Method for establishing association between station and access point, and device

• US 9,826,467 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2014
• Issued: 11/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Wu, Tianyu, Li, Changle, Lin, Hang
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Ian N
• Assistant Examiner(s): MCCALLUM, LATRESA A
• Application Number:
  US14/526,218
• Publication Number:
  US 20150043566A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,120 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/14 using user query or user detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for establishing an association between a STA and an AP, and the method includes: sending, by the STA, an association request frame to the AP, where the association request frame includes a service type element, and the service type element is used for indicating a sensor service type, an offloading service type, or a hybrid service type to which the STA belongs, where the sensor service type includes a first sensor service or a second sensor service, and the offloading service type includes a first offloading service or a second offloading service; and receiving, by the STA, an association response frame sent by the AP, where the association response frame is generated by the AP after determining, according to the service type element, a service type to which the STA belongs.

Claims

1. A method for establishing an association between a station (STA) and an access point (AP), comprising:

sending, by the STA, an association request frame to the AP, wherein the association request frame comprises a service type element comprising an element identifier field, a length field, and an information field, used for indicating a sensor service type, an offloading service type, or another service type to which the STA belongs, wherein the sensor service type comprises a first sensor service or a second sensor service, and the offloading service type comprises a first offloading service or a second offloading service,

wherein the element identifier field is used for recording an element identifier of the service type element, the length field is used for identifying a length of the information field and the information field is used for indicating the service type to which the STA belongs,

wherein the information field comprises a Service Type field and a Subtype field, and

wherein the Service Type field is used for indicating a first-level service type to which the STA currently sending the association request frame belongs, the Subtype field indicates a subcategorized type of the first-level, service type in the Service Type field, and the first-level service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or a hybrid service type; and

receiving, by the STA, an association response frame sent by the AP, wherein the association response frame is a response of the AP to the association request frame, and the service type element is used by the AP to determine a service type to which the STA belongs.

2. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the element identifier field records an element identifier of the service type element, the length field identifies a length of the information field, the information field indicates, by using a mapping relationship between a value of the information field and the service type, the service type to which the STA belongs, and the service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or a hybrid service type.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a length of the element identifier field is one byte, a length of the length field is one byte, and the information field is a field with a variable length.

4. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the element identifier field records the element identifier of the service type element, the length field identifies the length of the information field, the information field indicates, in a bitmap manner, the service type to which the STA belongs, and the service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or the hybrid service type, wherein the information field comprises n bits, and the service type to which the STA belongs is the service type corresponding to a bit in the n bits of the information field whose value is 1.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein n is 8.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein that the Subtype field indicates a subcategorized type of the first-level service type in the Service type field comprises:

indicating, by a mapping relationship between a value of the Service type field and the service type, the subcategorized type of the first-level service type;

or

indicating, by the Service type field, the subcategorized type of the first-level service type in a bitmap manner.

7. A method for establishing an association between a station (STA) and an access point (AP), comprising:

receiving, by the AP, an association request frame sent by the STA, wherein the association request frame comprises a service type element comprising an element identifier field, a length field, and an information field, used for indicating a sensor service type, an offloading service type, or another service type to which the STA belongs, wherein the sensor service type comprises a first sensor service or a second sensor service, and the offloading service type comprises a first offloading service or a second offloading service,

wherein the element identifier field is used for recording an element identifier of the service type element, the length field is used for identifying a length of the information field, the information field is used for indicating the service type to which the STA belongs,

wherein the information field comprises a Service Type field and a Subtype field, and

wherein the Service Type field is used for indicating a first-level service type to which the STA currently sending the association request frame belongs, the Subtype field indicates a subcategorized type of the first-level service type in the Service Type field, and the first-level service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or a hybrid service type; and

determining, by the AP according to the service type element in the association request frame, a service type to which the STA belongs, and generating an association response frame; and

sending, by the AP, the association response frame to the STA.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein after the determining, by the AP according to the service type element in the association request frame, the service type to which the STA belongs, the AP generates an association identifier (AID) to be allocated to the STA, and places the AID in the association response frame, wherein the AID is an identity of the STA.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the AP records, in a mapping table between an AID and the service type, the AID to he allocated to the STA, wherein the mapping table is used for optimizing scheduling of the STA.

