KR101380420B1 - Method for managing wireless network - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of managing a wireless network for an event request and reporting procedure. A method of managing a wireless network according to an embodiment of the present invention includes receiving an event request frame requesting a report on one or more event request elements from a requesting station and reporting on the event request elements received from the requesting station. If there is no event report element to be transmitted, transmitting an event report frame including information indicating that a status field indicates 'Incapable' or 'Not Available' in response to the event request frame. . In another embodiment of the present invention, in a management procedure of a wireless network, connection time information of a peer-to-peer link element may include a first time and a peer-to which a peer-to-peer link is established between a requesting station and a reporting station. If the two-peer link is teared down or if the peer-to-peer link is still established when the event request frame is received, a value indicating a difference between the current time and the second time is included.

Description

Method for managing wireless network

The present invention relates to wireless network management, and more particularly, to an efficient method for managing a wireless network related to an event request and reporting procedure.

Recently, with the development of information and communication technology, various wireless communication technologies have been developed. Wireless Local Access Network (WLAN) is based on radio frequency technology and uses portable terminals such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and portable multimedia players (PMPs). It is a technology that enables wireless high-speed Internet access in certain service provision areas such as homes, businesses, or aircraft.

Since the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802, a standardization body for LANs and Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN), including wireless LANs, was established in February 1980, a number of standardization work has been performed. Since early WLAN technology supports speeds of 1 to 2 Mbps through frequency hopping, spread spectrum, infrared communication, etc. using 2.4 GHz frequency through IEEE 802.11, orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) recently. Up to 54Mbps can be supported by applying. In addition, IEEE 802.11 improves quality of service (QoS), access point (AP) protocol compatibility, security enhancement, wireless network management, and radio resource measurement. ), Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment, Fast Roaming, Mesh Network, Inter-working with External Network, Wireless Network Management The standard of various technologies such as Network Management is being put into practice or being developed.

Among these, wireless network management is to provide a protocol related to a procedure for collecting information about a wireless network, diagnosing a problem, or providing a service at a station (STA), an access point (AP), or the like. Event Request and Report, Diagnostic Request and Report, Presence Service, Basic Service Set (BSS) Transition Management (FBMS), Flexible Broadcast Multicast Service), Traffic Filter Service (TFS), Sleep Mode Request and Response, and the like.

Wireless network management is a technology for a simple network management protocol (PNMP) that can manage the state of the network in a simple manner, and active research is being conducted recently. As a method of real-time diagnosis of network status in SNMP, there is a method of exchanging an event request frame and an event report frame between STAs. One STA (requesting STA) transmits an event request frame in order to identify a network state with another STA connected to it and maintain an appropriate connection state thereto, and the STA (reporting STA) that receives the event request frame receives an event. Responds through the event report frame according to the event type required by the request frame.

Regarding the event request and reporting procedure, when the requesting STA sends an event request frame to request reporting on one or more event request elements, the reporting STA includes information about the event request element. The response message to the requesting STA. However, depending on the situation, there may be a case where there is no content to report on the event request element requested by the reporting STA. In this case, when the reporting STA does not respond to the received event request frame, there is a problem that the requesting STA cannot sufficiently acquire information necessary for managing the wireless network. Therefore, even if the reporting STA that receives the event request frame has nothing to report on the event request element specified in the received request frame, it is necessary to inform the requesting STA of such information, and to clearly define the procedure therefor. This helps to improve management efficiency.

Meanwhile, in the current wireless network management procedure, the event request and reporting procedure is performed when the STA leaves the Extended Service Set (ESS) originally connected to the STA or the Independent BSS (IBSS). There is no clear definition of how information is processed. Therefore, when the STA moves from one ESS to another ESS or when the IBSS included therein is changed, the STA processes the information related to the previous event request and reporting procedure in the STA moving the ESS or IBSS. It needs to be clearly defined.

