CN-122001427-A - Method and apparatus for securely communicating channel state information between an access point and an unassociated station

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and computer program product are provided by the present disclosure from the perspective of a station, access point, and intermediary device to provide Channel State Information (CSI) reports from the station to an access point to which the station is not associated while preserving privacy of the CSI reports. Even if a CSI report is to be sent from a station to an access point to which the station is not associated, the CSI report is sent via one or more secure connection links, such as being encrypted when sent via one or more connection links. Thus, the CSI report is not exposed to a third party via an unsafe connection link, thereby protecting the privacy of the CSI report.

Inventors

• O. O. Mutegan
• E. Genz
• K. JOHNSON
• B. Dezfuli
• K.F. Doppler
• M. COSTA
• S. tararico
• J.LI
• P. Washney
• M. Caslin
• M. Liubogoshchev
• O. Histiakov
• RANTALA ENRICO

Assignees

• 诺基亚技术有限公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20251107

Priority Date

20241108

Claims (12)

1. 1. An apparatus for communication, comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform: determining channel state information, CSI, between a first station and a second access point to which the first station is not associated, and Such that a report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point is transmitted from the first station to the second access point to which the first station is not associated via one or more secure connection links to provide privacy protection for the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point.
2. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to: Determining CSI between the first station and a first access point with which the first station is associated, and Such that a report of the CSI between the first station and the first access point is sent to the first access point via a secure connection link.
3. 3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to cause the report of the CSI between the first station and the first access point to be sent to the first access point and the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be sent from the first station to the second access point by causing both the report of the CSI between the first station and the first access point and the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be sent from the first station to the first access point via a first secure connection link for subsequent provisioning of the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point from the first access point to the second access point via a second secure connection link, or Wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to cause the report of the CSI between the first station and the first access point to be sent to the first access point and the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be sent to the second station without signaling being received therebetween, or Wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to establish a secure connection link between the first station and the first access point and between the first station and the second access point to which the first station is not associated before the report of the CSI is sent to the first access point and the second access point, respectively, without receiving signaling from the first access point and the second access point therebetween, and Wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to receive a signal from the first access point requesting establishment of the secure connection link between the first station and the second access point to which the first station is not associated.
4. 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: Causing the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be transmitted from the first station to the second access point by causing the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be transmitted from the first station to the first access point via a first secure connection link for subsequent provisioning from the first access point to the second access point via a second secure connection link, or The report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point is caused to be transmitted from the first station to the second access point by causing the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be transmitted from the first station to the second station via a first secure connection link for subsequent provisioning from the second station to the second access point via a second secure connection link.
5. 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to establish a secure connection link between the first station and the second access point before causing the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be sent from the first station to the second access point by causing the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to be sent to the second access point via the secure connection link established therebetween.
6. 6. An apparatus for communication comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least: Receiving a report of channel state information, CSI, between a first station and a second access point to which the first station is not associated via one or more secure connection links to provide privacy protection for the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point, and A coordinated beamforming CBF with null steering is provided based at least in part on the CSI between the first station and the second access point.
7. 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to perform any one of: Receiving, from a second station, a report of the CSI between the second station and the second access point with which the second station is associated via a secure connection link, and wherein the CBF with null steering is further based at least in part on the CSI between the second station and the second access point; Receiving the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point from a first access point via a secure connection link between the first access point and the second access point; Receiving the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point from the second station via the secure connection link between the second station and the second access point, or The secure connection link is established between the first station and the second access point prior to receiving the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to which the first station is not associated from the first station via the secure connection link established therebetween.
8. 8. An apparatus for communication comprising at least one processor and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform: Receiving a report of channel state information, CSI, from a first station via a secure connection link between the first station and a second access point to which the first station is not associated, and Such that the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point to which the first station is not associated is sent to the second access point via another secure connection link to provide privacy protection for the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point.
9. 9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is embodied by a first access point having a secure connection link with the first station and with the second access point, and Wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to communicate with the second access point to determine that the report of the CSI is to be provided by the first station.
10. 10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, further cause the apparatus to receive, from the first station via a secure connection link, a report of the CSI between the first station and a first access point to which the first station is not associated; wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to receive the report of the CSI between the first station and the first access point and receive the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point without additional signaling therebetween.
11. 11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the apparatus is embodied by a second station having a secure connection link with the first station and the second access point.
12. 12. A method for communication, comprising: determining channel state information, CSI, between a first station and a second access point to which the first station is not associated, and Such that a report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point is transmitted from the first station to the second access point to which the first station is not associated via one or more secure connection links to provide privacy protection for the report of the CSI between the first station and the second access point.

