NAN fine-grained availability schedule indications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11212806-B2
Application number	US-201916712529-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2019
Priority date	Dec 14, 2018
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

One or more wireless stations operate to configure direct communication with neighboring mobile stations, e.g., direct communication between the wireless stations without utilizing an intermediate access point. A wireless station may determine a further availability window schedule for a first time period, including specifying availability for particular channels at particular time slots at a first time slot increment. The wireless station may specify availability at a second time slot increment for a subset of the time slots specified at the first time slot increment. The second time slot increment may be less than the first slot time increment. The wireless station may negotiate, with a neighboring wireless station, a peer-to-peer communication schedule for the peer-to-peer communication application based on the further availability window schedule, including specifying a portion of the peer-to-peer schedule using the second time slot increment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless station, comprising:
at least one antenna;
one or more wireless interfaces in communication with the at least one antenna; and
at least one processor in communication with the one or more wireless interfaces;
wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the wireless station to:
determine, for one or more categories of peer-to-peer communications, a further availability window schedule for a first time period, including specifying availability for particular channels at particular time slots at a first time slot increment;
specify, based at least in part on latency requirements of a peer-to-peer communication application, availability at a second time slot increment for at least a subset of the time slots specified at the first time slot increment, wherein the second time slot increment is less than the first time slot increment, and wherein at least a portion of time slots specified at the second time slot increment are cancelable;
negotiate, with at least a first neighboring wireless station, a peer-to-peer communication schedule for the peer-to-peer communication application based on the further availability window schedule, including specifying at least a portion of the peer-to-peer schedule using the second time slot increment; and
communicate, with at least the first neighboring wireless station, according to the negotiated peer-to-peer communication schedule.

2. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the first time increment comprises 16 time units; and
wherein the second time increment comprises at least one of:
1 time unit;
2 time units;
4 time units; or
8 time units.

3. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein at least a portion of time slots specified at the first time slot increment are not cancelable.

4. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein at least a portion of time slots specified at the second time slot increment are not scheduled for communication, wherein, during the portion of time slots not scheduled for communication, the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:
switch channels or frequency bands.

5. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the wireless station to:
exchange, at a start of a time slot specified at the second time slot increment, data with the first neighboring wireless station; and
enter a power saving mode of operation after the exchange of data and until a next data exchange opportunity.

6. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein a sub-slot availability of time slots specified using the second time slot increment is indicated via a 2-bit indicator, wherein each sub-slot is 2 time units.

7. The wireless station of claim 6 ,
wherein a value of 00 for the 2-bit indication specifies availability at a start of each sub-slot;
wherein a value of 01 for the 2-bit indication specifies availability at a start of every second sub-slot;
wherein a value of 10 for the 2-bit indication specifies availability at a start of every fourth sub-slot; and
wherein a value of 11 for the 2-bit indication specifies availability at a start of every eighth sub-slot.

8. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein a sub-slot availability of time slots specified using the second time slot increment is indicated via an 8-bit indicator, wherein each bit represents availability of a sub-slot, and wherein a sub-slot is 2 time units.

9. The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein availability at the second time slot increment includes a first availability schedule for a first category of communication and a second availability schedule for a second category of communication.

10. A non-transitory computer readable memory medium storing program instructions executable by processing circuitry of a wireless station to:
determine a further availability window schedule for a first time period at a first time slot increment, wherein the further availability window schedule specifies the wireless station's availability for peer-to-peer communications;
specify availability at a second time slot increment for at least a subset of the time slots specified at the first time slot increment, wherein the second time slot increment is less than the first time slot increment, and wherein at least a portion of time slots specified at the second time slot increment are cancelable;
negotiate, with at least a first neighboring wireless station, a peer-to-peer communication schedule for a peer-to-peer communication application based on the further availability window schedule, including specifying at least a portion of the peer-to-peer schedule using the second time slot increment; and
communicate, with at least the first neighboring wireless station, according to the negotiated peer-to-peer communication schedule.

11. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 10 ,
wherein further availability at the second time slot increment comprises a series of time slots repeated in increments of the first time period.

12. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 11 ,
wherein time slots in the series of time slots are specified in increments of the first time slot increment.

13. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 10 ,
wherein availability at the second time slot increment includes a first availability schedule for a first category of communication and a second availability schedule for a second category of communication.

14. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 13 ,
wherein the first category includes best effort communications, and wherein the second category includes low latency communications.

15. The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 10 ,
wherein the peer-to-peer communication application has an associated latency requirement, and wherein the negotiated peer-to-peer communication schedule accommodates the latency requirement via scheduling of time-slots at the second time slot increment.

16. An apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processor in communication with the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
determine a further availability window schedule for a first time period at a first time slot increment, wherein the further availability window schedule specifies availability for peer-to-peer communications;
specify availability at a second time slot increment for at least a subset of the time slots specified at the first time slot increment, wherein the second time slot increment is less than the first time slot increment, and wherein at least a portion of time slots specified at the second time slot increment are cancelable;
negotiate, with at least a first neighboring wireless station, a peer-to-peer communication schedule for a peer-to-peer communication application based on the further availability window schedule, including specifying at least a portion of the peer-to-peer schedule using the second time slot increment to accommodate channel and/or frequency band switches associated with the further availability schedule; and
communicate, with at least the first neighboring wireless station, according to the negotiated peer-to-peer communication schedule.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 ,
wherein the negotiated peer-to-peer communication schedule further accommodates a latency requirement associated with the peer-to-peer application via scheduling of time-slots at the second time slot increment.

18. The apparatus of

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Liu Yong
• Hartman Christiaan A
• Kurian Lawrie
• Haque Tashbeeb

Classifications

• H04W72/51 Primary

  based on terminal or device properties · CPC title

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W52/0219 Primary

  where the power saving management affects multiple terminals · CPC title

• H04W72/0446

  Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames · CPC title