In addition, an event type that may be included in the event request and reporting procedure is a peer-to-peer link event. When the peer-to-peer link event is included in the received event request frame, the reporting STA includes an event including information indicating a connection time of the peer-to-peer link in a connection time field. The reporting frame is transmitted to the requesting STA. However, the current wireless network management procedure does not accurately define how to measure the peer-to-peer link connection time. In order to efficiently and systematically manage the wireless network based on the accurate information, the connection time is clearly defined. Need to be defined.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of managing a wireless network for an event request and reporting procedure, the method including receiving an event request frame requesting a report on one or more event request elements from a requesting station; Information indicating that a status field indicates 'Incapable' or 'Not Available' in response to the event request frame when there is no event report element to report on the event request element received from the requesting station. And transmitting an event report frame that includes the.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of managing a wireless network for an event request and reporting procedure, the method including receiving an event request frame requesting a report on one or more event request elements from a requesting station; If there is no event report element to report on the event request element received from the requesting station, in response to the event request frame, information indicating that a Status Field indicates 'SUccess' is also included. And sending an event report frame that does not include any event reporting elements.

The wireless network management method for the event request and reporting procedure according to another embodiment of the present invention for solving the above problems is to change the Extended Service Set (ESS) that includes a station (STA) or Or when changing an Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS), the STA may cancel an event request frame already received in the previous ESS or the previous IBSS, and also request an event in the previous ESS or the previous IBSS and In relation to the reporting procedure, all information stored in the buffer of the STA may be deleted.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for managing a wireless network for an event request and reporting procedure, wherein the reporting station includes at least a peer-to-peer link event from the requesting station. Receiving an event request frame requesting a report for an event and an event report frame including connection time information of the peer-to-peer link in response to the event request frame by the reporting station; And transmitting the connection time information to the requesting station, wherein the connection time information includes a first time for completing the establishment of the peer-to-peer link between the requesting station and the reporting station. Continue to tear down or when the peer-to-peer link receives the event request frame If the tablet is characterized by indicating the difference between the current time it is the second time.

According to the above-mentioned problem solving means, even if there is nothing to report on the event request element requested by the reporting STA, by providing a method for notifying the requesting STA such information, unnecessary waiting time can be eliminated and wireless network management efficiency Can increase. In addition, in the embodiment of the present invention, the wireless network is made clear by a processing procedure when the STA moves an extended service set (ESS) or an independent basic service set (ISBS). The management procedure of the was clarified. In addition, another solution of the present invention is to clarify the connection time of the link included in the Peer-to-Peer Link Event, thereby enabling the management of the wireless network based on accurate information. .

Before describing an embodiment of the present invention, an architecture of a wireless network system to which an embodiment of the present invention can be applied will be described schematically.

The wireless network system may include, for example, at least one basic service set (BSS). The BSS refers to a set of successfully synchronized stations (STAs), which does not mean that the membership of the BSS is capable of wireless communication with all other STAs in the same BSS. The STA included in the BSS may be a terminal having mobility or may be a terminal fixed at a predetermined position.

Communication in the wireless network is performed in a Basic Service Area (BSA), which is an area including members belonging to a BSS. The boundary is somewhat unclear because the BSA may vary depending on the propagation characteristics of the wireless medium. These BSSs can be basically classified into two categories: independent BSS (IBS) and infrastructure BSS (infrastructure-structured BSS). The former forms a self-contained network. The BSS refers to a BSS that does not allow access to a distribution system (DS). The latter includes one or more access points and a distributed system. Generally, the access point includes an access point in all communication processes including communication between STAs. AP) is used.

The STA is a non-AP station as any functional medium including a medium access control (MAC) conforming to the IEEE 802.11 standard and a physical layer interface to a wireless medium. STAs belonging to a user may be referred to by other names, such as a wireless transmit / receive unit (WTRU), a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), or a mobile subscriber unit (Mobile Subscriber Unit). Can also be called. The AP is a functional entity that provides access to the DS via a wireless medium for an associated station (STA) connected to the AP. Since the AP has an STA function, when simply referred to as an STA in the present specification, the AP may be interpreted to include an AP except when it is not applicable in nature. The AP may be referred to as a centralized controller, a base station (BS), a node-B, or a site controller in addition to an access point.

