CN111479248A

CN111479248A - Fast roaming automatic configuration method and system

Info

Publication number: CN111479248A
Application number: CN202010198353.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 徐远; 陈金花; 吕志华
Original assignee: Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-03-19
Filing date: 2020-03-19
Publication date: 2020-07-31
Anticipated expiration: 2040-03-19
Also published as: CN111479248B

Abstract

The invention discloses a method and a system for fast roaming automatic configuration, which relate to the field of wireless roaming. The first AP initializes the fast roaming functions of the first AP and the neighbor AP based on a network protocol supported by the neighbor AP, and sends the MAC address of the mobile terminal to the neighbor AP. And the first AP and the neighbor AP acquire the RSSI between the mobile terminal and each AP according to the MAC address, and store the RSSI into a second beacon frame to be sent out. And summarizing the second beacon frames sent by all the APs to obtain the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal, and switching or maintaining the AP connected with the mobile terminal according to the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal. The invention aims to provide a quick roaming automatic configuration method and a quick roaming automatic configuration system, which can realize quick roaming of a mobile terminal, particularly cross-platform quick roaming.

Description

Fast roaming automatic configuration method and system

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of wireless roaming, in particular to a quick roaming automatic configuration method and a quick roaming automatic configuration system.

Background

In recent years, the demand for wireless communication quality is continuously increasing with the application and popularization of wireless networks. Due to the limited coverage of wireless networks, roaming is inevitable in people using wireless networks, especially in public places and in relatively large places. In WIFI technology, a user terminal device, such as a mobile phone, is usually connected to a wireless Access Point AP (Access Point) to obtain network services. But the range that can be covered by one AP is limited. Due to the mobile nature of wireless internet access, the user of the terminal device may quickly move out of the coverage area of the currently connected access point. It is now necessary to have a new, closer AP "take over" so that the terminal device can connect to the new wireless AP and maintain its original internet service. This is the process by which a wireless terminal device changes from a current AP to another AP and maintains network connectivity, and is referred to as roaming. The handover of the wireless access point inevitably generates roaming delay, and the delay generated by the roaming reaches more than 50ms, which may cause the problems of losing connection, reducing network quality and the like. To address the issue of lengthy handover delays, the IEEE committee has proposed an 802.11r protocol that is directed to reducing the roaming delay of wireless terminal devices.

At present, the wireless chip manufacturers have different implementations of 802.11r protocols, the wireless 802.11r default configuration modes of the wireless chip manufacturers are different, the default configuration parameters of different products (such as optical modems and ethernet uplink devices) suitable for different scenes are different, and a user needs to manually configure related parameters to use the fast roaming function of the 802.11r protocol. At present, the deployment scale of a wireless network is getting larger, and in a large-scale wireless network environment, configuring an AP is a huge workload, and if the AP of the whole network needs to support a fast roaming function, an administrator must sequentially perform operation configuration of the fast roaming function on each AP, which is time-consuming and labor-consuming. In view of the fact that multiple wireless chip platforms support 802.11r fast roaming protocols in the industry, how to implement fast roaming automatic configuration across chip platforms becomes a problem to be solved by those skilled in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

Aiming at the defects in the prior art, the invention aims to provide a quick roaming automatic configuration method and a quick roaming automatic configuration system, which can realize quick roaming of a mobile terminal, particularly cross-platform quick roaming.

To achieve the above object, in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a fast roaming auto-configuration method

A first AP connected with a mobile terminal receives a first beacon frame with network protocol information sent by other APs in a network to obtain neighbor APs with the same SSID (Service Set Identifier) and network protocols supported by the neighbor APs;

the first AP initializes the fast roaming functions of the first AP and the neighbor AP based on a network protocol supported by the neighbor AP, and sends a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a mobile terminal to the neighbor AP;

the first AP and the neighbor APs acquire RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) between the mobile terminal and each AP according to the MAC address, and store the RSSI into a second beacon frame to be sent out;

and summarizing second beacon frames sent by all the APs, obtaining the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal, and switching or keeping the AP connected with the mobile terminal according to the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal.

As a preferred embodiment, the information stored in the first beacon frame includes: the chip platform used by the AP, whether the AP supports 802.11k, whether the AP supports 802.11v, and whether the AP supports 802.11 r.