Description

Method and apparatus for securely communicating channel state information between an access point and an unassociated station Technical Field According to example embodiments, an apparatus, method, and computer program product are provided to facilitate secure exchange of Channel State Information (CSI) between an access point and an unassociated station, such as for coordinated beamforming with null steering (CBF). Background Certain wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi, rely on communication between a Station (STA) and an Access Point (AP) to provide network access for the STA and communicate therewith. In many environments, there may be multiple access points and multiple stations, with some stations associated with and having respective access points securely connected, but not with other access points and not having secure connections. For example, fig. 1 depicts an environment in which two access points AP1 and AP2 communicate with two stations STA1 and STA 2. In this example, STA1 is associated with and has a secure connection link with AP1, while STA2 is associated with and has a secure connection link with AP 2. However, when an access point (such as AP 1) communicates with an associated station (such as STA 1) via a communication channel H11, interference may be generated to an unassociated station (such as STA 2) through a communication channel H12 between AP1 and STA 2. Similarly, when AP2 communicates with associated station STA2 via communication channel H22, interference may occur to STA1 via communication channel H21 between AP2 and STA 1. Interference between an access point and a station not associated with the access point reduces the quality of communication for the station. Accordingly, coordinated Beamforming (CBF) with null steering has been developed to reduce or eliminate interference between an access point and stations not electrically associated with the access. The CBF with null steering configures multiple access points such that each access point directs its transmissions to stations associated with that access point while creating a null point directed to other stations not associated with that access point. By creating a null point that points to other stations not associated with the access point, other stations do not receive signals from the access point except for the noise floor. Thus, communications between other stations and other access points with which other stations are associated are not degraded by interference. For example, referring to fig. 1, CBFs with null steering cause interference channels H12 and H21 to be zero, while access points AP1 and AP2 are configured to transmit to STA1 and STA2 associated with AP1 and AP2, respectively. In this way, STA1 receives only the transmission from AP1 and STA2 receives only the transmission from AP2, thereby avoiding degradation by interference signals. In order to be configured such that the null point is directed to stations not associated with the access point, the access points (such as AP1 and AP 2) must acquire Channel State Information (CSI) from stations with which the communication channel is to be established (such as STA1 and STA 2). Based on CSI from a station, an access point may configure a precoding vector that considers a corresponding interference channel and thereby steers the null point to stations not associated with the access point. Thus, with respect to the example of fig. 1, AP1 and AP2 require CSI from both STA1 and STA2 in order to define precoding vectors to steer the zeros to unassociated stations. By way of example, where AP1 of fig. 1 determines CSI for communication channel H11 and CSI for interference channel H12, the precoding configuration for AP1 may be defined such that transmissions from AP1 are directed only to STA1 associated with AP1 while creating a zero directed to unassociated STA2, thereby avoiding interference to STA 2. Similarly, if AP2 determines CSI for communication channel H22 and CSI for interference channel H21, the precoding vector for AP2 may be determined such that transmissions from AP2 are directed only to STA2 associated with AP2 while creating a zero directed to unassociated STA1, thereby avoiding interference to STA 1. In order to obtain information about the wireless channel (including CSI of the channel), probing of the communication channel between a transmitter (such as an access point) and a receiver (such as a station) may be performed. The Wi-Fi specification defines probes between a single access point and a station or stations associated with the access point. For the single station probe described in fig. 2, the access point initially transmits a null packet announcement (NDPA) and then transmits a null packet (NDP). In response, the station returns CSI measured during NDP across the communication channel between the access point and the station. For the multi-station sounding shown in fig. 3, the access point transmits NDPA and then NDP. The correspo