Selecting an access point in a wireless network using a data flow metric

• US 20100278158A1
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Sung-Ju, Lee, JeongKeun
• Granted Patent: US 8,493,947 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Available access points (AP) are searched in a wireless network for information of each channel between a client and each AP and the information includes at least one network performance metric. A list of the available APs and the information are received at the client and the client has at least one interface used for communicating with each AP. A type of a data flow and a corresponding data flow metric for the type of data flow are also determined. An AP is selected to receive the data flow from the list of the available APs based on the information of each channel and the type of the data flow metric, and the data flow is received at the client from the selected AP in the wireless network.

Claims

1. At least one computer readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by a computer system performs a method for receiving a data flow at a client from an access point (AP) in a wireless network, the method comprising:

searching available APs in the wireless network for information of at least one channel between the client and each AP, wherein the information of the at least one channel includes at least one network performance metric;

receiving a list of the available APs and the information of the at least one channel between the client and each AP, wherein the client has at least one interface that is used for communicating with each AP;

determining a type of a data flow to receive at the client, and a corresponding data flow metric for the type of data flow;

selecting an AP for the client to receive the data flow there from, from the list of the available APs based on the information of the at least one channel and the type of the data flow metric; and

receiving the data flow at the client from the selected AP in the wireless network via the at least one interface of the client.

2. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein selecting an AP further comprises:

selecting the AP that has a most optimal network performance metric for the data flow.

3. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the most optimal network performance metric comprises a best performance for transmitting the data flow.

4. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the at least one interface comprises only one interface and the client receives multiple data flows from the selected AP.

5. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 4, wherein the client has multiple data flows and the method comprises:

prioritizing the multiple data flows; and

the selecting an AP further includes selecting an AP for a highest priority data flow of the multiple data flows.

6. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the client receives the highest priority data flow of the multiple data flows from the selected AP of the highest priority data flow and receives a lower priority data flow of the multiple data flows from a second AP that has a most optimal network performance metric for the lower priority data flow after the client received the highest priority data flow.

7. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the at least one interface comprises more than one interface and the client receives multiple data flows from multiple different selected APs simultaneously.

8. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein each selected AP has a most optimal network performance metric for the each corresponding data flow.

9. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

storing at the client the list of the available APs and the information of the at least one channel between the client and each AP.

10. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

sending a request from the client to the selected AP to receive the data flow from the selected AP.

11. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein a type of the at least one network performance metric from the selected AP matches the type of the data flow metric.

12. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein storing the information of the at least one channel further comprises:

updating the information of the at least one channel between the client and each AP.

13. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein updating the information of the at least one channel further comprises:

periodically scanning the available APs to update the at least one metric network performance metric for each available AP.

14. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein updating the information of the at least one channel further comprises:

storing at the client the updated information of the at least one channel; and

selecting from client an AP from the list of the available APs based on the updated information.

15. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the at least one network performance metric and the data flow metric comprise at least one of signal strength, latency, bandwidth, and loss rate.

16. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the type of the data flow comprises at least one of Voice over IP, streaming video, streaming audio, and a bulk transfer of data.

17. At least one computer readable storage medium including instructions that when executed by a computer system performs a method for receiving a data flow at a client from an access point (AP) in a wireless network, the method comprising:

searching available APs in the wireless network for information of at least one channel between the client and each AP, wherein the information of the at least one channel includes at least one network performance metric;

receiving a list of the available APs and the information of the at least one channel between the client and each AP, wherein the client has at least one interface that is used for communicating with each AP;

determining a type of a data flow to receive at the client, and a corresponding data flow metric for the type of data flow;

storing at the client the list of the available APs and the information of the at least one channel between the client and each AP;

selecting an AP for the client to receive the data flow from the list of the available APs based on the information of the at least one channel and the type of the data flow metric, wherein a type of the at least one network performance metric from the selected AP matches the type of the data flow metric and the selected AP has a most optimal network performance metric for the data flow;

sending a request from the client to the selected AP to receive the data flow from the selected AP; and

receiving the data flow at the client from the selected AP in the wireless network via the at least one interface of the client.

18. The at least one computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the at least one interface comprises more than one interface and the client receives multiple data flows and each multiple data flow is received from each selected AP that has the most optimal network performance metric for the each corresponding multiple data flow.

19. A computer system configured to receive a data flow at a client from an access point (AP) in a wireless network, the computer system comprising:

a processor configured to search available APs in the wireless network for information of the at least one channel between the client and each AP, wherein the information of the at least one channel includes at least one network performance metric,

wherein the processor is further configured to receive a list of the available APs and the information of the at least one channel between the client and each AP, determine a type of a data flow and a corresponding data flow metric for the type of data flow, select an AP to receive the data flow from the list of the APs, send a request to receive the data flow from the selected AP, and receive the data flow;

an interface configured to receive the list of the APs, the data flow metric, the information of the at least one channel between the client and the each AP, and the data flow, wherein the information of the at least one channel includes at least one network performance metric; and

a data storage storing the list of the APs, the data flow metric, and the information of the at least one channel between the client and the each AP.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein each data flow of the more than one data flow is received from each AP of more than one AP that has a most optimal network performance metric for the each corresponding data flow.