Pre-association discovery

• US 9,332,488 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2014
• Issued: 05/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Marvell World Trade Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Mahaffy, Brian, Stokes, DeVerl, Asbury, Raymond C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ghowrwal, Omar
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROCKMAN, ANGEL T
• Application Number:
  US14/466,687
• Publication Number:
  US 20140362735A1
• Time in Patent Office: 620 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

The present disclosure describes techniques for pre-association discovery. In some aspects a frame having information useful to identify a service provided by a wireless device is received, the service provided by the wireless device is identified based on the information of the frame and known service identification information, and the identified service is associated with the wireless device effective to enable use of the identified service.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a wireless interface communicating in accordance with a wireless networking protocol;

one or more processors implemented at least partially in hardware;

a memory storing processor-executable instructions that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, implement a wireless-service manager to perform operations comprising;

receiving, via the wireless interface, a data frame from a wireless device, the data frame including a service set identity (SSID) field comprising;

a first sub-field that includes information useful to identify a name of a wireless network with which the wireless device is associated a second sub-field that includes information useful to identify a service provided by the wireless device the service provided by the wireless device being a service other than access to the wireless network;

a third sub-field that includes information useful to identify the wireless device, the third sub-field including at least a portion of the wireless device'"'"'s media-access controller (MAC) address;

identifying, based on the information included in the SSID field of the data frame and known service identification information, the service provided by the wireless device; and

associating the identified service with the wireless device effective to enable use of the identified service via the wireless interface of the system.

2. The system as described in claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the wireless-service manager further comprise causing the wireless interface to scan for data frames broadcast by the wireless device or other wireless devices.

3. The system as described in claim 1, wherein the operations performed by the wireless-service manager further comprise causing the wireless interface to associate with the wireless network with which the wireless device is associated effective to initiate access of the identified service.

4. The system as described in claim 1 wherein, during the acts of receiving or identifying, the wireless interface is not associated with the wireless network with which the wireless device is associated.

5. The system as described in claim 1, wherein the service provided by the wireless device includes one of a printing service, a scanning service, a data storage service, a streaming media service, or a media presentation service.

6. The system as described in claim 1, wherein the wireless interface is a wireless local area network (WLAN) interface configured in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard.

20. The system as described in claim 1, wherein the information of the first sub-field includes invariant information that identifies the wireless network as a shared wireless network by which multiple wireless devices providing respective services are accessible.

7. One or more computer-readable memory devices comprising computer-executable instructions that, responsive to execution by one or more processors, implement a wireless-service manager to:

receive, via a wireless interface, a data frame from a wireless device, the data frame including a service set identity (SSID) field comprising;

a first sub-field that includes information useful to identify a name of a wireless network with which the wireless device is associated;

a second sub-field that includes information useful to identify a service provided by the wireless device, the service provided by the wireless device being a service other than network access;

a third sub-field that includes information useful to identify the wireless device, the third sub-field including at least a portion of the wireless device'"'"'s media-access controller (MAC) address;

identify, based on the information included in the SSID field and known service identification information, the service provided by the wireless device; and

associate the identified service with the wireless device effective to enable use of the identified service via the wireless interface.

8. The one or more computer-readable memory devices of claim 7, wherein the wireless-service manager is further implemented to configure the wireless interface to scan for data frames identifying services accessible via respective wireless devices.

9. The one or more computer-readable memory devices of claim 7, wherein during the acts of receiving or identifying, the wireless interface is not associated with the wireless network with which the wireless device is associated.

10. The one or more computer-readable memory devices of claim 7, wherein the wireless-service manager is further implemented to cause the wireless interface to associate with the wireless network with which the wireless device is associated effective to initiate access of the identified service.

11. The one or more computer-readable memory devices of claim 7, wherein the wireless interface is configured to operate in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 standard.

12. The one or more computer-readable memory devices of claim 7, wherein the service provided by the wireless device includes one of a printing service, a scanning service, a data storage service, a streaming media service, or a media presentation service.

13. The one or more computer-readable memory devices of claim 7, wherein the data frame received from the wireless device is a beacon broadcast by the wireless device.

14. A system-on-chip comprising:

one or more processors implemented at least partially in hardware;

a memory storing processor-executable instructions that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, implement a wireless-service manager to perform operations comprising;

broadcasting, from a wireless interface of a device providing the wireless network, a data frame including a service set identity (SSID) field comprising;

a first sub-field that includes information identifying a name of the wireless network provided by the device;

a second sub-field that includes information identifying a service that is provided by the device and accessible via the wireless network, the service provided by the device and accessible via the wireless network being a service other than network access;

a third sub-field that includes information useful to identify the device, the third sub-field including at least a portion of the wireless interface'"'"'s media-access controller (MAC) address;

receiving a request to associate with the wireless network from a wireless device capable of accessing the service identified by the data frame; and

granting the request to associate with the wireless network effective to enable the wireless device to access the service via the wireless network provided by the wireless interface.

15. The system-on-chip as described in claim 14, wherein the service provided by the device and accessible via the wireless network comprises one of a printing service, a scanning service, a data storage service, a streaming media service, or a media presentation service.

16. The system-on-chip as described in claim 14, wherein the operations performed by the wireless-service manager further comprise, in response to enabling access to the service, receiving data or a request related to the service from the wireless device.

17. The system-on-chip as described in claim 14, wherein the wireless interface communicates in accordance with an IEEE 802.11 specification and is configured as an access point to provide the wireless network through which the service is accessible.

18. The system-on-chip as described in claim 14, wherein the information of the second sub-field includes eight bytes of encoded information that identify the service provided by the device and accessible via the wireless network.

19. The system-on-chip as described in claim 14, wherein the third sub-field includes six hexadecimal values of the wireless interface'"'"'s MAC address.