As a preferred embodiment, the aggregating the second beacon frames sent by all the APs to obtain the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal includes:

and the first AP receives the second beacon sent by each AP, acquires the RSSI between each neighbor AP and the mobile terminal, and establishes a signal intensity table of the mobile terminal relative to the AP.

As a preferred embodiment, the switching or maintaining the AP connected to the mobile terminal according to the RSSI between each of the APs and the mobile terminal includes:

and comparing the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal, and if the RSSI between the mobile terminal and the first AP is smaller than a preset value, switching to a neighbor AP with the maximum RSSI to establish connection with the mobile terminal.

As a preferred embodiment, the switching to the neighbor AP with the largest RSSI to establish a connection with the mobile terminal includes:

judging whether the fast roaming configuration frames of the neighbor AP and the first AP are the same or not;

if the fast roaming configuration frame of the neighbor AP is the same as that of the first AP, the neighbor AP uses the fast roaming configuration of the first AP;

and if the fast roaming configuration frame of the neighbor AP is different from that of the first AP, the first AP sends the fast roaming configuration parameters to the neighbor AP.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a fast roaming automatic configuration system, which includes a plurality of APs, where any selected AP has:

the sending module is used for sending a first beacon frame with network protocol information to other APs;

the scanning module is used for receiving a first beacon frame with network protocol information sent by other APs in a network to obtain neighbor APs with the same SSID and network protocols supported by the neighbor APs;

the enabling module is used for initializing the fast roaming functions of the selected AP and the neighbor AP based on a network protocol supported by the neighbor AP, and sending a first MAC address of a first mobile terminal connected with the selected AP to the neighbor AP;

the acquisition module is used for receiving a second MAC address of a second mobile terminal connected with a neighbor AP and sent by the neighbor AP, acquiring RSSI values between the selected AP and the first mobile terminal and between the selected AP and the second mobile terminal according to the first MAC address and the second MAC address, and sending the RSSI values stored in a second beacon frame;

and the monitoring module is used for receiving the second beacon frame, obtaining the RSSI between the first mobile terminal and each AP, and switching or maintaining the connection between the first mobile terminal and each AP according to the RSSI.

As a preferred embodiment, the monitoring module includes a sorting sub-module, and the sorting sub-module is configured to receive the second beacon sent by each AP, obtain RSSI between each neighboring AP and the first mobile terminal, and establish a signal strength table of the first mobile terminal relative to each AP.

As a preferred embodiment, the monitoring module further includes a comparing sub-module, where the comparing sub-module is configured to compare RSSI between each AP and the first mobile terminal, and if the RSSI between the first mobile terminal and the selected AP is smaller than a preset value, switch to a neighbor AP with the largest RSSI to establish a connection with the first mobile terminal.

As a preferred embodiment, the monitoring module further includes a switching sub-module, where the switching sub-module is configured to switch the first mobile terminal to be connected to the neighbor AP with the largest RSSI, specifically:

judging whether the fast roaming configuration frames of the neighbor AP and the selected AP are the same or not;

if the fast roaming configuration frame of the neighbor AP is the same as that of the selected AP, the neighbor AP uses the fast roaming configuration of the selected AP;

if the fast roaming configuration framework of the neighbor AP is different from that of the selected AP, the selected AP sends the fast roaming configuration parameters to the neighbor AP.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that:

the invention relates to a fast roaming automatic configuration method, an AP and a system, which acquire the information of each AP through the information carried in beacon frames based on an 802.11 protocol, firstly confirm neighbor APs under the same local area network, secondly know the chip platform where the neighbor APs are located and the supported communication protocol, and provide a basis for the communication between the subsequent APs. The first AP informs the neighbor AP of enabling the fast roaming function through the communication protocol, and the AP in the local area network can normally start the fast roaming function. Furthermore, the invention stores the RSSI value of the mobile terminal relative to each AP in the beacon frame, so that the first AP can know the current network strength of the mobile terminal and the network conditions of the mobile terminal and other APs through the RSSI value, and further select a better AP for the mobile terminal to connect. The invention ensures that the rapid roaming of different chip platforms can be kept consistent through beacon frame information exchange and can work cooperatively.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings corresponding to the embodiments are briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained according to these drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating steps of a fast roaming auto-configuration method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating fast roaming networking according to an embodiment of the fast roaming auto-configuration method of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an embodiment of an automatic configuration method for fast roaming according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a vector specific element of a data frame according to an embodiment of the fast roaming automatic configuration method of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating an embodiment of an automatic configuration method for fast roaming according to the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of a fast roaming auto-configuration system according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Embodiments of the present invention provide a fast roaming auto-configuration method and system, which share a mobile terminal MAC address with each AP having the same SSID, and perform AP handover for the mobile terminal according to RSSI values of the mobile terminal with respect to each AP.

