CN115397039A

CN115397039A - Method, apparatus, device and medium for establishing soft access point through link reconfiguration

Info

Publication number: CN115397039A
Application number: CN202110571899.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴昊; 王鑫
Original assignee: Chengdu Jimi Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Chengdu Jimi Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-05-25
Filing date: 2021-05-25
Publication date: 2022-11-25

Abstract

The invention discloses a method, a device, equipment and a medium for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration. The method comprises the following steps: sending a link reconfiguration request message to an access device, wherein the message contains a parameter for setting a link reconfiguration type, a parameter for setting link related information and other related parameters, the other related parameters contain soft access point broadcast message sending information, and the request type is set to be a soft access point establishment, or the message also contains a parameter for setting a reason of link reconfiguration, the request is indicated to establish the soft access point through the parameter, and the request type is set to be a deletion; and if the link reconfiguration response message sent by the access equipment indicates agreement to the request, establishing the soft access point. The invention can meet the requirement of establishing the soft access point, so that the terminal equipment can flexibly and simultaneously carry out data transmission with the access equipment and the terminal equipment, the effective use of a link is improved, the network coverage range is enlarged, and the network throughput is improved.

Description

Method, apparatus, device and medium for establishing soft access point through link reconfiguration

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, device, and medium for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration.

Background

In the 802.11 system, an access device (AP STA) and a terminal device (Non-AP STA) are both internally deployed with a MAC layer and a PHY layer, wherein the main functions of the MAC layer include channel management, connection management, quality of service management, power control, time synchronization, and the like, and the main functions of the PHY layer include modulation, coding, transmission, and the like.

Both the MAC layer and the PHY layer conceptually include management units referred to as a medium access layer management unit MLME (MAC sub management entity) and a physical layer management unit PLME (PHY sub management entity), respectively. These elements provide low level management service interfaces through which low level management functions can be invoked.

In order to provide correct MAC operation, each device (including Non-AP STA and AP STA) has a higher layer management unit, such as SME (device management unit), which represents a higher layer management unit above the MAC layer, and is a layer-independent unit, which is located in a separate management plane.

The function of SME: this unit is generally responsible for functions such as collecting layer-related status from various layer management units (MLME and PLME), and similarly sets layer-specific parameter values. SMEs typically perform such functions on behalf of a general system management unit. The layers interact with each other through defined primitives. FIG. 1 depicts the relationship between management units.

802.11be networks, also known as Extreme High Throughput (EHT) networks, are enhanced by a range of system features and a variety of mechanisms to achieve very High Throughput. As the use of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to provide wireless data services in many environments, such as homes, businesses, and hot spots. In particular, video traffic will continue to be the dominant type of traffic in many WLAN deployments. With the advent of 4k and 8k video (uncompressed rates of 20 Gbps), the throughput requirements for these applications are constantly evolving. New high throughput, low latency applications such as virtual reality or augmented reality, gaming, remote offices, and cloud computing will proliferate (e.g., latency for real-time gaming is less than 5 milliseconds).

In view of the high throughput and stringent real-time latency requirements of these applications, users expect higher throughput, higher reliability, less latency and jitter, and higher power efficiency when supporting their applications over a WLAN. Users desire improved integration with Time Sensitive Networks (TSNs) to support applications on heterogeneous ethernet and wireless LANs. 802.11be networks aim to ensure the competitiveness of WLANs by further increasing overall throughput and reducing latency, while ensuring backward compatibility and coexistence with legacy technology standards. 802.11 compatible devices operating in the 2.4GHz,5GHz and 6GHz bands.

Disclosure of Invention

A device management unit SME of a wireless local area network device may ask its medium access layer (MAC layer) management entity MLME to create a BSS (basic service set) to implement as an access device, where the logical entity implementing the access point function is called Soft AP (Soft access point). Although the traditional terminal device can be used as a terminal device and can also be used as a hotspot access, namely, the role can be switched to be used as an access device, the two identities cannot be simultaneously borne, namely, when the terminal device is used as the terminal device, the terminal device can only carry out data transmission with the conventional access device, if the terminal device is used as the access device, the MAC layer function needs to be reset, after the terminal device is converted into the access device, the terminal device cannot carry out data interaction with the conventional access device, and only can carry out data transmission with other terminal devices connected to the terminal device. In view of the above, embodiments of the present invention provide a method, an apparatus, a device, and a medium for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, including:

sending a Link Reconfiguration request message to an access device, where the Link Reconfiguration request message includes parameters Reconfiguration type, link element and Extended parameters, where the Reconfiguration type is used to set a Link Reconfiguration type, the Link element is used to set Link related information, and the Extended parameters are used to set other related parameters, the Extended parameters include soft access point broadcast message sending information, and set the Reconfiguration type value to indicate that the request type is to establish a soft access point, or the Link Reconfiguration request message further includes a parameter Cause code for setting a reason for Link Reconfiguration, and indicate that the soft access point is to be established, and at this time, set the Reconfiguration type value to indicate that the request type is to delete;

and in response to the received link reconfiguration response message sent by the access equipment indicating the agreement request, establishing the soft access point.

