WO2022228190A1

WO2022228190A1 - Wifi connection method and device

Info

Publication number: WO2022228190A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/087477
Authority: WO
Inventors: 王同波
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2021-04-30
Filing date: 2022-04-18
Publication date: 2022-11-03
Also published as: CN115278825A

Abstract

The present application provides a WiFi connection method and device. The method comprises: in a state in which a WiFi hotspot is enabled by using a first WiFi protocol, receiving a probe request from a first station STA; determining a second WiFi protocol used by the first STA; determining, according to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol, whether the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with an AP by using the first WiFi protocol; if it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol, establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA by using the first WiFi protocol; and if it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol, establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA by using the second WiFi protocol. According to the solution provided in the present application, the success rate of the STA accessing the AP can be increased, and the problem of compatibility is lessened.

Description

WiFi connection method and device

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application with the application number 202110478869.7 and the application title "A WiFi connection method and device", which was filed with the China Patent Office on April 30, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated into this application by reference .

technical field

The present application relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a WiFi connection method and device.

Background technique

The sixth generation of wireless fidelity (Wireless Fidelity, WiFi) technology is WiFi 6 technology, which is a wireless local area network technology created by the WiFi Alliance in the IEEE 802.11 standard. Most of the current mobile phones support WiFi 6 technology and work as a station (Station, STA) or an access point (Access Point, AP) device.

When the AP adopts WiFi 6 technology, the WiFi protocol version adopted by the STA may not support WiFi 6 technology. Therefore, the STA may have serious compatibility problems when accessing the AP, which prevents the STA from establishing a good communication connection with the AP. For example, in the scenario where the mobile phone is used as an AP and the laptop is used as a STA, after the mobile phone turns on the WiFi 6 hotspot, many laptops currently cannot scan the hotspot turned on by the mobile phone. These laptops can scan for hotspots that are turned on by the phone.

At present, the above compatibility problem can be solved by manually configuring the WiFi technology version or opening the maximum compatibility mode, so as to enable the STA and the AP to establish a communication connection as much as possible. However, the above-mentioned compatibility problem may still exist in the method of manually configuring the WiFi technology version, and the mode of opening the maximum compatibility will greatly limit the available frequency band and protocol version when the STA and AP are connected. Therefore, the compatibility problem in the above-mentioned manner is less effective, and there may be problems such as STA access failure, and STA or AP performance being affected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application provides a WiFi connection method, which is used to improve the success rate of a STA accessing an AP, reduce compatibility problems, and reduce the impact on the performance of the STA and the AP.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a WiFi connection method, which is applied to an AP. The method includes: in a state where a WiFi hotspot is enabled using a first WiFi protocol, receiving a probe request from a first site STA, where the probe request is used for request to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; determine the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA; determine whether the first STA supports the use of the first WiFi protocol according to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol The WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; if it is determined that the first STA supports using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP, the first WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA ; If it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol, establish a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol.

In this method, when the AP establishes a WiFi connection with the STA, the AP can determine the WiFi protocol supported by the STA according to the WiFi protocol adopted by itself and the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA, so as to adjust the WiFi protocol adopted when establishing the WiFi connection with the STA. In this way, the AP can establish a WiFi connection with the STA using the WiFi protocol that the STA is compatible with, thereby ensuring the basic access function of the STA, improving the success rate of the STA accessing the AP, reducing compatibility problems, and ensuring the performance of the STA and the AP to the greatest extent. .

In a possible design, after using the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA, the method further includes: when receiving a probe request sent by a second STA, using the second STA A WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the second STA, where the second STA is a STA that requests to establish a WiFi connection with the AP after the first STA.

In this method, the AP uses the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the STA, and also uses the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the STA that subsequently requests access, which can realize that when the STA using a lower version of the WiFi protocol accesses , switch to the mode of working with a lower version of the WiFi protocol to ensure the basic access functions of these STAs.

In a possible design, after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the method further includes: notifying a third STA to communicate with the AP using the second WiFi protocol, wherein , the third STA is a STA that has established a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol before the first STA; or disconnects the WiFi connection with the third STA, and uses the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; The second WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the third STA.

In this method, after the AP uses the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the STA, it notifies the STA that previously used the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP to switch to the second WiFi protocol, which can avoid the need for the AP to switch the WiFi protocol used after the switch. , which affects the access function of the STA that previously accessed the AP.

In a possible design, the probe request carries indication information used to indicate the second WiFi protocol; and determining the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA includes: obtaining the data from the probe request. the indication information; determine the second WiFi protocol indicated by the indication information.

In this method, the AP can simply and quickly determine the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA according to the indication information in the STA probe request, and then obtain the protocol capability of the STA.

In a possible design, the first WiFi protocol is a fifth-generation WiFi protocol or a sixth-generation WiFi protocol, and the second WiFi protocol is a fifth-generation WiFi protocol or a sixth-generation WiFi protocol.

In this method, since the currently widely used WiFi technology standard is the latest WiFi 6 technology, the compatibility problems existing in the process of STA accessing the AP are mostly the compatibility problems between WiFi 6 technology and WiFi 5 technology. Therefore, the method provided in this application can be applied to an AP using WiFi 6 technology or WiFi 5 technology to solve the compatibility problem between WiFi 6 technology and WiFi 5 technology.

In a possible design, determining the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA includes: determining a reference field included in the packet carrying the probe request, where the reference field is used to indicate the first STA Whether the WiFi protocol of the preset version is supported; if the value of the reference field is the first value, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is the WiFi protocol of the preset version; if the value of the reference field is the first value If the value is two, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol that is one version lower than the set version.

In this method, the AP can perform field analysis according to the message carrying the STA probe request, and can identify the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA according to various field information, thereby obtaining the protocol capability of the STA.

In a possible design, the reference field includes at least one of the following: target wake-up time requester support field; target wake-up time responder support field; broadcast target wake-up time field; buffer status report support field; Multiple Access Random Access Support Field; Supported Channel Bandwidth Setting Field; Censored Preamble Receive Field; Low Density Parity Check Code Field in Payload; Full Bandwidth Uplink Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output Field; Uplink multi-user multiple-input multiple-output field; dual-carrier modulation technology maximum constellation group reception field; dual-carrier modulation technology maximum constellation group transmission field; multi-user beamformer field.

In a possible design, determining, according to the first WiFi protocol and/or the second WiFi protocol, whether the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, including: If the versions of the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol are the same, it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; or if the first WiFi protocol is of the same version If the version is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; or if the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the The second version of the WiFi protocol performs at least one connection process, and if the number of failures to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA is less than a set threshold, it is determined that the first STA supports the use of the first WiFi protocol to communicate with the AP establishing a WiFi connection; if the number of times that the WiFi connection fails to be established with the first STA exceeds the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; wherein, Each connection process includes the following steps: using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA; or if the device identifier of the first STA is stored in the database, determining that the first STA does not support the use of The first WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; otherwise, it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; wherein, the database is used to store the device of the target STA identifier, the target STA is a STA that does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol.

In this method, the AP can more accurately judge the access capability of the STA according to the WiFi protocol adopted by itself and the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA, and the AP can determine the WiFi protocol adopted when establishing a WiFi connection with the STA in various ways. The flexibility of implementation is high, and it can adapt to the WiFi connection process in many different scenarios.

In a possible design, after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the method further includes: storing the device identification of the first STA in the database.

In this method, the AP can supplement or update the information in the database according to the access result of the STA, so as to continuously enrich the contents of the database and ensure the accuracy of the contents in the database.

In a possible design, the device identification of the first STA is the medium access control MAC address of the first STA.

In a possible design, the method further includes:

After establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the first WiFi protocol, use the first WiFi protocol or the second WiFi protocol to communicate with the first STA; after using the second WiFi protocol After establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA, use the second WiFi protocol to communicate with the first STA.

In this method, after the AP establishes a WiFi connection with the STA, it can communicate with the STA, wherein the WiFi protocol used when the AP communicates with the STA is the WiFi protocol used when the STA requests access, which can ensure the normal operation between the STA and the AP. communication.

In a possible design, the first WiFi protocol is the highest version of the WiFi protocol supported and adopted by the AP, and the second WiFi protocol is the highest version of the WiFi protocol supported and adopted by the first STA.

In a second aspect, the present application provides an apparatus, the apparatus includes: a transceiver unit configured to receive a probe request from a first site STA in a state in which a WiFi hotspot is enabled using a first WiFi protocol, where the probe request is used to request establishing a WiFi connection with the AP; a processing unit configured to determine the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA; and determining whether the first STA supports the adoption of the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol according to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol The first WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; if it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, then the first WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA. The STA establishes a WiFi connection; if it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, the second WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA.

In a possible design, after using the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA, the processing unit is further configured to: when receiving the probe request sent by the second STA, use the A second WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the second STA, where the second STA is a STA that requests to establish a WiFi connection with the AP after the first STA.

In a possible design, after using the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA, the processing unit is further configured to: notify a third STA to use the second WiFi protocol to communicate with the AP , wherein the third STA is a STA that has established a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol before the first STA; or disconnects the WiFi connection with the third STA, and uses the The second WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the third STA.

