Authenticating an ephemeral Diffie-Hellman using a trusted third party
Granted: June 10, 2014
Patent Number:
8750512
Authentication of parties through a trusted intermediary is described. The standard Ottway-Rees authentication protocol is modified to provide authentication between A and B using intermediary T such that T serves only as an authenticator, and does not participate in the generation of the key shared between A and B.
System and method for centralized station management
Granted: June 10, 2014
Patent Number:
8750272
In one embodiment of the invention, a wireless network is adapted with a wireless network switch in communication with a plurality of access points, which are in communication with one or more stations. Coupled to the access points over an interconnect, the wireless network switch is adapted to receive a DEAUTHENTICATION message sent by one of the plurality of access points in the same coverage area of the station so as to detect the DEAUTHENTICATION message and to block communications…
Delayed ACK in dual-mode call handover
Granted: June 3, 2014
Patent Number:
8744451
Handover of a call to a dual-mode phone from cellular to Wi-Fi. When handing over a call mediated by a mobility controller to a dual-mode phone and switching the call from a cellular to a Wi-Fi call, the mobility controller initiates a Wi-Fi connection to the dual mode phone. When the Wi-Fi connection is established, and with the cellular connection through the mobility controller still in place, the mobility controller starts a timer with a predetermined value and the dual-mode phone…
System and method for reliable multicast transmissions over shared wireless media for spectrum efficiency and battery power conservation
Granted: May 20, 2014
Patent Number:
8731594
According to one embodiment of the invention, wireless spectrum and battery power conservation is achieved through an adaptable multicast group communication scheme. This involves a method for controlling the multicast transmission rate based on a first operation of receiving information from a multicast receiving device that is a member of a multicast group. Based on this information and potentially other information from other member devices, the modulation and coding rate for the…
Wireless accessing device
Granted: May 20, 2014
Patent Number:
D705224
Method and system for advertising channel load
Granted: May 13, 2014
Patent Number:
8724606
The present disclosure discloses a network device and method for advertising channel load. The disclosed network device aggregates a number of clients that are associated with the network device on a specific wireless communication channel, and advertises the aggregated number to a client on the specific wireless communication channel. Further, the network device can receive aggregated load information on the specific wireless communication channel from another management network device,…
Method and apparatus for detecting and avoiding interference in a communications network
Granted: May 6, 2014
Patent Number:
8718561
A wireless mesh communication network includes a plurality of wireless routers which can be managed in a hierarchical manner with respect to one another and all of the routers are capable of detecting and avoiding interference on channels over which they communicate with one another. Depending upon whether a channel is active or inactive, a wireless router can either passively detect interference and then switch channels to avoid it or actively detect interference and then switch…
Method and apparatus for policy-based network access control with arbitrary network access control frameworks
Granted: April 29, 2014
Patent Number:
8713639
A method and apparatus for integrating various network access control frameworks under the control of a single policy decision point (PDP). The apparatus supports pluggable protocol terminators to interface to any number of access protocols or backend support services. The apparatus contains Trust and Identity Mediators to mediate between the protocol terminators and a canonical policy subsystem, translating attributes between framework representations, and a canonical representation…
Enterprise seamless mobility
Granted: April 29, 2014
Patent Number:
8712452
Extending dual-mode phones using SMS messages. When operating in cellular mode, SMS messages originated by a mobility controller in the enterprise command features such as indicators on the dual-mode phone. SMS messages are received by an agent in the dual-mode phone. A mobility controller connected to the enterprise SIP PBX and voicemail system receives messages for example indicating voicemail status and sends specially formatted SMS messages to the cellular phone to operate…
Aggregating multiple wireless channels
Granted: April 22, 2014
Patent Number:
8705580
Extending wired networks by aggregating multiple wireless links. Multiple wireless links are used to bridge wired networks, such as wired Ethernet networks. Each wireless link applies a hash function to the destination MAC address of presented traffic and uses the result of the hash function to determine if the traffic is passed by that wireless link or is dropped. For broadcast and multicast frames, the hash function is calculated on the source MAC address. Dynamic source MAC rewriting…
