SYSTEM, APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MANAGING CLIENT DEVICES WITHIN A WIRELESS NETWORK

• US 20140059218A1
• Filed: 10/28/2013
• Published: 02/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Aruba Networks Incorporated (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Ganu, Sachin, Narasimhan, Partha, Iyer, Pradeep, Chan, Ken Kaho
• Granted Patent: US 9,326,313 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/02 Access restriction performed under specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a system and computer-readable storage medium for storage of software directed to the management of associations between network devices is described. The computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one hardware processor on a network device, causes performance of operations, comprising: (1) determining a desired operating state for a client device under analysis, the client device being associated with a first network device of a plurality of network devices; (2) detecting if a triggering event has occurred based on a comparison of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis to an actual operating state for the client device under analysis; and (3) in response to detecting that the triggering event has occurred, causing the client device to wirelessly connect to a second network device of the plurality of network devices in lieu of the first network device.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed by at least one hardware processor on a network device, causes performance of operations, comprising:

determining a desired operating state for a client device under analysis, the client device being associated with a first network device of a plurality of network devices;

detecting, by at least one network device, if a triggering event has occurred based on a comparison of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis to an actual operating state for the client device under analysis; and

in response to detecting that the triggering event has occurred, causing the client device to wirelessly connect to a second network device of the plurality of network devices in lieu of the first network device.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the at least one network device being at least one of the first network device, the second network device or a third network device.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the determining of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis comprises analyzing signal strength measurements for signaling from the client device as received by at least the first network device and the second network device of the plurality of network devices, the desired operating state being a state of association with one of the first network device and the second network device having a higher signal strength measurement than the other of the first network device and the second network device of the plurality of network devices.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the actual operating state is the signal strength associated with signaling from the client device as measured by the first network device.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the determining of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis is based on a load for one or more frequency bands that are associated with a particular type of radio unit for one of the first network device and the second network device.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the load for the one or more frequency bands identifies a number of client devices operating on a particular frequency band of the one or more frequency bands.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the determining of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis is based on a load for one or more channels for one or more frequency bands that are provided by radio units of the first network device and the second network device.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the load for the one or more channels identifies a number of client devices operating on a particular channel for a particular frequency band of the one or more frequency bands.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the actual operating state is based on a client health metric that is a measure of a quality of a link between the client device and the first network device and the triggering event is detected upon determining that the client health metric falls below a predetermined threshold.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the client health metric comprises a ratio between (i) an actual time needed to deliver a particular amount of data taking into account data rate and a number of retries, and (ii) an ideal time taking into account a maximum data rate and no retries being conducted.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein detecting that the triggering event has occurred comprises determining that a difference between the desired operating state and the actual operating state exceeds a threshold value.

12. A system comprising:

at least one network device including a hardware processor;

the system configured to perform operations comprising;

determining a desired operating state for a client device under analysis, the client device being associated with a first access point of a plurality of access points,

detecting, by the at least one network device, if a triggering event has occurred based on a comparison of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis to an actual operating state for the client device under analysis, and

in response to detecting that the triggering event has occurred, causing the client device to wirelessly connect to a second access point of the plurality of network devices in lieu of the first access point.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the determining of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis comprises analyzing signal strength measurements for signaling from the client device as received by at least the first network device and the second network device of the plurality of network devices, the desired operating state being a state of association with one of the first network device and the second network device having a higher signal strength measurement than the other of the first network device and the second network device of the plurality of network devices.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the actual operating state is the signal strength associated with signaling from the client device as measured by the first network device.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the determining of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis is based on a load for one or more frequency bands that are associated with a particular type of radio unit for one of the first network device and the second network device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the load for the one or more frequency bands identifies a number of client devices operating on a particular frequency band of the one or more frequency bands.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the determining of the desired operating state for the client device under analysis is based on a load for one or more channels for one or more frequency bands that are provided by radio units of the first network device and the second network device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the load for the one or more channels identifies a number of client devices operating on a particular channel for a particular frequency band of the one or more frequency bands.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the actual operating state is based on a client health metric that is a measure of a quality of a link between the client device and the first network device and the triggering event is detected upon determining that the client health metric falls below a predetermined threshold.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the client health metric comprises a ratio between (i) an actual time needed to deliver a particular amount of data taking into account data rate and a number of retries, and (ii) an ideal time taking into account a maximum data rate and no retries being conducted.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the detecting that the triggering event has occurred comprises determining that a difference between the desired operating state and the actual operating state exceeds a threshold value.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one network device being at least one of the plurality of access points.