Conditional inheritance in management frame for multi-link aggregation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11329871-B2
Application number	US-201916288037-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2019
Priority date	Feb 28, 2018
Publication date	May 10, 2022
Grant date	May 10, 2022

Abstract

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for implementing multi-link aggregation and conditional inheritance in a first basic service set (BSS). In one aspect, an apparatus may establish a first communication link with a first station (STA) of the first BSS using a first frequency band. The apparatus may determine a first link profile for a second communication link by customizing one or more management elements of management information associated with the first communication link. The apparatus may configure a first non-inheritance element of the first link profile associated with the second communication link to indicate usage of at least one management element of the management information by the second communication link is disabled. The apparatus may generate a management frame that comprises at least the first link profile, and may output the management frame for transmission.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by an apparatus configurable to provide functions of at least a first access point (AP) corresponding to a first basic service set (BSS) for multi-link aggregation, comprising:
establishing a first communication link with a first STA of the first BSS using a first frequency band, the first communication link associated with management information;
determining a first link profile for a second communication link available for the first STA by customizing one or more management elements of the management information associated with the first communication link, the first link profile including the one or more customized management elements for use by the second communication link, the second communication link associated with a second frequency band;
configuring a first non-inheritance element of the first link profile associated with the second communication link, the first non-inheritance element indicating that usage of at least one management element of the management information by the first STA via the second communication link is disabled;
generating a management frame that includes the first link profile, the first link profile including the one or more customized management elements for use by the second communication link and the first non-inheritance element indicating that usage of the at least one management element is disabled for the second communication link; and
outputting the management frame for transmission to the first STA.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first communication link is an anchor communication link for establishing a wireless association with the first STA, and the second communication link is a candidate communication link for the first STA for implementing the multi-link aggregation.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining to establish the second communication link in response to receiving a communication from the first STA indicating the first STA supports establishing the second communication link based, at least in part, on the first link profile.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second communication link is dynamically enabled or disabled by the apparatus or the first STA based, at least in part, on an amount of active traffic between the apparatus and the first STA.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the second communication link is established without performing a separate wireless association process between the apparatus and the first STA for the second communication link.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a second link profile for a third communication link available for the first STA by customizing one or more management elements of the management information associated with the first communication link, the second link profile including the one or more customized management elements for use by the third communication link, the third communication link associated with a third frequency band,
wherein the management frame further comprises the second link profile.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
configuring a second non-inheritance element of a second link profile associated with a third communication link, the second non-inheritance element indicating that usage of at least one management element of the management information by the first STA via the third communication link is disabled,
wherein the management frame further comprises the second link profile.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein management elements of the management information associated with the first communication link that are not customized for the second communication link in the first link profile and are not included in the first non-inheritance element are inherited by the second communication link for use by the second communication link.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein configuring the first non-inheritance element for the link profile of the second communication link comprises:
listing information associated with the at least one management element in the first non-inheritance element.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein listing information associated with the at least one management element in the first non-inheritance element includes listing in the first non-inheritance element at least one member selected from the group consisting of:
an element ID associated with the at least one management element in a list of element IDs field of the first non-inheritance element; and
an element ID extension associated with the at least one management element in a list of element ID extensions field of the first non-inheritance element.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the management frame is a beacon frame, a probe response frame, an association response frame, or a re-association response frame, and wherein the management information includes at least one member of the group consisting of management elements, fields, features, and capabilities.

12. A method performed by a first apparatus, comprising:
receiving, via a first communication link, a management frame from a second apparatus configurable to provide functions of at least a first access point (AP) associated with a first basic service set (BSS), the management frame including management information associated with the first communication link;
determining the management frame includes a link profile associated with a second communication link available to the first apparatus for multi-link aggregation, the link profile having one or more customized management elements of the management information associated with the first communication link, the one or more customized management elements for use by the second communication link;
determining the link profile associated with the second communication link includes a non-inheritance element, the non-inheritance element indicating that usage of at least one management element of the management information by the first apparatus via the second communication link is disabled; and
determining whether to establish the second communication link between the first apparatus and the second apparatus for multi-link aggregation based, at least in part, on the link profile associated with the second communication link, the link profile including the one or more customized management elements for use by the second communication link and the non-inheritance element indicating that usage of the at least one management element is disabled for the second communication link.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the first communication link is an anchor communication link for establishing a wireless association between the first apparatus and the second apparatus, and the second communication link is a candidate communication link for the first apparatus for implementing the multi-link aggregation.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining the first apparatus supports the one or more customized management elements and the non-inheritance element included in the link profile associated with the second communication link; and
establishing the second communication link in response to determining the first apparatus supports the one or more customized management elements and the non-inheritance element.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein establishing the second communication link further comprising:
communicating with the second apparatus to indicate the first apparatus supports establishing the second communication link in response to determining the first apparatus supports the one or more customized management elements and the non-inheritance element.

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Xiao Yongchun
• Patil Abhishek Pramod
• Homchaudhuri Sandip
• Gidvani Ravi
• Asterjadhi Alfred
• Cherian George

Classifications

• H04W88/08

  Access point devices · CPC title

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04W40/244

  using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing · CPC title

• H04L45/245

  Link aggregation, e.g. trunking · CPC title

• H04L41/0806 Primary

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title