CN113810517B

CN113810517B - Multi-link device MAC address management method and multi-link device

Info

Publication number: CN113810517B
Application number: CN202111087087.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 左鑫
Original assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Co Ltd
Current assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-03-17
Filing date: 2020-03-17
Publication date: 2023-11-21
Anticipated expiration: 2040-03-17
Also published as: CN111432044A; CN111432044B; CN113810517A

Abstract

The application relates to a method, a device, a multi-link device and a computer readable storage medium for managing the MAC address of a multi-link device, wherein a management entity of a multi-link network access point sends an MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity of the multi-link network access point, and meanwhile, the MAC layer address of the virtual entity distributed according to a preset address distribution rule is added in the MAC layer address management primitive; each virtual entity obtains the corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive, and when the multi-link equipment is a multi-link network access point, the multi-link network access point realizes the allocation and management of the MAC address of the virtual entity.

Description

Multi-link device MAC address management method and multi-link device

The application is a divisional application filed by Chinese patent office on 17 th 03 th 2020 with application number 202010185655.6 entitled "method, apparatus and multilink device for management of MAC address of multilink device", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for managing MAC addresses of multiple link devices, and a computer readable storage medium.

Background

With the development of communication technology, wi-Fi technology (wireless lan technology in the IEEE 802.11 standard) has emerged to allow terminals such as personal computers, hand-held devices (e.g., PDAs, cellular phones) and the like to be connected to each other wirelessly.

Because the current Wi-Fi system is a data transmission between a hardware wireless access point device and a terminal connected to a wireless network, the current hardware wireless access point device and the terminal are single link devices, only one MAC address is needed, and address allocation is generally performed by adopting the LAAP (collectively: local Address Assignment Protocol) protocol defined by P802.1CQ, as shown in fig. 1; or adopting a mode of factory preset MAC address. Among them, the LAAP protocol is framed on another published 802.11aq standard, called PAD (Pre-Association Discovery). The PAD allows the terminal to obtain services that the WiFi network can provide before associating to a wireless access point device, avoiding invalid connections. 802.11aq defines a new message container for supporting PAD, allowing terminals to exchange part of the information in association (association) with wireless access point devices, which is employed by the P802.1CQ item as the basis for dynamic MAC address allocation.

However, the address allocation manner of the current Wi-Fi system cannot meet the requirement of MAC address allocation and management of the multi-link device.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a method, an apparatus, a multi-link device, and a computer-readable storage medium for managing MAC addresses of multi-link devices, which can be applied to MAC address management of multi-link devices.

A method of multi-link device MAC address management, the method comprising:

the management entity of the multilink network access point sends MAC layer address management primitives to each virtual entity of the multilink network access point, wherein the MAC layer address management primitives are added with the MAC layer addresses of the virtual entities distributed according to preset address distribution rules;

each virtual entity obtains a corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive.

A method for managing MAC addresses of a multi-link device, the method comprising:

acquiring an MAC address allocation option carried in a beacon message or a probe response message according to the received beacon message or the probe response message of a multi-link network access point;

sending an initial request message to the multi-link network access point according to the MAC address allocation option; the initial request message includes a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and information of a virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

A multi-link device MAC address management apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a management entity and a virtual entity;

A multi-link device comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program, characterized in that the processor implements the steps of the method when executing the computer program.

A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, characterized in that the computer program when executed by a processor implements the steps of the method.

The method, the device, the multilink device and the computer readable storage medium for managing the MAC address of the multilink device send the MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity through the management entity of the multilink network access point, and meanwhile, the MAC layer address of the virtual entity distributed according to the preset address distribution rule is added in the MAC layer address management primitive; each virtual entity obtains the corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive, and when the multi-link equipment is a multi-link network access point, the multi-link network access point realizes the allocation and management of the MAC address of the virtual entity.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of address assignment for an existing LAAP protocol in one embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a multi-link device in one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method of managing MAC addresses of a multi-link device in one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a method of managing MAC addresses of a multi-link device according to another embodiment;

fig. 5 is a flowchart of a method for managing MAC addresses of a multi-link device according to another embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of address management within a multilink network access point of a multilink device MAC address management method in one embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of address management for a multilink network access point being a multilink non-network access point for a method of multilink device MAC address management in one embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a multi-link device MAC address management apparatus in one embodiment;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-link device MAC address management apparatus in another embodiment;

fig. 10 is an internal block diagram of a multi-link device in one embodiment.

Detailed Description

The present application will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings and examples, in order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the application.

The Multi-link Device (MLD) is an 802.11be Device with more than one virtual entity (STA), and the WiFi Device with Multi-link capability can work on different frequency bands simultaneously or through fast switching, so that the data transmission can be completed in a shorter time with a larger bandwidth and a more efficient access channel, and the target maximum throughput is improved by 30Gbps. In order to implement multilink, the multilink device includes a plurality of logical functional entities, called virtual entities (STAs), responsible for processing data and management work related to communication, and the multilink device may be regarded as a set formed by a plurality of STAs, uniformly manages and coordinates the MAC layer functions provided by the STAs, and uniformly provides a data interface to an upper layer. A typical multi-link device is shown in fig. 2 (a multi-link device includes two STA logical entities).

