Centralized access control system and methods for distributed broadband access points

• US 20060191005A1
• Filed: 02/23/2005
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Muhamed, Rias, Wolter, David Randall, Doradla, Anil Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,316,434 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/105 PBS [Private Base Station] network H04W84/12 - H04W84/16 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

In accordance with the teachings herein, a wireless access point module having a plug and play feature and an auto-configuration engine may be used to provide substantial benefits to business owners, Internet service providers, and subscribers. The wireless access point module may have memory and a processor configured such that during “power-up” the processor reads instruction from memory and automatically creates a virtual private network (VPN) with a centralized access gateway via a network VPN server. In turn, the wireless access point module may utilize this VPN for subscriber communications.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising:

a first access point configured to receive wireless data via a local area wireless network from a plurality of wireless devices;

a second access point configured to receive different wireless data via a different local area wireless network from a plurality of different wireless devices;

a memory local to the first access point;

a tunneling client stored in the memory and operable to automatically connect to a network-based tunneling server; and

a centralized access control gateway communicatively coupled to the tunneling server, the centralized access control gateway and configured to receive traffic originating from at least one of the plurality of wireless devices through a tunnel established between the first access point and the tunneling server.

2. The communication system of claim 1, further comprising a centralized authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) module communicatively coupled to the centralized access control gateway, wherein the AAA module is configured to authenticate at least one of the plurality of wireless devices and at least one of the plurality of different wireless devices.

3. The communication system of claim 1, further comprising a virtual private network server operable to couple the plurality of access points to a Public Internet via the centralized access control gateway.

4. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the hotspot is a plug and play hotspot and can support hardwired devices.

5. A method of communicating with a plurality of remotely located access points comprising;

assigning an access control gateway to at least one remotely located access point, the access control gate way configured to transmit and receive over a wide area network;

recording the assignment;

auto-configuring a tunneled communication from the at least one remotely located access point to the assigned access control gateway utilizing the recorded assignment;

detecting the presence of a different remotely located access point; and

automatically connecting wireless users to the wide area network utilizing the access control gateway.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising assigning the control gateway based on one of location, bandwidth, and performance capacity.

7. An integrated communication access point comprising:

a local area wireless interface configured to receive a client transmission from a wireless-enabled device;

a wide area network (WAN) interface communicatively coupled to the local area wireless interface and configured to output the client transmission to a wide area network;

a link detector associated with the WAN interface, the link detector configured to output a WAN available signal;

an auto-configuration engine configured to output a request for configuration in response to the WAN available signal; and

a tunneling engine configured to establish a tunnel at least partially interconnecting the WAN interface and a WAN node.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the WAN node is a centralized access controller configured to receive communications from a plurality of devices having a WAN interface and to establish a separate tunnel over a public communication system between each of the plurality of devices and the WAN node.

9. The system as in claim 7, further comprising an authorization module coupled to the WAN interface and configured to ensure that all communication from the WAN interface is sent to a centralized gateway until the client transmissions can interface resources other than the centralized gateway.

10. The system as in claim 7, wherein the tunnel is automatically established between the WAN interface and a service provider.

11. The system as in claim 7, wherein the tunnel establishes a virtual private network and the virtual private network can be established utilizing one of an IPSec, IP in IP, GRE and L2TP protocol.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the wireless interface utilizes one of a WiFi and a WiMax protocol.

13. The system of claim 7, further comprising memory for storing an address of a gateway that authorizes the connection of a wireless-enabled device.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the WAN node is located at one of an Internet service provider (ISP) point of presence, a central office, a remote terminal or a broadband remote access location and a data center.

15. The system of claim 7, further comprising a configuration server coupled to the WAN node and the WAN interface and configured to facilitate communications between the WAN node and the WAN interface.

16. A method for providing distributed network access comprising:

transmitting an authorization protocol from a broadband router to a predetermined server configured to connect the broadband router to a wide area network;

establishing a virtual private network link between the broadband router and the predetermined server over a public communications network; and

authorizing clients for access to resources other than the predetermined server via the virtual private network.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising auto-configuring the broadband router when the broadband router has data communications confined to the predetermined server.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the authorization protocol contains a broadband router identifier.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising provisioning a centralized gateway to receive authorization transmissions from a plurality of distributed access points.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising assigning a hotspot to a remote server based on one of a network speed and network service load.

21. The method of claim 16 further comprising connecting an Ethernet card to the broadband router allowing hard-wired users to communicate over the network.