BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present disclosure relates to a method and an apparatus for allocating an Internet Protocol (hereinafter referred to as ‘IP’) address in a wireless communication network, and more particularly, to a method for allocating an IP address between terminals in a wireless communication network in which terminals directly communicate with each other in a wireless scheme without an access point (hereinafter referred to as ‘AP’), and an apparatus thereof.

2. Description of Related Art

Among wireless communication technologies, a wireless fidelity (hereinafter referred to ‘Wi-Fi’) direct network technology is a technology which enables Wi-Fi terminals to be connected to each other in a peer-to-peer (hereinafter referred to as ‘P2P’) fashion without an AP being a medium of an infrastructure network. Most of existing Wi-Fi technologies are aimed at only connecting with Internet through a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) AP, consideration of direct communication between terminals is insufficient. Direct communication between terminals may be achieved by a Bluetooth technology. However, performances in transmission distance and transmission speed sides of the Bluetooth technology is deteriorated as compared with the Wi-Fi Direct technology.

An existing Wi-Fi technology supports a mode in which direct communication between terminals is possible, which called an Ad-hoc mode. However, since the Ad-hoc mode is disadvantageous in that supplement is weak, power consumption is high, and throughput is limited to 11 Mbps, it is hardly used in actuality.

The Wi-Fi direct technology supports Wi-Fi Protected Access® 2 (WPA2) to supplement weakness of security. Further, the Wi-Fi Direct technology supports simple connection between terminals using a Wi-Fi Simple Configuration (hereinafter referred to ‘WSC’). Moreover, the Wi-Fi direct technology provides an improved power consumption algorithm by supporting IEEE 802.11n to significantly improve throughput as compared with the Ad-hoc mode.

The Wi-Fi direct technology is a protocol manufactured based on IEEE 802.11, and is compatible with a legacy client. The Wi-Fi direct technology may be upgraded in a terminal without changing hardware.

Although the Wi-Fi direct technology has considerable advantages as illustrated above as compared with the Bluetooth and the Ad-hoc technology, there is a need for improvement in connection speed between terminals. The terminals perform an IP address allocation procedure after connection between the terminals is completed. That is, since the IP address allocation procedure is further performed after the connection between the terminals is completed, there is a limitation on improvement in connection speed. In particular, when one of the terminals is determined as a Group Owner (hereinafter referred to ‘GO’), a corresponding terminal performs an AP function. That is, the GO drives a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (hereinafter referred to ‘DHCP’) server to allocate an IP address to another terminal, namely, a group client (hereinafter referred to ‘GC’).

SUMMARY

To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary object to provide a method for easily and rapidly allocating an IP address between terminals in a wireless communication network, and an apparatus thereof.

In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for allocating an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a wireless terminal capable of performing P2P communication, includes: a discovery step of discovering at least one external terminal capable of performing the P2P communication and connecting with the at least one discovered external terminal by the wireless terminal; and a negotiation step of negotiating and determining with the external terminal which external terminals become a group owner and a group client in a P2P group by the wireless terminal, respectively, wherein one of the discovery step and the negotiation step includes transmitting an IP address to be allocated to the group client to the external terminal from the wireless terminal.

In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus for allocating an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a wireless terminal capable of performing P2P communication, includes: a Wi-Fi module for supporting wireless communication based on an IP, and for performing a function of an access point or a station in the P2P communication; a controller for controlling the Wi-Fi module to transmit a frame for discovery of discovering external terminals and connecting with the at least one discovered external terminal by the wireless terminal, and a frame for negotiation of negotiating and determining with the external terminal which external terminals become a group owner performing a function of an access point and a group client performing a function of a station in a P2P group, respectively, and controlling the Wi-Fi module to transmit an IP address to be allocated to the group client to the external terminal during the negotiation.

Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, such a device may be implemented in hardware, firmware or software, or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