In a possible implementation manner, the Link element includes parameters STA address and AP address, and/or a parameter Link id, where the STA address is used to indicate an address of the terminal device, the AP address is used to indicate an address of the access device, and the Link id is used to indicate an identifier of the Link.

In a possible implementation manner, the parameter indicating the soft access point broadcast message sending information in the Extended parameters includes parameters Beacon start time and Beacon period, where the Beacon start time is used to indicate the time when the soft access point broadcast message starts to be sent, and the Beacon period is used to indicate the period when the soft access point broadcast message is sent.

In a possible implementation manner, the Extended parameters further include a parameter SoftAP mode for indicating an operation mode of the soft access point, where the operation mode of the soft access point includes that data communication can only be performed with the terminal device and data communication can be performed with the access device or the terminal device.

In one possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

the equipment management unit sends a link reconfiguration request primitive to a media access layer management unit, wherein the link reconfiguration request primitive comprises an address of an access equipment receiving the link reconfiguration request message and parameters contained in the link reconfiguration request message;

sending, by the mac unit, the link reconfiguration request message in response to receiving the link reconfiguration request primitive.

In one possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

after receiving a link reconfiguration response message sent by the access device, the media access layer management unit sends a link reconfiguration confirm primitive to the device management unit, where the link reconfiguration response message includes a parameter Status code for indicating a reconfiguration result, and the link reconfiguration confirm primitive includes an address and a parameter Status code of the access device that sends the link reconfiguration response message;

and in response to the parameter Status code value in the link reconfiguration confirmation primitive received by the equipment management unit indicating an agreement request, establishing a soft access point.

In one possible implementation, the establishing the soft access point includes:

the method comprises the steps that a device management unit sends a starting request primitive to a media access layer management unit, the media access layer management unit is requested to establish a basic service set, the starting request primitive comprises a parameter SoftAP mode, the parameter SoftAP mode is used for indicating an operation mode of a soft access point, and the operation mode of the soft access point comprises the operation mode of only carrying out data communication with a terminal device and the operation mode of carrying out data communication with an access device or the terminal device;

and after receiving the starting request primitive, the media access layer management unit executes operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the starting request primitive.

In a possible implementation manner, the performing, according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive, an operation includes:

when the value of the softAP Mode indicates that the established soft access point can only carry out data communication with the terminal equipment, if the media access layer management unit does not receive a start request primitive before or receives unsuccessful execution of the start request primitive or receives and successfully executes a reset request primitive, the soft access point is established according to the received parameters of the start request primitive, a ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate successful execution of the operation indicated by the current primitive, and a softAP operating Mode parameter value is set to indicate that the soft access point can only carry out data communication with the terminal equipment.

when the value of the SoftAP mode indicates that the established soft access point can only perform data communication with the terminal device, if the media access layer management unit receives and successfully executes the start request primitive before and does not receive or does not successfully execute the reset request primitive after successfully executing the start request primitive, the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is not successfully executed.

when the value of the SoftAP Mode indicates that the established soft access point can only perform data communication with the terminal device, if the media access layer management unit has not received an add request primitive before or has received an add request primitive that is not successfully executed or has received a reset request primitive and successfully executed, the soft access point is established according to the received parameter of the start request primitive, and the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is successfully executed, and the SoftAP operating Mode parameter value is set to indicate that the soft access point can only perform data communication with the terminal device.

when the value of the SoftAP mode indicates that the established soft access point can only perform data communication with the terminal device, if the medium access layer management unit receives and successfully executes the join request primitive before and does not receive or does not successfully execute the reset request primitive after successfully executing the join request primitive, the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is not successfully executed.

when the value of the SoftAP Mode indicates that the established soft access point can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device, if the media access layer management unit has not received a start request primitive before or has received an unsuccessful execution of the start request primitive or has received and successfully executed a reset request primitive, the soft access point is established according to the received parameters of the start request primitive, and the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is successfully executed, and the SoftAP operating Mode parameter value is set to indicate that the soft access point can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device.

