Neighbor Awareness Networking Datapath - Scheduling, Scheduler Rank, and Pre-Datapath Operation Triggering

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016353470-A1
Application number	US-201615164067-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 25, 2016
Priority date	May 25, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In some embodiments, one or more wireless stations operate according to Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN)—direct communication with neighboring wireless stations, e.g., direct communication between the wireless stations without utilizing an intermediate access point. Embodiments of the disclosure relate to NAN datapath scheduling and NAN pre-datapath operation setup and scheduling. The NAN datapath embodiments described herein provide a mechanism through which devices can communicate and provide services. Aspects of the datapath development include datapath scheduling, including datapath setup and scheduling attributes, as well as pre-datapath operation triggering and scheduling. Scheduling attributes may include a native scheduler rank and a NAN data cluster scheduler rank. NAN data cluster base schedules may be scheduled as equal-sets or subsets of datapath schedules. The datapath model may be implemented for unicast and multicast communication between wireless stations, including mobile stations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A wireless station, comprising:
at least one antenna; at least one radio in communication with the at least one antenna and configured to perform Wi-Fi communications; and at least one processor in communication with to the at least one radio, wherein the wireless station is configured:
determine a first scheduler rank attribute of the wireless station, wherein the first scheduler rank attribute is based at least in part on a number data links and types of data links associated with the wireless station;
advertise the first scheduler rank attribute as an advertised rank;
receive, from a neighboring wireless station, a second scheduler rank attribute, wherein the second scheduler rank attribute is based at least in part on a number of data links and types of data links associated with the neighboring wireless station; and
in response to determining that the second scheduler rank in greater than the first scheduler rank, update the advertised rank to the second scheduler rank attribute.

2 . The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the wireless station is further configured to:
receive a base schedule for a data link from the neighboring wireless station.

3 . The wireless station of claim 2 ,
wherein the wireless station is further configured to:
update the first scheduler rank attribute based on the data link established with the neighboring wireless device.

4 . The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the wireless station is further configured to:
mark the neighboring wireless station as a parent peer device.

5 . The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein in response to determining that the second scheduler rank is less than the first scheduler rank, the wireless station is configured to:
determine that the wireless station is a scheduler for a data link to be scheduled with the first neighboring wireless station.

6 . The wireless station of claim 5 ,
wherein the wireless station is further configured to:
determine a base schedule for the data link with the neighboring wireless station; and
transmit the base schedule for the data link to the neighboring wireless station.

7 . The wireless station of claim 1 ,
wherein the wireless station and the first neighboring wireless station are comprised in a neighbor awareness networking (NAN) data cluster.

8 . An apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and a processing element in communication with the memory, wherein the processing element is configured to:
negotiate, with a first neighboring wireless device, a first data link schedule and a first base schedule for a data cluster;
detect a second neighboring wireless station; and
negotiate, with the second neighboring wireless station, a second data link schedule and a second base schedule for the data cluster, wherein the second data link schedule is a superset of the second base schedule, and wherein the second base schedule is a subset of the first base schedule.

9 . The apparatus of claim 8 ,
wherein to negotiate the first data link schedule and the first base schedule for the data cluster, the processing element is further configured to:
generate instructions to transmit one or more service discovery frames comprising first scheduling preferences to the first neighboring wireless station; and
receive one or more service discovery frames from the neighboring wireless station comprising second scheduling preferences.

10 . The apparatus of claim 8 ,
wherein a first data link associated with the first data link schedule comprises one of a synchronized data link and a paging data link.

11 . The apparatus of claim 10 ,
wherein the first data link schedule includes a first time block; wherein if the data link is a paging data link, the first time block includes a paging window at a start of the time block and a data transmission window subsequent to the paging window; and wherein the processing element is further configured to generate instructions to transmit a paging message to the first neighboring wireless station prior to transmitting data in the data transmission window.

12 . The apparatus of claim 10 ,
wherein the first data link schedule includes a first time block; and wherein if the data link is a synchronized data link, the processing element is further configured to generate instructions to transmit data at the start of the time block.

13 . The apparatus of claim 11 ,
wherein the processing element is further configured to receive data at the start of the time block from the first neighboring wireless station.

14 . A non-transitory computer readable memory medium storing program instructions executable by a processor to:
receive, from a first neighboring wireless station, a further availability attribute indicating at least one time slot at which the first neighboring wireless station is available; transmit, to the first neighboring wireless station, a frame of data at the at least one time slot; and remain available for further communications for a remainder of the at least one time slot.

15 . The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 14 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable to:
buffer frames to neighboring wireless stations that are not available at the at least one time slot.

16 . The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 14 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable to:
receive at least one frame during the at least one time slot from a second neighboring wireless station, wherein the second neighboring wireless station has not indicated availability during the at least one time slot; and
transmit previously buffered frames to the second neighboring wireless station for a remainder of the at least one time slot.

17 . The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 14 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable to:
transmit a broadcast further availability attribute (FAA) to a plurality of neighboring wireless stations.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 17 ,
wherein the broadcast FAA indicates all times slots available for communication, wherein time slots indicated in the broadcast FAA comprise a minimum number of required time slots.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 17 ,
wherein the program instructions are further executable to:
transmit a unicast FAA to the first neighboring wireless station, wherein the unicast FAA indicates different time slots than the broadcast FAA.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable memory medium of claim 14 ,
a further availability attribute further indicates at least one channel at which the first neighboring wireless station is available.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Liu Yong
• Hartman Christiaan A
• Borges Daniel R
• Heerboth Peter N
• Kurian Lawrie
• Yong Su Khiong
• Rajagopalan Anand
• Balasubramaniyan Saravanan
• Haque Tashbeeb
• Wolf Andreas
• Li Guoqing
• Zukerman Lilach
• Shani Oren

Classifications

• H04W72/0446

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

• H04W68/005

  Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication · CPC title

• H04L65/4076

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W72/1252 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W8/005 Primary

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