In a possible design, the probe request carries indication information for indicating the second WiFi protocol; when the processing unit determines the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA, it is specifically configured to: The indication information is obtained in the probe request; and the second WiFi protocol indicated by the indication information is determined.

In a possible design, when the processing unit determines the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA, the processing unit is specifically configured to: determine a reference field included in the packet carrying the probe request, where the reference field uses is used to indicate whether the first STA supports the WiFi protocol of the set version; if the value of the reference field is the first value, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is the WiFi protocol of the set version; if the If the value of the reference field is the second value, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol that is one version lower than the set version.

In a possible design, the processing unit determines, according to the first WiFi protocol and/or the second WiFi protocol, whether the first STA supports establishing WiFi with the AP using the first WiFi protocol When connecting, it is specifically used to: if the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol have the same version, determine that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol; or if If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; or if the first WiFi The version of the protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, and at least one connection process is performed. If the number of times that the WiFi connection fails to be established with the first STA is less than the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA supports the use of the first STA. A WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; if the number of failures to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA exceeds the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first WiFi protocol to communicate with the AP. The AP establishes a WiFi connection; wherein, each connection process includes the following steps: using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA; or if the device identifier of the first STA is stored in the database, determining the The first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; otherwise, it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; wherein, the database It is used to store the device identifier of the target STA, where the target STA is a STA that does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol.

In a possible design, after the processing unit establishes a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the processing unit is further configured to: store the device identification of the first STA in the database .

In a possible design, the processing unit is further configured to: after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the first WiFi protocol, use the first WiFi protocol or the second WiFi protocol to communicate with the first STA. The first STA communicates; after a WiFi connection is established with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the second WiFi protocol is used to communicate with the first STA.

In a third aspect, the present application provides an apparatus comprising a transceiver, a memory and a processor; the transceiver is configured to receive signals from other apparatuses other than the apparatus and transmit to the processor or transfer signals from the processor The signal of the processor is sent to other devices other than the device; the memory is used for storing programs; the processor is used for executing the programs stored in the memory, so as to realize the first aspect or any possible possibility of the first aspect. Design the method described.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, where a computer program is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed on an apparatus, the apparatus causes the apparatus to execute the first aspect or the first The method described in any possible design of the aspect.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer program or instructions, when the computer program or instructions are run on an apparatus, the apparatus causes the apparatus to perform the above-mentioned first aspect or the first aspect Any possible design of the described method.

For the beneficial effects of the second aspect to the fifth aspect, please refer to the description of the beneficial effects of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

Description of drawings

1a is a statistical diagram of the distribution of the number of devices accessing a hotspot under different WiFi hotspot frequencies according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 1b is a statistical diagram of the distribution of device types that access hotspots under different WiFi hotspot frequencies according to an embodiment of the present application;

2a is a schematic diagram of a mobile phone interface for manually configuring a WiFi technology version;

Figure 2b is a schematic diagram of a mobile phone interface with a configuration maximum compatibility;

3 is a schematic diagram of a traditional method for STA to access an AP;

Fig. 4a is an example diagram of a kind of Beacon frame message broadcast by AP;

Figure 4b is an example diagram of another Beacon frame message broadcast by the AP;

5a is a schematic diagram of a hardware architecture of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

5b is a schematic diagram of a software architecture of an electronic device provided by an embodiment of the application;

6 is a schematic diagram of a WiFi connection method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the format of an HE capability information field provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of a WiFi connection method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a WiFi connection method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

10 is a schematic flowchart of another WiFi connection method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of an apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

In order to make the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application more clear, the embodiments of the present application will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Among them, in the description of the embodiments of the present application, the terms "first" and "second" are only used for description purposes, and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or indicating the number of technical features indicated. . Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may expressly or implicitly include one or more of that feature.

For ease of understanding, descriptions of concepts related to the present application are exemplarily given for reference.

1) Station (Station, STA): also called wireless station, STA refers to devices connected to the wireless network, and these devices can communicate with other devices inside the wireless network or with the outside of the wireless network through the access point.

In this embodiment of the present application, the STA may be an electronic device that supports WiFi connection. Electronic devices may also be referred to as terminal devices, or terminals, including but not limited to mobile phones (Mobile Phones), tablet computers, notebook computers, PDAs, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), wearable devices (such as smart watches, Smart bracelets, pedometers, etc.), vehicles, in-vehicle equipment (such as cars, bicycles, electric vehicles, airplanes, ships, trains, high-speed trains, etc.), virtual reality (Virtual Reality, VR) equipment, Augmented Reality (Augmented Reality, AR) equipment, wireless terminals in industrial control (Industrial Control), smart home equipment (such as refrigerators, TVs, air conditioners, electricity meters, etc.), intelligent robots, workshop equipment, wireless terminals in self-driving (Self Driving), remote Wireless Terminals in Remote Medical Surgery, Wireless Terminals in Smart Grid, Wireless Terminals in Transportation Safety, Wireless Terminals in Smart City, or Smart Home ) in wireless terminals, flying equipment (for example, intelligent robots, hot air balloons, drones, airplanes), etc.

Exemplarily, the electronic devices in the embodiments of the present application include but are not limited to carrying

or other operating systems.

2), Access Point (Access Point, AP): also known as access node, wireless access point or hotspot, etc., is a device used to connect STA to wireless network; AP can realize the connection between wireless network and wired network. Communication is the core equipment for forming a wireless local area network.

The AP can be an access point in a WiFi system, or it can be a module or unit that completes some functions of the access point. For example, it can be a centralized unit (Central Unit, CU) or a distributed unit (Distributed Unit, DU). ); it can also be a router, a bridge, a wireless gateway, etc. This application does not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the AP.

In this embodiment of the present application, the AP may be a router, or may be other electronic devices with a WiFi access function.

3) Beacon (Beacon) frame: The Beacon frame is periodically broadcast and sent by the AP to notify the existence of the AP. During the process of establishing a communication connection between the STA and the AP, the STA may determine the existence of the AP by scanning the Beacon frame. In addition, the STA can also detect whether the AP exists by actively sending a probe request (Probe Request) during scanning.

It should be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "a plurality" refers to two or more. "And/or", which describes the association relationship of the associated objects, means that there can be three kinds of relationships, for example, A and/or B, it can mean that A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the associated objects are an "or" relationship. "At least one (item) of the following" or its similar expression refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single item (item) or plural item (item). For example, at least one (a) of a, b or c may represent: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a, b and c, where a, b, c Can be single or multiple.

In the embodiment of this application, the protocol adopted by the WiFi 6 technical standard is the WiFi 6 protocol. Therefore, it can be considered that the "WiFi 6 technical standard" is equivalent to the "WiFi 6 protocol". For the convenience of description, "WiFi 6 technical standard" or "WiFi 6 protocol" is abbreviated as "WiFi 6" hereinafter, and "WiFi 5 technical standard" or "WiFi 5 protocol" is abbreviated as "WiFi 5".

When a STA currently accesses an AP, a serious compatibility problem may be caused due to the different versions of the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA and the AP, so that the STA cannot successfully establish a connection with the AP. For example, the current WiFi 6 mobile phone products are gradually promoted. When the mobile phone adopts WiFi 6, the hotspots opened can be based on WiFi 6, but many laptops currently use the old version of WiFi technology standards such as WiFi 5, so these laptops When accessing the WiFi 6 hotspot opened by the mobile phone, there may be serious compatibility problems, resulting in possible access failure.

Figure 1a is a statistical diagram of the distribution of the number of devices accessing the hotspot under different WiFi hotspot frequencies. As shown in Figure 1a, according to the experimental statistical results, in the 2.4GHz frequency band, the statistical proportion of WiFi hotspots connecting to a device reaches 85%; in the 5GHz frequency band, the statistical proportion of WiFi hotspots connecting to a device reaches 96% , it can be seen that the proportion of WiFi hotspots connected to a device is relatively large. In addition, among the frequency bands currently available for devices to access WiFi hotspots, the 5GHz frequency band has more obvious advantages than the 2.4GHz frequency band. Therefore, users may prefer to use 5GHz to access WiFi hotspots to exert better device performance.

Figure 1b is a statistical diagram of the distribution of device types accessing the hotspot under different WiFi hotspot frequencies. As shown in Figure 1b, the personal computers (PCs) that use the 5GHz frequency band to access hotspots account for 13% of the total number of statistical devices, and currently there are very few PCs that can support WiFi 6, so PCs access WiFi There is a high risk of compatibility issues with 6 hotspots.

In summary, there are more and more devices that support WiFi 6 hotspots, but there are also many STA devices that do not support WiFi 6. Therefore, how to solve the compatibility between STA devices that do not support WiFi 6 and AP devices that support WiFi 6 Sexual issues are necessary. There are two main ways to deal with this:

Solution 1: Manually configure the WiFi technology version.

For example, when a mobile phone is used as an AP, as shown in Figure 2a, a control switch of "supporting the sixth generation technical standard" is added to the hotspot configuration interface of the mobile phone. The user can operate the control switch to set the WiFi technology standard adopted by the mobile phone. Version. When the user turns on the control switch, the mobile phone is set to WiFi 6 mode, and can be connected to the connected STA based on WiFi 6; STA to connect.

However, in this method, when the control switch is in the off state, when multiple STAs access, they can only establish a connection with the AP according to the WiFi 5 specification, which cannot take into account the best performance of the STA. The above compatibility issues cause the STA to fail to access the AP.

