Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

Embodiments of this application provide a communication method and apparatus, and relate to the field of communications technologies, to resolve a technical problem that a transmitted AP does not carry a parameter element of an AP if the AP has performed a channel switch before the transmitted AP sends a management frame, and therefore a STA associated with the AP cannot learn that the AP has performed the channel switch. The method includes: A first AP generates a management frame, where the management frame includes a capability information field, the capability information field includes first indication information, the first indication information indicates whether another AP in a first AP multi-link device has performed a channel switch, and the first AP multi-link device includes the first AP; and the first AP sends the management frame to a first station STA.

Description

Abstract This application provides a communication method and apparatus, relating to the field of communication technology, to solve the technical problem that if an AP has already completed channel switching before sending a management frame, the transmitting AP does not carry the parameter elements of that AP, thus preventing the STA associated with that AP from knowing that the AP has performed channel switching. The method includes: a first AP generating a management frame, wherein the management frame includes a capability information field, the capability information field including first indication information, the first indication information indicating whether other APs in the first AP multi-link device have performed channel switching, the first AP multi-link device including the first AP; the first AP sending the management frame to a first STA.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising: receiving, by a first station STA, a management frame from a first access point AP, wherein the management frame comprises first critical update flag signaling, the first critical update flag signaling indicates that information about another AP in a first AP multi-link device changes, wherein the first AP multi-link device comprises the first AP; and parsing, by the first STA, the management frame, characterized in that the information about another AP in a first AP multi-link device changes comprises whether an AP is removed from the first AP multi-link device; or that the information about another AP in a first AP multi-link device changes comprises whether an AP is newly added to the first AP multi-link device; or that the information about another AP in a first AP multi-link device changes comprises a change in a disable / enable state of one or more APs in the first AP multi-link device.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: a value of the critical parameter update value of the AP in the first AP multi-link device is adjusted based on occurrence of any event in a critical basic service set BSS parameter event corresponding to the AP.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein each time a critical BSS parameter event of the AP occurs, a critical parameter update value of the AP is increased by 1.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the critical BSS parameter event comprises at least one of the following events: an enhanced distributed channel access, EDCA, parameter element is modified, a direct sequence spread spectrum, DSSS, parameter set element is modified, a high throughput, HT, operation element is modified, a wide bandwidth channel switch element is comprised, a wide bandwidth channel switch wrapper element is comprised, an operating mode notification element is comprised, an operation element is modified, a high efficient, HE, operation element is modified, a broadcast target wake time, TWT, element is inserted, a BSS color change announcement element is comprised, a multi-user, MU, EDCA parameter set element is modified, a spatial multiplexing parameter set element is modified, and an extremely high throughput, EHT, operation element is modified.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the critical parameter update value is a critical basic service set, BSS, parameter change count value.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a value of the first critical update flag signaling is a first value or a second value.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein when the first critical update flag signaling is set to the first value, the first value is maintained up to a next DTIM beacon frame.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the management frame further comprises second critical update flag signaling, and the second critical update flag signaling indicates that information about another AP other than a non-transmitted AP in a second AP multi-link device changes, a critical parameter update value of the another AP changes, or a critical parameter update value of a non-transmitted AP changes, wherein at least one AP in the second AP multi-link device and the first AP belong to a same multiple basic service set identifier, BSSID, set.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein that information about another AP other than a non-transmitted AP in a second AP multi-link device changes comprises whether an AP is removed from the second AP multi-link device; that information about another AP other than a non-transmitted AP in a second AP multi-link device changes comprises whether an AP is newly added to the second AP multi-link device; that information about another AP other than a non-transmitted AP in a second AP multi-link device changes comprises a change in a disable / enable state of one or more APs in the second AP multi-link device; or that information about another AP other than a non-transmitted AP in a second AP multi-link device changes comprises a change in an operating link of one or more APs in the second AP multi-link device.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, further comprising: a value of the critical parameter update value of the AP in the second AP multi-link device is adjusted based on occurrence of any event in a critical BSS parameter event corresponding to the AP.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein each time a critical BSS parameter event of the AP occurs, a critical parameter update value of the AP is increased by 1.

12. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein a value of the second critical update flag signaling is a first value or a second value.

13. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein when the second critical update flag signaling is set to the first value, the first value is maintained up to a next DTIM beacon frame.

14. A communication apparatus, wherein the communication apparatus comprises a processor, and the processor is configured to run a computer program or instructions, to perform the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

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