CN111356126A

CN111356126A - Method, device and gateway for realizing wireless roaming

Info

Publication number: CN111356126A
Application number: CN201811564140.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈圣青; 孙旺强; 刘昕颖; 李海云
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2018-12-20
Filing date: 2018-12-20
Publication date: 2020-06-30
Anticipated expiration: 2038-12-20
Also published as: CN111356126B; WO2020124954A1

Abstract

The application discloses a method, a device and a gateway for realizing wireless roaming, wherein the method comprises the following steps: for the client equipment which has roamed, the gateway updates the table entry information of the client equipment which has roamed, and informs the neighbor node of the gateway to update the table entry information of the client equipment which has roamed. According to the method and the device, the gateway and the neighbor nodes thereof sense the roaming occurrence at the first time when the client equipment roams, and update the related table item information of the client equipment roamed, so that the communication among the equipment in the network is kept or rapidly recovered, the communication interruption is better avoided, and the user experience before and after roaming is improved.

Description

Method, device and gateway for realizing wireless roaming

Technical Field

The present application relates to, but not limited to, wireless communication technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for implementing wireless roaming, and a gateway.

Background

In a Home wireless network, a Home Gateway (HGW) often provides an Access Point (AP) function while providing a broadband internet Access service, and exists in the form of a wireless router. Other home devices in the home wireless network are mostly wireless client devices (STAs, often called stations) such as notebook computers, smart phones, tablet computers, and the like.

In a home environment, due to the problems of the placement position of a home gateway, the room layout, the wall thickness and the like, the coverage of wireless signals is often difficult to be completely achieved. Such as: if the home gateway is placed in a junction box of a living room, wireless signals in the bedroom may become weak due to attenuation, so that the client device is slow to surf the internet or even cannot surf the internet normally, and great inconvenience is brought to the use of a home wireless network. The wireless Repeater (Repeater) can solve the coverage problem of the wireless signals to a certain extent by repeating and forwarding multiple wireless signals.

However, in practical use, a lot of experiments show that for a wireless Repeater operating in a 3-address mode, when a STA roams between an HGW and the Repeater, the communication between the STA and the HGW or other neighboring nodes is usually interrupted for several seconds, and in the worst case, the interruption time can be as long as 30 seconds or longer. The interruption process has obvious influence on the user's internet access, video browsing and other services. For example, when a user uses a mobile phone, wirelessly accesses the internet and watches a video program, during the period, because the user moves, for example, the user walks from a living room to a bedroom, wireless roaming is triggered, for example, the user roams from an HGW to a Repeater near the bedroom, and then the video program is jammed, and the like, at this time, the user can only wait for patiently or initiate a network request again to recover a wireless network signal, and obviously, the use experience of the user before and after roaming is greatly influenced by the situation.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method, a device and a gateway for realizing wireless roaming, which can better avoid communication interruption and improve the user experience before and after roaming.

The application provides a method for realizing wireless roaming, which comprises the following steps:

the gateway detects whether the client equipment roams;

for the client equipment which has roamed, the gateway updates the table entry information of the client equipment which has roamed, and informs the neighbor node of the gateway to update the table entry information of the client equipment which has roamed.

The present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing any one of the above methods for implementing wireless roaming.

The application further provides a device for realizing wireless roaming, which comprises a processor and a memory; wherein the memory has stored thereon a computer program operable on the processor to: for performing the steps of any of the above described methods of implementing wireless roaming.

The present application further provides a device for implementing wireless roaming, including: a detection unit and a processing unit; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the detection unit is used for detecting whether the client equipment roams;

and the processing unit is used for updating the table item information of the client equipment which has roamed by the gateway for the client equipment which has roamed, and informing the neighbor node of the device which the processing unit belongs to update the table item information of the client equipment which has roamed.

The application also provides a gateway, which comprises the device for realizing the wireless roaming.

According to the method and the device, the gateway and the neighbor nodes thereof sense the roaming occurrence at the first time when the client equipment roams, and update the related table item information of the client equipment roamed, so that the communication among the equipment in the network is kept or rapidly recovered, the communication interruption is better avoided, and the user experience before and after roaming is improved. Particularly, communication interruption is better avoided for the situation that the STA roams between the HGW and the Repeater, and user experience before and after roaming is improved.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the claimed subject matter and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the subject matter and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the subject matter and not to limit the subject matter.

Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a method for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a method for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application in comparison with the related art;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of a device for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic networking diagram of a third embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In one exemplary configuration of the present application, a computing device includes one or more processors (CPUs), input/output interfaces, a network interface, and memory.

The memory may include forms of volatile memory in a computer readable medium, Random Access Memory (RAM) and/or non-volatile memory, such as Read Only Memory (ROM) or flash memory (flash RAM). Memory is an example of a computer-readable medium.

