EP-4740598-A1 - DISCOVERY PROCEDURE FOR RELAY OPERATION IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

Abstract

A first device associated with a second device in a wireless network, the first device comprising at least one station (STA) affiliated with the first device and a processor coupled to the at least one STA, the processor configured to determine a relay node that can perform one or more relay operations to communicate with the first STA, transmit, to a second STA, a first frame that includes information regarding the relay node that can be used to communicate with the first STA, and communicate with the second STA via the relay node.

Inventors

• NAYAK, Peshal
• NG, BOON LOONG
• SADIQ, Bilal
• TONNEMACHER, MATTHEW
• QI, YUE
• SHAFIN, Rubayet
• Ratnam, Vishnu Vardhan
• JEN, Elliot

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20240814

Claims (15)

1. A first station (STA) in a wireless network, the first STA comprising: memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to: determine a relay node that can perform one or more relay operations to communicate with the first STA; transmit, to a second STA, a first frame that includes information regarding the relay node that can be used to communicate with the first STA; and communicate with the second STA via the first relay node.
2. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the first STA is an access point (AP) and the second STA is a non-AP STA.
3. The first STA of claim 1, wherein, to communicate with the second STA, the processor is further configured to: receive a second frame from the second STA that has been forwarded by the relay node.
4. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to receive, from the relay node, a second frame that includes information regarding relay capabilities of the relay node.
5. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to receive, from the relay node, a second frame that includes information on one or more access points (APs) and STAs that can communicate with the relay node.
6. The first STA of claim 5, wherein the second STA is included in the information in the second frame.
7. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the first frame includes information on a plurality of relay nodes that can be used to connect to the first STA.
8. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the first frame includes signal strength information and communication speed information for the relay node.
9. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit a second frame to one or more STAs that advertises one or more relay nodes that can be used to communicate with the first STA.
10. The first STA of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit a second frame to one or more STAs to check which of the one or more STAs can perform relay operations to relay communications to the first STA; and receive a third frame from a third STA in the one or more STAs that indicates that the third STA can perform relay operations to relay communications to the first STA.
11. A relay node in a wireless network, the relay node comprising: memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to: determine an ability to perform one or more relay operations to communicate with one or more STAs; transmit, to a first STA, a first frame that includes information regarding the one or more STAs the relay node can communicate with; receive, from the first STA, a second frame that is to be transmitted to a second STA; and transmit, to the second STA, the second frame.
12. The relay node of claim 11, wherein the relay node is an access point (AP) and the first STA is a non-AP STA.
13. The relay node of claim 11, wherein the first frame includes information regarding relay capabilities of the relay node.
14. The relay node of claim 11, wherein the first frame includes signal strength information and communication speed information for the relay node.
15. A computer-implemented method for facilitating communication at a first station (STA) in a wireless network, the method comprising: determining a relay node that can perform one or more relay operations to communicate with the first STA; transmitting, to a second STA, a first frame that includes information regarding the relay node that can be used to communicate with the first STA; and communicating with the second STA via the first relay node.

Description

DISCOVERY PROCEDURE FOR RELAY OPERATION IN WIRELESS NETWORKS This disclosure relates generally to a wireless communication system, and more particularly to, for example, but not limited to, discovery procedures for relay operations in wireless networks. Wireless local area network (WLAN) technology has evolved toward increasing data rates and continues its growth in various markets such as home, enterprise and hotspots over the years since the late 1990s. WLAN allows devices to access the internet in the 2.4 GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz or 60 GHz frequency bands. WLANs are based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards. IEEE 802.11 family of standards aims to increase speed and reliability and to extend the operating range of wireless networks. WLAN devices are increasingly required to support a variety of delay-sensitive applications or real-time applications such as augmented reality (AR), robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and unmanned vehicles. To implement extremely low latency and extremely high throughput required by such applications, multi-link operation (MLO) has been suggested for the WLAN. The WLAN is formed within a limited area such as a home, school, apartment, or office building by WLAN devices. Each WLAN device may have one or more stations (STAs) such as the access point (AP) STA and the non-access-point (non-AP) STA. The MLO may enable a non-AP multi-link device (MLD) to set up multiple links with an AP MLD. Each of multiple links may enable channel access and frame exchanges between the non-AP MLD and the AP MLD independently, which may reduce latency and increase throughput. The description set forth in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely because it is set forth in the background section. The background section may describe aspects or embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless network in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 2A illustrates an example of AP in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 2B illustrates an example of STA in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of multi-link communication operation in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of an example advertisement procedure in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 5 illustrates a relay advertisement element in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 6 illustrates a relay control field format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an AP side advertisement procedure in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 8 illustrates an advertisement element format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 9 illustrates an AP control field format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example process of an AP side query based search in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 11 illustrates an element format for query transmission in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 12 illustrates a query control field format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 13 illustrates a control frame format for query message in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 14 illustrates a query control field format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 15 illustrates a query information field format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 16 illustrates an A-control subfield format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 17 illustrates a flow chart of a relay side response procedure in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 18 illustrates a control frame format for response query in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 19 illustrates a response control field format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 20 illustrates a response information field format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 21 illustrates a format for A-control subfield variant in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 22 illustrates an element-based request and response operation in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 23 illustrates a control frame-based operation in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 24 illustrates an A-control subfield operation in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 25 illustrates passive discovery in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 26 illustrates an operation using capability advertisement during association in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 27 illustrates operation based on STA side probing in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 28 illustrates an STA side relay search request in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 29 illustrates a procedure for priority access for relay in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 30 illustrates a flow chart of an example process for priority access for a STA in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 31 illustrates an enhanced transmission procedure in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 32 illustrates an AP info message element format in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 33 illustrates a preferred AP indication message format in accordan