Efficient roaming of mobile clients

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9655038-B2
Application number	US-201414525615-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 28, 2014
Priority date	Oct 28, 2014
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a method and a network device for efficient mobile client device roaming in a wireless local area network with multiple access points. Specifically, a network device determines a first received signal strength value for a first set of signals transmitted between a client device and a first access point during a first time period; and, determines a second received signal strength value for a second set of signals transmitted between a client device and the access point during a second time period. Based on the first and the second signal strength values, the network device computes a change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the first access point. Based on the change in signal strength value, the network device selects the access point from a plurality of access points for providing network access to the client device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors, causes performance of operations comprising:
determining a first received signal strength value of a first probe request transmitted from a client device to a first access point during a first time period;
determining a second received signal strength value of a second probe request transmitted from the client device to the first access point during a second time period;
based at least on the first signal strength value and the second signal strength value: computing a first rate of change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the first access point;
based at least on the first rate of change in signal strength value, instructing the first access point from a plurality of access points to provide network access to the client device;
selecting a particular subset of two or more access points from the plurality of access points for providing network access to the client device, wherein the particular subset of access points comprises the first access point;
configuring the particular subset of access points to accept a connection request from the client device; and
instructing access points in the plurality of access points, other than the particular subset of access points, to refrain from responding to a subsequent probe request from the client device.

2. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the first rate of change in signal strength value is computed based further on a time interval between the first time period and the second time period.

3. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
configuring at least the first access point to accept a connection request from the client device; and
configuring at least a second access point to refrain from accepting a connection request from the client device.

4. The medium of claim 3 , wherein the client device is associated with the second access point when the first access point is selected for providing the network access to the client device, and wherein the operations further comprise causing the client device to disassociate from the second access point.

5. The medium of claim 4 , wherein a third received signal strength value for a third probe request transmitted between the client device and the second access point during a third time period close to the second time period is greater than the second received signal strength value for the second probe request transmitted between the client device and the first access point during the second time period.

6. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
computing a second rate of change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the first access point,
wherein one or more access points are selected for providing network access to the client device based at least on difference between the first rate of change in signal strength value and the second rate of change in signal strength value.

7. The medium of claim 1 , wherein selecting the first access point from the plurality of access points based on the first rate of change in signal strength value comprises:
dividing the first rate of change in signal strength value by the second received signal strength value to obtain a particular value; and
selecting the first access point from the plurality of access points based on the particular value.

8. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a third received signal strength value for a third probe request transmitted between the client device and a second access point during a third time period, wherein the plurality of access point comprises the second access point;
determining a fourth received signal strength value for a fourth probe request transmitted between the client device and the second access point during a fourth time period;
based at least on the third signal strength value and the fourth signal strength value: computing a second rate of change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the second access point;
wherein selecting the first access point from the plurality of access points is based at least on the first rate of change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the first access point having a greater positive value than the second rate of change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the second access point.

9. The medium of claim 1 , wherein selecting the first access point is further based on determining that the second received signal strength value is above a particular threshold value.

10. The medium of claim 9 , wherein the particular threshold value is dynamically selected based on a data transmission rate associated with communication with the client device.

11. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the selecting operation is further in response to a signal strength measurement value between the client device and a current access point being detected below a threshold value.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more hardware processors, causes performance of operations comprising:
determining a first received signal strength value of a first probe request transmitted from a client device to a first access point during a first time period;
determining a second received signal strength value of a second probe request transmitted from the client device to the first access point during a second time period;
based at least on the first signal strength value and the second signal strength value: computing a first rate of change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the first access point;
based at least on the first rate of change in signal strength value, estimating a future location of the client device;
selecting, based on the future location, a particular subset of two or more access points from a plurality of access points for providing network access to the client device;
configuring the particular subset of access points to accept a connection request from the client device; and
instructing access points in the plurality of access points, other than the particular subset of access points, to refrain from responding to a subsequent probe request from the client device.

13. A system comprising:
at least one device including a hardware processor;
the system being configured to perform operations comprising:
determining a first received signal strength value of a first probe request transmitted from a client device to a first access point during a first time period;
determining a second received signal strength value of a second probe request transmitted from the client device to the first access point during a second time period;
based at least on the first signal strength value and the second signal strength value: computing a first rate of change in signal strength value corresponding to wireless communication between the client device and the first access point;
based at least on the first rate of change in signal strength value, instructing the first access point from a plurality of access points to provide network access to the client device;
selecting a particular subset of two or more access points from the plurality of access points for providing network access to the client device, wherein the particular

Assignees

• Aruba Networks Inc

Inventors

• Kapoor Prateek
• Madan Amit
• Palchaudhuri Santashil

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04L43/12

  Network monitoring probes · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• H04W48/20 Primary

  Selecting an access point · CPC title