Wireless access point beacon messaging

• US 8,958,354 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2010
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Das, Saumitra Mohan, Hardie, Edward Thomas Lingham
• Primary Examiner(s): HSU, ALPUS
• Application Number:
  US12/722,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20100232337A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,804 Days
• Field of Search: 370/312, 370/338, 370/390, 370/432, 370/474, 370/331, 455/3.01, 455/67.11, 455/445, 455/517, 455/422.1, 455/436
• US Class Current: 370/312
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to wireless communication of messages between a wireless access point and one or more mobile stations. Example embodiments may comprise wireless communication of messages of variable length partitioned among one or more beacon signals transmitted from the wireless access point.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

partitioning a message, to be broadcast from a wireless access point, into two or more message segments; and

transmitting one or more beacon signals from the wireless access point to one or more wireless terminals, wherein said one or more beacon signals individually comprise at least one of said two or more message segments with at least a portion of the at least one of said two or more message segments transmitted within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said two or more message segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the one or more wireless terminals such that when the one or more wireless terminals recognize the pre-selected prefix metadata in the two or more message segments, the one or more wireless terminals will not attempt to use any portion of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the wireless access point transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata transmitted within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the wireless access point.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said transmitting said one or more beacon signals from the wireless access point comprises transmitting said one or more beacon signals in a networking environment compatible with one or more IEEE 802.11x standards.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of said two or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said two or more message segments into said message.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one of said two or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a subject matter for the message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said message comprises a pointer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the pointer comprises a universal resource indicator (URI).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of said two or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a count of total beacon signals to form the message.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said message comprises at least a portion of map data.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving one or more beacon signals from a wireless access point at a wireless terminal, said one or more beacon signals individually comprising at least one of two or more segments of a message, with at least a portion of the at least one of the two or more segments received within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said at least one of the two or more segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the wireless terminal to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the wireless terminal comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the wireless terminal such that when the wireless terminal recognizes the pre-selected prefix metadata in the at least one of the two or more message segments, the wireless terminal will not attempt to use any portion of the at least one of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the wireless access point transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata received within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals; and

assembling said two or more segments to regenerate the message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the wireless access point.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said receiving said one or more beacon signals from the wireless access point comprises receiving said one or more beacon signals in a networking environment compatible with one or more IEEE 802.11x standards.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said two or more segments into the message.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a subject matter for the message.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein said message comprises a pointer.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the pointer comprises a universal resource indicator (URI).

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a count of total beacon signals to form the message.

18. A mobile station, comprising:

a receiver circuit to receive one or more beacon signals from a wireless access point, said one or more beacon signals individually comprising at least one of two or more segments of a message, with at least a portion of the one more segments received within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said at least one of the two or more segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the mobile station to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the mobile station comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the mobile station such that when the mobile station recognizes the pre-selected prefix metadata in the at least one of the two or more message segments, the mobile station will not attempt to use any portion of the at least one of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the wireless access point transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata received within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals; and

a processing unit to assemble said two or more segments to regenerate the message.

19. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the wireless access point.

20. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein said receiver circuit configured to receive said one or more beacon signals from the wireless access point is configured to receive said one or more beacon signals in a networking environment compatible with one or more IEEE 802.11x standards.

21. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said one or more segments into the message.

22. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a subject matter for the message.

23. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein said message comprises a pointer.

24. The mobile station of claim 23, wherein the pointer comprises a universal resource indicator (URI).

25. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a count of total beacon signals to form the message.

26. An article, comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a computing platform to;

partition a message, to be broadcast from the computing platform, into two or more message segments; and

transmit one or more beacon signals from the computing platform to one or more wireless terminals, wherein said one or more beacon signals individually comprise at least one of said two or more message segments with at least a portion of the at least one of said two or more message segments transmitted within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said message segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the one or more wireless terminals such that when the one or more wireless terminals recognize the pre-selected prefix metadata in the two or more message segments, the one or more wireless terminals will not attempt to use any portion of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the computing platform transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata transmitted within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals.

27. The article of claim 26, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the computing platform.

28. The article of claim 26, wherein the storage medium has stored thereon further instructions executable by the computing platform to transmit said one or more beacon signals from the computing platform in a networking environment compatible with one or more IEEE 802.11x standards.