when the value of the SoftAP mode indicates that the established soft access point can perform data communication with an access device or a terminal device, if the media access layer management unit receives and successfully executes a start request primitive before, and does not receive or does not successfully execute a reset request primitive after successfully executing the start request primitive, the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is not successfully executed.

when the value of the SoftAP Mode indicates that the established soft access point can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device, if the media access layer management unit has not received the join request primitive before or has received the join request primitive and has not successfully executed or has received the reset request primitive and has successfully executed, the soft access point is established according to the received parameter of the start request primitive, and the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is successfully executed, and the SoftAP operating Mode parameter value is set to indicate that the soft access point can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device.

when the value of the SoftAP Mode indicates that the established soft access point can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device, if the media access layer management unit receives an addition request primitive before and performs the addition successfully, and does not receive a reset request primitive after the addition successfully or receives an unsuccessful execution of the reset request primitive, the SoftAP is established according to the received parameter of the start request primitive, and the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is performed successfully, and the SoftAP operating Mode parameter value is set to indicate that the SoftAP can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device.

In one possible implementation manner, the establishing a soft access point further includes:

the media access layer management unit sends a starting confirmation primitive to the equipment management unit, wherein the starting confirmation primitive comprises a parameter ResultCode, and the parameter ResultCode is used for indicating the result of the soft access point establishment.

the medium access layer management unit sends a parameter SoftAP operating Mode in a broadcast message and/or a probe response message, where the parameter SoftAP operating Mode is used to indicate a Mode of a soft access point.

In a possible implementation manner, the primitive of the start request further includes parameters SSID, BSSType, and BeaconPeriod, where SSID is used to indicate an identifier of a service set, BSSType is used to indicate a type of the service set, and BeaconPeriod is used to indicate a period of sending a broadcast message.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, including:

receiving a Link Reconfiguration request message sent by a terminal device, if the request of the terminal device is agreed, setting a parameter Status code value to indicate an agreement request, if the request of the terminal device is not agreed, setting the parameter Status code value to indicate an disagreement request, wherein the Link Reconfiguration request message comprises parameters of Reconfiguration type, link element and Extended parameters, the Reconfiguration type is used for setting the type of Link Reconfiguration, the Link element is used for setting Link related information, the Extended parameters are used for setting other related parameters, the Extended parameters comprise soft access point broadcast message sending information, the Reconfiguration value indication request type is set to establish a soft access point, or the Reconfiguration request message further comprises a parameter Cause used for setting the reason of Link Reconfiguration, the soft access point is established through the cable code indication request, and at this time, the Reconfiguration value indication request type is set to delete the request type;

and sending a link reconfiguration response message to the terminal equipment, wherein the link reconfiguration response message contains a parameter Status code.

In one possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

and locally storing the corresponding relation between the address of the terminal equipment and the soft access point broadcast message sending information contained in the Extended parameters.

In one possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

and determining data sending duration according to the soft access point broadcast message sending information corresponding to the terminal equipment, and sending data to the terminal equipment according to the data sending duration.

In a possible implementation manner, the determining a data transmission duration according to soft access point broadcast message transmission information corresponding to a terminal device includes:

determining the time T _ beacon for the soft access point to send the broadcast message next time, which is established by the terminal equipment, according to the soft access point broadcast message sending information;

and determining the data sending duration according to the current time T _ current and the current time T _ beacon, so that the data sending duration is less than or equal to the value obtained by subtracting the T _ current from the T _ beacon.

In a possible implementation manner, the setting a parameter Status code value to indicate an approval request if the request of the terminal device is approved includes:

deleting the Link indicated in the Link element if the value of the softAP mode indicates that the operation mode of the soft access point is only capable of carrying out data communication with the terminal equipment;

if the value of the parameter SoftAP mode indicates that the operation mode of the soft access point can carry out data communication with access equipment or terminal equipment, reserving the Link indicated in the Link element;

then the value of the parameter Status code is set to indicate the request is granted.

In a possible implementation manner, the method includes receiving, by a mac unit, a link reconfiguration request message sent by a terminal device, and further includes:

after receiving the link reconfiguration request message, the mac unit sends a link reconfiguration indication primitive to the device management unit, where the link reconfiguration indication primitive includes an address of the terminal device that sent the link reconfiguration request message and parameters included in the link reconfiguration request message;

determining, by the device management unit, whether to grant the request of the terminal device, and setting a value of the parameter Status code.

