Multi-link discovery signaling in extremely high throughput (eht) systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2021282229-A1
Application number	US-202117329763-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 25, 2021
Priority date	Mar 20, 2019
Publication date	Sep 9, 2021
Grant date	—

Abstract

Embodiments of a multi-link access point (AP) device, station (STA) and method of communication are generally described herein. The multi-link AP device may comprise multiple APs. The multi-link AP device may encode a frame for transmission by one of the APs of the multi-link AP device. The multi-link AP device may encode the frame to include signaling to enable multi-link discovery of the APs of the multi-link AP device. The multi-link AP device may encode the signaling to include: a reduced neighbor report (RNR) element that identifies the APs of the multi-link AP device, and a multiple AP element. The multiple AP element may be configurable to include: common information for the APs of the multi-link AP device, and per-AP sub-elements that include per-AP information related to the APs of the multi-link AP device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An apparatus for an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (AP MLD), the AP MLD comprising a plurality of affiliated access points (APs), the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry; and memory,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: decode a multi-link (ML) probe request frame from a non-AP STA requesting information from the AP MLD to discover an AP including the affiliated APs; in response to the ML probe request frame, encode a ML probe response frame for transmission by one of the affiliated APs operating as a reporting AP, wherein the ML probe response frame is encoded to include a ML element and a reduced neighbor report (RNR) element, the ML element including a MAC address of the AP MLD and information of the affiliated APs, the RNR element including a neighbor AP information field for each reported AP, the neighbor AP information field configurable to include a target beacon transmission time (TBTT) information field for each reported AP, wherein each of the TBTT information fields are encoded to include an AP TBTT offset subfield and a MLD parameters subfield, wherein the MLD parameters subfield includes an MLD ID subfield and a link ID subfield, the MLD ID subfield indicating an identifier of the AP MLD to which a reported AP is affiliated, and the link ID subfield indicating a link identifier of the reported AP to which the reported AP is affiliated, and wherein the MLD ID subfield is configurable to indicate whether any of the reported APs are not affiliated with the AP MLD.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode the ML element to include a non-inheritance element per-AP profile for a reported AP to indicate elements that are not inherited by the reported AP from the reporting AP.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein values to use for a reported AP are the values of a corresponding element of the reporting AP unless the corresponding element is listed in the non-inheritance element for the reported AP

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to refrain from including the non-inheritance element in the per-AP profile for the reported AP in the ML element when all elements in the per-AP profile of the reported AP are inherited by the reported AP from the reporting AP.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the AP MLD is a logical entity comprising the plurality of the affiliated AP and having a common medium access control (MAC) service access point (SAP) to a logical link control (LLC) entity of the AP MLD.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the common MAC SAP is associated with the MAC address that is included in the ML element to singly identify the AP MLD.

7 . The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the AP TBTT offset subfield includes a TBTT offset of the reported AP.

8 . The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode the neighbor AP information field of the RNR element to include a channel number and operating class for each reported AP.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to include the RNR element in a beacon frame.

10 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to include the ML element in a beacon frame.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the memory is configured to store the MAC address of the MLD, and wherein the processing circuitry includes a baseband processor.

12 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (AP MLD), the AP MLD comprising a plurality of affiliated access points (APs), wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
decode a multi-link (ML) probe request frame from a non-AP STA requesting information from the AP MLD to discover an AP including the affiliated APs; in response to the ML probe request frame, encode a ML probe response frame for transmission by one of the affiliated APs operating as a reporting AP, wherein the ML probe response frame is encoded to include a ML element and a reduced neighbor report (RNR) element, the ML element including a MAC address of the AP MLD and information of the affiliated APs, the RNR element including a neighbor AP information field for each reported AP, the neighbor AP information field configurable to include a target beacon transmission time (TBTT) information field for each reported AP, wherein each of the TBTT information fields are encoded to include an AP TBTT offset subfield and a MLD parameters subfield, wherein the MLD parameters subfield includes an MLD ID subfield and a link ID subfield, the MLD ID subfield indicating an identifier of the AP MLD to which a reported AP is affiliated, and the link ID subfield indicating a link identifier of the reported AP to which the reported AP is affiliated, and wherein the MLD ID subfield is configurable to indicate whether any of the reported APs are not affiliated with the AP MLD.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 ,
wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode the ML element to include a non-inheritance element per-AP profile for a reported AP to indicate elements that are not inherited by the reported AP from the reporting AP.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 ,
wherein values to use for a reported AP are the values of a corresponding element of the reporting AP unless the corresponding element is listed in the non-inheritance element for the reported AP

15 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 ,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to refrain from including the non-inheritance element in the per-AP profile for the reported AP in the ML element when all elements in the per-AP profile of the reported AP are inherited by the reported AP from the reporting AP.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the AP MLD is a logical entity comprising the plurality of the affiliated AP and having a common medium access control (MAC) service access point (SAP) to a logical link control (LLC) entity of the AP MLD.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the common MAC SAP is associated with the MAC address that is included in the ML element to singly identify the AP MLD.

18 . An apparatus for an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) (AP MLD), the AP MLD comprising a plurality of affiliated access points (APs) having a common medium access control (MAC) service access point (SAP) to a logical link control (LLC) entity of the AP MLD, the apparatus comprising: processing circuitry; and memory,
wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: encode a multi-link (ML) probe response frame for transmission by one of the affiliated APs operating as a reporting AP, wherein the ML probe response frame is encoded to include a ML element and a reduced neighbor report (RNR) element, the ML element including a MAC address of the AP MLD and information of the affiliated APs, wherein the common MAC SAP is associated with the MAC address that is included in the ML element to singly identify the AP MLD.

19 . The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the RNR element is encoded to include a MLD parameters subfield that includes an MLD ID subfield and a link ID subfield, the MLD ID subfield

Assignees

• Stacey Robert J
• Cordeiro Carlos
• Ghosh Chittabrata
• Bravo Daniel F
• Das Dibakar
• Cariou Laurent
• Huang Po Kai
• Chen Xiaogang
• Klein Arik
• Alexander Danny
• Chen Cheng

Inventors

• Stacey Robert J
• Cordeiro Carlos
• Ghosh Chittabrata
• Bravo Daniel F
• Das Dibakar
• Cariou Laurent
• Huang Po-Kai
• Chen Xiaogang
• Klein Arik
• Alexander Danny
• Chen Cheng

Classifications

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title

• H04W88/10 Primary

  adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04W52/0216 Primary

  using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame · CPC title