Wireless network discovery using a mimo transceiver

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017311142-A1
Application number	US-201615136196-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 22, 2016
Priority date	Apr 22, 2016
Publication date	Oct 26, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

In some examples, a wireless device includes a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver that has a plurality of antennas to perform MIMO wireless communication. At least one processor is configured to concurrently perform discovery of respective different wireless devices using at least two of the plurality of antennas.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A wireless device comprising:
a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver comprising a plurality of antennas to perform MIMO wireless communication; and at least one processor configured to:
concurrently perform discovery of respective different wireless devices using at least two of the plurality of antennas.

2 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to use a first antenna of the at least two of the plurality of antennas to send a first discovery request, and to use a second antenna of the at least two of the plurality of antennas to send a second discovery request.

3 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to use a first antenna of the at least two of the plurality of antennas to listen for discovery information from a first wireless network of the different wireless devices, and to use a second antenna of the at least two of the plurality of antennas to listen for discovery information from a second wireless network of the different wireless devices.

4 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the different wireless devices are different Wi-Fi Direct Devices.

5 . The wireless device of claim 1 , wherein the different wireless devices are different access points (APs) of respective different wireless networks.

6 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to further:
use, prior to association of the wireless device with any wireless network, another of the plurality of antennas to acquire information about services provided by a wireless network.

7 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to further:
use, prior to association of the wireless device with any wireless network, another of the plurality of antennas to discover a device in a Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN) network.

8 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to further:
use, prior to association of the wireless device with any wireless network, another of the plurality of antennas to perform Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) with at least one of the respective APs.

9 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to further:
after the discovery and after the wireless device has associated with a first wireless network of the different wireless networks, use the plurality of antennas to perform the MIMO wireless communication of information with the first wireless network over respective paths.

10 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to further:
receive scan results from the different wireless networks in response performing the discovery; select, in response to the scan results, a wireless network of the different wireless networks; and associate with the selected wireless network.

11 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein at least one of the different wireless networks discovered in response to performing the network discovery is a hidden network.

12 . The wireless device of claim 5 , wherein the different wireless networks operate in different frequency bands.

13 . A method of a wireless device, comprising:
performing concurrent scanning for different wireless devices using respective individual SISO transceivers of a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the concurrent scanning for the different wireless networks comprises concurrent scanning for access points (APs) of different wireless networks in different frequency bands.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the concurrent scanning comprises one or more of concurrent active scanning and passive scanning.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the wireless devices are access points (APs) of different wireless networks, the method further comprising:
using, prior to association of the wireless device with any wireless network, another of the SISO transceivers to acquire information about services provided by a wireless network.

17 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions that upon execution cause a wireless device to:
concurrently perform different tasks using respective individual SISO transceivers of a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) transceiver, the different tasks comprising sending queries according to different protocols.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein a first task of the different tasks comprises wireless network discovery to discover a wireless network, and a second task of the different tasks is a task that is different from the wireless network discovery.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the different tasks are selected from the group selected from among sending a Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) query, sending an Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) request, a Neighbor Awareness Networking (NAN) query, and a Fast Initial Link Setup (FILS) query.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein performing the different tasks is prior to association of the wireless device with any wireless network.

21 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the instructions upon execution cause the wireless device to further:
after association with a wireless network, use the MIMO transceiver to perform wireless MIMO communication of information over respective paths with the wireless network.

Assignees

• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Montemurro Michael Peter
• Dobrowolski Lucas
• Hammel Konrad
• Mccann Stephen

Classifications

• H04W8/005 Primary

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

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title

• H04W76/10

  Connection setup · CPC title

• H04B7/0413

  MIMO systems · CPC title

• H04W76/02

  Electricity · mapped topic