WIRELESS ACCESS POINT SUPPORTING CONTROL BY MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS

• US 20100157960A1
• Filed: 12/18/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jiang, Shawn, Gual, Chris, Shen, Hui, Banerjee, Anirban, Roberts, David A., Mahajan, Saurabh
• Granted Patent: US 8,855,087 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A computing device configurable as a wireless network access point that can be controlled from multiple applications. The computing device provides an interface through which applications may input commands to change the state of the access point. The interface responds to these commands and other events, such as association or disassociation of a wireless client, in a manner that does not disrupt the applications or devices using the access point. To determine an appropriate response to any event, the interface may maintain state information, including a count of the number of applications and/or wireless devices that have taken action indicating an operating state of the wireless access point.

Claims

1. A method of operating a wireless network access point that supports a plurality of operating states, the method comprising:

detecting an event indicative of use of the access point by an application or a wireless client in a state of the plurality of states;

in response to detecting the event, selecting an operating state for the access point based on the event and state information representing one or more prior events, each prior event indicative of use of the access point by an application or a wireless client in a state of the plurality of states; and

configuring the access point to operate in the selected state.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to detecting the event, updating the state information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the plurality of operating states comprises;

an active state in which the access point is beaconing and listening for connection requests from wireless devices;

an inactive state in which the access point is neither beaconing nor listening for connection requests from wireless devices; and

a silent state in which the access point is listening for connection requests from wireless devices but not beaconing.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

when the access point is in the inactive state and the event comprises a command from an application to start the access point;

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the silent state; and

updating the state information comprises storing an indication that one application requested silent state operation of the access point.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

when the access point is in the silent state and the event comprises a command from an application to start the access point;

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the silent state; and

updating the state information comprises increasing an indication of the number of applications requesting silent state operation of the access point.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

when the access point is in the silent state and the event comprises a command from an application to stop the access point;

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the silent state when the indication of the number of applications requesting silent state operation is greater than one;

updating the state information comprises decreasing the indication of the number of applications requesting silent state operation of the access point; and

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the inactive state when the updated indication of the number of applications requesting silent state operation indicates no applications.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein:

when the access point is in the silent state and the event comprises a command from an application to advertise the access point;

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the active state; and

updating the state information comprises storing an indication that one application has requested beaconing by the access point.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein:

when the access point is in the active state and the event comprises a command from an application to advertise the access point;

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the active state; and

updating the state information comprises increasing an indication of the number of applications that have requested beaconing by the access point.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein:

when the access point is in the active state and the event comprises a command from an application to hide the access point;

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the active state when the indication of the number of applications that have requested beaconing by the access point indicates that more than one application has requested beaconing;

updating the state information comprises decreasing the indication of the number of applications that have requested beaconing by the access point; and

selecting the operating state comprises selecting the silent state when the updated indication of the number of applications that have requested beaconing by the access point indicates that no application has requested beaconing.

10. A computer storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions thereon, the computer-executable instructions comprising:

an interface for an access point, the interface adapted to, when executed;

receive a command from an application;

determine an operating state of the access point based on the command and stored state information relating to operation of the access point; and

generate a command to the access point to place the access point in the determined operating state.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 10, wherein the interface is further adapted to:

receive from the access point an indication of a successful association with a wireless device; and

update the stored state information to indicate the wireless device is associated with the access point.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 11, wherein the interface is further adapted to:

receive from the access point an indication of disassociation of a previously associated wireless device;

determine an operating state of the access point based on the disassociation of a previously associated wireless device and stored state information relating to operation of the access point; and

update the stored state information to indicate the wireless device disassociated from the access point.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 12, wherein the interface is adapted to update the stored state information to indicate the wireless device is associated with the access point by increasing a count representative of beaconing requests by one.

14. The computer storage medium of claim 13, wherein the interface is adapted to, in response to receiving the indication of disassociation of a previously associated wireless device:

decrease the count of beaconing requests by one; and

when the decreasing decreases the count of beaconing requests to zero, determine the operating state of the access point based on the disassociation of the previously associated wireless device and the stored state information by determining the operating state to be a state in which the access point does not actively beacon.

15. The computer storage medium of claim 14, wherein the interface is adapted to:

in response to receiving a command from an application to actively beacon, increase the count representative of beaconing requests by one; and

in response to receiving a command from an application to hide the access point;

decrease the count representative of beaconing requests by one.

16. A computing device comprising:

an access point configurable to operate in a plurality of states, the plurality of states comprising an active state, an inactive state and a silent state; and

a computer storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions thereon, the computer-executable instructions comprising;

a plurality of applications; and

an interface for an access point, the interface adapted to;

receive a command from an application of the plurality of applications;

receive from the access point an indication of a successful association with a wireless device;

receive from the access point an indication of disassociation from the access point of a previously associated wireless device;

determine an operating state of the access point based on stored state information relating to operation of the access point and one or more of the command, the indication of a successful association and the indication of the disassociation; and

generate a command to the access point to place the access point in the determined operating state.

17. The computing device of claim 16, further comprising:

a plurality of counters, wherein the stored state information comprises the values in the plurality of counters.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein:

a first counter of the plurality of counters stores a count of a number of associated wireless devices; and

the interface is adapted to, in response to receiving an indication of disassociation of a previously associated wireless device, decrease the first counter by one.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein:

a second counter of the plurality of counters stores a count of a number of commands received to start the access point; and

the interface is adapted to, in response to receiving a command to stop the access point, decrease the second counter by one.

20. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the plurality of applications comprises at least one application adapted to synchronize data with a wireless device.