Processing method 2: The AP opens the maximum compatibility.

For example, when the mobile phone is used as the AP, as shown in Figure 2b, a control switch for enabling the maximum compatibility is added to the hotspot configuration interface of the mobile phone. The user can set the mobile phone to turn on the maximum compatibility by operating the control switch. When the user turns on the control switch, the mobile phone turns on the maximum compatibility, which can ensure that the STA can successfully establish a connection with the AP.

However, this method will greatly limit the available frequency bands and protocol versions for STA access. For example, when the mobile phone hotspot frequency is 2.4GHz, only the 802.11n protocol (the mainstream protocol standard supported by wireless router products) is supported, and the hotspot frequency is 5GHz. 802.11ax protocol, wherein the version of the 802.11ax protocol is higher than the 802.11n protocol. After the maximum compatibility is turned on, the mobile phone hotspot supports the 2.4GHz hotspot frequency and only supports the 802.11n protocol, but the protocol version supported by the STA may be higher than the 802.11n protocol, so the available frequency band and protocol version when the STA receives the mobile phone hotspot will be limited. , which affects the performance of the STA and the AP and the connection and communication effect between the STA and the AP.

To sum up, the above-mentioned processing methods are not effective in solving the compatibility problem, and there may be problems such as STA access failure, and STA or AP performance being affected.

In view of this, the present application provides a WiFi connection method to flexibly control the communication connection between the STA and the AP, to ensure that the STA can successfully access the AP, and to minimize the impact on the performance of the STA and the AP.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a traditional method for a STA to access an AP. Referring to FIG. 3 , after the AP opens the WiFi hotspot, it will periodically broadcast the Beacon frame, so that the STA can discover the WiFi hotspot. When a STA accesses a WiFi hotspot, it can determine the existing WiFi hotspot by scanning Beacon frames or sending a probe request. If the STA successfully scans the Beacon frame broadcast by the AP, or receives the Probe Response (Probe Response) returned by the AP after sending the probe request, the STA can automatically perform the connection process with the AP, and the STA can communicate with the AP after establishing a connection. If the STA cannot scan the Beacon frame broadcast by the AP, or cannot receive the probe response from the AP, it cannot successfully access the AP.

By capturing the Beacon frames broadcast by APs corresponding to different WiFi hotspots and performing comparative analysis, the cause of the compatibility problem can be determined. Specifically, FIG. 4a is an example diagram of a Beacon frame packet broadcast by an AP, and FIG. 4b is an example diagram of another Beacon frame packet broadcast by the AP. Among them, the AP shown in Figure 4a uses WiFi 6, and the AP in Figure 4b uses WiFi 5. When a STA using WiFi 5 scans the Beacon frame broadcast by the AP, it cannot scan the Beacon frame shown in Figure 4a, but can scan the Beacon frame shown in Figure 4b. Comparing the captured packets shown in Figure 4a and Figure 4b, it can be seen that the name of the WiFi hotspot opened by the AP corresponding to Figure 4a is LAN111, the name of the WiFi hotspot opened by the AP corresponding to Figure 4b is p30p, and the two APs broadcast The difference between the Beacon frames mainly lies in the High Efficiency (HE) field marked by the dotted box in Figure 4a. According to this field, it can be determined that the corresponding WiFi hotspot LAN111 uses WiFi 6, while the STA using WiFi 5 does not support WiFi6 Therefore, the STA using WiFi 5 cannot parse and identify the WiFi 6-based Beacon frame broadcast by the AP when scanning the hotspot, and the STA thinks that it cannot scan the Beacn frame broadcast by the AP, so it cannot accurately and timely determine the existence of the WiFi 6 hotspot LAN111. To ensure that the STA can access the AP, it is necessary to ensure that the WiFi technology standards adopted by the STA and the AP are consistent as much as possible.

Therefore, in this embodiment of the present application, the AP may first determine the access status or protocol capability information of the STA to be accessed, and then adjust the way it establishes a connection with the STA according to the access status or protocol capability information of the STA, so as to take into account WiFi 6 The high performance of the hotspot and the basic access function of the STA using WiFi 5 solve the compatibility problem.

Exemplarily, FIG. 5a shows a schematic diagram of the hardware architecture of an electronic device. As shown in FIG. 5a, the electronic device 500 may include a processor 510, an external memory interface 520, an internal memory 521, a USB interface 530, a charging management module 540, a power management module 541, a battery 542, an antenna 1, a wireless communication module 560, an audio Module 570, speaker 570A, receiver 570B, microphone 570C, headphone jack 570D, sensor module 580, key 590, motor 591, indicator 592, camera 593, display screen 594, etc.

Optionally, the electronic device 500 may further include an antenna 2, a mobile communication module 550, a SIM interface 595, and the like.

It can be understood that the electronic device shown in FIG. 5a is only an example, and does not constitute a limitation to the electronic device, and the electronic device may have more or less components than those shown in the figure, and two components may be combined. one or more components, or may have different component configurations. The various components shown in Figure 5a may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, including one or more signal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits.

The processor 510 may include one or more processing units, for example, the processor 510 may include an application processor (application processor, AP), a modem processor, a graphics processor (graphics processing unit, GPU), an image signal processor (image signal processor, ISP), controller, memory, video codec, digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), baseband processor, and/or Neural-network Processing Unit (NPU) Wait. Wherein, different processing units may be independent devices, or may be integrated in one or more processors. The controller may be the nerve center and command center of the electronic device 500 . The controller can generate an operation control signal according to the instruction operation code and timing signal, and complete the control of fetching and executing instructions.

A memory may also be provided in the processor 510 for storing instructions and data. In some embodiments, the memory in processor 510 is cache memory. The memory may hold instructions or data that have just been used or recycled by the processor 510 . If the processor 510 needs to use the instruction or data again, it can be called directly from the memory. Repeated accesses are avoided and the waiting time of the processor 510 is reduced, thereby increasing the efficiency of the system.

The execution of the WiFi connection method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be completed by the processor 510 controlling or calling other components, for example, calling the processing program of the embodiment of the present application stored in the internal memory 521 to control the wireless communication module 560 to communicate with other electronic devices The device communicates data for WiFi connection and subsequent communication. The processor 510 may include different devices. For example, when a CPU and a GPU are integrated, the CPU and the GPU may cooperate to execute the WiFi connection method provided by the embodiments of the present application. For example, some algorithms in the WiFi connection method are executed by the CPU, and another part of the algorithms are executed by the GPU. for faster processing efficiency.

Display screen 594 is used to display images, videos, and the like. Display screen 594 includes a display panel. The display panel can be a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode or an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (active-matrix organic light). emitting diode, AMOLED), flexible light-emitting diode (flex light-emitting diode, FLED), Miniled, MicroLed, Micro-oLed, quantum dot light-emitting diode (quantum dot light emitting diodes, QLED) and so on. In some embodiments, the electronic device 500 may include 1 or N display screens 594 , where N is a positive integer greater than 1. The display screen 594 may be used to display information entered by or provided to the user as well as various graphical user interfaces (GUIs). For example, display screen 594 may display photos, videos, web pages, or documents, and the like.

In the embodiment of the present application, the display screen 594 may be an integrated flexible display screen, or a spliced display screen composed of two rigid screens and a flexible screen located between the two rigid screens. After the processor 510 executes the WiFi connection method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the processor 510 may control the display screen 594 to display relevant results.

Camera 593 (front or rear camera, or a camera that can be both front and rear camera) is used to capture still images or video.

Internal memory 521 may be used to store computer executable program code, which includes instructions. The processor 510 executes various functional applications and data processing of the electronic device 500 by executing the instructions stored in the internal memory 521 . The internal memory 521 may include a storage program area and a storage data area. Wherein, the storage program area may store operating system, codes of application programs (such as WiFi connection function, WiFi communication function, etc.), and the like. The storage data area may store data created during the use of the electronic device 500 (such as information, data, etc. that need to be exchanged between devices when executing the WiFi connection method provided by the embodiments of the present application).

The internal memory 521 may also store one or more computer programs corresponding to the algorithms of the WiFi connection methods provided in the embodiments of the present application. The one or more computer programs are stored in the aforementioned internal memory 521 and configured to be executed by the one or more processors 510, and the one or more computer programs include instructions that can be used to perform the following embodiments each step.

In addition, the internal memory 521 may include high-speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as at least one magnetic disk storage device, flash memory device, universal flash storage (UFS), and the like.

Certainly, the algorithm code of the WiFi connection method provided by the embodiment of the present application may also be stored in an external memory. In this case, the processor 510 may execute the code of the WiFi connection algorithm stored in the external memory through the external memory interface 520.

The sensor module 580 may include a fingerprint sensor, a touch sensor, a pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor, an ambient light sensor, an air pressure sensor, a bone conduction sensor, and the like.

Optionally, the electronic device 500 may be a STA, and the electronic device 500 may not include the antenna 2, the mobile communication module 550, the SIM interface 595, etc., then the wireless communication function of the electronic device 500 may be through the antenna 1, the wireless communication module 560, The modem processor and baseband processor are implemented.

