METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR BEACON INFORMATION PROVISIONING, TRANSMISSIONS AND PROTOCOL ENHANCEMENTS

• US 20130230035A1
• Filed: 03/01/2013
• Published: 09/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Inventors: Grandhi, Sudheer A., Ghosh, Monisha, Lou, Hanqing, Wang, Lei, Wang, Xiaofei, Zhang, Guodong
• Granted Patent: US 10,237,818 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0456 Selection of precoding matrices or codebooks, e.g. using matrices antenna weighting
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

A method for beacon information provisioning, transmissions and protocol enhancements includes defining multiple level beacons based on the attributes of beacon information fields/elements. A short beacon may be used in addition to a primary beacon in space-time block code (STBC) modes, non-STBC modes and in multiple bandwidth modes. The short beacons may also be used for Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) and to extend system coverage range. Beacon transmissions may use adaptive modulation and coding set/scheme (MCS).

Claims

1. A method implemented by a station (STA) in wireless communication with a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising:

scanning a channel for an access point (AP) to link with; and

receiving a directional extended range short beacon, wherein the received beacon is sectorized to a spatial signature of the STA, and wherein the short beacon contains fewer fields than a standard beacon.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the short beacon includes information about an access network type associated with the AP.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the short beacon includes fast initial link setup (FILS) information, further comprising:

comparing information of a MLME-SCAN.request primitive with the FILS information;

invoking a MLME-SCAN.confirm primitive in response to scan results;

reporting the MLME-SCAN.confirm primitive on a condition that the comparing information produced a match; and

selecting the AP for linking on a condition that the STA determines that sufficient network service information was obtained from the scan and that the AP satisfies STA requirements.

4. A method implemented in an access point (AP) of a wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

sending a directional extended range short beacon, wherein the beacon is sectorized to a spatial signature of a target station (STA).

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the short beacon includes information about the AP'"'"'s access network type.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

defining a plurality of beacons according to a multiple level beacon scheme in which each beacon level has a different transmission periodicity according to system configuration parameters, wherein content in each defined multiple level beacon is at least one of having partial overlap, having no overlap, or being forward inclusive.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

broadcasting a link setup beacon having a transmission periodicity defined according to system configuration parameters and used to allow the STA to detect the WLAN.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

sending a link and operation maintenance beacon as a unicast, broadcast or multicast transmission having a transmission periodicity defined according to system configuration parameters and used to alert another STA to link operation changes.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

sending an operation initialization beacon as a unicast, broadcast or multicast transmission aperiodicially, wherein the sending is triggered by an event in response to a received indication from another STA for attempted connection establishment.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

sending a traffic indication beacon as a unicast, broadcast or multicast transmission either periodically or aperiodicially, wherein the sending is triggered by an event, wherein listening window information associated with the traffic indication beacon is provided to the STA while the STA is in a power saving mode.

11. A STA in wireless communication with a wireless local area network (WLAN), comprising a processor configured to:

scan a channel for an access point (AP) to link with; and

receive a directional extended range short beacon, wherein received beacon is sectorized to a spatial signature of the STA.

12. The STA of claim 11, wherein the short beacon includes information about the AP'"'"'s access network type.

13. The STA of claim 11, wherein the short beacon includes fast initial link setup (FILS) information, the processor further configured to:

compare information of a MLME-SCAN.request primitive with the FILS information;

invoke a MLME-SCAN.confirm primitive in response to scan results;

report the MLME-SCAN.confirm primitive on a condition that the comparing information produced a match; and

select the AP for linking on a condition that the STA determines that sufficient network service information was obtained from the scan and that the AP satisfies STA requirements.

14. A station (STA) implemented as an access point (AP) of a wireless local area network (WLAN), the STA comprising a processor configured to:

send a directional extended range short beacon, wherein the beacon is sectorized to a spatial signature of a target STA, and wherein the short beacon contains fewer fields than a standard beacon.

15. The STA of claim 14, wherein the short beacon includes information about the access network type associated with the STA.

16. The STA of claim 14, the processor further configured to:

define a plurality of beacons according to a multiple level beacon scheme in which each beacon level has a different transmission periodicity according to system configuration parameters, wherein content in each defined multiple level beacon is at least one of having partial overlap, having no overlap, or being forward inclusive.

17. A station (STA) comprising:

a receiver configured to receive, from an access point (AP);

a legacy beacon in a beacon interval; and

a plurality of short beacons with the beacon interval wherein each of the plurality of short beacons contains fewer fields than the legacy beacon, and wherein each of the plurality of short beacons includes a network type information field that indicates an access network to which the AP is connected.

18. The STA of claim 17, wherein the network type information filed is encoded according to interworking element as specified in IEEE 802.11-2012.

19. The STA of claim 17, further comprising a processor configured to determine whether to associate with the AP based on the network type information field.