In order to achieve the technical effects, the general idea of the application is as follows:

a first AP connected with a mobile terminal receives a first beacon frame with network protocol information sent by other APs in a network to obtain neighbor APs with the same SSID and network protocols supported by the neighbor APs;

the first AP initializes the fast roaming functions of the first AP and the neighbor AP based on a network protocol supported by the neighbor AP, and sends the MAC address of the mobile terminal to the neighbor AP;

the first AP and the neighbor APs acquire RSSI between the mobile terminal and each AP according to the MAC address, and store the RSSI into a second beacon frame to be sent out;

In summary, the APs with the same SSID are simply a cluster of lan networks, which are used to distinguish different networks, and only devices with the same SSID name can directly communicate with each other, and at least 1 AP in the cluster provides an access point to the outside. Therefore, in the same lan, each AP can share the MAC of the mobile terminal. Furthermore, each AP monitors the RSSI value of the mobile terminal relative to itself in real time, and performs corresponding switching. The AP switching can be carried out by the mobile terminal in an optimal scheme under various switching environments.

Furthermore, for the APs of different chip platforms, the parameters and configuration schemes for setting the fast roaming mode are different, so that the APs can be synchronized and coordinated by directly sending the communication scheme of each chip platform, and it is difficult to directly achieve the fast roaming service of the mobile terminal. In the scheme, the data needing to be exchanged among the APs is stored in beacon data frames in the 802.11 communication protocol, so that the communication among the APs of different chip platforms is realized. Further, when the mobile terminal moves, the fast roaming mode of the AP is formally operated, and first the fast roaming mode of each AP needs to be initialized, that is, the configuration and roaming mode of each AP are adjusted to be the same, and when the mobile terminal switches after moving, the fast roaming mode of each AP formally operates, and the mobile terminal is selectively switched to a suitable AP.

In order to better understand the technical solution, the following detailed description is made with reference to specific embodiments.

Referring to fig. 1 and fig. 2, an embodiment of the present invention provides a fast roaming automatic configuration method, which includes:

s1: a first AP connected with a mobile terminal receives a first beacon frame with network protocol information sent by other APs in a network to obtain neighbor APs with the same SSID and network protocols supported by the neighbor APs;

the first AP can be assisted to know the current network condition through the first beacon frame. After the mobile terminal and the first AP complete the connection, the first AP does not know the specific information of other APs, nor does it know whether other APs belong to the same network, so in this case, each AP sends a first beacon frame with network protocol information, and the first AP obtains related information according to the network protocol carried by the beacon frame: belonging to the same AP as the local area network, namely the same SSID, and the network protocol supported by each AP.

After the APs with the same SSID are obtained, the mobile terminal MAC address is shared, other APs are facilitated to identify the mobile terminal, and subsequent switching is carried out. The SSID is an identifier and name of a lan, and the APs in the same lan have the same SSID, so that when the mobile terminal roams in the lan, it must access the AP having the SSID. In order to facilitate the subsequent switching of the AP connected with the mobile terminal, the invention firstly shares the MAC address of the mobile terminal through the APs with the same SSID and obtains the RSSI value of the mobile terminal relative to each AP, so that the APs with the same SSID can identify and operate aiming at the same mobile terminal.

S2: the first AP initializes the fast roaming functions of the first AP and the neighbor AP based on a network protocol supported by the neighbor AP, and sends the MAC address of the mobile terminal to the neighbor AP.

Through the chip platform where the AP is located, whether the AP and the first AP are located on the same chip platform or not can be known, if the AP and the first AP belong to the same chip platform, communication and activation of fast roaming can be preferably and directly performed according to the regulation of the chip platform. If the AP belongs to different chip platforms, it needs to further know the network protocol that the AP can use, i.e. whether the AP supports 802.11k, whether the AP supports 802.11v, and whether the AP supports 802.11 r. The first AP knows the network protocol it uses and can communicate based on this.