Optionally, the electronic device 500 may be an AP, and the electronic device 500 may include an antenna 2, a mobile communication module 550, a SIM interface 595, etc., then the wireless communication function of the electronic device 500 can be performed through the antenna 1, the antenna 2, the mobile communication module, etc. 550. The wireless communication module 560 is implemented by a modulation and demodulation processor, a baseband processor, and the like.

Antenna 1 and Antenna 2 are used to transmit and receive electromagnetic wave signals. Each antenna in electronic device 500 may be used to cover a single or multiple communication frequency bands, such as the 2.4GHz frequency band or the 5GHz frequency band. Different antennas can also be reused to improve antenna utilization. For example, the antenna 2 can be multiplexed into a diversity antenna of the wireless local area network. In other embodiments, the antenna may be used in conjunction with a tuning switch.

The mobile communication module 550 may provide a wireless communication solution including 2G/3G/4G/5G, etc. applied on the electronic device 500 . The mobile communication module 550 may include at least one filter, switch, power amplifier, low noise amplifier (LNA) and the like. The mobile communication module 550 can receive electromagnetic waves from the antenna 2, filter, amplify, etc. the received electromagnetic waves, and transmit them to the modulation and demodulation processor for demodulation. The mobile communication module 550 can also amplify the signal modulated by the modulation and demodulation processor, and then convert it into electromagnetic waves and radiate it out through the antenna 2 . In some embodiments, at least part of the functional modules of the mobile communication module 550 may be provided in the processor 510 . In some embodiments, at least part of the functional modules of the mobile communication module 550 may be provided in the same device as at least part of the modules of the processor 510 . In this embodiment of the present application, the mobile communication module 550 may also be used for information interaction with other electronic devices.

The modem processor may include a modulator and a demodulator. Wherein, the modulator is used to modulate the low frequency baseband signal to be sent into a medium and high frequency signal. The demodulator is used to demodulate the received electromagnetic wave signal into a low frequency baseband signal. Then the demodulator transmits the demodulated low-frequency baseband signal to the baseband processor for processing. The low frequency baseband signal is processed by the baseband processor and passed to the application processor. The application processor outputs a sound signal through an audio device (not limited to the speaker 570A, the receiver 570B, etc.), or displays an image or video through the display screen 594 . In some embodiments, the modem processor may be a stand-alone device. In other embodiments, the modulation and demodulation processor may be independent of the processor 510, and be provided in the same device as the mobile communication module 550 or other functional modules.

The wireless communication module 560 can provide applications on the electronic device 500 including wireless local area networks (WLAN) (such as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks), bluetooth (BT), global navigation satellites System (global navigation satellite system, GNSS), frequency modulation (frequency modulation, FM), near field communication technology (near field communication, NFC), infrared technology (infrared, IR) and other wireless communication solutions. The wireless communication module 560 may be one or more devices integrating at least one communication processing module. The wireless communication module 560 receives electromagnetic waves via the antenna 5 , modulates and filters the electromagnetic wave signals, and sends the processed signals to the processor 510 . The wireless communication module 560 can also receive the signal to be sent from the processor 510 , perform frequency modulation on it, amplify it, and convert it into electromagnetic waves for radiation through the antenna 5 . In this embodiment of the present application, the wireless communication module 560 is configured to establish a communication connection with other electronic devices to perform data interaction. For example, when the electronic device 500 acts as a STA, the wireless communication module 560 may be used to access the AP, and send messages and data to the AP, or receive instructions or data from the AP during the access process. For another example, when the electronic device 500 acts as an AP, the wireless communication module 560 can be used to establish a WiFi connection with a STA requesting access, and receive messages and data from the STA or send instructions or data to the STA during the access process.

In addition, the electronic device 500 may implement audio functions through an audio module 570, a speaker 570A, a receiver 570B, a microphone 570C, an earphone interface 570D, an application processor, and the like. Such as music playback, recording, etc. The electronic device 500 may receive key 590 inputs and generate key signal inputs related to user settings and function control of the electronic device 500 . The electronic device 500 may use the motor 591 to generate vibration alerts (eg, vibration alerts for incoming calls). The indicator 592 in the electronic device 500 may be an indicator light, which may be used to indicate a charging state, a change in power, or may be used to indicate a message, a notification, or the like.

The SIM card interface 595 in the electronic device 500 is used to connect the SIM card. The SIM card can be contacted and separated from the electronic device 500 by being inserted into the SIM card interface 595 or pulled out from the SIM card interface 595 .

In this embodiment of the present application, the electronic device 500 shown in FIG. 5a may function as an AP or a STA.

It should be understood that, in practical applications, the electronic device 500 shown in FIG. 5a is only an example, and the electronic device 500 may have more or less components than those shown in the figure, and two or more components may be combined components, or may have different component configurations. The various components shown in the figures may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, including one or more signal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits.

Exemplarily, the software system of the electronic device 500 may adopt a layered architecture, an event-driven architecture, a microkernel architecture, a microservice architecture, or a cloud architecture. The embodiments of the present invention take an Android system with a layered architecture as an example to illustrate the software structure of an electronic device.

The layered architecture divides the software into several layers, and each layer has a clear role and division of labor. Layers communicate with each other through software interfaces. As shown in Figure 5b, the software architecture can be divided into four layers, from top to bottom, the application layer, the application framework layer (framework, FWK), the Android runtime and system library, and the Linux kernel layer.

The application layer is the top layer of the operating system and includes the native applications of the operating system, such as camera, gallery, calendar, bluetooth, music, video, messaging, and more. The application program involved in the embodiments of the present application is referred to as an application (application, APP), which is a software program capable of implementing one or more specific functions. Generally, multiple applications may be installed in an electronic device. For example, camera applications, mailbox applications, smart home control applications, etc. The application mentioned below may be a system application installed when the electronic device leaves the factory, or may be a third-party application downloaded from the network or acquired from other electronic devices by the user during the use of the electronic device.

Of course, for developers, developers can write applications and install to this layer. In a possible implementation, the application can be developed in the Java language by calling the Application Programming Interface (API) provided by the application framework layer. The developer can communicate with the operating system through the application framework. interact with the underlying layers (such as the kernel layer, etc.) to develop their own applications.

The application framework layer provides an application programming interface (application programming interface, API) and a programming framework for applications in the application layer. The application framework layer can include some predefined functions. The application framework layer can include window managers, content providers, view systems, telephony managers, resource managers, notification managers, etc.

A window manager is used to manage window programs. The window manager can get the size of the display screen, determine whether there is a status bar, lock the screen, take screenshots, etc.

Content providers are used to store and retrieve data and make these data accessible to applications. The data may include information such as files (eg, documents, videos, images, audio), text, and the like.

The view system includes visual controls, such as controls for displaying text, pictures, documents, and so on. View systems can be used to build applications. The interface in the display window can consist of one or more views. For example, the display interface including the short message notification icon may include a view for displaying text and a view for displaying pictures.

The phone manager is used to provide the communication function of the electronic device. The notification manager enables applications to display notification information in the status bar, which can be used to convey notification-type messages, and can disappear automatically after a brief pause without user interaction.

The Android runtime includes core libraries and a virtual machine. The Android runtime is responsible for the scheduling and management of the Android system.

The core library of the Android system consists of two parts: one is the function functions that the Java language needs to call, and the other is the core library of the Android system. The application layer and the application framework layer run in virtual machines. Taking Java as an example, the virtual machine executes the Java files of the application layer and the application framework layer as binary files. The virtual machine is used to perform functions such as object lifecycle management, stack management, thread management, safety and exception management, and garbage collection.

A system library can include multiple functional modules. For example: surface manager, media library, 3D graphics processing library (eg: OpenGL ES), 2D graphics engine (eg: SGL), image processing library, etc. The Surface Manager manages the display subsystem and provides a fusion of 2D and 3D layers for multiple applications. The media library supports playback and recording of a variety of commonly used audio and video formats, as well as still image files. The media library can support a variety of audio and video encoding formats, such as: MPEG4, H.564, MP3, AAC, AMR, JPG, PNG, etc. The 3D graphics processing library is used to implement 3D graphics drawing, image rendering, compositing, and layer processing. A 2D graphics engine is a drawing engine for 2D drawing.

The kernel (Kernel) layer provides the core system services of the operating system, such as security, memory management, process management, network protocol stack and driver model, all based on the kernel layer. The kernel layer also acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and software stacks. There are many drivers related to electronic devices in this layer, the main drivers are: display driver; keyboard driver as input device; Flash driver based on memory technology device; camera driver; audio driver; Bluetooth driver; WiFi driver and so on.

It should be understood that the above-mentioned functional services are just an example, and in practical applications, electronic devices can also be divided into more or less functional services according to other factors, or can be divided into various services in other ways. Functions, or may not be divided into functional services, but work as a whole.

The method provided by the present application will be described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 6 , the WiFi connection method provided by the embodiment of the present application includes:

S601: The AP receives a probe request from a first station STA in a state in which the WiFi hotspot is enabled by using the first WiFi protocol, where the probe request is used to request to establish a WiFi connection with the AP.

In the embodiment of the present application, after the AP opens the WiFi hotspot, it can work by default using the first WiFi protocol. When the STA requests access, the AP first determines whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol. If so, the AP can use the first WiFi protocol and the first WiFi protocol. The STA establishes the connection, otherwise, the AP may further determine the manner of establishing the connection with the STA according to the protocol capabilities of itself and the STA.