Computer-readable media, including both non-transitory and non-transitory, removable and non-removable media, may implement information storage by any method or technology. The information may be computer readable instructions, data structures, modules of a program, or other data. Examples of computer storage media include, but are not limited to, phase change memory (PRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), other types of Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM), Digital Versatile Discs (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transmission medium that can be used to store information that can be accessed by a computing device. As defined herein, computer readable media does not include non-transitory computer readable media (transient media), such as modulated data signals and carrier waves.

To make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be arbitrarily combined with each other without conflict.

The inventor of the present application finds, through research and analysis, that, in a home wireless network, when an STA roams between an HGW and a Repeater, an IP address needs to be guaranteed to be unchanged in order to guarantee that a related service data stream is not affected. In most cases, when roaming occurs, the STA does not re-initiate an Address acquisition process of a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to the HGW, and does not actively send any neighbor packet, such as an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packet of an Internet Protocol version 4(IPv4, Internet Protocol version 4), or the like. That is, when the STA roams between the HGW and Repeater, although the network topology changes, the HGW and other neighboring devices of the STA cannot sense in time, and thus, the communication interruption problem as described above may occur.

To better avoid such communication interruption problem, the present application provides a method for implementing wireless roaming, as shown in fig. 1, including:

step 100: the gateway detects whether the client device is roaming.

In one illustrative example, the step may include:

when a disassociation event or an association event occurs, taking a home wireless network as an example, that is, when a disassociation event or an association event of an HGW occurs by an STA, obtaining a source Media Access Control Address (MAC, Media Access Control Address) (hereinafter, abbreviated as MAC Address) of a client device before the disassociation event or the association event occurs, that is, a first source MAC Address, and obtaining a source MAC Address of the client device after the disassociation event or the association event occurs, that is, a second source MAC Address;

judging whether the first source MAC address is consistent with the second source MAC address, if the first source MAC address is inconsistent with the second source MAC address, indicating that the client equipment roams; if the first source MAC address is consistent with the second source MAC address, it indicates that the client device is not roaming.

In an exemplary example, taking a home wireless network as an example, the client device is an STA, the gateway is an HGW, and the neighbor nodes of the gateway include, for example, Repeater, wired PC, wireless PC, mobile terminal such as a mobile phone and other terminal devices.

In an illustrative example, when a disassociation event occurs, as in a home wireless network, i.e., when a disassociation event occurs for an STA to an HGW, it indicates that the STA is likely to roam from the HGW to Repeater.

In an exemplary embodiment, when an association event occurs, for example, a home wireless network, i.e., when an association event occurs for an HGW by a STA, it indicates that the STA is likely to roam from Repeater to the HGW.

The gateway such as the HGW is used as a wireless router, and IP addresses can be distributed to all devices hung under the gateway by starting the function of the DHCP server. When user terminal equipment such as STA accesses a network for the first time, an IP address is generally obtained from a gateway such as HGW in a DHCP mode; in this process, the gateway, such as the HGW, obtains the entry information of a certain user terminal device, such as the STA, from the DHCP server or by parsing the DHCP message, where the information includes but is not limited to: < Client-MAC, Source-MAC, Client-IP. >, wherein, the Client-MAC represents the actual physical MAC address of the STA, the Source-MAC represents the two-layer Source MAC address sent by the STA to the HGW message, and the Client-IP represents the IP address obtained by the STA from the HGW, such as IPv4 or Internet protocol version 6(IPv6) address. Alternatively, the entry information may be recorded in the neighbor table. For the above information, in an exemplary case, taking a home wireless network as an example, if the Client-MAC and Source-MAC of the STA are the same, it may be determined that the STA is directly connected to the HGW; if the Client-MAC and Source-MAC of the STA are different, the STA can be determined to be indirectly connected with the HGW through the Repeater, and the Source-MAC is actually the MAC address of the Repeater. By recording and maintaining the information of each STA, a network topology information table is formed, so that the topology information maintenance module can clearly know which STAs are directly connected with the HGW, which STAs are indirectly connected with the HGW through the Repeater, and the like.

In one illustrative example, obtaining the first source MAC address and the second source MAC address comprises:

the gateway detects a disassociation event or an association event, and acquires an IP address and a first source MAC address of the client device;

and requesting a second source MAC address from the client equipment according to the obtained IP address of the client equipment.

In one illustrative example, obtaining an IP address of a client device comprises:

and the gateway acquires the IP address corresponding to the MAC address of the client equipment from the recorded table entry information of the client equipment according to the MAC address of the client equipment.

In one illustrative example, obtaining a first source MAC address comprises:

and the gateway acquires a first source MAC address corresponding to the MAC address of the client device from the recorded table entry information of the client device according to the MAC address of the client device.

