode may be based on one or more criterions that may assist the user device 120 in determining the best mode to transmit the response frame. For example, the criterion may be based on the difference of the MCS index of the received frame and the desired MCS index to be used for sending the response frame. Another factor that may be taken into consideration is the number of channels in which the received frame was sent. For example, a data frame may be sent by the AP 102 that may have been sent on two channels, three channels, or any other number of channels. The user device 120 may take that information in determining whether to send the response frame to the AP 102. Other factors in determining which MCS index and which transmission mode to use when transmitting the response frame to the AP 102 may include, but are not limited to, a difference in sensitivity between the receiver sensitivity associated with the data frame MCS index and the receiver sensitivity associated with the response frame MCS index. In addition, a difference in the required transmit power backoff from the PA (power amplifier) saturation power between a W transmission and a D transmission with a specified bandwidth may be considered when selecting the MCS index. The user device 120 may select the MCS index and the transmission mode to be used when transmitting the response frame to the AP 102 based on the outcome of the criterion.

[0069] At block 458, the device may identify a response frame received from the device on one or more second channels. For example, the AP 102 may receive the response frame from the user device 120. The response frame may have been transmitted to the AP 102 using a selected MCS index and using either a D or a W transmission mode based on the outcome of the criterion.

[0070] It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting.

[0071] FIG. 5 shows a functional diagram of an exemplary communication station 500 in accordance with some embodiments. In one embodiment, FIG. 5 illustrates a functional block diagram of a communication station that may be suitable for use as an AP 102 (FIG. 1) or user device 120 (FIG. 1) in accordance with some embodiments. The communication station 500 may also be suitable for use as a handheld device, a mobile device, a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a wearable computer device, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device.

[0072] The communication station 500 may include communications circuitry 502 and a transceiver 510 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from other communication stations using one or more antennas 501. The transceiver 510 may be a device comprising both a transmitter and a receiver that are combined and share common circuitry (e.g., communication circuitry 502). The communication circuitry 502 may include amplifiers, filters, mixers, analog to digital and/or digital to analog converters. The transceiver 510 may transmit and receive analog or digital signals. The transceiver 510 may allow reception of signals during transmission periods. This mode is known as full-duplex, and may require the transmitter and receiver to operate on different frequencies to minimize interference between the transmitted signal and the received signal. The transceiver 510 may operate in a half- duplex mode, where the transceiver 510 may transmit or receive signals in one direction at a time.

[0073] The communications circuitry 502 may include circuitry that can operate the physical layer (PHY) communications and/or media access control (MAC) communications for controlling access to the wireless medium, and/or any other communications layers for transmitting and receiving signals. The communication station 500 may also include processing circuitry 506 and memory 508 arranged to perform the operations described herein. In some embodiments, the communications circuitry 502 and the processing circuitry 506 may be configured to perform operations detailed in FIGs. 2-4A and 4B.

[0074] In accordance with some embodiments, the communications circuitry 502 may be arranged to contend for a wireless medium and configure frames or packets for communicating over the wireless medium. The communications circuitry 502 may be arranged to transmit and receive signals. The communications circuitry 502 may also include circuitry for modulation/demodulation, upconversion/downconversion, filtering, amplification, etc. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 506 of the communication station 500 may include one or more processors. In other embodiments, two or more antennas 501 may be coupled to the communications circuitry 502 arranged for sending and receiving signals. The memory 508 may store information for configuring the processing circuitry 506 to perform operations for configuring and transmitting message frames and performing the various operations described herein. The memory 508 may include any type of memory, including non-transitory memory, for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, the memory 508 may include a computer-readable storage device, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices and other storage devices and media.

[0075] In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), a wearable computer device, or another device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly.

[0076] In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one or more antennas 501. The antennas 501 may include one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas, or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some embodiments, instead of two or more antennas, a single antenna with multiple apertures may be used. In these embodiments, each aperture may be considered a separate antenna. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas may be effectively separated for spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result between each of the antennas and the antennas of a transmitting station.