29. The article of claim 26, wherein the at least one of said one or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said two or more message segments into a complete message.

30. The article of claim 29, wherein said message comprises a pointer.

31. The article of claim 30, wherein the pointer comprises a universal resource indicator (URI).

32. The article of claim 29, wherein the at least one of said two or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a count of total beacon signals to form a complete message.

33. The article of claim 26, wherein the at least one of said two or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a subject matter for the message.

34. An article, comprising:

a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a mobile station to;

receive one or more beacon signals from a wireless access point, said one or more beacon signals individually comprising at least one of two or more segments of a message, with at least a portion of the at least one of the two more segments received within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said at least one of the two or more segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the mobile station to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the mobile station comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the mobile station such that when the mobile station recognizes the pre-selected prefix metadata in the at least one of the two or more message segments, the mobile station will not attempt to use any portion of the at least one of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the wireless access point transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata received within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals; and

assemble said two or more segments to regenerate the message.

35. The article of claim 34, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the wireless access point.

36. The article of claim 34, wherein the storage medium has stored thereon further instructions executable by the mobile station to receive said one or more beacon signals in a networking environment compatible with one or more IEEE 802.11x standards.

37. The article of claim 34, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said two or more segments into the message.

38. The article of claim 34, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a subject matter for the message.

39. The article of claim 34, wherein said message comprises a pointer.

40. The article of claim 39, wherein the pointer comprises a universal resource indicator (URI).

41. The article of claim 39, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating a count of total beacon signals to form the message.

42. A wireless access point comprising:

a processing unit configured to partition a message, to be broadcast from the wireless access point, into two or more message segments; and

a transmitter to transmit one or more beacon signals from the wireless access point to one or more wireless terminals, wherein said one or more beacon signals individually comprise at least one of said two or more message segments with at least a portion of the at least one of said two or more message segments transmitted within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said two or more message segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the one or more wireless terminals such that when the one or more wireless terminals recognize the pre-selected prefix metadata in the two or more message segments, the one or more wireless terminals will not attempt to use any portion of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the wireless access point transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata transmitted within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals.

43. The wireless access point of claim 42, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the wireless access point.

44. The wireless access point of claim 42, wherein the at least one of said two or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said two or more message segments into said message.

45. An apparatus comprising:

means for partitioning a message, to be broadcast from a wireless access point, into two or more message segments; and

means for transmitting one or more beacon signals from the wireless access point to one or more wireless terminals, wherein said one or more beacon signals individually comprise at least one of said two or more message segments with at least a portion of the at least one of said two or more message segments transmitted within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said two or more message segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the one or more wireless terminals comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the one or more wireless terminals such that when the one or more wireless terminals recognize the pre-selected prefix metadata in the two or more message segments, the one or more wireless terminals will not attempt to use any portion of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the wireless access point transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata transmitted within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the wireless access point.

47. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the at least one of said two or more message segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said two or more message segments into said message.

48. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving one or more beacon signals from a wireless access point, said one or more beacon signals individually comprising at least one of two or more segments of a message, with at least a portion of the at least one of the two more segments received within respective service set identifier (SSID) fields of the one or more beacon signals, wherein said at least one of the two or more segments individually comprise pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the apparatus to enable regeneration of the message, the pre-selected prefix metadata that can be recognized by the apparatus comprising information indicating that the one or more beacon signals are not configured to indicate the presence of a wireless network that may be joined by the apparatus such that when the apparatus recognizes the pre-selected prefix metadata in the at least one of the two or more message segments, the apparatus will not attempt to use any portion of the at least one of the two or more message segments as an SSID value for associating with the wireless access point transmitting the one or more beacon signals, each of the pre-selected prefix metadata received within a respective basic service set identification (BSSID) field of the one or more beacon signals; and

means for assembling said two or more segments to regenerate the message.

49. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein said one or more beacon signals are individually associated with the respective SSID fields which are not used to associate clients with networks supported by the wireless access point.

50. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the at least one of said two or more segments further comprises prefix metadata indicating at least in part an order for assembling said one or more segments into the message.