[5g next generation wi-fi] on the fly traffic steering for collocated multi-band aggregation

Abstract

Simultaneous dual band operation (2.4 and 5 GHz) is common in APs on the market today, and tri-band devices are expected in the market soon. Link aggregation can also be applicable to multiple air interfaces in the same band (for instance 2 independent IEEE 802.11ac/ax air interfaces at 5 GHz on 2 different 80 MHz channels). One exemplary aspect provides technology that enables significantly higher throughput and/or higher reliability for two stations (STAs) or a STA and the access point (AP) when the devices support simultaneous multi-band operation.

1 . A multi-band wireless communications device comprising:
 a multi-band upper Media Access Controller (MAC) portion including:
 a multi-band transmitter; and 
 a multi-band receiver; and 
   a transmitter traffic steering engine; and   a plurality of lower MAC portions each including:
 a Media Access Controller (MAC) transmitter, a Media Access Controller (MAC) receiver, and a Physical Layer (PHY) air interface, the transmitter traffic steering engine routing packets from a shared buffer queue to one or more of the lower MAC portions associated with a channel at least based on channel availability. 
   
     
     
         2 - 20 . (canceled)