Infrastructure coordinated media access control address assignment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9642003-B2
Application number	US-201514792372-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2015
Priority date	Jul 6, 2015
Publication date	May 2, 2017
Grant date	May 2, 2017

Abstract

Described herein are systems, devices, techniques and products for managing the dynamic assignment of media access control (MAC) addresses to wireless network devices, such as by identifying a dynamically assigned MAC address before, after, or during a wireless association process and communicating the dynamically assigned MAC address to a wireless network device. Also disclosed are systems, devices, techniques and products for preventing a denial of service attack on a wireless access point's association table, such as by requiring devices that associate with a wireless access point to respond to a query from the wireless access point shortly after association.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the non-transitory computer readable storage medium includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
receiving, at a network device, a request for a media access control (MAC) address, wherein the request is related to a wireless client device;
identifying a designated MAC address for use by the wireless client device;
transmitting a response to the request, wherein the response includes the designated MAC address;
receiving an association request, wherein the association request is related to the wireless client device, and wherein the association request includes the designated MAC address;
transmitting an association response, wherein the association response includes an association identifier for the wireless client device; and
updating an association table with an entry for the wireless client device, wherein the entry includes the designated MAC address.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the request includes a management frame, an action frame, an authentication frame, or a probe request frame.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the response includes a management frame, an action frame, an authentication frame, or a probe response frame.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the response to the request includes transmitting the response to the request when an entry for the wireless client device is not present in the association table.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein receiving the designated MAC address at a wireless client device causes the wireless client device to transmit an association request including the designated MAC address.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include:
confirming that the designated MAC address included in the association request is authorized for use by the wireless client device.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying includes selecting the designated MAC address from a pool of predetermined MAC addresses.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying includes selecting the designated MAC address from a pool of random MAC addresses.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying includes:
transmitting a designated MAC address request, wherein receiving the designated MAC address request at a controller causes the controller to transmit a designated MAC address response including the designated MAC address; and
receiving the designated MAC address.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein receiving the request includes identifying a MAC address included in the request as different from a hardware MAC address corresponding to the wireless client device.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein receiving the request includes identifying a MAC address included in the request as a locally administered MAC address.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include:
determining a characteristic of the wireless client device; and
tracking the wireless client device using the characteristic.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein tracking includes determining a location of the wireless client device.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein tracking includes linking the designated MAC address to the wireless client device, and wherein linking facilitates reidentification of the designated MAC address for use by the wireless client device.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include:
determining a characteristic of the wireless client device; and
linking the designated MAC address with the characteristic of the wireless client device, wherein linking facilitates identification of the designated MAC address for use by the wireless client device when the wireless client device roams to another wireless network device.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying the designated MAC address includes:
determining a characteristic of the wireless client device; and
identifying the designated MAC address using the characteristic of the wireless client device.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include:
transmitting an indicator of an availability of designated MAC addresses.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein receiving the indicator at a wireless client device facilitates the wireless client device transmitting a request for a MAC address.

19. A computer implemented method, comprising:
receiving, at a network device, a request for a media access control (MAC) address, wherein the request is related to a wireless client device;
identifying a designated MAC address for use by the wireless client device;
transmitting a response to the request, wherein the response includes the designated MAC address;
receiving an association request, wherein the association request is related to the wireless client device, and wherein the association request includes the designated MAC address;
transmitting an association response, wherein the association response includes an association identifier for the wireless client device; and
updating an association table with an entry for the wireless client device, wherein the entry includes the designated MAC address.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
receiving, at a network device, a request for a media access control (MAC) address, wherein the request is related to a wireless client device;
identifying a designated MAC address for use by the wireless client device;
transmitting a response to the request, wherein the response includes the designated MAC address;
receiving an association request, wherein the association request is related to the wireless client device, and wherein the association request includes the designated MAC address;
transmitting an association response, wherein the association response includes an association identifier for the wireless client device; and
updating an association table with an entry for the wireless client device, wherein the entry includes the designated MAC address.

Assignees

• Aruba Networks Inc

Inventors

• Raman Gopalakrishna
• Ganu Sachin
• Harkins Daniel
• Siraj Mohd

Classifications

• H04L63/08

  for authentication of entities (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32) · CPC title

• H04W12/08

  Access security · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W12/12

  Detection or prevention of fraud · CPC title