Reservation with access points

• US 7,394,800 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Issued: 07/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd. (Xiaomi Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sood, Kapil, Walker, Jesse, Qi, Emily H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phan; Huy Q
• Application Number:
  US11/171,867
• Publication Number:
  US 20070002819A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,097 Days
• Field of Search: 370/348, 370/337, 370/310.2, 370/328, 370/338, 370/230, 370/443, 455/410, 455/411, 455/436, 455/432.1
• US Class Current: 370/348
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation

Abstract

A reservation protocol is provided to enable a client mobile station to make a number of reservations with a number of access points to facilitate its access of a network at a future point in time, as it roams, and subsequently exercise one of the reservations.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

reservation logic designed to exercise a reservation with an access point to access a network during a point in time, including logic designed to generate and send a request to the access point to exercise the reservation, with the request having a response to a challenge associated with the reservation earlier posted by the access point when the reservation was earlier made with the access point;

wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to generate a reservation request for the reservation and submit the reservation request to the access point via another access point, or directly to the access point, the another access point facilitating the apparatus in accessing the network at the time of submission of the reservation request, and to generate additional one or more reservation requests to make reservation or reservation with one or more additional access points to access the network during the point in time, and to cause the reservation or reservations with the one or more additional access points to be cancelled when the reservation with the access point is exercised.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to generate the response to the challenge.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the logic to generate the response comprises logic designed to generate a hash based at least in part on data received from the access point when the reservation was made with the access point.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the data comprise one or more selected from the group consisting of a random challenge issued by the access point, data associated with an original reservation request submitted by the apparatus to make the reservation, quality of service parameters, and pairwise master key identification between the apparatus and the access point.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the data associated with an original reservation request comprises one or more selected from the group consisting of the apparatus'"'"'s media access control address, the access point'"'"'s basic service set identifier, and another access point'"'"'s basic service set identifier, the other access point being an access point facilitating the apparatus in accessing the network at the time of submission of the original reservation request.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to automatically release the reservation or reservations with the one or more additional access points by cancelling the reservations with the one or more additional access points when the reservation with the access point is exercised.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reservation request includes one or more selected from the group consisting of the apparatus'"'"'s media access control address, the access point'"'"'s basic service set identifier, and the other access point'"'"'s basic service set identifier.

8. A method to be performed on a mobile station comprising:

submitting a reservation request at a first point in time to make a reservation directly with a first access point, or via a second access point, the reservation to reserve resource on the first access point to facilitate the mobile station in accessing a network in a future point in time, and the second access point facilitating the mobile station in accessing the network at the time of submission of the reservation request;

submitting one or more additional reservation requests make one or more reservations with one or more additional access points, the one or more additional reservations to reserve one or more resources of the one or more additional access pints to facilitate the mobile station in accessing the network in the future point in time;

submitting a reservation exercise request to the first access point at a second point in time subsequent to the first point in time to exercise the reservation with the first access point, including with the reservation exercise request a response to a challenge associated with the reservation posted by the first access point at the time the reservation was made with the first access point; and

causing the one or more additional reservations with one or more resources of the one or more additional access points to be cancelled when the reservation with the first access point exercised.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises generating the response to the challenge, including generation of a hash based at least in part on data received from the first access point at the time the reservation was made, which includes data associated with the reservation request submitted by the mobile station.

10. An article comprising:

storage medium; and

instructions stored on the storage medium designed to program an apparatus to enable the apparatus to perform the method of claim 8.

11. A system comprising:

a communication interface;

a mass storage;

a memory;

a controller coupled to the communication interface, the memory and the mass storage;

a processor coupled to the controller; and

reservation logic designed to exercise a reservation with an access point to access a network during a point in time, including logic designed to generate and send a request to the access point to exercise the reservation, with the request having a response to a challenge associated with the reservation earlier posted by the access point when the reservation was made with the access point, the reservation logic being either disposed in the memory or integrated with the controller;

wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to generate a reservation request for the reservation and submit the reservation request to the access point via another access point, or directly to the access point, the another access point facilitating the system in accessing the network at the time of submission of the reservation request, to generate additional one or more reservation requests to make one or more reservations with one or more additional access points to access the network during the point in time, and to cause the reservation or reservations with the one or more additional access points to be cancelled when the reservation with the access point is exercised.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the reservation request includes one or more selected from the group consisting of the system'"'"'s media access control address, the access point'"'"'s basic service set identifier, and the other access point'"'"'s basic service set identifier.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to automatically release the reservation or reservations with the one or more additional access points by cancelling the reservations with the one or more additional access points when the reservation with the access point is exercised.

14. An apparatus comprising:

first and second communication interfaces to couple the apparatus to a network and to communicate with a client mobile station respectively;

access logic coupled to the first and second communication interfaces, and designed to facilitate the client mobile station in accessing the network; and

reservation logic coupled to the access logic, and designed to facilitate the client mobile station in exercising a reservation previously made with the apparatus to facilitate the client mobile station in accessing the network at a point in time, including logic designed to determine whether the client mobile station has provided a proper response to a challenge associated with the reservation earlier posted by the apparatus when the reservation was made with the apparatus, and the reservation logic further including logic to facilitate, when the previously made reservation is exercised, in cancelling one or more other reservations previously made by the client mobile station with other apparatuses for accessing the network at the point in time.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

first and second communication interfaces to couple the apparatus to a network and to communicate with a client mobile station respectively;

access logic coupled to the first and second communication interfaces, and designed to facilitate the client mobile station in accessing the network; and

reservation logic coupled to the access logic, and designed to facilitate the client mobile station in exercising a reservation previously made with the apparatus to facilitate the client mobile station in accessing the network, including logic designed to determine whether the client mobile station has provided a proper response to a challenge associated with the reservation earlier posted by the apparatus when the reservation was made with the apparatus;

wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to facilitate the client mobile station in making another reservation with another apparatus, while the client mobile station is being facilitated by the access logic in accessing the network, to facilitate the client mobile station to access the network at a future point in time, including logic designed to regulate at least a number of reservations the client mobile station can make with other apparatuses.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the logic to determine includes logic designed to determine whether a hash submitted by the client mobile station as part of an attempt to exercise the reservation is a properly generated hash that is based at least in part on data provided by the apparatus at the time the reservation was made, which includes data associated with an original reservation request submitted by the client mobile station.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to determine whether the reservation has expired.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to cancel other unexercised reservations the client mobile station had made with other apparatuses, in response to the client mobile station exercising the reservation the client mobile station made with the apparatus.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the reservation logic further comprises logic designed to cancel the reservation, if the client mobile station fails to exercise the reservation within a time period.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the regulation logic comprises logic designed to allow the other reservation to be made with the other apparatus, only if the client mobile station has a number of reservations with other apparatuses that is lower than a permissible maximum of reservations with other apparatuses.