Arris Enterprises LLC

Tsung-Kai Chen

Wen Xiao Chen

Sheetal Pandey

Kun-Nan Tseng

When an access point associates with an electronic device, the access point may establish secure communication with the electronic device using a four-way handshake with the electronic device. Next, the access point may distribute secondary pairwise master keys (PMKs) to radio-frequency (RF)-neighbor access points of the access point in a wireless local area network, where the secondary PMKs facilitate fast basic service set (BSS) transitions with the electronic device when a handover occurs without using the four-way handshake to establish secure communication with the electronic device. Furthermore, when the access point receives information that indicates that the electronic device has associated with a second access point in the RF-neighbor access points of the access point, the access point provides instructions to delete the secondary PMKs at the RF-neighbor access points of the access point, and provides additional secondary PMKs to RF-neighbor access points of the second access point.

Key management for fast transitions

An access point may utilize fast exchange of operation information with other access points in a wireless local area network (WLAN) to facilitate improved service. In particular, the access point may discover the other access points in a radio-frequency (RF) neighborhood using wireless communication. Then, the access point may exchange operational information with the other access points using dedicated connections. Subsequently, the access point may associate with the electronic device. If the access point determines that a basic-service-set (BSS) transition is warranted based on a criterion (such as the current number of associations with the access point), the access point may recommend one or more access points in the other access points for the electronic device to associate with based on the operational information, so that the electronic device is able to obtain improved communication performance relative to that provided by the access point.

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Taipei, Taiwan

Tsung-Kai Chen