Capability Discovery Mechanism July 2001 Capability Discovery Mechanism Greg Chesson, greg@atheros.com Michael Fischer Duncan Kitchen Aman Singla, aman@atheros.com G. Chesson, A. Singla, Atheros

The Problem(s) What are the MAC addresses for portals in this BSS? July 2001 The Problem(s) What are the MAC addresses for portals in this BSS? Note: the phrase bridge portal is deprecated in favor of portal. Does Station “X” support sidestreams? Does Station “Y” support FEC? What are the supported rates at station “Z”? In general: what are the MAC addresses and capabilities of stations near me? Concept: propose a single method for answering all similar discovery questions. G. Chesson, A. Singla, Atheros

July 2001 Bones of CDM proposal AP stores in a table the capabilities, extended capabilities, MAC address and AID of a station when it associates. Provide means for a station to: Obtain a copy of the table Obtain table entry for a particular MAC address Obtain table entries with capabilities that match a mask Use a Management Action Request/Response Pair Use Directed Probe to determine reachability and obtain supported rates from individual stations Only a subset of the directed probe response is needed G. Chesson, A. Singla, Atheros

Table Format DA(6), Capability (2), Extended Capability(2), AID(6) July 2001 Table Format DA(6), Capability (2), Extended Capability(2), AID(6) Total: 16 bytes/entry G. Chesson, A. Singla, Atheros

Status of Proposal Michael drafting document 01/458 Not yet available July 2001 Status of Proposal Michael drafting document 01/458 Not yet available Formal motion not possible at this time G. Chesson, A. Singla, Atheros