Communication method and device, and storage medium

Abstract

A communication method includes: acquiring (S11) access point information of at least one access point; determining (S12) a target access point based on the access point information of the at least one access point; determining (S13) a target connection manner of establishing a connection with a target access device corresponding to the target access point based on first access point information of the target access point, in which the target connection manner includes at least one of a multi-link connection manner or a wireless connection manner; and establishing (S14) the connection with the target access device based on the target connection manner. Figure of Abstract : Fig. 2

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a field of communication technologies, andmore particularly to a communication method, a communication device, and a storage medium.BACKGROUND

[0002] With development of wireless local area network (LAN) technologies, wirelessdevices can support multi-link communication. The multi-link communication refers to thatthe wireless device supports simultaneous communication on a plurality of frequency bands,or simultaneous communication on different channels of the same frequency band. Thewireless device that supports the multi-link communication is commonly called a multi-linkdevice (MLD), and the multi-link device includes a plurality of stations (STAs). The multi-linkdevice can be connected with an access device through a plurality of frequency bands supportedby the multi-link device. The access device includes a single-link access device and a multil-inkaccess device. The single-link access device includes a single access point (AP). The multi-linkaccess device includes a plurality of access points, and each access point has acorresponding frequency band.SUMMARY

[0003] In order to overcome the problems exiting in related art, the present disclosureprovides a communication method, a communication device and a storage medium.

[0004] According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, acommunication method is provided and applied to a multi-link device. The method includes:acquiring access point information of at least one access point; determining a target accesspoint based on the access point information of the at least one access point; determining a targetconnection manner of establishing a connection with a target access device corresponding tothe target access point based on first access point information of the target access point, whereinthe target connection manner includes a multi-link connection manner or a wireless connectionmanner; and establishing the connection with the target access device based on the targetconnection manner.

[0005] Optionally, determining the target connection manner of establishing theconnection with the target access device includes: determining that the first access pointinformation of the target access point comprises first information, acquiring an access pointidentifier and reduced neighbor report information included in the first access point information,in which the first information is configured to indicate that a capability of the target accessdevice corresponding to the target access point supporting the multi-link connection manner,the access point identifier is configured to identify the target access device corresponding tothe target access point, and the reduced neighbor report information is configured to indicatesecond access point information of a cooperative access point of the target access point, inwhich the target access point and the cooperative access point are associated with a same targetaccess device, and access points associated with the same target access device have a sameaccess point identifier; determining the second access information of the cooperative accesspoint based on the reduced neighbor report information; and determining that the targetconnection manner of establishing the connection with the target access device correspondingto the target access point is the multi-link connection manner, if the second access informationcomprises the access point identifier.

[0006] Optionally, the reduced neighbor report information includes channelinformation of the cooperative access point; and determining the second access pointinformation of the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighbor report informationincludes: determining a working channel of the cooperative access point based on the reducedneighbor report information, and receiving the second access point information of thecooperative access point in the working channel of the cooperative access point.

[0007] Optionally, determining the working channel of the cooperative access pointbased on the reduced neighbor report information, and receiving the second access pointinformation of the cooperative access point in the working channel of the cooperative accesspoint, includes: determining a frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access pointbased on the reduced neighbor report information; when the multi-link device supports thefrequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point, determining the workingchannel of the cooperative access point, and receiving the second access point information ofthe cooperative access point in the working channel of the cooperative access point.

[0008] Optionally, establishing the connection with the target access device based onthe target connection manner includes: establishing a multi-link connection with the targetaccess device on a frequency band corresponding to the target access point and the frequencyband corresponding to the cooperative access point based on the multi-link connection manner.

[0009] Optionally, determining the target connection manner of establishing theconnection with the target access device corresponding to the target access point based on firstaccess point information of the target access point includes: if the first access point informationof the target access point does not include first information, and / or the multi-link device doesnot support a frequency band corresponding to a cooperative access point of the target accesspoint, determining that the target connection manner of establishing the connection with thetarget access device corresponding to the target access point is the wireless connection manner.

[0010] Optionally, establishing the connection with the target access device based onthe target connection manner includes: establishing a wireless connection with the target accessdevice on a frequency band corresponding to the target access point based on the wirelessconnection manner.

[0011] Optionally, acquiring access point information of at least one access pointincludes: acquiring a message frame sent by the at least one access point, in which the messageframe includes a beacon frame and / or a probe response frame; and determining the access pointinformation of the at least one access point based on the message frame.