In one possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

the equipment management unit sends a link reconfiguration response primitive to the media access layer management unit, wherein the link reconfiguration response primitive comprises an address and a parameter Status code of the terminal equipment receiving the link reconfiguration response message;

sending, by the mac unit, the link reconfiguration response message in response to receiving the link reconfiguration response primitive.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, including:

a communication module, configured to send a Link Reconfiguration request message to an access device, where the Link Reconfiguration request message includes parameters Reconfiguration type, link element, and Extended parameters, where the Reconfiguration type is used to set a type of Link Reconfiguration, the Link element is used to set Link related information, the Extended parameters are used to set other related parameters, the Extended parameters include soft access point broadcast message sending information, and set the Reconfiguration type value to indicate that the request type is to establish a soft access point, or the Link Reconfiguration request message further includes a parameter Cause code for setting a reason for Link Reconfiguration, and the Cause code indicates that the request type is to establish a soft access point, and at this time, the Reconfiguration type value indicates that the request type is to delete;

and the execution module is used for responding to the received link reconfiguration response message sent by the access equipment to indicate an agreement request and establishing the soft access point.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, including:

a communication module i, configured to receive a Link Reconfiguration request message sent by a terminal device, set a parameter Status code value to indicate an agreement request if the request of the terminal device is agreed, and set the parameter Status code value to indicate an disagreement request if the request of the terminal device is not agreed, where the Link Reconfiguration request message includes parameters Reconfiguration type, link element, and Extended parameters, where the Reconfiguration type is used to set a type of Link Reconfiguration, the Link element is used to set Link related information, the Extended parameters are used to set other related parameters, the Extended parameters include soft access point broadcast message sending information, and set the Reconfiguration type value to indicate that the request type is soft access point establishment, or further include a parameter Cause code for setting a reason of Link Reconfiguration, and indicate that the soft access point establishment is requested through the use code, and at this time, set the configuration type value to indicate that the request type is soft access point deletion;

and a second communication module, configured to send a link reconfiguration response message to the terminal device, where the link reconfiguration response message includes a Status code parameter.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a multi-link terminal device, where the multi-link terminal device includes a processor and a memory, where the memory stores at least one instruction, at least one piece of program code, a set of codes, or a set of instructions, and the at least one instruction, at least one piece of program code, a set of codes, or a set of instructions is loaded and executed by the processor, so as to implement the method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration as described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, where at least one instruction, at least one program code, a code set, or a set of instructions is stored, and the at least one instruction, the at least one program code, the code set, or the set of instructions is loaded and executed by a processor to implement the method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration as described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

It should be noted that the apparatus according to the third aspect is configured to execute the method provided by the first aspect, the apparatus according to the fourth aspect is configured to execute the method provided by the second aspect, and the device according to the fifth aspect and the storage medium according to the sixth aspect are configured to execute the method provided by the first aspect or the second aspect, so that the same beneficial effects as those of the method provided by the first aspect or the second aspect can be achieved, and the embodiments of the present invention are not described again.

The invention can meet the requirement of establishing the soft access point, so that the terminal equipment can flexibly and simultaneously carry out data transmission with the access equipment and the terminal equipment, the effective use of a link is improved, the network coverage range is enlarged, and the network throughput is improved.

Drawings

The present application will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a management unit structure of a device in the prior art;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a soft access point for establishing an operation mode according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a soft access point for establishing another operation mode according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make those skilled in the art better understand the technical solutions in the present invention, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention. Moreover, while the present disclosure has been described in terms of one or more exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that each aspect of the disclosure can be implemented as a separate entity, whether or not such embodiment is described in connection with its specific embodiments. The embodiments described below and the features of the embodiments can be combined with each other without conflict.

In the embodiments of the present invention, words such as "exemplary", "for example", etc. are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the term using examples is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.

Unless defined otherwise, technical or scientific terms used herein shall have the ordinary meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The use of "first," "second," and similar terms in the present application do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather the terms are used to distinguish one element from another, and may or may not be identical in meaning. The word "comprising" or "comprises", and the like, means that the element or item listed before the word covers the element or item listed after the word and its equivalents, but does not exclude other elements or items.

It should be noted that the multilink device includes a plurality of logic entities, each logic entity performs data transmission through one link, and each logic entity includes an independent data transceiver module. Whereas a conventional single-link device has only one logical entity.