[0077] In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one or more of a keyboard, a display, a non-volatile memory port, multiple antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, speakers, and other mobile device elements. The display may be an LCD screen including a touch screen.

[0078] Although the communication station 500 is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, two or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may include one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio- frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. In some embodiments, the functional elements of the communication station 500 may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

[0079] Certain embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware, and software. Other embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory memory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media. In some embodiments, the communication station 500 may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device memory.

[0080] FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a machine 600 or system upon which any one or more of the techniques (e.g., methodologies) discussed herein may be performed. In other embodiments, the machine 600 may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine 600 may operate in the capacity of a server machine, a client machine, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the machine 600 may act as a peer machine in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environments. The machine 600 may be a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a wearable computer device, a web appliance, a network router, a switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine, such as a base station. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term "machine" shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), or other computer cluster configurations.

[0081] Examples, as described herein, may include or may operate on logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations when operating. A module includes hardware. In an example, the hardware may be specifically configured to carry out a specific operation (e.g., hardwired). In another example, the hardware may include configurable execution units (e.g., transistors, circuits, etc.) and a computer readable medium containing instructions where the instructions configure the execution units to carry out a specific operation when in operation. The configuring may occur under the direction of the executions units or a loading mechanism. Accordingly, the execution units are communicatively coupled to the computer- readable medium when the device is operating. In this example, the execution units may be a member of more than one module. For example, under operation, the execution units may be configured by a first set of instructions to implement a first module at one point in time and reconfigured by a second set of instructions to implement a second module at a second point in time.

[0082] The machine (e.g., computer system) 600 may include a hardware processor 602 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory 604 and a static memory 606, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) 608. The machine 600 may further include a power management device 632, a graphics display device 610, an alphanumeric input device 612 (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device 614 (e.g., a mouse). In an example, the graphics display device 610, alphanumeric input device 612, and UI navigation device 614 may be a touch screen display. The machine 600 may additionally include a storage device (i.e., drive unit) 616, a signal generation device 618 (e.g., a speaker), an acknowledgment in bonded or duplicated channels device 619, a network interface device/transceiver 620 coupled to antenna(s) 630, and one or more sensors 628, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, a compass, an accelerometer, or other sensor. The machine 600 may include an output controller 634, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate with or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, a card reader, etc.)).

[0083] The storage device 616 may include a machine readable medium 622 on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions 624 (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions 624 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory 604, within the static memory 606, or within the hardware processor 602 during execution thereof by the machine 600. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor 602, the main memory 604, the static memory 606, or the storage device 616 may constitute machine- readable media.

[0084] The acknowledgment in bonded or duplicated channels device 619 may carry out or perform any of the operations and processes (e.g., the processes 400 and 450) described and shown above. For example, the acknowledgment in bonded or duplicated channels device 619 may be configured to use a duplicated mode to transmit a response frame when the gain of the lower MCS in which the response frame is transmitted compensates a worse link budget due to the duplicated mode. Otherwise, transmit the response frame using the same channel bandwidth the data frame was received. This new requirement addresses all wide channel bandwidths and frame transmission MCSs.

[0085] The acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels device 619 may facilitate a receiving device to access a table of mandatory MCS indices that are correlated with a transmission mode (e.g., W or D transmission). The correlation may be predetermined such that for various MCS indices associated with a received frame there may be one or more corresponding MCS indices. Each of these corresponding MCS indices may be associated with the type of transmission (e.g., W or D transmission). For example, when a receiving device receives a frame having a certain MCS index, the receiving device may access the table of mandatory MCS indices and determine which MCS index to use when responding to the received frame based on the received frame's MCS index and based on a link budget consideration. Additionally, for that selected MCS index, the table may correlate a specific transmission mode (e.g., W or D).

[0086] In order to decide whether to use D or W transmission mode, a criterion based on the transmit (TX) MCS and receive (RX) MCS of a transceiver of a device, and channel bandwidth is employed when the transceiver transmits or receives data. For example, a device may transmit a data frame using a data frame MCS and another device responds with an ACK/BA frame using an ACK/BA MCS.

