Method for central planning and distributed control of client roaming and reassociation
First Claim
1. A method for distributed control of a network, comprising:
- defining a plurality of groups of client configurations; and
allocating portions of the network infrastructure to service the groups.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A technique for network planning that includes an interface for guiding a network user through the network allocation process, such as defining groups of clients based on their capabilities. Portions of the wireless local area network infrastructure, e.g., access points, are allocated among the groups. When a client attempts to associate with an access point, the access point determines the client capabilities. If the client is supported by the access point, the access point allows the client to associate and sends the client a message that contains a prioritized list of other nearby access points allocated to service that client, otherwise the access point sends a prioritized roaming list of nearby access points to the client that are allocated to serve that type of client. Feedback is provided by the network infrastructure enabling a network user or the network to automatically reallocate resources based on the feedback.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method for distributed control of a network, comprising:
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defining a plurality of groups of client configurations; and
allocating portions of the network infrastructure to service the groups. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for an access point to selectively associate clients, comprising:
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determining a feature vector of a client attempting to associate with the access point;
associating the client when the feature vector of the client is a supported feature vector by the access point. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An access point, comprising:
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a transmit circuit;
a receive circuit;
a memory configured to store a list containing at least one feature vector supported by the access point; and
a controller communicatively coupled to the transmit circuit, the receive circuit, and the memory, wherein the controller is configured to determine a client feature vector from a client attempting to associate with the access point via the receive circuit, the controller is further configured to access the memory to retrieve the list to determine whether the feature vector from the client matches a feature vector supported by the access point, and the controller is responsive to allow the client to associate by communicating with the client via the transmit circuit after determining that the feature vector from the client matches a feature vector supported by the access point. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer readable medium of instructions, comprising:
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means for defining a plurality of groups of client configurations; and
means for allocating portions of a network infrastructure to service the groups responsive to the means for defining a plurality of groups of client configurations;
wherein the groups of client configurations are at least one of mobility, traffic patterns, standards compliance and client capabilities. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification