Granted Patent B2

US 12,413,960 · App. 18/271,424 · Granted Sep 9, 2025

Inventors: Insun Jang (Seoul, KR); Jeongki Kim (Seoul, KR); Jinsoo Choi (Seoul, KR); Namyeong Kim (Seoul, KR); Sunhee Baek (Seoul, KR)

Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.

H04W8/26H04W76/11H04W76/15H04W84/12

Abstract

Claims (87)

1. A method performed by an access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD, a multi-link (ML) element from a first non-AP station (STA) affiliated with a non-AP MLD; and

decoding, by the first AP, the ML element,

wherein the first AP operating on a first link and a second AP operating on a second link are affiliated with the AP MLD,

wherein the first non-AP STA operating on the first link and a second non-AP STA operating on the second link are affiliated with the non-AP MLD,

wherein the ML element includes a Common Info field and a Link Info field,

wherein the Link Info field includes a first Per-STA Profile subelement,

wherein the first Per-STA Profile subelement includes a STA MAC Address Present subfield,

wherein the STA MAC Address Present subfield indicates a presence of a STA MAC Address subfield and is set to 1 if the STA MAC Address subfield is present in a STA Info field in the first Per-STA Profile subelement, and

wherein the STA MAC Address subfield of the STA Info field carries a MAC address of the second non-AP STA.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a third AP operating on a third link is further affiliated with the AP MLD,

wherein a third non-AP STA operating on the third link is further affiliated with the non-AP MLD.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the Link Info field further includes a second Per-STA Profile subelement,

wherein the second Per-STA Profile subelement includes a STA MAC Address Present subfield,

wherein the STA MAC Address Present subfield indicates a presence of a STA MAC Address subfield and is set to 1 if the STA MAC Address subfield is present in a STA Info field in the second Per-STA Profile subelement, and

wherein the STA MAC Address subfield of the STA Info field carries a MAC address of the third non-AP STA.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first link is an association link,

wherein the second and third links are non-association links.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the first non-AP STA, link setting information from the first AP;

transmitting, by the first non-AP STA, an association request frame to the first AP; and

receiving, by the first non-AP STA, an association response frame from the first AP.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the link setting information is included in a beacon frame or a probe response frame,

wherein the link setting information includes link capabilities of the AP MLD, channel information, or information on a link set that cannot be simultaneously transmitted and received,

wherein the ML element is included in the association response frame.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ML element further includes an element identifier field, a length field, an element identifier extension field, and a Multi-Link (ML) control field,

wherein the ML control field includes a type field,

wherein if the type field is set to 0, the ML element is a Basic ML element,

wherein if the type field is set to 1, the ML element is a probe request ML element.

8. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the second non-AP STA, a first initial request frame to the second AP;

receiving, by the second non-AP STA, a first initial response frame from the second AP;

transmitting, by the third non-AP STA, a second initiation request frame to the third AP; and

receiving, by the third non-AP STA, a second initiation response frame from the third AP;

wherein the first initiation request frame and the first initiation response frame are exchanged in the second link based on the MAC address of the second non-AP STA,

wherein the second initiation request frame and the second initiation response frame are exchanged in the third link based on a MAC address of the third non-AP STA.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first and second initiation request frames include MAC addresses of the AP and non-AP MLDs, identifiers or association Identifiers (AIDs) of the AP and non-AP MLDs.

10. A access point (AP) multi-link device (MLD) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the AP MLD comprising:

a memory;

a transceiver; and

a processor being operatively connected to the memory and the transceiver,

wherein the processor is configured to:

receive, by a first AP affiliated with the AP MLD, a multi-link (ML) element from a first non-AP station (STA) affiliated with a non-AP MLD; and

decode, by the first AP, the ML element,

wherein the first AP operating on a first link and a second AP operating on a second link are affiliated with the AP MLD,

wherein the first non-AP STA operating on the first link and a second non-AP STA operating on the second link are affiliated with the non-AP MLD,

wherein the ML element includes a Common Info field and a Link Info field,

wherein the Link Info field includes a first Per-STA Profile subelement,

wherein the first Per-STA Profile subelement includes a STA MAC Address Present subfield,

wherein the STA MAC Address Present subfield indicates a presence of a STA MAC Address subfield and is set to 1 if the STA MAC Address subfield is present in a STA Info field in the first Per-STA Profile subelement, and

wherein the STA MAC Address subfield of the STA Info field carries a MAC address of the second non-AP STA.

11. A method performed by a non-access point (non-AP) multi-link device (MLD) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the method comprising:

generating, by a first non-AP station (STA) affiliated with the non-AP MLD, a multi-link (ML) element; and

transmitting, by the first non-AP STA, the ML element to a first AP affiliated with an AP MLD,

wherein the first AP operating on a first link and a second AP operating on a second link are affiliated with the AP MLD,

wherein the first non-AP STA operating on the first link and a second non-AP STA operating on the second link are affiliated with the non-AP MLD,

wherein the ML element includes a Common Info field and a Link Info field,

wherein the Link Info field includes a first Per-STA Profile subelement,

wherein the first Per-STA Profile subelement includes a STA MAC Address Present subfield,

wherein the STA MAC Address Present subfield indicates a presence of a STA MAC Address subfield and is set to 1 if the STA MAC Address subfield is present in a STA Info field in the first Per-STA Profile subelement, and

wherein the STA MAC Address subfield of the STA Info field carries a MAC address of the second non-AP STA.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein a third AP operating on a third link is further affiliated with the AP MLD,

wherein a third non-AP STA operating on the third link is further affiliated with the non-AP MLD.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the Link Info field further includes a second Per-STA Profile subelement,

wherein the second Per-STA Profile subelement includes a STA MAC Address Present subfield,

wherein the STA MAC Address Present subfield indicates a presence of a STA MAC Address subfield and is set to 1 if the STA MAC Address subfield is present in a STA Info field in the second Per-STA Profile subelement, and

wherein the STA MAC Address subfield of the STA Info field carries a MAC address of the third non-AP STA.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the first link is an association link,

wherein the second and third links are non-association links.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the first AP, link setting information to the first non-AP STA;

receiving, by the first AP, an association request frame from the first non-AP STA; and

transmitting, by the first AP, an association response frame to the first non-AP STA.

16. A non-access point (non-AP) multi-link device (MLD) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) system, the non-AP MLD comprising:

a memory;

a transceiver; and

a processor being operatively connected to the memory and the transceiver,

wherein the processor is configured to:

generate, by a first non-AP station (STA) affiliated with the non-AP MLD, a multi-link (ML) element; and

transmit, by the first non-AP STA, the ML element to a first AP affiliated with an AP MLD,

wherein the first AP operating on a first link and a second AP operating on a second link are affiliated with the AP MLD,

wherein the first non-AP STA operating on the first link and a second non-AP STA operating on the second link are affiliated with the non-AP MLD,

wherein the ML element includes a Common Info field and a Link Info field,

wherein the Link Info field includes a first Per-STA Profile subelement,

wherein the first Per-STA Profile subelement includes a STA MAC Address Present subfield,

wherein the STA MAC Address Present subfield indicates a presence of a STA MAC Address subfield and is set to 1 if the STA MAC Address subfield is present in a STA Info field in the first Per-STA Profile subelement, and

wherein the STA MAC Address subfield of the STA Info field carries a MAC address of the second non-AP STA.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (2)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (17)