Patent ID: 6580704
Filing Date: 2003-06-17
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
In access point (AP) controlled wireless local area network (WLAN) systems, a method for direct mode (DM) communication between two mobile terminals, comprising:(a) establishing that an initiating, first mobile terminal and a remote, second mobile terminal are associated to a same AP, including (i) sending by the initiating, first mobile terminal a connection request to its AP with corresponding higher layer protocol address of the remote, second mobile terminal, and (ii) look-up, by the AP, of medium access control identifier (MAC-Id) of the remote, second mobile terminal in a database of the AP, wherein the MAC-Id of the second mobile terminal represents a unique address of that terminal within a service area of that AP, and wherein said database contains a mapping table including the MAC-Ids and corresponding higher layer protocol addresses of all mobile terminals within the service area of that AP; (b) establishing that the remote, second mobile terminal supports a DM operation feature as does the initiating, first mobile terminal; (c) sending, by the AP, address identifiers of the first and second mobile terminals to the second and first mobile terminals, respectively, including granting of a channel resource slot of a frame to each of the two mobile terminals to initiate received signal strength (RSS) measurements between the two mobile terminals; (d) sending RSS measurements performed by the first and second mobile terminals to the AP of mobile terminal identifier messages sent to them by the second and first mobile terminals, respectively; and (e) deciding on whether to continue DM communication based on the results of the RSS measurements, wherein DM communication between the first and second mobile terminal continues with exchange of information to conclusion when a mobile terminal identifier message is satisfactorily received by each mobile terminal and when a mobile terminal identifier message is not satisfactorily received, the DM communication setup is terminated and the AP can direct a communication linkup in which the exchange of information also flows to the AP.