As a preferred embodiment, the first AP initializes the fast roaming function of the neighbor AP through a socket. A socket is an abstraction layer through which an application can send or receive data, and can perform operations such as opening, reading, writing, and closing on the data as a file. Sockets allow applications to plug I/O into the network and communicate with other applications in the network. The web socket is a combination of an IP address and a port, is the most common application program interface, and is also the most common API for application development on the Internet. Where initialization is the initiation of the fast roaming null energy for the pair of neighbor APs and parameter configuration.

It should be noted that, the first AP determines whether other APs support the fast roaming function through the first beacon frame, according to the 802.11r protocol, the beacon frame of the fast roaming includes an MDIE (Mobility domain) field, and the AP can determine whether an STA (Station, a terminal connected to the wireless network, or a subscriber Station) supports 802.11r during scanning. For the mobile terminal, when the first AP receives the auth management frame sent by the STA, if the value of the first byte authorship is 2, the mobile terminal supports fast roaming, and if the value of the field does not support 802.11r, the field is the other value.

It should be further noted that, after the first AP (in the following embodiments, the AP1 is taken as an example) knows that the other APs can support the fast roaming function through the first beacon frame, the other APs and the fast roaming function of the first AP can be further activated and configured. For example:

the first AP uses a tcp/ip protocol or a udp protocol to create a socket and sends a broadcast message to other APs in the network, so that each AP starts a protocol function related to fast roaming. These broadcast messages are based on the use of protocols such as 802.11k,802.11v, 802.11r, etc. supported by the respective chips themselves.

Although the commands of each AP chip platform are different, after receiving the message for starting the fast roaming function, the management process of the AP starts the fast roaming function according to the command of its own chip platform.

Besides the method for creating socket message by tcp/ip protocol or udp protocol, each AP may be notified to start the fast roaming function supported by itself by defining a private beacon frame field:

the Vendor Specific element structure definition is specified according to the 802.11 protocol:

1. the oui field is defined as: 0x636D64 ("CMD"), 0x434D44 ("CMD")

2. A vendor-specific content field, wherein n is more than or equal to 3 and less than or equal to 255 in length, and the following provisions are made:

the first byte is 11k _ enable: 1: indicating that the 11k function is turned on, 0: indicating off 11k (802.11k)

The second byte is 11v _ enable: 1: indicating that the 11v function is turned on, 0: representation 11v (802.11v)

The third byte is ft _ enable: 1: indicating that the 11r fast roaming function is turned on, 0: indicating closed fast roaming (802.11r)

When the AP in the network scans the private beacon frame of the AP with the field, whether the fast roaming function is started or not is determined according to the content of the vendor-specific content,

and then enables the function of the corresponding protocol according to the command of the chip platform.

Preferably, the initializing fast roaming function of the APs having the same SSID comprises:

if the AP connected with the mobile terminal and the AP with the same SSID are the same fast roaming configuration frame, the AP with the same SSID directly uses the fast roaming configuration of the AP connected with the mobile terminal;

if the AP connected with the mobile terminal and the AP with the same SSID are different fast roaming configuration frames, the AP connected with the mobile terminal sends the fast roaming configuration parameters to the AP with the same SSID.

The present invention also provides an alternative embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, which comprises the steps of:

a1: when the AP is started, a user-defined field of a first beacon is set according to the self supporting condition of the AP on 802.11r,802.11k and 802.11 v;

a2: the AP scans neighbor APs to establish a neighbor AP table;

a3: judging whether an STA supporting 802.11r is connected, if so, turning to the step A4, otherwise, returning to the step A2;

a4: sending broadcast notification to other APs in the network to scan the RSSI of the STA;

a5: scanning the second beacon frame, acquiring the relative RSSI of the STA, and establishing a signal intensity table of the STA;

a6: whether the RSSI of the STA is less than a threshold value of-60 db;

a7: selecting the AP with the strongest signal intensity as a target roaming switching AP of the STA according to the signal intensity table of the STA;

a8: judging whether the AP1 and the TargetAP are the same chip platform, if so, turning to the step A9, otherwise, turning to the step A10;

a9: informing TargetAP to use default 802.11r configuration for fast roaming configuration, go to step a 11;

a10: sending 802.11r configuration parameters (rokh-id, r1kh-id, mdid and other parameters) of the AP to targetAP, and synchronously configuring the targetAP according to the received configuration parameters;

a11: the STA automatically roams quickly to TargetAP.

