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US 8,942,717 B2Granted
Load balancing techniques in wireless networks
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsZongming Yao, Lei Shen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Techniques are described that provide load balancing in wireless networks. For instance, a device (e.g., a first access point) may receive one or more current operational characteristics for each of one or more neighbor APs. Also, the first AP may determine a received signal strength for each of these neighbor AP(s). In turn, the first AP selects one or more reportable neighbor APs from these neighbor APs. Further, the first AP transmits a beacon. This beacon includes, for each reportable neighbor AP, the corresponding one or more current operational characteristics and the corresponding received signal strength.
Claims18
A method, comprising:
- at a first access point (AP), receiving one or more current operational characteristics for each of one or more neighbor APs from the one or more neighbor APs;
- determining, by the first AP, a received signal strength for each of the one more neighbor APs;
- selecting, by the first AP, a predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs from the one or more neighbor APs for transmission in a beacon, the reportable neighbor APs selected from the neighbor APs based on the one or more current operational characteristics received by the first AP from each of the one or more neighbor APs;
- transmitting, by the first AP to a client device, a beacon transmission, wherein the beacon transmission announces an availability of the corresponding selected predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs, wherein the beacon transmission includes for each of the one or more reportable neighbor APs, the corresponding one or more current operational characteristics received by the first AP from each of the one or more reportable neighbor APs, and the corresponding received signal strength;
- and
- in response to transmitting the beacon transmission to the client device, receiving, by the first AP from the predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs, an indication that the client device performed an initial association with one of the predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs.
3 more elements
An apparatus, comprising:
- a transceiver module to receive transmissions from one or more neighbor access points, the transmissions including one or more current operational characteristics for each of one or more neighbor APs;
- and
- a control module, the control module to:
- determine a received signal strength of each of the one or more neighbor access points,
- select a predetermined number of reportable neighbor APs from the one or more neighbor APs, the reportable neighbor APs based on the operational characteristics of each of the one or more neighbor APs;
- and
- generate a beacon frame having, for the predetermined number of the reportable neighbor APs, the one or more corresponding current operational characteristics and the corresponding received signal strength;
- wherein the transceiver module is to transmit the beacon frame to a client device, wherein the beacon transmission announces an availability of the corresponding selected predetermined number of reportable neighbor APs;
- and
- wherein in response to transmitting the beacon frame to the client device, the transceiver module is to receive from the predetermined number of reportable neighbor APs, an indication that the client device performed an initial association with one or the predetermined number of reportable neighbor APs.
7 more elements
An article comprising a machine-accessible non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
- receive one or more current operational characteristics for each of one or more neighbor APs;
- determine a received signal strength for each of the one more neighbor APs;
- select a predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs from the one or more neighbor APs for transmission in a beacon, the reportable neighbor APs selected based on the one or more current operational characteristics received by the first AP from each of the one or more neighbor APs;
- and
- transmit a beacon transmission to a client device, wherein the beacon transmission includes for each of the one or more reportable neighbor APs, the corresponding one or more current operational characteristics and the corresponding received signal strength, wherein the beacon transmission announces an availability of the corresponding selected predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs;
- and
- in response to transmitting the beacon transmission to the client device, receive, from the predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs, an indication that the client device performed an initial association with one of the predetermined number of one or more reportable neighbor APs.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.