AP-LOCAL DYNAMIC SWITCHING

• US 20100329177A1
• Filed: 06/11/2007
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Murphy, James, Chestnut, Stan, Morain, Gary Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 9,258,702 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/082 for traffic bypassing of mobility servers, e.g. location registers, home PLMNs or home agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/02 Data link layer protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/22 with access to wired networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices

Abstract

A technique for implementing AP-local dynamic switching involves Layer 2 switching. This may be accomplished by providing data associated with wireless stations to an AP sufficient to enable the AP to determine whether traffic from a particular wireless station should be locally switched. Alternatively, the wireless station may be able to determine whether to locally switch traffic based upon the traffic itself. For example, it may be desirable to AP-locally switch voice traffic to avoid latency, which is particularly detrimental to voice transmissions such as voice-over-IP. Traffic that is not to be switched locally is Layer 2 tunneled upstream.

Claims

1. An access point (AP) apparatus comprising:

a radio;

a processor;

a dynamic switching module implemented in a computer readable medium coupled to the radio and the processor;

a station switching record (SSR) database, coupled to the dynamic switching module, including an SSR associated with a wireless station;

wherein, in operation;

traffic is received on the radio from the wireless station;

the processor executes the dynamic switching module;

the dynamic switching module determines whether to switch the traffic locally at the AP or pass the traffic upstream;

the traffic is sent in accordance with the determination.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, in operation, the SSR is received over the radio from an upstream source.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, the SSR includes data selected from one or more of the group consisting of station MAC, SSID, VLAN name, AAA data, and user data.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, in operation, if the dynamic switching module determines to switch the traffic locally at the AP, the traffic is sent over the radio to a downstream destination.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, in operation, if the dynamic switching module determines to switch the traffic locally at the AP, the traffic is sent over the radio to an upstream destination.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, in operation, if the dynamic switching module determines to pass the traffic upstream, the traffic is sent over the radio for switching at an upstream switch.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an Ethernet interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein, in operation, the SSR is received over the Ethernet interface from an upstream source.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein, in operation, the traffic is sent in accordance with the determination over the Ethernet interface.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein, in operation, if the dynamic switching module determines to switch the traffic locally at the AP, the traffic is sent over the Ethernet interface to an upstream destination.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein, in operation, if the dynamic switching module determines to pass the traffic upstream, the traffic is sent over the Ethernet interface for switching at an upstream switch.

12. A system comprising:

a wireless switch;

an access point (AP) coupled to the wireless switch via a Layer 2 tunnel;

a dynamic switching engine capable of determining whether to switch traffic locally at the AP or send the traffic upstream via the Layer 2 tunnel toward the wireless switch for upstream switching.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein, in operation, the dynamic switching engine switches traffic locally at the AP based upon characteristics associated with a sender of the traffic.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein, in operation, the dynamic switching engine switches traffic locally at the AP based upon characteristics of a target of the traffic.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein, in operation, the dynamic switching engine switches traffic locally at the AP based upon characteristics of the traffic.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein, in operation, the dynamic switching engine switches traffic locally at the AP if the traffic includes voice data.

17. A method comprising:

receiving Layer 2 traffic from a wireless station;

determining whether to switch the traffic AP-locally;

if it is determined that the traffic is not to be AP-locally switched, Layer 2 tunneling the traffic upstream;

if it is determined that the traffic is to be AP-locally switched, Layer 2 switching the traffic AP-locally and sending the Layer 2 switched traffic toward a destination associated with the traffic.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving data associated with the wireless station;

determining whether to switch the traffic AP-locally using the data associated with the wireless station.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining whether to switch the traffic AP-locally based upon characteristics of the traffic.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the Layer 2 switched traffic is sent toward a downstream destination.