Wherein the step A4 further comprises the steps of:

a401: the AP creation thread scans the RSSI signal intensity of a specified STA (namely the STA associated with the AP) once every 10 seconds and updates a signal intensity table;

a402: the AP scans the RSSI signal strength of the STA (namely the STA informed by the neighbor AP) according to the MAC of the received STA;

a403: the AP stores the RSSI of the STA in the custom field of the second beacon frame rssiHashTable [ hash (mac)) ] ═ RSSI, and if the STA is not in the network, updates the second beacon custom field rssiHashTable [ hash (mac)) ] ═ 0. And sending out a second beacon frame.

A404: the AP judges whether the STA is still in the network, if so, the AP waits for 10 seconds and then goes to the step A402, otherwise, the AP goes to the step A405

A405: the thread exits.

In order to enable APs with different 802.11 protocols to communicate fast roaming configuration among APs with the same SSID, the APs need to know the respective supported 802.11 protocols. The invention adopts the characters set in the general field in the 802.11 protocol to express:

in order to make AP devices in the same frame in a network perceive each other, according to the structure of a Vendor Specific element field in an 802.11 protocol, a beacon frame of an AP needs to be extended, and a custom Vendor Specific element field is added to the beacon frame, and the field is defined as follows:

1. as shown in fig. 4, according to the specification of chapter 8, section 4, and paragraph 28 of the IEEE STD 802.11 standard protocol document 2012 edition, the Organization Identifier (OUI) field in the Vendor Specific element structure may be generally 3 bytes in length, and defined as a character related to a company (e.g., beacon communication), such as 0x46484D (FHM), 0x66686d (FHM);

2. the 802.11 protocol specifies that the length of the Vendor-Specific content field in the Vendor Specific element structure is 3 ≦ n ≦ 255, and for Vendor-Specific content, we define the following structure:

platform: 12 bytes (content is chip platform information)

802.11 k: 1 byte (whether 802.11k protocol is supported, 0: not supported, 1: supported)

802.11 r: 1 byte (whether 802.11r protocol is supported, 0: not supported, 1: supported)

802.11 v: 1 byte (whether 802.11v protocol is supported, 0: not supported, 1: supported)

The above contents can facilitate the AP to rapidly establish the neighbor AP table by scanning the beacon frame, and the structure field can be increased according to the requirement.

After the establishment of the neighbor AP table is completed, according to the protocol supported by each AP, the RSSI table for broadcasting and informing other APs to scan the designated STA is sent, the RSSI of the STA with respect to each AP having the same SSID is obtained, the RSSI table about the STA is established, and whether to perform handover is determined according to whether the RSSI of the current connection is lower than a threshold (e.g., -60 db). Each AP acquires RSSI with respect to the STA, and may perform through heartbeat detection: scanning the RSSI value of the STA once every 10 seconds, updating the custom field, acquiring the MAC address of the STA, and storing the RSSI value and the MAC address acquired by each scanning in the custom field of the reverse beacon frame, so that other APs can be informed.

If the STA needs to be switched, firstly, according to an RSSI table of the STA, acquiring an AP with the most front signal strength corresponding to RSSI as a switching target AP, and determining whether the current AP and the switching target AP are the same chip platform, if so, directly using the same default 802.11 to perform notification and configuration of fast roaming configuration, otherwise, sending configuration parameters by an 802.11 protocol supported by the switching target AP, and the switching target AP can complete connection with the STA according to the configuration parameters.

It should be further noted that, in the above technical solution, if the first AP finds that the connected STA supports the 802.11r protocol, the first AP sends a broadcast through the wireless local area network to notify other APs in the network to start fast roaming, after the other APs in the network receive the broadcast message for starting fast roaming, the fast roaming function is started according to the command line tool of the chip platform, and at this time, the AP of each chip platform starts the fast roaming function according to the default configuration parameters of the AP.

For example, initializing fast roaming functionality for APs with the same SSID includes transmitting the current fast roaming profile to each AP model:

if the AP is on the same chip platform, the connection is established through the socket, and other APs are informed to set the fast roaming parameters by using the default configuration of the same chip platform.