One multi-link device requires multiple MAC addresses for distinguishing between different virtual entities (STAs) or for identifying the MLD device itself on a local area network. The number of virtual entities (STAs) is not limited, and the virtual entities (STAs) as logical entities may be dynamically generated or deleted according to the service requirement, different addresses need to be distinguished between different virtual entities (STAs), and are different from the addresses of the upper-layer multi-link device (i.e., the 48-bit address identifying the MLD device itself, the management entity address), so that a dynamic MAC address management method needs to be designed in the WiFi device and the system.

Structure of MAC layer address: the MAC layer address is used to identify the 48-bit address of each STA in the multi-link device, and is a 48-bit sequence of numbers, typically in 16-ary, that is responsible for management by the IEEE address management committee (IEEE RAC). According to the specifications of IEEE RAC and IEEE 802c-2017 standard published in 2017, a 48-bit MAC address is divided into a prefix and an extension, wherein the prefix portion defines 4 special bits, x/y/z/m, for distinguishing organization identifiers OUI (Organization Unique ID) and CID (Company ID), and a standard allocation identifier SAI (Standard Assignment ID) and a management allocation identifier AAI (Administratively Assigned ID), wherein CID can also be used as an extension local identifier ELI (Extended Local ID), the 4 special bits being located in the lower 4 bits of the first byte of the address sequence. The suffix is an address extension portion that may be generated by a vendor, network administrator, or by an address assignment protocol, depending on the application, scenario.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, a method for managing MAC addresses of a multi-link device is provided, and the method is applied to the multi-link device and is exemplified as a multi-link network access point, and includes the following steps:

In step S220, the management entity of the multilink network access point sends the MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity thereof, and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity allocated according to the preset address allocation rule is added in the MAC layer address management primitive.

Wherein the multi-link network access point (i.e., the multi-link AP device) is the creator of the wireless network, is the central node of the network, such as: a wireless router is provided with 802.11be (referred to as 802.11be version of Wi-Fi standard) hardware devices for more than one virtual entity. The management entity (Station Management Entity, SME for short) of the multi-link network access point provides management functions for the entire multi-link network access point device (MAC/PHY, i.e. media intervention control layer/physical layer), ensuring correct execution of the functions defined by the standard, and also being an interface for external management applications. The virtual entity is a MAC layer functional entity of the multi-link network access point and has an independent MAC address, and the MAC layer address refers to the MAC address of the virtual entity.

The MAC layer address management primitive (e.g., the MLME-start. Request primitive) is used to manage the MAC layer address of the MAC layer management entity (STA MLME, which is collectively referred to as MAC Sublayer Management Entity) of the virtual entity. The MAC layer address is used to identify the 48bit address of each virtual entity (STA) in the multi-link network access point.

Specifically, when the multi-link network access point starts to start, the management entity of the multi-link network access point sends a MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity of the multi-link network access point. When the management entity of the multilink network access point sends an MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity of the multilink network access point, the MAC layer address of each virtual entity is distributed according to a preset address distribution rule, and the MAC layer address is added into the MAC layer address management primitive sent to each virtual entity, so that each virtual entity gives an MAC layer address to a basic service set (such as a W-Fi network) when the basic service set is created.

In one embodiment, when the MAC layer address of each virtual entity is allocated according to a preset address allocation rule, the preset address allocation rule may be that the management entity of the multilink network access point randomly generates the MAC layer address with the management allocation identifier prefix.

Wherein the MAC layer address is only allowed to be used in the Local area network and is provided with a management allocation identifier prefix (AAI prefix) for indicating that the address is a Local address, or at least x bit=1 is set for indicating that the address is a Local address. When the management entity of the multilink network access point randomly generates the MAC layer address with the management allocation identifier prefix, the management entity can be used together with a repeated address detection (Duplicate Address Detection, DAD) protocol to confirm that the generated MAC layer address has no conflict in the local area network, when the conflict exists, the generated MAC layer address is effective, and when the conflict exists, the generated MAC layer address is ineffective, and the effective MAC layer address needs to be randomly generated again.

In one embodiment, when the MAC layer address of each virtual entity is allocated according to a preset address allocation rule, the preset address allocation rule may be that the management entity of the multi-link network access point combines with the management entity address of the multi-link network access point to generate the MAC layer address in sequence.

Wherein the management entity of the multi-link network access point combines the management entity address of the multi-link network access point, and the management entity address refers to the address of the multi-link network access point device, and is generated according to the sequence, and the multi-link network access point is assumed to have the management entity address (48 bit address for identifying the multi-link network access point device), namely the address (z) shown in fig. 1, namely Addr (z) as follows:

let Addr (z) =aa: bb: cc: dd: ee: ff

Addr(x)＝Addr(z)＝aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:[(f+i)mod16]f,i＝0；

Addr(y)＝aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:[(f+i)mod16]f,i＝1

…

In step S240, each virtual entity obtains a corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive.

