DISCOVERY AND OPERATION OF HYBRID WIRELESS WIDE AREA AND WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORKS

• US 20140092885A1
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Published: 04/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Muthaiah Venkatachalam, Puneet K. Jain
• Inventors: VENKATACHALAM, MUTHAIAH, JAIN, PUNEET K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,917,708 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/04 Large scale networks; Deep hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Technology for setting up a Device to Device (D2D) communication channel between mobile wireless devices is disclosed. The technology includes identifying a first user equipment and a second user equipment located within a proximity; receiving network assisted proximity discovery information at one of the first UE and the second UE from an evolved packet core (EPC) operating on a third generation partnership practice (3GPP) wireless wide area network (WWAN); and setting up a device to device (D2D) communication between the first UE and the second UE based on the network assisted proximity discovery information received from the EPC.

Claims

1. A method for establishing device to device (D2D) communication in a hybrid wireless network, comprising:

identifying a proximity of a first user equipment (UE) with a second UE using a wireless wide area network (WWAN);

communicating network assisted proximity discovery information to the first UE and the second UE, wherein the proximity discovery information includes a D2D communication channel;

establishing a D2D communication link between the first UE and the second UE using a wireless local area network (WLAN) based D2D format on the D2D communication channel.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying the proximity of the first UE and the second UE using a WLAN in communication with the WWAN.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting one of the first UE and the second UE to be a peer to peer (P2P) group owner using a proximity detection function (PDF).

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating an identification for the first UE (UE1 ID) and the second UE (UE2 ID) based on at least one of the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), international mobile-station equipment identity (IMEI), media access control (MAC) identification (ID), mobile subscriber integrated services digital network-number (MSISDN), temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI), globally unique temporary identity (GUTI), local mobile subscriber identity (LMSI), temporary logical link identifier (TLLI), access network identity (ASN), D2D access point name (APN), and a new identity mapped to the IMSI for charging purposes.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising constructing a peer to peer (P2P) interface medium access control (MAC) address that is a virtual MAC address that is derived from the UE1 ID and the UE2 ID to establish the D2D communication link between the first UE and the second UE.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting proximity between the first UE and the second UE using the network assisted proximity discovery information received at the first UE and the second UE via the WWAN, wherein the WWAN is a third generation partnership project (3GPP) Release 8, 9, 10 or 11 based WWAN.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising detecting proximity between the first UE and the second UE by transmitting a peer to peer group (P2PGroup) basic service set identification (BSSID) from one of the first UE and the second UE that is selected to be a peer to peer (P2P) group owner and scanning for the P2PGroup BSSID by one of the first UE and the second UE that is not selected to be the P2P group owner.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting P2PGroup BSSID on the D2D communication channel and scanning for the P2PGroup BSSID on the D2D communication channel.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating network assisted proximity discovery information further comprises transmitting to one of the first UE and the second UE that is selected as group owner:

a group owner status selected by a proximity detection function;

an identification (ID) value (UE ID); and

a D2D communication channel center frequency and bandwidth.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein communicating network assisted proximity discovery information to the group owner further comprises communicating:

a peer to peer group (P2PGroup) basic service set identification (BSSID);

a peer to peer (P2P) interface medium access control (MAC) address for the UE selected as the group owner; and

a P2P interface MAC address for one of the first UE and the second UE that is not selected as the group owner.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the P2P interface MAC address for each UE is derived from a UE identification (ID) value derived for that UE.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating network assisted proximity discovery information further comprises transmitting to one of the first UE and the second UE that is not selected as group owner:

a group owner status selected by a proximity detection function;

a user equipment (UE) identification (ID) value; and

a D2D communication channel bandwidth and center frequency.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein communicating network assisted proximity discovery information to one of the first UE and the second UE that is not selected as group owner further comprises communicating:

a peer to peer (P2P) interface medium access control (MAC) address for the UE selected as the group owner; and

a P2P interface MAC address for one of the first UE and the second UE that is not selected as the group owner.

14. A module operable to establish device to device (D2D) communication, comprising:

a proximity detection function (PDF) module in communication with a third generation partnership project (3GPP) configured wireless wide area network (WWAN), wherein the PDF module is configured to;

identify when a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE are located within proximity;

select one of the first UE and the second UE as a peer to peer (P2P) group owner; and

communicate selected network assisted proximity discovery information to the first UE and the second UE based on the P2P group owner.