In this embodiment of the present application, the STA may send probe request information to the AP to request access to the AP, so as to establish a WiFi connection with the AP and communicate.

Optionally, the first WiFi protocol may be WiFi 5 or WiFi 6. For example, the first WiFi protocol may be the current latest version of the WiFi protocol, namely WiFi 6.

It should be noted that the STA supporting the adoption of the first WiFi protocol in the embodiments of the present application means that the STA is compatible with the first WiFi protocol without any problem, and can successfully establish a WiFi connection with the AP when the AP adopts the first WiFi protocol. , and there will be no access failure caused by incompatible WiFi protocols.

S602: The AP determines the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA.

In the embodiment of the present application, as an optional implementation manner, when the AP determines whether the STA supports the adoption of the first WiFi protocol, it may first determine the second WiFi protocol adopted by the STA, and then compare the first WiFi protocol with the second WiFi protocol. The version of the protocol determines whether the STA supports the adoption of the first WiFi protocol.

As another optional implementation manner, the AP may use the result of the STA's previous access process as a reference. If the AP uses the first WiFi protocol and the STA successfully accesses in the previous access process, it is determined that the STA supports the use of The first WiFi protocol, otherwise, it is considered that the STA does not support the adoption of the first WiFi protocol. The information may be stored in a database, and when the STA requests access, the AP may determine whether the STA supports the use of the first WiFi protocol by querying the database.

The following is a detailed introduction.

In this embodiment of the present application, the AP may determine whether the STA supports (adopts) the first WiFi protocol according to at least one of the following methods:

Manner 1: The AP determines whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol according to the indication information carried in the probe request sent by the STA.

In this manner, the probe request sent by the STA to the AP may carry indication information for indicating the second WiFi protocol adopted by the STA, where the probe request is used to request access to the AP, that is, to establish a WiFi connection with the AP. After receiving the detection request from the STA, the AP can determine the second WiFi protocol adopted by the STA according to the instruction information obtained therefrom, and then judge whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol according to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol. Alternatively, the probe request sent by the STA to the AP may carry indication information that directly indicates whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol, and the AP can directly and quickly determine whether the STA supports the WiFi protocol currently adopted by the AP according to the probe request received.

Manner 2: The AP determines whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol according to the reference information in the message carrying the probe request sent by the STA.

Wherein, the reference information includes information such as HE capability information and manufacturer identification in the probe request message sent by the STA. The vendor identifier may be a vendor-specific organization unique identifier (Organization Unique Identifier, OUI) type, ie vendor specific OUI type. The HE capability information includes HE MAC layer capability information and HE physical layer (Physical Layer, PHY) layer capability information.

Specifically, based on the method for the STA to access the AP shown in FIG. 3 , when the STA establishes a connection with the AP, the probe request or association request (Association Request) message sent by the STA to the AP includes the HE capability information field. The HE capability information The format of the fields is shown in Figure 7. The HE capability information field includes the HE MAC layer capability field information and the HE PHY layer capability information field. Further, the subfields contained in the HE MAC layer capability information field and the HE PHY layer capability information field can be used as reference information for judging whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol.

Specifically, the reference field and the value of the reference field contained in the HE capability information field can be used to indicate whether the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA is a certain version of the WiFi protocol. Therefore, the AP can The value of the reference field determines whether the STA supports the WiFi protocol of the set version. For example, if the AP determines that the value of the reference field is the first value, it may determine that the second WiFi protocol is the WiFi protocol of the set version; if it determines that the value of the reference field is the second value, Then, it can be determined that the second WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol that is one version lower than the set version.

For example, the WiFi protocol of the set version may be WiFi 6, the first value may be 1, and the second value may be 0. Then, when the AP determines that the value of the reference field is 1, it determines that the STA adopts WiFi 6, and when it determines that the value of the reference field is 0, it determines that the STA adopts WiFi 5.

In some embodiments of the present application, when the WiFi protocol of the set version is WiFi 6, the reference information includes at least one of the following reference fields in the HE MAC layer capability information field:

Target Wake Time (TWT) Requester Support (TWT Requester Supprot) field: used to identify whether TWT transmit requester is supported;

TWT Responder Supprot field: used to identify whether TWT RX responder is supported;

Broadcast TWT (Broadcast TWT) field: used to identify whether the broadcast TWT function is supported;

Buffer Status Report (BSR) support field (BSR Support): used to identify whether buffer status is supported, and can also be used for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) bandwidth allocation negotiation;

OFDMA random access (Random Access, RA) support field (OFDMA RA Support): used to identify whether the OFDMA random access function is supported.

For the explanation of the above fields, please refer to Table 1 below.

Table 1 Reference fields selected in the HE MAC capability field

In some embodiments of the present application, the reference information further includes at least one of the following reference fields in the HE PHY layer capability information field:

Supported Channel Width Set: used to indicate the type of bandwidth supported by the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, including whether the 5GHz frequency band supports 160MHz or 80+80MHz bandwidth;

Censored preamble Rx (Punctured Preamble Rx): used to identify whether to support censored preamble, and the type of preamble censoring;

DPC coding in the payload (LDPC Coding In Payload): used to identify whether LDPC codec is supported;

Full Bandwidth (Full Bandwidth) Uplink (Uplingk, UL) Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (ULMU-MIMO) field: used to identify whether UL MU-MIMO is supported;

Partial bandwidth (pritical UL MU-MIMO Full Bandwidth): used to identify whether UL MU-MIMO in OFDMA is supported;

Dual Carrier Modulation (DCM) maximum constellation group (Max Constellation) Tx: used to identify whether Tx supports DCM, and the type of DCM supported;

DCM largest constellation group RX: used to identify whether Rx supports DCM, and the type of DCM supported;

Multi-User (Muti-User, MU) beamformer (Beamformer): used to identify whether the beamformer is supported, that is, a single-user (Single-User, SU) is supported.

For the explanation of the above fields, please refer to Table 2 below.

Table 2 Reference fields selected in the HE PHY capability field

When the AP judges whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol, it can judge according to at least one reference field provided in Table 1 and/or Table 2 above. In the reference field, when it is determined that there is at least one field with a value of 1, it is determined that the STA supports the first WiFi protocol.

According to this method, the AP can accurately identify the protocol capability of the STA according to the related packets during the STA's access process, and then accurately determine whether the currently used WiFi protocol needs to be adjusted.

Manner 3: The AP determines whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol by querying a local or cloud database.

Specifically, the AP can set up a database locally or in the cloud, and the database is used to store the information of the STA accessing the AP. The information of the STA includes information such as the STA's device identifier and protocol capability. For example, the STA's device identifier can be stored in the database. , whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol, the latest WiFi protocol supported by the STA, etc., where the device identification of the STA is used to identify the STA, for example, the device identification of the STA can be the medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC) address of the STA , the device model that can uniquely identify the STA, and other information.

The initial information in the database can be set by the user. When a certain STA accesses subsequently, the AP can write the information of the STA into the database.

For example, when the AP works in the first WiFi protocol, if the STA fails to access the AP, the AP can write the STA's MAC address into the database and mark the STA as not supporting the first WiFi protocol; if the STA successfully accesses the AP, Then the AP can write the MAC address of the STA into the database, and mark that the STA supports the first WiFi protocol, that is, the STA is compatible with WiFi 6 without any problem.

For another example, if the historical information of the STA is already stored in the database when the AP determines the information of the STA and writes it into the database, the AP can update the historical information of the STA in the database with the newly determined information of the STA. If the AP can determine the maximum protocol capability of the STA, that is, the latest WiFi protocol that the STA can support, the AP can write the STA's MAC address and the latest WiFi protocol version that the STA can support into the database for storage.

In the above manner, the AP can quickly and accurately determine whether the accessing STA can establish a connection with the AP using a certain WiFi protocol according to the information in the database, and then determine whether the WiFi protocol used needs to be adjusted when connecting with the STA.

Optionally, the AP can also combine some of the above methods to determine whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol. For example, the AP can first use the above method 2 to determine the WiFi protocol used by the STA requesting access. If the WiFi protocol is the same as the first WiFi protocol. If the WiFi protocol version is the same, the AP can use the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the STA. Otherwise, the AP can use the above method 3 to query the protocol capability of the STA from the database to determine whether the first WiFi protocol can be used with the STA. A WiFi connection is established, so as to more accurately determine whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol.

Based on the various methods provided above, the AP can choose a method for judging the STA protocol capability according to the actual scenario requirements or user requirements, and the solution implementation is more flexible.

S603: The AP determines, according to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol, whether the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol.

The AP may use at least one of the following methods to determine whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol:

1) If the versions of the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol are the same, it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol.

2) If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol.

When the AP adopts the above two methods in combination, the AP can establish a WiFi connection with the STA using the WiFi protocol used by the STA to request access to ensure that the STA can access successfully. The WiFi protocol adopted when establishing a WiFi connection with the STA can be dynamically adjusted according to the WiFi protocol adopted by each STA.

3) If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, perform a connection process at least once, and if the number of times that the WiFi connection fails to be established with the first STA is less than a set threshold, determine the The first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; if the number of failures to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA exceeds the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first STA. The first WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; wherein, each connection process includes the following steps: using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA.