When the management entity of the multilink network access point sends an MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity of the multilink network access point, the MAC layer address of each virtual entity is distributed according to a preset address distribution rule, the MAC layer address is added into the MAC layer address management primitive sent to each virtual entity, the virtual entity extracts the corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive, and when a basic service set (such as a W-Fi network) is created, the MAC layer address is given to the basic service set.

According to the method for managing the MAC address of the multi-link equipment, the management entity of the multi-link network access point sends the MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity, and meanwhile, the MAC layer address of the virtual entity distributed according to the preset address distribution rule is added in the MAC layer address management primitive; each virtual entity obtains the corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive, and when the multi-link equipment is a multi-link network access point, the multi-link network access point realizes the allocation and management of the MAC address of the virtual entity.

In one embodiment, the method for managing the MAC address of the multi-link device further includes: the management entity of the multi-link network access point sends MAC layer network starting primitive to each virtual entity; each virtual entity responds to the MAC layer network starting primitive and respectively establishes a basic service set based on the MAC layer address; each virtual entity with successful basic service set establishment broadcasts beacon messages on each link with corresponding MAC layer addresses.

The MAC layer network start primitive is used to instruct a MAC layer management entity (STA MLME, which is called MAC Sublayer Management Entity throughout) of the virtual entity to start a procedure of establishing a new WiFi network (called BSS), and to instruct basic parameters of the BSS, which are parameters required for establishing the WiFi network. The MAC layer management entity of the virtual entity establishes a basic service set (i.e., W-Fi network) according to the basic parameters of the BSS in the received MAC layer network start primitive, and identifies the basic service set according to the MAC layer address in the MAC layer address management primitive.

Wherein, a link corresponds to a virtual entity, each virtual entity with successful basic service set establishment adopts a beacon message (beacon message) broadcasted to the link (link) where the basic service set is operated, and when the beacon message is broadcasted, the MAC layer address of the basic service set is identified as a transmitting address (TA, generally called Transmitter Address, used for representing the transmitting end MAC address of the data packet in the MAC header) to transmit. The beacon message includes basic parameters of the basic service set, MAC layer address, MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point, etc., informing the surrounding multi-link non-network access point that a new basic service set has been created.

The MAC address allocation option of the multilink non-network access point is used for identifying an allocation rule of the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point, and the MAC address allocation option can be a first allocation mode or a second allocation mode, wherein the first option represents that the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point is randomly generated by the multilink non-network access point; the second allocation scheme indicates that the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is allocated with the MAC layer address by the multi-link network access point according to the number of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point. The first allocation manner of the MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point may be represented by option=0, and the second allocation manner of the MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point may be represented by option=1.

A multilink Non-network access point (Non-AP MLD) is a multilink terminal in a network connected to the multilink network access point, and a WiFi device with multilink capability can operate on different frequency bands simultaneously or through fast switching, so that data transmission can be completed in a shorter time with a larger bandwidth and a more efficient access channel, and thus the target maximum throughput is improved by 30Gbps, for example: various personal computers with multilinks, notebook computers with multilinks, smartphones with multilinks, tablet computers with multilinks and portable wearable devices with multilinks, the multilink terminal is provided with 802.11be (referred to as 802.11be version of Wi-Fi standard) hardware equipment of more than one virtual entity. The virtual entity is a MAC layer functional entity (STA) of the multi-link non-network access point, having its own independent MAC address.

In one embodiment, after the step of each virtual entity establishing the basic service set based on the MAC layer address in response to the MAC layer network start primitive, the method further includes: and each virtual entity feeds back a MAC layer network start confirmation primitive carrying a result description field to a management entity of the multi-link network access point according to the basic service set establishment result.

The basic service set establishment result refers to success or failure of each virtual entity to establish the basic service set. The MAC layer network start confirm primitive is used for notifying a management entity (SME) of the multi-link network access point that the basic service set has been successfully established or failed, and the MAC layer network start confirm primitive carries a result description field (i.e., a request code field) to indicate the successful establishment or failure and its Reason. The feedback of the MAC layer network start acknowledge primitive may be to enable the management entity of the multi-link network access point to further manage each virtual entity.

In one embodiment, the method for managing the MAC address of the multi-link device further includes: when the management entity of the multilink network access point determines that the MAC layer address is unavailable and the establishment of the virtual entity basic service set fails according to the result description field, the management entity re-sends an MAC layer address management primitive to the corresponding virtual entity, and a new MAC layer address is allocated to the virtual entity again according to a preset address allocation rule is added in the MAC layer address management primitive; the corresponding virtual entity obtains the MAC layer address based on the MAC layer address management primitive.

Wherein, the unavailability of the MAC layer address may be that the MAC layer address is invalid, such as: the MAC layer address has a conflict in the current lan. And re-sending the MAC layer address management primitive to the virtual entity, namely re-establishing the failed virtual entity MAC layer address management primitive to the basic service set, wherein a new MAC layer address is allocated to the virtual entity again according to a preset address allocation rule and is different from the previously sent MAC layer address.