[0087] The acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels device 619 may facilitate that the criterion may be based on the difference in sensitivity between the receiver sensitivity associated with the TX (e.g., data frame) MCS index and the receiver sensitivity associated with the RX (e.g., ACK or BA frame) MCS index. For example, for an MCS index of 1, the receiver sensitivity may be -68 dBm, while for an MCS index of 3, the receiver sensitivity may be -65 dBm. In that case, if the transmitting device uses an MCS index of 1 to send the data frame to the receiving device and the receiving device sends an ACK frame using an MCS index of 3, the sensitivity difference may be about 3 dBm. This sensitivity difference may be tested against a threshold. Based on the comparison to the threshold, either transmission mode D or transmission mode W is used. The threshold may be based on user preference, system preference, network preference, or by a standard, such as the IEEE 802.11 family of standards.

[0088] The acknowledgement in bonded or duplicated channels device 619 may facilitate that the criterion may be based on the difference in required backoff between W and D with the specified BW. Specifically, a criterion may be based on the difference between the DATA MCS and the MCS selected for the ACK or BA frames, and on the number of channels used. More specifically a criterion may be based on (DATA_MCS_index) - (ACK/BA_MCS_index) - (number of channels). This table may be modified for various transmission modes associated with MCS indices of the data frame received by the receiving device or the MCS indices selected by the receiving device when sending a control frame.

[0089] It is understood that the above are only a subset of what the acknowledgment in bonded or duplicated channels device 619 may be configured to perform and that other functions included throughout this disclosure may also be performed by the acknowledgment in bonded or duplicated channels device 619.

[0090] While the machine-readable medium 622 is illustrated as a single medium, the term "machine-readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions 624.

[0091] Various embodiments may be implemented fully or partially in software and/or firmware. This software and/or firmware may take the form of instructions contained in or on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. Those instructions may then be read and executed by one or more processors to enable performance of the operations described herein. The instructions may be in any suitable form, such as but not limited to source code, compiled code, interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such a computer-readable medium may include any tangible non-transitory medium for storing information in a form readable by one or more computers, such as but not limited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; a flash memory, etc.

[0092] The term "machine-readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 600 and that cause the machine 600 to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting machine-readable medium examples may include solid-state memories and optical and magnetic media. In an example, a massed machine-readable medium includes a machine-readable medium with a plurality of particles having resting mass. Specific examples of massed machine-readable media may include non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), or electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD- ROM disks.

[0093] The instructions 624 may further be transmitted or received over a communications network 626 using a transmission medium via the network interface device/transceiver 620 utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communications networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), plain old telephone (POTS) networks, wireless data networks (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1 1 family of standards known as Wi-Fi®, IEEE 802.16 family of standards known as WiMax®), IEEE 802.15.4 family of standards, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, among others. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 620 may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the communications network 626. In an example, the network interface device/transceiver 620 may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine 600 and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of such software. The operations and processes described and shown above may be carried out or performed in any suitable order as desired in various implementations. Additionally, in certain implementations, at least a portion of the operations may be carried out in parallel. Furthermore, in certain implementations, less than or more than the operations described may be performed.

[0094] The word "exemplary" is used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. The terms "computing device," "user device," "communication station," "station," "handheld device," "mobile device," "wireless device" and "user equipment" (UE) as used herein refers to a wireless communication device such as a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook, a wireless terminal, a laptop computer, a femtocell, a high data rate (HDR) subscriber station, an access point, a printer, a point of sale device, an access terminal, or other personal communication system (PCS) device. The device may be either mobile or stationary.

