WLAN extender placement
AssigneeBritish Telecommunications public limited company
InventorsFrancis Scahill, Simon Ringland
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In wireless local area networks (WLANs) having a wireless access point and a plurality of client devices, the range of the WLAN is affected by obstructions and sources of interference. This may result in coverage gaps in the WLAN. A method is described for operating a mobile wireless device to simulate the behavior of a WLAN extender to improve the coverage of the WLAN. The performance of a data link between the simulated extender device and the wireless access point, and performance of a data link between the simulated extender device and the plurality of client devices, is measured at various locations within the user premises. The results are processed to determine the benefit provided at the various locations by an extender device and a recommended location is provided to a user.
Claims5
A method of assessing potential physical locations for a wireless network extender in a wireless network provided by a wireless access point, the method being performed by a scan device having a wireless local area network data interface, and the scan device being configured to simulate the wireless network extender, the method comprising:
- retrieving a plurality of data sets of performance data at various physical locations within a physical premises, including:
- a first set of wireless network signal strength metrics between the scan device and the wireless access point, and
- a second set of wireless network signal strength metrics between the scan device and at least one client device;
- accessing historical RSSI data of a normal signal strength between the wireless access point and the at least one client device;
- determining whether the plurality of sets of performance data indicate improvements at each of the various physical locations;
- and
- identifying a recommended physical location for positioning the wireless network extender.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing processor executable instructions for causing a programmable processor, in a scan device having a wireless local area network data interface and being configured to simulate a wireless network extender, to assess potential physical locations for a wireless network extender in a wireless network provided by a wireless access point by:
- retrieving a plurality of data sets of performance data at various physical locations within a physical premises, including:
- a first set of wireless network signal strength metrics between the scan device and the wireless access point, and
- a second set of wireless network signal strength metrics between a scan device and at least one client device;
- accessing historical RSSI data of a normal signal strength between the wireless access point and the at least one client device;
- determining whether the plurality of sets of performance data indicate improvements at each of the various physical locations;
- and
- identifying a recommended physical location for the wireless network extender.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.