Clientless mobile subscribers with seamless roaming over scalable wide area wireless networks

• US 8,036,655 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2010
• Issued: 10/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Ng, Kris, So, Tricci, Touray, Yusupha, Wade, Donald, Mahmood, Hamid, Kadri, Fayaz
• Primary Examiner(s): Perez-Gutierrez, Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Arevalo, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US12/785,151
• Publication Number:
  US 20100226336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 508 Days
• Field of Search: 455/432.1
• US Class Current: 455/432.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/18 for allowing seamless reselection, e.g. soft reselection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/24 between backbone network devices

Abstract

System and method for seamless roaming over scalable wide area Wireless LAN networks (WAWLAN) with clientless mobile subscribers. A preferred embodiment comprises a wireless gateway (WG) coupled to one or more access points in a wireless network to form a wireless cluster (WC), a network access gateway (NAG) coupled to a wired network, and a switch coupled to the WG and the NAG. Each wireless cluster is a Wireless LAN Network (WLAN) with homogenous or heterogeneous network architecture. The WG detects mobile nodes in a wireless cluster and tracks mobile node location in the wireless cluster. The NAG is an anchor point for mobile nodes in the WAWLAN and maintains a fixed source of information about each mobile node regardless of their mobility. The switch provides connectivity between the NAG and the WG. Seamless roaming across Wireless LAN network boundary by mobile subscribers without requiring special mobility enabling client software.

Claims

1. A network comprising at least two wireless networks, said at least two wireless networks supporting roaming and comprising:

a wireless gateway comprising a plurality of wireless gateway circuits coupled to a plurality of wireless network access points to form a plurality of wireless clusters, a first one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a first plurality of access points defining a first wireless cluster and a second one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a second and different plurality of said access points defining a second wireless cluster, the wireless gateway configured to track the location of a plurality of mobile nodes in the wireless clusters, wherein first and second tracked mobile nodes of said plurality support only one of, respectively, first and second different networking architectures and/or topologies, and said wireless gateway is further configured to track said mobile nodes from a first access point in a wireless cluster to another access point in the wireless cluster, said first tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said first networking architecture and/or topology and said second tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said second networking architecture and/or topology;

a network access gateway coupled to a wired network, the network access gateway comprising first and second network access gateway circuits, said first network access gateway circuit only supporting said first networking architecture and/or topology and said second network access gateway circuit only supporting said second networking architecture and/or topology, and said network access gateway configured to be an anchor point for said plurality of mobile nodes in the wireless network, to maintain a fixed source of information about each mobile node in said wireless clusters as the mobile nodes roam from a wireless cluster to another wireless cluster, and to direct incoming and outgoing traffic to and from the mobile nodes; and

a switch coupled to the wireless gateway and the network access gateway, the switch configured to provide connectivity between the network access gateway and the wireless gateway.

2. The network of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of wireless networking access points supports a different networking architecture and/or topology.

3. The network of claim 1, wherein the at least two wireless networks are based on IEEE 802.11 compliant radio technology.

4. The network of claim 1, wherein the network includes at least one wireless gateway for each wireless network.

5. The network of claim 4, wherein a wireless gateway that is associated with a wireless cluster is responsible for tracking mobile nodes only within the wireless cluster associated with the wireless gateway.

6. The network of claim 1, wherein the network includes a plurality of network access gateways, each network access gateway configured to be an anchor point, maintain a fixed source of information, and direct traffic for a subset of mobile nodes.

7. The network of claim 6, wherein the network further includes a plurality of wireless gateways, and wherein a network access gateway remains associated with a mobile node even if the mobile node moves from a first wireless gateway to a second wireless gateway.

8. The network of claim 6, wherein a mobile node is assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address upon association with the network, and wherein the mobile node is associated with a network access gateway based on the IP address.

9. The network of claim 8, wherein the mobile node maintains the assigned IP address for an entirety of time that it is associated with the network.

10. The network of claim 1, wherein the wireless gateway, the network access gateway, and the switch provide support for a predetermined number of mobile nodes, wherein additional wireless gateways, network access gateways, and switches are added to the network to support a number of mobile nodes, and wherein the number of mobile nodes is greater than the predetermined number of mobile nodes.

11. The network of claim 1, wherein a first device addressing technique is used to address packets flowing between the wireless gateway, the network access gateway and the switch and a second device addressing technique is used to address packets flowing between the wireless gateway and the mobile nodes, and wherein the first device addressing technique is different from the second device addressing technique.

12. The network of claim 1 wherein the first and second different networking architectures and/or topologies are proprietary networking architectures and/or topologies.

13. In a network comprising a wireless gateway including a plurality of wireless gateway circuits coupled to a plurality of wireless network access points to form a plurality of wireless clusters, a first one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a first plurality of access points defining a first wireless cluster and a second one of said plurality of wireless gateway circuits and a second and different plurality of said access points defining a second wireless cluster, the wireless gateway configured to track the location of mobile nodes in the wireless clusters, wherein first and second tracked mobile nodes of said plurality support only one of, respectively, first and second different networking architectures and/or topologies, and said wireless gateway is further configured to track said mobile nodes from a first access point in a wireless cluster to another access point in the same wireless cluster, said first tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said first networking architecture and/or topology and said second tracked mobile node communicating with access points in said wireless gateway according to said second networking architecture and/or topology, a method for communicating in the network, the method comprising:

establishing a session for a mobile node in the network, wherein information regarding a routing of packets to the mobile node is stored in a fixed location in the network, independent of a location of the mobile node; and

permitting the mobile node to enter an operating mode.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising, optionally authenticating the mobile node.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the establishing comprises decoding an address for the mobile node to determine the fixed location.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the fixed location is a network access gateway, and wherein the fixed location is used to store configuration information determined by an address of the mobile node.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising after the permitting, updating the information at the fixed location if the mobile node has roamed to a different portion of the network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein each wireless cluster of said plurality is associated with a wireless gateway, and wherein the updating comprises:

decoding an address for the mobile node to determine the fixed location; and

providing configuration information of the mobile node to the fixed location.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the fixed location is used to store configuration information determined by an address of the mobile node, and wherein the address of the mobile node remains constant as the mobile node roams about the network.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the first and second different networking architectures and/or topologies are proprietary networking architectures and/or topologies.