In this method, the STA sends a probe request to the AP to request access to the AP, but when it does not receive the probe response returned by the AP, the STA can repeatedly send a probe request to the AP within a short period of time according to user operations to request access. AP, so after the AP receives the probe request for the first time, it directly uses the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the STA. If the establishment of the connection fails and the AP receives the probe request from the STA again, the AP can receive the first WiFi Within the set time period after the probe request, each time a probe request is received, a WiFi connection is established with the STA using the first WiFi protocol, until the connection is successfully established or the number of failed connection establishments within the set time period exceeds the set up to the threshold. Wherein, when the AP determines that the connection establishment is successful, it determines that the first STA supports the establishment of a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, and when the AP determines that the number of failures to establish a connection within a set time period exceeds the set threshold , determining that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol.

4) If the device identifier of the first STA is stored in the database, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; otherwise, it is determined that the first STA supports using the first WiFi protocol. The first WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; wherein, the database is used to store a device identifier of a target STA, and the target STA is a STA that does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol.

S604: If the AP determines that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, then the AP establishes a WiFi connection with the first STA using the first WiFi protocol; If the STA does not support using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP, the second WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA.

The above-mentioned AP can determine whether the STA supports the first WiFi protocol according to the first WiFi protocol adopted by itself and the second WiFi protocol adopted by the STA, and can determine the method of establishing a WiFi connection with the STA, thereby ensuring that the WiFi protocol supported by the STA can be adopted, Establish a WiFi connection with the STA.

In the above embodiment, the AP can use the latest WiFi protocol by default after the hotspot is turned on, and supports the hotspot function of the latest technical standard, which can ensure the high performance advantage. In the scenario where the STA cannot connect due to compatibility issues, the AP can automatically switch to The lower version of the WiFi protocol, or dynamically adjusting the WiFi protocol adopted by the hotspot according to the STA's protocol capabilities, can ensure the basic access function of the STA, solve the compatibility problem, and maximize the performance of the STA and the AP.

The WiFi connection method provided by the present application will be exemplarily described below with reference to specific examples.

Based on the introduction in the above embodiment, as an executable solution, when the STA fails to access the AP due to the compatibility problem, the STA may request to access the AP multiple times in a short period of time. In a WiFi protocol mode, each time a STA requests access, if the STA access authentication or association fails, add 1 to the number of access failures of the STA. When the threshold is set, the AP switches to the working mode using the second WiFi protocol, and then connects to the STA, and can use the second WiFi protocol to connect with other STAs that will be accessed later. At the same time, the AP can also notify the previous connection. The incoming STA switches to use the second WiFi protocol for communication. Subsequently, when the AP determines that all connected STAs support using the first WiFi protocol, or determines that there is no connected STA, the AP may switch back to the mode of using the first WiFi protocol.

The version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, and the second WiFi protocol is the latest version of the WiFi protocol supported and adopted by the STA.

Specifically, after the AP opens the hotspot, it can use the first WiFi protocol to work by default, and when the STA that does not support the first WiFi protocol accesses, it starts to monitor the access status information of the STA. Status statistics whether the STA is successfully connected. If it is determined that the STA fails to connect, add 1 to the number of access failures of the STA. If it is determined that the STA access is successful, the recorded number of access failures of the STA is cleared to zero. In order to re-record the number of access failures when the STA accesses next time. Each time the STA accesses, the AP records the number of times that the STA fails to access, and until the number of times reaches the failure threshold, the AP switches to the mode that uses the second WiFi protocol to work.

In this embodiment of the present application, as an optional implementation, when the AP switches to the mode that uses the second WiFi protocol to work, if there is an STA that has established a connection with the AP using the first WiFi mode, the AP can notify the connected The STA switches to use the first WiFi protocol to communicate with the AP. Further, when the STA switches to communicate with the AP in the first WiFi mode, if there is a compatibility problem such as one of the AP and the connected STA cannot receive or identify the message of the other party, the AP cuts off the communication connection with the connected STA. After the disassociation is realized, the STA uses the second WiFi protocol to access the AP again. As another optional implementation manner, when the AP switches to the mode that uses the second WiFi protocol to work, if there is a STA that has established a connection with the AP using the first WiFi mode, the AP can directly disconnect the STA with the connected STA. After the communication connection is disassociated, the STA uses the second WiFi protocol to access the AP again.

In this method, after the AP opens the hotspot, it supports the hotspot function using the first WiFi protocol by default. In the scenario where the STA device cannot be connected due to compatibility issues, the AP automatically switches the hotspot using the first WiFi protocol to the one using the second WiFi protocol. The WiFi hotspot can realize both the high performance of the WiFi hotspot using the first WiFi protocol and the basic access function of the STA using the second WiFi protocol, and solve the compatibility problem.

The specific implementation process of the above scheme can refer to the following example 1.

In the following example 1, the first WiFi protocol adopted by the AP is WiFi 6, and the latest WiFi protocol that the STA can support is WiFi 5 or WiFi 6 as an example to illustrate the WiFi connection method.

Example 1

Referring to FIG. 8 , a flow of a WiFi connection method provided by an embodiment of the present application may include:

S801: The AP turns on the WiFi hotspot and uses the WiFi 6 protocol to work.

S802: The AP determines whether the STA adopts the WiFi6 protocol, and if so, executes step S803, otherwise, executes step S804.

When the STA requests to access the AP, the AP determines whether the STA requesting access adopts the WiFi 6 protocol. Specifically, the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA can be obtained according to the three methods provided in the above embodiment to determine whether the STA adopts the WiFi 6 protocol. Here No longer.

S803: The AP establishes a connection with the STA by using the WiFi 6 protocol, and communicates with the STA by using the latest version of the WiFi protocol supported by the STA after the connection is established.

S804: The AP uses the WiFi 6 protocol to establish a connection with the STA.

Among them, when the AP determines that the STA does not use the WiFi 6 protocol, it can first use the WiFi 6 protocol to try to establish a connection with the STA. If the connection is established successfully, the AP can use the WiFi protocol that the STA can support to communicate with the STA. If the connection fails, then The AP can perform subsequent adjustment of the WiFi protocol.

S805: The AP determines whether the connection is successfully established with the STA, if yes, executes step S806, otherwise, executes step S807.

S806: The AP uses the latest version of the WiFi protocol supported by the STA to communicate with the STA.

S807: The AP adds 1 to the number of times that the AP fails to establish a connection with the STA.

S808: The AP determines whether the number of times of failure to establish a connection with the STA reaches a set threshold, and if so, executes step S809; otherwise, executes step S804.

S809: The AP switches to work using the WiFi 5 protocol, establishes a connection with the STA using the WiFi 5 protocol, and uses the WiFi 5 protocol to communicate with the STA after the connection is established.

Optionally, if the AP determines that the STA is the first STA to access the AP, after the AP switches to use the WiFi 5 protocol, the subsequent STA accesses use the WiFi 5 protocol. If the AP determines that the STA is not the first STA to access the AP, the AP notifies the STA that previously accessed the AP to switch to using the WiFi 5 protocol for communication.

As an optional implementation manner, the AP may send a WiFi protocol switching instruction to each STA that previously accessed the AP, to instruct these STAs to use signaling, data, etc. based on the WiFi 5 protocol to interact with the AP .

As another optional implementation manner, the AP may send a broadcast message to notify the STA that previously accessed the AP to switch to using the WiFi 5 protocol for communication. If the STA that receives the broadcast message uses WiFi 6 The protocol can be switched to the WiFi 5 protocol, so that the signaling, data, etc. based on the WiFi 5 protocol are used to interact with the AP. If the STA that receives the broadcast message adopts the WiFi 5 protocol, the broadcast message can be ignored.

After the STA that accesses the AP before the AP notification switches to use the WiFi 5 protocol for communication, if there is a compatibility problem when the STA after switching the WiFi protocol communicates with the AP, the AP cuts off the connection with the STA, and the STA From the WiFi protocol switching instruction or broadcast message from the AP, it can be determined that the WiFi protocol currently adopted by the AP is WiFi 5, and the STA uses the WiFi 5 protocol to re-send a probe request to the AP, thereby re-establishing a connection with the AP.

For the actual execution of the above steps, reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in the above embodiments, and repeated descriptions will not be repeated.

In the above embodiment, the AP adopts the maximum protocol capability, that is, the WiFi 6 protocol capability, when the AP opens the WiFi hotspot. When the STA access authentication and association fail, the number of STA connection failures is accumulated. When the number of times reaches the threshold, the back-off is to use WiFi 5. Hotspot status, so the AP can dynamically adjust the protocol capability according to the access success rate of the STA, thereby ensuring the basic access function of the STA.

Based on the introduction in the above embodiments, as a further executable solution, when the AP accesses the STA each time, if it is determined according to the protocol capability information of the STA that the STA supports the first WiFi protocol, the AP adopts the first WiFi protocol. Establish a connection with the STA, and after the connection is successfully established with the STA, use the first WiFi protocol to communicate with the STA; if it is determined according to the STA's protocol capability information that the STA does not support the first WiFi protocol, the AP First determine the latest WiFi protocol supported by the STA, that is, the second WiFi protocol, then use the second WiFi protocol to establish a connection with the STA, and after the connection is successfully established with the STA, use the second WiFi protocol to communicate with the STA. to communicate with the STA.

