Method, apparatus and system of frame tunneling operation of multiple frequency bands device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9456462-B2
Application number	US-201113992357-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2011
Priority date	Jun 15, 2011
Publication date	Sep 27, 2016
Grant date	Sep 27, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed is a tunneling mechanism that enables frames generated by a MAC layer management entity (MLME) to be transmitted by another. By doing that, a pair of stations (STAs) can perform functions such as (re)association, authentication, and the like, without having to transmit frames over-the-air but, instead, use a different MLME for this purpose. This enables the station management entities (SMEs) of a pair of multi-band capable STAs to provide a seamless fast session transfer (FST), including the provisioning of multi-band (de)authentication and (re)association.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of on-channel tunneling (OCT) in a peer to peer direct wireless communication comprising:
generating by a local tunneled MAC layer management entity (TN-MLME) a request primitive to a transport MAC layer management entity (TP-MLME) that is enabled to transmit, wherein the request primitive carries contents of a management frame and replaces transmission on-the-air of the management frame;
responding by a peer station management entity (PSME) to the indication primitive from a local MLME by generating a corresponding response primitive, wherein the corresponding response primitive includes a peer Multi-band element and a local Multi-band element;
generating by a third MLME an indication primitive to a local MLME entity identified in an On-channel Tunnel Request frame, wherein the third MLME is a TP-MLME at a multi-band capable station (STA) that receives the request primitive;
generating by a MAC layer management entity (MLME) that is not currently enabled to transmit an OCT MLME confirm primitive after receiving parameters passed with an OCT MLME response primitive; and
processing at a station management entity (SME) of a multi-band capable STA that generated an initial OCT MLME request primitive an OCT MLME confirm primitive.

2. The method according to claim 1 , the method further comprising:
transmitting by the transport MLME (TP-MLME) from the request primitive the on-channel tunnel request frame to the third MLME identified by the local multi-band element, wherein the on-channel tunnel request frame carries the management frame.

3. The method according to claim 2 , the method further comprising:
transmitting by the third MLME the indication primitive to the local MLME identified by a peer Multi-band element contained within the on-channel tunnel request frame.

4. The method according to claim 3 , the method further comprising:
processing by the local MLME the parameter of the indication primitive as if the management frame had been received over-the-air; and
generating by the local MLME indication primitive corresponding to a frame type of the management frame.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a primitive is selected from a group consisting of request, indication, response and confirm primitives, or request and indication primitives.

6. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions that when compiled by a processor provides on-channel tunneling (OCT) in a peer to peer direct wireless communication by:
generating by a local tunneled MAC layer management entity (TN-MLME) a request primitive to a transport MAC layer management entity (TP-MLME) that is enabled to transmit, wherein the request primitive carries contents of a management frame and replaces transmission on-the-air of a management frame; and
generating by a third MLME an indication primitive to a local MLME entity identified in an On-channel Tunnel Request frame, wherein the third MLME is a TP-MLME at a multi-band capable station (STA) that receives the request primitive;
responding by a peer station management entity (PSME) to the indication primitive from a local MLME by generating a corresponding response primitive, wherein the response includes a peer Multi-band element and a local Multi-band element;
generating by a MAC layer management entity (MLME) that is not currently enabled to transmit an OCT MLME confirm primitive after receiving parameters passed with an OCT MLME response primitive; and
processing at an SME of a multi-band capable STA that generated an initial OCT MLME request primitive the OCT MLME confirm primitive.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 6 , further comprising instructions for:
transmitting by the transport MLME (TP-MLME) from the request primitive the on-channel tunnel request frame to the third MLME identified by the local multi-band element, wherein the on-channel tunnel request frame carries the management frame.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 7 , further comprising instructions for:
transmitting by the third MLME an indication primitive to a local MLME identified by a peer Multi-band element contained within the on-channel tunnel request frame.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 7 , further comprising instructions for:
processing by a local MLME the parameter of a indication primitive as if the management frame had been received over-the-air; and
generating by a local MLME indication primitive corresponding to the frame type of the management frame.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 6 , wherein a primitive is selected from a group consisting of request, indication, response and confirm primitives, request and indication primitives.

11. A system comprising:
a memory that stores communication instructions; and
at least one processor that executes communication instructions to cooperate to create an on-channel tunneling (OCT) in a peer to peer direct wireless communication by:
generating by a local tunneled MAC layer management entity (TN-MLME) an MLME-OCTunnel request primitive with parameters including on-channel tunneling MAC management protocol data unit (MMPDU) and peer Multi-band element, wherein the request carries the contents of a management frame and replaces transmission on-the-air of the management frame;
wherein a primitive is selected from a group consisting of request, indication, response and confirm primitives, or request and indication primitives;
transmitting by a third MLME an indication primitive to a local MLME identified by the peer Multi-band element contained within an on-channel tunnel request frame wherein the third MLME is a transport MAC layer management entity (TP-MLME) at a multi-band capable station (STA) that receives the request primitive; an
processing by a local MLME the parameter of the indication primitive as if the management frame had been received over-the-air;
generating by a MAC layer management entity (MLME) that is not currently enabled to transmit an OCT MLME confirm primitive after receiving parameters passed with the OCT MLME response primitive; and
processing at the SME of a multi-band capable STA that generated an initial OCT MLME request primitive the OCT MLME confirm primitive.

12. The system according to claim 11 , further comprising communication instructions for:
generating by the third MLME the indication primitive to a local MLME entity identified in the on-channel tunnel request frame; and
transmitting by the transport MLME (TP-MLME) from the request primitive the on-channel tunnel request frame to the third MLME identified by a local multi-band element, wherein the on-channel tunnel request frame carries the management frame.

13. The system according to claim 12 , further comprising communication instructions for:
generating by a local MLME indication primitive corresponding to a frame type of a management frame; and
responding by a peer station management entity (PSME) to the local MLME indication primitive from a local MLME by generating a corresponding response primitive, wherein the response includes a peer Multi-band element and the local Multi-band element.

Assignees

• Cordeiro Carlos
• Stephens Adrian P
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Cordeiro Carlos
• Stephens Adrian P

Classifications

• H04W76/14 Primary

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title

• H04W76/12

  Setup of transport tunnels · CPC title

• H04W76/023 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W76/022

  Electricity · mapped topic