The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 09, 2006
Filed:
Sep. 27, 2002
David Juitt, Arlington, MA (US);
Philip Bates, London, GB;
Thomas Christoffel, Concord, MA (US);
Geoffrey Crawshaw, Needham, MA (US);
David Crosbie, Somerville, MA (US);
David Juitt, Arlington, MA (US);
Philip Bates, London, GB;
Thomas Christoffel, Concord, MA (US);
Geoffrey Crawshaw, Needham, MA (US);
David Crosbie, Somerville, MA (US);
Bluesocket, Inc., Burlington, MA (US);
Abstract
The present invention can be used to facilitate the integration of wireless capability provided by wireless access points into an enterprise computer network. A gateway server is interposed between wireless access points and protected networks to provide security and integration functions, for example, authentication, access control, link privacy, link integrity, and bandwidth metering in various embodiments. Use of such a gateway server allows substantial control to be gained over network access even with the use of relatively simple access points. In general, such a gateway server receives a request to access the protected network. An authentication subsystem of the gateway server authenticates the user, preferably by accessing an external authentication server and returns a role to the authenticated user. An access controller in the gateway server provides differential access to the protected network based on the user's assigned role. A multiple gateway servers can be connected together to form a mesh network architecture.