In one illustrative example, obtaining the second source MAC address comprises:

the gateway sends a detection message to the client equipment corresponding to the obtained IP address;

the gateway resolves the reply message returned from the client device to obtain a second source MAC address.

In an exemplary embodiment, the probe packet may be implemented differently in networks with different protocols, however, the probe packet needs to have: the target client device, i.e., the client device that receives the probe message, may receive the probe message, and, according to the protocol, the target client device may reply to the probe message.

Take home wireless networks as examples, such as: in the IPv4 network, the probe Message may be an Address Resolution Protocol Request (ARP Request) broadcast Message for an IPv4 Address of a target STA, or an Internet Control Message Protocol Request (ICMP Request) broadcast Message for an IPv4 Address of a target STA, or the like; the following steps are repeated: in the IPv6 network, the probe Message may be a Neighbor Solicitation (NS) multicast Message for the IPv6 address of the STA, or may be an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6Request, Internet Control Message Protocol Request for IPv6Request) multicast Message based on IPv6 for the IPv6 address of the target STA, or the like.

In an exemplary embodiment, taking a home wireless network as an example, after the probe message is sent, if the STA does not leave the local area network under the HGW, for example, the STA only roams from the HGW to the Repeater or from the Repeater to the HGW, etc., the STA replies to the received probe message according to the protocol. Such as: in an IPv4 network, for an arpreq detection message, an STA replies an ARP Reply (ARP Reply) message, or, for an ICMP Request detection message, an STA replies an ICMP Reply (ICMP Reply) message, and the like; the following steps are repeated: in the IPv6 network, for the NS probe message, the STA replies a Neighbor Advertisement (NA) message, or, for the ICMPv6Request probe message, the STA replies an ICMPv6Reply (ICMPv6Reply) message, and the like.

In an exemplary embodiment, if the gateway and the wireless repeater under which the gateway is hung can communicate with each other through a private protocol, for example, the gateway and the wireless repeater under which the gateway is hung are both devices of the same manufacturer, and a protocol is agreed between the gateway and the wireless repeater under which the gateway is hung, step 100 may include:

and the gateway firstly obtains the disassociation message of disassociation of the client device within a preset time period, and then obtains the association message of the association event of the client device.

In one illustrative example, in a home network scenario, the gateway learning that the client device has a disassociation event includes:

the HGW receives the disassociation message of the STA reported by the Repeater through the private protocol, or the HGW receives the disassociation message of the STA.

In an exemplary instance, in a home network scenario, the gateway learning of the client device's occurrence of a correlation event includes:

the HGW receives the association message of the STA reported by the Repeater through the private protocol, or the HGW receives the association message of the STA.

Step 101: for the client equipment which has roamed, the gateway updates the table entry information of the client equipment which has roamed, and informs the neighbor node of the gateway to update the table entry information of the client equipment which has roamed.

In one illustrative example, updating entry information for a roaming client device includes:

and replacing the first source MAC address in the table entry information of the client equipment with the second source MAC address.

In an exemplary example, taking a home wireless network as an example, the HGW updates an entry of an STA in a neighbor table recorded by the HGW, where roaming occurs, and updates a source MAC address corresponding to an IP address of the STA to a second source MAC address, and the like.

In an exemplary embodiment, notifying the gateway's own neighbor nodes to update the table entry information of the client device where roaming occurs includes:

the gateway sends the notification message of the source MAC address change of the roaming client terminal equipment to all the neighbor nodes of the gateway, so that all the neighbor nodes update the neighbor table information of the neighbor nodes according to the new source MAC address.

In an exemplary embodiment, the notification messages may have different implementations in networks of different protocols.

Take home wireless networks as examples, such as: in the IPv4 network, the notification message may be a gratuitous arp (gratutous arp) broadcast message sent to the IPv4 address of the STA, or may be any other message that can be used to update the neighbor table, and is not listed here; the following steps are repeated: in the IPv6 network, the notification packet may be an NA multicast packet sent to the IPv6 address of the STA, or may be any other packet that can be used to update the neighbor table.

According to the neighbor discovery protocol, after receiving the notification message, each neighbor node updates the neighbor table entry corresponding to the IP address (e.g., IPv4/IPv6 address) of the STA in its own neighbor table, including but not limited to updating the source MAC address.

