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US 8,077,689 B1Granted
Method and system for establishing VPN connections in response to wireless network identifiers
AssigneeSprint Spectrum L.P.
InventorsBryce A. Jones, Jason Delker, John M. Everson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for providing connections from a wireless access point. The wireless access point has multiple sets of predefined VPN security settings. The access point detects a wireless-network identifier (such as a service set identifier (SSID)) provided by a terminal via an air interface, and the access point uses the wireless-network identifier as a basis to select one of the sets of predefined VPN security settings and to responsively establish a VPN tunnel extending between the access point and a remote VPN terminator.
Claims20
A wireless local area network (WLAN) access point comprising:
- a wireless communication interface for wirelessly communicating with terminals over an air interface;
- at least one network interface for coupling with at least one communications network;
- and
- connection-establishment logic applicable by the access point to detect a wireless-network identifier that the access point receives from a given terminal via the wireless communication interface and, based on the wireless-network identifier, to then establish a corresponding VPN tunnel between the access point and a remote VPN endpoint via the at least one network interface,
- wherein the access point sends at least one communication from the given terminal via the established VPN tunnel to the remote VPN endpoint.
2 more elements
An access point comprising:
- a processor;
- a wireless communication interface for wirelessly communicating with terminals over an air interface;
- a network interface for coupling with a communications network;
- virtual private network (VPN) client logic executable by the processor to establish plurality of VPN tunnels over the communications network, each VPN tunnel extending from the access point to a respective remotely located VPN terminator;
- connection logic executable by the processor (i) to detect a first service set identifier (SSID) received from a first terminal over the air interface and, based on the first SSID, to establish a first one of the VPN tunnels over which to send a first communication from the first terminal and (ii) to detect a second SSID received from a second terminal over the air interface and, based on the second SSID, to establish a second one of the VPN tunnels over which to send a second communication from the second terminal,
- wherein the first SSID is different than the second SSID, and the first VPN tunnel is different than the second VPN tunnel.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- connecting to a local area network (LAN) a wireless access point that includes a virtual private network (VPN) client application configured with a plurality of predefined sets of security settings;
- after the wireless access point is connected to the LAN, the wireless access point receiving a first wireless-identifier from a first terminal via an air interface between the wireless access point and the first terminal, and the wireless access point responsively using one of the predefined sets of security settings to establish a first VPN tunnel corresponding with the received first wireless-identifier, and the wireless access point receiving a first communication from the first terminal via the air interface and sending the first communication via the established first VPN tunnel;
- and
- after the wireless access point is connected to the LAN, the wireless access point receiving a second wireless-identifier from a second terminal via an air interface between the wireless access point and the second terminal, and the wireless access point responsively using another one of the predefined sets of security settings to establish a second VPN tunnel corresponding with the received second wireless-identifier, and the wireless access point receiving a second communication from the second terminal via the air interface and sending the second communication via the established second VPN tunnel.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.