Multiple BSSs may generally be interconnected through a distributed system. A plurality of BSSs connected to each other through a distributed system is called an extended service set (ESS). STAs included in the same ESS may communicate with each other, and within the same ESS, STAs may continuously communicate while moving from one BSS to another BSS, which is called a BSS transition.

The exchange of event request frames and event report frames enables network real-time diagnostics. For example, an AP that wants to collect event information of a non-AP STA in an infrastructure BSS may transmit an event request frame having a specific event type or not including an event request field to one or more non-AP STAs. The non-AP STA receiving the event request frame may transmit an event report frame including information on the requested event type or information on all event types to the AP. These event request frames and event report frames are transmitted in a unicast manner, and if the target address of the event request / report frame is a multicast address or broadcast address, the frame is discarded.

Event types that can be specified in event requests and reporting include, for example, Transition Events, Robust Security Network Association (RSNA) events, Peer-to-Peer Link Events, Syslog Event (Syslog Event). The transition event request and report is to provide previous transition event information for a given non-AP STA. RSNA event request and report is for providing authentication event (Authentication Event) information for a given non-AP STA. Peer-to-peer link event request and reporting provides peer-to-peer link event information for a given non-AP STA, where the peer-to-peer link is a direct link in the Quality of Service BSS (QBSS). Or it may be communication between STAs in an independent BSS (IBSS). And the Syslog event is to provide the AP with vendor-specific information in a human-readable form for a given non-AP STA.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a structure of an event request frame in a wireless network that may be used in an embodiment of the present invention. The event request frame 100 is used by one STA to request reporting of one or more event types to another STA. Referring to FIG. 1, the event request frame 100 includes a category field (Category, 110), an action field (Action, 120), and a dialog token field (Dialog Token, 130), and zero or more event requests. It may further include an element field (Event Request Elements, 140).

The category field 110 indicates a category of the corresponding frame. In the case of the event request frame 100, the category field 110 may be set to a value indicating a wireless network management category. The action field 120 is for indicating a specific action of a corresponding frame in wireless network management. In the case of the event request frame 100, the action field 120 may be set to a value indicating an event request action. The dialog token field 130 serves to identify a frame exchange between STAs, and a value selected by the STA sending an event request may be inserted to confirm a corresponding relationship between the event request frame and the event report frame. The event request element field 140 is for setting a specific type and / or condition of an event request, and includes one or more event request elements. The number of event request elements included in the event request element field 140 and the size of each event request element may be limited within a set medium access control (MAC) management protocol data unit (MMPDU) size.

The event request element field 140 includes an element ID subfield (Element ID, 141), a length subfield (Length, 142), an event token subfield (Event Token 143), and an event type subfield (Event Type 144). It may further include an event request subfield (Event Request, 145). The element ID subfield 141 is set to an ID value for identifying an information element included in the event request element field 140 among various information elements, and indicates that the element is an event request element in this embodiment. It can be set to a value. The length subfield 142 may have various values according to the length of the event request subfield 145. The event token subfield 143 may be set to a unique value for correlating and identifying the event request element 140 and the event report element of the event report frame.

The event type subfield 140 is set with information indicating an event request of a type that a requesting STA wants to receive a report from among various types of events. Table 1 shows the types of event requests that may be included in the event type subfield 140 according to one embodiment of the invention. Referring to Table 1, the type of event request that may be included may be one or more of a transition event request, an RSNA event, a peer-to-peer link event, and a system log request.

The event request subfield 145 includes more specific event requests for one or more event request types set in the event type subfield 144. To this end, the event request subfield 145 may include zero or more event sub-elements. If there is no event request subfield 145, the reporting STA transmits an event report frame including a report for all event subelements for the requested event type to the requesting STA. If one or more event subelements are specified in the event request subfield 145, the event report frame includes information on the corresponding event subelement.

