1. doc.: IEEE 802.11-09/0232r0 Submission February 2009 Meiyuan Zhao, IntelSlide 1 Suggestions to Clean Up Peering Management Frames Date: 2009-02-10

2. doc.: IEEE 802.11-09/0232r0 Submission February 2009 Meiyuan Zhao, IntelSlide 2 Abstract Three comments on questioning utility of including parameters in the Peering Management frames This document lays out the IEs and fields currently defined in the Peering Management frames and ask for suggestions to clean up the frame format specification and content processing

3. doc.: IEEE 802.11-09/0232r0 Submission February 2009 Meiyuan Zhao, IntelSlide 3 CID 903, 1562, 1563 Why EDCA parameters are present in the peer link confirm frame? The Peer Link Open/Confirm Frame is very overloaded with information elements. Several of them are redundant, because they are also contained in Beacon frames.

4. doc.: IEEE 802.11-09/0232r0 Submission February 2009 Meiyuan Zhao, IntelSlide 4 Contents in Peering Open Frame Mesh ID Mesh configuration –Active Path Selection Protocol –Active Path Selection Metric –Congestion Control Mode –Synchronization Protocol –Authentication Protocol –Mesh Capability field, including the following subfields Accepting Peerings MCCA Enabled –Power Management field Peering management Abbreviated Handshake RSN element MIC Capability Supported rates ERP element Extended supported rates Power capability Supported channels HT capabilities HT information Extended capabilities 20/40 BSS coexistence Supported MBSS Regulatory Classes and Channels Specified and used by PLM and AbbrHS Processing procedure not specified yet

5. doc.: IEEE 802.11-09/0232r0 Submission February 2009 Meiyuan Zhao, IntelSlide 5 Contents in Peering Confirm Frame Mesh ID Mesh configuration –Active Path Selection Protocol –Active Path Selection Metric –Congestion Control Mode –Synchronization Protocol –Authentication Protocol –Mesh Capability field, including the following subfields Accepting Peerings MCCA Enabled Status Code Peering management Abbreviated Handshake RSN element MIC Capability AID Supported rates ERP element Extended supported rates EDCA Parameter Set Supported channels HT capabilities HT information Extended capabilities 20/40 BSS coexistence Specified and used by PLM and AbbrHS Processing procedure not specified yet

6. doc.: IEEE 802.11-09/0232r0 Submission February 2009 Meiyuan Zhao, IntelSlide 6 Clean Up Peering Management Frames Peering Open/Confirm frames are defined based on Association Request/Response by the originally peer link management protocol –Many information elements are kept and accumulated –Only a small portion are in fact processed during PLM To update Peering Management frames, need feedbacks on each information element to answer the following questions: –Should it be kept in Peering Management Frames? –If not, we’ll delete them –If yes, then how should the element be processed during PLM? –Also, can you suggest ways to simplify the format and processing?

7. doc.: IEEE 802.11-09/0232r0 Submission February 2009 Meiyuan Zhao, IntelSlide 7 Suggested Criteria for Choosing Information Elements Goal: simplify peering management frames Criteria –The two Mesh STAs have to agree on the parameter value in order to establish a link In this case, suggest how the information is processed during PLM –May consider kept the information element in PLM frames if the parameter is for notifying neighbors only, but the information cannot be sent by any other existing mechanism (e.g., Beacons) Note: if a specific information needs to be sent to neighboring mesh STAs more than once (e.g., due to update), then it’s better to provide its own mechanism (or protocol) to send the information