According to the method for realizing the wireless roaming, the gateway such as the HGW and the neighbor node thereof sense the roaming occurrence at the first time when the client equipment roams, and the related table entry information of the client equipment roamed is updated, so that the communication among the equipment in the network is kept or rapidly recovered, the communication interruption is better avoided, and the user experience before and after roaming is improved.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a comparison between a method for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application and a related art, where as shown in fig. 2, an abscissa represents a roaming point, an ordinate represents a communication interruption duration caused by roaming, a curve 1 is an experimental data curve of the related art, and a curve 2 is an experimental data curve after implementing wireless roaming processing according to the present application. Experiments show that by taking a home wireless network as an example, as can be seen from a curve 1, by adopting the related technology, the communication interruption time before and after STA roaming is about 10 seconds, and sometimes the communication interruption time even reaches about 20 seconds; as can be seen from curve 2, after the processing of wireless roaming is implemented by the present application, the communication interruption time before and after STA roaming is shortened to within 1 second on average. That is to say, by the method for realizing wireless roaming, the neighbor tables of other neighbor nodes of the HGW and the STA are timely and accurately updated, the communication between the HGW and the roaming STA and between the roaming STA and other neighbor devices is well maintained, the smoothness of the STA roaming process is improved, and the problem of long communication interruption time when the STA roams is solved.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores computer-executable instructions, where the computer-executable instructions are used to execute any one of the above methods for implementing wireless roaming.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a device for realizing wireless roaming, which comprises a processor and a memory; wherein the memory has stored thereon a computer program operable on the processor to: for performing the steps of any of the above-described methods for wireless roaming.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a device for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application, as shown in fig. 3, the device at least includes: a detection unit and a processing unit; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the detection unit is used for detecting whether the client equipment roams;

In an exemplary example, the apparatus for implementing wireless roaming may further include: and the topology information maintenance unit is used for recording and maintaining the topology information of a device such as a gateway-down-hanging device to which the topology information maintenance module belongs.

The gateway such as the HGW is used as a wireless router, and IP addresses can be distributed to all devices hung under the gateway by starting the function of the DHCP server. When user terminal equipment such as STA accesses a network for the first time, an IP address is generally obtained from a gateway such as HGW in a DHCP mode; in this process, the topology information maintenance module is specifically configured to: the following information of a certain user terminal device, such as STA, is obtained from the DHCP server or by parsing the DHCP message, including but not limited to: the method comprises the following steps of: < Client-MAC, Source-MAC and Client-IP. >, wherein the Client-MAC represents an actual physical MAC address of the STA, the Source-MAC represents a two-layer Source MAC address sent by the STA to the HGW message, and the Client-IP represents an IP address obtained by the STA from the HGW, such as an IPv4 address or an IPv6 address. For the above information, in an exemplary case, taking a home wireless network as an example, if the Client-MAC and Source-MAC of the STA are the same, it may be determined that the STA is directly connected to the HGW; if the Client-MAC and Source-MAC of the STA are different, the STA can be determined to be indirectly connected with the HGW through the Repeater, and the Source-MAC is actually the MAC address of the Repeater. By recording and maintaining the information of each STA, a network topology information table is formed, so that the topology information maintenance module can clearly know which STAs are directly connected with the HGW, which STAs are indirectly connected with the HGW through the Repeater, and the like.

In one illustrative example, the detection unit may include: the system comprises an event detection module and a roaming determination module; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the event detection module is used for detecting whether a disassociation event or a correlation event occurs in a certain client terminal device, and notifying the roaming determination module when the disassociation event or the correlation event occurs.

A roaming determining module, configured to, upon receiving the notification from the event detecting module, obtain a first source MAC address of the client device before the disassociation event or the association event occurs, and obtain a second source MAC address of the client device after the disassociation event or the association event occurs; judging whether the first source MAC address is consistent with the second source MAC address, if the first source MAC address is inconsistent with the second source MAC address, indicating that the client equipment roams; if the first source MAC address is consistent with the second source MAC address, it indicates that the client device is not roaming.

In an illustrative example, when a disassociation event occurs, as in a home wireless network, i.e., when a disassociation event occurs for an STA to an HGW, it indicates that the STA is likely to roam from the HGW to Repeater. In an exemplary embodiment, when an association event occurs, for example, a home wireless network, i.e., when an association event occurs for an HGW by a STA, it indicates that the STA is likely to roam from Repeater to the HGW. Upon further determination by the roaming determination module of the present application, it is determined whether the STA has actually roamed.

In an exemplary embodiment, the obtaining the first source MAC address and the second source MAC address in the roaming determination module includes:

detecting a disassociation event or an association event, and acquiring an IP address and a first source MAC address of client equipment; and requesting a second source MAC address from the client equipment according to the obtained IP address of the client equipment.

and according to the MAC address of the client device, acquiring the IP address corresponding to the MAC address of the client device from the recorded table entry information of the client device.

In one illustrative example, obtaining a first source MAC address comprises:

and acquiring a first source MAC address corresponding to the MAC address of the client device from the recorded table entry information of the client device according to the MAC address of the client device.