[0012] Optionally, determining the target access point based on the access pointinformation of the at least one access point includes: determining a candidate connection listbased on the access point information of the at least one access point; screening access pointsin the candidate connection list based on a first preset rule; prioritizing the screened accesspoints based on a second preset rule; and determining the access point with a highest priorityas the target access point.

[0013] Optionally, the first preset rule is that a service set identifier and a correspondingencryption type of a screened access point do not match.

[0014] Optionally, the second preset rule includes at least one of the following: afrequency band, a signal strength and an encryption type of the screened access point.

[0015] According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, acommunication device is provided and applied to a multi-link device. The device includes: anacquiring module configured to acquire access point information of at least one access point; aprocessing module configured to determine a target access point based on the access pointinformation of the at least one access point, and determine a target connection manner ofestablishing a connection with a target access device corresponding to the target access pointbased on first access point information of the target access point, in which the target connectionmanner includes a multi-link connection manner or a wireless connection manner; and aconnection module configured to establish the connection with the target access device basedon the target connection manner.

[0016] According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, acommunication device is provided. The communication device includes: a processor; and amemory configured to store instructions executable the processor. The processor is configuredto perform a communication method according to any one of the above embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

[0017] According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, a non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium is provided. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium has stored therein instructions that, when executed by a processor ofa terminal, cause the terminal to perform a communication method according to any one of theabove embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0018] The technical solutions according to the embodiments of the present disclosurecan include the following beneficial effects. The access point information of the at least oneaccess point is acquired, and the target access point is determined based on the access pointinformation of the at least one access point. Further, based on the first access point informationof the target access point, the target connection manner of establishing the connection with thetarget access device corresponding to the target access point is determined. The targetconnection manner includes the multi-link connection manner and the wireless connectionmanner. Therefore, according to the solutions of the present disclosure, the multi-link device isno longer limited to being only connected with the access device supporting multi-links, butcan select a better target access point and establish the multi-link connection or the wirelessconnection with the target access device corresponding to the target access point, therebyexpanding the application scenarios of the multi-link device and realizing the greatcompatibility.

[0019] It should be understood that the above general description and the followingdetailed description are merely illustrative and explanatory and are not intended to limit thepresent disclosure.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0020] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a partof this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the present disclosure and, togetherwith the specification, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure.

[0021] Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to anillustrative embodiment.

[0022] Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an illustrativeembodiment.

[0023] Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a method of determining a target connection manneraccording to an illustrative embodiment.

[0024] Fig. 4 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an illustrativeembodiment.

[0025] Fig. 5 is a flow chart of a method of acquiring access point information of anaccess point according to an illustrative embodiment.

[0026] Fig. 6 is a flow chart of a method of determining a target access point accordingto an illustrative embodiment.

[0027] Fig. 7 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an illustrativeembodiment.

[0028] Fig. 8 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an illustrativeembodiment.DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] Illustrative embodiments will be described here in detail, examples of which areillustrated in the accompanying drawings. When the following description refers to theaccompanying drawings, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similarelements, unless otherwise specified. The implementations set forth in the followingdescription of the illustrative embodiments do not represent all implementations consistentwith the present disclosure.

[0030] In the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals refer to the same orsimilar elements or elements with the same or similar functions throughout the specification.The described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, but not allthe embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiments described below with referenceto the accompanying figures are illustrative and are intended to explain the present disclosure,but should not be construed as limitations of the present disclosure. Based on the embodimentsin the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those ordinary skilled in the relatedart without making creative efforts fall into the scope of protection of the present disclosure.The embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference tothe drawings.

[0031] When operating with multi-links, a multi-link device generally needs to beconnected to an access device that also supports multi-links. Even if there is a better accessdevice, the multi-link device may not be connected to it. Therefore, when the multi-link devicefaces a plurality of access devices of different types, how to select a relatively better accessdevice for connection is a problem to be solved.

[0032] Based on this, embodiments of the present disclosure provide a communicationmethod, so that the multi-link device is no longer limited to being connected with the accessdevice supporting multi-links, but can select a better target access point, and establish a multi-linkconnection or a wireless connection with a target access device corresponding to the targetaccess point, thus expanding the application scenarios of the multi-link device and realizingthe great compatibility.

[0033] The communication method according to the embodiments of the presentdisclosure can be applied to a communication system shown in Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. 1, thecommunication system includes a multi-link device A, an access device B1 and an accessdevice B2.

