US 11,696,350 B2Granted

Power efficient tunneled direct link setup apparatus, systems and methods

AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated

InventorsLeonardo William Estevez, Ariton Xhafa, Ramanuja Vedantham, Yanjun Sun

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An emulated wireless access point (AP) at a first PMC device (PMC1) establishes a first tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) session between a first station module (STA1) incorporated into the PMC1 and a second station module (STA2) incorporated into a second PMC device (PMC2). Following establishment of the TDLS session, the wireless AP is allowed to sleep; and most infrastructure management duties are handled by the STA1 during the session. PMC device battery charge may be conserved as a result. The emulated wireless AP may also establish a second TDLS link to a third station module (STA3) incorporated into a third PMC device (PMC3). The STA1 may then bridge data traffic flow between the STA2 and the STA3. Such bridging operation may enable communication between two PMC devices otherwise unable to decode data received from the other.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A device comprising:

a station module that includes:
a first processor;
and
a first non-transitory memory coupled to the first processor that stores a first set of executable instructions;
and
an access point module that includes:
a second processor coupled to the first processor;
and
a second non-transitory memory coupled to the second processor that stores a second set of executable instructions configured to cause the second processor to:
receive a session request for a wireless communication session with a second device;
based on the session request, provide a wake-up message to the first processor;
establish the wireless communication session with the second device;
and
enter a sleep mode after the wireless communication session is established, wherein the first set of executable instructions includes instructions configured to cause the first processor to provide a network management frame to the second device via the wireless communication session while the second processor is in the sleep mode.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 17/467,526Filed 7 Sep 2021 · continuation
Priority: 2 Sep 2010
Published: US 2021/0400742 A123 Dec 2021
Granted: 4 Jul 2023
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

H04W 76/12
Connection setup: setup of transport tunnels
H04W 76/14
Connection setup: direct-mode setup
H04W 84/12
Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks: wLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
H04W 88/08
Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices: access point devices

Family

Application61/379,635Us provisional application · filed 2 Sep 2010
Application13/109,974Parent of this division · filed 17 May 2011
Application14/171,993Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 4 Feb 2014
US 8,675,529 B2Parent of this division · filed 18 Mar 2014
Application15/289,837Parent of this continuation · filed 10 Oct 2016
Application16/897,107Parent of this continuation · filed 9 Jun 2020
US 10,721,782 B2Parent of this continuation · filed 21 Jul 2020
US 2021/0400742 A1Pre-grant publication · published 23 Dec 2021
US 11,116,020 B2Parent of this continuation
Application15/289,837Parent of this continuation-in-part
Application14/171,993Parent of this division
US 2012/0127903 A1Published application
US 2014/0146808 A1Published application
US 2017/0041970 A1Published application
US 2020/0305208 A1Published application
US 11,696,350 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.