In one illustrative example, obtaining the second source MAC address comprises:

sending a detection message to the client equipment corresponding to the obtained IP address;

and analyzing the reply message returned from the client equipment to obtain a second element MAC address.

In an exemplary embodiment, the detection unit is specifically configured to:

and acquiring the disassociation message of disassociation of the client device within a preset time period, and then acquiring the association message of the association event of the client device.

In an exemplary embodiment, the processing unit is specifically configured to:

replacing the first source MAC address in the table entry information of the client equipment with the second source MAC address; and sending a notification message of the source MAC address change of the roaming client terminal equipment to all neighbor nodes of the device to which the processing unit belongs so that each neighbor node updates respective neighbor table information according to the new source MAC address.

In an exemplary embodiment, the apparatus for implementing wireless roaming may be disposed in a wireless network router, such as an HGW in a home wireless network or other device having a wireless network router function, or may be a stand-alone device.

According to the device for realizing wireless roaming, the device and the neighbor nodes thereof sense the roaming occurrence at the first time when the client equipment roams, and update the related table item information of the client equipment which roams, so that the communication among the equipment in the network is maintained or recovered rapidly, the communication interruption is avoided better, and the user experience before and after roaming is improved.

The application also provides a gateway, which comprises any device for realizing wireless roaming.

The following takes a home wireless network as an example, solves the problem of communication interruption when the STA roams in the home wireless network, and is applicable to two protocols, i.e., IPv4 and IPv 6. The method for acquiring the network topology according to the present application is described in detail below with reference to specific embodiments.

A first embodiment, based on an IPv4 protocol networking scenario, where a networking schematic diagram is shown in fig. 4, in this embodiment, it is assumed that a MAC address on an HGW Local Area Network (LAN) side is 00-a1-E1-00-00-01, and a LAN side Network segment is 192.168.1.0/24; an address is allocated to the device to be hung down through a DHCP mode, in the first embodiment, the MAC address of the STA1 is assumed to be 00-D0-D0-00-00-10, the HGW is indirectly accessed through a wireless Repeater (the MAC address is 00-A2-E2-00-00-02), and the obtained IP address of the STA1 is 192.168.1.10; the MAC address of STA2 is 00-3E-3E-00-00-20, the HGW is directly accessed through wireless, and the obtained IP address of STA2 is 192.168.1.20; the MAC address of the PC is DC-4A-3E-00-00-30, the HGW is accessed through a wired network, and the obtained IP address of the PC is 192.168.1.30. Through the above DHCP address assignment process, the HGW records the table entry information of the networking initial state of each off-hook device as shown in table 1.

TABLE 1

In a first embodiment, when the STA1 roams from Repeater to HGW, the method for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application includes the following steps:

firstly, the HGW detects an association event that the STA1 is associated with the HGW; the HGW will obtain the IP address of STA1, i.e. 192.168.1.10, from the table entry information of the networking initial state shown in table 1 according to the MAC address of STA1, i.e. 00-D0-D0-00-00-10. The HGW sends an ARP Request probe message to STA1 with an IP address of 192.168.1.10, the message content is as follows:

the HGW receives the ARP Reply message from the STA1, and the message content is as follows:

thus, the HGW extracts the Source-MAC00-D0-D0-00-00-10 in the ARP Reply message from STA1 and records as the New Source MAC address (Source-MAC-New), i.e. the second Source MAC address.

Then, the HGW acquires the Old Source-MAC address of STA1, i.e., the bold displayed address 00-a2-E2-00-00-02 in table 1, from the stored table entry information according to the MAC address 00-D0-D0-00-00-10, and records as the Old Source MAC address (Source-MAC-Old), i.e., the first Source MAC address.

The HGW compares Source-MAC-Old and Source-MAC-New, and in the first embodiment, the HGW finds that 00-D0-D0-00-00-10 is different from 00-A2-E2-00-00-02, and therefore, the HGW determines that STA1 has roamed.

Next, the HGW updates the information about the Source-MAC address field of STA1 in the neighbor table stored in itself to the bold display address 00-D0-D0-00-00-10, and the updated table entry information is shown in table 2 below:

TABLE 2

Finally, the HGW replaces the STA1 to send a gratuitous ARP message to all neighboring nodes of the HGW to notify that the source MAC address corresponding to the STA1 with the IP address of 192.168.1.10 of each neighboring node has changed, and the message content is as follows:

through the above processing, the IPv4 neighbor table entry of the STA1 on the HGW and other neighbor nodes of the STA1, such as the STA2 and the PC, is updated in time, so that the problem of communication interruption existing in the communication between the HGW and the devices hung down after the STA1 roams is avoided in time.