[0034] The multi-link device includes a plurality of stations (STAs), and each STAsupports one frequency band respectively. The multi-link device A shown in Fig. 1 includes aSTA that supports 2.4G and a station supports 5G. With the development of technologies, themulti-link device can further include STAs that support 6G-7G (not shown in the drawings),and 2.4G and 5G are only taken as an example for descriptions in the embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

[0035] The access device B1 is a multi-link access device including an access point(AP) supporting 2.4G and an AP supporting 5G. The access device B2 is a single-link accessdevice, and only includes an AP supporting 2.4G. The frequency bands supported by the accesspoints of the access devices B1 and B2 shown in Fig. 1 are not only the frequency bands shownin Fig. 1, but also may be other frequency bands, such as 3.6G, 6G, etc.

[0036] In the communication system shown in Fig. 1, if the multi-link device adopts aconnection method in the related art, the multi-link device A can only be connected with theaccess device B1, while the multi-link access device in the embodiments of the presentdisclosure can be connected with the access device B1, and also be connected with the accessdevice B2.

[0037] Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an illustrativeembodiment. As shown in Fig. 2, the communication method is used in a multi-link device andincludes the following steps.

[0038] At step S11, access point information of at least one access point is acquired.

[0039] The access point information includes at least one of the following: a service setidentifier (SSID) of the access point, a name of the access point, a frequency band of the accesspoint, a media access control (MAC) address of the access point, an IP address of the accesspoint, a signal strength, and a number of users accessing the access point.

[0040] At step S12, a target access point is determined based on the access pointinformation of the at least one access point.

[0041] At step S13, a target connection manner of establishing a connection with atarget access device corresponding to the target access point is determined based on first accesspoint information of the target access point.

[0042] The target connection manner includes a multi-link connection manner or awireless connection manner.

[0043] In the multi-link connection manner, the multi-link device establishesconnections with the target access point device on a plurality of frequency bands of a pluralityof access points, respectively. In the wireless connection manner, the multi-link deviceestablishes a connection with the target access point device on a single frequency band of asingle access point.

[0044] At step S14, the connection with the target access device is established basedon the target connection manner.

[0045] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the access point information ofthe at least one access point is acquired, and the target access point is determined based on theaccess point information of the at least one access point. Further, based on the first access pointinformation of the target access point, the target connection manner of establishing theconnection with the target access device corresponding to the target access point is determined.The target connection manner includes the multi-link connection manner and the wirelessconnection manner. Therefore, according to the solutions of the present disclosure, the multi-linkdevice is no longer limited to being only connected with the access device supportingmulti-links, but can select a better target access point and establish the multi-link connectionor the wireless connection with the target access device corresponding to the target access point,thereby expanding the application scenarios of the multi-link device and realizing the greatcompatibility.

[0046] How to determine the target connection manner of establishing the connectionwith the target access device corresponding to the target access point based on the first accesspoint information of the target access point at step S13 will be described below in detail.

[0047] In some embodiments, based on the first access point information of the targetaccess point, it is determined that the target connection manner of establishing the connectionwith the target access device corresponding to the target access point is the multi-linkconnection manner. Fig. 3 shows a flow chart of a method of determining a target connectionmanner, which includes the following steps.

[0048] At step S21, it is determined that the first access point information of the targetaccess point includes first information, and an access point identifier and reduced neighborreport information included in the first access point information are acquired.

[0049] The first information is used to indicate a capability of the target access devicecorresponding to the target access point supporting the multi-link connection manner, theaccess point identifier is used to identify the target access device corresponding to the targetaccess point, and the neighbor reduction report information is used to indicate second accesspoint information of a cooperative access point of the target access point, in which the targetaccess point and the cooperative access point are associated with the same target access device,and the access points associated with the same target access device have the same access pointidentifier.

[0050] In an embodiment, the first information is a multi-link information element(Multi-Link IE). When the first access point information of the target access point includesMulti-Link IE, the target access device corresponding to the target access point may beconsidered as a multi-link access device.

[0051] At step S22, second access point information of the cooperative access point isdetermined based on the reduced neighbor report information.

[0052] At step S23, if the second access point information includes the access pointidentifier, it is determined that the target connection manner of establishing the connection withthe target access device corresponding to the target access point is the multi-link connectionmanner.

[0053] The second access point information includes a basic multi-link informationelement, and the access point identifier is included in the basic multi-link information element.

[0054] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, if the second access pointinformation of the cooperative access point includes the access point identifier, it indicates thatthe cooperative access point and the target access point are associated with the same targetaccess device. In this case, the multi-link device can simultaneously establish the connectionwith the target access device through the target access point and the cooperative access point.