If the AP is in different chip platforms, the quick roaming configuration parameters (information such as Mobility Domain Identifier (mdid), r0kh-id, r1kh-id, br0 and the like) of the connected AP are connected through the socket and sent to the AP to be configured; and then the AP to be configured sets the fast roaming configuration parameters (information such as Mobility domain identifier (mdid), r0kh-id, r1kh-id, br0 and the like) according to the received configuration parameters of the connected AP.

According to the specification of the 802.11R protocol, the R0KH-ID can not exceed 48 bytes, and the R1KH-ID is generally the MAC address of the authenticator and is 6 bytes. The parameter configuration method of the AP1 and the AP2 is as follows:

the setting parameters of the AP1 that has connected the AP are AP1_ r0kh-ID and AP1_ r1kh-ID, where AP1_ r0kh-ID is 002fd9544682.r0kh-id.fiberhome, and AP1_ r1kh-ID is 002FD9544682, which needs to send the ID of the target AP2 of the fast roaming configuration parameters: TargetAP2_ r0kh-id is 0c6abcff1906.r0kh-id.fiberhome, and TargetAP2_ r1kh-id is 0c6abcff1906, and meanwhile, the MAC address of AP2 is also stored on AP 1: 0c6abcff1906, the AP1 verifies and sends fast roaming configuration parameters to the AP2 according to TargetAP2_ r0kh-id, TargetAP2_ r1kh-id of the AP2 and the SSID-MAC address of the AP 2.

Further, the AP2 also stores parameters of the AP2 itself and parameters of the AP 1: AP2_ r0kh-ID is 0c6abcff1906.r0kh-id.fiberhome, AP2_ r1kh-ID is 0c6abcff1906, which verifies the ID of the fast roaming configuration parameter source: TargetAP1_ r0kh-id is 002 fd9544682.0kh-id.fiberhome, TargetAP1_ r1kh-id is 002FD9544682, and the SSID-MAC address of AP1 is 002FD9544682.

S3: and the first AP and the neighbor APs acquire the RSSI between the mobile terminal and each AP according to the MAC address, and store the RSSI into a second beacon frame to be sent out.

The RSSI value is obtained, and the signal strength between the mobile terminal and each AP can be fed back. The AP under the same local area network can find the same mobile terminal according to the shared MAC address, and measure and calculate the RSSI aiming at the mobile terminal, wherein the RSSI is used as the received signal strength indication and is an optional part of a wireless transmission layer to judge the link quality and judge whether to increase the broadcast transmission strength. Preferably, each AP extracts the RSSI between the mobile terminal and each AP through a wireless management frame transmitted by the mobile terminal. The RSSI strength can be used for judging the signal strength of the current mobile terminal at different time and status relative to each AP.

S4: and summarizing second beacon frames sent by all the APs, obtaining the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal, and switching or keeping the AP connected with the mobile terminal according to the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal.

The AP switching according to the RSSI value can be performed based on that the mobile terminal is in different communication environments, so that better service is provided for the mobile terminal. The mobile terminal may be in different states and locations in a lan, for example, if the mobile terminal leaves the lan, its RSSI value is always decreasing, and the RSSI value of the mobile terminal with respect to other APs is also decreasing, and the handover is meaningless. However, when the mobile terminal moves from a position close to one AP to another AP, the RSSI value of the mobile terminal with respect to the previous AP is continuously decreased, and the RSSI value of the mobile terminal with respect to the second AP is continuously increased, so that it is necessary to switch to another AP with a stronger signal before the mobile terminal is affected by too weak signal, that is, the mobile terminal is switched from the first AP as an access point to the second AP.

Preferably, the summarizing the second beacon frames sent by all the APs to obtain the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal includes:

As a preferred embodiment, on the basis of the above embodiments, switching or maintaining the AP connected to the mobile terminal according to the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal includes:

The method comprises the steps that the AP with the same SSID detects the RSSI value of a mobile terminal corresponding to the MAC, when the RSSI value is lower, the AP is actively switched, and the AP is directly switched to the AP corresponding to the current maximum RSSI value, so that the best signal connection can be provided for the mobile terminal, and different application scenes of the mobile terminal can be dealt with, if the mobile terminal moves from a position close to the first AP to a position close to the second AP, when the RSSI of the AP relative to the first AP is lower than a threshold value, the AP is automatically switched to the second AP; further, when the mobile terminal connected to the third AP leaves the lan, the RSSI of the mobile terminal with respect to the third AP is continuously decreased, and the RSSI of other APs is also continuously decreased, and the mobile terminal is switched to the AP with the maximum RSSI, so that the docking of the APs can be ensured to be prolonged.