In this method, when the STA accessing the AP supports the first WiFi protocol, the AP can use the first WiFi protocol to connect and respond to the STA; when the STA accessing the AP does not support the first WiFi protocol, the AP can use the STA capable of The supported second WiFi protocol connects and responds to the STA, and can dynamically adjust the WiFi protocol adopted by the AP, so that the protocol capability of the AP to open a WiFi hotspot varies with the protocol capability of the STA. Therefore, each STA accessing the AP can It uses the latest protocol capabilities it supports to access the AP, which solves the compatibility problem and ensures that the performance of the AP and STA is not affected.

The specific implementation process of the above scheme can refer to the following example 2.

Example 2

Referring to Figure 9, in this example, after the AP turns on the WiFi hotspot, it works in the mode using the WiFi 6 protocol by default. When the STA device initiates scan access, the AP can extract the WiFi 6 compatibility based on the scan access information from the STA. The key influencing factors include the probe request described in the above embodiment, the reference field in the connection request, and the like. The AP can determine whether the STA supports the WiFi 6 protocol according to the extracted key factor of WiFi 6 compatibility. If it is determined that the STA does not support the WiFi 6 protocol, the AP can further use the access information from the STA (such as the probe request shown in the figure) Query the database to determine the maximum access capability of the STA, that is, the latest compatible WiFi protocol version when the STA can establish a connection with the AP. Then the AP can adjust the WiFi protocol used according to the maximum access capability supported by the STA, and then use the adjusted WiFi protocol to reply to the STA. Specifically, for STAs that have compatibility problems with WiFi 6 hotspots, the AP can use the WiFi 5 protocol to respond, and for STAs that are compatible with WiFi 6 hotspots without problems, the AP can use the WiFi 6 protocol to respond. Among them, the database can be queried through the local database or cloud data information, and the AP can also refresh the local or cloud database according to the STA's access status feedback.

Referring to FIG. 10 , a flow of a WiFi connection method provided by an embodiment of the present application may include:

S1001: The AP turns on the WiFi hotspot and uses the WiFi 6 protocol to work.

S1002: The AP determines whether the STA adopts the WiFi 6 protocol, and if so, executes step S1003, otherwise, executes step S1004.

When the STA requests to access the AP, the AP determines whether the STA requesting access adopts the WiFi 6 protocol according to the probe request from the STA. Specifically, the WiFi protocol adopted by the STA can be obtained according to the three methods provided in the above embodiment to determine whether the STA is used. The WiFi 6 protocol is used, which will not be repeated here.

S1003: The AP establishes a connection with the STA by using the WiFi 6 protocol, and communicates with the STA by using the latest version of the WiFi protocol supported by the STA after the connection is established.

S1004: The AP determines the protocol capability of the STA by querying the database.

The AP determines whether the STA is compatible with the first WiFi protocol by querying the database. For details, refer to the method in the above embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

S1005: The AP determines whether the STA supports access using the WiFi 6 protocol, and if so, executes step S1003, otherwise, executes step S1006.

S1006: The AP uses the WiFi 5 protocol to establish a connection with the STA, and uses the WiFi 5 protocol to communicate with the STA after the connection is established.

In the above embodiment, the AP adopts the maximum protocol capability, namely the WiFi 6 protocol capability, when enabling the WiFi hotspot. When the STA accesses, the AP can dynamically adjust the protocol capability adopted by the WiFi hotspot according to the STA's authentication access information and the association result, corresponding to the The STAs interact with each other, which ensures the best performance of STA access and avoids the compatibility problem that may exist in the STA access process.

Based on the above embodiments and the same concept, an embodiment of the present application further provides an apparatus. As shown in FIG. 11 , the apparatus 1100 may include: a transceiver unit 1101 and a processing unit 1102;

Wherein, the transceiver unit 1101 is configured to receive a probe request from the first site STA in a state where the WiFi hotspot is enabled by using the first WiFi protocol, and the probe request is used to request to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; the processing The unit 1102 is configured to determine the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA; according to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol, determine whether the first STA supports the use of the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol. The AP establishes a WiFi connection; if it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, then the first WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA; If the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, the second WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA.

In a possible design, after using the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to: when receiving the probe request sent by the second STA, use the The second WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the second STA, where the second STA is a STA that requests to establish a WiFi connection with the AP after the first STA.

In a possible design, after using the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to: notify a third STA to use the second WiFi protocol to perform a connection with the AP communication, wherein the third STA is a STA that has established a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol before the first STA; or disconnects the WiFi connection with the third STA, and uses the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; The second WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the third STA.

In a possible design, the probe request carries indication information for indicating the second WiFi protocol; when the processing unit 1102 determines the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA, it is specifically used for: Obtain the indication information from the probe request; and determine the second WiFi protocol indicated by the indication information.

In a possible design, when the processing unit 1102 determines the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA, the processing unit 1102 is specifically configured to: determine a reference field included in the packet carrying the probe request, the reference field It is used to indicate whether the first STA supports the WiFi protocol of the set version; if the value of the reference field is the first value, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is the WiFi protocol of the set version; If the value of the reference field is the second value, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol that is one version lower than the set version.

In a possible design, the processing unit 1102 determines, according to the first WiFi protocol and/or the second WiFi protocol, whether the first STA supports establishing with the AP using the first WiFi protocol During WiFi connection, it is specifically used to: if the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol have the same version, determine that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; or If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; or if the first WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; The version of the WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, and at least one connection process is performed. If the number of failed WiFi connections with the first STA is less than the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA supports the use of the first STA. The first WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; if the number of failures to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA exceeds the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA does not support the use of the first WiFi protocol to communicate with the AP. The AP establishes a WiFi connection; wherein, each connection process includes the following steps: using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA; or if the device identifier of the first STA is stored in the database, determining The first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; otherwise, it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; wherein, the The database is used to store the device identifier of the target STA, where the target STA is a STA that does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP by using the first WiFi protocol.

In a possible design, after using the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA, the processing unit 1102 is further configured to: store the device identifier of the first STA in the database middle.

In a possible design, the processing unit 1102 is also used for:

As an implementation manner, the transceiving unit 1101 may be an interface circuit of the apparatus 1100, and is used for receiving data from other apparatuses, for example, receiving a message or data from a STA. When the device 1100 is implemented in the form of a chip, the transceiver unit 1101 may be an interface circuit used by the chip to receive data from or send data to other chips or devices.

The processing unit 1102 may be a processor or a controller, such as a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), general-purpose processor, digital signal processing (digital signal processing, DSP), application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit) circuits, ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It may implement or execute the various exemplary logical blocks, modules, etc. described in connection with this disclosure. The processor may also be a combination that implements computing functions, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, and the like.

The division of units in the embodiments of the present application is schematic, and is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit. In the device, it can also exist physically alone, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware, or may be implemented in the form of software functional units.

Only one or more of the various elements in FIG. 11 may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, or a combination thereof. The software or firmware includes, but is not limited to, computer program instructions or code, and can be executed by a hardware processor. The hardware includes, but is not limited to, various types of integrated circuits, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

Based on the above embodiments and the same concept, the embodiments of the present application further provide an apparatus for implementing the WiFi connection method provided by the embodiments of the present application. As shown in FIG. 12 , the apparatus 1200 may be an AP, or may be a chip or a chip system in the AP.

In some embodiments of the present application, the apparatus 1200 may also be an electronic device capable of executing the WiFi connection method provided by the present application, or a structure such as a chip or an integrated circuit.

Exemplarily, the apparatus 1200 includes a transceiver 1201 , a memory 1202 and at least one processor 1203 . Wherein, the processor 1203 is coupled with the transceiver 1201, and the coupling in this embodiment of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units, or modules, which may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms, for Information exchange between devices, units or modules.

Specifically, the transceiver 1201 can be a circuit, a bus, a communication interface, or any other module that can be used for information interaction, and can be used to receive or send information.

Optionally, the memory 1202 is coupled to the transceiver 1201 and the processor 1203 for storing program instructions.

The processor 1203 is configured to invoke the program instructions stored in the memory 1202, so that the apparatus 1200 executes the steps performed by the AP in the WiFi connection method provided in the embodiments of the present application, so as to realize the establishment of a WiFi connection between the AP and the STA requesting access.

The transceiver 1201 is used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals, and is coupled to the receiver and the transmitter of the device 1200 . The transceiver 1201 communicates with the communication network and other communication devices through radio frequency signals, such as Ethernet (Ethernet), Radio Access Technology (RAN), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) and the like. In a specific implementation, the communication protocol supported by the transceiver 1201 includes at least a WiFi protocol, and may also include: 2G/3G, Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE), 5G New Radio (New Radio, NR) and the like.

In specific implementations, the memory 1202 may include high-speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state storage devices. The memory 1202 may store an operating system (hereinafter referred to as a system), such as an embedded operating system such as ANDROID, IOS, WINDOWS, or LINUX. The memory 1202 may be used to store the implementation programs of the embodiments of the present application. The memory 1202 may also store a network communication program that can be used to communicate with one or more additional devices, one or more user devices, and one or more network devices.

The processor 1203 may be a general-purpose central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), a microprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), or one or more programs for controlling the solution of the present application. implemented integrated circuits.