[0055] In some embodiments, the neighbor reduction report information includeschannel information of the cooperative access point.

[0056] In an embodiment, a working channel of the cooperative access point isdetermined through the reduced neighbor report information, and the second access pointinformation of the cooperative access point is received in the working channel of thecooperative access point.

[0057] In some embodiments, the working channel of the cooperative access point isdetermined through the reduced neighbor report information, and the second access pointinformation of the cooperative access point is received in the working channel of thecooperative access point, which can be specifically implemented as following steps, as shownin Fig. 4.

[0058] At step S31, a frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point isdetermined based on the reduced neighbor report information.

[0059] At step S32, when the multi-link device supports the frequency bandcorresponding to the cooperative access point, the working channel of the cooperative accesspoint is determined, and the second access point information of the cooperative access point isreceived in the working channel of the cooperative access point.

[0060] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the multi-link device can receivethe second access point information of the cooperative access point in the working channel ofthe cooperative access point, only when the multi-link device supports the frequency bandcorresponding to the cooperative access point.

[0061] In some embodiments, when it is determined that the target connection manneris the multi-link connection manner, the multi-link device establishes the multi-link connectionwith the target access device on the frequency band corresponding to the target access pointand the frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point based on the multi-linkconnection manner.

[0062] For example, if the frequency bands supported by the multi-link device are 2.4Gand 5G, the frequency band corresponding to the target access point is 2.4G, and the frequencyband corresponding to the cooperative access point of the target access point is 5G, the multi-linkdevice can simultaneously establish the connection with the target access device through2.4G of the target access point and 5G of the cooperative access point of the target access point.

[0063] In some embodiments, based on the first access point information of the targetaccess point, it is determined that the target connection manner of establishing the connectionwith the target access device corresponding to the target access point is the wireless connectionmanner. A method of determining the target connection manner includes the following steps.

[0064] If the first access point information of the target access point does not includethe first information, and / or the multi-link device does not support the frequency bandcorresponding to the cooperative access point of the target access point, it is determined thatthe target connection manner of establishing the connection with the target access devicecorresponding to the target access point is the wireless connection manner.

[0065] In an embodiment, the first information may be the Multi-Link IE. When thefirst access point information of the target access point does not include the Multi-Link IE, thetarget access device corresponding to the target access point may be considered as a single-linkaccess device, and the multi-link device cannot perform the multi-link connection in this case.

[0066] In another embodiment, the first access point information of the target accesspoint includes the Multi-Link IE, but the multi-link device does not support the frequency bandcorresponding to the cooperative access point of the target access point. In this case, the multi-linkdevice cannot be connected with the target access device through the cooperative accesspoint, and the multi-link device can only be connected with the target access device throughthe target access point.

[0067] For example, the frequency band supported by the target access point is 2.4G,the frequency band supported by the cooperative access point of the target access point is 5G,and the frequency bands supported by the multi-link device are 2.4G and 6G. It can be seenthat the multi-link device does not support the 5G frequency band supported by the cooperativeaccess point of the target access point, and the multi-link device can only be connected withthe target access point through 2.4G.

[0068] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, if the first access pointinformation of the target access point does not include the first information, and / or the multi-link device does not support the frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access pointof the target access point, it is determined that the target connection manner of establishing theconnection with the target access device corresponding to the target access point is the wirelessconnection manner, so that the multi-link device can establish the wireless connection with thetarget access device on the frequency band corresponding to the target access point. Therefore,the multi-link device is no longer limited to being connected with the access device supportingmulti-links, but can establish the multi-link connection or the wireless connection with thetarget access device corresponding to the target access point based on a better target accesspoint, thus expanding the application scenarios of the multi-link device and realizing the greatcompatibility.

[0069] In some embodiments, when it is determined that the target connection manneris the wireless connection manner, the multi-link device establishes the wireless connectionwith the target access device on the frequency band corresponding to the target access pointbased on the wireless connection manner.

[0070] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, when it is determined that the targetconnection manner is the wireless connection manner, the multi-link device can establish thewireless connection with the target access device on the frequency band corresponding to thetarget access point, so that the multi-link device is no longer limited to only being connectedwith the access device supporting multi-links, but can establish the multi-link connection orthe wireless connection with the target access device corresponding to the target access pointbased on a better target access point, thus expanding the application scenarios of the multi-linkdevice and realizing the great compatibility.

[0071] How to acquire the access point information of the at least one access point atstep S11 is described below. Fig. 5 shows a flow chart of a method of acquiring the access pointinformation of the access point, which includes the following steps.

