EFFICIENT SERVICE ADVERTISEMENT AND DISCOVERY IN MULTIPLE WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20110153818A1
• Filed: 01/10/2011
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Linde, Joakim, Vandwalle, Pierre, Thomas, Tito, Dominguez, Charles Francis
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols

Abstract

A local device broadcasts a first advertisement in a first wireless network via a first wireless interface, where the first advertisement includes one or more service identifiers (IDs) identifying one or more services being advertised and an availability schedule of the local device in the first wireless network. The local device broadcasts a second advertisement in a second wireless network via a second wireless interface. The local device scans in the first wireless network during an availability window of the availability schedule for a response to the first advertisement, where the broadcast of the second advertisement is disabled during the availability window.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for advertising a service in a peer-to-peer networking environment, the method comprising:

broadcasting, by a local device, a first advertisement in a first wireless network via a first wireless interface, the first advertisement including one or more service identifiers (IDs) identifying one or more services being advertised and an availability schedule of the local device in the first wireless network;

broadcasting, by the local device, a second advertisement in a second wireless network via a second wireless interface; and

scanning, by the local device, in the first wireless network during an availability window of the availability schedule for a response to the first advertisement, wherein the broadcast of the second advertisement is disabled during the availability window.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling the broadcast of the second advertisement after the availability window, wherein the broadcast of the second advertisement was temporarily disabled during the availability window.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a service request from a remote device during the availability window of the availability schedule, the service request including at least one of the service IDs identifying at least one advertised service; and

transmitting a service response to the remote device, the service response having detailed information associated with the at least one advertised service.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising scanning by the local device via the second wireless interface seeking a response to the second advertisement in the second wireless network, wherein the scanning of the second wireless network is performed during the availability window of the first wireless network interleaved with the scanning of the first wireless network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein scanning of the first wireless network and the second wireless network is performed using different communications channels.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first and the second advertisements are scheduled according to a first and second advertisement schedules, such that the first and the second advertisements are transmitted in an interleaved manner without substantial interference.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein broadcasting the first advertisement comprises:

attempting to acquire a communications channel according to the first advertisement schedule;

detecting that the communications channel has not been acquired for a predetermined period of time; and

disabling one or more time slots of the scanning of the second wireless network to allow the communications channel to be acquired during the one or more time slots.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first wireless network is a WiFi compatible network and wherein the second wireless network is a Bluetooth compatible network.

9. A machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method for advertising a service in a peer-to-peer networking environment, the method comprising:

broadcasting, by a local device, a first advertisement in a first wireless network via a first wireless interface, the first advertisement including one or more service identifiers (IDs) identifying one or more services being advertised and an availability schedule of the local device in the first wireless network;

broadcasting, by the local device, a second advertisement in a second wireless network via a second wireless interface; and

scanning, by the local device, in the first wireless network during an availability window of the availability schedule for a response to the first advertisement, wherein the broadcast of the second advertisement is disabled during the availability window.

10. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises enabling the broadcast of the second advertisement after the availability window, wherein the broadcast of the second advertisement was temporarily disabled during the availability window.

11. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a service request from a remote device during the availability window of the availability schedule, the service request including at least one of the service IDs identifying at least one advertised service; and

transmitting a service response to the remote device, the service response having detailed information associated with the at least one advertised service.

12. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises scanning by the local device via the second wireless interface seeking a response to the second advertisement in the second wireless network, wherein the scanning of the second wireless network is performed during the availability window of the first wireless network interleaved with the scanning of the first wireless network.

13. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein scanning of the first wireless network and the second wireless network is performed using different communications channels.

14. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the first and the second advertisements are scheduled according to a first and second advertisement schedules, such that the first and the second advertisements are transmitted in an interleaved manner without substantial interference.

15. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein broadcasting the first advertisement comprises:

attempting to acquire a communications channel according to the first advertisement schedule;

detecting that the communications channel has not been acquired for a predetermined period of time; and

disabling one or more time slots of the scanning of the second wireless network to allow the communications channel to be acquired during the one or more time slots.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the first wireless network is a WiFi compatible network and wherein the second wireless network is a Bluetooth compatible network.

17. An apparatus for advertising a service in a peer-to-peer networking environment, the apparatus comprising:

a first advertisement unit to broadcast a first advertisement in a first wireless network via a first wireless interface, the first advertisement including one or more service identifiers (IDs) identifying one or more services being advertised and an availability schedule of the local device in the first wireless network;

a second advertisement unit to broadcast a second advertisement in a second wireless network via a second wireless interface; and

a service arbiter coupled to the first and second advertisement units to disable the broadcast of the second advertisement during the availability window, wherein the first advertisement unit is configured to scan in the first wireless network during an availability window for a response to the first advertisement.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the service arbiter is configured to enable the broadcast of the second advertisement after the availability window, wherein the broadcast of the second advertisement was temporarily disabled during the availability window.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first advertisement unit is configured to

receive a service request from a remote device during the availability window of the availability schedule, the service request including at least one of the service IDs identifying at least one advertised service, and

transmit a service response to the remote device, the service response having detailed information associated with the at least one advertised service.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the second advertisement unit is configured to scan via the second wireless interface seeking a response to the second advertisement in the second wireless network, wherein the scanning of the second wireless network is performed during the availability window of the first wireless network interleaved with the scanning of the first wireless network.

21. A machine-implemented method for advertising a service in a peer-to-peer networking environment, the method comprising:

broadcasting a first advertisement and scanning for a response to the first advertisement in a first wireless network via a first wireless interface according to a first advertisement schedule;

attempting to acquiring a communications channel to broadcast a second advertisement in a second wireless network via a second wireless interface according to a second advertisement schedule; and

disabling scanning for the response to the first advertisement in the first wireless network if the communications channel cannot be acquired for a predetermined period of time, such that the communications channel can be acquired by the second wireless interface for broadcasting the second advertisement.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the attempt to acquire the communications channel is periodically performed until a scanning period of the first advertisement schedule starts in which scanning of the first advertisement is disabled to allow the broadcast of the second advertisement to be performed during the scanning period of the first advertisement schedule.