Virtual access point for configuration of a LAN

• US 20070206527A1
• Filed: 03/01/2006
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Mehta, Pratik, Lo, Yuan-Chang
• Granted Patent: US 7,974,249 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/73 Access point logical identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/10 between terminal device and access point, i.e. wireless air interface

Abstract

A technique is disclosed for setting up and configuring a LAN. More particularly, secure communications may be configured between an access point (AP) and a client device. Virtual AP technology is utilized to assist the configuration of the network. In particular, at least two wireless networks are provided in a single A, a configuration LAN and an operational LAN, by utilizing virtual AP technology. The configuration LAN is utilized to provide communication between the AP and the client devices that is related to network setup, configuration, modification, etc. and the operational LAN provides normal LAN data communication. The configuration LAN may be provided in a relatively insecure manner that eases setup of that communication channel and the operational LAN may be provided in a more fully secure communication channel. Different types of service set identifiers (SSIDs) may be provided for configuration LANs and operational LANs so as to more easily identify the type of LAN through its SSID.

Claims

1. A method of connecting a client device to an access point, comprising:

utilizing a configuration LAN to provide an initial connection between the client device and the access point; and

switching to an operational LAN to provide a connection between the client device and the access point after the configuration LAN connection is established,

wherein the configuration LAN and the operational LAN are configured as separate LANs and

wherein the operational LAN is more secure than the configuration LAN.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration LAN and the operational LAN have different identifiers.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the LAN is a wireless LAN and the identifiers are SSID values.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the switching to an operation LAN comprises the transmitting operational settings from the access point to the client device.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising disassociating the configuration LAN connection between client device and the access point.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising utilizing the transmitted operational settings to connect the client device to the access point to establish the operational LAN connection.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration LAN has terminated logical boundaries such that configuration LAN connections have more limited boundaries as compared to operational LAN connections.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the access point creates multiple identifiers through the use of at least one virtual LAN.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the configuration LAN communicates according to a first technology protocol and the operational LAN communicates according to a second technology protocol.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the access point comprises a single device providing communication according to both the first and second technology protocols.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the access point is comprised of at least two separate devices, one providing communication according to the first protocol and one providing communication according to the second technology protocol.

12. A network access point, comprising:

a configuration LAN interface, the configuration LAN interface communicating configuration traffic of a configuration LAN for establishing a connection with a client device, the configuration traffic having limited logical boundaries to which it may be transmitted; and

an operational LAN interface, the operational LAN interface communicating communication traffic of an operational LAN to the client device, the operational LAN and the configuration LAN being separate LANs operating through the network access point, the operational LAN being a more secure LAN as compared to the configuration LAN.

13. The network access point of claim 12 wherein the network access point is a wireless access point, the network access point further comprising a wireless LAN radio.

14. The network access point of claim 12 wherein both the configuration LAN interface and the operational LAN interface are both coupled to the wireless LAN radio such that at least a portion of the wireless LAN radio is utilized for both configuration LAN communications and operational LAN communications.

15. The network access point of claim 12 wherein the configuration LAN has a first SSID and the operational LAN has a second SSID.

16. The network access point of claim 15 wherein at least one of the first and second SSIDs has one or more characters identifier the SSID as being associated with the configuration LAN or the operational LAN.

17. An information handling system, comprising:

a wireless access point;

a configuration LAN, the configuration LAN processing configuration and setup settings for connecting the wireless access point and a client device;

an operational LAN, wherein the configuration LAN and the operational LAN are both transmitted through the wireless access point, the operational LAN processing normal LAN traffic between the wireless access point and the client device;

logical boundaries within the information handling system limiting the configuration LAN traffic to only a portion of the information handling system.

18. The information handling system of claim 17 wherein the logical boundaries are limited to the wireless access point.

19. The information handling system of claim 17 wherein the configuration LAN broadcasts a first LAN identifier.

20. The information handling system of claim 19 wherein the operational LAN has a second identifier that is not broadcast.

21. The information handling system of claim 17 wherein the wireless access point may communicate through both the operational LAN and the configuration LAN at the same time.

22. The information handling system of claim 21 wherein the bandwidth of the configuration LAN is less than the operational LAN.

23. A LAN identifier format, comprising:

a plurality of characters; and

a subset of characters of the plurality of characters, the subset of characters identifying whether the LAN is at least one of a configuration LAN or an operational LAN.

24. The LAN service set identifier format of claim 23 wherein the subset of characters is a designated MODE field.

25. The LAN service set identifier format of claim 24 wherein the MODE field is at the beginning of the subset of characters.

26. The LAN service set identifier format of claim 23 wherein a designator value for both configuration LANs and operational LANs is provided.

27. A method of identifying a wireless LAN comprising:

generating or receiving a multi-character service set identifier value;

utilizing at least a portion of the multi-character service set identifier value to identify whether the wireless LAN is at least one of a configuration LAN or a wireless LAN.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the utilizing step is performed by a wireless client device to identify the type of a received service set identifier.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the utilizing step is performed by a wireless access point device to identify the type of a service set identifier generated and transmitted by the wireless access point.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the permitted values of the portion of the multi-character service set identifier include both configuration identifier values and operational identifier values.