Deep packet inspection (DPI) aware client steering and load balancing in wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9838948-B2
Application number	US-201414445585-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 29, 2014
Priority date	Jul 29, 2014
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for intelligently steering client devices operating in an enterprise network system to an appropriate access point based on types of traffic on each client device and/or types of traffic on access points. In particular, client devices may be moved to a different access point when the wireless channel provided by a current access point fails to meet the signal strength requirements of latency sensitive traffic utilized by the client device. Client devices may be further steered to new access points based on load conditions on access points. For example, client devices with low priority traffic sessions may be steered away from access points with high traffic load levels. Accordingly, the methods and systems described herein ensure improved network access for latency sensitive access categories and/or access categories that are considered important to an enterprise system with minimal disruptions to these sessions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a hardware processor, cause the hardware processor to:
determine a category, of a plurality of categories, for a current session for a first client device associated with a first access point,
wherein each category, of the plurality of categories, is associated with a minimum Signal-To-Noise Ratio (SNR) threshold of a plurality of minimum SNR thresholds,
wherein a first category is associated with a first minimum SNR threshold that is different from a second minimum SNR threshold associated with a second category as a result of the first and second categories corresponding to different traffic types;
identify a particular minimum SNR threshold for the first access point, of the plurality of SNR thresholds, associated with the category for the current session in response to an addition of a number of active sessions for each category, wherein each of the number of active sessions is weighted by a particular weight value assigned to each category;
determine whether wireless signals received from the first client device meet the particular minimum SNR threshold associated with the category for the current session; and
cause the first client device to associate with a second access point different than the first access point responsive to determination that the wireless signals received from the first client device do not meet the particular minimum SNR threshold associated with the category for the current session,
wherein the second access point is selected, from the plurality of access points, in response to a current load at the second access point,
wherein the current load at the second access point is determined by:
assigning each session, of a plurality of sessions handled with the second access point, a corresponding load factor; and
aggregating the load factors for the plurality of sessions to obtain the current load at the second access point.

2. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the category for the current session comprises a latency sensitive category, and wherein the medium further comprises instructions to use a second minimum SNR threshold to determine whether to steer client devices that do not have any latency sensitive category.

3. The medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to:
determine a first minimum SNR threshold associated with a first category for a first current session for a second client device;
determine a second minimum SNR threshold associated with a second category for a second current session for the second client device;
determine a highest minimum SNR threshold of the first minimum SNR threshold and the second minimum SNR threshold;
determine whether wireless signals received from the second client device meet the highest minimum SNR threshold;
cause the second client device to associate with the second access point different than the first access point responsive to determination that the wireless signals received from the second client device do not meet the highest minimum SNR threshold; and
refrain from causing the second client device to associate with the second access point responsive to determination that the wireless signals received from the second client device meet the highest minimum SNR threshold.

4. The medium of claim 1 , wherein the second access point is selected, from a plurality of access points, in response to a SNR of wireless signals received by the second access point.

5. The medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to:
determine a plurality of current sessions for a second client device associated with the first access point;
identify a category for each of the current sessions for the second client device to obtain a plurality of applicable categories;
identify a minimum SNR threshold associated with each category of the plurality of applicable categories to obtain a plurality of minimum SNR thresholds;
determine a number of the plurality of minimum SNR thresholds that are met by wireless signals received from the second client device; and
determine whether to cause the second client device to associate with the second access point in response to the number of the plurality of minimum SNR thresholds that are met by wireless signals received from the second client device.

6. The medium of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to:
refrain from steering the first client device to associate with the second access point responsive to determination that the wireless signals received from the first client device meet the particular minimum received SNR threshold associated with the category for the current session.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a hardware processor, cause the hardware processor to:
determine a category, of a plurality of categories, for a current session for a first client device associated with a first access point,
wherein each category, of the plurality of categories, is associated with a minimum received Signal-To-Noise Ratio (SNR) threshold of a plurality of minimum received signal strength thresholds,
wherein a first category is associated with a first minimum SNR threshold that is different from a second minimum SNR threshold associated with a second category as a result of the first and second categories corresponding to different traffic types;
identify a particular minimum received SNR threshold for the first access point, of the plurality of received signal strength thresholds, associated with the category for the current session in response to an addition of a number of active sessions for each category, wherein each of the number of active sessions is weighted by a particular weight value assigned to each category;
determine whether wireless signals received from the first client device meet the particular minimum received SNR threshold associated with the category for the current session; and
cause the first client device to associate with a second access point different than the first access point responsive to determination that the wireless signals received from the first client device do not meet the particular minimum received SNR threshold associated with the category for the current session,
wherein the second access point is selected, from the plurality of access points, in response to a current load at the second access point, and
wherein the current load at the second access point is determined by:
assigning each session, of a plurality of sessions, handled with the second access point a corresponding load factor; and
aggregating the load factors for the plurality of sessions to obtain the current load at the second access point.

8. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the category for the current session is a latency sensitive category, and wherein the operations further comprise to use a second minimum received SNR threshold to determine whether to steer client devices that do not have any latency sensitive category.

9. The medium of claim 7 , further comprising instructions to:
determine a first minimum received SNR threshold associated with a first category for a first current session for a second client device;
determine a second minimum received SNR threshold associated with a second category for a second current session for the second client device;
determine a highest minimum received SNR threshold of the first minimum received SNR threshold and the second minimum received SNR threshold;
determine whether wireless signals received from the second client device meet the highest minimum received SNR threshold;
cause the second client device to associate with the second access point different than the first

Assignees

• Aruba Networks Inc

Inventors

• Ardeli Ramesh
• Kurmala Hari Krishna
• Kodavanty Vamsi

Classifications

• H04W48/02 Primary

  Access restriction performed under specific conditions · CPC title

• H04W48/20 Primary

  Selecting an access point · CPC title

• H04W36/26

  by agreed or negotiated communication parameters · CPC title