[0072] At step S41, a message frame sent by the at least one access point is acquired.

[0073] The message frame includes a beacon frame and / or a probe response frame.

[0074] At step S42, the access point information of the at least one access point isdetermined based on the message frame.

[0075] In an embodiment, when the multi-link device scans the AP in a passivescanning manner, the multi-link device continuously switches and monitors the beacon frameson various channels, and records the information of all the beacon frames sent by the AP.

[0076] The beacon frame is a broadcast frame, and the beacon frame has a one to onecorrespondence with the access point. The beacon frame includes information of the accesspoint that sends the beacon frame, such as channel information, SSID, and basic service set ID(BSSID) encryption information of the access point that sends the beacon frame. BSSID isMAC address information.

[0077] In another embodiment, when the multi-link device scans the AP in an activescanning manner, the multi-link device broadcasts a probe request frame on channels in asupported channel list, and the AP responds with the probe response frame after receiving theprobe request frame. The multi-link device acquires the access point information of thesurrounding access points based on the probe response frame, such as the name, the basicservice set identifier, the received signal strength indication of the access point, etc.

[0078] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the multi-link device candetermine the access point information of the at least one access point in the active scanningmanner or the passive scanning manner.

[0079] In some embodiments, after acquiring the access point information of the atleast one access point, the multi-link device generates a candidate connection list which isdisplayed in the multi-link device, and determines the target access point based on a preset ruleor a user's selection.

[0080] By taking determining the target access point based on the preset rule as anexample, how to determine the target access point based on the access point information of theat least one access point is explained below. Fig. 6 shows a flow chart of a method ofdetermining the target access point, which includes the following steps.

[0081] At step S51, a candidate connection list is determined based on the access pointinformation of the at least one access point.

[0082] The candidate connection list at least includes the information of the at least oneaccess point, such as the name of the access point, the frequency band of the access point, thesignal strength of the access point, and so on.

[0083] At step S52, the access points in the candidate connection list are screened basedon a first preset rule.

[0084] At step S53, the screened access points are prioritized based on a second presetrule.

[0085] At step S54, the access point with a highest priority is determined as the targetaccess point.

[0086] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the access point with the highestpriority is determined as the target access point based on the preset rules, so that the multi-linkdevice can be connected with the target access device corresponding to the target access pointbased on a better target access point, thus expanding the application scenarios of the multi-linkdevice and achieving the great compatibility while ensuring the communication quality.

[0087] In some embodiments, the first preset rule is that the service set identifier andthe corresponding encryption type of the access point do not match. That is, if the service setidentifier and the corresponding encryption type of the access point in the candidate connectionlist do not match, the access point whose service set identifier and corresponding encryptiontype do not match in the candidate connection list is screened out, so as to ensure the successrate of the multi-link device being connected with the access point device through the accesspoint.

[0088] In some embodiments, the second preset rule includes at least one of thefollowing: the frequency band of the access point, the signal strength of the access point, or theencryption type of the access point.

[0089] For example, the screened access points are prioritized according to their signalstrengths, and the access point with the best signal strength is determined as the target accesspoint.

[0090] Based on the same concept, the embodiments of the present disclosure alsoprovide a communication device.

[0091] The communication device according to the embodiments of the presentdisclosure may include corresponding hardware structures and / or software modules configuredto perform the various functions. In combination with the units and algorithm steps of theexamples disclosed in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the embodiments of thepresent disclosure can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardwareand computer software. Whether a function is executed by hardware or in the form of computersoftware driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of thetechnical solution. Those skilled in the art may use different methods to realize the describedfunctions for each specific application, but this realization should not be considered beyond thescope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0092] Fig. 7 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an illustrativeembodiment. Referring to Fig. 7, the device includes an acquiring module 101, a processingmodule 102 and a connection module 103.

[0093] The acquiring module 101 is configured to acquire access point information ofat least one access point.

[0094] The processing module 102 is configured to determine a target access pointbased on the access point information of the at least one access point, and to determine a targetconnection manner of establishing a connection with a target access device corresponding tothe target access point based on first access point information of the target access point. Thetarget connection manner includes a multi-link connection manner or a wireless connectionmanner.

[0095] The connection module 103 is configured to establish a connection with thetarget access device based on the target connection manner.

