Wireless LAN control over a wired network
DCFirst Claim
1. Apparatus for mobile communication, comprising:
- a switch, having a plurality of ports for connection to a wired local area network (LAN);
a plurality of access points, which are arranged in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to communicate over the air in accordance with a predefined WLAN protocol on a common frequency channel with a mobile station using a common basic service set identification (BSSID) for all the access points, and which are coupled by the LAN to the switch so that upon receiving at one or more of the access points an uplink packet transmitted over the WLAN by the mobile station on the common frequency channel, the one or more of the access points convey messages responsively to the uplink packet over the LAN to the switch; and
a manager node, which is coupled to the switch so as to receive the messages and is adapted to process the messages so as to select one of the access points to respond to the uplink packet, and to send an instruction via the switch to the selected one of the access points to transmit to the mobile station a response to the uplink packet within a time limit specified by the WLAN protocol.
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Abstract
Apparatus for mobile communication includes a switch and a plurality of access points, which are arranged in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to communicate over the air on a common frequency channel with a mobile station using a common basic service set identification (BSSID) for all the access points. The access points are coupled by a LAN to the switch so that upon receiving at one or more of the access points an uplink signal transmitted over the WLAN by the mobile station on the common frequency channel, the one or more of the access points convey messages responsively to the uplink signal over the LAN to the switch. A manager node is coupled to the switch so as to receive the messages and is adapted to process the messages so as to select one of the access points to respond to the uplink signal.
117 Citations
52 Claims
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1. Apparatus for mobile communication, comprising:
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a switch, having a plurality of ports for connection to a wired local area network (LAN); a plurality of access points, which are arranged in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to communicate over the air in accordance with a predefined WLAN protocol on a common frequency channel with a mobile station using a common basic service set identification (BSSID) for all the access points, and which are coupled by the LAN to the switch so that upon receiving at one or more of the access points an uplink packet transmitted over the WLAN by the mobile station on the common frequency channel, the one or more of the access points convey messages responsively to the uplink packet over the LAN to the switch; and a manager node, which is coupled to the switch so as to receive the messages and is adapted to process the messages so as to select one of the access points to respond to the uplink packet, and to send an instruction via the switch to the selected one of the access points to transmit to the mobile station a response to the uplink packet within a time limit specified by the WLAN protocol. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. Apparatus for mobile communication, comprising:
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a switch, having a plurality of ports for connection to a wired local area network (LAN); a plurality of access points, which are arranged in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to communicate over the air with a mobile station, and which are coupled by the LAN to the switch so that upon receiving at one or more of the access points an uplink message transmitted over the WLAN by the mobile station, the one or more of the access points convey the uplink message over the LAN to the switch; and a manager node, which is connected to first and second ports among the plurality of the ports of the switch, and is configured to receive uplink messages from the access points exclusively through the first port and to convey the uplink messages exclusively via the second port over the LAN to respective destination addresses of the message, wherein the manager node has first and second addresses on the LAN, which are respectively associated with the first and second ports, and wherein the access points are adapted to convey the uplink messages over the LAN in the form of data frames directed to the first address. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method for mobile communication, comprising:
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arranging a plurality of access points in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to communicate over the air with a mobile station in accordance with a predefined WLAN protocol using a common basic service set identification (BSSID) for all the access points; receiving at one or more of the access points an uplink packet transmitted over the WLAN by the mobile station using the common BSSID; conveying messages responsively to the uplink packet from the one or more of the access points over a wired local area network (LAN) linking the access points to a manager node; processing the messages at the manager node so as to select one of the access points to respond to the uplink packet, and conveying a response instruction from the manager node to the selected one of the access points; and transmitting from the selected one of the access points to the mobile station responsively to the response instruction a response to the uplink packet within a time limit specified by the WLAN protocol. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A method for mobile communication, comprising:
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coupling a manager node to first and second ports among a plurality of ports of a switch in a wired local area network (LAN); assigning to the manager node first and second addresses on the LAN, which are respectively associated with the first and second ports; arranging a plurality of access points in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to communicate over the air with a mobile station; receiving at one or more of the access points an uplink message transmitted over the WLAN by the mobile station, the uplink message containing a destination address; passing the uplink message from the one or more of the access points over the LAN to the manager node, in the form of one or more data frames directed to the first address, via the first port of the switch, which is configured to receive uplink messages from the access points exclusively through the first port; and conveying the uplink message from the manager node via the second port over the LAN to the destination address, wherein the switch is configured to convey the uplink messages to respective destination addresses exclusively via the second port. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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Specification