Upgrade controllers and access points by group

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10645598-B2
Application number	US-201615334140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2016
Priority date	Oct 25, 2016
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

Example implementations relate to upgrading controllers and access points by group. A master controller may comprise a processing resource and a memory resource storing machine-readable instructions to cause the processing resource to create a plurality of groups of access points (APs) connected to a first and a second local controller, move a subset of the plurality of APs connected to the first local controller to the second local controller, upgrade the first local controller, move APs associated with a group of the plurality of APs to the first local controller, and upgrade the APs associated with the group of the first local controller.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A master controller comprising:
a processing resource; and
a memory resource storing machine-readable instructions to cause the processing resource to:
create a plurality of groups of access points associated with a first and a second local controller based on a plurality of channels providing a minimum amount of service coverage for client devices thereon of the plurality of groups of access points relative to either of the first local controller and the second local controller;
move a first subset of access points connected to the first local controller to the second local controller, wherein the first local controller is not associated with the first subset of access points connected to the first local controller among the plurality of groups of access points;
upgrade the first local controller;
move, in response to the first local controller being upgraded, access points associated with the first subset of access points among the plurality of groups of access points to the first local controller; and
upgrade, with the first local controller, the access points associated with the first subset of access points, when the first local controller has been upgraded.

2. The master controller of claim 1 , including instructions to cause the processing resource to create the plurality of groups of access points based on a plurality of access point channels.

3. The master controller of claim 1 , including instructions to cause the processing resource to create the plurality of groups of access points based on radio-frequency (RF) coverage of the access points.

4. The master controller of claim 1 , wherein each group of the plurality of groups of access points is moved to an associated local controller among the first and second local controllers.

5. The master controller of claim 1 , wherein the first and second local controllers are upgraded via a failover mechanism.

6. The master controller of claim 1 , wherein the access points associated with the group of access points are upgraded via a failover mechanism.

7. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions executable by a processing resource to:
create a plurality of groups of access points connected to a plurality of local controllers based on a common channel used by access points within the plurality of groups of access points relative to a local controller in the plurality of local controllers;
move access points connected to a first local controller to a second local controller, wherein the first local controller is associated with a first subset of access points connected to the first local controller;
upgrade the first local controller;
move access points associated with the first controller among the plurality of groups of access points to the first local controller and upgrade the access points associated with the first local controller when the first local controller has been upgraded;
move access points connected to the second controller among the plurality of groups of access points to one or more other local controllers, the one or more other local controllers including the first controller;
upgrade the second local controller; and
upgrade the access points associated with the second local controller when the second local controller has been upgraded, wherein the upgrading of the first and second local controllers and the upgrading of the access points occurs without interrupting wireless network service to client devices operatively connected to each of the common channels.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 7 , comprising instructions to:
move access points associated with a last group among the plurality of groups of access points to the plurality of local controllers other than a last local controller; and
upgrade, by the plurality of local controllers other than the last local controller, the last group of the plurality of access points.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8 , comprising instructions to:
upgrade the last local controller; and
move multiple access points associated with the last group to the last local controller.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein multiple access points associated with the first group are upgraded by the first local controller.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein multiple access points associated with the second group are upgraded by the second local controller.

12. A method, comprising:
creating, by a master controller, a plurality of groups of access points connected to a plurality of local controllers, the access points within each of the plurality of groups of access points being operative on a common channel relative to a local controller in the plurality of local controllers;
moving a subset of access points connected to a local controller to a different local controller;
upgrading the local controller;
moving the subset of access points to the local controller and upgrading, by the local controller, the subset of access points;
moving a different subset of access points connected to the different local controller to the local controller; and
upgrading the different local controller, wherein the upgrading of the local controller and the different local controller, and the upgrading of the subset of access points moved to the local controller occurs without interrupting wireless network service to client devices operatively connected to each of the common channels.

13. The method of claim 12 , including:
upgrading the different subset of access points by the local controller; and
moving a different group among the plurality of groups of access points to the different local controller.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein upgrading the plurality of local controllers includes rebooting the plurality of local controllers and updating instructions of the plurality of local controllers.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein upgrading the plurality of access points includes rebooting the plurality of access points and updating instructions of the plurality of access points.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Entpr Dev Lp

Inventors

• Arjun Vinod
• Lee Jiwoong
• Ganu Sachin

Classifications

• H04W24/04 Primary

  Arrangements for maintaining operational condition · CPC title

• H04L41/082

  the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04L41/0672

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L41/0893

  Assignment of logical groups to network elements · CPC title