U-APSD explained
1 Scope
This document aims to explain the logics and behaviour of 802.11 power-save mechanisms
and U-APSD as implemented in the Ascom i62
The document will also suggest some methods to debug any anomalies or problems with U-
APSD operation.
1 Scope ...................................................................................................................... 1
2 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... 2
3 General ................................................................................................................... 3
4 Legacy Power management modes in 802.11 ......................................................... 3
4.1 Active mode ............................................................................................................ 3
4.2 PS-mode ................................................................................................................. 3
4.3 How does the AP know the station’s current mode? ................................................ 5
5 U-APSD operation ................................................................................................... 5
5.1 When is U-APSD enabled? ..................................................................................... 5
5.2 U-APSD flow example ............................................................................................. 5
6 U-APSD troubleshooting ......................................................................................... 7
6.1 Does the AP support U-APSD? ............................................................................... 7
6.2 Does the U-APSD flow work correctly? ................................................................... 9
6.3 Symptoms of an erroneous configuration ...............................................................12
7 Document history ...................................................................................................12
2 Abbreviations
AP Access Point
EDCA Enhanced Distributed Channel Access
QoS Quality of Service
U-APSD Unscheduled Automatic Power Save Delivery
WMM Wireless MultiMedia
3 General
U-APSD is a power-save mechanism that is an optional part of the IEEE amendment
802.11e, QoS. U-APSD is also known as WMM Power Save, and the behaviour and
operation is exactly the same, except for coding of some information elements.
U-APSD is working in conjunction with WMM and is tied with usage of the 4 EDCA access
categories that is used to differentiate packets and their priorities.
U-APSD is very well suited for bi-directional data flows like voice.
The power savings is around 400% with Ascom i62 default settings compared to active
mode, and extends the talk time from around 4 hours in active to around 16 hours in U-APSD
mode with the standard battery.
The table below shows the relationship between 802.11 specifications and Wi-Fi alliance
certifications programs.
Functionality IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi Alliance
terminology certifications
QoS mechanism EDCA Wireless Multi Media
(WMM)
Power-Save U-APSD Wireless Multi Media
Power-Save (WMM-PS)
4 Legacy Power management modes in 802.11
802.11 specify the use of legacy power-save operation in which two station modes are
defined: Active-mode and PS-mode (Power-Save-mode).
4.1 Active mode
When the station is in active mode, all frames destined to the station are transmitted
immediately from the AP to the client. The station’s receiver must be turned on constantly in
order to receive a frame at any time.
This power consumption in this mode is high due to the always-on receiver mode.
4.2 PS-mode
When the station is in PS-mode its receiver is turned off and can not receive any frames. The
AP will temporarily buffer all frames destined to a station that is in PS-mode.
As soon as a frame is buffered in the AP, the AP will announce the presence of buffered
frames to station X. This announcement is done in the AP’s periodical beacon transmission.
The announcement is called TIM (Traffic Indication Message).
In PS-mode, the station will wake up periodically and listen to beacons. If a beacon indicates
that a frame is buffered for the station, the station will transmit a polling frame (QoS Null) to
the AP. This QoS Null data frame will release the buffered frame and the AP proceeds to
transmit the frame. The station will have its receiver turned on until the frame is received.
In PS-mode, the station is free to send uplink frames to the AP at any time at its own
convenience.
To make the picture more complex, the concept of DTIM period is introduced. DTIM period is
just a recurring period, defined in number of beacons. At DTIM, broadcast and multicast
frames are transmitted. In idle mode, the i62 is awake only at DTIM to receive broadcasts
and evaluate if any buffered frames are present in the AP.
From here it is indicated in TIM that a
packet is buffered to the i62
Beacon-Interval
Broadcasts Buffered frame Broadcasts
to the i62 Buffered frame is
TIM DTIM DTIM sent to the i62
AP
Beacons
i62
i62 active i62 active
receiver QoS Null data
Figure 1: Example operation of stations in PS-mode
4.3 How does the AP know the station’s current mode?
This is quite simple as two basic rules apply:
1) Stations changing Power Management mode shall inform the AP of this fact using the
Power Management bits within the Frame Control field of transmitted frames.
2) A station shall remain in its current Power Management mode until it informs the AP of a
Power Management mode change via a successful frame exchange.
5 U-APSD operation
The two Power Management modes are valid also in U-APSD mode and the AP buffers
downlink frames only if the station is in PS-mode.
U-APSD is basically a polling scheme, like legacy 802.11 PS Management, but in U-APSD
mode, any uplink frame acts as a polling frame and is called a “trigger frame”.
The requirement for a buffered frame to be released is that the trigger frame is of the same
EDCA Access Category as the buffered frame.
5.1 When is U-APSD enabled?
An AP capable of supporting automatic power save delivery (APSD) is indicating this
capability through the use of the APSD subfield in the Capability Information field.
If the supported U-APSD capability only is in the flavour of WMM Power Save, the capability
is indicated in the QoS info field in the WMM parameter/information elements.
This information is present in Beacon, Probe Response, and (Re) Association Response
management frames.
Upon association, the i62 negotiates with the AP and trigger-enable the all access
categories.
5.2 U-APSD flow example
The example is based on a voice call with bi-directional flow, symmetric codec speech
frames:
A call is established between two parties. In this case we assume the parties are a wireless
phone (i62) and a fixed phone that resides somewhere on the LAN.