[0095] As used within this document, the term "communicate" is intended to include transmitting, or receiving, or both transmitting and receiving. This may be particularly useful in claims when describing the organization of data that is being transmitted by one device and received by another, but only the functionality of one of those devices is required to infringe the claim. Similarly, the bidirectional exchange of data between two devices (both devices transmit and receive during the exchange) may be described as "communicating," when only the functionality of one of those devices is being claimed. The term "communicating" as used herein with respect to a wireless communication signal includes transmitting the wireless communication signal and/or receiving the wireless communication signal. For example, a wireless communication unit, which is capable of communicating a wireless communication signal, may include a wireless transmitter to transmit the wireless communication signal to at least one other wireless communication unit, and/or a wireless communication receiver to receive the wireless communication signal from at least one other wireless communication unit.

[0096] As used herein, unless otherwise specified, the use of the ordinal adjectives "first," "second," "third," etc., to describe a common object, merely indicates that different instances of like objects are being referred to and are not intended to imply that the obj ects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

[0097] The term "access point" (AP) as used herein may be a fixed station. An access point may also be referred to as an access node, a base station, an evolved node B (eNodeB), an evolved node B (eNodeB), or some other similar terminology known in the art. An access terminal may also be called a mobile station, user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some other similar terminology known in the art. Embodiments disclosed herein generally pertain to wireless networks. Some embodiments may relate to wireless networks that operate in accordance with one of the IEEE 802.11 standards.

[0098] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with various devices and systems, for example, a personal computer (PC), a desktop computer, a mobile computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a server computer, a handheld computer, a handheld device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld PDA device, an onboard device, an off-board device, a hybrid device, a vehicular device, a non-vehicular device, a mobile or portable device, a consumer device, a non-mobile or non-portable device, a wireless communication station, a wireless communication device, a wireless access point (AP), a wired or wireless router, a wired or wireless modem, a video device, an audio device, an audio-video (A/V) device, a wired or wireless network, a wireless area network, a wireless video area network (WVAN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a personal area network (PAN), a wireless PAN (WPAN), and the like.

[0099] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one way and/or two-way radio communication systems, cellular radio-telephone communication systems, a mobile phone, a cellular telephone, a wireless telephone, a personal communication system (PCS) device, a PDA device which incorporates a wireless communication device, a mobile or portable global positioning system (GPS) device, a device which incorporates a GPS receiver or transceiver or chip, a device which incorporates an RFID element or chip, a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) transceiver or device, a single input multiple output (SIMO) transceiver or device, a multiple input single output (MISO) transceiver or device, a device having one or more internal antennas and/or external antennas, digital video broadcast (DVB) devices or systems, multi-standard radio devices or systems, a wired or wireless handheld device, e.g., a smartphone, a wireless application protocol (WAP) device, or the like.

[0100] Some embodiments may be used in conjunction with one or more types of wireless communication signals and/or systems following one or more wireless communication protocols, for example, radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), frequency- division multiplexing (FDM), orthogonal FDM (OFDM), time-division multiplexing (TDM), time-division multiple access (TDMA), extended TDMA (E-TDMA), general packet radio service (GPRS), extended GPRS, code-division multiple access (CDMA), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), CDMA 2000, single-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier CDMA, multi-carrier modulation (MDM), discrete multi-tone (DMT), Bluetooth®, global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, ZigBee, ultra-wideband (UWB), global system for mobile communications (GSM), 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 3.5G, 4G, fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, 3GPP, long term evolution (LTE), LTE advanced, enhanced data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), or the like. Other embodiments may be used in various other devices, systems, and/or networks.

[0101] According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be a device. The device may include memory and processing circuitry configured to identify a frame received from a first device on a first communication link having a first bandwidth. The processing circuitry may be further configured to identify a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with the frame. The processing circuitry may be further configured to determine a transmission mode to be used on a second communication link based at least in part on the first MCS index. The processing circuitry may be further configured to cause to send to the first device a response frame using the transmission mode.

