Cisco Technology, Inc.

Broadcom Corporation

Intermec IP Corporation

Norand Corporation

Other

Broadcom Corpotation

Robert Charles Meier

Ronald L Mahany

Ronald E Luse

Victor J Griswold

Arvin D Danielson

Guy J West

Alan G Bunte

Nancy Cam Winget

Steven E Koenck

Phillip C Miller

Keith K Cargin, Jr

Charles D Gollnick

Douglas A Smith

George E Hanson

Michael D Morris

Marvin L Sojka

Richard D Rebo

Roger L Wolf

David E Halasz

Robert G Geers

Richard C Arensdorf

John G Pavek

James D Cnossen

Mary L Detweiler

Amos D Young

Gary Neal Spiess

Julie Ann Miller, Legal Representative

John Gary Waclawsky

Johannes Petrus Kruys

Yanxin Na

Tak Ming Pang

Stuart Norman

Keith Dettloff

Emburey Samrex Edward

Kent Kinchu Leung

Alpesh S Patel

Robert T Bell

Timothy S Olson

Sheausong Yang

Patrick W Kinney

Stephen V Saliga

Shahriar I Rahman

Merwyn Andrade

Steven H Salvay

Ender Ayanoglu

Ozgur Gurbuz

David P Petsko

Bhavannarayana Nelakanti

Mark Bilstad

Tim Olson

Norman William Finn

David Sheldon Stephenson

Bretton Lee Douglas

Neil Robert Diener

John F Wakerly

Manoj Gupta

Francois Edouard Tallet

Arnavkumar M Pathan

Rahul Dasgupta

Gary N Spiess

Liwen Wu

Patrick Pak-Chiu Leung

Robert Bernard O'Hara, Jr

Shashank Kota Sathish

Arnold Bilstad

Nancy Winget

Keith K Dettloff

Timothy J Olson

Systems, methods, and computer program products to provide direct external network access at an access point (AP) in a managed wide area network (WAN). The method may include establishing an application host interface (AHI) at an access point and receiving application data from one or more client devices connected to the access point. The method may also include determining that the application data is received from a permitted application as shown in a list of applications permitted to use the AHI and routing, using the AHI, the received application data to the data destination via the external network thereby bypassing the WLC.

Efficient and reliable data path for hosted applications on access point

A method is performed at a mesh access point (MAP) in a wireless mesh network including access points (APs) of a spanning tree being divided among multiple Internet Protocol (IP) subnets. The method includes receiving from a first parent AP to which the MAP is a child a first IP subnet identifier indicating the first IP subnet to which the first parent AP belongs. The method also includes obtaining a first IP address associated with the first IP subnet, roaming from the first to a second parent AP, receiving from the second parent AP a second IP subnet identifier indicating a second IP subnet to which the second parent AP belongs, determining if the first and second parent APs are both part of the same IP subnet, and determining whether to maintain connectivity with a current controller or establish connectivity to a new controller based on results of the determining.

Wireless mesh network including resilient backhaul links and WLAN traffic local switching

A wireless mesh network includes mesh access points (mesh APs) and a root access point (RAP) forming a root of a tree of the mesh APs in which the mesh APs are linked back to the RAP through parent-child relationships over wireless backhaul links. A mesh AP provides access to the mesh network via connections to wireless clients in one or more wireless local area networks (WLANs) served by the mesh AP. The mesh AP stores mappings between the one or more WLANs served by the mesh AP and one or more virtual local area networks (VLANs) configured on a wired network and to which the WLANs are assigned. The mesh AP receives mappings between the VLANs configured on the wired network and WLANs served by the mesh AP as known by the RAP. If the stored mappings and the received mappings differ, the mesh AP updates the stored mappings with the received mappings that differ from the stored mappings.

In an example embodiment, an 802.11 or Ethernet work-group local area network (WG-LAN) is assigned a global name. The WG-LAN name is bound to a local virtual local area network identifier (VLAN-ID) in parent access points (APs). A path update protocol is employed to synchronize the WG-LAN/VLAN-ID bindings in a work-group bridge with the bindings of its' parent AP.

Work group bridge nomadic roaming

A wireless mesh network includes mesh APs and a root AP forming a root of a tree of the mesh APs in which the mesh APs are linked back to the root AP over wireless backhaul links. The root AP has a wired connection to a wired network. An AP detects a loss of connectivity to a controller through which traffic associated with the AP is normally routed to and from the wired network. In response, if the AP is the root AP, the root AP operates as a proxy controller through which the traffic may be routed. The AP maintains connectivity with parent and child APs over the wireless backhaul links.

A method for multicast load balancing in a wireless network having a plurality of access points. The method includes setting a maximum Internet protocol multicast bandwidth for the access points, receiving an admissions control request from a client at one of the access points, and determining whether the admissions control request from the client is for an admitted or unadmitted multicast stream at the access point. The access point is responsive to the admissions control request for the admitted multicast stream by servicing the admitted multicast stream and to the admissions control request for the unadmitted multicast stream by servicing the unadmitted multicast stream where the bandwidth required for the unadmitted multicast stream, plus that portion of the access point bandwidth currently used for all existing downlink multicast streams, does not exceed the maximum internet protocol multicast bandwidth for the access point.

Method for multicast load balancing in wireless LANs

A system and method wherein mobile nodes scan both 802.16 and 802.11 radio channels for neighbor access points. A mobile node reports both WiMax and WiFi neighbor access points to its parent access point. A parent access point advertises both WiMax and WiFi neighbor access points to child mobile nodes to facilitate faster roaming and load balancing. A parent WiMax AP can direct a mobile node to roam to a neighbor WiFi access point that has a lighter load or offers enhanced services. As an option, a location tracking protocol is used to determine the location of a mobile node and the mobile node's parent AP advertises neighbor APs that offer services in the mobile node's location.