When each virtual entity establishes a basic service set according to the MAC layer address management primitive, the basic service set may fail to establish due to various reasons, and the virtual entity writes the reason of the basic service set failure into the MAC layer network start confirmation primitive and feeds back to the management entity of the multi-link network access point. Including failure of the basic service set establishment due to unavailability of the MAC layer address assigned by the management entity of the multi-link network access point. The management entity of the multi-link network access point can know the condition that the basic service set of the virtual entity is successfully established or fails from the received starting confirmation primitives of each MAC layer network, when the starting confirmation primitives of the MAC layer network determine that the basic service set of the virtual entity fails to be established due to the unavailability of the MAC layer address, the MAC layer address is reassigned to the virtual entity feeding back the starting confirmation primitives of the MAC layer network, the MAC layer address management primitive is reassigned to the corresponding virtual entity, the new MAC layer address is reassigned to the virtual entity according to the preset address assignment rule is added in the MAC layer address management primitive, and the corresponding virtual entity extracts the MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive.

In one embodiment, after the basic service set of each virtual entity is successfully established, each virtual entity receives a Probe message (Probe Response message) of each multilink non-network access point device on each link, where the Probe message is used to Probe surrounding multilink non-network access point devices, and a Probe Response message is fed back according to the Probe message, where the Probe Response message carries an allocation option of a MAC address of a multilink non-network access point, where the allocation option of the MAC address of the multilink non-network access point is used to identify an allocation rule of a MAC layer address of a virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point, and the allocation option of the MAC address may be a first allocation manner or a second allocation manner, and the first option indicates that the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point is randomly generated by the multilink non-network access point itself; the second allocation scheme indicates that the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is allocated with the MAC layer address by the multi-link network access point according to the number of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point. The first allocation manner of the MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point may be represented by option=0, and the second allocation manner of the MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point may be represented by option=1.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 4, the method for managing MAC addresses of the multi-link device further includes the steps of:

step S420, receiving the initial request message sent by the multilink non-network access point through the selected link response beacon message or the probing response message broadcast; the initial request message comprises the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the information of the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point;

when the virtual entities of the multi-link network access point broadcast beacon messages on links or feedback probe response messages, the beacon messages and the probe response messages contain the allocation rules of the MAC layer addresses of the virtual entities supporting the multi-link non-network access point. The allocation rules of the MAC layer addresses of the virtual entities of the multilink non-network access points broadcast in the beacon message and the probe response message are the same. The initial request message (such as GAS initial request message) can be an initial request of general advertisement service, and when a connection needs to be established with the multi-link network access point, the initial request message is initiated to the multi-link network access point; the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point is a MAC address for identifying the multilink non-network access point device. The information of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point can be the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, or the information of the number of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point. The initial request message sent by the multilink non-network access point is received by the virtual entity of the multilink network access point via a selected link response beacon message or probe response message broadcast.

Step S440, the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is determined according to the initial request message.

The management entity of the multi-link network access point determines the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point according to the initial request message. The MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is a MAC address for identifying each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

In one embodiment, when the MAC address allocation option carried in the beacon message and the probe response message broadcast is the first allocation manner, the information of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point includes: and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point.

The first allocation method indicates that the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is randomly generated by the multi-link non-network access point, when the allocation options of the MAC address carried in the beacon message and the probe response message broadcast are the first allocation method, the multi-link non-network access point randomly generates the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, and when an initial request message is initiated to the multi-link network access point, the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point and the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point are carried, so that the multi-link network access point obtains the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, thereby managing the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

The multilink non-network access point randomly generates the MAC layer address of its virtual entity, which is allowed to be used only in the Local area network, and is provided with a management allocation identifier prefix (AAI prefix) for indicating that the address is a Local address, or at least x bit=1 for indicating that the address is a Local address. When generating the MAC layer address with the management allocation identifier prefix, the method can be used in combination with a repeated address detection (Duplicate Address Detection, DAD) protocol, and the generated MAC layer address is confirmed to be free of conflict in the local area network, when the conflict is free, the generated MAC layer address is effective, and when the conflict is present, the generated MAC layer address is ineffective, and the effective MAC layer address needs to be generated again randomly.

In one embodiment, when the MAC address allocation option carried in the beacon message and the probe response message broadcast is in the second allocation manner, the information of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point includes: virtual entity number information for the multilink non-network access point.

The step of determining the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point based on the initial request message comprises: generating MAC layer addresses of all virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point according to the number information of the virtual entities and a preset rule; based on the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point, the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point is sent to the multilink non-network access point.

The second allocation mode indicates that the multilink network access point allocates an MAC layer address to the virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point according to the number of the virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point, when the beacon message and the MAC address allocation option carried in the probe response message broadcast are in the second allocation mode, the multilink non-network access point initiates an initial request message to the multilink network access point, the initial request message carries management entity address containing the multilink non-network access point and virtual entity number information of the multilink non-network access point, and the multilink network access point allocates the MAC layer address to the virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point according to the virtual entity number information of the multilink non-network access point.