In the embodiment of the invention, the current terminal equipment STA MLD is connected with the access equipment AP MLD, the STA MLD supports the configuration of Soft AP, and when the configuration is enabled, a parameter dot11SOFTAPOption implemented is set locally, and the value is set to true.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 2, the method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration includes the following steps:

the sta MLD transmits a link reconfiguration request message (i.e., a link reconfiguration request message) to the AP MLD. Illustratively, the link reconfiguration request message includes parameters as shown in table 1.

TABLE 1

Parameter(s)	Description of the invention
		Reconfiguration type	Setting types of link reconfigurations
Link element	Link related information
		Extended parameters	Other relevant parameters

Examples of the parameters included in the Link element are shown in table 2, table 3, or table 4. The Extended parameters include soft access point broadcast messaging information, and the parameters included in the Extended parameters are shown in table 5. In some embodiments, the Extended parameters further include a parameter SoftAP mode for indicating an operation mode of the soft access point, the operation mode of the soft access point including data communication with only the terminal device and data communication with the access device or the terminal device, where examples of the parameter included in the Extended parameters are as shown in table 6.

TABLE 2

Parameter(s)	Description of the invention
		STA address	Address of terminal equipment
AP address	Address of access device

TABLE 3

Parameter(s)	Description of the invention
		Link id	Identification of a link

TABLE 4

Parameter(s)	Description of the invention
		Link id	Identification of a link
STA address	Address of terminal equipment
		AP address	Address of access device

TABLE 5

Parameter(s)	Description of the invention
		Beacon start time	Time when broadcast message (Beacon message) starts to be transmitted
Beacon period	Periodicity of broadcast message (Beacon message) transmission

TABLE 6

For example, the SoftAP mode may be set to dedicate or shared, where dedicate indicates that the soft access point can only communicate data with the terminal device, and shared indicates that the soft access point can communicate data with the access device or the terminal device.

In the link Reconfiguration request message, the STA MLD may indicate to request to establish the soft access point through a parameter Reconfiguration type, for example, setting the Reconfiguration type to "SoftAPSetup" indicates that the request type is to establish the soft access point; the link Reconfiguration request message may also include a parameter Cause code for setting a Cause of link Reconfiguration, as shown in table 7, the Cause code indicates that the soft access point is requested to be established, for example, the Cause code is set to "SoftAPSetup", and at this time, the Reconfiguration type value is set to indicate that the request type is deletion, for example, the Reconfiguration type is set to "remove".

TABLE 7

Parameter(s)	Description of the invention
		Reconfiguration type	Setting types of link reconfigurations
Cause code	Setting the cause of link reconfiguration
		Link element	Link related information
Extended parameters	Other relevant parameters

And 112. After receiving the link reconfiguration request message, if the request of the STA MLD is agreed, setting a parameter Status code value to indicate the agreement request, if the request of the STA MLD is agreed, and if the request of the STA MLD is not agreed, setting the parameter Status code value to indicate the disagreement request, if the request of the STA MLD is not agreed, and if the request of the STA MLD is not agreed, setting the parameter Status code value to indicate the disagreement request to be failed.

In some embodiments, the Extended parameters in the Link reconfiguration request message include a parameter SoftAP mode, and after receiving the Link reconfiguration request message, the AP MLD deletes the Link indicated in the Link element if the value of SoftAP mode is default, as shown in fig. 3, where STA2 and STA3 are other terminal devices connected to the SoftAP, and Link1 and Link2 are Link identifiers; if the value of the SoftAP mode is shared, reserving the Link indicated in the Link element, as shown in FIG. 4; the value of the parameter Status code is then set to indicate an approval request.

And 113. The AP MLD sends a link reconfiguration response message (namely a link reconfiguration response message) to the STA MLD, wherein the link reconfiguration response message contains a parameter Status code.

And 114. After receiving the link configuration response message, if the value of the parameter Status code in the link configuration response message indicates that the request is granted, the STA MLD establishes the Soft AP.

In some embodiments, the AP MLD may locally store the correspondence between the address of the terminal device and the Soft access point broadcast message transmission information contained in the Extended parameters, such as locally storing an information table Soft AP info, an example of parameters contained in the information table being shown in table 8.

