Wireless link quality monitoring

1. A method for a wireless device to monitor Wi-Fi link quality, the method comprising:

establishing a Wi-Fi link;

monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link;

determining that RSSI of the Wi-Fi link has fallen below a first RSSI threshold based on monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link;

enabling monitoring a plurality of link quality metrics other than RSSI based on determining that RSSI of the Wi-Fi link fell below the first RSSI threshold;

determining that a potential link failure event has occurred based on monitoring the plurality of link quality metrics;

inducing traffic on the Wi-Fi link in response to determining that a potential link failure event has occurred based on monitoring the plurality of link quality metrics;

determining a failure rate of the induced traffic; and

triggering, if the failure rate of the induced traffic is higher than a failure rate threshold, a disconnection of the Wi-Fi link.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of link quality metrics comprise two or more metrics selected from the group of:

transmit failures at a media access control (MAC) layer;

beacon losses at the MAC layer;

firmware-generated packet losses at the MAC layer;

gateway address resolution protocol (ARP) renewal failures;

domain name resolution failures;

transmission control protocol (TCP) socket establishment failures; and

TCP timeouts.

3. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein a plurality of potential link failure events are defined at the UE based on the plurality of link quality metrics.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of potential link failure events comprise at least one of:

a transmit packet error rate (PER) higher than a first PER threshold over a first period of time for at least a frame threshold number of transmit frames for MAC and/or firmware-generated packets;

a beacon packet loss rate higher than a beacon packet loss rate threshold;

gateway ARP failure;

greater than a socket failure threshold number of TCP socket establishment failures;

greater than a timeout threshold number of timeouts on established sockets; or

greater than a DNS failure threshold number of DNS failures.

5. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein inducing traffic on the Wi-Fi link comprises attempting to ping a serving gateway over the Wi-Fi link,

wherein determining the failure rate of the induced traffic comprises determining a proportion of ping timeouts to ping attempts.

6. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein triggering disconnection of the Wi-Fi link comprises initiating a disconnection timer and attempting to roam to a different Wi-Fi access point until successful or until expiration of the disconnection timer if one or more alternate Wi-Fi access points are available.

7. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:

determining that RSSI of the Wi-Fi link has risen above a second RSSI threshold based on monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link; and

disabling monitoring the plurality of link quality metrics based on determining that RSSI of the Wi-Fi link rose above the second RSSI threshold,

wherein the second RSSI threshold is greater than the first RSSI threshold.

8. A wireless user equipment (UE) device configured to monitor link quality of a Wi-Fi link according to a plurality of link quality monitoring states and state transitions, comprising:

a radio; and

a processing element operably coupled to the radio;

wherein UE is configured to:

initially consider the Wi-Fi link to be in a first link quality state;

transition the Wi-Fi link to a second link quality state when RSSI of the Wi-Fi link falls below a first RSSI threshold while in the first link quality state;

monitor a plurality of network stack statistics for potential Wi-Fi link failure events while in the second link quality state;

transition the Wi-Fi link to a third link quality state when a potential Wi-Fi link failure event is detected while in the second link quality state;

probe the Wi-Fi link by inducing traffic on the Wi-Fi link while in the third link quality state;

transition the Wi-Fi link to a fourth link quality state when probing the Wi-Fi link while in the third link quality state results in failure of the induced traffic and when one or more alternate Wi-Fi access point (AP) candidates are available or transition the Wi-Fi link to a fifth link quality state when probing the Wi-Fi link while in the third link quality state results in failure of the induced traffic and when no alternate Wi-Fi AP candidates are available;

initiate a disconnection timer and attempt to roam to an alternate Wi-Fi AP of the one or more alternate Wi-Fi AP candidates while in the fourth link quality state; and

transition the Wi-Fi link to a fifth link quality state when attempting to roam to an alternate Wi-Fi AP while in the fourth link quality state is not successful by expiration of the disconnection timer, wherein the fifth link quality state comprises a Wi-Fi disconnected state.

9. The UE of claim 8 , wherein the UE is further configured to:

transition the Wi-Fi link from any of the second, third, or fourth link quality state to the first link quality state if RSSI of the Wi-Fi link rises above a second RSSI threshold, wherein the second RSSI threshold is higher than the first RSSI threshold.

10. The UE of claim 8 , wherein the UE is further configured to:

transition the Wi-Fi link from any of the second, third, or fourth link quality state to the first link quality state if roaming to an alternate Wi-Fi AP is performed.

11. A method for a Wi-Fi chipset in a wireless user equipment (UE) device to monitor link quality of a Wi-Fi link while an application processor of the UE is in a sleep mode, the method comprising:

monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link;

monitoring a plurality of other link quality metrics based on said monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link when RSSI of the Wi-Fi link falls below a first RSSI threshold;

determining, based on monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link and monitoring the plurality of other link quality metrics, whether the Wi-Fi link is reliable; and

providing an indication to the application processor of the UE when it is determined that the Wi-Fi link is not reliable.

12. The method of claim 11 ,

wherein RSSI is monitored in a first manner when RSSI of the Wi-Fi link falls below the first RSSI threshold, wherein RSSI is monitored in a second manner when RSSI of the Wi-Fi link rises above a second RSSI threshold,

wherein the second RSSI threshold is higher than the first RSSI threshold, wherein a difference between the first RSSI threshold and the second RSSI threshold induces a hysteresis in a manner of monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link.

13. The method of claim 12 ,

wherein monitoring RSSI in the first manner comprises the Wi-Fi chipset waking to monitor Wi-Fi beacons at a higher frequency than when monitoring RSSI in the second manner.

14. The method of claim 12 ,

wherein a different RSSI threshold to cause the UE to roam to a new access point is used when monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link in the first manner than when monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link in the second manner.

15. The method of claim 12 , the method further comprising:

coordinating with a Wi-Fi access point of the Wi-Fi link to increase a delivery traffic indication message (DTIM) interval for the UE when monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link in the second manner.

16. The method of claim 11 ,

wherein the one or more additional link quality metrics comprise one or more of:

transmit packet error rate (PER) of internally generated frames;

results of active Wi-Fi link probing; or

beacon reception failure rate.

17. The method of claim 11 , the method further comprising:

receiving an indication from the application processor to notify the application processor when the Wi-Fi link is not reliable,

wherein said monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link, monitoring one or more additional link quality metrics, determining whether the Wi-Fi link is reliable, and providing the indication to the application processor are performed in response to the indication to notify the application processor when the Wi-Fi link is not reliable.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link is performed based on receiving Wi-Fi beacons from a Wi-Fi access point of the Wi-Fi link, wherein the method further comprises:

modifying wake up times for beacon reception for earlier waking to monitor RSSI of the Wi-Fi link based on the application processor being in the sleep mode.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link is performed based on receiving Wi-Fi beacons from a Wi-Fi access point of the Wi-Fi link, wherein the method further comprises:

modifying wake up times for beacon reception for earlier waking to monitor RSSI of the Wi-Fi link based on the application processor being in the sleep mode.

20. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link comprises the Wi-Fi chipset waking to monitor Wi-Fi beacons, and wherein monitoring RSSI of the Wi-Fi link is performed at a higher frequency after it is determined that RSSI of the Wi-Fi link has fallen below the first RSSI threshold.