PROVISIONING ACCESS POINT BANDWIDTH BASED ON PREDETERMINED EVENTS

• US 20150120930A1
• Filed: 10/31/2013
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Aruba Networks Cayman (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company), Aruba Networks Incorporated (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: KAMTHE, ANKUR
• Granted Patent: US 9,591,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a method and network device for provisioning access point bandwidth based on predetermined events. The disclosed system identifies a pattern for one or more devices over a period of time, the pattern indicating that the one or more devices (a) connect to a particular access point at a particular time of day, or (b) are located near the particular access point at the particular time of day. Prior or approximately the particular time, the disclosed system facilitates at least one client device associated with the particular access point to associate with a second and different access point. The disclosed system then provides, by the particular access point to the one or more devices, access to network resources.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing embedded instructions for a plurality of operations that are executed by one or more mechanisms implemented within a network device having a processor and a memory, the plurality of operations comprising:

identifying characteristics of data transmitted by a particular client device;

selecting a particular access point from a plurality of access points to provide network access to the particular client device based on the characteristics of the data transmitted by the particular client device; and

facilitating the particular client device to associate with the particular access point from the plurality of access points for the particular client device to obtain the network access.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein facilitating the particular client device to associate with the particular access point comprises:

configuring the particular access point to accept a request from the particular client device, the request being related to obtaining network access; and

configuring one or more access points other than the particular access point from the plurality of access points to reject the request from the particular client device.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the data transmitted by the particular client device indicate an application or an application type corresponding to the data.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of the data transmitted by the particular client device include an amount of the data transmitted by the particular client device.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the data, transmitted by the particular client device, comprises data being transmitted when the selecting operation is performed.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the characteristics of data, transmitted by the particular client device, comprises characteristics of data typically transmitted by the particular client device at a same period of time during a set of one or more prior days.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing embedded instructions for a plurality of operations that are executed by one or more mechanisms implemented within a network device having a processor and a memory, the plurality of operations comprising:

identifying a pattern for one or more devices over a period of time, the pattern indicating that the one or more devices (a) connect to a particular access point at a particular time of day, or (b) are located near the particular access point at the particular time of day;

responsive to the identifying operation;

prior to or approximately at the particular time, facilitating at least one client device associated with the particular access point to associate with a second access point that is different from the particular access point;

providing, by the particular access point to the one or more devices, access to network resources.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the facilitating operation is performed when the at least one client device has a better level of connectivity with the particular access point than the second access point.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the facilitating operation is performed further in response to determining that the at least one client device historically transmits less data than the one or more client devices.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein prior to the providing operation, accepting, by the particular access point, an association request received from each of the one or more devices at approximately the particular time.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7,

wherein the facilitating operation is further responsive to computing a probability value that the one or more devices (a) connect to the particular access point at the particular time of day, or (b) are located near the particular access point at the particular time of day, and

wherein the facilitating operation is further responsive to the probability value exceeding a threshold value.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the facilitating operation is further responsive to computing a probability that an amount of data transmitted by the one or more devices will exceed a threshold value during a period of time starting at approximately the particular time.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the facilitating operation is further based on user characteristics of a user associated with the one or more client devices.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the facilitating operation is further based on characteristics of data transmitted by the one or more client devices.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the facilitating operation is further based on one or more applications corresponding to data transmitted by the one or more client devices.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the pattern is determined based on historical usage of the one or more client devices.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the pattern is based on a calendared event associated with a user of the one or more client devices.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the facilitating operation is further responsive to determining that a load at the particular access point is to be reduced.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the plurality of operations further comprises:

identifying a pattern for a second device over a second period of time, the pattern indicating that the second device will connect to the particular access point at a second time of day;

responsive to the identifying operation;

prior or approximately the particular time, facilitating at least one client device associated with the particular access point to associate with a different second access point;

responsive to determining that the second device did not connect to the particular access point at approximately the second time of day, refrain from facilitating client devices associated with the particular access point to associate with other access points.

20. A network device comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

an identifying mechanism coupled to the processor, the identifying mechanism identifying a pattern for one or more devices over a period of time, the pattern indicating that the one or more devices (a) connect to a particular access point at a particular time of day, or (b) are located near the particular access point at the particular time of day;

a facilitating mechanism coupled to the processor, the facilitating mechanism facilitating at least one client device associated with the particular access point to associate with a second access point that is different from the particular access point; and

a providing mechanism coupled to the processor, the providing mechanism providing, by the particular access point to the one or more devices, access to network resources.