SWITCHING FREQUENCY BAND OF RADIO OF ACCESS POINT

• US 20170041935A1
• Filed: 08/03/2016
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Shanmugam, Shanmugamari, Kenlampady Sebastian, Celestian, Muthurangam, Asvin Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 10,588,030 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/10 adapted for operation in multiple networks, e.g. multi-mode access points

Abstract

According to an example, a first radio of an access point is operated on a first frequency band and a second radio of an access point is operated on a second frequency band. The second radio is switched from the first frequency band to the second frequency band.

Claims

1. A wireless controller (WC) comprising a processer and non-transitory machine readable storage medium storing instructions executable by the processor to manage an access point (AP);

the instructions including instructions to;

cause a first radio of the access point to operate on a first frequency band;

cause a second radio of the access point to operate on a second frequency band;

monitor a load on the first radio of the access point;

and switch the first radio from the first frequency band to the second frequency band in response to determining that a load of the first radio on the first frequency band is below a threshold.

2. The wireless controller of claim 1 wherein the instructions are to switch the first radio from the first frequency band to the second frequency band in response to determining that the load on the first radio on the first frequency band is below said threshold and that the load on the second radio on the second frequency band is above a second threshold.

3. The wireless controller of claim 1 wherein the instructions include instructions to migrate clients associated with the first radio on the first frequency band to another radio or another access point, before switching the first radio to the second frequency band.

4. The wireless controller of claim 1 wherein the instructions include instructions to operate the second radio on a first channel of the second frequency band and to switch the first radio to a second channel of the second frequency band, said second channel of the second frequency band being non-overlapping with the first channel of the second frequency band.

5. The wireless controller of claim 4 further comprising instructions to balance load between the first radio and second radio by causing a portion of the clients associated with the second radio on the first channel to switch to the first radio on the second channel.

6. The wireless controller of claim 5 wherein the instructions are to cause a portion of the clients to switch from the first channel to the second channel by issuing a channel change command to said portion of the clients, or by causing said portion of the clients to dissociate with the access point and allocating said portion of the clients to the second channel when they re-associate with the access point.

7. The wireless controller of claim 1 wherein the instructions include instructions to, in response to detecting a client operating on a first frequency band entering a service area of the access point, cause the client to associate with a neighboring access point on the first frequency band or switch the first radio back to the first frequency band.

8. An access point (AP) comprising:

—

a first radio capable of operating on a first frequency band and a second frequency band,

a second radio capable of operating on at least a second frequency band,

and a processor to monitor wireless traffic conditions and to operate the first radio on the first frequency band and the second radio on the second frequency band, or to operate both the first radio and the second radio on the second frequency band based on the monitored wireless traffic conditions, or based on an instruction received from an external wireless controller.

9. The access point of claim 8 wherein the wireless traffic conditions include at least one of:

a number of clients associated with the access point on the first frequency band, a number of clients associated with the access point on the second frequency band, a load on the first radio, a load on the second radio, wireless interference and the traffic load of adjacent access points on the first frequency band and second frequency band.

10. The access point of claim 8 wherein the AP is to operate the second radio on a first channel of the second frequency band, switch the first radio to a second channel of the second frequency band and cause at least one client of the AP to switch from the first channel of the second frequency band to the second channel of the second frequency band.

11. The access point of claim 8 wherein, while the first radio is associated with a client in the second frequency band, the processor is to cause the first radio to periodically scan for clients on both the first frequency band and the second frequency band.

12. The access point of claim 8 wherein, in response to receiving an association request from a client in the first frequency band while the first radio is operating on the second frequency band, the AP is to cause clients associated with the first radio on the second frequency band to switch to the second radio on the second frequency band and switch the first radio to the first frequency band.

13. The access point of claim 8 further comprising a third radio capable of operating on the first frequency band and wherein the processor is to switch the first radio between the first frequency band and the second frequency band based on the relative load on the second radio and the third radio.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions executable by a processor to:

operate a first radio of an access point on a first frequency band;

operate a second radio of the access point on a second frequency band;

determine whether the frequency band of the first radio should be switched from the first frequency band to the second frequency band; and

in response to a determination that the frequency band of the first radio should be switched, switch the first radio from the first frequency band to the second frequency band;

wherein the first frequency band is one of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz and the second frequency band is the other of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the instructions to determine whether the frequency band of the first radio or the frequency band of the second radio should be switched, include instructions to switch the first radio to the second frequency band in response to determining that no clients are associated with the access point on the first frequency band.