METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISCOVERY OF SECTOR IN WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK SYSTEM

• US 20150245377A1
• Filed: 09/30/2013
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lee, Jae Seung, Cheong, Min Ho, Kwon, Hyoung Jin, Park, Jae Woo, Lee, Sok Kyu
• Granted Patent: US 10,098,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/044 based on the type of the allocated resource
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Provided is a sector discovery apparatus and method, the method including setting, by an AP in a WLAN system, an omni-beacon interval for transmitting an omnidirectional beacon and sector beacon intervals for transmitting a sector beacon with respect to one of a plurality of sectors which are spatially divided, transmitting the sector beacon to a current sector among the plurality of sectors, transmitting, to the current sector, a transmission frame indicating sectorized transmission or a transmission frame indicating omnidirectional transmission, in a sector interval between the sector beacon intervals, and receiving, from a terminal located in the current sector, a response frame indicating an association performed by receiving the transmission frame indicating the sectorized transmission.

Claims

1. A sector discovery method of an access point (AP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method comprising:

setting, by an AP in a WLAN system, an omni-beacon interval for transmitting an omnidirectional beacon and sector beacon intervals for transmitting a sector beacon with respect to one of a plurality of sectors which are spatially divided;

transmitting the sector beacon to a current sector among the plurality of sectors;

transmitting, to the current sector, a transmission frame indicating sectorized transmission or a transmission frame indicating omnidirectional transmission, in a sector interval between the sector beacon intervals; and

receiving, from a terminal located in the current sector, a response frame indicating an association performed by receiving the transmission frame indicating the sectorized transmission.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein when the transmission frame indicates the sectorized transmission, the transmission frame comprises identifier information or a current sector number, and the transmission frame corresponds to one of a beacon frame, a probe response frame, and an association response frame.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the response frame comprises the identifier information or the current sector number.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allocating an association identifier (AID) to the terminal located in the current sector.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from another terminal located in the current sector, a response frame indicating the association performed by receiving the transmission frame indicating the omnidirectional transmission.

6. A sector discovery method of an access point (AP) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method comprising:

setting, by an AP in a WLAN system, an omni-beacon interval for transmitting an omnidirectional beacon and sector beacon intervals for transmitting a sector beacon with respect to one of a plurality of sectors which are spatially divided;

receiving a probe request for an association with the AP in a sector interval between the sector beacon intervals, and unicasting or broadcasting omnidirectionally a probe response in response to the probe request;

sweeping, to the plurality of sectors, a discovery frame including corresponding sector information in the sector interval between the sector beacon intervals; and

receiving, from a terminal receiving the discovery frame, an association request frame including a sector identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the discovery frame is a null data packet (NDP) type short frame, and the sector information is included in a signal (SIG) field of the NDP type short frame.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the SIG field comprises sector identifier information and identifier information of the AP.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the AP generates, before transmitting the discovery frame, scheduling information indicating a transmission time of the discovery frame and incorporates the scheduling information in the probe response.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the AP generates scheduling information indicating a transmission time of the discovery frame, and unicasts or broadcasts a probe response frame or a beacon including the scheduling information.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the AP incorporates scheduling information indicating a transmission time of the discovery frame to an association response frame, and transmits the association response frame.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the AP broadcasts scheduling information indicating a transmission time of the discovery frame in the omni-beacon interval.

13. A sector discovery method of a station (STA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method comprising:

receiving a sector beacon from an access point (AP) of a WLAN system, which sets an omni-beacon interval for transmitting an omnidirectional beacon and sector beacon intervals for transmitting the sector beacon with respect to one of a plurality of sectors divided spatially;

receiving, in a sector interval between the sector beacon intervals, a transmission frame indicating sectorized transmission or a transmission frame indicating omnidirectional transmission;

generating a response frame indicating an association performed by receiving the transmission frame indicating the sectorized transmission; and

transmitting the response frame to the AP.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein when the transmission frame indicates the sectorized transmission, the transmission frame comprises identifier information or a current sector number, and the response frame comprises the identifier information or the current sector number.

15. A sector discovery method of a station (STA) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method comprising:

receiving a probe response omnidirectionally transmitted in a sector interval between sector beacon intervals from an access point (AP) of a WLAN system, which sets an omni-beacon interval for transmitting an omnidirectional beacon and the sector beacon intervals for transmitting a sector beacon with respect to one of a plurality of sectors divided spatially;

receiving a discovery frame including corresponding sector information in the sector interval between the sector beacon intervals; and

attempting an association with one of the plurality of sectors based on the discovery frame.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the discovery frame is a null data packet (NDP) type short frame, and the sector information is included in a signal (SIG) field of the NDP type short frame.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the SIG field comprises sector identifier information and identifier information of the AP.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the probe response comprises scheduling information indicating a transmission time of a next discovery frame, and the STA attempts the association with one of the plurality of sectors based on the scheduling information.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the STA receives an association response frame or a beacon including scheduling information indicating a transmission time of a next discovery frame.

20-23. -23. (canceled)