Meru Networks Patent Applications

DEAUTHENTICATING AND DISASSOCIATING UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS POINTS WITH SPOOFED MANAGEMENT FRAMES

Granted: October 19, 2017
Application Number: 20170303130
A spoofed management frame is sent to an unauthorized access point (AP) on behalf of a station from an authorized AP, using a media access control (MAC) address of the station. The spoofed frame triggers a security association (SA) query from an unauthorized AP to reestablish valid communications. An acknowledgment (ACK) frame sent from the client to the unauthorized AP responsive to the SA query request is detected by the AP. A probe response is sent to the client. The probe response…

OPTIMIZATION OF MU-MIMO BEAMFORMING IN A WI-FI COMMUNICATION NETWORK BASED ON MOBILITY PROFILES

Granted: May 11, 2017
Application Number: 20170135085
An access point associated on Wi-Fi portion of the communication network selectively groups stations according to a mobility profile. The mobility profile includes factors that characterize at least an amount of movement and current location for a station. Each station is assigned to a beamforming group of similar mobility profiles. A type of beamforming transmission is selected for each beamforming group based on mobility profiles of associated stations. The type of beamforming…

EXTENSION OF WI-FI SERVICES MULTICAST TO A SUBNET ACROSS A WI-FI NETWORK USING SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORK (SDN) TO CENTRALLY CONTROL DATA PLANE BEHAVIOR

Granted: February 2, 2017
Application Number: 20170034669
Wi-Fi services multicast to a subnet in a software-defined network (SDN) are extended. An SDN controller centrally monitors a data plane of a Wi-Fi network. Advertisements for services within a first subnet by an advertising station are forwarded to the SDN controller. Parameters of the service of the advertising station are extracted for storage by performing deep packet inspection on the one or more packets. Queries for services within a second subnet by a querying station are also…

INTELLIGENT BRIDGING OF WI-FI FLOWS IN A SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORK (SDN)

Granted: October 27, 2016
Application Number: 20160315785
Wi-Fi flows are intelligently bridged in a software-defined network (SDN) controller of a wireless communication network that centrally coordinates data plane behavior. A default mode tunnels packets received at an access point to the SDN controller for layer 2 routing decisions. A bridging policy concerning bridging of specific types of traffic flows for the wireless communication network is received at the SDN. Data plane traffic flow for each of a plurality of access points…

EXTENSION OF WI-FI SERVICES MULTICAST TO A SUBNET ACROSS A WI-FI NETWORK USING SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORKING (SDN) TO CENTRALLY CONTROL DATA PLANE BEHAVIOR

Granted: October 27, 2016
Application Number: 20160315781
Wi-Fi services multicast to a subnet in a software-defined network (SDN) are extended. An SDN controller centrally monitors a data plane of a Wi-Fi network. Advertisements for services within a first subnet by an advertising station are forwarded to the SDN controller. Parameters of the service of the advertising station are extracted for storage by performing deep packet inspection on the one or more packets. Queries for services within a second subnet by a querying station are also…

POWER SAVING IN WI-FI DEVICES UTILIZING BLUETOOTH

Granted: June 23, 2016
Application Number: 20160183185
The present description provides methods, computer program products, and systems for saving power in Wi-Fi devices utilizing Bluetooth. A Wi-Fi radio transitions to deep sleep mode from active mode while a Bluetooth radio remains active. An active Wi-Fi connection to the access point can be maintained by the station while in deep sleep mode as needed to prevent being disassociated. Responsive to the indication of data packets waiting at the access point, sent over the Bluetooth radio,…

BEACONS TO ADVERTISE PRESENCE OF NEARBY OBJECTS TO STATIONS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK

Granted: April 21, 2016
Application Number: 20160112838
Beacons (e.g., mBeacons or meruBeacons) to advertise presence of nearby objects to stations in a wireless communication network from an access point are provided. Location of a station connected to the access point is detected. One or more physical objects having a location proximate to the station are identified and can be indicated to a user. To do so, in an embodiment, responsive to the proximity of locations, a beacon having a BSSID corresponding to each of the one or more physical…

SELF-PROVISIONING OF A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK USING COORDINATION OF DATA PLANE BEHAVIOR TO STEER STATIONS TO PREFERRED ACCESS POINTS

Granted: April 21, 2016
Application Number: 20160112903
A wireless communication network is self-provisioned using coordination of data plane behavior to steer stations to preferred access points. To do so, a policy concerning traffic flow for the wireless communication network is received. Data plane traffic flow is monitored at each of the plurality of access points distributed around the wireless communication network. At some point, it may be determined the data plane traffic flow at a first access point from needs to be reduced based on…

ALTERNATIVE NETWORK COMMUNICATION FOR ACCESS POINT TROUBLESHOOTING AND MONITORING

Granted: April 21, 2016
Application Number: 20160112886
The present description provides methods, computer program products, and systems for alternative network communication for access point troubleshooting and monitoring. When a station has difficulty initiating or maintaining a connection with an access point, or even when performance is suboptimal, alternative network communication is initiated. The issue can be handled by reporting to a troubled access point for self-correction, or by uploading interrogation commands or code for active…

DETECTION OF SPOOF ATTACKS ON LOCATION BROADCASTING BEACONS

Granted: April 21, 2016
Application Number: 20160112878
Spoof attacks on location based beacons are detected. A stream of beacons (e.g., iBeacons) comprising at least a unique source identifier is generated. The stream of beacons is broadcast over a wireless communication channel to mobile devices within range. A list of broadcasted beacons is stored in a table along with a time and location of broadcast. Subsequent to broadcasting, a stream of beacons is detected. The detected beacon stream comprises a unique source identifier along with a…

