CN106304396B

CN106304396B - Method, system and related device for discovering wireless controller by access point

Info

Publication number: CN106304396B
Application number: CN201510246968.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 邓高亮; 廖小猛
Original assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd
Current assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd
Priority date: 2015-05-15
Filing date: 2015-05-15
Publication date: 2020-06-26
Anticipated expiration: 2035-05-15
Also published as: CN106304396A

Abstract

The invention provides a method, a system and a related device for an Access Point (AP) to discover a wireless controller (AC), wherein the AP sends a discovery request message to a load controller (LB), the LB distributes an AC from a cloud AC cluster to the AP and returns address information of the AC to the AP, and the AP requests the AC to establish connection according to the address information of the AC. The method is suitable for the cross-public network environment with the AC deployed in the cloud environment.

Description

Method, system and related device for discovering wireless controller by access point

[ technical field ] A method for producing a semiconductor device

The present invention relates to the field of network communication technologies, and in particular, to a method, a system, and a related apparatus for discovering an AC (wireless controller) by an AP (access point).

[ background of the invention ]

LAN (Local Area network) is mainly composed of an AC (Access Controller) and an AP (Access Point), where the AC is responsible for managing and controlling the AP, and the AP provides a bridging function from a wireless client to the Local Area network. After the AP is powered on, the AP needs to discover and access the AC, and currently, two methods are mainly used for discovering the AC by the AP:

one is a broadcast discovery mechanism, that is, the AP broadcasts a discovery request message in the LAN, and the AC in the LAN replies a response including its own IP address after receiving the discovery request message.

The other is a unicast discovery mechanism, i.e. the IP address of the AC is configured on the AP in advance, and the AP directly accesses the AC by using the configured IP address.

However, in the present day when the LAN network is gradually becoming an independent network, cloud AC is a development trend of future AC, that is, the cloud AC puts AC management and control functions to the cloud end, that is, an AC cluster is deployed at the cloud end, and each AC in the AC cluster may be embodied as a virtual AC (vac). The APs may share the vAC cluster. The architecture has the characteristics of low cost, easiness in management, virtualization, scalable network architecture and the like, is very convenient in wireless network transformation and capacity expansion, and can effectively reduce IT cost and network complexity. For the case that the AC is deployed in the cloud, the existing mechanism for the AP to discover the AC is no longer applicable due to the network environment across the public network.

[ summary of the invention ]

In view of this, the present invention provides a method, a system and a related device for discovering an AC by an AP, so as to be suitable for a cross-public network environment in which an AC is deployed in a cloud.

The specific technical scheme is as follows:

the invention provides a method for discovering a wireless controller AC by an access point AP, which comprises the following steps:

the AP sends a discovery request message to a load sharing device LB;

receiving address information of one AC in the cloud AC cluster returned by the LB;

and requesting connection establishment to the AC according to the address information of the AC.

According to an optional embodiment of the present invention, the sending, by the AP, the discovery request packet to the LB includes:

and the AP sends a discovery request message to the LB by utilizing a preset domain name pointing to the LB.

According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, more than one LB shares a domain name, which is resolved to one of the LBs.

According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises:

when connection is requested to be established to the AC, if the AC cannot be connected, a discovery request message is sent to the LB again, and the discovery request message carries address information of the AC which cannot be connected; alternatively, the first and second electrodes may be,

and if the AP fails to establish the connection to the AC for N times after being disconnected from the AC, retransmitting a discovery request message to the LB, wherein the discovery request message carries address information of the AC which cannot be connected, and N is a preset positive integer.

The invention provides a method for discovering AC by an AP, which comprises the following steps:

LB receives a discovery request message sent by AP;

and allocating an AC for the AP from the cloud AC cluster, and returning the address information of the allocated AC to the AP.

According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises: the LB acquires the load information of each AC in the AC cluster at regular time;

the allocating the AC for the AP from the cloud AC cluster comprises: and distributing the AC for the AP from the AC cluster according to a load balancing principle.

According to an optional embodiment of the invention, the load information of the AC comprises: one or any combination of the CPU utilization rate, the memory utilization rate, the bandwidth utilization rate of the AC and the online rate of the AP.

According to an optional embodiment of the present invention, the discovery request packet includes address information of an AC to which the AP cannot connect;

and when the AC is distributed to the AP from the cloud AC cluster, the AC which cannot be connected with the AP is excluded.

According to an optional embodiment of the present invention, when allocating an AC from the AC cluster to the AP according to a load balancing principle, at least one of the following principles is further followed:

preferentially distributing the AC closest to the AP;

preferentially distributing an AC with the best software version compatibility to the AP;

the APs are preferentially allocated ACs belonging to the same network operator.