TABLE 8

Parameter(s)	Description of the invention
		STA address	Establishing an address of a terminal device of a soft access point
Beacon start time	Time for soft access point broadcast message to start transmitting
		Beacon period	Periodicity of soft access point broadcast messaging

When the AP MLD needs to send data to the STA MLD, determining a TXOP (data sending duration) according to soft access point broadcast message sending information corresponding to the STA MLD, such as parameters Beacon start time and Beacon period, and sending the data in the determined TXOP, where the specific manner may include:

firstly, determining the time T _ Beacon of next broadcast message sending of Soft AP established by STA MLD according to Beacon start time and Beacon period;

and secondly, determining the value of TXOP according to the current time T _ current and T _ beacon, so that the TXOP is less than or equal to (T _ beacon-T _ current).

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 5, the method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration includes the following steps:

210. The SME of sta MLD sends MLME-link reconfiguration request primitive (i.e. link reconfiguration request primitive) to MLME, and examples of parameters contained in MLME-link reconfiguration request primitive are shown in table 9.

TABLE 9

And 211. After receiving the MLME-LINKRECONFIGURATION.REQUEST primitive, the MLME of the STA MLD sends a link configuration request message to the MLME of the AP MLD. The setting of the link reconfiguration request message is the same as that of the link reconfiguration request message in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described herein again.

212. after receiving the link reconfiguration request message, the MLME of the ap MLD sends an MLME-link reconfiguration indication primitive (i.e. link reconfiguration indication primitive) to the SME, where an example of parameters included in the MLME-link reconfiguration indication primitive is shown in table 10.

Watch 10

And 213. The SME of the AP MLD determines whether the request is agreed, if so, the value of the parameter Status code is set to accepted, and if not, the value of the parameter Status code is set to failed.

214. the SME of the ap MLD sends a MLME-link configuration response primitive to the MLME, and examples of parameters included in the MLME-link configuration response primitive are shown in table 11.

TABLE 11

215. the MLME of the AP MLD sends a link reconfiguration response message to the MLME of the STA MLD, wherein the MLME contains a parameter Status code. The setting of the link reconfiguration response message is the same as that in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and is not described here again.

216. after receiving the link reconfiguration response, the MLME of the sta MLD sends an MLME-link reconfiguration confirmation primitive to the SME, where an example of parameters included in the MLME-link reconfiguration confirmation primitive is shown in table 12.

TABLE 12

And 217. After receiving the MLME-LINKRECONFIGURATION. Confirm primitive by the SME of the STA MLD, if the Status code value is accepted, the STA MLD establishes Soft AP. In order to make the solution of the embodiment of the present invention more complete, a specific embodiment of establishing Soft AP by STA MLD is given below, but the method for establishing Soft AP by STA MLD of the present invention is not limited thereto. In this embodiment, the process of establishing Soft AP by STA MLD includes the following steps:

the SME sends an MLME-START request primitive (namely a starting request primitive for establishing Soft AP) to the MLME, and requests the MLME to establish a BSS (namely a basic service set), wherein the MLME-START request primitive comprises a parameter SoftAP mode which is used for indicating the operation mode of the Soft access point. Request primitive contains the parameters shown in table 13.

Watch 13

Wherein the value of SoftAP mode is set as follows:

DedicateAP: the Soft AP can only carry out data communication with the terminal equipment;

and Shared: indicating that the Soft AP can carry out data communication with the access equipment or the terminal equipment.

After receiving the MLME-start request primitive, if the parameter SoftAP mode is included, the MLME performs an operation according to the value of the SoftAP mode:

if the value of the softAP Mode is DedicateAP, if the MLME-START.request primitive is not received before the softAP Mode or the MLME-START.request primitive is received and is not successfully executed or the MLME-RESET.request (namely, the reset request primitive is used for resetting the role of the equipment) is received and is successfully executed, establishing a soft AP according to the parameters of the primitive, setting a ResultCode parameter value as SUCCESS, indicating that the operation indicated by the current primitive is successfully executed, and setting a softAP operating Mode parameter value as DedicateAP;

if the value of the SoftAP mode is DedicateAP, if an MLME-START.request primitive is received before the SoftAP mode and successfully executed, and the MLME-RESET.request is not received after the SoftAP mode is successfully executed OR the MLME-RESET.request is not successfully executed, setting a ResultCode parameter value to BSS _ ALREADY _ STARTED _ OR _ JOINED, and indicating that the operation indicated by the current primitive is not successfully executed;

if the value of the softAP Mode is Dedicat AP, if an MLME-JOIN.request primitive (namely an adding request primitive which is used for obtaining time synchronization with access equipment) is not received before the softAP Mode, or the MLME-JOIN.request primitive is not successfully executed or the MLME-RESET.request is received and successfully executed, establishing the softAP according to the parameters of the primitive, setting a ResultCode parameter value as SUCCESS, and setting a softAP operating Mode parameter value as Dedicat AP;

