METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING RELAY OPERATION IN WIRELESS LAN SYSTEM

• US 20150244448A1
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Seok, Yongho
• Granted Patent: US 10,554,287 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/14 Relay systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing a relay operation in a wireless LAN (WLAN) system are disclosed. A method for performing a relay operation by an entity of a wireless LAN (WLAN) system includes: transmitting a frame including information indicating whether the entity is a relay access point (AP) or a root AP to at least one station (STA), wherein, if the entity is the relay AP, the frame further includes a Medium Access Control (MAC) address of the root AP associated with the entity.

Claims

1. A method for performing a relay operation by an entity of a wireless LAN (WLAN) system, the method comprising:

transmitting a frame including information indicating whether the entity is a relay access point (AP) or a root AP to at least one station (STA),

wherein, if the entity is the relay AP, the frame further includes a Medium Access Control (MAC) address of the root AP associated with the entity.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the frame further includes Service Set Identifier (SSID) information, and the SSID information contained in the frame is set to be identical to an SSID of the root AP associated with the entity.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one MAC Service Data Unit (MSDU) received by the the entity from the at least one STA is forwarded by the entity to the root AP associated with the entity through a MAC Protocol Data Unit (MAC PDU) of an Aggregate-MSDU (A-MSDU) format frame.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein:

an Address 1 field of the A-MSDU format frame is set to a receiver address (RA) of the MAC PDU,

an Address 2 field of the A-MSDU format frame is set to a Transmitter Address (TA) of the MAC PDU, and

an Address 3 field of the A-MSDU format frame is set to a Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID).

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein

the Address 1 field is set to a MAC address of the root AP,

the Address 2 field is set to a MAC address of the entity, and

the Address 3 field is set to a MAC address of the root AP.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein:

the A-MSDU format frame includes a first A-MSDU subframe and a second A-MSDU subframe,

a destination address (DA) field of the first A-MSDU subframe is set to a DA of a first MSDU,

a source address (SA) field of the first A-MSDU subframe is set to a SA of the first MSDU,

a DA field of the second A-MSDU subframe is set to a DA of a second MSDU, and

a SA field of the second A-MSDU subframe is set to a SA of the second MSDU.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one MSDU received by the entity from the root AP associated with the entity through a MAC Protocol Data Unit (PDU) of an Aggregate MAC Service Data Unit (A-MSDU) format frame is forwarded by the entity to each destination STA of the at least one MSDU.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein:

an Address 1 field of the A-MSDU format frame is set to a receiver address (RA) of the MAC PDU,

an Address 2 field of the A-MSDU format frame is set to a Transmitter Address (TA) of the MAC PDU, and

an Address 3 field of the A-MSDU format frame is set to a Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID).

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein:

the Address 1 field is set to a MAC address of the entity,

the Address 2 field is set to a MAC address of the root AP, and

the Address 3 field is set to the MAC address of the root AP.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein:

the A-MSDU format frame includes a first A-MSDU subframe and a second A-MSDU subframe,

a destination address (DA) field of the first A-MSDU subframe is set to a DA of a first MSDU,

a source address (SA) field of the first A-MSDU subframe is set to a SA of the first MSDU,

a DA field of the second A-MSDU subframe is set to a DA of a second MSDU, and

a SA field of the second A-MSDU subframe is set to a SA of the second MSDU.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the root AP associated with the entity includes a list of at least one STA address reachable through the entity.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the list of at least one STA address is based upon information transmitted from the entity.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein:

the associated identifier (AID) allocated to the entity by the root AP associated with the entity is an AID by which a calculation value of (dec(AID[0;

8]+dec(Root BSSID[44;

47] XOR Root BSSID[40;

43])×

2⁵)mod2⁹) is identical to a calculation value of (dec(Relay BSSID[39;

47])mod(2⁹−

1))+1,

wherein XOR is an exclusive OR operation,

dec(A) is a value of a decimal number converted from a binary number A,

A[b;

c] is from Bit b to Bit c of the binary number A when a first bit position of the binary number A is Bit 0, and

mod is a modulo operation.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the frame is a probe response frame or a beacon frame.

15. An entity for performing a relay operation in a wireless LAN (WLAN) system, comprising:

a transceiver; and

a processor,

wherein the processor transmits a frame including information indicating whether the entity is a relay access point (AP) or a root AP to at least one station (STA) using the transceiver,

wherein, if the entity is the relay AP, the frame further includes a Medium Access Control (MAC) address of the root AP associated with the entity.