Table 2 shows the transition event request subelements that may be included in the event request subfield 145 when the event type subfield 144 is set to a value indicating a transition event request. Referring to Table 2, the transition event request subfield 145 may include a target BSSID transition, a source BSSID transition, a transition time, a transition result, and frequent It may include zero or one or more subelements among Frequent Transitions.

Table 3 shows the RSNA event request subelements that may be included in the event request subfield 145 when the event type subfield 144 is set to a value indicating an RSNA event request. Referring to Table 3, the RSNA event request subfield 145 includes a target BSSID RSNA, an Authentication Type, an Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) Method, and an RSNA Result ( RSNA Result) may include zero or one or more subelements.

Table 4 lists peer-to-peer link event request subelements that may be included in event request subfield 145 when event type subfield 144 is set to a value indicating a peer-to-peer link event request. To show. Referring to Table 4, the peer-to-peer link event request subfield 145 may include zero or one or more subelements among a peer STA address and a channel number.

2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an event report frame format that may be used in one embodiment of the present invention. The event report frame 200 is a response to the received event request frame 100 and includes information indicating a result collected or calculated for the requested event type. 2, the event report frame 200 includes a category field (Category, 210), an action field (Action, 220), a dialog token field (Dialog Token, 230), and an event report element field (Event Report Elements, 240). ).

The category field 210 includes information indicating that the frame belongs to a wireless network management category. The action field 220 is set to a value indicating that the action of the frame is an event report action. The dialog token field 230 may be set to the same value as the value set in the dialog token field 130 of the received event request frame 100.

Event report element field 240 then includes one or more event report elements. The number of event report elements included in the event report frame 200 and the size of each event report element are limited within the set MMPDU size. The event report element field 240 includes an element ID subfield (Element ID 241), a length subfield (Length, 242), an event token subfield (Event Token) 243, an event type subfield (Event Type 244), A status subfield (Status) 245, an event timestamp subfield (Event Timestamp 246), and an event report subfield (Event Report 247) may be included.

The element ID subfield 241 is set to an ID value indicating an event report among various information elements. The length subfield 242 may have various values according to the length of the event report subfield 247. The event token subfield 243 is set to the same value as the event token corresponding to the event request element of the received event request frame 100. The event type subfield 244 is for indicating the type of event report. The status subfield 245 indicates a result of the STA's response to the event request frame 100 specified by the dialog token 130. The response to the received event request frame may include 'Successful', 'Fail', 'Refused', or 'Incapable'. The event timestamp subfield 246 indicates a Timing Synchronization Function (TSF) timer value of the station where the event is recorded. The event report subfield 247 includes event report information for the event type specified in the event type subfield 244. Types of event reports included in the event report subfield 247 include transition event reports, RSNA event reports, peer-to-peer link event reports, system log (Syslog) reports, and the like.

However, when using the event request frame 100 and / or the event report frame 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention as it is, when there is no event report element to be transmitted to the event request element received to the requesting STA It is not clear how the reporting STA should handle this. That is, when the event request frame 100 including one or more event request elements is received from the requesting STA, but there is no information to report on the event request element specified in the event request frame 100, It is unclear how the STA should respond to the received event request frame 100. Therefore, the embodiment of the present invention proposes to use one of the following three methods.

The first method is to use the status subfield 245 of the event report frame 200. More specifically, it is to indicate that there is no event report element to report 'Incapable' value, which is one of information that can be inserted into the status subfield 245. According to this embodiment of the present invention, since the existing value 'Incapable' can be used as it is, the reporting STA is requested without simultaneously affecting the existing procedures related to the event request frame and the event report frame. It is possible to effectively inform the requesting STA that there is no information to report on the event report type.

