Full path diversity for virtual acess point (vap) enabled networks

A method comprising:

• receiving, at an access point in a network, an instruction to form a virtual access point (VAP) for a node, wherein access points in the network mapped to the VAP as part of a VAP mapping are selected by a supervisory device from different access point groupings that use different network paths to communicate with a given endpoint in the network, and wherein the node treats the access points in the VAP mapping as a single access point for purposes of communicating with the network;
• receiving, at the access point, a communication from the node;
• adding, by the access point, deterministic networking information to the received communication;
• and
• sending, by the access point, the communication with the deterministic networking information to the endpoint, wherein the endpoint drops duplicate copies of the communication received from the access points in the VAP mapping based in part on the received deterministic networking information.

An apparatus, comprising:

• one or more network interfaces to communicate with a network;
• a processor coupled to the network interfaces and configured to execute one or more processes;
• and
• a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to:
• assign different access points in the network to different access point groupings, wherein each of the different access point groupings uses a different network path to communicate with a given endpoint in the network;
• select at least one of the access points in each of the different access point groupings for mapping to a virtual access point (VAP) for a node in the network as part of a VAP mapping;
• and instruct the selected access points to form a VAP for the node, wherein the node treats the access points in the VAP mapping as a single access point for purposes of communicating with the network.