15. The module of claim 14, wherein the PDF module is located in one of an enhanced Node B (eNB), a mobility management entity (MME) server, an access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF), and a server operating on a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) core.

16. The module of claim 14, wherein the PDF module is configured to identify when the first UE is located in proximity with the second UE upon receiving a request to detect proximity from one of the first UE and the second UE.

17. The module of claim 14, wherein the PDF module is configured to periodically monitor to identify when the first UE and the second UE are located in proximity.

18. The module of claim 14, wherein the PDF module is configured to configured to communicate with the first UE and the second UE via at least one of:

radio resource control (RRC) signaling, an S1 access point, a non access stratum (NAS) layer, an open mobile alliance (OMA) device management protocol, hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP), extensible markup language (XML), and simple object access protocol (SOAP).

19. A user equipment configured to setup a device to device (D2D) communication, comprising:

a device to device (D2D) module operating on the UE and configured to communicate with a proximity detection function (PDF) module in communication with a third generation partnership project (3GPP) wireless wide area network, wherein the D2D module is configured to;

receive an indication from the PDF module that another UE is located within proximity of the UE;

receive network assisted proximity discovery information from the PDF module that can be used to establish a D2D communication with the other UE, including a D2D communication channel;

receive a peer to peer (P2P) group owner status from the PDF module; and

setup the D2D communication on the D2D communication channel with the other UE using the network assisted proximity discovery information based on the P2P group owner status.

20. The UE of claim 19, wherein the D2D module is configured to:

transmit a peer to peer (P2P) group (P2PGroup) basic service set identification (BSSID) on the D2D communication channel when receiving a status of P2P group owner; and

scan for the P2PGroup BSSID on the D2D communication channel when receiving a status of P2P non-group owner.

21. The UE of claim 19, wherein the D2D module is configured to construct a peer to peer (P2P) interface medium access control (MAC) address for the UE and for the other UE.

22. The UE of claim 21, wherein the D2D module is configured to construct the P2P interface MAC using a first UE identification (ID) value for the first UE and a second UE ID value for the other UE.

23. The UE of claim 22, wherein the first UE ID value for the UE and the second UE ID value for the other UE are each constructed based on at least one of the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), international mobile-station equipment identity (IMEI), media access control (MAC) identification (ID), mobile subscriber integrated services digital network-number (MSISDN), temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI), globally unique temporary identity (GUTI), local mobile subscriber identity (LMSI), temporary logical link identifier (TLLI), access network identity (ASN), D2D access point name (APN), and a new identity mapped to the IMSI for charging purposes.

24. The UE of claim 21, wherein the D2D module is configured to setup a D2D communication with the other UE using the P2P interface MAC address to allow the UE and the other UE to communicate via the D2D communication.

25. The UE of claim 19, wherein the D2D module is configured to setup the D2D communication on the D2D communication channel with the other UE to enable the UE to communicate with the other UE without the use of an eNodeB in the WWAN or a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point.

26. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions adapted to be executed to implement a method for establishing a device to device (D2D) communication, comprising:

identifying a first user equipment (UE) and a second UE located within a proximity;

receiving network assisted proximity discovery information at one of the first UE and the second UE from an evolved packet core (EPC) operating on a third generation partnership practice (3GPP) wireless wide area network (WWAN); and

setting up a device to device (D2D) communication between the first UE and the second UE using WiFi direct based on the network assisted proximity discovery information received from the EPC.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising receiving the network assisted proximity discovery information at one of the first UE and the second UE from a proximity discovery function (PDF) module operating on one of a mobility management entity (MME) and an Access Network Discovery and Selection Function (ANDSF) operating in the EPC.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising constructing a peer to peer (P2P) interface medium access control (MAC) address for the first UE and for the second UE.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising constructing a first UE ID value for the first UE and a second UE ID value for the second UE, wherein each UE ID value is constructed based on at least one of the international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), international mobile-station equipment identity (IMEI), media access control (MAC) identification (ID), mobile subscriber integrated services digital network-number (MSISDN), temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI), globally unique temporary identity (GUTI), local mobile subscriber identity (LMSI), temporary logical link identifier (TLLI), access network identity (ASN), D2D access point name (APN), and a new identity mapped to the IMSI for charging purposes.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising constructing a peer to peer (P2P) interface medium access control (MAC) address that is a virtual MAC address that is derived from the first UE ID and the second UE ID to establish the D2D communication link between the first UE and the second UE.