[0102] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The transmission mode may include at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over two or more channels of the second communication link or a wide transmission mode over two or more bonded channels of the second communication link. The first bandwidth of the first communication link may include two or more first channels used to carry the frame from the first device. The processing circuitry may be further configured to determine a second MCS index for sending the response frame to the first device, wherein the second MCS index is determined based on one or more criterions. The one or more criterions comprise comparing a difference between the first MCS index, the second MCS index, or the first bandwidth with a predetermined threshold. The one or more criterions comprise determining a difference between a first sensitivity associated with the first MCS index or a second sensitivity associated with the second MCS index. The processing circuitry may be further configured to determine a difference between the first MCS index and the second MCS index is greater than or equal to a number of the two or more channels used to transmit the frame. The processing circuitry may be further configured to determine the transmission mode is a duplicated mode. The device may further include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. The device may further include one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver. [0103] According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be a device. The device may include memory and processing circuitry configured to determine a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with a data frame, the data frame to be sent to a device using one or more channels of a communication link. The processing circuitry may be further configured to determine a bandwidth associated with the one or more channels. The processing circuitry may be further configured to cause to send the data frame to the device using the one or more channels of the communication link. The processing circuitry may be further configured to identify a response frame received from the device on one or more second channels.

[0104] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is associated with a second MCS index, the second MCS index being associated with the first MCS index and the bandwidth. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The response frames is received using a transmission mode on the one or more second channels. The transmission mode may include at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over the one or more second channels or a wide transmission mode over one or more bonded channels. The device may further include a transceiver configured to transmit and receive wireless signals. The device may further include one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver.

[0105] According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be a non- transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations may include determining a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with a data frame, the data frame to be sent to a device using one or more channels of a communication link. The operations may include determining a bandwidth associated with the one or more channels. The operations may include causing to send the data frame to the device using the one or more channels of the communication link. The operations may include identifying a response frame received from the device on one or more second channels.

[0106] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is associated with a second MCS index, the second MCS index being associated with the first MCS index and the bandwidth. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The response frame is received using a transmission mode on the one or more second channels. The transmission mode may include at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over the one or more second channels or a wide transmission mode over one or more bonded channels.

[0107] According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be a non- transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations may include identifying a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with the frame. The operations may include determining a transmission mode to be used on a second communication link based at least in part on the first MCS index. The operations may include causing to send to the device a response frame using the transmission mode.

[0108] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The transmission mode may include at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over two or more channels of the second communication link or a wide transmission mode over two or more bonded channels of the second communication link. The operations may include determining a second MCS index for sending the response frame to the device, wherein the second MCS index is determined based on one or more criterions. The one or more criterions comprise comparing a difference between the first MCS index, the second MCS index, or the first bandwidth with a predetermined threshold. The first bandwidth of the first communication link may include two or more first channels used to carry the frame from the first device. The one or more criterions comprise determining a difference between a first sensitivity associated with the first MCS index or a second sensitivity associated with the second MCS index. The operations may include determining a difference between the first MCS index and the second MCS index is greater than or equal to a number of the two or more channels used to transmit the frame. The operations may include determining the transmission mode is a duplicated mode.

[0109] According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may include a method. The method may include identifying, by one or more processors, a frame received from a device on a first communication link having a first bandwidth. The method may include identifying a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with the frame. The method may include determining a transmission mode to be used on a second communication link based at least in part on the first MCS index. The method may include causing to send to the device a response frame using the transmission mode. [0110] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The transmission mode includes at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over two or more channels of the second communication link or a wide transmission mode over two or more bonded channels of the second communication link. The method may further include determining a second MCS index for sending the response frame to the device, wherein the second MCS index is determined based on one or more criterions. The one or more criterions comprise comparing a difference between the first MCS index, the second MCS index, or the first bandwidth with a predetermined threshold. The first bandwidth of the first communication link includes two or more first channels used to carry the frame from the first device. The one or more criterions comprise determining a difference between a first sensitivity associated with the first MCS index or a second sensitivity associated with the second MCS index. The processing circuitry is further configured to determine a difference between the first MCS index and the second MCS index is greater than or equal to a number of the two or more channels used to transmit the frame. The method may include determine the transmission mode is a duplicated mode.

