Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsoft Corporation

Jiandong Ruan

Abhishek Abhishek

Thomas W Kuehnel

Hui Shen

Arun Ayyagari

Anton W Krantz

Amer A Hassan

Francis Duong

Taroon Mandhana

Timothy Mark Moore

Yi Lu

Warren Vincent Barkley

Avi R Geiger

Christian F Huitema

Noel Wayne Anderson

Alireza Dabagh

Vishesh Parikh

Alok Manchanda

Krishna Ganugapati

Saurabh Mahajan

Yasser Baseer Asmi

Sean O Lyndersay

David T Jones

Srinivas Raghu Gatta

Yue Chen

Poovanpilli G Madhavan

David Walter Proctor

Shai Guday

Victoria Marie Poncini

Yi Microsoft Corporation Lu

Yi c/o Microsoft Corporation International Patents Lu

Francis c/o Microsoft Coporation Duong

Vishesh M Parikh

David Jones

A standardized 802.11 hardware control interface may be provided such that a driver may communicate with any one or more of a variety of network adapters.

Hardware control interface for IEEE standard 802.11

A first wireless devices establishes an association with a second wireless device by sending a connection request packet to a previously-discovered second wireless device. The second wireless device identifies the received packet as a connection request and responds with a connection response packet, thereby establishing an association between the first and second wireless devices. The wireless devices can then, for example, send and receive data.

Managing associations in ad hoc networks

A wireless device that utilizes a single network interface to simultaneously connect to an infrastructure network and a mesh network. The device has a driver layer with a media access control module for each network type. A multiplexing module and transceiver module within the driver can direct received information associated with one of the networks to an appropriate media access control and then to an appropriate network adapter. For transmitted data, the multiplexing module can receive data from the application layer through an appropriate network adapter and route it to an appropriate media access control module for processing. The processed data can be interleaved by the transceiver for transmission.

Low cost mesh network capability

A software based wireless infrastructure system is provided. The system has a driver that communicates with the network stack and a network interface card (NIC), a station server in communication with the station driver and an 802.1X supplicant or an 802.1X authenticator. Each NIC provides station and/or access point functionality support. The driver drops packets that have been received if the packet has not been authenticated and associated. Packets that have been fragmented or encrypted are unfragmented and decrypted. An association manager is used in conjunction with a configuration table manager to associate stations and access points via management packets. A manager receives 802.1X data packets from the packet processor and sends them up to a station server that communicates with user mode applications and an 802.1X supplicant or an 802.1X authenticator that are used to authenticate and deauthenticate stations and access points. APIs are provided to enable communication between the components.

Native Wi-Fi architecture for 802.11 networks

Hardware control interface for IEEE standard 802.11 including transmission control interface component

Discovery of services between devices is provided prior to establishing a connection between devices, including wireless-enabled devices or devices that are communicatively coupled to wireless access points or other wireless communication devices. Discovering services prior to establishing a connection may facilitate finding a desired service. The services that may be discovered may be, for example, print services, camera services, PDA services or any other suitable services. Services may be discovered using 802.11, UWB or any other suitable wireless technology. As one example, particular services may be requested. As another example, services that are provided by a device may be advertised.

Proximity service discovery in wireless networks

Native WI-FI architecture for 802.11 networks

A wireless station is connected to a wireless network through an access point and can establish a direct client-to-client connection to a second wireless station. The wireless station can communicate directly with the second wireless station without involving the access point. The wireless station communicates with the wired network and with other wireless stations through the access point. The second wireless station may have an infrastructure connection to the access point or may be independent.

Direct wireless client to client communication

A portable media player device is capable of operating in a wireless network. The wireless portable media player device can bootstrap and synchronize with an ad hoc network with low power consumption. Neighbor portable media player devices in an ad hoc network can be discovered by the wireless portable media player device. The portable media player device can establish and terminate connections to neighbor portable media player devices. The portable media player device can transfer data in a high speed data transfer mode or a power save data transfer mode, while concurrently permitting discovery by other devices. The portable media player device operates in a power save mode during an inactive portion of a periodic discovery interval.

Wireless support for portable media player devices

Systems and methods for handling a transition of a roaming mobile user device (i.e., a roaming client) from one access point (AP) to a target AP, referred to herein as soft inter-AP handoff. This technique involves a second mobile user device that is already connected with the target AP, called a roaming coordinator, assisting in handoff coordination between the APs. This coordination includes assisting the roaming client in establishing a client-to-client connection to relay data traffic during the handoff, while the roaming client establishes a connection with the target AP using traditional techniques. Soft inter-AP handoff allows a faster hand-off between APs than traditional techniques, and may reduce jitter in communications with the roaming device during the transition.

Coordinating a transition of a roaming client between wireless access points using another client in physical proximity

A method and system for scanning in a wireless device having a wireless network interface card (NIC) is presented. The system has a scanning history table for storing scanning results and a scanning engine that adjusts the scanning period based upon a history of scanning results and commands the NIC to scan for available networks after the period has expired. The engine receives scan results from the NIC, stores the scan results in the scanning history table, determines a scanning period based upon a history of scan results, sets the scanning period, and commands the NIC to scan for available networks after the scanning period has expired. The engine is programmed to set the scanning period using an exponential function and to reset the scanning period to a default period if the scan results are different from a prior scan result or if a triggering event is received.

Method and apparatus for managing scanning in wireless computing devices to reduce power consumption

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Jiandong Ruan