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EP-4738940-A1 - ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR PERFORMING LOW POWER WIRELESS COMMUNICATION AND OPERATION METHOD THEREOF

EP4738940A1EP 4738940 A1EP4738940 A1EP 4738940A1EP-4738940-A1

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for performing low power wireless communication in an electronic device. The electronic device comprises a communication circuit and a processor, wherein the processor may receive NAN communication-related operating state information of an external electronic device while NAN communication is activated, identify whether a condition related to switching to a low power mode is satisfied on the basis of an NAN communication operating state of the external electronic device, identified from the NAN communication-related operating state information of the external electronic device, and perform the low power mode of the NAN communication on the basis of determining that the condition related to switching to the low power mode is satisfied. Other embodiments may also be possible.

Inventors

  • Jung, Buseop
  • Kim, Junsung

Assignees

  • Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240729

Claims (15)

  1. An electronic device comprising: communication circuitry configured to support wireless LAN communication; at least one processor including processing circuitry; and memory storing instructions. wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to: receive, via the communication circuitry from an external electronic device, operation state information related to neighbor awareness networking (NAN) communication of the external electronic device in a state where the NAN communication is activated; identify whether a condition related to switching to a low-power mode is satisfied, based on an operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device, identified from the operation state information related to the NAN communication of the external electronic device; and perform the NAN communication in the low-power mode, based on determination that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is satisfied.
  2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively: activate unsynchronized service discovery (USD), based on the activation of the NAN communication; and terminate the USD while the NAN communication is activated based on determination that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is satisfied.
  3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively: expand a period of a discovery window of the NAN communication to a predetermined size, based on the terminating of the USD.
  4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively: identify an operation state of neighbor awareness networking (NAN) communication of an external electronic device while the low-power mode is performed; identify whether a condition related to switching to an active mode is satisfied based on the operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device; and switch the NAN communication to the active mode, based on determination that the condition related to switching to the active mode is satisfied.
  5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively: activate unsynchronized service discovery (USD), based on determination that the condition related to switching to the active mode is satisfied.
  6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively: establish a NAN data link with the external electronic device based on the switch of the active mode of the NAN communication; and perform at least one of transmission or reception of at least one of a signal or data to or from the external electronic device through the NAN data link.
  7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively: in case that it is determined that the NAN communication can be performed based on the operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device, determine that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is not satisfied; and in case that it is determined that the NAN communication is restricted in the operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device, determine that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is satisfied.
  8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively: terminate the NAN communication when information related to the terminating of the NAN communication is received.
  9. A method for operating an electronic device (101), the method comprising: receiving, from an external electronic device, operation state information related to neighbor awareness networking (NAN) communication of the external electronic device in a state where the NAN communication is activated; identifying whether a condition related to switching to a low-power mode is satisfied, based on an operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device, identified from the operation state information related to the NAN communication of the external electronic device; and performing the NAN communication in the low-power mode, based on determination that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is satisfied.
  10. The method of claim 9, wherein the performing of the NAN communication in the low-power mode comprises, in case that unsynchronized service discovery (USD) is activated based on the activation of the NAN communication, terminating the USD in a state where the NAN communication is activated, based on the determination that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is satisfied.
  11. The method of claim 10, further comprising expanding a period of a discovery window of the NAN communication to a designated size, based on the termination of the USD.
  12. The method of claim 9, further comprising: identifying an operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device in a state where the NAN communication is switched to the low-power mode; identifying whether a condition related to switching to an active mode is satisfied, based on the operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device; and switching the NAN communication to the active mode, based on determination that the condition related to switching to the active mode is satisfied.
  13. The method of claim 12, wherein the switching of the NAN communication to the active mode comprises activating unsynchronized service discovery (USD), based on the determination that the condition related to switching to the active mode is satisfied.
  14. The method of any one of claims 12 and 13, further comprising: establishing a NAN data link with the external electronic device in case that the NAN communication is switched to the active mode; and performing at least one of transmission or reception of at least one of a signal or data to or from the external electronic device through the NAN data link.
  15. 16. The method of claim 9, wherein the identifying of whether the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is satisfied comprises: in case that the electronic device 101 is determined to be capable of the NAN communication with the external electronic device, based on the operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device, determining that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is not satisfied; and in case that the electronic device 101 is determined to be restrained from the NAN communication with the external electronic device, based on the operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device, determining that the condition related to switching to the low-power mode is satisfied.

Description

[Technical Field] An embodiment of the disclosure relates to an electronic device for performing low-power wireless communication and a method for operating the same. [Background Art] With the development of information and communication technologies and semiconductor technologies, various electronic devices are being used. Such electronic device may provide various types of proximity services by utilizing a low-power discovery technique. A proximity service may refer to a communication function in which adjacent electronic devices in the vicinity exchange data rapidly through a proximity network. For example, the proximity service may include a low-power proximity service using a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon or a low-power proximity service based on a low-power short-range communication technology using a wireless local area network (WLAN) (e.g., a neighbor awareness networking (NAN) and/or Wi-Fi aware) (hereinafter, referred to as "NAN"). The low-power proximity service based on NAN may represent a communication function of configuring a proximity network that dynamically changes according to movement of the electronic device and exchanging data. Electronic devices included in a cluster may notify the presence of the cluster within a time duration (or communication duration) (e.g., a discovery window (DW)) in which the devices are synchronized with each other or perform at least one of transmitting or receiving a signal for discovery (e.g., a synchronization beacon) and a service discovery frame (SDF), in order to synchronize with each other. For example, a cluster may represent a set of electronic devices configuring a proximity network. The above information is provided as background information to assist with an understanding of the disclosure. None of the above contents is intended to be a prior art related to the disclosure, and no assertion or determination is made as to whether any of the above contents is applicable as prior art related to the disclosure. [Disclosure of Invention] [Solution to Problem] NAN-based low-power proximity services may support unsynchronized service discovery (USD) in order to reduce a delay caused by synchronization between electronic devices (e.g., device discovery) when establishing communication between the electronic devices. In the case of performing USD, the electronic device should continuously maintain an active state of NAN communication for a designated time interval, from the start point of USD, in order to discover an external electronic device, since no synchronization process with the external electronic device precedes the discovery. Even when the electronic device is not a node for performing data communication with an external electronic device, the electronic device should continuously maintain the active state of NAN communication during the designated time interval, which may unnecessarily waste a wireless resource (e.g., a frequency resource and/or a time resource) and power of the electronic device. In case that the electronic device performs NAN communication and wireless LAN communication with an AP concurrently, at least a portion of wireless resources that can be used for the wireless LAN communication with the AP may be unnecessarily used for the NAN communication, so that an unnecessary delay may occur in the wireless LAN communication with the AP. An embodiment of the disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method for performing low-power wireless communication in an electronic device. The technical tasks to be achieved in this document are not limited to the above-mentioned technical tasks, and other technical tasks which are not mentioned may be clearly understood from the following description by those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains. According to an embodiment, an electronic device may include a communication circuit configured to support wireless LAN communication, at least one processor operatively connected to the communication circuit, and a memory. According to an embodiment, the memory may store instructions that, when executed individually or collectively by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to receive operation state information related to neighbor awareness networking (NAN) communication of an external electronic device in a state where the NAN communication is activated. According to an embodiment, the memory may store instructions that, when executed individually or collectively by the at least one processor, cause the electronic device to identify whether a condition related to switching to a low-power mode is satisfied, based on an operation state of the NAN communication of the external electronic device, identified from the operation state information related to the NAN communication of the external electronic device. According to an embodiment, the memory may store instructions that, when executed individually or collectively by the at least one processor, cause the electroni