METHOD FOR SEARCHING FOR DEVICE AND COMMUNICATION DEVICE USING SAME

• US 20130227152A1
• Filed: 11/01/2011
• Published: 08/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Jinwoo, Song, Jaehyung, Choi, Inhwan, Lee, Byungjoo, Oh, Hangseok
• Granted Patent: US 9,369,947 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks

Abstract

Provided are a device discovery method and a communication device thereof. The method includes: transmitting a probe request frame; receiving a probe response frame including session information on a client connected to a group owner (GO), from the GO among source and sink devices belonging to the display group; and determining whether to associate with the display group by using the session information in the probe response frame.

Claims

1. A method of discovering a device in a display group transmitting/receiving multimedia content, the method comprising:

transmitting a probe request frame;

receiving a probe response frame including session information on a client connected to a group owner (GO), from the GO among source and sink devices belonging to the display group; and

determining whether to associate with the display group by using the session information in the probe response frame.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the source and sink devices in the display group are connected using at least one of a P2P connection method and a Tunneled Direct Link Setup (TDLS) connection method.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein

the probe response frame comprises a first information element including attribute information on a P2P group and a second information element including type and status information on devices in the display group;

and

the session information is inserted into a vender specific field of the probe response frame as a sub element of the second information element.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the session information is configured using information delivered to the GO during a session connection with the client.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the session information comprises a device information descriptor including information on all clients connected to the GO.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the device information descriptor comprises a device address and a device information bitmap, for each of the clients.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the device information bitmap indicates a type, whether to support a coupled sink operation, a current status, whether to support a service discovery function, a preferred connection method, and whether to support a content protection function of the client.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein the device information descriptor comprises connection service set identification information indicating an address of an access point (AP) for a device connected to the AP among the clients.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein the device information descriptor comprises coupled sink information indicating a coupling status and an address of a coupled device, for a device supporting a coupled sink operation among the clients.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining of whether to associate with the display group comprises:

providing the session information to a user; and

receiving a selection on whether to associate with the display group from the user.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising configuring another display group with a client in the display group by using the session information in the probe response frame.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the configuring of the display group comprises:

discovering the client by transmitting/receiving a public action frame to/from the GO on the basis of the session information to discover the client; and

performing an invitation or GO negotiation on the other display group by transmitting/receiving a public action frame to/from the discovered client.

13. A device transmitting/receiving multimedia content in connection with a display group configured with source and sink devices, the device comprising:

a transceiver unit transmitting a probe request frame;

receiving a probe response frame including session information on a client connected to a group owner (GO), from the GO among source and sink devices belonging to the display group; and

an interface unit associating with the display group by using the session information in the prober response frame.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein

the probe response frame comprises a first information element including attribute information on a P2P group and a second information element including type and status information on devices in the display group;

and

the session information is inserted into a vender specific field of the probe response frame as a sub element of the second information element.

15. The device according to claim 13, wherein the session information comprises a device information descriptor including information on all clients connected to the GO.

16. The device according to claim 15, wherein

the device information descriptor comprises a device address and a device information bitmap, for each of the clients;

and

the device information bitmap indicates a type, whether to support a coupled sink operation, a current status, whether to support a service discovery function, a preferred connection method, and whether to support a content protection function of the client.

17. The device according to claim 15, wherein the device information descriptor comprises connection service set identification information indicating an address of an access point (AP) for a device connected to the AP among the clients.

18. The device according to claim 15, wherein the device information descriptor comprises coupled sink information indicating a coupling status and an address of a coupled device, for a device supporting a coupled sink operation among the clients.

19. The device according to claim 13, wherein the interface unit configures another display group with a client in the display group by using the session information in the probe response frame.

20. The device according to claim 19, wherein the interface unit discovers the client by transmitting/receiving a public action frame to/from the GO on the basis of the session information to discover the client and performs an invitation or GO negotiation on the other display group by transmitting/receiving a public action frame to/from the discovered client.