METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SERVICE DISCOVERY IN WI-FI DIRECT NETWORK

• US 20110149806A1
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: VERMA, Lochan, JEONG, Jin-woo, PARK, Sung-bum, NA, Il-ju
• Granted Patent: US 8,559,340 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/162 at the data link layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for service discovery in a Wi-Fi direct (WFD). The method includes: generating by a first WFD device a service discovery request frame for discovering whether a service is supported by a second WFD device in the WFD network; transmitting the generated service discovery request frame from the first WFD device to the second WFD device; and receiving at the first WFD device a service discovery response frame from the second WFD device in response to the transmitted service discovery request frame, wherein the service discovery request frame and the service discovery response frame are generated by using a Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) information element (IE).

Claims

1. A method of discovering a service in a WFD network, the method comprising:

generating by a first Wi-Fi direct (WFD) device, a service discovery request frame for discovering whether a service is supported by a second WFD device in the WFD network;

transmitting the generated service discovery request frame from the first WFD device to the second WFD device; and

receiving, at the first WFD device, a service discovery response frame from the second WFD device in response to the transmitted service discovery request frame,

wherein the service discovery request frame and the service discovery response frame are generated using a Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) information element (IE).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the WPS IE comprises a WPS attribute identifier (ID) field and a sub-attribute ID field;

the WPS attribute ID field comprises a value indicating that the WPS attribute ID field comprises vendor expansion data; and

the sub-attribute ID field comprises a value identifying the service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the sub-attribute ID field identifies at least one of system information, device capability information, display capability information, video profile information, audio profile information, transmission capability information, and three-dimensional capability information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the WPS IE in the service discovery response frame comprises a sub-element with respect to a service supported by the second WFD device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the sub-element with respect to the service supported by the second WFD device comprises at least one of system information, device capability information, display capability information, video profile information, audio profile information, transmission capability information, and 3D capability information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the service discovery request frame from the first WFD device to the second WFD device comprises unicasting or broadcasting the service discovery request frame by using a probe request frame.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising selectively establishing a layer 2 secure connection to the second WFD device based on information regarding one or more services supported by the second WFD device, which is comprised in the received service discovery response frame.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first WFD device and the second WFD device are Wi-Fi display certified devices.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the WPS IE comprises a field comprising a value identifying the service or a value for discovering a plurality of services supported by the second WFD device.

20. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a computer program for executing the method of claim 1.

10. A method of discovering a service in a Wi-Fi direct (WFD) network, the method comprising:

receiving, at a second WFD device, a service discovery request frame transmitted from a first WFD device for discovering whether a service is supported by the second WFD device;

generating, by a second WFD device, a service discovery response frame in response to the received service discovery request frame based on whether the service is supported by the second WFD device; and

transmitting the generated service discovery response frame from the second WFD device to the first WFD device,

wherein the service discovery request frame and the service discovery response frame are generated using a Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) information element (IE).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the WPS IE comprises a WPS attribute identifier (ID) field and a sub-attribute ID field;

the WPS attribute ID field comprises a value indicating that the WPS attribute ID field comprises vendor expansion data, and

the sub-attribute ID field comprises a value identifying the service.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sub-attribute ID identifies at least one of system information, device capability information, display capability information, video profile information, audio profile information, transmission capability information, and three-dimensional capability information.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the WPS IE in the service discovery response frame comprises a sub-element with respect to a service supported by the second WFD device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the sub-element with respect to the service supported by the second WFD device comprises at least one of system information, device capability information, display capability information, video profile information, audio profile information, transmission capability information, and 3D capability information.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting the service discovery response frame comprises unicasting or broadcasting the service discovery response frame by using a probe response frame.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the first WFD device and the second WFD device are Wi-Fi display certified devices.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the receiving, the generating, and the transmitting are performed by the second WFD device without a layer 2 secure connection established between the first WFD device and the second WFD device.

21. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a computer program for executing the method of claim 10.

18. A Wi-Fi direct (WFD) device in a WFD network, the WFD device comprising:

a frame generating unit which generates a service discovery request frame for discovering whether a service is supported by another WFD device in the WFD network;

a frame transmitting unit which transmits the generated service discovery request frame to the other WFD device; and

a frame receiving unit which receives a service discovery response frame from the other WFD device in response to the transmitted service discovery request frame,

wherein the service discovery request frame and the service discovery response frame are generated using a Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) information element (IE).

19. A Wi-Fi direct (WFD) device in a WFD network, the WFD device comprising:

a frame receiving unit which receives, from another WFD device in the WFD network, a service discovery request frame for discovering whether a service is supported by the WFD device;

a frame generating unit which generates a service discovery response frame in response to the received service discovery request frame based on whether the service is supported by the WFD device; and

a frame transmitting unit which transmits the generated service discovery response frame to the other WFD device,

wherein the service discovery request frame and the service discovery response frame are generated using a Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) information element (IE).

22. A method of discovering a service a Wi-Fi direct (WFD) network, the method comprising:

receiving information regarding one or more services supported by a WFD device in the WFD network, the information being generated using a Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) information element (IE); and

determining whether to establish a layer 2 secure connection based on the received information.

23. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a computer program for executing the method of claim 22.