In some embodiments of the present application, the transceiver 1201, the memory 1202, and the processor 1203 may be connected to each other through a communication line 1204; the communication line 1204 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI for short) bus or an extension Industry standard structure (Extended Industry Standard Architecture, referred to as EISA) bus and so on. The communication line 1204 can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of representation, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 12, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

It should be noted that FIG. 12 is only an implementation manner of the embodiment of the present application. In practical applications, the apparatus 1200 may further include more or less components, which is not limited here.

The methods provided in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present invention are generated. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, network equipment, user equipment, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be downloaded from a website site, computer, server or data center Transmission to another website site, computer, server or data center by means of wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line, DSL for short) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) A computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The available media can be magnetic media (eg, floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tape), optical media (eg, digital video disc (DVD) for short), or semiconductor media (eg, SSD), and the like.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A wireless fidelity WiFi connection method, applied to an access point AP, is characterized in that, comprising:

In the state of using the first WiFi protocol to open the WiFi hotspot, receiving a probe request from the first site STA, where the probe request is used to request to establish a WiFi connection with the AP;

determining the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA;

According to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol, determine whether the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol;

If it is determined that the first STA supports using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP, the first WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA; if it is determined that the first STA does not support Using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP, then using the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA.
The method according to claim 1, wherein after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the method further comprises:

When receiving the probe request sent by the second STA, use the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the second STA, where the second STA requests to establish with the AP after the first STA WiFi connected STA.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the method further comprises:

Notifying a third STA to use the second WiFi protocol to communicate with the AP, where the third STA is a STA that has established a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol before the first STA; or

Disconnecting the WiFi connection with the third STA, and establishing a WiFi connection with the third STA using the second WiFi protocol.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the probe request carries indication information for indicating the second WiFi protocol; determining the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA, include:

obtain the indication information from the probe request;

The second WiFi protocol indicated by the indication information is determined.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first WiFi protocol is a fifth-generation WiFi protocol or a sixth-generation WiFi protocol, and the second WiFi protocol is a fifth-generation WiFi protocol or a fifth-generation WiFi protocol. Six generations of WiFi protocols.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein determining the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA comprises:

determining a reference field included in the message carrying the probe request, where the reference field is used to indicate whether the first STA supports the WiFi protocol of the set version;

If the value of the reference field is the first value, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is the WiFi protocol of the set version; if the value of the reference field is the second value, the second WiFi protocol is determined to be the second value. The WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol that is one version lower than the set version.
The method according to claim 6, wherein the reference field includes at least one of the following:

Target wake-up time requester support field; target wake-up time responder support field; broadcast target wake-up time field; buffer status report support field; orthogonal frequency division multiple access random access support field; supported channel bandwidth setting field; Missing Preamble Receive Field; Low Density Parity Check Code Field in Payload; Full Bandwidth Uplink Multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output Field; Partial Bandwidth Uplink Multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output Field; Dual Carrier Modulation Technology Maximum Constellation Group Receive field; dual-carrier modulation technology maximum constellation group transmission field; multi-user beamformer field.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein, according to the first WiFi protocol and/or the second WiFi protocol, it is determined whether the first STA supports the use of the first WiFi protocol and the The AP establishes a WiFi connection, including:

If the versions of the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol are the same, determine that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; or

If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; or

If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, a connection process is performed at least once, and if the number of failures to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA is less than a set threshold, determine the first STA The STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; if the number of failures in establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA exceeds the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first STA. A WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; wherein, each connection process includes the following steps: establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the first WiFi protocol; or

If the device identifier of the first STA is stored in the database, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; otherwise, it is determined that the first STA supports using the first WiFi protocol. The first WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; wherein, the database is used to store the device identification of the target STA, and the target STA is a STA that does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol.
The method according to claim 8, wherein after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the method further comprises:

The device identification of the first STA is stored in the database.
The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the device identification of the first STA is a medium access control MAC address of the first STA.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the method further comprises:

After establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA by using the first WiFi protocol, communicate with the first STA by using the first WiFi protocol or the second WiFi protocol;

After establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA by using the second WiFi protocol, communicate with the first STA by using the second WiFi protocol.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the first WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol of the highest version supported and adopted by the AP, and the second WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol supported and adopted by the first STA The highest version of the WiFi protocol.
A device, characterized in that it includes:

a transceiver unit, configured to receive a probe request from the first site STA in a state where the WiFi hotspot is enabled by using the first WiFi protocol, where the probe request is used to request to establish a WiFi connection with the AP;

a processing unit, configured to determine the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA; according to the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol, determine whether the first STA supports the use of the first WiFi protocol and the The AP establishes a WiFi connection; if it is determined that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, then the first WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA; If the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol, the second WiFi protocol is used to establish a WiFi connection with the first STA.
The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the processing unit is further configured to:

When receiving the probe request sent by the second STA, use the second WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the second STA, where the second STA requests to establish with the AP after the first STA WiFi connected STA.
The apparatus according to claim 13 or 14, wherein after establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the processing unit is further configured to:

Notifying a third STA to use the second WiFi protocol to communicate with the AP, where the third STA is a STA that has established a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol before the first STA; or

Disconnecting the WiFi connection with the third STA, and establishing a WiFi connection with the third STA using the second WiFi protocol.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the probe request carries indication information for indicating the second WiFi protocol; the processing unit determines the first STA adopted by the first STA. When the two WiFi protocols are used, they are specifically used for:

obtain the indication information from the probe request;

The second WiFi protocol indicated by the indication information is determined.
The device according to any one of claims 13 to 16, wherein the first WiFi protocol is a fifth-generation WiFi protocol or a sixth-generation WiFi protocol, and the second WiFi protocol is a fifth-generation WiFi protocol or a fifth-generation WiFi protocol Six generations of WiFi protocols.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 17, wherein when the processing unit determines the second WiFi protocol adopted by the first STA, the processing unit is specifically configured to:

determining a reference field included in the message carrying the probe request, where the reference field is used to indicate whether the first STA supports the WiFi protocol of the set version;

If the value of the reference field is the first value, it is determined that the second WiFi protocol is the WiFi protocol of the set version; if the value of the reference field is the second value, the second WiFi protocol is determined to be the second value. The WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol that is one version lower than the set version.
The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the reference field includes at least one of the following:

Target wake-up time requester support field; target wake-up time responder support field; broadcast target wake-up time field; buffer status report support field; orthogonal frequency division multiple access random access support field; supported channel bandwidth setting field; Missing Preamble Receive Field; Low Density Parity Check Code Field in Payload; Full Bandwidth Uplink Multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output Field; Partial Bandwidth Uplink Multiuser Multiple Input Multiple Output Field; Dual Carrier Modulation Technology Maximum Constellation Group Receive field; dual-carrier modulation technology maximum constellation group transmission field; multi-user beamformer field.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 19, wherein the processing unit determines whether the first STA supports using the first WiFi protocol and/or the second WiFi protocol according to the first WiFi protocol and/or the second WiFi protocol. When a WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP, it is specifically used for:

If the versions of the first WiFi protocol and the second WiFi protocol are the same, determine that the first STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; or

If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, it is determined that the first STA does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; or

If the version of the first WiFi protocol is higher than the version of the second WiFi protocol, perform at least one connection process, and if the number of failed WiFi connections with the first STA is less than a set threshold, determine that the first The STA supports establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol; if the number of failures in establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA exceeds the set threshold, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first STA. A WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; wherein, each connection process includes the following steps: establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA using the first WiFi protocol; or

If the device identifier of the first STA is stored in the database, it is determined that the first STA does not support using the first WiFi protocol to establish a WiFi connection with the AP; otherwise, it is determined that the first STA supports using the first WiFi protocol. The first WiFi protocol establishes a WiFi connection with the AP; wherein, the database is used to store the device identification of the target STA, and the target STA is a STA that does not support establishing a WiFi connection with the AP using the first WiFi protocol.
The apparatus according to claim 20, wherein after the processing unit establishes a WiFi connection with the first STA using the second WiFi protocol, the processing unit is further configured to:

The device identification of the first STA is stored in the database.
The apparatus according to claim 20 or 21, wherein the device identification of the first STA is a medium access control MAC address of the first STA.
The device according to any one of claims 13 to 22, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

After establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA by using the first WiFi protocol, communicate with the first STA by using the first WiFi protocol or the second WiFi protocol;

After establishing a WiFi connection with the first STA by using the second WiFi protocol, communicate with the first STA by using the second WiFi protocol.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 23, wherein the first WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol of the highest version supported and adopted by the AP, and the second WiFi protocol is a WiFi protocol supported and adopted by the first STA The highest version of the WiFi protocol.
An apparatus, characterized in that, comprises a transceiver, a memory and a processor;

the transceiver for receiving signals from devices other than the device and transmitting to the processor or transmitting signals from the processor to devices other than the device;

the memory is used to store programs;

The processor is configured to execute the program stored in the memory to implement the method according to any one of claims 1-12.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program runs on an apparatus, the apparatus causes the apparatus to execute any one of claims 1 to 12 the method described.
A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product includes a computer program or instruction, which when the computer program or instruction is run on an apparatus, causes the apparatus to perform the method described in any one of claims 1 to 12. method described.