The present invention also provides an AP, including:

a discovery request unit, configured to send a discovery request packet to an LB;

the address receiving unit is used for receiving address information of one AC in the cloud AC cluster returned by the LB;

and the connection establishing unit is used for requesting connection establishment to the AC according to the address information of the AC.

According to an optional embodiment of the present invention, the discovery request unit specifically uses a preconfigured domain name pointing to the LB to send a discovery request packet to the LB.

According to an optional embodiment of the present invention, when requesting connection establishment from the AC, the connection establishing unit provides, if the AC cannot be connected, address information of the AC that cannot be connected to the discovery requesting unit; or, if after the AP is disconnected from the AC, it fails to attempt to establish connection to the AC N times, providing address information of the AC that cannot be connected to the discovery request unit;

the discovery request unit is further configured to send a discovery request packet to the LB again after acquiring the address information of the unconnected AC provided by the connection establishing unit, where the discovery request packet carries the address information of the unconnected AC.

The present invention also provides an LB comprising:

a discovery receiving unit, configured to receive a discovery request message sent by an AP;

the distribution unit is used for distributing the AC for the AP from a cloud AC cluster after the discovery receiving unit receives the discovery request message;

a discovery response unit, configured to return address information of the AC allocated by the allocation unit to the AP.

According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the LB further comprises:

the AC management unit is used for acquiring the load information of each AC in the AC cluster at regular time;

the allocation unit is specifically configured to allocate the AC from the AC cluster to the AP according to a load balancing principle.

the distribution unit excludes an AC which cannot be connected by the AP when distributing the AC for the AP from a cloud AC cluster.

According to an optional embodiment of the present invention, when the allocating unit allocates an AC from the AC cluster to the AP according to a load balancing principle, the allocating unit further according to at least one of the following principles:

preferentially distributing an AC close to the AP for the AP;

The invention also provides a system for discovering AC by AP, which comprises: the AP and the LB.

According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the system further comprises: cloud AC cluster.

According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, the system further comprises: a network management platform;

each AC in the cloud AC cluster reports load information to the network management platform;

and the LB acquires the load information of each AC in the AC cluster from the network management platform at regular time.

According to the technical scheme, the AP sends the discovery request message to the LB, the LB distributes an AC from the cloud AC cluster to the AP, the address information of the AC is returned to the AP, and the AP requests the AC to establish connection according to the address information of the AC. The method is suitable for the cross-public network environment with the AC deployed in the cloud environment.

[ description of the drawings ]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of the system architecture upon which the present invention is based;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a detailed method provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a vendor specific payload in a discovery request message according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a structural diagram of an AP provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a structural diagram of an LB according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[ detailed description ] embodiments

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

Fig. 1 is a diagram of a system architecture on which the present invention is based, the system mainly comprising: LB (load splitter), cloud AC cluster and AP. Wherein, LB and cloud AC cluster all set up in the cloud, and LB and cloud AC cluster can be located same server, also can be located different servers respectively, and each AC in the cloud AC cluster equally can be located same server, also can be located different servers respectively, can be located different regions even, for example some ACs are located Beijing, some ACs are located Shanghai etc.. As a preferred embodiment, the cloud AC cluster and the LB are deployed on virtual machines of a common cloud, where each AC in the cloud AC cluster exists in a form of a virtual AC (vAC), and the following description will be given by taking vAC as an example in the embodiment shown in fig. 2. In addition, in order to improve reliability of the LB device, the LBs may exist in a cluster form, and load balancing may be implemented within the LB cluster.

The cloud terminal referred to in the embodiment of the invention refers to a software platform adopting an application virtualization technology, and various common software can be packaged in an independent virtualization environment through the platform. A cloud AC cluster is an AC software cluster in the virtualization environment, and each AC in the cluster exists in the form of virtualization software.

LB mainly comprises the following functions:

1) and acquiring relevant information, such as load information, version information and the like, of each AC in the AC cluster at regular time. The LB may obtain information about each AC in the AC cluster from the network management platform.

2) And receiving a discovery request message sent by the AP. The connection relationship between all APs and LBs is not shown in fig. 1.

3) And distributing the AC for the AP sending the discovery request message from the cloud AC cluster. The LB may assign the AC to the AP according to a load balancing principle, and may further combine other factors, such as whether the AP has connected to the AC and failed to connect, a distance between the AP and the AC, a software version between the AP and the AC, whether the AP and the AC belong to the same operator, and so on. Details will be described in the following examples.