The management entity of the multi-link network access point generates the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point according to the number of virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point and based on the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point in sequence, wherein the MAC layer address needs to be provided with SAI prefix or AAI prefix, if the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point is aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff, the MAC layer address sequence of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is set as follows: aa: bb: cc: dd: ee: f (f+2) mod16.

The virtual entity of the multi-link network access point uses the management entity Address of the multi-link non-network access point as a receiving Address (RA, collectively called Receiver Address, used to represent the Address of the receiving end of the data packet in the MAC header), and sends the MAC layer Address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point to the multi-link non-network access point.

Step S460, storing the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

The management entity of the multilink network access point stores the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point, so that the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point can be further managed, and the subsequent network connection of the multilink network access point and the multilink non-network access point is realized.

In one embodiment, further comprising: and feeding back an initial response message containing a reason field according to the conflict condition of the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

Wherein, when there is no conflict in the local area network, the Reason field (request field) of the initial response message (GAS initial response message) indicates that there is no address conflict; when there is a conflict in the local area network, the Reason field (request field) of the initial response message (GAS initial response) indicates that there is an address conflict, and the address of the conflict is indicated, and the address may be the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point or the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

In one embodiment, referring to fig. 5, a method for managing MAC addresses of a multi-link device is described when the method is applied to a multi-link device that is a multi-link non-network access point, and includes the following steps:

step S620, according to the received beacon message or probe response message of the multi-link network access point, the MAC address allocation option carried in the beacon message or probe response message is obtained.

Wherein the multi-link network access point (i.e., the multi-link AP device) is the creator of the wireless network, is the central node of the network, such as: a wireless router is provided with 802.11be (referred to as 802.11be version of Wi-Fi standard) hardware devices for more than one virtual entity. The beacon message includes basic parameters of the basic service set, MAC layer address, MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point, etc., informing the surrounding multi-link non-network access point that a new basic service set has been created. The probe response message is used for probing surrounding multi-link non-network access point devices, and the probe response message carries MAC address allocation options of the multi-link non-network access points. When the multi-link non-network access point receives the beacon message of the multi-link network access point, the management entity address of the multi-link network access point and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multi-link network access point in the beacon message are acquired and saved so as to carry out network connection subsequently.

The MAC address allocation options are MAC address allocation options of the link non-network access point, are allocation rules for identifying the MAC layer addresses of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point, and can be a first allocation mode or a second allocation mode, wherein the first option represents that the MAC layer addresses of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point are randomly generated by the multi-link non-network access point; the second allocation scheme indicates that the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is allocated with the MAC layer address by the multi-link network access point according to the number of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point. The first allocation manner of the MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point may be represented by option=0, and the second allocation manner of the MAC address allocation option of the multi-link non-network access point may be represented by option=1.

Step S640, sending an initial request message to the multi-link network access point according to the MAC address allocation option; the initial request message includes a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and information of a virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

Wherein, the initial request message (GAS initial request message) can be a general advertisement service initial request, and when a connection needs to be established with the multi-link network access point, the initial request message is initiated to the multi-link network access point; the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point is a MAC address for identifying the multilink non-network access point device. The information of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point can be the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, or the information of the number of the virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point.

In one embodiment, when the MAC address allocation option is the first allocation manner, an initial request message is sent to the multi-link network access point according to the MAC address allocation option.

The initial request message includes a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and information of a virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, including: randomly generating a MAC layer address with a management allocation identifier prefix for each virtual entity; and sending an initial request message to the multilink network access point, wherein the initial request message comprises the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point.

The initial request message (GAS initial request message) may be a generic advertisement service initial request, and may be an initial request initiated by the multi-link network access point when the multi-link network access point is required. The method comprises the steps that a multilink non-network access point randomly generates an MAC layer address of a virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point, and when an initial request message is initiated to the multilink network access point, the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point is carried, wherein the MAC layer address comprises a management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point, so that the multilink network access point obtains the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point, and management is carried out on the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point.

In one embodiment, when the MAC address allocation option is the second allocation manner, an initial request message is sent to the multi-link network access point according to the MAC address allocation option.

The initial request message includes a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and information of a virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, including: sending an initial request message to the multilink network access point, wherein the initial request message comprises a management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and virtual entity number information of the multilink non-network access point; and receiving the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point sent by the multilink network access point according to the initial request message.

After sending an initial request message containing virtual entity number information to the multilink network access point, the multilink network access point sequentially generates MAC layer addresses of all virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point based on management entity addresses of the multilink non-network access point according to the number of virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point, wherein the MAC layer addresses need to be provided with SAI prefixes or AAI prefixes, if the management entity addresses of the multilink non-network access point are aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff, the MAC layer addresses of all the virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point are sequentially set as follows: aa: bb: cc: dd: ee: f (f+2) mod16. The multi-link non-network access point receives the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point sent by the multi-link network access point, and defines the MAC layer address for each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point according to the received MAC layer address, and is used for identifying the network of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

The application also provides a starting scene of the wireless router, and the starting scene of the wireless router applies the method for managing the MAC address of the multi-link equipment. Specifically, the application of the method for managing the MAC address of the multi-link device in the startup scenario of the wireless router is as follows:

