CLIENT BRIDGE BETWEEN WIRED AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

• US 20120314634A1
• Filed: 06/09/2011
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Sekhar, Ramesh V.
• Granted Patent: US 8,553,603 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/40 using split connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0222 in packet switched networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method and client bridge for bridging clients between a wired and wireless communication network includes a radio transceiver with a register and a controller for indicating to the wireless network that all wired client devices of the wired network are in Power Save Polling (PSP) mode, selecting the next wired client to be indicated as being in Continuously Awake Mode (CAM) mode, storing a Media Access Control (MAC) address of that selected client in the register, indicating to the wireless network that the selected client is in CAM mode, receiving any packets from the wireless network, which are acknowledged using the register, indicating to the wireless network that the selected client is back in PSP mode, and repeating these operations until all wired client communications are serviced.

Claims

1. A client bridge between a wired and wireless communication network, comprising:

a radio transceiver;

a register of the radio transceiver; and

a controller coupled to the radio transceiver, wherein the controller is operable to direct the radio transceiver to indicate to the wireless communication network that all wired client devices of the wired communication network are in Power Save Polling (PSP) mode, select the next wired client to be indicated as being in Continuously Awake Mode (CAM) mode, store a Media Access Control (MAC) address of that next wired client in the register, direct the radio transceiver to indicate to the wireless communication network that the next wired client is in CAM mode, wherein the radio transceiver is operable to receive any packets from the wireless communication network addressed to the next wired client, and acknowledge the received packets using the register, and wherein the controller is also operable to direct the radio transceiver to indicate to the wireless communication network that the next wired client is back in PSP mode, and repeat these operations until all wired client communications are serviced.

2. The client bridge of claim 1, wherein the wired client devices require simultaneous communication with the wireless communication network.

3. The client bridge of claim 1, further comprising a scheduler having pre-defined scheduling scheme in use by the client bridge, wherein the controller will select the next wired client device based on the scheduling scheme.

4. The client bridge of claim 1, wherein the client bridge uses the MAC address of the selected next wired client device for communication with the wireless communication network instead of its own.

5. The client bridge of claim 4, wherein the client bridge associates with the wireless communication network as a wireless device using the MAC address of the selected next wired client device.

6. The client bridge of claim 1, wherein the next wired client device and wireless communication network exchange data packets through the client bridge that waits a sufficient amount of time to complete the exchange of data packets.

7. The client bridge of claim 6, wherein the exchange operation of the client bridge includes packets buffered in a buffer on behalf of that selected next wired client for the wireless communication network and packets buffered by an access point of the wireless communication network for that selected next wired client device.

8. A client bridge between a wired and wireless communication network, comprising:

a radio transceiver;

a register of the radio transceiver; and

a controller coupled to the radio transceiver, wherein the controller is operable to direct the radio transceiver to indicate to the wireless communication network that all wired client devices of the wired communication network requiring simultaneous communication with the wireless communication network are in Power Save Polling (PSP) mode, select the next wired client to be in Continuously Awake Mode (CAM) mode, store the Media Access Control (MAC) address of that next wired client in the register, direct the radio transceiver to indicate to the wireless communication network that the next wired client is in CAM mode, wherein the radio transceiver is operable to receive any packets from the wireless communication network addressed to the next wired client, acknowledge the received packets using the register, exchange packets between the next wired client device and an access point of the wireless communication network, including any packets buffered in the buffer (108) on behalf of that next wired client and any packets buffered by the access point of the wireless communication network, and wherein the controller is also operable to direct the radio transceiver to indicate to the wireless communication network that the next wired client is back in PSP mode, and repeat these operations until all wired client communications are serviced.

9. A method for bridging clients between a wired and wireless communication network, the method comprising the steps of:

indicating to a wireless communication network that all wired client devices are in Power Save Polling (PSP) mode;

selecting the next wired client to be indicated to the wireless communication network as being in Continuously Awake Mode (CAM) mode;

storing the Media Access Control (MAC) address of that next wired client in a radio hardware register of the client bridge;

indicating to the wireless communication network that that next wired client is in CAM mode;

receiving any packets from the wireless communication network having the MAC address of the selected next wired client device;

acknowledging those received packets by the radio hardware register to the wireless communication network;

indicating to the wireless communication network that the next wired client is now in PSP mode; and

repeating the above steps until all wired client communications are serviced.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the wired client devices require simultaneous communication with the wireless communication network.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting includes selecting based on a pre-defined scheduling scheme in use by the client bridge.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein selecting includes the client bridge using the MAC address of the selected next wired client device for communication with the wireless communication network instead of its own.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of indicating to the wireless communication network that that next wired client is in CAM mode includes the client bridge associating with the wireless communication network as a wireless device having the MAC address of that selected next wired client device.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the acknowledging step includes exchanging packets between the selected next wired client device and the wireless communication network, including any packets buffered in the access point for the next wired client device and any packets buffered in the client bridge buffer for delivery to the wireless communication network.

15. The method of claim 15, wherein exchanging includes waiting a sufficient amount of time to complete the exchange of data packets.