Bluetooth assisted cooperative WiFi scan and roam

• US 9,491,691 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2014
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ezurio LLC
• Original Assignee: Laird Technologies Incorporated (DuPont de Nemours, Inc.)
• Inventors: deRosier, Steve, Tailor, Mahendra, Kephart, Daniel B. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisner, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US14/490,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20160081009A1
• Time in Patent Office: 782 Days
• Field of Search: 4554321-434
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• 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 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

According to various aspects, exemplary embodiments are disclosed of systems and methods related to Bluetooth assisted cooperative scan and roam for wireless networks. In an exemplary embodiment, a cooperative scan and roam Bluetooth system generally includes one or more Bluetooth nodes configured to transmit node roam table data and/or a universally unique identifier (UUID) to one or more client devices having a stored client roam table and connected to at least one of multiple access points of a wireless network. This allows the one or more client devices to update their stored client roam tables based on the transmitted node roam table data and/or roam table information obtained from a server and/or cache including multiple roam tables, based on the UUID.

Claims

1. A cooperative scan and roam BLUETOOTH system comprising:

one or more BLUETOOTH nodes configured to transmit node roam table data or a universally unique identifier (UUID) to one or more client devices, the one or more client devices each having a stored client roam table and connected to at least one of multiple access points of a wireless network;

thereby allowing the one or more client devices to update their stored client roam tables wherein, when node roam table data is transmitted, the stored client roam tables are updated based on the transmitted node roam table data, and wherein, when a UUID is transmitted, the stored client roam tables are updated based on roam table information obtained from a server according to the transmitted UUID, or are updated based on roam table information obtained from a cache including multiple roam tables according to the transmitted UUID;

wherein the one or more client devices are configured to receive the node roam table data from the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes, the server and/or the cache, and store the received node roam table data in their client roam tables; and

wherein the one or more client devices are configured to scan the one or more wireless networks to detect additional access points in the one or more wireless networks, compare scan result data to the received node roam table data, and when the scan result data is different from the received roam table data, transmit the scan result data to the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmitted node roam table data includes at least one of a network identifier, a list of potential access points corresponding to the network identifier, a channel corresponding to a potential access point, and a link quality metric corresponding to a potential access point, the link quality metric indicative of a roam quality of the corresponding potential access point.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the stored client roam table data includes at least one of a roam utility indicative of a roam quality of an access point, a media access control address of the access point, a signal strength of the access point, a rate of change of the signal strength of the access point, a previous signal strength value of the access point, and a location of origin of client roam table data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes comprise BLUETOOTH low energy (BLE) beacons; and

the client devices are configured to each use a lookup table of said client device to obtain roam table information from a server or a cache including multiple roam tables, based on an identifier reference.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more client devices comprise a BLUETOOTH communication module and a wireless network communication module.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes are configured to receive client roam table data from at least one of the one or more client devices and update a stored node roam table based on the received client roam table data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes include a wireless network client, each of the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes configured to scan for potential access points of the one or more wireless networks and update a stored node roam table of said BLUETOOTH node based on scan result data obtained from the scan for potential access points.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes are configured to receive node roam table data manually input by a user.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein when the scan result data is not different from the received roam table data, the one or more client devices are configured to receive additional node roam table data from the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more client devices are configured to connect to a different access point in the wireless network by roaming based on the received node roam table data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more client devices are configured to perform a roam using the received node roam table data.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein a first client device of the one or more client devices is configured to cooperatively share stored client roam table data with a second client device of the one or more client devices by transmitting the stored client roam table data of the first client device to the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes, thereby updating the stored node roam table of the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes, and the second client device is configured to receive the updated node roam table data from the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes include a first BLUETOOTH node having a first stored node roam table and positioned in a first location relative to the one or more wireless networks and a second BLUETOOTH node having a second stored node roam table and positioned in a second location relative to the one or more wireless networks which is different from the first location, the second BLUETOOTH node configured to transmit second node roam table data to the one or more client devices, thereby allowing the one or more client devices to update their stored client roam tables based on the transmitted second node roam table data.

14. A method of providing cooperative roaming for one or more client devices in a wireless network, the method comprising:

positioning one or more BLUETOOTH nodes in one or more wireless networks, each BLUETOOTH node configured to transmit node roam table data or a universally unique identifier (UUID) to one or more client devices, the one or more client devices each having a stored client roam table;

thereby allowing the one or more client devices to update their stored client roam tables wherein, when node roam table data is transmitted, the stored client roam tables are updated based on the transmitted node roam table data, and wherein, when a UUID is transmitted, the stored client roam tables are updated based on roam table information obtained from a server according to the transmitted UUID, or are updated based on roam table information obtained from a cache including multiple roam tables according to the transmitted UUID;

wherein the one or more client devices are configured to receive the node roam table data from the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes, the server and/or the cache, and store the received node roam table data in their client roam tables; and

wherein the one or more client devices are configured to scan the one or more wireless networks to detect additional access points in the one or more wireless networks, compare scan result data to the received node roam table data, and when the scan result data is different from the received roam table data, transmit the scan result data to the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising positioning one or more of the client devices within a range of communication with the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes and the potential access points of the one or more wireless networks, the one or more client devices configured to receive node roam table data from the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes and store the received node roam table data in their client roam tables, and to roam to a different access point in the wireless network as needed based on the received node roam table data.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, at one of the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes, client roam table data from a first one of the one or more client devices, the client roam table data including information relative to one or more potential access points of the wireless network, the one of the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes having a stored node roam table;

updating the stored node roam table based on the received client roam table data; and

transmitting the updated node roam table data to a second one of the one or more client devices, thereby allowing the second one of the one or more client devices to update its stored client roam table.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving, at the second one of the one or more client devices, the updated node roam table data from the one of the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes;

storing the received node roam table data in the stored client roam table of the second one of the one or more client devices;

scanning, at the second one of the one or more client devices, for additional access points in the one or more wireless networks; and

when the scan result data is different from the received node roam table data, transmitting the scan result data to the one of the one or more BLUETOOTH nodes.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising roaming, at the second one of the one or more client devices, to a different access point of the wireless network based on the received node roam table data.