if the value of the SoftAP mode is DedicateAP, if the self receives an MLME-JOIN.request primitive before and is executed successfully, and does NOT receive the MLME-RESET.request after the successful execution OR receives the MLME-RESET.request which is NOT executed successfully, setting a ResultCode parameter value as BSS _ ALREADY _ STARTED _ OR _ JOINED OR NOT _ SUPPORTED, and indicating that the operation indicated by the current primitive is NOT executed successfully;

if the value of the softAP Mode is Shared, if the self does not receive an MLME-START.request primitive before or receives the MLME-START.request primitive to be executed unsuccessfully or receives the MLME-RESET.request to be executed successfully, then establishing soft AP according to the parameters of the primitive, setting a ResultCode parameter value as SUCCESS, and setting a softAP operating Mode parameter value as Shared;

if the value of the SoftAP mode is Shared, if the self receives an MLME-START.request primitive before and is successfully executed, and does not receive the MLME-RESET.request after the successful execution OR receives the MLME-RESET.request and is not successfully executed, setting a ResultCode parameter value as BSS _ ALREADY _ STARTED _ OR _ JOINED;

if the value of the softAP Mode is Shared, if the self does not receive an MLME-JOIN.request primitive before or receives the MLME-JOIN.request primitive which is not successfully executed or receives the MLME-RESET.request and successfully executes, establishing soft AP according to the parameters of the primitive, setting a ResultCode parameter value as SUCCESS, and setting a softAP operating Mode parameter value as Shared;

if the value of the softAP Mode is Shared, if the MLME-JOIN.request primitive is received before the softAP Mode receives the softAP Mode and is successfully executed, and after the MLME-RESET.request is successfully executed, the MLME-RESET.request is not received or is unsuccessfully executed, then a soft AP is established according to the parameters of the primitive, a ResultCode parameter value is set to SUCCESS, and a softAP operating Mode parameter value is set to Shared.

Mlme sends SoftAP operating Mode parameters in Beacon messages (i.e., broadcast messages), or probe response messages (i.e., probe response messages).

The MLME sends an MLME-start.confirm primitive (i.e., a start confirm primitive) to the SME based on the execution result, wherein the MLME-start.confirm primitive includes a ResultCode parameter.

In the embodiment of the present invention, based on the same inventive concept as the above-mentioned method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, an apparatus for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration is further provided in the embodiment of the present invention, including:

The embodiment of the invention also provides another device for establishing the soft access point through link reconfiguration, which comprises the following steps:

In this embodiment of the present invention, based on the same inventive concept as that of the above method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a multi-link terminal device, where the multi-link terminal device includes a processor and a memory, where the memory stores at least one instruction, at least one section of program code, a code set, or an instruction set, and the at least one instruction, at least one section of program code, a code set, or an instruction set is loaded and executed by the processor, so as to implement the method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to the above embodiment.

Furthermore, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where at least one instruction, at least one program code, a code set, or a set of instructions is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and the at least one instruction, the at least one program code, the code set, or the set of instructions is loaded and executed by a processor to implement the method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to the foregoing embodiments.

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present invention, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, some or all of the steps may be executed in parallel or executed sequentially, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present invention.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

It is clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the embodiments provided in the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the modules is merely a logical division, and in actual implementation, there may be other divisions, for example, multiple modules or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not implemented.

The modules described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment. In addition, functional modules in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more modules are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention or a part thereof which substantially contributes to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device or a terminal device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: u disk, removable hard disk, ROM, RAM) magnetic or optical disk, or the like.

The terminology used in the embodiments of the invention is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used in the examples of the present invention and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

The word "if" or "if" as used herein may be interpreted as "at … …" or "at … …" or "in response to a determination" or "in response to a detection", depending on the context. Similarly, the phrase "if determined" or "if detected (a stated condition or event)" may be interpreted as "upon determining" or "in response to determining" or "upon detecting (a stated condition or event)" or "in response to detecting (a stated condition or event)", depending on the context.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present invention, and all the changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, comprising:

sending a Link Reconfiguration request message to an access device, wherein the Link Reconfiguration request message includes parameters of Reconfiguration type, link element and Extended parameters, the Reconfiguration type is used for setting the type of Link Reconfiguration, the Link element is used for setting Link related information, the Extended parameters are used for setting other related parameters, the Extended parameters include soft access point broadcast message sending information, and the Reconfiguration type value is set to indicate the request type to be soft access point establishment, or the Link Reconfiguration request message further includes a parameter Cause code used for setting the reason of Link Reconfiguration, the Cause code indicates the request to establish soft access point, and at this time, the Reconfiguration type value is set to indicate the request type to be deletion;

