Patent ID: 11863978
Assignee: QUALCOMM INCORPORATED
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 16:
17. An access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) comprising:
at least one modem;
at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one modem; and
at least one memory communicatively coupled with the at least one processor, wherein the at least one modem, the at least one processor and the at least one memory are configured to:
receive, from a first station of a plurality of stations of a non-AP MLD, an initial association request to initiate an association between the non-AP MLD and the AP MLD;
establish a secret key shared with the non-AP MLD based on the initial association request;
transmit, by the AP MLD to the first station, a response to the initial association request indicating establishment of the secret key;
generate a first pairwise master key (PMK) based on the secret key;
receive, from a second station of the plurality of stations of the non-AP MLD through a first target AP in the AP MLD, a first reassociation request after the response to the initial association request is transmitted;
generate a second PMK based on the first PMK, a medium access control service access point (MAC-SAP) address that uniquely identifies the non-AP MLD in a wireless local area network (WLAN), and a medium access control (MAC) address of the first target AP;
transmit, by the AP MLD to the second station, a response to the first reassociation request that is based on the second PMK; and
associate with the second station based on the second PMK.