In a first embodiment, when the STA2 roams from the HGW to Repeater, the method for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application includes the following steps:

first, the HGW will detect the disassociation event of STA2 to the HGW, and the HGW will obtain the IP address of STA2 from table 1 as 192.168.1.20 according to the MAC address of STA2, i.e., 00-3E-00-00-20. The HGW sends ARP Request detection message to STA2 with IP address of 192.168.1.20, the message content is as follows:

the HGW receives the ARP Reply message from the STA2, which has been transformed by the Repeater, as follows:

thus, the HGW extracts the Source-MAC00-A2-E2-00-00-02 in the ARP Reply message from STA2 and marks as the new Source-MAC, i.e., the second Source MAC address.

Then, the HGW obtains the Old Source-MAC address of the STA2, such as 00-3E-00-00-20 in table 1, from the stored table entry information according to the MAC address 00-3E-00-00-20, and records as Source-MAC-Old, i.e. the first Source MAC address.

The HGW compares Source-MAC-Old with Source-MAC-New, and in the first embodiment, the HGW finds that the Old Source-MAC address, 00-3E-00-00-20, is different from the New Source-MAC address, 00-a2-E2-00-00-02, and thus, the HGW determines that STA2 has roamed.

Next, the HGW will update the information about the Source-MAC address field of STA2 in its own stored neighbor table to the bold display address 00-D0-D0-00-00-02, and the updated table entry information is shown in table 3 below:

TABLE 3

Finally, the HGW replaces STA2 to send gratuitous ARP packets to all neighboring nodes of the HGW to notify that the source MAC address corresponding to STA2 with IP address 192.168.1.20 of each neighboring node has changed, and the packet contents are as follows:

through the above processing, the IPv4 neighbor table entry of the STA2 on the HGW and other neighbor nodes of the STA2, such as the STA1 and the PC, is updated in time, thereby immediately avoiding the problem of communication interruption existing in the communication between the HGW and the devices hung down after the STA2 roams.

In the second embodiment, based on the networking scenario of the IPv6 protocol, a networking schematic diagram is shown in fig. 5, and in this embodiment, it is assumed that the HGW LAN side MAC address is 00-a1-E1-00-00-01, and the LAN side network segment is 2001: b68: 64; an address is allocated to the equipment hung down through a DHCPv6 protocol, in the second embodiment, the MAC address of STA1 is assumed to be 00-D0-D0-00-00-10, the HGW is indirectly accessed through a wireless Repeater (the MAC address is 00-A2-E2-00-00-02), and the acquired IPv6 address of STA1 is 2001: b68: 10; the MAC address of STA2 is 00-3E-3E-00-00-20, the HGW is directly accessed by wireless, and the obtained IPv6 address of STA2 is 2001: b68: 20; the MAC address of the PC is DC-4A-3E-00-00-30, the HGW is accessed through a wired network, and the obtained IPv6 address of the PC is 2001: b68: 30. Through the above DHCPv6 address allocation process, the HGW records the table entry information of the networking initial state of each down-hanging device as shown in table 4.

TABLE 4

In a second embodiment, when the STA1 roams from Repeater to HGW, the method for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application includes the following steps:

firstly, the HGW detects the association event of STA1 associated with the HGW, and the HGW acquires the IPv6 address of STA1, namely 2001: b68::10, from the table entry information of the networking initial state shown in Table 1 according to the MAC address of STA1, namely 00-D0-D0-00-00-10. The HGW sends an IPv6NS detection message to an STA1 with an IP address of 2001: b68: 10, and the message content is as follows:

the HGW receives the IPv6NA message from the STA1, and the message content is as follows:

thus, the HGW extracts the Source-MAC00-D0-D0-00-00-10 in the IPv6NA message from STA1 and marks as Source-MAC-New, the second Source MAC address.

Then, the HGW acquires the Old Source-MAC address of STA1, namely the address 00-A2-E2-00-00-02 shown in bold in Table 4, from the second Source MAC address according to the MAC address 00-D0-D0-00-00-00-10, and records the Old Source-MAC address as the Source-MAC-Old, namely the first Source MAC address.

The HGW compares Source-MAC-Old and Source-MAC-New, and in the second embodiment, the HGW finds that 00-D0-D0-00-00-10 is different from 00-A2-E2-00-00-02, and therefore, the HGW determines that STA1 has roamed.