System and method for integrated WiFi/WiMax neighbor AP discovery and AP advertisement

In an example embodiment, a topology based channel assignment method for mitigating contention between overlapping radio coverage areas in a wireless 'mesh' network topology. A central controller compiles radio overlap information and executes a Tiered Graph Coloring Algorithm, which is used to mitigate contention between overlapping radio coverage areas. In general, the radio channel for each Channel Assignment Cluster (Basic Service Set) is selected so that the aggregate radio coverage area of the Channel Assignment Cluster does not overlap with the radio coverage areas of neighboring Channel Assignment Clusters and fixed interference sources. In the tiered algorithm, a Channel Assignment Cluster is represented as a single vertex, interference sources are represented as 'fixed' vertices with fixed color assignments, and &#x201c;overlapping&#x201d; vertices are interconnected by &#x201c;edges.&#x201d; Vertices are &#x201c;tiered&#x201d; so that overlap mitigation is prioritized for higher-traffic radios.

Channel assignment protocol

A Proxy ARP Server in an AP maintains IP/MAC bindings for associated clients. In an example embodiment, when the AP receives a proxy ARP request for a client, the AP may respond for the client. In another example embodiment, when the AP receives a proxy ARP request for the client, the AP buffers the request until the client is in an awake state. Optionally, the AP may convert the broadcast destination MAC address in the ARP request to a unicast address that corresponds to the target IP address.

Uniform power save method for wireless stations

A method and implementation are disclosed for binding a mobile node to a subnet. The invention comprises steps and implementations for intercepting messages sent by a mobile node to a server, associating a predetermined subnet with the intercepted messages and forwarding the intercepted messages to the server. The invention intercepts reply messages sent by at least one server and selects reply messages that are associated with the predetermined subnet. The selected reply messages are forwarded to the mobile node, and reply messages that are not associated with the predetermined subnet are discarded.

Method and apparatus for configuring a mobile node to retain a 'home' IP subnet address

A hierarchical communication system, arranged in a spanning tree configuration, is described in which wired and wireless communication networks exhibiting substantially different characteristics are employed in an overall scheme to link portable or mobile computing devices. Copies of data, program code and processing resources are migrated from their source toward requesting destinations based on request frequency, communication link costs and available local storage and/or processing resources. Each appropriately configured network device acts as an active participant in network migration. In addition, portable two-dimensional (2-D) code reading terminals are configured to wirelessly communicate compressed 2-D images toward stationary access servers that identify the code image through decoding and through comparison with a database of images that have previously been decoded and stored.

Hierarchical communication system providing intelligent data, program and processing migration

In an example embodiment, an apparatus, comprising a first wireless transceiver, a first directional antenna coupled to the first wireless transceiver, a second wireless transceiver, a second directional antenna coupled to the second wireless transceiver, and control logic coupled to the first wireless transceiver and the second wireless transceiver. The first wireless transceiver and second wireless transceiver can concurrently receive wireless signals that are spatially separated. The first wireless transceiver asserts a signal while communicating with another wireless device. The control logic is configured to prevent the second wireless transceiver from transmitting while the first wireless transceiver is asserting the signal.

Unscheduled protocols for switched antenna arrays

A portable data terminal includes at least two communication transceivers having different operating characteristics, one for conducting data communications on a wired subnetwork and one for conducting data communications on a wireless subnetwork. A communication processor converts data received by the communication transceivers to a predetermined format for a base module and converts data in a predetermined format from the base module to a format for transmission by a selected one of the first and second communication transceivers, thereby isolating the base module from differing characteristics of the transceivers. The communication processor is arranged to relay communications received by one transceiver for re-transmission by the other transceiver and to transfer communications from one subnetwork to the other, without activating the base module.

Modular, portable data processing terminal for use in a communication network

A method for providing a superior quality of service for multicast data streams delivered over a wireless local area network. As Internet Protocol multicast data streams are received by an access point, the access point observes Internet Group Multicast Protocol registration messages to determine which of its associated stations subscribe to each multicast data stream. The access point then determines which of the multicast data streams it receives have only active subscribing stations as opposed to those data streams having at least one associated station operating in power-save mode. The access point will automatically transmit each multicast data stream having only active subscribers immediately to the associated active stations, while buffering the multicast data stream for which there is at least one associated station operating in power-save mode.

Optimizing 802.11 power-save for IP multicast groups

Techniques are provided to reduce or restrict the bandwidth consumed by multicast video streams on wireless links, such as wireless IEEE 802.11 links. At a central multicast video transcoder apparatus configured to communicate with one or more access point devices operating in a wireless local area network, one or more multicast video streams are re-encoded the one or more multicast video streams to produce a corresponding one or more wireless-friendly multicast video streams that have a reduced bandwidth from a bandwidth of the received multicast video streams. The one or more wireless-friendly multicast video streams are thus adapted for wireless transmission by access point devices to wireless client devices in the wireless local area network. The one or more access point devices receive the one or more wireless-friendly multicast video streams and process the one or more wireless-friendly multicast video streams depending on conditions in a radio channel used by the access point device. The access point devices then wirelessly transmit the one or more wireless-friendly multicast video streams to one or more client devices in a corresponding multicast group.

Distributed gateway for reliable multicast wireless video

Growing community of inventors

Cuyahoga Falls, OH, United States of America

Robert Charles Meier