Wireless network service type

1. An access point (AP) comprising:

a processor; and

a communications subsystem;

wherein the processor and the communications subsystem cooperate to:

generate a service type announcement element indicating one or more network service types offered by the AP or offered by a wireless network through the AP;

transmit the service type announcement element to a mobile device by:

including the service type announcement element in a beacon frame; and

transmitting the beacon frame by the AP to the mobile device;

receive, from the mobile device, a service request in a first layer 2 frame, the service request comprising a service hash value for a service; and

generate and transmit to the mobile device, a service response in a second layer 2 frame in response to the service request, the service response comprising one or more attributes of the service;

wherein the service type announcement element is transmitted to the mobile device prior to the mobile device being associated with the AP.

2. The access point of claim 1 , wherein the service type announcement includes element identifiers of one or more upper layer protocols offered by the AP or offered by the wireless network through the AP.

3. The access point of claim 1 , wherein the one or more network service types are indicated by a service type bit mask, wherein each bit of the service type bit mask represents a respective one of a plurality of network service types.

4. The access point of claim 3 , wherein the service type bit mask has a variable length in octets.

5. The access point of claim 1 , wherein the one or more network service types comprise one or more of peripheral service type, web service type, streaming multimedia service type, interactive multimedia service type, and location based service type.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable code for execution by a processor of an access point (AP), the executable code comprising instructions for:

generating a service type announcement element indicating one or more network service types offered by the AP or offered by a wireless network through the AP;

transmitting the service type announcement element to a mobile device by:

including the service type announcement element in a beacon frame; and

transmitting the beacon frame by the AP to the mobile device;

receiving, from the mobile device, a service request in a first layer 2 frame, the service request comprising a service hash value for a service; and

generating and transmitting to the mobile device, a service response in a second layer 2 frame in response to the service request, the service response comprising one or more attributes of the service;

wherein the service type announcement element is transmitted to the mobile device prior to the mobile device being associated with the AP.

7. The non-transitory computer readable of claim 6 , wherein the service type announcement includes element identifiers of one or more upper layer protocols offered by the AP or offered by the wireless network through the AP.

8. The non-transitory computer readable of claim 6 , wherein the one or more network service types are indicated by a service type bit mask, wherein each bit of the service type bit mask represents a respective one of a plurality of network service types.

9. The non-transitory computer readable of claim 8 , wherein the service type bit mask has a variable length in octets.

10. The non-transitory computer readable of claim 6 , wherein the one or more network service types comprise one or more of peripheral service type, web service type, streaming multimedia service type, interactive multimedia service type, and location based service type.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon executable code for execution by a processor of a mobile device, the executable code comprising instructions for:

receiving, at the mobile device, a beacon frame transmitted by an access point (AP) that supports a wireless network, the beacon frame including a service type announcement element, the service type announcement element indicating one or more network service types offered by the AP or offered by the wireless network through the AP, wherein the service type announcement element is received prior to association with the AP;

generating and transmitting a service request to the AP in a first layer 2 frame, the service request comprising a service hash value for a service;

receiving a service response to the service request from the AP in a second layer 2 frame, the service response comprising one or more attributes of the service; and

making a determination whether any of the one or more network service types assist with an operation of an application on the mobile device.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the executable code comprises further instructions for:

implementing a network selection algorithm based on the determination.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the executable code comprises further instructions for:

providing the service response to a network selection algorithm.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the service request is a service descriptor request.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the service descriptor request makes reference to the one or more network service types.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the service type announcement element includes identifiers of one or more upper layer protocols offered by the AP or offered by the wireless network through the AP.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein making the determination whether any of the one or more network service types assist with the operation of the application on the mobile device takes into account the identifiers of the one or more upper layer protocols offered by the AP or offered by the wireless network through the AP.