Wireless LAN terminal, wireless LAN base station, wireless communication method, and roaming method
AssigneeNEC Infrontia Corporation
InventorsHideo Kitami, Yoshikazu Kobayashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention makes it possible to expand wireless LAN areas without installing a plurality of LAN base stations or wireless LAN repeaters. A wireless LAN terminal has not only a wireless LAN terminal function to communicate with another wireless LAN base station, but also a wireless LAN base station function to communicates with a wireless LAN terminal. The wireless LAN terminal encapsulates a wireless LAN signal sent from another wireless LAN terminal and sends the encapsulated signal to the wireless LAN base station. The wireless LAN base station encapsulates a wireless LAN signal destined for a wireless LAN terminal and sends the encapsulated signal to another wireless LAN terminal.
Claims23
A wireless LAN terminal comprising:
- a reception means for receiving a wireless LAN signal from another wireless LAN terminal;
- an encapsulation means for encapsulating the wireless LAN signal in OSI layer 2 by providing the wireless LAN signal with a header having its own terminal's MAC address as an originating MAC address and a wireless LAN base station's MAC address as a destination MAC address;
- and
- a transmission means for transmitting the encapsulated wireless LAN signal to the wireless LAN base station.
A wireless LAN base station comprising:
- an encapsulation means for encapsulating a wireless LAN signal destined for a first wireless LAN terminal in OSI layer 2 by providing the wireless LAN signal with a header having its own base station's MAC address as an originating MAC address and a second wireless LAN terminal's MAC address as a destination MAC address;
- and
- a transmission means for transmitting the encapsulated wireless LAN signal to the second wireless LAN terminal.
A wireless LAN terminal comprising:
- a reception means for receiving a wireless LAN signal which is destined for another wireless LAN terminal and is encapsulated in OSI layer 2 by being provided with a header having a wireless LAN base station's MAC address as an originating MAC address and own terminal's MAC address as a destination address;
- an extraction means for extracting the wireless LAN signal from the encapsulated wireless LAN signal;
- and
- a transmission means for transmitting the extracted wireless LAN signal to said another wireless LAN terminal.
A wireless LAN terminal comprising:
- a reception means for receiving a wireless LAN signal which is transmitted from a first wireless LAN terminal and is encapsulated in OSI layer 2 by being provided with a header having a second wireless LAN terminal's MAC address as an originating MAC address and own base station's MAC address as a destination address;
- and
- an extraction means for extracting the wireless LAN signal from the encapsulated wireless LAN signal.
A wireless LAN terminal comprising:
- a first reception means for receiving a wireless LAN signal from another wireless LAN terminal;
- an encapsulation means for encapsulating the wireless LAN signal in OSI layer 2 by providing the wireless LAN signal with a header having its own terminal's MAC address as an originating MAC address and a wireless LAN base station's MAC address as a destination MAC address;
- a first transmission means for transmitting the encapsulated wireless LAN signal to the wireless LAN base station;
- a second reception means for receiving a wireless LAN signal which is destined for said another wireless LAN terminal and is encapsulated in OSI layer 2 by being provided with a header having the wireless LAN base station's MAC address as an originating MAC address and own terminal's MAC address as a destination address;
- an extraction means for extracting the wireless LAN signal from the encapsulated wireless LAN signal received by the second reception means;
- and
- a second transmission means for transmitting the extracted wireless LAN signal to said another wireless LAN terminal.
A wireless LAN terminal which communicates with a wireless LAN base station directly or via another wireless LAN terminal, comprising:
- an inquiry means for sending a hierarchy inquiry to said another wireless LAN terminal and, if possible, to the wireless LAN base station;
- and
- a roaming means for roaming from said another wireless LAN terminal to the wireless LAN base station when it is detected that a hierarchy indicated by a hierarchy response from the wireless LAN base station to the hierarchy inquiry is lower than a hierarchy indicated by a hierarchy response from said another wireless LAN terminal to the hierarchy inquiry.
A wireless communication method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a wireless LAN signal from another wireless LAN terminal;
- encapsulating the wireless LAN signal in OSI layer 2 by providing the wireless LAN signal with a header having its own wireless LAN terminal's MAC address as an originating MAC address and a wireless LAN base station's MAC address as a destination MAC address;
- and
- transmitting the encapsulated wireless LAN signal to the wireless LAN base station.
A wireless communication method comprising the steps of:
- encapsulating a wireless LAN signal destined for a first wireless LAN terminal in OSI layer 2 by providing the wireless LAN signal with a header having its own wireless LAN base station's MAC address as an originating MAC address and a second wireless LAN terminal's MAC address as a destination MAC address;
- and
- transmitting the encapsulated wireless LAN signal to the second wireless LAN terminal.
A wireless communication method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a wireless LAN signal which is destined for another wireless LAN terminal and is encapsulated in OSI layer 2 by being provided with a header having a wireless LAN base station's MAC address as an originating MAC address and own terminal's MAC address as a destination address;
- extracting the wireless LAN signal from the encapsulated wireless LAN signal;
- and
- transmitting the extracted wireless LAN signal to said another wireless LAN terminal.
A wireless communication method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a wireless LAN signal which is transmitted from a first wireless LAN terminal and is encapsulated in OSI layer 2 by being provided with a header having a second wireless LAN terminal's MAC address as an originating MAC address and own wireless LAN base station's MAC address as a destination address;
- and
- extracting the wireless LAN signal from the encapsulated wireless LAN signal.
A roaming method for a wireless LAN terminal to communicate with a wireless LAN base station directly or via another wireless LAN terminal, comprising the steps of:
- making inquiries by sending a hierarchy inquiry to said another wireless LAN terminal and, if possible, to the wireless LAN base station;
- and
- roaming from said another wireless LAN terminal to the wireless LAN base station when it is detected that a hierarchy indicated by a hierarchy response from the wireless LAN base station to the hierarchy inquiry is lower than a hierarchy indicated by a hierarchy response from said another wireless LAN terminal to the hierarchy inquiry.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.