Referring to fig. 6, a management entity (SME) of a multi-link network access point (AP MLD) initiates a MAC layer address management primitive (MLME-start. Request primitive) indicating that a MAC layer address of a MAC layer management entity (STA MLME, MLME is called MAC Sublayer Management Entity throughout) of a virtual entity is managed. In the MAC layer address management primitive (MLME-start. Request primitive) initiated by the management entity of the multi-link network access point for each virtual entity, the primitive needs to be modified and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity needs to be added, and the address may be generated by the management entity of the multi-link network access point at random to the MAC layer address with the AAI prefix, or may be generated in combination with the management entity address sequence of the multi-link network access point (assuming that the management entity address is carried by the multi-link network access point device itself to identify the MLD device, namely, address (z) shown in fig. 1, namely Addr (z):

let Addr (z) =aa: bb: cc: dd: ee: ff

Addr(x)＝Addr(z)＝aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:[(f+i)mod16]f,i＝0；

Addr(y)＝aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:[(f+i)mod16]f,i＝1

…

After receiving the MAC layer function entity (STA MLME) of the virtual entity, the MAC layer function entity obtains a corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive. When a management entity of the multi-link network access point sends an MAC layer network starting primitive to each virtual entity, each virtual entity responds to the MAC layer network starting primitive and respectively establishes a basic service set based on an MAC layer address; each virtual entity with successful establishment of the basic service set broadcasts beacon information on each link with a corresponding MAC layer address, and feeds back an MAC layer network start confirmation primitive (MLME-start. Confirm primitive) and carries a result description field (Reason code field) to inform a management entity (SME) of a multilink network access point that the BSS has been successfully established or failed and reasons thereof. Each virtual entity that is successfully established through the basic service set will then broadcast a Beacon message (Beacon message) including the BSS parameters described above, etc., informing the surrounding WiFi devices that a new BSS has been created, and send a Probe Response message (Probe Response message) to the corresponding multilink non-network access point device in Response to the Probe message of the surrounding multilink non-network access point device.

In broadcasting beacon messages (beacon messages), the beacon messages are broadcast on all working links (links) according to the Wi-Fi standard of the 802.11be version, and in order to ensure compatibility with non-network access point devices (legacy devices) which do not contain virtual entities, the beacon messages (beacon messages) on different links need to be sent by adopting different sending addresses (TAs), wherein the TAs are MAC layer addresses of the virtual entities in a multi-link network access point (AP MLD). The MAC layer address assignment flow of the virtual entity of the multilink network access point is thus required to be completed synchronously in the MAC layer entity management Start primitive (MLME-Start primitive) session.

The multilink network access point employs a PAD (Pre-Association Discovery) framework (framework of LAAP protocol built on top of another published 802.11aq standard) defined by 802.11aq (802.11 aq version of Wi-Fi standard). The multilink non-network access point judges whether the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point are valid or not according to the first-come first-served principle by the multilink network access point through attaching the management entity address information of the multilink non-network access point, the MAC layer address information of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point and other information in the GAS message (general advertisement service message).

Broadcasting a MAC layer address allocation option (option) of a virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point in the broadcast beacon message and the probe response message by the multilink network access point, wherein the option=0 indicates that the multilink non-network access point is supported to randomly generate an address, and the option=1 indicates that the multilink non-network access point is supported to allocate the address according to a predefined rule;

when there is a multilink non-network access point that needs to join the Wi-Fi network of the multilink network access point, please refer to fig. 7, the multilink non-network access point selects a link to initiate an initial request message (GAS initial request message), for example, option=0, and the initial request message includes a randomly generated MAC layer address (with AAI prefix) of each virtual entity (virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point); if option=1, the initial request message contains the number information of virtual entities (virtual entities of the multi-link non-network access point), and the multi-link network access point calculates the MAC layer address of each virtual entity in the multi-link non-network access point according to a predetermined rule.

The predetermined rule may be that the multilink network access point sequentially generates the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point according to the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point. Therefore, the multilink non-network access point only needs to embody the number of virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point in the initial request message, if the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point is aa: bb: cc: dd: ee: ff, the generation sequence of the MAC layer address of the multilink non-network access point virtual entity by the multilink network access point is set as follows: aa: bb: cc: dd: ee: f (f+2) mod16.

Finally, the multilink network access point stores the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point, and feeds back an initial response message (GAS initial response message) containing a Reason field (Reason field) according to the conflict situation to inform the result.

According to the method for managing the MAC address of the multi-link equipment, the management entity of the multi-link network access point sends the MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity, and meanwhile, the MAC layer address of the virtual entity distributed according to the preset address distribution rule is added in the MAC layer address management primitive; and each virtual entity obtains a corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive, so that when the multilink equipment is a multilink network access point, the multilink network access point allocates and manages the MAC layer address of the virtual entity. The allocation and management of the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is achieved by responding to the multi-link non-network access point based on receiving an initial request message sent by the multi-link non-network access point via the selected link response beacon message or the probe response message broadcast.