4) Address information of the assigned AC is returned to the AP.

The AP mainly includes the following functions:

1) and sending a discovery request message to the LB.

2) And receiving the AC address information returned by the LB, wherein the AC is the AC distributed by the LB for the AP from the cloud AC cluster.

3) And requesting connection establishment from the AC according to the AC address information returned by the LB, namely negotiating to establish the CAPWAP tunnel.

4) And if the AC cannot be connected, re-sending a discovery request message to the LB, wherein the discovery request message carries the address information of the AC which cannot be connected.

5) If the AP is disconnected from the AC, connection establishment to the AC fails for N times, wherein N is a preset positive integer, the AP resends a discovery request message to the LB, and the discovery request message carries address information of the AC which cannot be connected.

The main functions of the AC are as follows:

1) a connection is established with the AP.

2) And collecting the running information on the AP, reporting the running information to the network management platform, and issuing the running information to the specific AP according to the configuration issued by the network management platform.

3) And reporting related information of the AC to a network management platform at regular time, wherein the related information comprises load information, version information and the like.

Fig. 2 is a detailed flowchart of the method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2, in 201, an LB periodically acquires relevant information of a vAC in a cloud AC cluster, which mainly includes load information and may also include version information. When the LB acquires the relevant information of the vACs, each vAC can report the relevant information of the LB to the network management platform at regular time, the network management platform is responsible for managing each device in the network, and the LB acquires the relevant information of each vAC from the network management platform at regular time. Of course, the LB may also obtain the relevant information directly from each vmac. This step is a step that is performed periodically.

When the AP is started, 202 is executed, a preset domain name pointing to the LB is analyzed, and a discovery request message is sent to the LB according to the address information of the LB obtained through analysis. In the embodiment of the present invention, a domain name pointing to the LB may be configured in advance at each AP, and the address information of the LB may be obtained after performing domain name resolution. The method can solve the single point problem of the LB, that is, the domain name can point to the LB cluster, and the address information of the LB obtained by the resolution may be any LB which normally works in the LB cluster, or an LB which has a smaller load in the LB cluster (that is, load sharing can be realized in the LB cluster and the load sharing is controlled on the domain name resolution server), or an LB which is closest to the AP in the LB cluster, and the like.

Of course, in addition to the method in this step, the address information of the LB may be directly configured in advance at the AP, and the discovery request message may be sent to the LB using the address information. But preferably in the manner shown in 202.

If the discovery request message is sent after the AP fails to attempt to connect to a vmac (details will be described later), the discovery request message may carry address information of the unavailable vmac, where the address information may be carried in a vendor specific payload (vendor specific payload) in the discovery request message, and the structure of the vendor specific payload may be as shown in fig. 3, for example. The Vendor Identifier (Vendor Identifier) is used for distinguishing each Vendor specific payload field, the Element ID (Element Identifier) is used for distinguishing the sub-attribute in the Vendor Identifier field, the vAC IP is used for carrying the IP address of the vAC, and the AP Software Version is used for carrying the Software Version information of the AP.

In 203, the LB that receives the discovery request packet allocates the vAC from the AC cluster to the AP according to the load balancing principle.

Since the LB may periodically obtain the relevant information of each vAC in the vAC cluster in 201, including the load information, it may be preferable that the vAC with a small current load is allocated to the AP according to the load balancing principle in this step. Wherein the load information may include, but is not limited to: one or any combination of CPU utilization, memory utilization, bandwidth utilization and AP online rate. The upper rate of an AP refers to the ratio of the number of currently connected APs in the vAC to the number of APs that the vAC can accommodate.

When the vmac is allocated to the AP from the vmac cluster according to the load balancing principle, the vmac to which the AP cannot be connected may be excluded according to the address information of the vmac to which the AP cannot be connected, which is carried in the discovery request message, so that the vmac to which the AP cannot be connected is not allocated to the AP again, thereby improving the probability that the AP connects the vmac.

In addition to following load balancing principles, other principles may be combined, such as: preferentially distributing vAC closest to the AP for the AP; preferentially distributing vAC with best software version compatibility to the AP; the APs are preferably assigned vmacs belonging to the same network operator.

One way in which the priority of each vmac may be determined for that AP and then the highest priority AC may be selected for allocation to the AP is listed below. The manner of determining the priority may be as follows:

and if the discovery request message sent by the AP carries the address information of the AC which cannot be connected, setting the priority of the AC which cannot be connected to 0.