[0096] In an embodiment, the processing module 102 is configured to: determine thatthe first access point information of the target access point includes first information, andacquire an access point identifier and reduced neighbor report information included in the firstaccess point information, in which the first information is used to indicate that a capability ofthe target access device corresponding to the target access point supporting the multi-linkconnection manner, the access point identifier is used to identify the target access devicecorresponding to the target access point, and the reduced neighbor report information is usedto indicate second access point information of a cooperative access point of the target accesspoint, in which the target access point and the cooperative access point are associated with thesame target access device, and the access points associated with the same target access devicehave the same access point identifier; determine the second access point information of thecooperative access point based on the reduced neighbor report information; and determine thatthe target connection manner of establishing the connection with the target access devicecorresponding to the target access point is the multi-link connection manner, if the secondaccess point information includes the access point identifier.

[0097] In an embodiment, the reduced neighbor report information includes channelinformation of the cooperative access point; the processing module 102 is configured todetermine a working channel of the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighborreport information, and receive the second access point information of the cooperative accesspoint in the working channel of the cooperative access point.

[0098] In an embodiment, the processing module 102 is configured to: determine afrequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighborreport information; determine the working channel of the cooperative access point and receivethe second access point information of the cooperative access point in the working channel ofthe cooperative access point, when the multi-link device supports the frequency bandcorresponding to the cooperative access point.

[0099] In an embodiment, the connection module 103 is configured to establish themulti-link connection with the target access device on the frequency band corresponding to thetarget access point and the frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point basedon the multi-link connection manner.

[00100] In an embodiment, the processing module 102 is configured to determine thatthe target connection manner of establishing the connection with the target access devicecorresponding to the target access point is the wireless connection manner, if the first accesspoint information of the target access point does not include the first information, and / or themulti-link device does not support the frequency band corresponding to the cooperative accesspoint of the target access point.

[00101] In an embodiment, the connection module 103 is configured to establish thewireless connection with the target access device on the frequency band corresponding to thetarget access point based on the wireless connection manner.

[00102] In an embodiment, the acquiring module 101 is configured to acquire a messageframe sent by the at least one access point, in which the message frame includes a beacon frameand / or a probe response frame, and to determine the access point information of the at least oneaccess point based on the message frame.

[00103] In an embodiment, the processing module 102 is configured to determine acandidate connection list based on the access point information of the at least one access point,screen access points in the candidate connection list based on a first preset rule, prioritize thescreened access points based on a second preset rule, and determine the access point with thehighest priority as the target access point.

[00104] In an embodiment, the first preset rule is that a service set identifier and acorresponding encryption type of the access point do not match.

[00105] In an embodiment, the second preset rule includes at least one of the following:a frequency band, a signal strength and an encryption type of the access point.

[00106] With regard to the device in the above embodiments, the specific manners inwhich the various modules perform operations have been detailed in the embodiments relatedto the method, and will not be elaborated herein.

[00107] Fig. 8 is a block diagram of a communication device 200 according to anillustrative embodiment. For example, the device 200 may be a mobile phone, a computer, adigital broadcast device, a messaging device, a game console, a tablet device, a medical device,a fitness device, a personal digital assistant, and the like.

[00108] As illustrated in Fig. 8, the device 200 may include one or more components ofthe followings: a processing component 202, a memory 204, an electric power component 206,a multimedia component 208, an audio component 210, an input / output (I / O) interface 212, asensor component 214 and a communication component 216.

[00109] The processing component 202 usually controls an overall operation of thedevice 200, such as operations associated with display, telephone calls, data communications,camera operations, and recording operations. The processing component 202 may include oneor more processors 220 to execute instructions, to complete all or part of the steps in the abovemethods. In addition, the processing component 202 may include one or more modules whichfacilitate interaction between the processing component 202 and other components. Forexample, the processing component 202 may include a multimedia module to facilitateinteraction between the multimedia component 208 and the processing component 202.

[00110] The memory 204 is configured to store various types of data to supportoperations at the device 200. Examples of such data include instructions for any applicationprograms or methods operated on the device 200, contact data, phonebook data, messages,pictures, videos, etc. The memory 204 may be implemented by any type of volatile or nonvolatilestorage devices, or a combination thereof, such as a static random access memory(SRAM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), aread-only memory (ROM), a magnetic memory, a flash memory, a magnetic or optical disk.

[00111] The electric power component 206 provides electric power to variouscomponents of the device 200. The electric power component 206 may include a powermanagement system, one or more power sources, and other components related to generation,management, and distribution of electric power in the device 200.

