ZERO LATENCY BSS TRANSITION WITH ON-CHANNEL TUNNELING (OCT)

• US 20200137651A1
• Filed: 12/27/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2019
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Cariou, Laurent, Cordeiro, Carlos, Bravo, Daniel F., Reshef, Ehud
• Granted Patent: US 11,234,174 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0016 Hand-off preparation specially adapted for end-to-end data sessions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0038 of security context information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0061 of neighbour cell information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0064 of control information between different access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 between access points

Abstract

Embodiments of transitioning between BSSs using on-channel tunneling (OCT) are generally described herein. OCT procedures are used for scanning and association with a co-located or non-co-located peer AP. The OCT procedures include communicating a Probe/Re-authentication/Re-association Request frame from a STA using an OCT Request frame to the peer AP and receiving a Probe/Re-authentication/Re-association Response frame from the peer AP using another OCT Request frame. The communications between the STA and the AP are either in the same frequency band or a different frequency band as the OCT communications between the AP and the peer AP.

Claims

1. An apparatus of an access point (AP), the apparatus comprising:

processing circuitry configured to;

decode a Probe Request frame received from a station (STA) on a first frequency to transition to another basic service set (BSS), the probe request indicating a peer AP;

determine that an on-channel tunneling (OCT) procedure is available between one of;

the AP and the peer AP, or

another AP and the peer AP, the other AP connected to the AP;

in response to a determination that the OCT procedure is available between the AP and the peer AP, generate an OCT tunneling request frame comprising the Probe Request frame for transmission to the peer AP on the first frequency; and

in response to a determination that the OCT procedure is available between the other AP and the peer AP, generate a medium access control layer (MAC) Sublayer Management Entity (MLME)-OCTunnel.request primitive comprising the Probe Request frame for transmission of the Probe Request frame in the OCT tunneling request frame by the other AP to the peer AP on a second frequency; and

a memory configured to store the Probe Request frame.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

generate, for transmission to the STA, a BSS Transition Management (BTM) request, the BTM comprising a neighbor report describing the peer AP with a request to transition to the peer AP, the Probe Request frame received in response to transmission to the BTM request.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

generate a beacon frame comprising a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) element and an OCT Recommended bit, the RNR element comprising the neighbor report, the OCT Recommended bit indicating that the OCT procedure is available between the one of the AP and the peer AP, or the other AP and the peer AP.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

in response to a determination that the OCT procedure is available between the AP and the peer AP, generate at least one OCT tunneling request frame containing at least one of a re-authentication request and a re-association request for transmission to the peer AP on the first frequency; and

in response to transmission of the at least one OCT tunneling request frame, decode at least one of a re-authentication response and a re-association response from the peer AP on the first frequency.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

in response to a determination that the OCT procedure is available between the other AP and the peer AP, generate at least one MLME-OCTunnel.request primitive comprising the at least one of a re-authentication request and a re-association request for transmission of the at least one of a re-authentication request and a re-association request in at least one OCT tunneling request frame by the other AP to the peer AP on a second frequency; and

in response to transmission of the at least one MLME-OCTunnel.request primitive, decode at least one MLME-OCTunnel.request primitive comprising at least one of a re-authentication response and a re-association response from the other AP.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

in response to the STA being a multi-band capable device that is capable of simultaneous communication on different bands and a determination that the OCT procedure is available between the other AP and the peer AP, continue to decode data from the STA on the first frequency after tunneled Probe Request, Reauthentication and Reassociation frames have been communicated between the other AP and the peer AP via the OCT procedure and the STA is in communication with the peer AP using the second frequency.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the OCT procedure, values of Band ID, Channel Number and BSSID fields in a Multi-band element of an OCT primitive are used to identify the NT-MLME.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the other AP is co-located with the AP

the processing circuitry comprises a Station Management Entity (SME) and a non-transmitting MLME (NT-MLME),

the SME is configured to generate an OCT MLME request primitive that includes the Probe Request frame, a peer Multi-band element, and a local Multi-band element, and

in response to reception of the OCT MLME request primitive, the NT-MLME is configured to;

construct an OCT MAC Protocol Data Unit (MMPDU)

corresponding to the OCT MLME request primitive,

generate an MLME-OCTunnel.request primitive with parameters including the OCT MMPDU, the Multi-band peer parameter set to the peer AP and a Multi-band Source parameter that identifies the NT-MLME, and

send the MLME-OCTunnel.request primitive to a transmitting MLME (TR-MLME) of the other AP.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein:

the NT-MLME is configured to, in response to transmission of the MLME-OCTunnel.request primitive, decode a MLME-OCTunnel.confirm primitive from the TR-MLME to indicate an outcome of transmission of the OCT tunneling request frame.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein:

