Granted Patent B2

US 9,426,717 · App. 14/814,838 · Granted Aug 23, 2016

Abstract

Claims (34)

1. A communication device, comprising:

at least one transceiver to support communications with at least one additional communication device; and

a processor, coupled to the at least one transceiver, to:

establish a filter and classification agreement between the communication device and the at least one additional communication device via the communications, the filter and classification agreement indicating MAC frames of at least one of a plurality of frame types to be filtered out and not transmitted to the at least one additional communication device and further that a type classifier (TCLAS) element of a traffic filtering service request element of a MAC frame header contains classification data;

classify a MAC frame in accordance with the filter and classification agreement as one of the plurality of frame types based on the classification data indicated by the TCLAS element and further based on at least a portion of a frame body portion of the MAC frame containing a data payload; and

selectively filter out and not transmit the MAC frame to the at least one additional communication device, based on the one of the plurality of frame types in accordance with the filter and classification agreement between the communication device and the at least one additional communication device.

2. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the MAC frame is received via the at least one transceiver.

3. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the MAC frame is received via a host interface or received from a baseband processor.

4. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the MAC frame is formatted in accordance with an 802.11 protocol.

5. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the MAC frame is addressed to the at least one additional communication device.

6. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the communication device is a wireless station (STA).

7. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one additional communication device is a wireless station (STA).

8. A method comprising:

establishing a filter and classification agreement between a communication device and at least one additional communication device via at least one transceiver, the filter and classification agreement indicating MAC frames of at least one of a plurality of frame types to be filtered out and not transmitted to the at least one additional communication device and further that a type classifier (TCLAS) element of a traffic filtering service request element of a MAC frame header contains classification data;

classifying, via a processor of the communication device, a MAC frame in accordance with the filter and classification agreement as one of the plurality of frame types based on the classification data indicated by the TCLAS element and further based on at least a portion of a frame body portion of the MAC frame containing a data payload; and

selectively filtering, via the processor of the communication device, by not transmitting the MAC frame to the at least one additional communication device, based on the one of the plurality of frame types in accordance with the filter and classification agreement between the communication device and the at least one additional communication device.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

receiving the MAC frame via the at least one transceiver.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

receiving the MAC frame via a host interface of the communication device or a baseband processor of the communication device.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the MAC frame is formatted in accordance with an 802.11 protocol.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the MAC frame is one of: a data frame, a management frame, a control frame, and an extension frame.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the MAC frame is addressed to the at least one additional communication device.

14. A communication device, comprising:

at least one transceiver to support communications with at least one additional communication device, the communications including establishment of a filter and classification agreement between the communication device and the at least one additional communication device via the communications, the filter and classification agreement indicating MAC frames of at least one of a plurality of frame types to be filtered out and not transmitted to the at least one additional communication device and further that a type classifier (TCLAS) element of a traffic filtering service request element of a MAC frame header contains classification data; and

a processor, coupled to the at least one transceiver, to:

classify a MAC frame in accordance with the filter and classification agreement as one of the plurality of frame types based on the classification data indicated by the TCLAS element and further based on at least a portion of a frame body portion of the MAC frame containing a data payload; and

selectively filter the MAC frame by not transmitting the MAC frame to the at least one additional communication device, based on the one of the plurality of frame types in accordance with the filter and classification agreement between the communication device and the at least one additional communication device.

15. The communication device of claim 14 , wherein the MAC frame is received via the at least one transceiver.

16. The communication device of claim 14 , wherein the MAC frame is received via a host interface or received from a baseband processor.

17. The communication device of claim 14 , wherein the MAC frame is formatted in accordance with an 802.11 protocol.

18. The communication device of claim 14 , wherein the MAC frame is addressed to the at least one additional communication device.

19. The communication device of claim 14 , wherein the communication device is a wireless station (STA).

20. The communication device of claim 14 , wherein the at least one additional communication device is a wireless station (STA).

Assignments (7)