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the Link element includes parameters STA address and AP address, and/or parameter Link id, where the STA address is used to indicate an address of the terminal device, the AP address is used to indicate an address of the access device, and Linkid is used to indicate an identifier of the Link.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters indicating the soft access point broadcast message transmission information in Extended parameters comprise Beacon start time and Beacon period, wherein Beacon start time is used to indicate the time when the soft access point broadcast message starts to be transmitted, and Beacon period is used to indicate the period of the soft access point broadcast message transmission.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the Extended parameters further comprise SoftAP mode indicating an operation mode of the soft access point, and the operation mode of the soft access point comprises data communication with only the terminal device and data communication with the access device or the terminal device.

5. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 1, further comprising:

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

7. The method of claim 6, wherein establishing the soft access point through link reconfiguration comprises:

8. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing an operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive comprises:

when the value of the SoftAP Mode indicates that the established soft access point can only perform data communication with the terminal device, if the media access layer management unit has not received a start request primitive before or has received that the start request primitive is not successfully executed or has received and successfully executed a reset request primitive, the soft access point is established according to the received parameters of the start request primitive, and the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate that the operation indicated by the current primitive is successfully executed, and the SoftAP operating Mode parameter value is set to indicate that the soft access point can only perform data communication with the terminal device.

9. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing an operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive comprises:

10. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing an operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive comprises:

11. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing SoftAP mode in accordance with the parameter in the initiation request primitive comprises:

12. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing an operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive comprises:

13. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing an operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive comprises:

14. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing an operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive comprises:

when the value of the SoftAP Mode indicates that the established soft access point can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device, if the media access layer management unit does not receive a join request primitive before or receives unsuccessful execution of the join request primitive or receives and successfully executes a reset request primitive, the soft access point is established according to the received parameter of the start request primitive, and the ResultCode parameter value is set to indicate successful execution of the operation indicated by the current primitive, and the SoftAP operating Mode parameter value is set to indicate that the soft access point can perform data communication with the access device or the terminal device.

15. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein said performing an operation according to the parameter SoftAP mode in the initiation request primitive comprises:

16. The method of claim 7, wherein establishing the soft access point via link reconfiguration further comprises:

17. The method of claim 7, wherein establishing the soft access point via link reconfiguration further comprises:

18. The method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 7, wherein the primitive of the start request further includes parameters SSID, BSSType and BeaconPeriod, wherein SSID is used to indicate an identifier of a service set, BSSType is used to indicate a type of the service set, and BeaconPeriod is used to indicate a period of broadcast message transmission.

19. A method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, comprising:

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the Link element includes parameters STA address and AP address, and/or parameter Link id, where the STA address is used to indicate an address of the terminal device, the AP address is used to indicate an address of the access device, and Linkid is used to indicate an identifier of the Link.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the parameters indicating the soft access point broadcast message transmission information in Extended parameters comprise Beacon start time and Beacon period, wherein Beacon start time is used to indicate the time when the soft access point broadcast message starts to be transmitted, and Beacon period is used to indicate the period of the soft access point broadcast message transmission.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

23. The method of establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to claim 22, further comprising:

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the determining the data transmission duration according to the soft access point broadcast message transmission information corresponding to the terminal device comprises:

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the Extended parameters further comprise SoftAP mode indicating the operation mode of the soft access point, and the operation mode of the soft access point comprises data communication with only the terminal device and data communication with the access device or the terminal device.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein setting the parameter Status code value to indicate granting the request if the terminal device is granted, comprises:

27. The method of claim 19, wherein the link reconfiguration request message sent by the terminal device is received by a media access layer management unit, and the method further comprises:

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

29. An apparatus for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, comprising:

30. An apparatus for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration, comprising:

31. A multi-link terminal device comprising a processor and a memory, said memory having stored therein at least one instruction, at least one piece of program code, set of codes, or set of instructions, which is loaded and executed by said processor to implement a method of establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to any of claims 1-28.

32. A computer readable storage medium having stored therein at least one instruction, at least one piece of program code, a set of codes, or a set of instructions, which is loaded and executed by a processor to implement the method for establishing a soft access point through link reconfiguration according to any one of claims 1-28.