Neighbor awareness network discovery

• US 10,334,513 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2017
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Satyanarayana, Mahesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Abad, Jackie Zuniga
• Application Number:
  US15/494,633
• Publication Number:
  US 20180310232A1
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

In one embodiment, a networking device in a network forms a Wi-Fi association with a node on a first wireless channel. The networking device preforms a passive scan of Wi-Fi Neighbor Awareness Network (NAN) channels and receives a NAN discovery beacon from a NAN via a particular one of the NAN channels during the passive scan. The networking device generates a NAN cluster discovery attribute for the NAN based on the received NAN discovery beacon, and sends the NAN discovery attribute to the node via the first wireless channel, wherein the node uses the NAN discovery attribute to associate with the NAN.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

forming, by a wireless access point device in a network, a Wi-Fi association with a user equipment device on a first wireless channel;

performing, by the wireless access point device, a passive scan of Wi-Fi Neighbor Awareness Network (NAN) channels to discover one or more available NANs for the user equipment to associate with;

receiving, at the wireless access point device, a NAN discovery beacon from a NAN via a particular one of the NAN channels during the passive scan;

generating, by the wireless access point device, a NAN cluster discovery attribute for the NAN based on the received NAN discovery beacon; and

sending, by the wireless access point device, the NAN cluster discovery attribute to the user equipment device via the first wireless channel, wherein the user equipment device uses the NAN cluster discovery attribute to associate with the NAN.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the particular NAN channel comprises at least one of:

Wi-Fi channel 6 in the 2.4 GHz band, Wi-Fi channel 44 in the 5 GHz band, or channel Wi-Fi 149 in the 5 GHz band.

3. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the wireless access point device, a NAN probe request from the user equipment device via the first wireless channel, wherein the NAN cluster discovery attribute is sent to the user equipment device via the first wireless channel based on the received probe request.

4. The method as in claim 1,

wherein the user equipment device associates with the NAN using a different channel than that of the first wireless channel.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein sending the NAN cluster discovery attribute to the user equipment device via the first wireless channel comprises:

sending, by the wireless access point device, a plurality of NAN cluster discovery attributes for a plurality of NANs to the user equipment device.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein the NAN cluster discovery attribute indicates at least one of:

a service offered by the NAN or a wireless channel used by the NAN.

7. The method as in claim 1,

wherein the NAN is a NAN cluster comprising a plurality of user equipment devices.

8. An apparatus comprising:

one or more network interfaces to communicate with a network;

a processor coupled to the network interfaces and configured to execute one or more processes; and

a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed configured to;

form a Wi-Fi association with a user equipment device on a first wireless channel;

perform a passive scan of Wi-Fi Neighbor Awareness Network (NAN) channels to discover one or more available NANs for a user equipment device to associate with;

receive a NAN discovery beacon from a NAN via a particular one of the NAN channels during the passive scan;

generate a NAN cluster discovery attribute for the NAN based on the received NAN discovery beacon; and

send the NAN cluster discovery attribute to the user equipment device via the first wireless channel, wherein the user equipment device uses the NAN cluster discovery attribute to associate with the NAN,

wherein the apparatus comprises a wireless access point.

9. The apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the particular NAN channel comprises at least one of:

Wi-Fi channel 6 in the 2.4 GHz band, Wi-Fi channel 44 in the 5 GHz band, or channel Wi-Fi 149 in the 5 GHz band.

10. The apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the process when executed is further operable to:

receive a NAN probe request from the user equipment device via the first wireless channel, wherein the NAN cluster discovery attribute is sent to the user equipment device via the first wireless channel based on the received probe request.

11. The apparatus as in claim 8,

wherein the user equipment device associates with the NAN using a different channel than that of the first wireless channel.

12. The apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the apparatus sends the NAN cluster discovery attribute to the user equipment device via the first wireless channel by:

sending a plurality of NAN cluster discovery attributes for a plurality of NANs to the user equipment device.

13. The apparatus as in claim 8, wherein the NAN cluster discovery attribute indicates at least one of:

a service offered by the NAN or a wireless channel used by the NAN.

14. The apparatus as in claim 8,

wherein the NAN is a NAN cluster comprising a plurality of user equipment devices.

15. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a networking wireless access point device in a network, cause a networking device to perform a process comprising:

forming, by the wireless access point device, a Wi-Fi association with a user equipment device on a first wireless channel;

performing, by the networking device, a passive scan of Wi-Fi Neighbor Awareness Network (NAN) channels to discover one or more available NANs for the user equipment to associate with;

receiving, at the wireless access point networking device, a NAN discovery beacon from a NAN via a particular one of the NAN channels during the passive scan;

generating, by the wireless access point networking device, a NAN cluster discovery attribute for the NAN based on the received NAN discovery beacon; and

sending, by the wireless access point networking device, the NAN cluster discovery attribute to the user equipment device via the first wireless channel, wherein the user equipment device uses the NAN cluster discovery attribute to associate with the NAN.

16. The computer-readable medium as in claim 15, wherein the particular NAN channel comprises at least one of:

Wi-Fi channel 6 in the 2.4 GHz band, Wi-Fi channel 44 in the 5 GHz band, or channel Wi-Fi 149 in the 5 GHz band.

17. The computer-readable medium as in claim 15,

wherein the user equipment device associates with the NAN using a different channel than that of the first wireless channel.