Efficient service advertisement and discovery in multiple wireless networks

An apparatus for advertising a service in a peer-to-peer networking environment, the apparatus comprising:

• a first advertisement unit to broadcast a first advertisement in a first wireless network via a first wireless interface, the first advertisement comprising:
• one or more service identifiers (IDs) identifying one or more services being advertised;
• and
• an availability schedule of a local device in the first wireless network, thereby enabling a second device to send a response to the first advertisement during an availability window of the availability schedule;
• a second advertisement unit to broadcast a second advertisement in a second wireless network via a second wireless interface;
• and
• a service arbiter coupled to the first and second advertisement units and configured to:
• disable the broadcast of the second advertisement during the availability window, wherein the first advertisement unit is configured to concurrently scan, by sharing an antenna of the local device, for the response to the first advertisement in the first wireless network and the response to the second advertisement in the second wireless network;
• re-enable the broadcast of the second advertisement after the availability window, wherein the broadcast of the second advertisement was temporarily disabled during the availability window;
• wherein the first and the second advertisements are scheduled according to a first and second advertisement schedules, such that the first and the second advertisements are transmitted in an interleaved manner without substantial interference;
• and
• wherein the availability schedule comprises the availability window's start time and the availability window's length.

A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method for advertising a service in a peer-to-peer networking environment, the method comprising:

• broadcasting, by a local device, a first advertisement in a first wireless network via a first wireless interface, the first advertisement comprising:
• one or more service identifiers (IDs) identifying one or more services being advertised;
• and
• an availability schedule of the local device in the first wireless network, thereby enabling a second device to send a response to the first advertisement during an availability window of the availability schedule;
• broadcasting, by the local device, a second advertisement in a second wireless network via a second wireless interface;
• during the availability window of the availability schedule:
• disabling the broadcast of the second advertisement;
• and
• concurrently scanning, by sharing an antenna of the local device, for the response to the first advertisement in the first wireless network and the response to the second advertisement in the second wireless network;
• re-enabling the broadcast of the second advertisement after the availability window, wherein the broadcast of the second advertisement was temporarily disabled during the availability window;
• wherein the first and the second advertisements are scheduled according to a first and second advertisement schedules, such that the first and the second advertisements are transmitted in an interleaved manner without substantial interference;
• wherein the availability schedule comprises the availability window's start time and the availability window's length.