Clientless mobile subscribers with seamlesss roaming over scalable wide area wireless networks

• US 20060198349A1
• Filed: 11/10/2005
• Published: 09/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: So, Tricci, Touray, Yusupha, Mahmood, Hamid, Wade, Donald, Kadri, Fayaz, Ng, Kris
• Granted Patent: US 7,738,424 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/18 for allowing seamless reselection, e.g. soft reselection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/24 between backbone network devices

Abstract

System and method for seamless roaming over scalable wide area Wireless LAN networks (WAWLAN) with clientless mobile subscribers. A preferred embodiment comprises a wireless gateway (WG) coupled to one or more access points in a wireless network to form a wireless cluster (WC), a network access gateway (NAG) coupled to a wired network, and a switch coupled to the WG and the NAG. Each wireless cluster is a Wireless LAN Network (WLAN) with homogenous or heterogeneous network architecture. The WG detects mobile nodes in a wireless cluster and tracks mobile node location in the wireless cluster. The NAG is an anchor point for mobile nodes in the WAWLAN and maintains a fixed source of information about each mobile node regardless of their mobility. The switch provides connectivity between the NAG and the WG. Seamless roaming across Wireless LAN network boundary by mobile subscribers without requiring special mobility enabling client software.

Claims

1. A network comprising:

a wireless gateway coupled to one or more wireless network access points in a wireless network to form a wireless cluster, the wireless gateway configured to track mobile node location in the wireless cluster, detect the presence of mobile nodes in the wireless cluster, and direct message traffic;

a network access gateway coupled to a wired network, the network access gateway configured to be an anchor point for mobile nodes in the wireless network, maintain a fixed source of information about each mobile node regardless of the mobility of the mobile node, and direct incoming and outgoing traffic to and from the mobile nodes; and

a switch coupled to the wireless gateway and the network access gateway, the switch configured to provide connectivity between the network access gateway and the wireless gateway.

2. The network of claim 1, wherein the network comprises of at least one wireless network, and wherein each of the wireless networks has a different networking architecture and/or topology.

3. The network of claim 1, wherein the network comprises of at least one wireless network, and wherein all the wireless networks are based on IEEE 802.11 compliant radio technology.

4. The network of claim 1, wherein the network includes at least one wireless gateway for each wireless network.

5. The network of claim 4, wherein a wireless gateway that is associated with a wireless cluster is responsible for tracking mobile nodes only within the wireless cluster associated with the wireless gateway.

6. The network of claim 1, wherein the network includes a plurality of network access gateways, each network access gateway configured to be an anchor point, maintain a fixed source of information, and direct traffic for a subset of mobile nodes.

7. The network of claim 6, wherein the network further includes a plurality of wireless gateways, and wherein a network access gateway remains associated with a mobile node even if the mobile node moves from a first wireless gateway to a second wireless gateway.

8. The network of claim 6, wherein a mobile node is assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address upon association with the network, and wherein the mobile node is associated with a network access gateway based on the IP address.

9. The network of claim 8, wherein the mobile node maintains the assigned IP address for an entirety of time that it is associated with the network.

10. The network of claim 1, wherein the switch is an Ethernet switch.

11. The network of claim 1, wherein there are redundant wireless gateways, network access gateways, and switches for fault tolerance.

12. The network of claim 1, wherein the network access gateways, wireless gateways, and switches in the network provides support for a predetermined number of mobile nodes, wherein additional network access gateways, wireless gateways, and switches are be added to the network to support for a number of mobile nodes, and wherein the number of mobile nodes is greater than the predetermined number of mobile nodes.

13. The network of claim 1, wherein a first device addressing technique is used to address packets flowing between the network access gateways and the switches and the wireless gateways and a second device addressing technique is used to address packets flowing between the wireless gateways and the mobile nodes, and wherein the first device addressing technique is different from the second device addressing technique.

14. A method for communicating in a network, the method comprising:

establishing a session for a mobile node in the network, wherein information regarding a routing of packets to the mobile node is stored in a fixed location in the network, independent of a location of the mobile node; and

permitting the mobile node to enter an operating mode.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising, optionally authenticating the mobile node.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the establishing comprises decoding an address for the mobile node to determine the fixed location.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the fixed location is a network access gateway, and wherein the fixed location used to store the configuration information is determined by an address of the mobile node.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising after the permitting, updating the information at the fixed location if the mobile node has roamed to a different portion of the network.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the network comprises a plurality of wireless networks, wherein each wireless network is associated with a unique wireless gateway, and wherein the updating comprises:

decoding an address for the mobile node to determine the fixed location; and

providing configuration information of the mobile node to the fixed location.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the fixed location used to store the configuration information is determined by an address of the mobile node, and wherein the address of the mobile node remains constant as the mobile node roams about the network.