Non-simultaneous transmit-receive (nSTR) soft access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12369212-B2
Application number	US-202318365893-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 4, 2023
Priority date	Aug 23, 2021
Publication date	Jul 22, 2025
Grant date	Jul 22, 2025

Abstract

A wireless station (STA) operating as a non-simultaneous transmit-receive (NSTR) soft access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) is associated with a primary link and a non-primary link. The NSTR softAP MLD transmits, on only the primary link, a frame including a complete profile of the primary link and indicating a complete profile of the non-primary link. The respective complete profiles of the primary link and the non-primary link each include capabilities, operation parameters, and other discovery information. The frame can include fields and elements that carry the complete profile of the primary link, and can include a multi-link (ML) element that indicates the complete profile of the non-primary link. The NSTR softAP MLD can receive or determine an update to the operation parameters of the non-primary link, and can transmit, on the primary link, an indication of the update to the operation parameters of the non-primary link.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for wireless communication by a wireless station (STA), comprising:
operating as a non-simultaneous transmit-receive (NSTR) mobile access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) including a first AP associated with a primary link and including a second AP associated with a non-primary link; and
transmitting a frame on only the primary link, the frame including:
one or both of a complete profile of the first AP associated with the primary link or a complete profile of the second AP associated with the non-primary link, each complete profile including at least a beacon interval, capability information, a service set identifier (SSID), supported rates, and a timing synchronization function (TSF) value; and
a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) Element including a Neighbor AP Information field for the second AP associated with the non-primary link, the Neighbor AP Information field including a target beacon transmission time (TBTT) Information field including one or more MLD parameters of the non-primary link, wherein a TBTT offset subfield, a short-SSID subfield, a BSS parameters subfield, and a power spectral density (PSD) subfield are absent from the TBTT Information field corresponding to the second AP associated with the non-primary link.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame is one of a beacon frame or a probe response frame.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame further includes one or more additional fields or elements associated with discovery of the primary link or the non-primary link.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least the beacon interval, the SSID, and the TSF value of the non-primary link are inherited from the primary link.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame contains a frame body including:
a plurality of fields and elements carrying the complete profile of first AP associated with the primary link; and
a Multi-Link Element.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the Multi-Link Element further includes a Common Info field carrying a basic service set (BSS) Parameters Change Count (BPCC) value indicating updates to one or more BSS parameters associated with the primary link.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein one or more bits of a Common Info field of the Multi-Link Element indicate whether or not the frame is transmitted from the first AP of the NSTR mobile AP MLD.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the Neighbor AP Information field includes a TBTT Information Field type set to 1 or a reserved value indicating that the Neighbor AP Information field carries information pertaining only to the non-primary link.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein a length of an MLD Parameters field of the TBTT Information field is 3 octets and indicates whether the frame is transmitted from the first AP of the NSTR mobile AP MLD.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein only the first AP associated with the primary link transmits a Beacon frame or responds to a Probe Request frame.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more MLD parameters carried in the TBTT Information field includes a basic service set (BSS) parameter change count (BPCC) value indicating updates to one or more BSS parameters associated with the non-primary link.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame comprises a probe response frame that includes the complete profile of the first AP associated with the primary link and the complete profile of the second AP associated with the non-primary link.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the frame includes the complete profile of the first AP associated with the primary link and a partial profile of the second AP associated with the non-primary link.

14. A method for wireless communication by a wireless station (STA), comprising:
operating as a non-simultaneous transmit-receive (NSTR) mobile access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) including a first AP associated with a primary link and including a second AP associated with a non-primary link;
transmitting a frame on only the primary link, the frame including one or both of a complete profile of the first AP associated with the primary link or a complete profile of the second AP associated with the non-primary link, each complete profile including at least a beacon interval, capability information, a service set identifier (SSID), supported rates, and a timing synchronization function (TSF) value;
identifying an update to at least one basic service set (BSS) parameter associated with the non-primary link;
incrementing a value of a BSS parameter change count (BPCC) field of a target beacon transmission time (TBTT) Information field included in a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) element of another frame based on the update;
setting a Critical Update Flag (CUF) in a Capability Information field of the other frame based on incrementing the value of the BPCC field; and
transmitting the other frame on only the primary link, the other frame indicating the update to the at least one BSS parameter associated with the non-primary link.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the BSS parameters include at least one of a Channel Switch Announcement (CSA) element, an extended Channel Switch Announcement (eCSA) element, an Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) parameter, a Quiet period element, a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) parameter set, a high-throughput (HT) operation element, a very high-throughput (VHT) operation element, a high-efficiency (HE) operation element, an extremely high-throughput (EHT) operation element, a Wide Bandwidth Channel Switch element, an Operating Mode Notification element, a Broadcast Target Wait Time (TWT) element, a BSS Color Change Announcement element, a Multi-User (MU) EDCA parameter set, a Spatial Reuse parameter set, or an uplink (UL) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) random access (UORA) parameter set.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the frame further includes one or more additional fields or elements associated with discovery of the primary link or the non-primary link.

17. A wireless communication device comprising:
one or more memories; and
one or more processors coupled with the one or more memories and individually or collectively operable to:
operate as a non-simultaneous transmit-receive (NSTR) mobile access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) including a first AP associated with a primary link and including a second AP associated with a non-primary link; and
transmit a frame on only the primary link, the frame including:
one or both of a complete profile of the first AP associated with the primary link or a complete profile of the second AP associated with the non-primary link, each complete profile including at least a beacon interval, capability information, a service set identifier (SSID), supported rates, and a timing synchronization function (TSF) value; and
a Reduced Neighbor Report (RNR) Element including a Neighbor AP Information field for the second AP associated with the non-primary link, the Neighbor AP Information field including a target beacon transmission time (TBTT) Information field including one or more MLD parameters of the non-primary link, wherein a TBTT offset subfield, a short-SSID subfield, a BSS parameters subfield, and a power spectral density (PSD) subfield are absent from the TBTT Information field corresponding to the second AP associated with the non-primary link.

18. The wireless communication device of claim 17 , wherein the frame is one of a beacon frame or a probe response frame.

19. The wireless communication device

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Patil Abhishek Pramod
• Cherian George
• Asterjadhi Alfred
• Ho Sai Yiu Duncan
• Sun Yanjun
• Naik Gaurang
• Bhattacharyya Tushnim
• Phogat Vikram

Classifications

• H04W76/11

  Allocation or use of connection identifiers · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W76/15 Primary

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title