US 8,510,442 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for dormant mode support with paging

AssigneeNtt Docomo, Inc.

InventorsDaichi Funato, Fujio Watanabe, Toshio Miki

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Abstract

Apparatuses and methods are disclosed herein for implementing dormant mode with paging in a WLAN. Power savings in the computing device and reduction in traffic across the network are achieved by requiring a computing device to inform the WLAN of its location only when it crosses a paging area boundary or is to receive IP traffic. Dormant mode with paging is implemented in a protocol that supports dormant functionality and paging functionality but does not itself provide methods or standards for implementing such functionality, such as the IEEE 802.11. The methods and apparatuses disclosed herein provide the methods needed to implement dormant mode with paging in such a protocol. Generally, the methods and apparatuses for implementing dormant mode with paging basically include (1) establishing paging areas; (2) communicating access group information to a computing device; and (3) locating a computing device.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A method for channel allocation for a WLAN, wherein the WLAN comprises a plurality of access points that are grouped into a plurality of access point group with at least one access point group having more than one access point, the method comprising:

assigning a common dedicated paging channel to all access points in a same access point group, with each access point groups assigned a different common dedicated paging channel than the other access point groups in the WLAN,
wherein the paging channel enables paging of a computing device that is capable of entering and exiting a dormant mode;
and
associating a new access point group with the computing device when the computing device crosses a boundary between paging areas of the new access point group and a previous access point group,
wherein the computing device searches for a new paging channel only when the computing device crosses the boundary between the paging areas of the new access point group and the previous access point group;
wherein each of the at least one access point groups has a root access point to perform assignment of the common dedicated paging channel in each access point group.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/807,025Filed 24 May 2007 · division
Priority: 28 Jan 2002
Published: US 2007/0233863 A14 Oct 2007
Granted: 13 Aug 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification13 codes

H04W 68/00
User notification
H04W 48/20
Access restriction ; Network selection; Access point selection: selecting an access point
H04W 48/16
Access restriction ; Network selection; Access point selection: discovering, processing access restriction or access information
H04W 52/0216
Managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is leader and terminal is follower: using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic…

Family

Application60/352,423Us provisional application · filed 28 Jan 2002
Application10/264,807Parent of this division · filed 4 Oct 2002
US 2007/0233863 A1Pre-grant publication · published 4 Oct 2007
US 2003/0145092 A1Published application
US 7,689,225 B2Related patent
US 8,510,442 B2This patent

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