Originally 'Incapable' indicates that the reporting STA is incapable of processing the requested event reporting element. However, when an STA actually connects to an AP or sets up a peer-to-peer link through a mesh network or a direct link setup, each STA has a capability information ( Capability Information) to inform the other STA. Therefore, even if the 'reporting STA' transmitting the event report frame 200 does not separately insert 'Incapable' information into the 'status subfield 245', the 'requesting STA' does not already support the procedure. You can see that That is, 'Incapable' among the values that can be inserted into the 'status subfield 245' is not actually used in the current wireless network management procedure. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, If you do not, 'do not have any effect on existing wireless network management procedures.

The second method also uses the status subfield 245 of the event report frame 200. More specifically, as a value that can be inserted into the 'state subfield 245', 'if there is no event information element to be reported' is newly defined. For example, define 'Not Available' if there is no event information element to report, and assign an appropriate value that is currently reserved. According to this embodiment of the present invention, the 'reporting STA' may indicate that there is no information to report on the requested event report element by including the value 'Not Available' in the 'status subfield 245'. have.

The third method is that the status subfield 245 of the event report frame 200 is marked as 'Success', but does not include any information in the other subfields constituting the event report element field 240. For example, if the event type subfield 244 of the event report element field 240 contains no information, but the status subfield 245 contains a value indicating 'Success', It may be defined as 'indicating when there is no event reporting element to report'.

According to the current event request and reporting procedure, the STA stores various event information that has been performed in one ESS and reports the stored information about the requested event report element when the event request frame is received. Doing. Accordingly, when the STA moves to another ESS, the STA does not need to store the stored event information anymore, and does not need to respond to the received event request frames anymore. However, according to the management procedure of the wireless network related to the current event request and report, the STA prescribes that all outstanding event requests have been removed, but how to process the stored event report information It is unclear whether to do it. In addition, while STAs included in the infrastructure BSS maintain event information based on one ESS, STAs included in the IBSS should process information related to event requests already received or stored event reports. It is unclear whether to do so.

Therefore, in the management procedure of the wireless network according to an embodiment of the present invention, when the STA leaves the ESS to which it belongs, the event request in the ESS stored in the STA is deleted as well as cancel or cancel the event request already received. Remove any information related to the report. According to this embodiment of the present invention, when the STA leaves the ESS or moves the ESS, the procedure for clearing the buffer state of the STA is clear, and thus the performance and / or operation speed of the STA can be improved. In particular, since the unnecessary information is no longer stored, the utilization efficiency of the buffer can be improved.

According to the management procedure of the wireless network according to the embodiment of the present invention, when the STA leaves the ESS or moves the ESS in the infrastructure BSS, the event report stored in the buffer and the cancellation or cancellation of the event request already received and The procedure for removing related information may be equally applied even when the STA included in the IBSS moves to another IBSS. However, when the STA is included in the IBSS, the transition event request and reporting procedure and the RSNA event request and reporting procedure may not be applied to the STA due to its characteristics. However, in the peer-to-peer link event request and reporting procedure, the procedure for changing the ESS can be equally applied to the procedure for changing the IBSS in the mesh network.

On the other hand, according to the management procedure of the wireless network related to the creation of the current event report frame including the peer-to-peer link information, it is specified to report on the connection time of the peer-to-peer link. The connection time of the peer-to-peer link is a time used for radio resources by establishing a link between two STAs, which is very important information in network management. Therefore, the information related to the connection time of the peer-to-peer link should include accurate time information using the radio resource.

However, according to the current wireless network management procedure, the connection time is defined as including a time value calculated in seconds with respect to the connection time, and the connection time is the first time that a frame could be transmitted between the 'reporting STA' and its peer STA. The difference between the current time and the time when the first time and the peer-to-peer link are teared down or when the peer-to-peer link is still established (Active) is defined. However, the first time that a frame could be transmitted between the 'reporting STA' and its peer STA is virtually unclear.