OPTIMIZING MULTIMEDIA STREAMING IN WLANS (WIRELESS LOCAL ACCESS NETWORKS)

Granted: April 21, 2016
Application Number: 20160112728
An SDN controller to provision network resources at a data plane to keep progressive downloads of multimedia files proportional to encoding rates is disclosed. Packets from a new or unknown flow being downloaded at a default rate are forwarded from an access point, or other device, to an SDN controller for analysis. If a progressive download of a multimedia file (e.g., a video file) in progress is detected, an encoding rate of frames for the multimedia file is determined. A target…

INSTANT MESSENGER APPLICATIONS FOR INTERACTING WITH NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE DEVICES

Granted: April 21, 2016
Application Number: 20160112241
Interaction with network infrastructure devices using instant messenger applications is disclosed. A message is received on an instant messenger application executing on the network infrastructure device. The message is sent from an authorized party or instant messenger friend. The message is mapped to one or more commands recognized by an operating system of the network infrastructure. Commands are submitted on a command line interface. A response to the one or more commands from the…

DYNAMIC GENERATION OF PER-STATION REALM LISTS FOR HOT SPOT CONNECTIONS

Granted: April 14, 2016
Application Number: 20160105824
Per-station realm lists are dynamically generating per-station for hot spot connections to access points by roaming stations. A query for a list of realms is received from a roaming station when connecting to a hot spot. Using an MAC address or other station identity, a list of available realms narrowed to a subset of per-station realms sent to the station. Narrowing is performed on-the-fly with respect to at least one aspects. A last N realms are retrieved from a database record…

EMULATING VIRTUAL PORT CONTROL OF AIRTIME FAIRNESS USING PER STATION ENHANCED DISTRIBUTED CHANNEL ACCESS (EDCA) PARAMETERS

Granted: April 7, 2016
Application Number: 20160100399
A technique for emulating virtual port control of airtime fairness for wireless stations using per station Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) parameters. Specific parameters are received for each of a plurality of stations connected to the access point. An EDCA field of a beacon that stores a general EDCA parameter is set to an empty state. The beacon is broadcast to a plurality stations on the wireless communication network and within range of an access point. The beacon…

Voice Adaptation for Wireless Communication

Granted: January 14, 2016
Application Number: 20160014035
A system and method for optimizing voice communications in a wireless network including an AP having a message waiting time that provides proper QoS while losing minimal communication bandwidth. The QoS may be responsive to the amount of user traffic in both the AP and neighboring APs. The method may include setting parameters for each level of QoS in response to a measure of the degree of contention for that level of QoS, and in response to a measure of the degree of contention for…

STEERING INHERENTLY AUTONOMOUS WIRELESS DEVICES TO ACCESS POINTS BASED ON MIMO (MULTIPLE INPUT/ MULTIPLE OUTPUT) CAPABILITIES OF NETWORK COMPONENTS

Granted: August 13, 2015
Application Number: 20150230231
Network devices are steered based on VHT (very high throughput) capabilities, a first radio of the plurality of radios is assigned to MU-MIMO (multiple user-multiple input/multiple output) communication. The first radio is capable of communication using MU-MIMO and is backward-compatible for communication using SU-MIMO (single user-multiple input/multiple output). A second radio of the plurality of radios is assigned to SU-MIMO communication. A connection request is received from a…

AGGREGATED BEACONS FOR PER STATION CONTROL OF MULTIPLE STATIONS ACROSS MULTIPLE ACCESS POINTS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK

Granted: May 7, 2015
Application Number: 20150124774
A technique for providing per station control of multiple stations in a wireless network across multiple access points. A look-up table that assigns a station connected to the access point and at least one communication parameter to each of a plurality of persistent, uniquely-assigned BSSIDs (Basic Service Set Identifiers) is stored. An access point responds to messages addressed one of the plurality of persistent, uniquely-assigned BSSIDs and ignores messages addressed to other BSSIDs.…

SEAMLESS MOBILITY IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

Granted: February 12, 2015
Application Number: 20150043530
For seamless mobility, at least one communication parameter to associate with a BSSID is selected. A beacon is sent from a first access point to advertise its presence, wherein the beacon comprises the BSSID associated with the at least one communication parameter. Responsive to the mobile station choosing the BSSID being advertised in the beacon sent from the first access point, a uniquely assign the BSSID is selected for a mobile station. The first access point from the plurality of…

DISTRIBUTED CLIENT STEERING ALGORITHM TO A BEST-SERVING ACCESS POINT

Granted: July 24, 2014
Application Number: 20140204802
Network devices are steered to preferred access points using a probability function. A probe request for connection is received from a network device. The probe request can be from a network device attempting to use a wireless network (e.g., a IEEE 802.11-type network or other suitable type of network). A probability function that defines a likelihood of granting the network device a connection is used to determine whether to accept or deny the response. The probe response is then sent…

DIFFERENTIAL SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO BASED RATE ADAPTATION

Granted: November 14, 2013
Application Number: 20130301443
Systems and methods for implementing a differential signal to noise ratio (DSNR) based rate adaptation for wireless networks are disclosed. The described methods probabilistically adapt the rate of data transmission based on an assessment of the causes of data loss. The described methods include determining a DSNR for data transmission during a predetermined window of time and adapting the transmission rate in a probabilistic manner responsive to the differential SNR and a differential…