As a preferred embodiment, the RSSI is stored in beacon frames of the 802.11 protocol in the AP.

In order to establish an RSSI signal strength table of the STA conveniently, the VendorSpecific element field of the beacon frame to the AP needs to be extended in the following manner:

1. the 802.11 protocol specifies that the organization identifier (OUI) field in the Vendor Specific element structure is typically 3 bytes in length, which may be defined as 0x534947(SIG) or 0x736967 (SIG).

2. The 802.11 protocol specifies that the length of the Vendor-Specific content field in the Vendor Specific element structure is 3-255, and for the Vendor-Specific content, we make the following specification:

a) define the vendor-specific content as an array of 251 bytes rssiHashTable [251] ═ {0 };

b) taking hash function value to the mac address of STA, the calculation method is as follows

Hash(mac)＝mac mod q；

The mac value pair 251 is calculated to take the remainder (where mac is the hexadecimal number of the mac address of STA: 0x352eb6f2111 f; q: 251).

c) AP saves RSSI signal strength of STA: rssiHashTable [ hash (mac) ] ═ rssi;

d) if there is a conflict in the hash (mac) calculation, the save location order is deferred.

According to the above definition, the Vendor Specific element field may hold the RSSI signal strength values of 251 STAs. If more RSSI values of the STA need to be saved, the number of the vector Specific element fields is increased, and the rssiHashTable [251 n ] (n is more than or equal to 1) is expanded.

Further, the APs connected to the mobile terminal acquire the RSSI corresponding to each AP from beacon frames sent from the APs having the same SSID.

Therefore, the RSSI is saved in the beacon frame of the 802.11 protocol in the AP, the relative signal intensity table of the STA is updated in real time, meanwhile, in order to avoid the AP from frequently scanning and occupying resources, the AP can create a thread, the specified thread scans the wireless management frame of the STA once every 10 seconds, and the RSSI value of the STA in the channel-specific content field in the beacon frame of the AP is updated.

Furthermore, the AP connected with the mobile terminal acquires the beacon frame at regular time through a thread running circularly.

In order to update the STA signal strength table of the first AP in real time, a thread is created to scan beacon frames of other APs in the network and update the data of the STA signal strength table RSSI of the first AP in real time. In order to avoid the first AP from frequently scanning to occupy resources, the beacon frame in the network may be scanned every 10 seconds

For example, as shown in fig. 5, the present invention further provides a method for fast roaming auto-configuration, which includes:

s101, AP1 with chip model 1 scans the first beacon frame of other neighbor APs with the same SSID in the network, and establishes a neighbor AP table according to the information (information such as whether the chip platform supports 802.11r or not, whether the chip platform supports 802.11k or not) related to the neighbor APs obtained by scanning, as shown in table 1:

TABLE 1

S102, the AP1 of the chip model 1 finds that the connection STA supports the 802.11r protocol, and informs other APs in the network of enabling the fast roaming function through socket broadcast.

S103, AP1 inquires the IP address of the AP in the network through the arp protocol, establishes connection with the AP through the socket, and sends the mac address of the STA supporting the 802.11r protocol connected with the AP1 to other APs in the network. After receiving the mac address of the support STA, the other APs acquire RSSI of the STA relative to the APs by scanning the wireless management frame sent by the STA, and fill the RSSI of the STA into the data field of the vector Specific element field of the second beacon frame.

S104 and AP1 collect the signal strength of the STA relative to all APs in the network by scanning the second beacon frame of other neighboring APs with the same SSID, establish a signal strength table of the STA relative to the APs, and implement monitoring of the RSSI change condition of each connected STA, as shown in table 2:

STA MAC	AP0-RSSI	AP1-RSSI	AP2-RSSI	AP3-RSSI	AP4-RSSI
						352eb6f2111f	-70	-28	-45	-50	-60
cd2eb6f2be5f	-62	-70	-36	-66	-72
						a02eb6f2cd15	-68	-55	-42	-62	-71

TABLE 2

And S105, when the RSSI of the STA is less than the threshold, for example, -60, the AP1 selects the AP2 with the highest current signal strength and the AP1 with which the STA is currently connected as a fast roaming configuration object according to the signal strength table of the STA. The AP1 connects to the AP2 through a socket and informs the AP2 to perform fast roaming parameter configuration.