1) In the AP, a voice packet from the fixed phone is received from the distribution system
(Ethernet). The packet is destined to the i62 and the AP intends to transmit the packet on the
RF interface immediately.
However, the destination station (the i62) for the packet is in PS-mode and since the AP
keeps track of all associated stations PS management mode, this is recognised and the
packet is buffered in the AP.
2) Just after a little while, the i62 transmits a voice packet (as is done every 20 ms with
default settings). This packet is transmitted within the EDCA Access Category “Voice” (which
means that it is highly prioritised).
3) The AP receives the packet from the i62, forwards the packet to the distribution system
(Ethernet) and recognises that the sending station has a buffered packet within the same
EDCA Category “Voice” as the just received packet. The AP releases the packet and
transmits the packet immediately to the i62 that now is awaiting a packet.
The procedure when an AP transmits a buffered packet due to a trigger frame is called an
“Unscheduled Service Period”.
1. The AP buffers a packet 3. The AP receives the uplink
destined for the i62 packet and immediately
transmits the buffered packet
AP
i62
2. The i62 transmits The sequence is repeated
a speech packet each 20 ms
with EDCA ”Voice”
t=0 t=20 ms
Figure 2: An U-APSD flow example
6 U-APSD troubleshooting
This section describes how to verify that U-APSD is set-up and configured correctly. U-APSD
is normally an always-present feature not needing to be specially enabled. However, some
WLAN infrastructure may need to tune the parameters associated with U-APSD, see the
appropriate configuration notes for the infrastructure.
The screenshots are made from captures with OmniPeek protocol analyzer.
Various Access Points are used in these examples since all APs supporting this functionality
will use the same information elements coding.
6.1 Does the AP support U-APSD?
First, we will determine if the AP supports U-APSD. The i62 will not use U-APSD if this
capability is not indicated by the AP.
The support of U-APSD is indicated in the QoS information element, which is present in the
WMM tag. The valid WMM tag we want to look at is present in beacons and probe
responses.
Let’s have a look
what’s inside a
beacon
In this beacon, the WMM parameter
element is present and contains the QoS
information element. The MSB in this field
indicates if U-APSD is supported!
Is the i62 signalling its use of U-APSD?
The i62 advertises its use of U-APSD and negotiates the usage of U-APSD during the
association process. Let’s take a look at an association process when the U-APSD is
enabled in a correct way.
The packet we are interested in
is the Association request
The QoS information element from the i62 contains information of how
U-APSD shall be used. In this frame we can see that the i62 requests
all access categories to be delivery-enabled
6.2 Does the U-APSD flow work correctly?
As mentioned earlier, if an AP shall start an unscheduled service period and deliver any
buffered frames, the uplink trigger frame must be of the same or higher Access Category as
the buffered frame.
This means that is very important that packet classification and QoS settings are configured
correctly in the AP.
All instances (i62, gateways, fixed phones etc) that might transmit a voice stream towards a
wireless phone must mark the voice packets with appropriate QoS settings.
For the voice flow with U-APSD, we will look and describe the sequence for the three
packets as seen in the capture below.
The first packet is an uplink voice packet sent by the i62 and acts as a trigger frame to start
an unscheduled service period
The i62 is in PS-mode
The packet is in the
uplink direction
The packet is
transmitted in the
Access category
Voice
The second packet is a downlink packet that the AP transmits immediately in response to the
trigger frame.
This is a downlink packet
This packet is classified correctly and This tells the i62 that more packets
transmitted by the AP in the Access category are buffered and will be transmitted
voice. immediately following this packet
The third and last packet in this sequence is another buffered voice packet. Due to wired
network impairments, it can be common that two voice packets will be delivered during an
unscheduled service period.
This is a downlink packet
This packet is classified correctly and This tells the i62 that no more
transmitted by the AP in the Access category packets are buffered; this packet
voice. marks the end of the unscheduled
service period.
When the i62 receives a packets that marks the end of the unscheduled service period, it
shuts down the receiver and enters doze mode until the next uplink voice packet is
transmitted, 20 ms later.
If no packets are buffered in the AP or if any buffered packets do not belong to the same
Access category as the trigger frame, the AP will respond with a QoS Null-frame as an
indication that no frames are buffered.
6.3 Symptoms of an erroneous configuration
In opposite to its predecessor, the i62 have all Access categories trigger enabled while the
i75 only have the “Voice” EDCA enabled. This makes the i62 more forgiving to erroneous
configurations since an uplink packet in EDCA “Voice” will trigger all lower categories.
However, as the lower categories are not prioritized as high the speech quality might be
degraded, especially in highly utilized systems. It is therefore important to verify that the
downlink voice data packets are sent in the correct access category. Refer to section 6.2
i75 Specific troubleshooting.
As mentioned the i75 trigger enables only the “voice” Access category. It means that if the
QoS priorities mapping of the downlink speech packets are not correct, the AP will not deliver
the buffered speech packets in return to an uplink speech packet. Instead, the AP will
advertise the presence of buffered frames in TIM and the i75 will retrieve those packets at
[Link] i75 recommended settings (DTIM = 5) that means that buffered speech packets
are retrieved every 500 ms…not good. The result will be a strange, pumping sound as the
internal adaptive jitter buffer will be overflowed. The downlink speech is not perceptible in this
scenario.
The uplink, on the other hand will work fine regardless of QoS configuration.
7 Document history
Rev Date Author Description
PA1 2007-05-28 HSa First draft
PA2 2011-11-09 SEKMO Updated to match Ascom i62