Next, the HGW updates the information about the Source-MAC address field of STA1 in the neighbor table stored in itself to the bold display address 00-D0-D0-00-00-10, and the updated entry information is shown in table 5:

MAC address	SOURCE-MAC address	IPv6 address
			00-D0-D0-00-00-10	00-D0-D0-00-00-10	2001:b68::10
00-3E-3E-00-00-20	00-3E-3E-00-00-20	2001:b68::20
			DC-4A-3E-00-00-30	DC-4A-3E-00-00-30	2001:b68::30

TABLE 5

And finally, the HGW replaces the STA1 to send an IPv6NA multicast message to all neighbor nodes of the HGW to inform each neighbor node that the IPv6 address is 2001: b68: 10 that the source MAC address corresponding to the STA1 is changed, and the message content is as follows:

In a second embodiment, when the STA2 roams from the HGW to Repeater, the method for implementing wireless roaming according to the present application includes the following steps:

firstly, the HGW detects the disassociation event of STA2 to the HGW, and the HGW acquires the IPv6 address of STA2 from Table 1 as 2001: b68: 20 according to the MAC address of STA2, namely 00-3E-3E-00-00-20. The HGW sends an IPv6NS detection message to an STA2 with an IPv6 address of 2001: b68: 20, wherein the message content is as follows:

the HGW receives the IPv6NA message from STA2, and the IPv6NA message has been processed by Repeater transformation, which includes the following contents:

thus, the HGW extracts the Source-MAC00-A2-E2-00-00-02 in the IPv6NA message from STA2 and marks as the New MAC address Source-MAC-New, which is the second Source MAC address.

Then, the HGW obtains the Old Source-MAC address of the STA2, such as 00-3E-00-00-20 in table 4, from the stored table entry information according to the MAC address 00-3E-00-00-20, and records as Source-MAC-Old, i.e. the first Source MAC address.

The HGW compares Source-MAC-Old with Source-MAC-New and in a second embodiment, the HGW finds that the Old Source-MAC address, 00-3E-00-00-20, is different from the New MAC address, 00-a2-E2-00-00-02, and therefore, the HGW determines that STA2 has roamed.

Next, the HGW will update the information about the Source-MAC address field of STA2 in its own stored neighbor table to the bold display address 00-D0-D0-00-00-02, and the updated table entry information is shown in table 6 below:

TABLE 6

Finally, the HGW replaces STA2 to send IPv6NA multicast messages to all neighbor nodes of the HGW to inform all neighbor nodes that the IPv6 address is 2001: b68: 20 that the MAC address of the source corresponding to the STA2 changes; the message content is as follows:

The first and second embodiments described above are applicable to a scenario in which the HGW and Repeater do not have communication via the private protocol, and naturally, are also applicable to a scenario in which the HGW and Repeater have communication via the private protocol. The manner of determining whether the client device roams when the HGW and Repeater communicate via the private protocol may also be as described in the third embodiment.

In a third embodiment, if a private protocol is used for communication between the HGW and the Repeater, for example, the HGW and the Repeater are both devices of the same manufacturer and have a protocol agreed therebetween, the protocol may be an extension of an existing protocol such as an IEEE1905 protocol, or may be another custom protocol, and regardless of which protocol, the protocol content at least includes fields such as a MAC of an STA, that is, a client, a MAC of the Repeater, and an association event or a disassociation event; in this case, as shown in fig. 6, it can be known whether the client device roams by reporting an association event or a disassociation event about the STA to the HGW by the Repeater at an appropriate time. That is, in this case, the HGW can promptly determine the occurrence of roaming based on the event reported by the Repeater.

As shown in fig. 6, for example: when STA1 roams from Repeater2 to the HGW, Repeater2 reports to the HGW a disassociated message (unassociated message) for STA1 via a predetermined private protocol, which may include:

Repeater-MAC:00-A2-E2-00-00-02

Client-MAC:00-D0-D0-00-00-10

Event:unasssociate

within a preset time period such as a second-level event, for the same STA, when the HGW receives an association message (association message) from the STA1, it can quickly determine that the STA1 has roamed;

the following steps are repeated: when STA1 roams from Repeater2 to Repeater1, Repeater2 reports to the HGW a disassociation message for STA1 via the established private protocol, which may include:

Repeater-MAC:00-A2-E2-00-00-02

Client-MAC:00-D0-D0-00-00-10

Event:unasssociate

the Repeater1 reports association messages of the STA1 to the HGW through a predetermined private protocol, where the message content may include:

Repeater-MAC:00-A1-E1-00-00-01

Client-MAC:00-D0-D0-00-00-10

Event:asssociate

similarly, after the HGW receives the message, it can quickly determine that the STA1 roams;

for another example: when STA2 roams from the HGW to Repeater1, and the HGW receives the disassociation message from STA2, within a preset time period, e.g., a second-level event, for the same STA, Repeater1 reports the association message of STA2 to the HGW through a predetermined private protocol, where the message content may include:

Repeater-MAC:00-A1-E1-00-00-01

Client-MAC:00-3E-3E-00-00-20

Event:asssociate

similarly, the HGW may quickly determine that STA2 has roamed after receiving the above message.

