US 2019/0058993 A1 · WLAN AUTHENTICATION FOR LWA CONNECTION WITH LEGACY WI-FI DEPLOYMENT

Abstract

System and method of WLAN authentication enabling a user equipment (UE) to automatically and autonomously detect an authentication protocol to gain access to a specified wireless local area network (WLAN) and thereby use Long-Term Evolution (LTE)-WLAN Aggregation (LWA) for data transmission. During LWA activation, the UE receives an instruction from an LTE control station to connect to a specific WLAN access point (AP), and in response starts to perform a set of authentication processes configured according to different authentication protocols until one that results in successful authentication. In this manner, the UE can determine an authentication protocol used by a WLAN AP even when the LTE control station is incapable of providing adequate information for purposes of WI-FI authentication.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A method of wireless communication, said method comprising:

at a wireless communication device, receiving a message transmitted from a Radio Access Network (RAN) node that is controlled by a cellular network, wherein said message comprises an instruction for said wireless communication device to access a first identified wireless local area network (WLAN);
responsive to said instruction, sequentially executing a set of authentication processes for accessing said first identified WLAN until successful authentication results, wherein each authentication process of said set of authentication processes corresponds to a different authentication protocol;
and
following said successful authentication, transmitting or receiving a data stream by aggregating communication channels of said first identified WLAN and said cellular network simultaneously.

1 more element

A wireless communication device comprising

a memory;
network circuits configured to be coupled to a cellular network and a wireless local area network (WLAN);
a processor coupled to said memory and said network circuits, wherein said memory stores instructions that, when executed by said processor, cause said wireless communication device to perform a method of communication comprising:
receiving a message transmitted from a Radio Access Network (RAN) node that is controlled by said cellular network, wherein said message comprises an instruction for said wireless communication device to access a first identified wireless local area network (WLAN);
responsive to said instruction, sequentially executing a set of authentication processes for accessing said first identified WLAN until successful authentication results, wherein each said set of authentication processes corresponds to a different authentication protocol;
and
following said successful authentication, transmitting or receiving a data stream by using communication channels of said first identified WLAN and said cellular network simultaneously.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Wlan authentication for lwa connection with legacy wi-fi deployment

Life of this patent

Wlan authentication for lwa connection with legacy wi-fi deployment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21