System and method for advertising the same service set identifier for different basic service sets

• US 7,948,953 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2005
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Aruba Networks Incorporated (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Melkote, Keerti G., Iyer, Pradeep J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kincaid; Lester
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lim; Steven
• Application Number:
  US11/305,910
• Publication Number:
  US 20070140188A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,982 Days
• Field of Search: 370328-329, 370/338
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/02 Resource partitioning among network components, e.g. reuse partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the invention, a method comprises advertising services by a first wireless device. The services are provided by different basic service sets, each basic service set having the same service set identifier (SSID). Thereafter, one of the basic service sets is selected.

Claims

1. A wireless device of a network comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor to advertise services, that are provided by different basic service sets forming the network and each basic service set having the same service set identifier (SSID), by

(1) transmitting a plurality of messages each corresponding to one of the basic service sets, the plurality of messages comprises (i) a first message including the SSID, a unique identifier identifying a first basic service set of the basic service sets and an attribute uniquely identifying the first basic service set, and (ii) a second message including the SSID, a unique identifier identifying a second basic service set of the basic service sets and an attribute uniquely identifying the second basic service set,

(2) analyzing a Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) profile received from a second wireless device in response to at least one of the plurality of messages,

(3) determining if the second wireless device is voice-over-IP capable through analysis of the DTIM profile, and

(4) transmitting at least one message corresponding to one of the basic service sets, the at least one message comprises the SSID, an identifier uniquely identifying a first basic service set of the basic service sets and a DTIM value having either (i) a first value if the second wireless device is voice-over-IP capable or (ii) a second value if the second wireless device is voice-over-IP capable with the first value being greater than the second value.

2. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the attribute identifying the first basic service set includes information that identifies a first encryption scheme and the attribute identifying the second basic service set includes information that identifies a second encryption scheme differing from the first encryption scheme.

3. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the processor advertises the services in response to receiving PROBE REQUEST messages from the second wireless device.

4. A method for advertising services from a plurality of basic service sets, the method comprising:

transmitting a plurality of messages, the plurality of messages comprises (i) a first message including a service set identifier (SSID) and a unique identifier identifying a first basic service set of the plurality of basic service sets, and (ii) a second message including the SSID and a unique identifier identifying a second basic service set of the plurality of basic service sets;

analyzing a Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) profile received from a first wireless device in response to at least one of the plurality of messages;

determining if the first wireless device is voice-over-IP capable through analysis of the DTIM profile; and

transmitting a third message when the first wireless device is voice-over-IP capable, the third message including the SSID, the unique identifier identifying the first basic service set of the basic service sets and a DTIM value having either (i) a first value if the first wireless device is voice-over-IP capable or (ii) a second value if the first wireless device is voice-over-IP capable with the first value being greater than the second value.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the transmitting of the plurality of messages comprises (i) transmitting the first message including an attribute associated with the first basic service set and (ii) transmitting the second message including an attribute associated with the second basic service set.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the attribute associated with the first basic service set includes a first Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) and the attribute associated with the second basic service set includes a second DTIM having a different value than the first DTIM.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the attribute associated with the first basic service set includes information that identifies a first encryption scheme and the attribute associated with the second basic service set includes information that identifies a second encryption scheme differing from the first encryption scheme.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the analyzing of the information includes analyzing a Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) profile contained within a Probe Request message.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the transmitting of the plurality of messages includes transmitting a first beacon being the first message and transmitting a second beacon being the second message.

10. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

transmitting a fourth message when the first wireless device is not voice-over-IP capable, the fourth message including the SSID and the unique identifier identifying the second basic service set.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the attribute associated with the first basic service set includes a first Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) and the attribute associated with the second basic service set includes a second DTIM having a value less than the value of the first DTIM.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first message is a beacon, the second message is a beacon, the information from the first wireless device is a Probe Request message and the third message is a Probe Response message.

13. A wireless device of a network comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor to (1) receive a first message that identifies a first basic service set of a plurality of basic service sets forming the network and a second message that identifies a second basic service set of the plurality of basic service sets, where the first message includes (a) a service set identifier (SSID) being the same SSID as used by the second basic service set and (b) at least one attribute that differs from a corresponding attribute associated with the second basic service set, (2) analyze the at least one attribute being a first Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) value, and (3) determine whether the wireless device is to associate with the first basic service set based on analysis of the at least one attribute,

wherein the corresponding attribute is a second DTIM value that is lesser in value than the first DTIM value and the processor to select the first basic service set associated with the first DTIM value being greater than the second DTIM value if the wireless device is voice-over-IP capable.

14. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the processor to analyze the at least one attribute being Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM).

15. The wireless device of claim 13, wherein the processor to advertise services by transmitting information that prompts transmission of the first message and the second message from a second wireless device.

16. A wireless device of a network comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor to (1) receive a first message that identifies a first basic service set of a plurality of basic service sets forming the network and a second message that identifies a second basic service set of the plurality of basic service sets, where the first message includes (a) a service set identifier (SSID) being the same SSID as used by the second basic service set and (b) at least one attribute that differs from a corresponding attribute associated with the second basic service set, (2) analyze the at least one attribute being a first Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) value, and (3) determine whether the wireless device is to associate with the first basic service set based on analysis of the at least one attribute,

wherein the corresponding attribute is a second DTIM value that is lesser in value than the first DTIM value and the processor to select the second basic service set associated with the second DTIM value being lesser than the first DTIM value if the wireless device is not voice-over-IP capable.

17. A non-transitory storage medium implemented within a wireless device and storing a software module that is executed by hardware logic within the wireless device to perform the operations comprising:

receiving a first message received by a wireless transceiver logic, the first message includes a first basic service set identifier (BSSID) identifying a first basic service set of a plurality of basic service sets forming the network and a second message that includes a second BSSID identifying a second basic service set of the plurality of basic service sets, wherein the first message includes (a) a service set identifier (SSID) being the same SSID as used by the second basic service set and (b) a first attribute that differs from a second attribute within the second message where both the first attribute and the second attribute are directed to features of the first basic service set and the second basic service set respectively;

analyzing the first attribute being a first Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) value provided by the first message and the second attribute being a second DTIM value provided by the second message; and

determining that the wireless device is to associate with the first basic service set if the first DTIM value is greater than the second DTIM value and the wireless device is voice-over-IP capable.

18. A non-transitory storage medium implemented within a wireless device and storing a software module that is executed by hardware logic within the wireless device to perform the operations comprising:

receiving a first message received by a wireless transceiver logic, the first message includes a first basic service set identifier (BSSID) identifying a first basic service set of a plurality of basic service sets forming the network and a second message that includes a second BSSID identifying a second basic service set of the plurality of basic service sets, wherein the first message includes (a) a service set identifier (SSID) being the same SSID as used by the second basic service set and (b) a first attribute that differs from a second attribute within the second message where both the first attribute and the second attribute are directed to features of the first basic service set and the second basic service set respectively;

analyzing the first attribute being a first Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM) value provided by the first message and the second attribute being a second DTIM value provided by the second message; and

determining that the wireless device is to associate with the second basic service set if the second DTIM value is less than the first DTIM value and the wireless device is not voice-over-IP capable.