Otherwise, the priority P of the vmac is determined using the following equation:

P＝a1*(1-L1)+a2*(1-L2)+a3*(1-L3)+a4*(1-L4)+a5*L5

the method comprises the following steps that a1, a2, a3, a4 and a5 are weight coefficients, L1 is the CPU utilization rate of the vAC, L2 is the memory utilization rate of the vAC, L3 is the bandwidth utilization rate of the vAC, L4 is the AP on-line rate of the vAC, and L5 is the matching degree score of the AP and the vAC, wherein the L5 can be used for evaluating the comprehensive scores of whether the AP and the vAC belong to the same region, whether the software versions of the AP and the vAC are consistent, whether the AP and the vAC belong to the same network operator and the like.

In 204, the LB returns the address information of the vmac allocated to the AP by carrying the address information in a discovery response message.

The AP parses the address information of the vmac from the received discovery response message, And requests to establish a connection with the vmac in 205 according to the address information, that is, negotiates with the AC to establish a CAPWAP (Control And Provisioning of wireless access Points Protocol) tunnel.

If the AP cannot establish a connection with the vAC, go to 202 again, and send a discovery request message to the LB, where the discovery request message carries address information of the vAC.

If the connection between the AP and the vAC is disconnected, the AP will try to establish a connection with the vAC again, and if N attempts fail, where N is a preset positive integer, then go to 202, and the AP sends a discovery request message to the LB, where the discovery request message carries address information of the vAC that cannot be connected.

Fig. 4 is a structural diagram of an AP according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 4, the AP may include a discovery request unit 01, an address receiving unit 02, and a connection establishing unit 03. The main functions of each component unit are as follows:

the discovery request unit 01 is responsible for sending discovery request messages to the LB. After the AP is started, a preconfigured domain name pointing to the LB may be resolved, and a discovery request packet is sent to the LB according to address information of the LB obtained by the resolution. In the embodiment of the present invention, a domain name pointing to the LB may be configured in advance at each AP, and the address information of the LB may be obtained after performing domain name resolution. The method can solve the single point problem of the LB, that is, the domain name can point to the LB cluster, and the address information of the LB obtained by the resolution may be any LB which normally works in the LB cluster, or an LB which has a smaller load in the LB cluster (that is, load sharing can be realized in the LB cluster and the load sharing is controlled on the domain name resolution server), or an LB which is closest to the AP in the LB cluster, and the like. Besides this way, the address information of the LB may be directly preconfigured on the AP, and the discovery request message may be sent to the LB by using the preconfigured address information.

After receiving the discovery request message, the LB allocates an AC to the AP from the AC cluster, and returns address information of the allocated AC to the AP through the discovery response message, so that the address receiving unit 02 receives address information of one AC in the cloud AC cluster returned by the LB.

The connection establishing unit 03 is responsible for requesting connection establishment from the AC according to the address information of the AC, that is, negotiating with the AC to establish a CAPWAP tunnel.

When requesting connection establishment from an AC, the connection establishing unit 03 provides address information of the AC that cannot be connected to the discovery requesting unit 01 if the AC cannot be connected; or, if after the AP is disconnected from the AC, it fails to attempt to establish connection to the AC N times, where N is a preset positive integer, the address information of the AC that cannot be connected is provided to the discovery request unit 01.

After acquiring the address information of the AC that cannot be connected of the connection establishing unit 03, the discovery request unit 01 retransmits a discovery request packet to the LB, where the discovery request packet carries the address information of the AC that cannot be connected.

Fig. 5 is a structural diagram of an LB according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 5, the LB may include: the discovery receiving unit 11, the allocating unit 12 and the discovery responding unit 13 may further include an AC managing unit 14, and the main functions of each of the constituent units are as follows:

the discovery receiving unit 11 is responsible for receiving a discovery request message sent by an AP.

The allocating unit 12 is responsible for allocating an AC to the AP from the cloud AC cluster after the discovery receiving unit 11 receives the discovery request packet.

The discovery response unit 13 is responsible for returning address information of the AC assigned by the assignment unit 12 to the AP.

The AC management unit 14 is responsible for acquiring load information of each AC in the AC cluster at regular time, and the distribution unit 12 may distribute the AC from the AC cluster to the AP according to the load balancing principle. When the AC management unit 14 acquires load information of the AC, each AC may report its own related information to the network management platform at regular time, the network management platform is responsible for managing each device in the network, and the AC management unit 14 acquires the related information of each AC from the network management platform at regular time. Of course, the AC management unit 14 may also obtain the relevant information directly from each vmac.

