Machine learning coordinated wireless networking

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11064319-B2
Application number	US-201715464122-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 20, 2017
Priority date	Oct 10, 2016
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

The disclosed methods and systems use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies to model the usage and interference on each channel. For example, units of the system can measure channel interference regularly over the time of day on all radios. The interference information is communicated to the base unit or a cloud server for pattern analysis. Interference measurements include interference from units within the system as well as interference from nearby devices. The base unit or the cloud server can recognize the pattern of the interference. Further, connected devices have a number of network usage characteristics observed and modeled including bitrate, and network behavior. These characteristics are used to assign channels to connected devices.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system of networked wireless access points comprising:
a number of access points, each access point networked with at least one other access point via a backhaul channel;
a network traffic monitor that generates a dynamic traffic profile by collecting a history of monitored network usage by each of the access points and assigns a rank to each collected history;
a coordination module that designates channels within a wireless band to each of the access points, the coordination module configured to monitor each channel to determine a respective throughput of each channel and order the channels based on the respective throughput, wherein the coordination module designates channels having a greater measured throughput to the access points correlating directly to the rank of the dynamic traffic profile associated with each of the access points;
a device manager that identifies repeat devices connected to the number of access points and monitors a historical bitrate associated with the repeat devices; and
wherein the coordination module automatically increases the rank of the dynamic traffic profile associated with a particular access point with a heavy user repeat device connected.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the rank of the dynamic traffic profile varies based on a given time of day or a given day or week as reflective of the collected history during the given time of day or the given day of the week.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the channels further include a frequency range, the system further comprising:
an interference monitor that generates an interference profile including historical measurements of a degree of interference at frequencies within the wireless band as a function of a variable location, the variable location determined by a positioning of each of the access points; and
wherein the coordination module further designates a particular channel at a given frequency range with a low measured degree of interference to a particular access point based on the interference profile at a particular positioning of the particular access point.

4. The system of claim 1 ,
wherein the device manager identifies a first repeat device commonly connected to a particular access point of the number of access points, wherein a detection of the first repeat device at any of the number of access points triggers a roaming command from a detecting access point to the particular access point.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the triggered roam command comprises causing all access points of the number of access points except the particular access point to drop connection with the first repeat device and ignore connection requests from the first repeat device.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the number of access points comprise two or more wireless networks, wherein each wireless network includes an independently operating network traffic monitor and an independently operating coordination module, wherein the access points of each of the two or more wireless networks communicate with a central external server, and the central external server coordinates operation of each of the independently operating network traffic monitors and the independently operating coordination modules.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network traffic monitor assigns a higher rank of monitored network usage to access points with higher historical bitrates.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the network traffic monitor assigns a higher bitrate value to packets associated with latency sensitive packets.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the number of access points receive a configuration file from an external server, the number of access points programmed to use the configuration file to influence the generation and subsequent amending of the dynamic traffic profile.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an interference monitor that identifies an external frequency of wireless transmissions from an external access point which is not networked with the number of access points on the backhaul channel, and is configured to establish a filter to prevent the number of access points from receiving on the external frequency.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network traffic monitor stores a number of dynamic traffic profiles associated with different days of the week.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the network traffic monitor is configured to establish an event threshold to the dynamic traffic profile, wherein a network event which is inconsistent with the dynamic traffic profile and exceeds the event threshold is ignored for the purposes of updating the dynamic traffic profile.

13. A network system comprising:
a wireless access point, the access point having variable channel selection within a wireless band;
a network traffic monitor that creates a dynamic traffic profile by collecting a history of monitored network usage by each of a number of connected devices to the access point and assigning a rank to each collected history;
a coordination module that designates a channel within the wireless band to each of the number of the connected devices, the coordination module configured to monitor each channel to determine a respective throughput of each channel and order the channels based on the respective throughput, wherein channels having the greatest measured throughput are assigned to the connected devices correlating directly to the rank of the dynamic traffic profile associated with each of the connected devices;
a device manager that identifies repeat devices connected to the access point and monitors a historical bitrate associated with the repeat devices; and
wherein the coordination module automatically increases the rank of the dynamic traffic profile associated with the access point with a heavy user repeat device connected.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the rank of the dynamic traffic profile varies based on a given time of day or a given day or week as reflective of the collected history during the given time of day or the given day of the week.

15. The system of claim 13 , wherein the channels further include a frequency range, the system further comprising:
an interference monitor that generates an interference profile including historical measurements of a degree of interference at frequencies within the wireless band as a function of a time of day or a day of week; and
wherein the coordination module further designates a particular channel at a given frequency range with a low measured degree of interference to a particular connected device based on the interference profile at a particular time of day or particular day of week.

16. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:
a neighboring access point, the neighboring access point broadcasting a different wireless network than the access point and including a neighboring coordination module, wherein the access point and the neighboring access point communicate with an external central server, the external central server configured to simultaneously direct the coordination module and the neighboring coordination module to prevent interference between the access point and the neighboring access point.

17. The system of claim 13 , wherein the network traffic monitor assigns a higher rank of monitored network usage to access points with higher bitrates.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the network traffic monitor assigns a higher bitrate value to packets associated with latency sensitive packets.

19. A network method compris

Assignees

• Netgear Inc

Inventors

• Amini Peiman
• Emmanuel Joseph Amalan Arul

Classifications

• H04W72/563

  of the wireless resources · CPC title

• H04W72/543

  based on requested quality, e.g. QoS · CPC title

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W72/541

  using the level of interference · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title