Wake-on-WLAN for stationary wireless stations
Stationary wireless network stations are woken up using Wake-on-WLAN functionality. Wake-on-WLAN is provided by paging stations in a wireless network. Paging may support mobile stations across multiple access points. Paging may also support stationary nodes with reduced overhead. Wake-on-WLAN is also provided to stationary stations in idle mode by signifying a wake-on event in a traffic indication map (TIM). Wake-on events may occur when a station is associated or disassociated with an access point. Upon receiving a wake-on event, a station associates or reassociates with an AP if necessary.
1. A method comprising:
receiving an idle mode request from a station;
preserving an association ID of the station beyond an expiration of an association with the station, the association ID becoming an expired association ID; and
if there is a need to wake the station:
setting a bit in a IEEE 802.11 traffic indication map (TIM) corresponding to the expired association ID to indicate to the station to exit idle mode;
sending a wake-on event to the station if a request from the station to exit the idle mode is received from the mobile station;
reassociating the station in response to receiving a reassociation request from the station if the association ID is an expired association ID; and
otherwise invalidating the association ID if a request to exit idle mode is not received from the station.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an idle mode request from the station comprises receiving a wake-on interval field.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending an idle mode response.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the idle mode response includes a wake-on interval field.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising keeping track of the station as an idle mode station.
6. An article comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium adapted to hold instructions that when accessed result in a machine performing:
receiving an idle mode request from a station;
preserving an association ID of the station beyond an expiration of an association with the station, the association ID becoming an expired association ID; and
if there is a need to wake the station:
setting a bit in a IEEE 802.11 traffic indication map (TIM) corresponding to the expired association ID to indicate to the station to exit idle mode;
sending a wake-on event to the station if a request from the station to exit the idle mode is received from the mobile station;
reassociating the station in response to receiving a reassociation request from the station if the association ID is an expired association ID; and
otherwise invalidating the association ID if a request to exit idle mode is not received from the station.
7. The article of claim 6 wherein receiving an idle mode request from the station comprises receiving a wake-on interval field.
8. The article of claim 6 wherein the instructions, when accessed, further result in the machine performing sending an idle mode response.
9. The article of claim 8 wherein the idle mode response includes a wake-on interval field.
10. An electronic system comprising:
an antenna;
a physical layer coupled to the antenna; and
a media access control layer to preserve an expired association ID for an idle mode station, and, if there is a need to wake a station, to:
set a bit corresponding to the expired association ID in a IEEE 802.11 traffic indication map (TIM) to trigger a wake-on event;
send a wake-on event to the station if a request from the station to exit the idle mode is received from the mobile station;
reassociate the station in response to receiving a reassociation request from the station if the association ID is an expired association ID; and
otherwise invalidate the association ID if a request to exit idle mode is not received from the station.
11. The electronic system of claim 10 wherein the media access control layer is configured to negotiate a wake-on interval with the idle mode station.