It should be understood that, although the steps in the flowcharts of fig. 3-5 are shown in order as indicated by the arrows, these steps are not necessarily performed in order as indicated by the arrows. The steps are not strictly limited to the order of execution unless explicitly recited herein, and the steps may be executed in other orders. Moreover, at least some of the steps in fig. 3-5 may include multiple steps or stages that are not necessarily performed at the same time, but may be performed at different times, nor does the order in which the steps or stages are performed necessarily performed in sequence, but may be performed alternately or alternately with at least a portion of the steps or stages in other steps or other steps.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 8, there is provided a multi-link device MAC address management apparatus, which may employ a software module or a hardware module, or a combination of both, as a part of a computer device, and the apparatus specifically includes: a management entity 310 and a virtual entity 320, wherein:

the management entity 310 of the multilink network access point transmits a MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity 320 thereof, wherein the MAC layer address management primitive is added with the MAC layer address of the virtual entity 320 allocated according to a preset address allocation rule;

Each virtual entity 320 obtains a corresponding MAC layer address from the MAC layer address management primitive.

In one embodiment, the management entity 310 of the multi-link network access point sends a MAC layer network start primitive to its respective virtual entity 320; each virtual entity 320 responds to the MAC layer network start primitive and establishes a basic service set based on the MAC layer address, respectively; each virtual entity 320 that the basic service set was established successfully broadcasts a beacon message on each link with a corresponding MAC layer address, respectively.

In one embodiment, the address allocation rules according to the presets include at least one of the following rules: the management entity 310 of the multilink network access point randomly generates a MAC layer address having a management allocation identifier prefix; the management entity 310 of the multi-link network access point sequentially generates MAC layer addresses in combination with the management entity address of the multi-link network access point.

In one embodiment, each virtual entity 320 feeds back a MAC layer network start primitive carrying a result description field to the management entity 310 of the multi-link network access point according to the basic service set establishment result.

In one embodiment, when the management entity 310 of the multi-link network access point determines that the MAC layer address is unavailable according to the result description field, and the virtual entity basic service set fails to be established, the management entity re-sends the MAC layer address management primitive to the corresponding virtual entity 320, and the MAC layer address management primitive is added with a new MAC layer address allocated to the virtual entity 320 again according to a preset address allocation rule; the corresponding virtual entity 320 obtains the MAC layer address based on the MAC layer address management primitive.

In one embodiment, the multi-link device MAC address management apparatus further includes:

the virtual entity 320 receives an initial request message transmitted by the multilink non-network access point broadcasting through the selected link response beacon message or the probe response message; the initial request message comprises the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the information of the virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point; the management entity 310 determines the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point according to the initial request message; the management entity 310 stores the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

In one embodiment, when the MAC address allocation option carried in the beacon message and the probe response message broadcast is the first allocation manner, the information of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point includes: MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

In one embodiment, when the MAC address allocation option carried in the beacon message and the probe response message broadcast is in the second allocation manner, the information of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point includes: virtual entity number information of the multilink non-network access point;

The management entity 310 generates the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point according to the number information of the virtual entities and a predetermined rule; the virtual entity 320 sends the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point to the multi-link non-network access point based on the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point.

In one embodiment, the virtual entity 320 feeds back an initial response message including a reason field according to a collision between a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and a MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

The specific limitation of the multi-link device MAC address management apparatus applied to the multi-link network access point can be referred to the limitation of the multi-link device MAC address management method applied to the multi-link network access point hereinabove, and the detailed description thereof is omitted herein. The above modules applied in the multi-link device MAC address management apparatus of the multi-link network access point may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, and combinations thereof. The above modules may be embedded in hardware or may be independent of a processor in the computer device, or may be stored in software in a memory in the computer device, so that the processor may call and execute operations corresponding to the above modules.

In one embodiment, as shown in fig. 9, there is provided a multi-link device MAC address management apparatus, which may employ a software module or a hardware module, or a combination of both, as a part of a computer device, and the apparatus specifically includes: an information receiving module 410 and an information transmitting module 420.

The information receiving module 410 is configured to obtain, according to the received beacon message or probe response message of the multilink network access point, a MAC address allocation option carried in the beacon message or the probe response message.

An information sending module 420, configured to send an initial request message to the multilink network access point according to the MAC address allocation option; the initial request message includes a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and information of a virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

In one embodiment, the information sending module 420 is further configured to: when the MAC address allocation option is a first allocation mode, randomly generating an MAC layer address with a management allocation identifier prefix for each virtual entity; and sending an initial request message to the multilink network access point, wherein the initial request message comprises the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point.

In one embodiment, the information sending module 420 is further configured to: sending an initial request message to a multi-link network access point, wherein the initial request message comprises a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and virtual entity number information of the multi-link non-network access point; and receiving the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point sent by the multilink network access point according to the initial request message.

The specific limitation of the multi-link device MAC address management apparatus applied to the multi-link non-network access point may be referred to as the limitation of the multi-link device MAC address management method applied to the multi-link non-network access point hereinabove, and will not be repeated herein. The above modules applied in the multi-link device MAC address management apparatus of the multi-link non-network access point may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, and combinations thereof. The above modules may be embedded in hardware or may be independent of a processor in the computer device, or may be stored in software in a memory in the computer device, so that the processor may call and execute operations corresponding to the above modules.

