Building and maintaining a network

• US 10,389,650 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2014
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aerohive Networks Incorporated (Extreme Networks, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bao, Dalun, Liu, Changming
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nicholas R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Roy, Sanjoy
• Application Number:
  US14/158,661
• Publication Number:
  US 20140280967A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,041 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/72 using reservation actions during connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/74 measures in reaction to resource unavailability

Abstract

Techniques and systems for establishing and maintaining networks. The technique includes assigning a network device to an interregional redirector system and load balancer systems. The network device can be assigned based upon the regions or subregions of the network device. The technique includes the load balancer systems assigning the network device to network device management engines. The status of the network device management engines can be monitored to determine if one of the network device management engines has failed. In the event that a network device management engine has failed, the network device can be assigned to a different network device management engine.

Claims

1. A method for building and maintaining a network, the method comprising:

operationally connecting an access point in a region that is connectable to one or more client devices in the region to an interregional redirector engine associated with a plurality of regions including the region;

receiving at the interregional redirector engine network device information of the access point, the network device information including geography information of the region and enterprise network information of the access point;

determining, by the interregional redirector engine, based on the network device information, a load balancer system uniquely associated with the region selectively from a plurality of load balancer systems that are uniquely associated with different regions and coupled to the interregional redirector engine associated with the plurality of regions;

assigning, by the interregional redirector engine, the access point to the load balancer system;

assigning, by the load balancer system, the access point to a regional network device management engine associated with the region based on the network device information, the regional network device management engine being determined selectively from a plurality of regional network device management engines that are associated with the region and coupled to different sets of one or more access points;

managing, by the load balancer system, a failure of the regional network device management engine in communication with the access point based on network device management engine failure information provided from the access point to the load balancer system without passing through the failed regional network device management engine;

managing, by the regional network device management engine, the access point in providing access to an enterprise network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising validating the access point.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the load balancer system, network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, and a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

reassigning, by the load balancer system, the access point to the second network device management engine based on the network device management engine status information from the first and second network device management engines.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the load balancer system, network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

determining the first network device management engine has failed based on the network device management engine status information;

reassigning, by the load balancer system, the access point to a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising assigning, by the load balancer system, a second access point to the second network device management engine.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising sending, from the load balancer system, a network device management engine status notification to an administration engine, the network device management engine status notification indicating a reason why the first network device management engine was determined as failed.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the load balancer system, network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, and a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

reassigning, by the load balancer system, a first portion of a plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, including the access point, to the second network device management engine without reassigning a second portion of the plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, based on the network device management engine status information received from the first and second network device management engines.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by a network device management engine message queue uniquely associated with the region, network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, and a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

retrieving, by the load balancer system, the network device management engine status information received from the first and second network device management engines from the network device management engine message queue;

reassigning, by the load balancer system, a first portion of a plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, including the access point, to the second network device management engine without reassigning a second portion of the plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, based on the network device management engine status information retrieved from the network device management engine message queue.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the load balancer system, the network device management engine failure information from the access point coupled to the failed network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

reassigning, by the load balancer system, the access point to a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, based on the network device management engine failure information from the access point.

7. A system for building and maintaining a network, the system comprising:

a plurality of access points provided in a region and configured to provide access to an enterprise network to one or more client devices in the region;

a plurality of load balancer systems uniquely associated with different regions;

a plurality of regional network device management engines associated with the region and coupled to different sets of one or more of the access points;

an interregional redirector engine associated with a plurality of regions including the region, coupled to the plurality of load balancer systems and the access points, and configured to;

receive network device information from one of the access points, the network device information including geography information of the region and enterprise network information of said one of the access points;

determine, based on the network device information, a load balancer system uniquely associated with the region selectively from the plurality of load balancer systems;

assign said one of the access points to the load balancer system;

the load balancer system configured to assign said one of the access points to a regional network device management engine determined selectively from the plurality of regional network device management engines based on the network device information and manage a failure of the regional network device management engine in communication with said one of the access points based on network device management engine failure information provided from said one of the access points to the load balancer system without passing through the failed regional network device management engine, the regional network device management engine configured to manage the access points in providing access to the enterprise network.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the interregional redirector engine is further configured to validate said one of the access points.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the load balancer system is configured to:

receive network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, and a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

reassign said one of the access points to the second network device management engine based on the network device management engine status information from the first and second network device management engines.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the load balancer system is configured to:

receive network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

determine that the first network device management engine has failed;

reassign the access point to a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the load balancer system is further configured to assign a second access point of the plurality of access points to the second network device management engine.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the load balancer system is further configured to send a network device management engine status notification to an administration engine, the network device management engine status notification indicating a reason why the first network device management engine was determined as failed.

16. The system of claim 7, wherein the load balancer system is further configured to:

receive network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, and a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

reassign a first portion of the plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, including said one of the access points, to the second network device management engine without reassigning a second portion of the plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, based on the network device management engine status information received from the first and second network device management engines.

17. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a network device management engine message queue uniquely associated with the region and configured to receive network device management engine status information from the network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, and a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines,

wherein the load balancer system is further configured to;

retrieve the network device management engine status information received from the first and second network device management engines from the network device management engine message queue;

reassign a first portion of a plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, including said one of the access points, to the second network device management engine without reassigning a second portion of the plurality of access points assigned to the first network device management engine, based on the network device management engine status information retrieved from the network device management engine message queue.

18. The system of claim 7, wherein the load balancer system is further configured to:

receive the network device management engine failure information from said one of the access points coupled to the failed network device management engine, which is a first network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines;

reassign said one of the access points to a second network device management engine of the plurality of network device management engines, based on the network device management engine failure information from said one of the access points.