Peer discovery in neighbor awareness networking (NAN) aided data link networks

A first station, comprising:

• means for sending a service discovery message over a first neighborhood awareness network (NAN) channel of a NAN network to discover whether one or more stations support an application of interest to the first station, wherein the service discovery message includes information that identifies the application of interest to the first station;
• means for receiving, in response to the service discovery message, a service response message over the first NAN channel from a second station that supports the application of interest to the first station, wherein the service response message includes information that identifies a NAN data link network that supports the application of interest to the first station;
• means for discovering that the second station supports the application of interest to the first station based on the service response message;
• and
• means for exchanging data related to the application of interest over a second NAN channel of the NAN data link network at a plurality of periodic windows with the second station, wherein synchronization of stations participating in the NAN data link network is unsupported by the second NAN channel, and the second NAN channel relies on the first NAN channel to provide the synchronization of all of the stations participating in the NAN data link network.

A first station, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
• send a service discovery message over a first neighborhood awareness network (NAN) channel of a NAN network to discover whether one or more stations support an application of interest to the first station, wherein the service discovery message includes information that identifies the application of interest to the first station;
• receive, in response to the service discovery message, a service response message over the first NAN channel from a second station that supports the application of interest to the first station, wherein the service response message includes information that identifies a NAN data link network that supports the application of interest to the first station;
• discover that the second station supports the application of interest to the first station based on the service response message;
• and
• exchange data related to the application of interest over a second NAN channel of the NAN data link network at a plurality of periodic windows with the second station, wherein synchronization of stations participating in the NAN data link network is unsupported by the second NAN channel, and the second NAN channel relies on the first NAN channel to provide the synchronization of all of the stations participating in the NAN data link network.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having code stored thereon that, when executed, causes at least one processor of a first station to:

• send a service discovery message over a first neighborhood awareness network (NAN) channel of a NAN network to discover whether one or more stations support an application of interest to the first station, wherein the service discovery message includes information that identifies the application of interest to the first station;
• receive, in response to the service discovery message, a service response message over the first NAN channel from a second station that supports the application of interest to the first station, wherein the service response message includes information that identifies a NAN data link network that supports the application of interest to the first station;
• discover that the second station supports the application of interest to the first station based on the service response message;
• and
• exchange data related to the application of interest over a second NAN channel of the NAN data link network at a plurality of periodic windows with the second station, wherein synchronization of stations participating in the NAN data link network is unsupported by the second NAN channel, and the second NAN channel relies on the first NAN channel to provide the synchronization of all of the stations participating in the NAN data link network.