1. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 1 Enhancement to Mesh Discovery Date: 2008-03-17 Authors:

2. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 2 Outline Enhancement 1: –Problem: Individual mesh devices in the same mesh network need to be differentiated –Solution: Utilize a user friendly name, i.e. Mesh Point ID Enhancement 2: –Problem: An MP needs to discover multiple neighbor MPs and the discovery process can be slow –Solution: Utilize a Mesh Neighbor Report process

3. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 3 A mesh ID identifies a mesh network but not individual mesh points Users of infrastructure networks just want to connect to a network that offers internet connection –An SSID is sufficient to identify such a network However, users of a mesh network may want to identify different MPs within the same network –For municipal mesh networks, service providers may want to identify individual mesh points for network maintenance and diagnostic purposes –In home mesh networks, different mesh devices have different functionalities and offer different services. It may not be necessary to set up peer links with all neighboring devices

4. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 4 For diagnosis purposes, mesh point IDs can help to identify different mesh devices For instance, if a user cannot find a particular mesh point or the routes are not what he/she has expected, he/she may want to take a look at the topology Each MP reports its neighbor and the routes, expressed in MAC addresses –It’s very time consuming to match an MP’s MAC address with the actual physical device in the field

5. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 5 MP IDs can also be very useful for on-demand peer link set up in home mesh networks The intent of this proposal is not to replace any higher layer discovery protocol (It’s not a cross-layer solution. Higher layer discovery protocols will still be used.) Instead, we’d like to provide a layer-2 solution to facilitate on- demand peer link set up for small form factor devices, such as PDAs or cell phones Other optimization solutions are also possible if the “Printer” is more than one-hop away PDA Printer

6. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 6 Just as a route can be set up on-demand, some devices may want to set up peer links on-demand Small form factor devices, such as PDAs and cell phones, want to consume as little energy as possible Setting up and maintaining peer links with all neighbors can be expensive in terms of computation, resource consumption, and energy consumption One optimization is to allow an MP to only set up peer links with the devices that it will use –For instance, it can be a user configurable option: 1) on-demand peer link set up; 2) automatic peer link set up

7. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 7 A mesh point ID is a name that a user gives to a mesh point A student, Mike, may have a mesh network that consists of 5 mesh points –Without the MP ID, Mike can only see the mesh ID, i.e. “Mike’ Mesh” Because Mesh IDs are included in beacons/probe responses, Mike will be able to see them before his devices set up peer links with any of the MPs –If Mike is a smart student majoring in computer networks, he may choose to look at individual MPs’ MAC address to differentiate MPs Mike’s Mesh (…….) Mike’s Mesh ( 00-0F-47-6E-39-F3 ) Mike’s Mesh (…….) Mike’s Mesh ( 00-0E-35-8F-C3-D9 ) Mike’s Mesh Mesh ID only Mesh ID & MAC Address

8. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 8 Mesh point IDs are much easier to remember and recognize than MAC addresses With the MP ID, Mike can see the following structure: –Mike can recognize the printer and select it for printing without having to remember its MAC address –We propose to put the MP ID in the Peer Link Setup message Mike’s Mesh Ingree (or IBM laptop) Harry (or HP printer) Danny (or Dell desktop) Mary (or Monitor) Susan (or Sony DVD player) Mesh ID & Mesh Point ID To distinguish mesh ID and mesh point ID, we can call Mesh ID as Mesh Network ID City’s mesh 4 th & Philadelphia 3 rd & Florida 2 nd & Virginia 5 th & Massachusetts 1 st & Washington

9. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 9 The format of MP ID is the same as that of the mesh ID or SSID BSSID is used to identify each BSS in an infrastructure network. Yet, BSSID is a 6-octect MAC address, which is not easily recognized by human users A mesh point ID is intended to be a name that can be easily remembered and recognized by a human user A variable length MP ID field, i.e. 0 to 32-octet, indicates the identity of the MP Element IDLengthMesh Point ID 10-321

10. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 10 Outline Enhancement 1: –Problem: Individual mesh devices in the same mesh network need to be differentiated –Solution: Utilize a Mesh Point ID Enhancement 2: –Problem: An MP needs to discover multiple neighbor MPs and the discovery process can be slow –Solution: Utilize a Mesh Neighbor Report process

11. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 11 As currently defined in 11s, an MP needs to scan and discover its neighboring MPs autonomously In an infrastructure network, a STA only needs to discover and associate to one AP (Not a problem) In a mesh network, a MP may want to set up peer links with multiple MPs Given that different MPs might be on different channels and some of them may be in power save mode, a complete discovery process in a mesh network can be much slower than that in an infrastructure network We propose to use a Mesh Neighbor Report to speed up the discovery process –Similar concept exists for the infrastructure mode of operation –Details are different

12. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 12 A new MP can discover more neighbors through a mesh neighbor report request/response frame exchange Mesh Neighbor Report Request Mesh Neighbor Report Response Category Dialogue token Action Optional elements Category Dialogue token Action MP report element Optional elements may include Mesh ID, Mesh Point ID, etc.

13. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 13 The Mesh Neighbor Report element contains discovery- related information of neighboring MPs Existing MP reports neighbor MPs’ addresses, information, channel, PHY type, and optional sub-elements securitycapabilitiesReserved Bits: 14162 MP Information Element ID MP address Length MP information Regulatory class Channel number PHY type Optional subelements 1 11461variable1 octets: Optional subelements may include TSF information, etc. The security bits indicate whether the neighbor MP supports the same security provisioning as the MP sending the report Security bits Information 00Security information unknown 01Reserved 10Different security provisioning 11Same security provisioning

14. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 14 The capability field contains selected capability information of the neighbor MP The selected capability information identifies the basic information of a neighbor MP Accept peer links Power Save enabled Synchro nization enabled Bits: 22222 MDA enabled For- warding 2 HT support Power Save active 2 Capability bits Information 00Information unknown 01Reserved 10Not supported 11Supported

15. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 15 More details on how to set the capability bits The “Accepting Peer Links” field is set to 11 if the MP is able and willing to establish peer links with other MPs The “Synchronization Enabled” field is set to 11 if the MP is capable to synchronize with peer MPs The “Power Save Enabled” field is set to 11 if the MP is capable to go into power save mode The “Power Save Active” field is set to 11 if the MP is currently in power save mode The “MDA Enabled” field is set to 11 if the MP supports MDA services The "Forwarding" field is set to 11 if the MP is a forwarding MP The “HT support” field is set to 11 if the MP supports high throughput

16. doc.: IEEE 802.11-08/0357r0 Submission March 2008 Michelle Gong, Intel, et alSlide 16 In summary, we propose two mesh discovery enhancement schemes: 1) a mesh point ID and 2) mesh neighbor report Using Mesh Point IDs, user friendly names can be given to individual mesh points –Facilitate on-demand peer-link set up, which reduces the number of peer links an MP has to maintain (saves energy and computation; reduces broadcast traffic) –Help IT personal to debug mesh networks more efficiently –The Mesh Point ID can be included in the Peer Link Setup message Mesh neighbor report can be utilized for faster mesh discovery –After setting up a peer link with one MP, a new MP can discover multiple neighbor MPs through the neighbor MP report Add one bit to the mesh capability field: –The bit “Mesh Neighbor Report supported” is set to the value of dot11MeshNeighborReportEnabled