Known station hidden network discovery

• US 20090252129A1
• Filed: 04/08/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Jaakkola, Mikko
• Application Number:
  US12/080,992
• Publication Number:
  US 20090252129A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/30 Network data restoration; Network data reliability; Network data fault tolerance

Abstract

A method includes storing a table that contains identifications of certain ones of network devices and, when operating a wireless network access node in a hidden mode of operation, transmitting a probe response only to a probe request that is received from a network device having an identification stored in the table.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing a table that contains identifications of certain ones of network devices; and

when operating a wireless network access node in a hidden mode of operation, transmitting a probe response only to a probe request that is received from a network device having an identification stored in the table.

2. The method of claim 1, where the probe request is a broadcast probe request.

3. The method of claim 1 where the table is maintained by the network access node.

4. The method of claim 1 where the table is maintained by a network node other than the wireless network access node.

5. The method of claim 1 where the table is maintained by a network node and is at least one of communicated to the wireless network access node and interrogated by the wireless network access node.

6. The method of claim 1, where the identification is comprised of a medium access control address of the network device.

7. The method of claim 1, where when operating in the hidden mode the wireless network access node does not transmit an associated service set identifier.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising an initial step of storing the identification of a particular network device in the table only after an initial step of authenticating and associating the network device.

9. The method of claim 1, where the wireless network access node and the network device operate in accordance with a wireless local area network protocol.

10. The method of claim 1, where the network device is a mobile device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically revising the content of the table to at least one of store a new medium access control address of a network device and remove a previously stored medium access control address of a network device.

12. A computer readable memory medium that stores program instructions the execution of which results in operations that comprise:

storing a table that contains identifications of certain ones of network devices; and

when operating a wireless network access node in a hidden mode of operation, only transmitting a probe response to a probe request that is received from a network device having an identification stored in the table.

13. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where the probe request is a broadcast probe request.

14. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where the table is maintained by the network access node.

15. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where the table is maintained by a network node other than the wireless network access node.

16. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where the table is maintained by a network node and is at least one of communicated to the wireless network access node and interrogated by the wireless network access node.

17. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where the identification is comprised of a medium access control address of the network device.

18. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where when operating in the hidden mode the wireless network access node does not transmit an associated service set identifier.

19. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, comprising an initial operation of storing the identification of a particular network device in the table only after authenticating and associating the network device.

20. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where the wireless network access node and the network device operate in accordance with a wireless local area network protocol.

21. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, where the network device is a mobile device.

22. The computer readable memory medium of claim 12, further comprising an operation of periodically revising the content of the table to at least one of store a new medium access control address of a network device and remove a previously stored medium access control address of a network device.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

a wireless transceiver; and

a controller configurable to operate the apparatus as a wireless network access node, said controller configurable, in response to operating in a hidden mode of operation where the apparatus does not transmit an identifier, to transmit a probe response after receiving a probe request from a network device having an identification stored in a table containing identifications of certain network devices.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, where the probe request is a broadcast probe request.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, where the table is maintained by the wireless network access node, or is maintained by a network node other than the wireless network access node.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, where the table is maintained by a network node and further comprising an interface configurable to at least one of receive the table from the network node and interrogate the table at the network node.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, where the identification is comprised of a medium access control address of the network device.

28. The apparatus of claim 23, where the identification of a particular network device is stored in the table only after operations are performed to authenticate and associate the network device.

29. The apparatus of claim 23 where the wireless network access node and the network device operate in accordance with a wireless local area network protocol.

30. The apparatus of claim 23, where the network device is a mobile device.

31. The apparatus of claim 23, said controller further configurable to periodically revise the content of the table to at least one of store a new medium access control address of a network device and to remove a previously stored medium access control address of a network device.

32. A method, comprising:

storing a table that contains identifications of certain ones of network devices; and

communicating at least part of a content of the table to at least one wireless network access node for use when operating the wireless network access node in a hidden mode of operation such that the wireless network access node transmits a probe response to a probe request that is received from a network device having an identification stored in the table.

33. The method of claim 32, where an identification is comprised of a medium access control address of a network device.

34. An apparatus, comprising:

means for storing a plurality of medium access control addresses individual ones of which are associated with an individual one of an authorized network device; and

means, responsive to operation of a wireless network access node in a hidden mode of operation, for transmitting a probe response only to a probe request that is received from a network device having a medium access control address in said storing means.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, where the network device is comprised of a mobile network device.