Method and apparatus for Wi-Fi connection using Wi-Fi protected setup in portable terminal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12342396-B2
Application number	US-202318514399-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2023
Priority date	Oct 25, 2011
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for Wi-Fi connection based on Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) in a portable terminal are provided. The method includes entering a group owner mode of Wi-Fi Direct when enabling of WPS is requested, after entering the group owner mode, entering a WPS session mode where the portable terminal is operable in a WPS registrar mode, determining whether an Access Point (AP) whose WPS session of the WPS registrar mode is enabled or a device whose group owner mode is enabled, exists nearby, and when an AP whose WPS registrar mode is enabled is discovered, disabling the WPS registrar mode and the group owner mode, enabling a WPS session where the portable terminal is to operate in a WPS enrollee mode, and accessing the discovered AP.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device comprising:
a processor comprising processing circuitry; and
memory storing instructions;
wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
in a state that the electronic device enables and is configured as a group owner (GO) of a first Wi-Fi group, discover an external electronic device,
identify a first value, related to a group owner of a second Wi-Fi group, of the external electronic device, and
based on the first value of the external electronic device, disable the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
compare the first value with a second value, related to the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group, of the electronic device, and
based on the comparing the first value and the second value, disable the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

3. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
when the first value is greater than the second value of the electronic device, disable the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

4. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
when the first value is less than the second value of the electronic device, maintain the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the first Wi-Fi group includes only the electronic device.

6. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
disable the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group without a group owner negotiation with the external electronic device.

7. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
based on information obtained through the discovering, identify the first value of the external electronic device.

8. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
join the second Wi-Fi group after disabling the group owner of the electronic device.

9. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to:
in response to identifying that the first value of the external electronic device is related to enabling a group client of a second Wi-Fi group, maintain the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

10. A method for connecting to a wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi) network in an electronic device, the method comprising:
in a state that the electronic device enables and is configured as a group owner (GO) of a first Wi-Fi group, discovering an external electronic device;
identifying a first value, related to a group owner of a second Wi-Fi group, of the external electronic device; and
based on the first value of the external electronic device, disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
comparing the first value with a second value, related to the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group, of the electronic device, and
wherein the disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group comprises, based on the comparing the first value and the second value, disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group comprises, when the first value is greater than the second value of the electronic device, disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
when the first value is less than the second value of the electronic device, maintaining the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the first Wi-Fi group includes only the electronic device.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group comprises, disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group without a group owner negotiation with the external electronic device.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the identifying the first value of the external electronic device comprising, based on information obtained through the discovering, identifying the first value of the external electronic device.

17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
joining the second Wi-Fi group after disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
in response to identifying that the first value of the external electronic device is related to enabling a group client of a second Wi-Fi group, maintaining the group owner of the electronic device.

19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform operations, the operations comprising:
in a state that the electronic device enables and is configured as a group owner (GO) of a first Wi-Fi group, discovering an external electronic device;
identifying a first value, related to a group owner of a second Wi-Fi group, of the external electronic device; and
based on the first value of the external electronic device, disabling the group owner of the first Wi-Fi group.

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jung Bu-Seop
• Lee Jung-Hun

Classifications

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04L67/1044

  Group management mechanisms  (management of multicast group membership H04L12/185; reconfiguring of node membership in a computing system to eliminate errors G06F11/1425) · CPC title

• H04W84/02

  Hierarchically pre-organised networks, e.g. paging networks, cellular networks, WLAN [Wireless Local Area Network] or WLL [Wireless Local Loop] · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W8/005

  Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals · CPC title