10. A station (STA), wherein the station comprises:

a transmit circuit, configured to send an association request frame to an access point (AP) by using an antenna, wherein the association request frame comprises a service type element comprising an element identifier field, a length field, and an information field, used for indicating a sensor service type, an offloading service type, or another service type to which the STA belongs, wherein the sensor service type comprises a first sensor service or a second sensor service, and the offloading service type comprises a first offloading service or a second offloading service,

wherein the element identifier field is used for recording an element identifier of the service type element, the length field is used for identifying a length of the information field, the information field is used for indicating the service type to which the STA belongs,

wherein the information field comprises a Service Type field and a Subtype field, and

wherein the Service Type field is used for indicating a first-level service type to which the STA currently sending the association request frame belongs, the Subtype field indicates a subcategorized type of the first-level service type in the Service Type field, and the first-level service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or a hybrid service type; and

a receive circuit, configured to receive, by using the antenna, an association response frame sent by the AP, wherein the association response frame is a response from the AP to the association request frame, and the service type element is used by the AP to determine a service type to which the STA belongs.

11. The station according to claim 10, wherein the element identifier field records an element identifier of the service type element, the length field identifies a length of the information field, the information field indicates, by using a mapping relationship between a value of the information field and the service type, the service type to which the STA belongs, and the service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or a hybrid service type.

12. The station according to claim 10, wherein the element identifier field records an element identifier of the service type element, the length field identifies a length of the information field, the information field indicates, in a bitmap manner, the service type to which the STA belongs, and the service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or a hybrid service type, wherein the information field comprises n bits, and the service type to which the STA belongs is the service type corresponding to a bit in the n bits of the information field whose value is 1.

13. The station according to claim 10, wherein the service type element in the association request frame transmitted by the transmit circuit comprises the Subtype field, and the indicating, by the Subtype field, a subcategorized type of the first-level service type in the Service type field comprises:

indicating, by a mapping relationship between a value of the Service type field and the service type, the subcategorized type of the first-level service type;

or indicating, by the Service type field, the subcategorized type of the first-level service type in a bitmap manner.

14. An access point (AP), wherein the access point comprises:

a processor, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the processor, the programming instructions instruct the processor to;

receive an association request frame sent by a station (STA), wherein the association request frame comprises a service type element comprising an element identifier field, a length field, and an information field, used for indicating a sensor service type, an offloading service type, or another service type to which the STA belongs,

wherein the sensor service type comprises a first sensor service or a second sensor service, and the offloading service type comprises a first offloading service or a second offloading service,

wherein the element identifier field is used for recording an element identifier of the service type element, the length field is used for identifying a length of the information field, the information field is used for indicating the service type to which the STA belongs,

wherein the information field comprises a Service Type field and a Subtype field, and

wherein the Service Type field is used for indicating a first-level service type to which the STA currently sending the association request frame belongs, the Subtype field indicates a subcategorized type of the first-level service type in the Service Type field, and the first-level service type comprises the sensor service type, the offloading service type, or a hybrid service type;

determine, according to the service type element in the association request frame, a service type to which the STA belongs, and generate an association response frame; and

send the association response frame to the STA by using the antenna.

15. The access point according to claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to, after determining, according to the service type element in the association request frame, the service type to which the STA belongs, generate an association identifier (AID) to be allocated to the STA, and place the AID in the association response frame, wherein the AID is an identity of the STA.

16. The access point according to claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured to record, in a mapping table between an AID and the service type, the AID to be allocated to the STA, wherein the mapping table is used for optimizing scheduling of the STA.