As an example: when the AP1 and the AP2 are different chip platforms, the AP1 sends the configuration parameters of the 802.11r to the AP2 one by one through socket sockets, and the AP2 receives and verifies the configuration parameters of the AP1 according to the information in the socket sockets and then carries out fast roaming configuration so as to switch the STA; when the AP1 and the AP2 are the same chip platform, the AP1 directly sends the default configuration parameters based on the 802.11r protocol to the AP2, and the AP2 directly performs fast roaming configuration.

S106, after the STA successfully roams to the target AP2, the AP1 continues to monitor the RSSI change of other STAs associated therewith, and repeats steps S103, S104, S105, and S106.

As shown in fig. 6, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a fast roaming automatic configuration system, which includes a plurality of APs, wherein any selected AP has:

For a local area network formed by APs, a plurality of APs and a plurality of mobile terminals exist, and due to the fact that the relative positions of each mobile terminal and the APs are different, the APs connected with each mobile terminal are different.

Further, the information stored in the first beacon frame includes: the chip platform used by the AP, whether the AP supports 802.11k, whether the AP supports 802.11v, and whether the AP supports 802.11 r.

Still further, the monitoring module includes an arrangement submodule, the arrangement submodule is used for receiving the second beacon sent by each AP, acquiring the RSSI between each neighbor AP and the first mobile terminal, and establishing a signal intensity table of the first mobile terminal relative to each AP.

Still further, the monitoring module further includes a comparison sub-module, where the comparison sub-module is configured to compare RSSI between each AP and the first mobile terminal, and if the RSSI between the first mobile terminal and the selected AP is smaller than a preset value, switch to a neighbor AP with the largest RSSI to establish a connection with the first mobile terminal.

Still further, the monitoring module further includes a switching sub-module, where the switching sub-module is configured to switch the first mobile terminal to be connected to the neighbor AP with the largest RSSI, specifically:

Various modifications and specific examples in the foregoing method embodiments are also applicable to the system of the present embodiment, and the detailed description of the method is clear to those skilled in the art, so that the detailed description is omitted here for the sake of brevity.

Generally, the embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a system for fast roaming auto-configuration, which enable APs with the same SSID of each chip platform and share a MAC address of a mobile terminal, so as to perform AP handover for the mobile terminal according to RSSI of the mobile terminal relative to each mobile terminal.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A fast roaming automatic configuration method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

2. The fast roaming auto-configuration method of claim 1, wherein: the information stored in the first beacon frame includes: the chip platform used by the AP, whether the AP supports 802.11k, whether the AP supports 802.11v, and whether the AP supports 802.11 r.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the aggregating the second beacon frames sent by all APs to obtain the RSSI between each AP and the mobile terminal includes:

4. The fast roaming automatic configuration method of claim 3, wherein the switching or maintaining the AP connected to the mobile terminal according to the RSSI between each of the APs and the mobile terminal includes:

5. The fast roaming automatic configuration method of claim 4, wherein the switching to the neighbor AP with the highest RSSI to establish a connection with the mobile terminal includes:

6. A fast roaming auto-configuration system comprising a plurality of APs, any selected one of the APs having:

7. The fast roaming auto-configuration system of claim 6, wherein: the information stored in the first beacon frame includes: the chip platform used by the AP, whether the AP supports 802.11k, whether the AP supports 802.11v, and whether the AP supports 802.11 r.

8. The fast roaming auto-configuration system of claim 6, wherein: the monitoring module comprises a sorting submodule, wherein the sorting submodule is used for receiving the second beacon sent by each AP, acquiring the RSSI between each neighbor AP and the first mobile terminal, and establishing a signal intensity table of the first mobile terminal relative to each AP.

9. The fast roaming auto-configuration system of claim 8, wherein: the monitoring module further comprises a comparison submodule, wherein the comparison submodule is used for comparing the RSSI between each AP and the first mobile terminal, and if the RSSI between the first mobile terminal and the selected AP is smaller than a preset value, the mobile terminal is switched to a neighbor AP with the maximum RSSI to establish connection with the first mobile terminal.

10. The fast roaming automatic configuration system of claim 9, wherein the monitoring module further includes a switching sub-module, and the switching sub-module is configured to switch the first mobile terminal to the neighbor AP with the highest RSSI, specifically: