Neighbor awareness networking—schedule update

• US 10,231,258 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2017
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Liu, Yong, Kurian, Lawrie, Heerboth, Peter N., Hartman, Christiaan A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cai, Wayne H
• Application Number:
  US15/684,750
• Publication Number:
  US 20180063863A1
• Time in Patent Office: 566 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/1263 Mapping of traffic onto schedule, e.g. scheduled allocation or multiplexing of flows
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

In some embodiments, one or more wireless stations operate to configure direct communication with neighboring mobile stations, e.g., direct communication between the wireless stations without utilizing an intermediate access point. Embodiments of the disclosure relate to NAN datapath scheduling and NAN pre-datapath operation setup and scheduling. The NAN datapath embodiments described herein provide a mechanism through which devices can communicate and provide services. In particular, embodiments described herein relate to techniques for devices (e.g., NAN devices) to propose and confirm schedule updates. The datapath model, and in particular the techniques described herein, may be implemented for unicast and multicast communication between wireless stations.

Claims

1. A wireless station, comprising:

at least one antenna;

at least one radio in communication with the at least one antenna and configured to perform short range communications via a Wi-Fi interface; and

at least one processor in communication with the at least one radio;

wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the wireless station to;

maintain a first data link schedule with a neighboring wireless station at a first and second level of the wireless station, wherein to maintain the data link schedule the wireless station is configured to maintain a first data structure on the first level and maintain a second data structure on the second level, wherein the first data link schedule is associated with a first sequence number;

in response to an indication to update the first data link schedule to a second data link schedule, update a second sequence number associated with the second data link schedule in the first data structure while maintaining the first sequence number associated with the first data link schedule in the second data structure;

transmit to the neighboring wireless station, via a peer-to-peer communication protocol, a request to update the first data link schedule to the second data link schedule; and

in response to receiving a confirmation of the second data link schedule from the neighboring wireless station, update the second data structure with the second data link schedule and the second sequence number.

2. The wireless station of claim 1,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:

maintain a third sequence number in the second data structure, wherein the third sequence number is associated with a third data link schedule received from the neighboring wireless station.

3. The wireless station of claim 1,

wherein the request to update the first data link schedule to the second data link schedule includes an indication of an effective start time of the second data link schedule.

4. The wireless station of claim 3,

wherein the effective start time of the second data link schedule is specified as one of:

a number of slots until the effective start time;

a number of channel resource blocks (CRBs) until the effective start time;

a number CRB periods until the effective start time;

or

a number of discovery window intervals until the effective start time.

5. The wireless station of claim 1,

wherein the second data link schedule includes a committed portion and a conditional portion.

6. The wireless station of claim 5,

wherein the committed portion comprises a subset of the first data link schedule.

7. The wireless station of claim 1,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:

subsequent to transmitting the request, perform peer-to-peer communications with the neighboring wireless station according to the first data link schedule; and

subsequent to receiving the confirmation, perform peer-to-peer communications with the neighboring wireless station according to the second data link schedule.

8. The wireless station of claim 1,

wherein a data link schedule specifies times and channels for peer-to-peer communications.

9. The wireless station of claim 8,

wherein a data structure includes a bitmap representing the data link schedule.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor in communication with the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to;

communicate, according to a peer-to-peer communication protocol, with a neighboring wireless device using a first data link schedule, wherein the first data link schedule is substantially concurrently maintained at an application layer and a firmware layer of a wireless device, wherein the first data link schedule is associated with a first sequence number;

receive, at the application layer, an indication to update the first data link schedule to a second data link schedule, wherein the second data link schedule is associated with a second sequence number, and wherein the second data link schedule includes a committed portion and a conditional portion;

generate instructions to transmit, to the neighboring wireless device, a request to update the first data link schedule to the second data link schedule, and wherein the second data link schedule is maintained at the application layer; and

in response to receiving a confirmation of the second data link schedule from the neighboring wireless device, update the firmware layer with the second data link schedule and the second sequence number.

11. The apparatus of claim 10,

wherein the first and second data link schedules are specified by respective bitmaps, wherein the bitmaps represent times and channels for peer-to-peer communication.

12. The apparatus of claim 10,

wherein the request to update the first data link schedule to the second data link schedule includes an indication of an effective start time of the second data link schedule.

13. The apparatus of claim 12,

wherein the effective start time of the second data link schedule is specified as one of:

a number of slots until the effective start time;

a number of channel resource blocks (CRBs) until the effective start time;

a number CRB periods until the effective start time;

or

a number of discovery window intervals until the effective start time.

14. The apparatus of claim 10,

wherein the committed portion of the second data link schedule comprises a subset of the first data link schedule.

15. The apparatus of claim 10,

wherein peer-to-peer communication protocol comprises a Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN) protocol.

16. A non-transitory computer readable memory medium storing program instructions executable by processing circuitry of a wireless station to perform operations comprising:

communicating, according to a peer-to-peer communication protocol, with a neighboring wireless station using a first data communication schedule, wherein the first data communication schedule is maintained at an application layer and a firmware layer of the wireless station, wherein the first data communication schedule is associated with a first sequence number;

receiving, at the application layer, an indication to update the first data communication schedule to a second data communication schedule, wherein the second data link schedule is associated with a second sequence number;

generating instructions to transmit, to the neighboring wireless station, a request to update the first data communication schedule to the second data communication schedule, wherein the second data link schedule is maintained at the application layer, and wherein the request includes an effective time of the second data communication schedule; and

in response to receiving a confirmation of the second data link schedule from the neighboring wireless device, updating the firmware layer with the second data link schedule and the second sequence number.

17. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 16,

wherein the first and second data link schedules are specified by respective bitmaps, wherein the bitmaps represent times and channels for peer-to-peer communication.

18. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 16,

wherein the second data link schedule includes a committed portion and a conditional portion.

19. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 18,

wherein the committed portion of the second data link schedule comprises a subset of the first data link schedule.

20. The non-transitory memory medium of claim 16,

wherein the effective start time of the second data link schedule is specified as one of:

a number of slots until the effective start time;

a number of channel resource blocks (CRBs) until the effective start time;

a number CRB periods until the effective start time;

or

a number of discovery window intervals until the effective start time.