Selecting an access point in a wireless network using a data flow metric

• US 8,493,947 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Sung-Ju, Lee, JeongKeun
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TOAN D
• Application Number:
  US12/433,644
• Publication Number:
  US 20100278158A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• Field of Search: 370/329, 370/331, 370/332, 370/338, 370/341, 370/395.21, 709/225, 709/230, 375/260
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Available access points (AP) are searched in a wireless network for information of each channel between a client and each AP and the information includes at least one network performance metric. A list of the available APs and the information are received at the client and the client has at least one interface used for communicating with each AP. A type of a data flow and a corresponding data flow metric for the type of data flow are also determined. An AP is selected to receive the data flow from the list of the available APs based on the information of each channel and the type of the data flow metric, and the data flow is received at the client from the selected AP in the wireless network.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions executed by a processor to:

receive network performance metrics for each of a plurality of channels existing between a client and respective access points (APs) in a wireless network;

assign a priority to each of a plurality of types of data flows receivable at the client, wherein the plurality of types of data flows is greater than a number of interfaces of the client;

select an AP having the network performance metric that matches a data flow metric of a highest priority data flow of the plurality of types of data flows and does not match a data flow metric of at least one other of the plurality of types of data flows;

receive the plurality of types of data flows at the client from the selected AP until the highest priority data flow is completed; and

receive remaining data flows of the plurality of types of data flows from another AP with the network performance metric that matches a data flow metric for a different data flow of the plurality of types of data flows.

2. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to select the AP include instructions to:

select the AP that has a most optimal network performance metric for the highest priority data flow.

3. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the most optimal network performance metric comprises a best performance for transmitting the highest priority data flow.

4. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the client receives the plurality of types of data flows from the selected AP over one interface.

5. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the client receives the plurality of types of data flows from multiple different selected APs simultaneously.

6. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein each selected AP has a most optimal network performance metric for each corresponding data flow.

7. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the client receives the highest priority data flow of the plurality of types of data flows from the selected AP and receives a lower priority data flow of the plurality of types of data flows from a second AP that has a most optimal network performance metric for the lower priority data flow after the client received the highest priority data flow.

8. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions include instructions to:

store at the client a list of the respective APs and information of the plurality of channels between the client and the respective APs.

9. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to store the information of the plurality of channels include instructions to:

update the information of the plurality of channels between the client and the respective APs.

10. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to update the information of the plurality of channels include instructions to:

periodically scan the respective APs to update the network performance metric for the respective APs.

11. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions executable by the processor to update the information of the plurality of channels include instructions to:

store at the client the updated information of the plurality of channels; and

select from the client an AP from the list of the respective APs based on the updated information.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions include instructions to:

send a request from the client to the selected AP to receive the highest priority data flow from the selected AP.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein a type of the network performance metric from the selected AP matches the type of the data flow metric of the highest priority data flow.

14. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the network performance metric and the data flow metric comprise at least one of signal strength, latency, bandwidth, and loss rate.

15. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the type of the highest priority data flow comprises at least one of Voice over IP, streaming video, streaming audio, and a bulk transfer of data.

16. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions, the instructions executed by a processor to:

receive network performance metrics for each of a plurality of channels existing between a client and respective access points (APs) in a wireless network;

assign a priority to each of a plurality of types of data flows receivable at the client, wherein the plurality of types of data flows is greater than a number of interfaces of the client;

select an AP having the network performance metric that matches a data flow metric of a highest priority data flow of the plurality of types of data flows and does not match a data flow metric of at least one other of the plurality of types of data flows;

send a request from the client to the selected AP to receive the plurality of types of data flows from the selected AP until the highest priority data flow is completed; and

send a request from the client to another AP with a network performance metric that matches a data flow metric for a different data flow of the plurality of types of data flows to receive the remaining data flows of the plurality of types of data flows from the other AP.

17. A system, the system comprising a processor in communication with a memory, wherein the processor is designed to carry out a set of instructions to:

receive network performance metrics for each of a plurality of channels existing between a client and respective access points (APs) in a wireless network;

assign a priority to each of a plurality of types of data flows receivable at the client, wherein the plurality of types of data flows is greater than a number of interfaces of the client;

select an AP having the network performance metric that matches a data flow metric of a highest priority data flow of the plurality of types of data flows and does not match a data flow metric of at least one of the multiple types of data flows;

send a request to receive the plurality of types of data flows from the selected AP until the highest priority data flow is completed; and

send a request from the client to another AP with a network performance metric that matches a data flow metric for a different priority data flow of the plurality of types of data flows to receive the remaining data flows of the plurality of types of data flows from the other AP.

18. A method for receiving multiple data flows at a client from an access point (AP) in a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving network performance metrics for each of a plurality of channels existing between a client and respective access points (APs) in a wireless network;

assigning a priority to each of a plurality of types of data flows receivable at the client, wherein the plurality of types of data flows is greater than a number of interfaces of the client;

selecting an AP with a network performance metric that matches a data flow metric of a highest priority data flow of the plurality of types of data flows and does not match a data flow metric of at least one other of the multiple types of data flows;

receiving the plurality of types of data flows at the client from the selected AP until the highest priority data flow is completed; and

receiving remaining data flows of the plurality of types of data flows from another AP with the network performance metric that matches a data flow metric for a different data flow of the plurality of types of data flows.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein assigning a priority to each of the plurality of data flows receivable at the client includes assigning a priority based upon the type of data flow.