Radio communication devices and methods for performing wireless peer-to-peer discovery

• US 9,832,630 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2015
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Bareket, Raz, Zur, Liraz, Tchigevsky, Izoslav, Birnbaum, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Qureshi, Afsar M
• Application Number:
  US14/948,488
• Publication Number:
  US 20170150337A1
• Time in Patent Office: 736 Days
• Field of Search: 370329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• 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

A mobile communication device may include a radio transceiver and a baseband processing circuit adapted to interact with the radio transceiver to transmit and receive radio signals. The baseband processing circuit may be configured to provide target criteria to a proxy discovery device, the target criteria characterizing a desired wireless connection of the mobile communication device, receive a proxy report from the proxy discovery device detailing discovery results that satisfy the target criteria, and select a provider device that satisfies the target criteria to establish a wireless connection with based on the proxy report.

Claims

1. A mobile communication device comprising a radio transceiver and a baseband processing circuit adapted to interact with the radio transceiver to transmit and receive radio signals, the baseband processing circuit configured to:

provide target criteria to a proxy discovery device, the target criteria characterizing a desired wireless connection of the mobile communication device;

receive a proxy report from the proxy discovery device detailing discovery results that satisfy the target criteria; and

select, based on the proxy report, a provider device that satisfies the target criteria with which to establish a wireless connection.

2. The mobile communication device of claim 1, wherein the baseband processing circuit is further configured to:

establish a wireless connection with the provider device.

3. The mobile communication device of claim 2, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to establish the wireless connection with the provider device by:

performing discovery with the provider device according to a discovery time window specified by the proxy report or according to a discovery carrier channel specified by the proxy report.

4. The mobile communication device of claim 2, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to establish the wireless connection with the provider device by:

establishing a wireless connection with the provider device according to a WiFi Direct radio access technology, a WiFi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) radio access technology, a Bluetooth radio access technology, a Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) radio access technology, or a Long Term Evolution (LTE) Device-to-Device (D2D) radio access technology.

5. The mobile communication device of claim 1, wherein the baseband processing circuit is further configured to perform discovery to establish a wireless connection with the proxy discovery device,

and wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to provide the target criteria to the proxy discovery device that characterize the desired wireless connection by:

transmitting a proxy request specifying the target criteria to the proxy discovery device with the wireless connection.

6. The mobile communication device of claim 5, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to perform discovery to establish the wireless connection with the proxy discovery device by:

performing discovery with the proxy discovery device during a predefined discovery time period;

or

performing discovery with the proxy discovery device on a predefined discovery carrier channel.

7. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein the proxy report comprises identity information of one or more provider devices that match the target criteria, and wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to select the provider device that satisfies the target criteria with which to establish the wireless connection by:

selecting the provider device from the one or more provider devices.

8. The mobile communication device of claim 1, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to receive the proxy report from the proxy discovery device detailing discovery results that satisfy the target criteria by:

receiving the proxy report from the proxy discovery device during a predefined reception time period;

or

receiving the proxy report from the proxy discovery device on a predefined reception carrier channel.

9. The mobile communication device of claim 1, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to select the provider device that satisfies the target criteria with which to establish the wireless connection by:

selecting a provider device that provides a target service of the mobile communication device, wherein the target criteria characterize the target service of the mobile communication device.

10. A method for performing wireless communications at a requestor device, the method comprising:

providing target criteria to a proxy discovery device that characterize a desired wireless connection of the requestor device;

receiving a proxy report from the proxy discovery device detailing discovery results that satisfy the target criteria; and

selecting, based on the proxy report, a provider device that satisfies the target criteria with which to establish a wireless connection.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

establishing a wireless connection with the provider device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting a provider device that satisfies the target criteria with which to establish a wireless connection comprises:

selecting a provider device that provides a target service of the requestor device, wherein the target criteria characterize the target service of the requestor device.

13. A method for performing radio communications at a proxy discovery device, the method comprising:

collecting information of one or more provider devices;

receiving a proxy request from a requestor device that specifies target criteria for a desired wireless connection of the requestor device;

identifying one or more selected provider devices from the one or more provider devices that match the target criteria; and

transmitting a proxy report to the requestor device that identifies the one or more selected provider devices.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

performing discovery with the requestor device during a predefined discovery time period;

or

performing discovery with the requestor device on a predefined discovery carrier channel.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the target criteria identify a target service of the requestor device, and wherein identifying one or more selected provider devices from the one or more provider devices that match the target criteria comprises:

identifying one or more matching provider devices of the one or more provider devices that provide the target service as the one or more selected provider devices.

16. A radio communication device comprising a radio transceiver and a baseband processing circuit adapted to interact with the radio transceiver to transmit and receive radio signals, the baseband processing circuit configured to:

collect information of one or more provider devices;

receive a proxy request from a requestor device that specifies target criteria for a desired wireless connection of the requestor device; and

identify one or more selected provider devices from the one or more provider devices that match the target criteria;

transmit a proxy report to the requestor devices that identifies the one or more selected provider devices.

17. The radio communication device of claim 16, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to collect information of the one or more provider devices by:

performing discovery to discover the one or more provider devices; and

receiving the information from the one or more provider devices.

18. The radio communication device of claim 16, wherein the baseband processing circuit is further configured to:

store the information of the one or more provider devices until the proxy request is received.

19. The radio communication device of claim 16, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to identify the one or more selected provider devices from the one or more provider devices that match the target criteria by:

performing a comparison between the information of the one or more provider devices and the target criteria; and

identifying the one or more selected provider devices based on the comparison.

20. The radio communication device of claim 16, wherein the baseband processing circuit is further configured to compile the proxy report, wherein the proxy report indicates at least one of a discovery time period utilized by a selected provider device of the one or more selected provider devices or a discovery carrier channel utilized by the selected provider device of the one or more selected provider devices.

21. The radio communication device of claim 16, wherein the baseband processing circuit is further configured to perform discovery with the requestor device to establish a wireless connection with the requestor device.

22. The radio communication device of claim 21, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to perform discovery with the requestor device to establish the wireless connection with the requestor device by:

establishing a wireless connection with the provider device according to a WiFi Direct radio access technology, a WiFi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) radio access technology, a Bluetooth radio access technology, a Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) radio access technology, or a Long Term Evolution (LTE) Device-to-Device (D2D) radio access technology.

23. The radio communication device of claim 21, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to perform discovery with the requestor device to establish the wireless connection with the requestor device by:

performing discovery with the requestor device during a predefined discovery time period;

or

performing discovery with the requestor device on a predefined discovery carrier channel.

24. The radio communication device of claim 16, wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to transmit the proxy report to the requestor device that identifies the one or more selected provider devices by:

transmitting the proxy report to the requestor device during a predefined transmission time period;

or

transmitting the proxy report to the requestor device on a predefined transmission carrier channel.

25. The radio communication device of claim 16, wherein the target criteria identify a target service of the requestor device, and wherein the baseband processing circuit is configured to identify the one or more selected provider devices from the one or more provider devices that match the target criteria by:

identifying one or more matching provider devices of the one or more provider devices that provide the target service as the one or more selected provider devices.