Location based load balancing of wireless access points and wireless switches

A wireless device comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor;
• a communications interface;
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface;
• and
• wherein the memory is encoded with an application providing load balancing, that when performed on the processor, provides a process for processing information, the process causing the wireless device to perform the operations of:
• receiving an Associate message from a first network device (FND) type at a second network device (SND) type;
• determining a preferred SND for said FND is not available;
• determining an alternate SND for said FND is not available;
• determining if an administrator configured policy that maps said FND to a specific SND exists and when said policy does exist then coupling said FND to said specific SND according to said policy and when said policy does not exist then parsing said FND location information to determine an available SND for said FND that is in a same zone or is geographically closest to said FND;
• and
• sending a message to said FND relating to said available SND.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable code thereon for providing Access Point (AP) load balancing, the medium including instructions in which a Wireless Device performs operations comprising:

• receiving an Associate message from a first network device (FND) type at a second network device (SND) type;
• determining a preferred SND for said FND is not available;
• determining an alternate SND for said FND is not available;
• determining if an administrator configures policy that maps said FND to a specific SND exists and when said policy does exist then coupling said FND to said specific SND according to said policy and when said policy does not exist then parsing said FND location information to determine an available SND for said FND that is in a same zone or is geographically closest to said FND;
• and
• sending a message to said FND relating to said available SND.

A wireless device (WD) comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor;
• a communications interface;
• an interconnection mechanism coupling the memory, the processor and the communications interface;
• and
• wherein the memory is encoded with an application providing load balancing, that when performed on the processor, provides a process for processing information, the process causing the computer system to perform the operations of:
• receiving an Associate message from a first network device (FND) type at said WD;
• determining a preferred WD for said FND is not available;
• determining an alternate WD for said FND is not available;
• determining if an administrator configured policy that maps said FND to a specific WD exists and when said policy does exist then coupling said FND to said specific WD according to said policy and when said policy does not exist then parsing said WD location information to determine a WD for said available FND that is in a same zone or is geographically closest to said FND;
• and
• sending a message to said FND relating to said available WD.