the NT-MLME is further configured to, in response to transmission of the MLME-OCTunnel.request primitive, decode from the TR-MLME a MLME-OCTunnel.indication primitive from the TR-MLME comprising a Probe Response frame in response to the Probe Request frame.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

the MLME-OCTunnel.indication primitive further comprises a Multi-band local parameter set to a Multi-band element identifying the TR-MLME, a Multi-band Source parameter set to the Multi-band Source field contained in the On-channel Tunnel Request frame and a Tunneled RXVECTOR parameter set to an RXVECTOR of the On-channel Tunnel Request frame.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein:

the NT-MLME is configured to, in response to reception of the OCTunnel.indication primitive, generate an OCT MLME response primitive that includes the Probe Response frame.

13. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein:

the other AP is co-located with the AP,

the processing circuitry comprises a Station Management Entity (SME) and a non-transmitting MLME (NT-MLME), and

in response to reception of an OCT MLME request primitive to scan for APs, the NT-MLME is configured to generate a MLME-SCAN.request primitive for a TR-MLME to scan for APs, the MLME-SCAN.request primitive specifying a list of channels to examine when scanning for a BSS, the MLME-SCAN.request primitive comprising a Multi-band local parameter, a Multi-band peer parameter, and a ChannelList parameter, the ChannelList parameter specifying channels used by the TR-MLME and the Multi-band peer parameter containing channels to be scanned.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein:

the NT-MLME is configured to decode, from the TR-MLME in response to transmission of the MLME-SCAN.request primitive to the TR-MLME, a MLME-SCAN. confirm primitive comprising a result code that is able to report that not all channels have been scanned as specified in the ChannelList parameter of the MLME-SCAN.request primitive.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein:

the MLME-SCAN.confirm primitive further comprises a ScannedChannelList parameter that contains a list of scanned channels that is a subset of the channels present in the ChannelList parameter of the MLME-SCAN.request primitive.

16. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

the first frequency is 2.4 GHz and the second frequency is 6 GHz.

17. An apparatus of an access point (AP), the apparatus comprising:

processing circuitry configured to;

decode an on-channel tunneling (OCT) request from a co-located AP, the OCT request comprising a Probe Request frame from a station (STA) to the co-located AP on a first frequency band, the Probe Request frame indicating a peer AP to transition to;

in response to reception of the OCT request, generate an OCT request frame comprising the Probe Request frame for transmission to the peer AP on a second frequency band;

decode an OCT response frame from the peer AP on the second frequency band in response to transmission of the OCT request frame, the OCT response frame comprising a Probe Response frame in response to the Probe Request frame; and

in response to reception of the OCT response frame, generate an OCT response comprising the Probe Response frame for transmission by the co-located AP to the STA on the first frequency band; and

a memory configured to store at least one of the Probe Request frame and Probe Response frame. The apparatus according to claim 17, the processing circuitry further configured to;

generate, for transmission to the peer AP on the second frequency band, at least one OCT tunneling request frame comprising at least one of a re-authentication request and a re-association request from the STA received by the co-located AP on the first frequency band; and

in response to transmission of the at least one OCT tunneling request frame, decode, from the peer AP on the second frequency band for transmission to the STA by the co-located AP on the first frequency band, at least one of a re-authentication response and a re-association response in response to the at least one of the re-authentication request and the re-association request.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry to perform operations for communication by an access point (AP), the operations to configure the processing circuitry to:

receive a Probe Request frame, indicating a peer AP, from a station (STA) on a first frequency band;

transmit an on-channel tunneling (OCT) request to a co-located AP for transmission in an OCT request frame to the peer AP on a second frequency band, the OCT request and OCT request frame comprising the Probe Request frame;

receive an OCT response from the co-located AP, the OCT response comprising a Probe Response frame in response to the Probe Request frame, the Probe Request frame received by the co-located AP from the peer AP on the second frequency band; and

transmit the Probe Response frame to the STA on the first frequency band.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 19, the operations to further configure the processing circuitry to:

receive, from the STA on the first frequency band, at least one of a re-authentication request and a re-association request;

send, for transmission by the co-located AP to the peer AP on the second frequency band, at least one OCT tunneling request comprising the at least one of a re-authentication request and a re-association request;

receive, from the co-located AP, at least one of a re-authentication response and a re-association response in response to the at least one of the re-authentication request and the re-association request, the at least one of a re-authentication response and a re-association response received from the peer AP by the co-located AP on the second frequency band; and

send the at least one of a re-authentication response and a re-association response to the STA on the first frequency band.