Millimeter-wave communication station and methods for station and information discovery in a millimeter-wave basic service set

Abstract

Embodiments of a millimeter-wave communication station and methods for station and information discovery in a millimeter-wave (mmW) basic-service set (BSS) are generally described herein. In some embodiments, a station-capability information element (IE) may be transmitted to a central coordinator of the BSS during association to provide station-capability information to the central coordinator. An information-request action frame may be transmitted to either discover or request information about the one or more other mmW stations. An information-response action frame may be from the target station that includes the requested information. Accordingly, mmW devices of the BSS may be able to discover each other and exchange station-capability information so that devices can communicate directly. A simplified and unified frame-format scheme for both station and information discovery suitable for use in a mmW WPAN or in a mmW WLAN is thus provided.

1 . A millimeter-wave (mmW) station configured to:
 transmit a station-capability information element to a central coordinator during association to provide station-capability information to the central coordinator;   transmit an information-request action frame to a target station to request information about one or more other mmW stations of a basic-service set (BSS), the target station being either the central coordinator or one of the other mmW stations; and   receive an information-response action frame from the target station that includes the requested information.   
     
     
         2 . The mmW station of  claim 1 , wherein the central coordinator and the mmW stations are configured to operate as part of a personal BSS (PBSS),
 wherein the central coordinator is a PBSS control point (PCP) operating as a central coordinator for the PBSS; and   wherein the PBSS is configured to operate in accordance with a Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) specification or an IEEE 802.11 specification for multi-gigabit speed wireless communications technology operating over an unlicensed 60 GHz frequency band.   
     
     
         3 . The mmW station of  claim 1 , wherein the central coordinator and the mmW stations comprise an infrastructure BSS (IBSS),
 wherein the central coordinator is an access point (AP) operating as a central coordinator for the IBSS; and   wherein the IBSS is configured to operate in accordance with a Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) specification or an IEEE 802.11 specification for multi-gigabit speed wireless communications technology operating over an unlicensed 60 GHz frequency band.   
     
     
         4 . The mmW station of  claim 1 , wherein the mmW station is a sending mmW station; and
 wherein the sending mmW station configures the information-request action frame to further include station-capability information of the sending mmW station.   
     
     
         5 . The mmW station of  claim 4 , wherein the station-capability information element includes a station address of the sending mmW station, an association identifier (ID) of the sending mmW station and station-capability information of the mmW sending mmW station. 
     
     
         6 . The mmW station of  claim 5 , wherein the information-request action frame includes at least a target address field and a request information-element (IE) field,
 wherein the target address field includes an address of the target station; and   wherein the request IE field is configured to indicate types of information elements that the sending mmW station is requesting from the target station.   
     
     
         7 . The mmW station of  claim 6 , wherein when the information-request action frame is transmitted to the central coordinator and when the target address field includes a broadcast address, the sending mmW station is requesting information about the other mmW stations that are associated with the central coordinator. 
     
     
         8 . The mmW station of  claim 6 , wherein when the information-request action frame is transmitted to a non-central coordinator station of the BSS, the target address field is configured to include a media-access control (MAC) address of the non-central coordinator station indicating that the sending mmW station is requesting information about the non-central coordinator station directly from the non-central coordinator station. 
     
     
         9 . The mmW station of  claim 6 , wherein when the information-request action frame further includes:
 a station-capability field that includes station-capability information about the sending mmW station and station-capability information about other mmW stations of the BSS that are known to the sending mmW station; and   an IE-provided field that includes an IE that the sending mmW station is providing to the target station.   
     
     
         10 . The mmW station of  claim 4 , wherein the information-response action frame is transmitted by the target station in response to receipt of the information-request action frame. 
     
     
         11 . The mmW station of  claim 4 , wherein an unsolicited information-response action frame is sent by one of the mmW stations to provide updated information to the other mmW stations,
 wherein the unsolicited information-response action frame is transmitted by the central coordinator to associated mmW stations of the BSS upon association of a new mmW station with the BSS or upon disassociation of a mmW station with the BSS; and   wherein the unsolicited information-response action frame includes station-capability information of currently associated mmW stations and the central coordinator.   
     
     
         12 . The mmW station of  claim 4 , wherein the information-response action frame includes at least a target address field and a request information-element (IE) field,
 wherein the target address field includes an address of a target station; and   wherein the request IE field is configured to indicate types of information elements that are being provided by the mmW station that is transmitting the information-response action frame.   
     
     
         13 . The mmW station of  claim 12 , wherein the information-response action frame further includes:
 one or more station capability fields to indicate station capability of one or more stations; and   one or more optional IE-provided fields to include information elements that the target station is providing to the mmW station that is receiving the information-response action frame.   
     
     
         14 . A method for station discovery and information exchange in a millimeter-wave (mmW) basic-service set (BSS), the method comprising:
 transmitting a station-capability information element to a central coordinator during association to provide station-capability information to the central coordinator; and   receiving either a solicited or an unsolicited information-response action frame that includes station-capability information of one or more mmW stations of the BSS,   wherein the station-capability information is for use by two of the mmW stations of the BSS to perform beamforming training for subsequent communications therebetween.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising:
 transmitting an information-request action frame to a target station of the BSS to either discover or request information about the one or more mmW stations of the BSS, 
 wherein the target station is either the central coordinator or a non-central coordinator station; and 
 wherein the solicited information-response action frame is received from the target station in response to the information-request action frame. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  further comprising configuring the information-request action frame to include:
 a target address field that includes an address of the target station; and 
 a request information-element (IE) field that is configured to indicate types of information elements that a sending mmW station is requesting from the target station, 
 wherein when the target address field of the information-request action frame includes a broadcast address, the sending mmW station is requesting information about other mmW stations of the BSS; and 
 wherein when the target address field includes an address of a non-central coordinator station of the BSS, the sending mmW station is requesting information about the non-central coordinator station directly from the non-central coordinator station. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  further comprising configuring the information-request action frame to further include:
 a station-capability field that includes station-capability information about the sending mmW station and station-capability information about other mmW stations that are known to the sending mmW station; and 
 an IE-provided field that includes an information element that the sending mmW station is providing to the target station. 
 
     
     
         18 . A millimeter-wave (mmW) station configured to operate as a central coordinator of a basic-service set (BSS) that includes one or more associated mmW stations, the central coordinator configured to:
 receive a station-capability information element (IE) from each of the mmW stations during association with the BSS; and   transmit an unsolicited information-response action frame to the associated mmW stations upon association of another mmW station with the BSS or upon disassociation of a mmW station with the BSS,   wherein the unsolicited information-response action frame includes station-capability information of currently associated mmW stations and station-capability information of the central coordinator.   
     
     
         19 . The mmW station of  claim 18 , wherein the central coordinator is further configured to receive information-request action frames from currently associated mmW stations that are requesting information about one or more other currently associated mmW stations; and
 transmit solicited information-response action frames that include requested information to requesting mmW stations in response to the information-request action frames,   wherein the unsolicited and the solicited information-response action frames include station-capability information to allow non-central coordinator stations of the BSS to perform beamforming training together for subsequent communications therebetween.   
     
     
         20 . The mmW station of  claim 19 , wherein when a target address field of the information-request action frame received from a requesting mmW station includes a broadcast address, the requesting mmW station is requesting information about one or more other currently associated mmW stations, and
 wherein the central coordinator configures the information-response action frame to include:   one or more station capability fields to indicate station-capability information of one or more mmW stations associated with the BSS; and   one or more optional IE-provided fields to include information elements of the one or more other currently associated mmW stations.