Band steering for multi-band wireless clients
Granted: April 15, 2014
Patent Number:
8699418
Band steering for multi-band wireless clients. In a wireless digital network having at least one central controller and a plurality of access nodes connected to the central controller, and wherein some of the access nodes support a preferred wireless band and at least one non-preferred wireless band, the central controller identifies wireless client devices capable of multi-band operation, and encourages them to connect to the preferred wireless band. Client devices may be identified as…
Signal strength aware band steering
Granted: April 1, 2014
Patent Number:
8687512
A system or method that receives a current request from a client, and responds to the current request based on signal strength associated with a previous request. If the current request is received on a non-preferred communication band, and a previous request was received on a preferred communication band within a pre-determined time, the system determines whether the signal strength associated with the previous request is weaker than a pre-determined threshold signal strength level for…
Heat dissipation unit for a wireless network device
Granted: March 25, 2014
Patent Number:
8681501
According to one embodiment of the invention, an apparatus comprises a heat dissipation unit, such as a heat sink, that encases wireless logic in order to completely surround such logic. When adapted as a wireless network device, a casing further encases the heat dissipation unit. The casing includes a plurality of slots that are aligned with heat-radiating elements positioned around the periphery of the heat dissipation unit to allow for cooling by convection.
Wireless link monitoring and active troubleshooting
Granted: March 18, 2014
Patent Number:
8675547
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method comprises transmitting a Layer 2 (L2) frame from a first wireless device. Upon receipt of a frame in response to the L2 frame, the first wireless device uses information conveyed in the frame to modify its functionality.
Visualization of radio frequency coverage
Granted: March 4, 2014
Patent Number:
8666704
Radio Frequency (RF) coverage models are visualized by displaying three dimensional unity scaled models of antenna performance in a Geographic Information System (GIS), Traditional logarithmic scaled antenna models are converted to linear models and stored as three dimensional representations which are placed and scaled using a GIS to visualize RF coverage.
Interference classification with minimal or incomplete information
Granted: February 25, 2014
Patent Number:
8660212
Interference classification with minimal or incomplete information. Receivers in access points and in other network devices on a wireless digital network may be switched to a spectrum monitor mode in which they provide amplitude-versus-frequency information for a chosen part of the spectrum. This may be performed by performing a FFT or similar transform on the signals from the receiver. Receivers are calibrated with known interference sources in controlled environments to determine…
Call admission control within a wireless network
Granted: February 25, 2014
Patent Number:
8660099
An association request from a wireless station is received at an access point. A determination is made whether a reservation threshold for a pre-determined number of wireless stations for the access point has been met. If the reservation threshold has not been met, the wireless station is associated with the access point. If the reservation threshold has been met, and the wireless station is not already on a call through another access point, the association of the wireless station with…
Efficient multicast control processing for a wireless network
Granted: February 18, 2014
Patent Number:
8655265
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method comprises an exchange of messages between an access point and a wireless network switch. One message, a PROXY IGMP JOIN message, is transmitted to the access point for propagation to a multicast router. This is performed so that multicast data associated with the multicast group identified by the PROXY IGMP JOIN message is routed to the access point without any unnecessary involvement by the wireless network switch.
System and method for advertising the same service set identifier for different basic service sets
Granted: February 18, 2014
Patent Number:
8654732
According to one embodiment of the invention, a method comprises advertising services. The services are provided by different basic service sets, each basic service set having the same service set identifier (SSID). Thereafter, one of the basic service sets is selected.
Overlaying virtual broadcast domains on an underlying physical network
Granted: February 11, 2014
Patent Number:
8649383
The present disclosure discloses a method and network device for overlaying one or more broadcast groups over virtual local area networks in a wireless network. The network device receives a broadcast/multicast message from a member device of a broadcast group. The broadcast group includes a subset of devices sharing at least one common property. The broadcast/multicast message is to be received by other member devices, but not by non-member devices of the first broadcast group.…