[00112] The multimedia component 208 includes a screen that provides an outputinterface between the device 200 and the user. In some embodiments, the screen may includea liquid crystal display (LCD) and a touch panel (TP). If the screen includes the touch panel,the screen may be implemented as a touch screen to receive input signals from the user. Thetouch panel includes one or more touch sensors to sense touches, swipes, and gestures on thetouch panel. The touch sensors may not only sense a boundary of a touch or swipe action, butalso sense a duration and a pressure associated with the touch or swipe action. In someembodiments, the multimedia component 208 includes a front camera and / or a rear camera.When the device 200 is in an operation mode, such as a photographing mode or a video mode,the front camera and / or the rear camera may receive external multimedia data. Each of the frontand rear cameras may be a fixed optical lens system or have a focus and optical zoom capability.

[00113] The audio component 210 is configured to output and / or input audio signals.For example, the audio component 210 includes a microphone (MIC) configured to receive anexternal audio signal when the device 200 is in an operating mode, such as a call mode, arecording mode, and a speech recognition mode. The received audio signal may be furtherstored in the memory 204 or transmitted via the communication component 216. In someembodiments, the audio component 210 further includes a loudspeaker, which is configured tooutput the audio signals.

[00114] The I / O interface 212 provides an interface between the processing component202 and a peripheral interface module, such as a keyboard, a click wheel, a button and the like.The buttons may include, but are not limited to, a home button, a volume button, a startingbutton, and a locking button.

[00115] The sensor component 214 includes one or more sensors for providing stateassessments of various aspects of the device 200. For example, the sensor component 214 maydetect an on / off state of the device 200, a relative positioning of the components, such as thedisplay and the keypad of the device 200, a change in position of the device 200 or of acomponent of the device 200, a presence or an absence of the user's contact with the device200, an orientation or an acceleration / deceleration of the device 200, and a change intemperature of the device 200. The sensor component 214 may include a proximity sensorconfigured to detect the presence of nearby objects without any physical contact. The sensorcomponent 214 may also include a light sensor, such as a CMOS or CCD image sensor, for usein imaging applications. In some embodiments, the sensor component 214 may also include anaccelerometer sensor, a gyroscope sensor, a magnetic sensor, a pressure sensor, or a temperaturesensor.

[00116] The communication component 216 is configured to facilitate wired or wirelesscommunication between the device 200 and other devices. The device 200 can access a wirelessnetwork based on a communication standard, such as Wi-Fi, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G or 6G, or acombination of them. In an illustrative embodiment, the communication component 216receives a broadcast signal or broadcast related information from an external broadcastmanagement system via a broadcast channel. In an illustrative embodiment, the communicationcomponent 216 further includes a near field communication (NFC) module to facilitate short-rangecommunication. For example, the NFC module may be implemented based on a radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology, an infrared data association (IrDA) technology, anultra-wideband (UWB) technology, a Bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

[00117] In an illustrative embodiment, the device 200 may be implemented with one ormore application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digitalsignal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs), controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, or other electroniccomponents, for performing the methods described above.

[00118] In an illustrative embodiment, there is also provided a non-transitory computerreadable storage medium including instructions, such as the memory 204 including instructions.The instructions can be executed by the processor 220 of the device 200 to perform the methodsdescribed above. For example, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium may be aROM, a random access memory (RAM), a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an opticaldata storage device, and the like.

[00119] It may be further understood that "a plurality of" in the present disclosureindicates two or more, and other quantifiers are similar to this. The term "and / or" describes anassociation relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. Forexample, A and / or B may represent the following three cases: Only A exists, both A and B exist,and only B exists. The character " / " generally indicates that the associated former and latterobjects are in an "or" relationship. The singular forms "a / an", "one", and "the" are also intendedto include plural forms, unless otherwise clearly specified in the context.

[00120] It may be further understood that the terms "first", "second", etc. are used todescribe various information, but the information should not be limited to these terms. Theseterms are only used to distinguish the same type of information from each other, and do notindicate a specific order or degree of importance. In fact, the terms such as "first" and "second"may be used interchangeably. For example, without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure, the first information may also be referred to as the second information, and similarly,the second information may also be referred to as the first information.

[00121] It may be further understood that, unless otherwise specified, "connection"includes both direct connection with no other components between two and indirect connectionwith other elements between two.

[00122] It may be further understood that, although the operations are described in aspecific order in the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure, it should not beunderstood that the operations are required to be performed in the shown specific order or in aserial order, or all the shown operations need to be performed to get a desired result. In specificcircumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous.

