Methods and apparatus to monitor WI-FI media streaming using an alternate access point

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11706648-B2
Application number	US-202117408179-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 20, 2021
Priority date	Mar 15, 2019
Publication date	Jul 18, 2023
Grant date	Jul 18, 2023

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to monitor wireless traffic. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes at least one memory, instructions in the apparatus, and processor circuitry to execute the instructions to: establish, via a first wireless interface, a wireless connection with first network credentials to match second network credentials of a primary access point; monitor traffic via a second wireless interface, the second wireless interface different than the first wireless interface; identify, via the traffic monitored via the second wireless interface, a connection of a client to the primary access point; capture, via an alternate access point, a management frame transmitted from the primary access point to the client; insert a change channel announcement into the captured management frame; and re-transmit, via the first wireless interface, the captured management frame including the change channel announcement.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus to monitor wireless traffic, the apparatus comprising:
at least one memory;
instructions in the apparatus; and
processor circuitry to execute the instructions to:
establish, via a first wireless interface, a wireless connection with first network credentials to match second network credentials of a primary access point;
monitor traffic via a second wireless interface, the second wireless interface different than the first wireless interface;
identify, via the traffic monitored via the second wireless interface, a connection of a client to the primary access point;
capture, via an alternate access point, a management frame transmitted from the primary access point to the client;
insert a change channel announcement into the captured management frame; and
re-transmit, via the first wireless interface, the captured management frame including the change channel announcement.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the channel change announcement is to cause the client to connect to the alternate access point.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processor circuitry is to:
identify a media request transmitted from the client to an external network; and
extract media identifying information from the media request.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the processor circuitry is to transmit the media identifying information to an audience measurement entity.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first network credentials matched to the second network credentials enable the client to reconnect to the primary access point if the alternate access point is disabled.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor circuitry is to configure the alternate access point to have a different channel than the primary access point, the channel change announcement to instruct the client to use the different channel.

7. A system to monitor wireless traffic, the system comprising:
a primary access point configured with network credentials to enable communication between a client and an external network;
an alternate access point configured with the network credentials of the primary access point to enable communication between the client and the external network;
at least one memory; and
processor circuitry to execute instructions to:
monitor for a connection of the client to the primary access point;
capture a beacon frame from the primary access point;
insert a channel change announcement into the captured beacon frame to instruct the client to connect to the alternate access point;
transmit the captured beacon frame including the change channel announcement;
determine a connection between the alternate access point and the client;
in response to determining the connection between the alternate access point and the client, analyze media requests transmitted via the alternate access point; and
extract media identifying information from the media requests.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor circuitry is to configure the network credentials of the alternate access point to the same as the primary access point.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the network credentials includes an SSID and a password.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor circuitry is to detect a transmission of the beacon frame from the primary access point to the client to monitor for the connection of the client to the primary access point.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor circuitry is to detect an identifier of the primary access point to monitor for the connection of the client to the primary access point.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor circuitry captures the beacon frame based on an identifier associated with at least one of the client or the primary access point.

13. The system of claim 7 , wherein the processor circuitry is to at least one of transmit the media identifying information to an audience measurement entity or store the media identifying information with the at least one memory.

14. The system of claim 7 , wherein the alternate access point includes a stronger signal than the primary access point.

15. A method to monitor wireless traffic, the method comprising:
configuring a primary access point with network credentials to enable communication between a client and an external network;
configuring an alternate access point with the network credentials of the primary access point to enable communication between the client and the external network;
monitoring for a connection of the client to the primary access point;
capturing a beacon frame from the primary access point;
inserting a channel change announcement into the captured beacon frame to instruct the client to connect to the alternate access point;
transmitting the captured beacon frame including the change channel announcement;
determining a connection between the alternate access point and the client;
in response to determining the connection between the alternate access point and the client, analyzing media requests transmitted via the alternate access point; and
extracting media identifying information from the media requests.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the network credentials includes an SSID and a password.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the monitoring for the connection of the client to the primary access point includes detecting a transmission of the beacon frame from the primary access point to the client.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the monitoring of the connection of the client to the primary access point processor circuitry includes detecting an identifier of the primary access point.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the capturing of the beacon frame is based on an identifier associated with at least one of the client or the primary access point.

20. The method of claim 15 , further including at least one of transmitting the media identifying information to an audience measurement entity or storing the media identifying information in memory.

21. The method of claim 15 , further including configuring the alternate access point with a stronger signal than the primary access point.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Usaj Marko
• Barbis Andrej
• Panger Marko
• Arh Joze

Classifications

• H04W24/08 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04N21/44222 Primary

  Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title

• H04N21/44227

  Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network (configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811) · CPC title