In one embodiment, a multi-link device is provided, which may be a terminal, a router, and an internal structure diagram thereof may be as shown in fig. 10. The multilink device includes a processor, memory and a communication interface connected by a system bus. Wherein the processor of the multi-link device is configured to provide computing and control capabilities. The memory of the multi-link device includes a non-volatile storage medium and an internal memory. The non-volatile storage medium stores an operating system and a computer program. The internal memory provides an environment for the operation of the operating system and computer programs in the non-volatile storage media. The communication interface of the multi-link device is used for carrying out wired or wireless communication with network devices such as an external terminal or a router, and the wireless mode can be realized through WIFI, an operator network, NFC (near field communication) or other technologies. The computer program when executed by a processor implements a method of multi-link device MAC address management.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the structure shown in FIG. 10 is merely a block diagram of some of the structures associated with the present inventive arrangements and is not limiting of the computer device to which the present inventive arrangements may be applied, and that a particular computer device may include more or fewer components than shown, or may combine some of the components, or have a different arrangement of components.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that implementing all or part of the above described methods may be accomplished by way of a computer program stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, which when executed, may comprise the steps of the embodiments of the methods described above. Any reference to memory, storage, database, or other medium used in embodiments provided herein may include at least one of non-volatile and volatile memory. The nonvolatile Memory may include Read-Only Memory (ROM), magnetic tape, floppy disk, flash Memory, optical Memory, or the like. Volatile memory can include random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) or external cache memory. By way of illustration, and not limitation, RAM can be in the form of a variety of forms, such as static random access memory (Static Random Access Memory, SRAM) or dynamic random access memory (Dynamic Random Access Memory, DRAM), and the like.

The technical features of the above embodiments may be arbitrarily combined, and all possible combinations of the technical features in the above embodiments are not described for brevity of description, however, as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features, they should be considered as the scope of the description.

The above examples illustrate only a few embodiments of the application, which are described in detail and are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the application. It should be noted that it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the application, which are all within the scope of the application. Accordingly, the scope of protection of the present application is to be determined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for managing MAC addresses of a multi-link device, the method comprising:

acquiring an MAC address allocation option carried in a beacon message or a probe response message according to the received beacon message or the probe response message of a multi-link network access point; wherein, sending MAC layer address management primitive to each virtual entity of the multi-link network access point through a management entity of the multi-link network access point; the MAC layer address management primitive is added with the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink network access point distributed according to a preset address distribution rule; when each virtual entity of the multilink network access point creates a basic service set, a corresponding MAC layer address is obtained from the MAC layer address management primitive, the basic service set is established based on the MAC layer address, and each virtual entity of the multilink network access point with the basic service set successfully established broadcasts a beacon message on each link by the corresponding MAC layer address;

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the MAC address allocation option is the first allocation manner, the step of sending an initial request message to the multi-link network access point according to the MAC address allocation option, the initial request message including a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and information of a virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, includes:

randomly generating a MAC layer address with management allocation identifier prefix for each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point;

and sending an initial request message to the multilink network access point, wherein the initial request message comprises the management entity address of the multilink non-network access point and the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the MAC address allocation option is the second allocation manner, the step of sending an initial request message to the multi-link network access point according to the MAC address allocation option, the initial request message including a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and information of a virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, includes:

Sending an initial request message to a multi-link network access point, wherein the initial request message comprises a management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and virtual entity number information of the multi-link non-network access point;

and receiving the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multilink non-network access point sent by the multilink network access point according to the initial request message.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point is generated by the multi-link network access point according to a predetermined rule based on the virtual entity number information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the predetermined rule comprises: and the multilink network access point sequentially generates the MAC layer addresses of all the virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point based on the management entity addresses of the multilink non-network access point according to the number of the virtual entities of the multilink non-network access point.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: receiving an initial response message containing a reason field fed back by the multi-link network access point; the initial response message includes a conflict condition of the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein when there is no address collision between the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, indicating that there is no address collision in the cause field of the initial response message; when there is address conflict between the management entity address of the multi-link non-network access point and the MAC layer address of each virtual entity of the multi-link non-network access point, the reason field of the initial response message indicates that there is address conflict, and the address with conflict is indicated.

8. A method of multi-link device MAC address management, the method comprising:

the management entity of the multi-link network access point sends MAC layer address management primitives to each virtual entity;

the MAC layer address management primitive is added with the MAC layer address of the virtual entity of the multilink network access point distributed according to a preset address distribution rule;

when each virtual entity of the multilink network access point creates a basic service set, a corresponding MAC layer address is obtained from the MAC layer address management primitive, and the basic service set is established based on the MAC layer address;

Each virtual entity of the multilink network access point with the successful establishment of the basic service set broadcasts beacon messages on each link with the corresponding MAC layer address.

9. A multi-link device comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program, characterized in that the processor implements the steps of the method of any of claims 1 to 8 when the computer program is executed.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, characterized in that the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the method of any one of claims 1 to 8.