Concurrent multi-band operation of a peer-to-peer link

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11765698-B2
Application number	US-202117460884-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2021
Priority date	Oct 5, 2020
Publication date	Sep 19, 2023
Grant date	Sep 19, 2023

Abstract

An electronic device that communicates with a second electronic device is described. During operation, an electronic device communicates first messages with the second electronic device in time slots corresponding to first channels in a first band of frequencies using a peer-to-peer communication protocol (such as neighbor awareness networking or NaN), where, in a given time slot, a given first channel in the first band of frequencies is used in the communication of the first messages. Moreover, the electronic device communicates second messages with the second electronic device in the time slots corresponding to second channels in a second band of frequencies using the peer-to-peer communication protocol, where, in the given time slot, a given second channel in the second band of frequencies is used in the communication of the second messages. Note that the communicating of the first messages and the second messages may at least partially overlap in time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
an antenna node communicatively coupled to an antenna; and
an interface circuit, communicatively coupled to the antenna node, configured to communicate with a second electronic device using a peer-to-peer communication protocol, wherein the interface circuit is configured to:
communicate, with the second electronic device, first messages in time slots corresponding to first channels associated with a first band of frequencies, wherein, in a given time slot of the time slots, a given first channel in the first band of frequencies is used in the communication of the first messages; and
communicate, with the second electronic device, second messages in the time slots corresponding to second channels associated with a second band of frequencies, wherein, in the given time slot of the time slots, a given second channel in the second band of frequencies is used in the communication of the second messages,
wherein the second channels are different from the first channels, and
wherein, for the given time slot, the given second channel in the second band of frequencies is preferred for communication associated with an application having a latency requirement that satisfies a predefined value.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the peer-to-peer communication protocol is compatible with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 communication protocol.

3. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the peer-to-peer communication protocol comprises a neighbor awareness networking (NaN) protocol.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first band of frequencies comprises a 2.4 GHz band of frequencies and the second band of frequencies comprises one of: a 5 GHz band of frequencies or a 6 GHz band of frequencies.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the communicating of the first messages and the communicating of the second messages is based at least in part on a schedule that comprises a first map indicating the time slots corresponding to the first channels, and a second map indicating the time slots corresponding to the second channels.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the communicating of the first messages and the communicating of the second messages at least partially overlap in time.

7. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the interface circuit is further configured to communicate with an access point in second time slots corresponding to third channels in the second band of frequencies.

8. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the interface circuit is configured to perform an off-channel activity in at least one of the time slots, using at least some of the first channels, at least some of the second channels, or both; and
wherein the off-channel activity uses a different communication protocol than the peer-to-peer communication protocol.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the interface circuit is configured to perform a wireless scan in one of the first channels in a first time slot of the time slots and one of the second channels in a second time slot of the time slots; and
wherein the first time slot and the second time slot are sequential time slots.

10. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the interface circuit is configured to provide, while the interface circuit performs the wireless scan, an update message addressed to the second electronic device, indicating availability of the electronic device in the time slots for both the first channels and the second channels.

11. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the interface circuit is configured to receive, while the interface circuit performs a wireless scan in alternating sequential time slots of the time slots using alternating channels in the first channels and the second channels, an update message associated with the second electronic device, indicating availability of the second electronic device in the time slots for both the first channels and the second channels.

12. The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the interface circuit is configured to selectively transmit additional messages addressed to the second electronic device in the time slots corresponding to the first channels or the second channels based at least in part on the update message.

13. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the interface circuit is configured, during the time slots, to associate with an access point using the second channels and communicate the first messages using the first channels.

14. The electronic device of claim 13 , wherein, after the association is complete, the interface circuit is configured to:
provide an update message addressed to the second electronic device comprising information indicating a first subset of the time slots and a third channel for communication with the access point; and
resume the communicating of the second messages in a second subset of the time slots and the second channels using the peer-to-peer communication protocol.

15. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first messages and the second messages comprise packets or frames.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use with an electronic device, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium stores program instructions that, when executed by the electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform operations comprising:
communicating, with a second electronic device, first messages in time slots corresponding to first channels in a first band of frequencies using a peer-to-peer communication protocol, wherein, in a given time slot of the time slots, a given first channel in the first band of frequencies is used in the communication of the first messages; and
communicating, with the second electronic device, second messages in the time slots corresponding to second channels in a second band of frequencies using the peer-to-peer communication protocol, wherein, in the given time slot of the time slots, a given second channel in the second band of frequencies is used in the communication of the second messages,
wherein the second channels are different from the first channels, and
wherein, for the given time slot, the given second channel in the second band of frequencies is preferred for communication associated with an application having a latency requirement that satisfies a predefined value.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise performing an off-channel activity in at least one of the time slots using at least some of the first channels, at least some of the second channels, or both; and
wherein the off-channel activity uses a different communication protocol than the peer-to-peer communication protocol.

18. A method for communicating with a second electronic device, comprising:
by an electronic device:
communicating, with the second electronic device, first messages in time slots corresponding to first channels in a first band of frequencies using a peer-to-peer communication protocol, wherein, in a given time slot of the time slots, a given first channel in the first band of frequencies is used in the communication of the first messages; and
communicating, with the second electronic device, second messages in the time slots corresponding to second channels in a second band of frequencies using the peer-to-peer communication protocol, wherein, in the given time slot of the time slots, a given second channel in the second band of frequencies is used

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Kurian Lawrie
• Haque Tashbeeb
• Rajagopalan Anand
• Lnu Santosh

Classifications

• H04W72/044 Primary

  based on the type of the allocated resource · CPC title

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title

• H04W72/0446

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

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title