[00123] Those skilled in the art will be aware of other embodiments of the presentdisclosure after considering the specification and practicing the invention disclosed herein. Thepresent application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptive changes of the presentdisclosure, which follow the general principles of the present disclosure and include commonknowledge or conventional technical means in the technical field not disclosed in the presentdisclosure.

Claims

1. A communication method, applied to a multi-link device, the method comprising: acquiring (S11) access point information of at least one access point; determining (S12) a target access point based on the access point information of the at least one access point; determining (S13) a target connection manner of establishing a connection with a target access device corresponding to the target access point based on first access point information of the target access point, wherein the target connection manner comprises a multi-link connection manner or a wireless connection manner; and establishing (S14) the connection with the target access device based on the target connection manner.

2. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein determining the target connection manner of establishing the connection with the target access device comprises: determining that the first access point information of the target access point comprises first information, acquiring an access point identifier and reduced neighbor report information comprised in the first access point information, wherein the first information is configured to indicate that a capability of the target access device corresponding to the target access point supporting the multi-link connection manner, the access point identifier is configured to identify the target access device corresponding to the target access point, and the reduced neighbor report information is configured to indicate second access point information of a cooperative access point of the target access point, wherein the target access point and the cooperative access point are associated with a same target access device, and access points associated with the same target access device have a same access point identifier; determining the second access point information of the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighbor report information; and determining that the target connection manner of establishing the connection with the target access device corresponding to the target access point is the multi-link connection manner, in response to determining that the second access point information comprises the access point identifier.

3. The communication method according to claim 2, wherein the reduced neighbor report information comprises channel information of the cooperative access point; and determining the second access point information of the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighbor report information comprises: determining a working channel of the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighbor report information, and receiving the second access point information of the cooperative access point in the working channel of the cooperative access point.

4. The communication method according to claim 3, wherein determining the working channel of the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighbor report information, and receiving the second access point information of the cooperative access point in the working channel of the cooperative access point, comprises: determining (S31) a frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point based on the reduced neighbor report information; and in response to determining that the multi-link device supports the frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point, determining (S32) the working channel of the cooperative access point, and receiving (S32) the second access point information of the cooperative access point in the working channel of the cooperative access point.

5. The communication method according to claim 4, wherein establishing the connection with the target access device based on the target connection manner comprises: establishing a multi-link connection with the target access device on a frequency band corresponding to the target access point and the frequency band corresponding to the cooperative access point based on the multi-link connection manner.

6. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein determining the target connection manner of establishing the connection with the target access device comprises: in response to determining that the first access point information of the target access point does not comprise first information, and / or the multi-link device does not support a frequency band corresponding to a cooperative access point of the target access point, determining that the target connection manner of establishing the connection with the target access device corresponding to the target access point is the wireless connection manner.

7. The communication method according to claim 6, wherein establishing the connection with the target access device based on the target connection manner comprises: establishing a wireless connection with the target access device on a frequency band corresponding to the target access point based on the wireless connection manner.

8. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein acquiring access point information of at least one access point comprises: acquiring (S41) a message frame sent by the at least one access point, wherein the message frame comprises a beacon frame and / or a probe response frame; and determining (S42) the access point information of the at least one access point based on the message frame.

9. The communication method according to claim 8, wherein determining the target access point based on the access point information of the at least one access point comprises: determining (S51) a candidate connection list based on the access point information of the at least one access point; screening (S52) access points in the candidate connection list based on a first preset rule; prioritizing (S53) the screened access points based on a second preset rule; and determining (S54) the access point with a highest priority as the target access point.

10. The communication method according to claim 9, wherein the first preset rule is that a service set identifier and a corresponding encryption type of a screened access point do not match.

11. The communication method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the second preset rule comprises at least one of a frequency band, a signal strength and an encryption type of the screened access point.

12. A communication device, applied to a multi-link device, the device comprising: an acquiring module (101) configured to acquire access point information of at least one access point; a processing module (102) configured to determine a target access point based on the access point information of the at least one access point, and determine a target connection manner of establishing a connection with a target access device corresponding to the target access point based on first access point information of the target access point, wherein the target connection manner comprises a multi-link connection manner or a wireless connection manner; and a connection module (103) configured to establish the connection with the target access device based on the target connection manner.

13. A communication device (200), comprising: a processor (220); and a memory (204) configured to store instructions executable the processor (220), wherein the processor (220) is configured to perform a communication method according to any one of claims 1-11.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed by a processor of a terminal, cause the terminal to perform a communication method according to any one of claims 1-11.