Therefore, in the management procedure of the wireless network according to the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, the connection time is set to the peer-to-peer link setup time T1 and the peer-to-peer link are tiered down. (Teardown) time or when the peer-to-peer link is still established (Active), it is defined as the difference value (T _{connection time} = T2-T1) between the current time, so that peer-to-peer We want to make the start of the peer link more clear. In general, since the time for initiating the establishment of a peer-to-peer link is the time for receiving an acknowledgment frame for a frame requesting the opening of the link, the initiation of the connection time is set as the start time of the peer-to-peer link. By defining time, it is possible to clarify the definition of the connection time. Therefore, according to the embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to determine the connection time of the correct peer-to-peer link, and as a result, manage the wireless network based on more accurate information.

As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described in detail, if it is a person with ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which this invention belongs, this invention may be carried out without deviating from the mind and range of this invention contained in a claim. It will be appreciated that various modifications or changes can be made.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a structure of an event request frame in a wireless network that may be used in an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a structure of an event report frame in a wireless network that may be used in an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram illustrating a connection time of a peer-to-peer link in a management procedure of a wireless network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (8)

In the real-time diagnostic method in a wireless network, The reporting station logs the event to generate an event log list, Determine whether the reporting station moves to another extended service set (ESS) or independent basic service set (IBSS), If the reporting station is determined to move to another ESS or IBSS, the reporting station clears all event log lists, The reporting station receives an event request from a requesting station, the event request comprising a dialog token, an event type and zero or more event request elements, The dialog token is used to identify the requesting station, The event type indicates the type of event to be reported, An event request element includes at least one condition for which event reporting is established when the reporting station experiences a failure problem, The reporting station sending an event report to the requesting station in response to the event request, The event report comprises a status, the dialog token, the event type and the zero or more event reporting element, The status indicates a result of the event request and the event report, The event report element includes at least one event log list corresponding to the event type. If there is no list of available event logs for the event type included in the event request, the status indicates the success of the event request, the event report is sent without the event report element, If the event request does not include an event request element, the status indicates the success of the event request, and the event report includes a list of all event logs available for the event request. . The method of claim 1, And if all event report elements do not enter the event report, sending the remaining event report element in an additional event report to the requesting station. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the event request from the requesting station comprises The reporting station receives a plurality of event requests from a plurality of requesting stations, each event request comprising a dialog token, an event type and zero or more event request elements; The event report is transmitted in response to the most recent event request of the plurality of event requests. The method of claim 1, wherein the event type indicates one of a transition event, a Robust Security Network Association (RSNA) event, and a peer-to-peer link event. Real time diagnostic method. In the wireless device for real-time diagnosis in a wireless network, Log events to generate event log lists, Determine if you are moving to another extended service set (ESS) or independent basic service set (IBSS), If you decide to move to another ESS or IBSS, clear all event log lists, Receive an event request from a requesting station, the event request comprising a dialog token, an event type and zero or more event request elements,                 The dialog token is used to identify the requesting station,                 The event type indicates the type of event to be reported,                 An event request element includes at least one condition for which event reporting is established when the wireless device experiences a failure problem, A processor for sending an event report to the requesting station in response to the event request, The event report comprises a status, the dialog token, the event type and the zero or more event reporting element,                 The status indicates a result of the event request and the event report,                 The event report element includes at least one event log list corresponding to the event type. If there is no list of available event logs for the event type included in the event request, the status indicates the success of the event request, the event report is sent without the event report element, If the event request does not include an event request element, the status indicates the success of the event request, and the event report includes a list of all event logs available for the event request. 6. The wireless device of claim 5, wherein the processor sends the remaining event report element in an additional event report to the requesting station if all event report elements do not enter the event report. 6. The processor of claim 5 wherein the processor receives a plurality of event requests from a plurality of requesting stations, each event request comprising a dialog token, an event type and zero or more event request elements, And the event report is transmitted in response to a most recent event request of the plurality of event requests. The method of claim 5, wherein the event type indicates one of a transition event, a Robust Security Network Association (RSNA) event, and a peer-to-peer link event. Wireless devices.

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