[0111] According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may include a method. The method may include determining a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with a data frame, the data frame to be sent to a device using one or more channels of a communication link. The method may include determining a bandwidth associated with the one or more channels. The method may include causing to send the data frame to the device using the one or more channels of the communication link. The method may include identifying a response frame received from the device on one or more second channels.

[0112] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is associated with a second MCS index, the second MCS index being associated with the first MCS index and the bandwidth. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The response frame is received using a transmission mode on the one or more second channels. The transmission mode includes at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over the one or more second channels or a wide transmission mode over one or more bonded channels.

[0113] In example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be an apparatus. The apparatus may includemeans for identifying, by one or more processors, a frame received from a device on a first communication link having a first bandwidth. The apparatus may include means for identifying a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with the frame. The apparatus may include means for determining a transmission mode to be used on a second communication link based at least in part on the first MCS index. The apparatus may include means for causing to send to the device a response frame using the transmission mode.

[0114] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The transmission mode includes at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over two or more channels of the second communication link or a wide transmission mode over two or more bonded channels of the second communication link. The apparatus may further include means for determining a second MCS index for sending the response frame to the device, wherein the second MCS index is determined based on one or more criterions. The one or more criterions comprise means for comparing a difference between the first MCS index, the second MCS index, and the first bandwidth with a predetermined threshold. The first bandwidth of the first communication link includes two or more first channels used to carry the frame from the first device. The one or more criterions comprise means for at least one of determining a difference between a first sensitivity associated with the first MCS index or a second sensitivity associated with the second MCS index. The apparatus may further include means for determining a difference between the first MCS index and the second MCS index is greater than or equal to a number of the two or more channels used to transmit the frame. The apparatus may further include means for determining the transmission mode is a duplicated mode.

[0115] In example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be an apparatus. The apparatus may include means for determining a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) index associated with a data frame, the data frame to be sent to a device using one or more channels of a communication link. The apparatus may means for determining a bandwidth associated with the one or more channels. The apparatus may means for causing to send the data frame to the device using the one or more channels of the communication link. The apparatus may include means for identifying a response frame received from the device on one or more second channels.

[0116] The implementations may include one or more of the following features. The response frame is associated with a second MCS index, the second MCS index being associated with the first MCS index and the bandwidth. The response frame is at least one of an acknowledgment frame or a block acknowledgment frame. The response frame is received using a transmission mode on the one or more second channels. The transmission mode includes at least one of a duplicate transmission mode over the one or more second channels or a wide transmission mode over one or more bonded channels.

[0117] Certain aspects of the disclosure are described above with reference to block and flow diagrams of systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or computer program products according to various implementations. It will be understood that one or more blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and the flow diagrams, respectively, may be implemented by computer-executable program instructions. Likewise, some blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams may not necessarily need to be performed in the order presented, or may not necessarily need to be performed at all, according to some implementations.

[0118] These computer-executable program instructions may be loaded onto a special - purpose computer or other particular machine, a processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a particular machine, such that the instructions that execute on the computer, processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage media or memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable storage media produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. As an example, certain implementations may provide for a computer program product, comprising a computer- readable storage medium having a computer-readable program code or program instructions implemented therein, said computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement one or more functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational elements or steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide elements or steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow diagram block or blocks. [0119] Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flow diagrams support combinations of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of elements or steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flow diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flow diagrams, may be implemented by special-purpose, hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions, elements or steps, or combinations of special-purpose hardware and computer instructions.

[0120] Conditional language, such as, among others, "can," "could," "might," or "may," unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain implementations could include, while other implementations do not include, certain features, elements, and/or operations. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements, and/or operations are in any way required for one or more implementations or that one or more implementations necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input or prompting, whether these features, elements, and/or operations are included or are to be performed in any particular implementation.

[0121] Many modifications and other implementations of the disclosure set forth herein will be apparent having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not to be limited to the specific implementations disclosed and that modifications and other implementations are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.