Method, apparatus, and computer program product for service discovery in wireless short-range communication

• US 9,398,437 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2013
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Kasslin, Mika, Marin, Janne
• Primary Examiner(s): Rinehart, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): SOLINSKY, PETER G
• Application Number:
  US14/107,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20150172902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 946 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/321 Interlayer communication protocols or service data unit [SDU] definitions; Interfaces between layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Embodiments enable discovery of services in a wireless communications medium. In example embodiments, a method comprises inserting, by an apparatus, an indication associated with a service available from the apparatus to an apparatus address field of a wireless advertisement packet; and transmitting, by the apparatus, the wireless advertisement packet including the inserted indication associated with the available service. The packet may be a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet. The apparatus'"'"'s address field may be a non-resolvable private address format in an AdvA field of either the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet. The apparatus may be functioning as either a subscriber or a publisher in a Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN) network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

inserting, by an apparatus, a service identity indication associated with a service available from the apparatus, into an apparatus address field of a Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet; and

transmitting, by the apparatus, the Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet including the inserted service identity indication associated with the available service;

wherein the apparatus address field is a non-resolvable private address format in an AdvA field of either the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet, wherein Bluetooth Low Energy is a low powered network standard.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein multiple different services available from the apparatus are published by at least one of sequentially transmitting multiple wireless advertisement packets advertising the multiple different services, including respective indications associated with the multiple different services, and transmitting one or more wireless advertisement packets including multiple indications associated with the multiple different services in a data field.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the apparatus, one or more wireless discovery request packets in response to the transmitted wireless advertisement packet;

determining, by the apparatus, whether any of the received wireless discovery request packets matches with one or more services available from the apparatus by filtering sender address field indication of each of the received one or more wireless discovery request packets with service identities corresponding with the one or more services available from the apparatus; and

transmitting, by the apparatus, a wireless discovery response packet in response to the received wireless discovery request packet including an indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted a match.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a member of a wireless neighbor awareness network and the service available from the apparatus is accessible via the wireless neighbor awareness network.

5. A method, comprising:

maintaining, by an apparatus, one or more service identities of services the apparatus requires;

receiving, by the apparatus, a Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet including a service identity indication in a sender address field of the wireless advertisement packet associated with a service advertised by a source apparatus of the Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet;

determining, by the apparatus, whether the service advertised in the received Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet matches with any of the one or more services requested by the apparatus by filtering the sender address field service identity indication of the received Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet with the maintained one or more service identities; and

transmitting, by the apparatus, a Bluetooth Low Energy discovery request packet including a service identity indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted in a match;

wherein the wireless advertisement packet is a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet and the sender address field of the wireless advertisement packet is a non-resolvable private address format in an AdvA field of either the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet, wherein Bluetooth Low Energy is a low powered network standard.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the wireless discovery request packet is a SCAN_REQ PDU packet and the indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted a match is a non-resolvable private address format in a ScanA field of the SCAN_REQ PDU packet.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

waiting, by the apparatus, for a wireless discovery response packet including the indication associated with the advertised service on which the match occurred.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the apparatus is a member of a wireless neighbor awareness network and the service advertised by the source apparatus is accessible via the wireless neighbor awareness network.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to;

insert a service identity indication associated with a service available from the apparatus, into an apparatus address field of a Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet; and

transmit the Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet including the inserted service identity indication associated with the available service;

wherein the apparatus address field is a non-resolvable private address format in an AdvA field of either the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet, wherein Bluetooth Low Energy is a low powered network standard.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein multiple different services available from the apparatus are published by at least one of sequentially transmitting multiple wireless advertisement packets advertising the multiple different services, including respective indications associated with the multiple different services, and transmitting one or more wireless advertisement packets including multiple indications associated with the multiple different services in a data field.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to;

receive one or more wireless discovery request packets in response to the transmitted wireless advertisement packet;

determine whether any of the received wireless discovery request packets matches with one or more services available from the apparatus by filtering sender address field indication of each of the received one or more wireless discovery request packets with service identities corresponding with the one or more services available from the apparatus; and

transmit a wireless discovery response packet in response to the received wireless discovery request packet including an indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted a match.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory including computer program code;

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to;

maintain one or more service identities of services the apparatus requires;

receive a Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet including a service identity indication in a sender address field of the wireless advertisement packet associated with a service advertised by a source apparatus of the Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet;

determine whether the service advertised in the received Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet matches with any of the one or more services requested by the apparatus by filtering the sender address field service identity indication of the received Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet with the maintained one or more service identities; and

transmit a Bluetooth Low Energy discovery request packet including a service identity indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted in a match;

wherein the wireless advertisement packet is a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet and the sender address field of the wireless advertisement packet is a non-resolvable private address format in an AdvA field of either the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet, wherein Bluetooth Low Energy is a low powered network standard.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the wireless discovery request packet is a SCAN_REQ PDU packet and the indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted a match is a non-resolvable private address format in a ScanA field of the SCAN_REQ PDU packet.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to;

wait, by the apparatus, for a wireless response packet including the indication associated with the available service on which the match occurred.

15. A computer program product comprising computer executable program code recorded on a computer readable non-transitory storage medium, the computer executable program code comprising:

code for inserting, by an apparatus, a service identity indication associated with a service available from the apparatus, into an apparatus address field of a Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet; and

code for transmitting, by the apparatus, the Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet, the packet including the inserted service identity indication associated with the available service;

wherein the apparatus address field is a non-resolvable private address format in an AdvA field of either the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet, wherein Bluetooth Low Energy is a low powered network standard.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising:

code for receiving, by the apparatus, one or more wireless discovery request packets in response to the transmitted wireless advertisement packet;

code for determining, by the apparatus, whether any of the received wireless discovery request packets matches with one or more services available from the apparatus by filtering sender address field indication of each of the received one or more wireless discovery request packets with service identities corresponding with the one or more services available from the apparatus; and

code for transmitting, by the apparatus, a wireless discovery response packet in response to the received wireless discovery request packet including an indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted a match.

17. A computer program product comprising computer executable program code recorded on a computer readable non-transitory storage medium, the computer executable program code comprising:

code for maintaining, by an apparatus, one or more service identities of services the apparatus requires;

code for receiving, by the apparatus, a Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet including a service identity indication in a sender address field of the wireless advertisement packet associated with a service advertised by a source apparatus of the Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet;

code for determining, by the apparatus, whether the service advertised in the received Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet matches with any of the one or more services requested by the apparatus by filtering the sender address field service identity indication of the received Bluetooth Low Energy advertisement packet with the maintained one or more service identities; and

code for transmitting, by the apparatus, a discovery request packet including a service identity indication associated with the service on which the determination resulted in a match;

wherein the wireless advertisement packet is a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or a Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet and the sender address field of the wireless advertisement packet is a non-resolvable private address format in an AdvA field of either the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_IND PDU packet or the Bluetooth Low Energy ADV_SCAN_IND PDU packet, wherein Bluetooth Low Energy is a low powered network standard.