The load information of the AC may include: one or any combination of the CPU utilization rate, the memory utilization rate, the bandwidth utilization rate of the AC and the online rate of the AP. The upper rate of an AP refers to the ratio of the number of currently connected APs in the AC to the number of APs that the AC can accommodate.

If the request message includes address information of an AC to which the AP cannot be connected, the allocating unit 12 excludes an AC to which the AP cannot be connected when allocating an AC to the AP from the cloud AC cluster. Thus, the AC which the AP can not be connected with is not distributed to the AP again, thereby improving the probability that the AP is connected with the AC.

In addition, when allocating the AC from the AC cluster to the AP according to the load balancing principle, the allocating unit 12 may further according to at least one of the following principles:

preferentially distributing an AC close to the AP for the AP;

preferentially distributing the AC with the best software version compatibility to the AP;

the APs are preferably assigned ACs belonging to the same network operator.

As can be seen from the above description, the method, system and related apparatus provided by the present invention can have the following advantages:

1) the method is suitable for the cross-public network environment of the AC deployed under the cloud condition.

2) Through the mode that more than one LB shares one domain name, the AP accesses the LB through the domain name and sends a discovery request message, so that the single-point problem of the LB can be effectively solved, and the load sharing among the LBs can be realized.

3) When network capacity expansion is needed, only AC needs to be added, and smooth capacity expansion can be achieved without transforming the existing network.

4) When the AP cannot be connected with the AC, the address information of the AC which cannot be connected is carried in the discovery request message and sent to the LB, so that the LB can eliminate the AC when the AC is distributed to the AP, and the probability that the AP is connected with the AC is improved.

In the embodiments provided in the present invention, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described device embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical functional division, and other divisions may be realized in practice.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, or in a form of hardware plus a software functional unit.

The integrated unit implemented in the form of a software functional unit may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. The software functional unit is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to enable a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) or a processor (processor) to execute some steps of the methods according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for an Access Point (AP) to discover a wireless controller (AC), the method comprising:

the AP sends a discovery request message to a load sharing device LB, wherein if the address information of the AC which cannot be connected exists, the discovery request message carries the address information of the AC which cannot be connected;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the AP sending a discovery request message to an LB comprises:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein more than one LB shares a domain name, and wherein the domain name is resolved to one of the LBs.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

5. A method for an AP to discover an AC, the method comprising:

the LB receives a discovery request message sent by the AP, wherein if the address information of the AC which cannot be connected exists, the discovery request message carries the address information of the AC which cannot be connected;

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: the LB acquires the load information of each AC in the AC cluster at regular time;

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the load information of the AC comprises: one or any combination of the CPU utilization rate, the memory utilization rate, the bandwidth utilization rate of the AC and the online rate of the AP.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the discovery request message includes address information of an AC to which the AP cannot connect;

9. The method of claim 6, wherein when allocating ACs for the APs from the AC cluster according to a load balancing principle, at least one of the following principles is further followed:

preferentially distributing the AC closest to the AP;

10. An AP, comprising:

a discovery request unit, configured to send a discovery request packet to an LB, where if there is address information of an AC that cannot be connected, the discovery request packet carries the address information of the AC that cannot be connected;

11. The AP of claim 10, wherein the discovery request unit sends a discovery request packet to the LB, specifically using a preconfigured domain name pointing to the LB.

12. The AP according to claim 10, wherein the connection establishing unit, when requesting connection establishment from the AC, if the AC cannot be connected, provides address information of the AC that cannot be connected to the discovery requesting unit; or, if after the AP is disconnected from the AC, it fails to attempt to establish connection to the AC N times, providing address information of the AC that cannot be connected to the discovery request unit;

13. An LB, comprising:

a discovery receiving unit, configured to receive a discovery request packet sent by an AP, where if there is address information of an AC that cannot be connected, the discovery request packet carries the address information of the AC that cannot be connected;

14. The LB of claim 13, further comprising:

15. The LB of claim 13, wherein the load information of the AC comprises: one or any combination of the CPU utilization rate, the memory utilization rate, the bandwidth utilization rate of the AC and the online rate of the AP.

16. The LB of claim 13, wherein the discovery request message comprises address information of an AC to which the AP is not connectable;

17. The LB of claim 13, wherein the assignment unit, in assigning ACs from the AC cluster according to a load balancing principle, further at least one of the following principles:

preferentially distributing an AC close to the AP for the AP;

18. A system for AP discovery of ACs, the system comprising:

the AP of any one of claims 10 to 12;

the LB of any one of claims 13 to 17.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising: cloud AC cluster.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising: a network management platform;