Reroute network traffic from millimeter-wave link to WLAN transmission

• US 10,820,242 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2017
• Issued: 10/27/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2017
• 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: Pefkianakis, Ioannis, Sur, Sanjib
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ghafoerkhan, Faiyazkhan
• Application Number:
  US15/693,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20190069208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,153 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/165 for reducing network power consumption H04W36/18 - H04W36/22 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/30 by measured or perceived connection quality data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

In some examples, a computing device may comprise a processing resource and a memory resource storing machine-readable instructions to cause the processing resource to proactively identify a line-of-sight (LOS) blockage of a network signal transmitted on a millimeter-wave link, and reroute network traffic from the millimeter-wave link to a wireless local area network (WLAN) transmission channel in response to identifying the LOS blockage of the network signal.

Claims

1. A computing device, comprising:

a processing resource; and

a memory resource storing machine-readable instructions to cause the processing resource to;

proactively identify a line-of-sight (LOS) blockage of a network signal transmitted on a millimeter-wave link by comparing signal strength associated with the millimeter-wave link to signal strength associated with a wireless local area network (WLAN) transmission channel; and

reroute network traffic from the millimeter-wave link to the WLAN transmission channel in response to the proactive identification of the LOS blockage of the network signal, wherein the LOS blockage is identified based on a difference existing between the signal strength associated with the millimeter-wave link and the signal strength associated with WLAN link determined by the signal strength comparison.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the millimeter-wave link comprises a 60 gigahertz (GHz) network.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the WLAN transmission channel comprises a wireless communication channel in a plurality of overlapping channels belonging to a particular WLAN frequency band.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the LOS blockage of the network signal of the millimeter-wave link is determined based on a difference between a first signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the millimeter-wave link and a second SNR of the WLAN transmission channel.

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the difference exceeds a predetermined threshold from a hardware power budget difference.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the LOS blockage comprises a partial LOS blockage or a near line-of-sight (NLOS) blockage.

7. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions to cause a computing processor to:

compare a first signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a millimeter-wave link and a second SNR of a wireless local area network (WLAN) transmission channel;

proactively identify a line-of-sight (LOS) blockage of a network signal transmitted on a millimeter-wave link based on a difference between the first SNR and the second SNR; and

reroute network traffic from the millimeter-wave link to the WLAN transmission channel in response to identifying the LOS blockage of the network signal.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein comparing the first SNR and the second SNR occurs over a particular time interval.

9. The medium of claim 7, comprising instructions to prevent false LOS blockage detection by monitoring a high frequency physical layer (PHY) rate, wherein an average rate less than a particular PHY rate indicates LOS blockage.

10. The medium of claim 7, comprising instructions to perform a beam scan of a wireless local area network to detect a millimeter-wave network.

11. The medium of claim 7, wherein proactively identifying the LOS blockage includes utilizing PHY layer feedback and high frequency Media Access Control (MAC)-layer feedback.

12. The medium of claim 11, wherein the PHY layer feedback includes WLAN and high frequency band Channel State Information (CSI).

13. The medium of claim 11, wherein the high frequency MAC-layer feedback includes packet error rate and PHY transmission rate statistics.

14. The medium of claim 7, wherein the LOS blockage comprises a partial LOS blockage or a near line-of-sight (NLOS) blockage.

15. A method comprising:

determining, by a network device, a first signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a millimeter-wave link;

determining, by the network device, a second SNR of a wireless local area network (WLAN) transmission channel;

comparing, by the network device, the first SNR and the second SNR;

proactively identifying, by the network device, a line-of-sight (LOS) blockage of a network signal transmitted on a millimeter-wave link based on a difference between the first SNR and the second SNR, wherein the difference exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

rerouting network traffic from the millimeter-wave link to the WLAN transmission channel in response to identifying the LOS blockage of the network signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein rerouting network traffic from the millimeter-wave link to the WLAN transmission channel is achieved by a fast session transfer (FST) function.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein comparing the first SNR and the second SNR determines whether there is an open LOS.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the LOS blockage comprises a partial LOS blockage or a near line-of-sight (NLOS) blockage.