System and method for connection and hand-over management across networks and SSIDs

An access point (AP) operating a client steering daemon (CSD) for steering a station (STA), the AP comprising:

• a transceiver;
• a processor operatively connected to the transceiver, the process and transceiver configured to operate a CSD, wherein the CSD is configured to:
• determine one or more cost parameters for steering a STA from a current logical interface of the AP to one or more destination logical interfaces, wherein each logical interface is associated with an 802.11 Service Set Identifier (SSID), and, wherein the one or more cost parameters includes a client-based SSID prioritization policy which includes an assignment of a first set of STAs with a first SSID prioritization and a second set of STAs with a second SSID prioritization;
• compute an end-to-end cost for each of the one or more destination logical interfaces based on the one or more cost parameters, and based in part on whether the STA is in the first set of STAs or in the second set of STAs;
• and
• steer the STA to a new logical interface of the one or more destination logical interfaces based on evaluating each computed end-to-end cost.

A system for steering a station (STA), the system comprising:

• the STA;
• a first access point (AP) with a current logical interface;
• a cloud server;
• and
• a client steering daemon (CSD) operating on the first AP,
• wherein the CSD receives cost parameters from the cloud server and computes an end-to-end cost for each possible steering of the STA from a current logical interface to one or more destination logical interfaces based on cost parameters that comprise a client-based SSID prioritization policy which includes an assignment of a first set of STAs with a first SSID prioritization and a second set of STAs with a second SSID prioritization, wherein each logical interface is associated with an 802.11 Service Set Identifier (SSID), and
• wherein the CSD steers the STA from the current logical interface to a new logical interface of the one or more destination logical interfaces based on evaluating each computed end-to-end cost and based in part on whether the STA is in the first set of STAs or in the second set of STAs.