Roaming in a wireless mesh network

• US 10,327,242 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2016
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NETGEAR, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NETGEAR, Inc.
• Inventors: Amini, Peiman, Emmanuel, Joseph Amalan Arul
• Primary Examiner(s): Yuen, Kan
• Application Number:
  US15/287,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20170135018A1
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/44 Star or tree networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/20 Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/06 Testing, supervising or monitoring using simulated traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Introduced here are techniques to provide automated mesh point survey and guided installation for assisting the installation and configuration of a wireless mesh network. Additional implementation techniques are also introduced including, for example, link rate estimation, roaming, and dedicated backhaul link implementation in such wireless mesh network, are also discussed. Among other benefits, this disclosure provides an integral solution where multiple wireless local area network (WLAN) mesh point devices are deployed in a relatively large environment with potential dead spots, such as a home or an office.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for roaming implementation in a wireless mesh network formed with one or more mesh points, the method comprising:

causing a wireless link to be established between a first mesh point and a client;

without requiring that the established wireless link to be corrupted or lost, causing a second mesh point to measure a plurality of qualitative parameters indicative of a quality of a potential link between the second mesh point and the client;

causing the plurality of qualitative parameters indicative of the quality of the potential link to be transmitted to a controlling entity of the wireless mesh network;

comparing, by the controlling entity, the quality of the potential link between the second mesh point and the client against a quality of the established wireless link between the first mesh point and the client;

upon determining that the quality of the potential link exceeds the quality of the established wireless link by a select level, causing the controlling entity to issue one or more instructions resulting in the client roaming from the first mesh point to the second mesh point; and

determining whether the client supports intelligent roaming;

wherein, when the client does not support intelligent roaming, the one or more instructions include a deauthentication or a disassociation frame, with a reason code reflecting a roaming decision by the controlling entity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each mesh point in the wireless mesh network is capable of acting as the controlling entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a mesh point in the wireless mesh network is designated as the controlling entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling entity is the first mesh point.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling entity is a server remote from the wireless mesh network.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

routing the one or more instructions to the first and second mesh points.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing the first mesh point to measure the plurality of qualitative parameters indicative of the quality of the established wireless link between the first mesh point and the client; and

causing the plurality of qualitative parameters to be transmitted to the controlling entity of the wireless mesh network.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

constructing a list of roaming candidates, each roaming candidate having a score indicative of an estimated quality of a potential link between the client and a corresponding roaming candidate.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the controlling entity is configured to select a roaming candidate with the highest score on the list of roaming candidates as the second mesh point.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of qualitative parameters are averaged over a select amount of packets.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting the plurality of qualitative parameters based on a modulation and coding scheme used in the established wireless link.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a profile containing, for a select number of clients, a roaming capability and a roaming behavior of each client; and

selecting, for each client, the one or more instructions based on a profile of a corresponding client.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the profiled is established based on one or more unique identifiers of the client.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the client supports intelligent roaming;

wherein, when the client supports intelligent roaming, the one or more instructions include a roaming directive and an identifier of the second mesh point.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more instructions are IEEE 802.11v, IEEE 802.11k and/or IEEE 802.11r compliant instructions.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

delaying issuance of the one or more instructions if the client has active data traffic and/or if a quality of service (QoS) option is active.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the QoS option requires a minimum service level for a type of the active data traffic.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more instructions include:

roaming the client to another mesh point, roaming the client to another frequency band, roaming the client to another channel, or a combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of qualitative parameters include, in addition to an received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value:

a potential or current transmission data rate, a potential or current packet aggregate size, a potential or current packet error rate (PER), a potential or current retry count, a potential or current available airtime, and/or a potential or current delay on the link.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more instructions include:

roaming the client to another mesh point, roaming the client to another frequency band, roaming the client to another channel, or a combination thereof.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of qualitative parameters include, in addition to an received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value:

a potential or current transmission data rate, a potential or current packet aggregate size, a potential or current packet error rate (PER), a potential or current retry count, a potential or current available airtime, and/or a potential or current delay on the link.

22. A computer-implemented method for roaming implementation in a wireless mesh network formed with one or more mesh points, the method comprising:

causing a wireless link to be established between a first mesh point and a client;

without requiring that the established wireless link to be corrupted or lost, causing a second mesh point to measure a plurality of qualitative parameters indicative of a quality of a potential link between the second mesh point and the client;

causing the plurality of qualitative parameters indicative of the quality of the potential link to be transmitted to a controlling entity of the wireless mesh network;

comparing, by the controlling entity, the quality of the potential link between the second mesh point and the client against a quality of the established wireless link between the first mesh point and the client;

upon determining that the quality of the potential link exceeds the quality of the established wireless link by a select level, causing the controlling entity to issue one or more instructions resulting in the client roaming from the first mesh point to the second mesh point; and

determining whether the client supports intelligent roaming;

wherein, when the client supports intelligent roaming, the one or more instructions include a roaming directive and an identifier of the second mesh point.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein each mesh point in the wireless mesh network is capable of acting as the controlling entity.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein a mesh point in the wireless mesh network is designated as the controlling entity.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the controlling entity is the first mesh point.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the controlling entity is a server remote from the wireless mesh network.

27. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

routing the one or more instructions to the first and second mesh points.

28. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

causing the first mesh point to measure the plurality of qualitative parameters indicative of the quality of the established wireless link between the first mesh point and the client; and

causing the plurality of qualitative parameters to be transmitted to the controlling entity of the wireless mesh network.

29. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

constructing a list of roaming candidates, each roaming candidate having a score indicative of an estimated quality of a potential link between the client and a corresponding roaming candidate.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the controlling entity is configured to select a roaming candidate with the highest score on the list of roaming candidates as the second mesh point.

31. The method of claim 22, wherein one or more of the plurality of qualitative parameters are averaged over a select amount of packets.

32. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

adjusting the plurality of qualitative parameters based on a modulation and coding scheme used in the established wireless link.

33. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

establishing a profile containing, for a select number of clients, a roaming capability and a roaming behavior of each client; and

selecting, for each client, the one or more instructions based on a profile of a corresponding client.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the profiled is established based on one or more unique identifiers of the client.

35. The method of claim 22, wherein the one or more instructions are IEEE 802.11v, IEEE 802.11k and/or IEEE 802.11r compliant instructions.

36. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

delaying issuance of the one or more instructions if the client has active data traffic and/or if a quality of service (QoS) option is active.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the QoS option requires a minimum service level for a type of the active data traffic.