When the system selects to perform roaming detection based on the private protocol, after roaming is detected, in order to ensure that communication between the STA and the HGW or between the STA and other neighbor nodes is not affected, a neighbor discovery mechanism in the method for implementing wireless roaming in the present application needs to be adopted to notify each neighbor node of the STA of the occurrence of a roaming event, that is, step 101 shown in fig. 1, that is, an address update message is sent to each neighbor node of the STA at the first time after roaming occurs; the format and content of the address update message are similar to those described in the first embodiment or the second embodiment, and are not described herein again. The latest source MAC address field corresponding to the STA in the address update message may be determined as follows:

if the HGW receives the association message reported by the Repeater in the later stage of the roaming detection, the Repeater-MAC in the message is used as the latest source MAC corresponding to the STA; if the received event is directly associated with the STA, using the Client-MAC of the STA as the latest source MAC corresponding to the STA; through the steps, the updating of the neighbor table of each neighbor node of the STA, such as the IPv4 neighbor table or the IPv6 neighbor table, can be completed.

The above description is only a preferred example of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method of implementing wireless roaming, comprising:

the gateway detects whether the client equipment roams;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the gateway detecting whether roaming has occurred for a client device comprises:

when a disassociation event or an association event occurs, acquiring a first source Media Access Control (MAC) address of the client device before the disassociation event or the association event occurs, and acquiring a second source MAC address of the client device after the disassociation event or the association event occurs;

judging whether the first source MAC address is consistent with the second source MAC address, if the first source MAC address is inconsistent with the second source MAC address, the client equipment roams; if the first source MAC address is consistent with the second source MAC address, the client device is not roaming.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the obtaining a first source MAC address of the client device and obtaining a second source MAC address of the client device comprises:

the gateway detects the disassociation event or the association event, and acquires the IP address of the client device and the first source MAC address;

and requesting the second source MAC address from the client equipment according to the obtained IP address of the client equipment.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the obtaining an IP address of a client device comprises:

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the obtaining the first source MAC address of the client device comprises:

and the gateway acquires the first source MAC address corresponding to the MAC address of the client device from the recorded table entry information of the client device according to the MAC address of the client device.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the obtaining the second source MAC address of the client device comprises:

the gateway sends a detection message to the client device corresponding to the obtained IP address;

and the gateway analyzes the reply message returned from the client equipment to obtain the second source MAC address.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the probe packet comprises any of:

an address resolution protocol ARP request broadcast message, an Internet control message protocol ICMP request broadcast message, a neighbor request NS multicast message, and an Internet control message protocol ICMPv6request multicast message based on an Internet protocol version 6IPv 6.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the gateway detecting whether roaming has occurred for a client device comprises:

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the gateway updating entry information for the roaming client device comprises:

and the gateway replaces the first source MAC address in the table entry information of the client equipment with the second source MAC address.

10. The method of claim 1, 2 or 8, wherein the notifying the gateway's own neighbor node to update the entry information of the client device where roaming occurs comprises:

and the gateway sends a notification message of the source MAC address change of the roaming client terminal equipment to all the neighbor nodes of the gateway so that each neighbor node updates respective neighbor table information according to the new source MAC address.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the notification message comprises: a free ARP broadcast message, or an NA multicast message.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing the method of implementing wireless roaming of any one of claims 1-11.

13. An apparatus for implementing wireless roaming includes a processor, a memory; wherein the memory has stored thereon a computer program operable on the processor to: for performing the steps of the method for enabling wireless roaming according to any one of claims 1-11.

14. An apparatus for enabling wireless roaming, comprising: a detection unit and a processing unit; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the detection unit is used for detecting whether the client equipment roams;

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the detection unit comprises: the system comprises an event detection module and a roaming determination module; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

an event detection module, which is used for detecting whether a disassociation event or a correlation event occurs in the client terminal equipment, and notifying a roaming determination module when the disassociation event or the correlation event occurs;

a roaming determining module, configured to, after receiving the notification from the event detecting module, obtain a first source MAC address of the client device before a disassociation event or an association event occurs, and obtain a second source MAC address of the client device after the disassociation event or the association event occurs; and if the first source MAC address is judged to be inconsistent with the second source MAC address, the client equipment roams.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein obtaining the first source MAC address of the client device and obtaining the second source MAC address of the client device in the roaming determination module comprises:

detecting the disassociation event or the association event, and acquiring the IP address of the client device and the first source MAC address;

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein obtaining the IP address of the client device in the roaming determination module comprises:

and according to the MAC address of the client device, acquiring an IP address corresponding to the MAC address of the client device from the recorded table entry information of the client device.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein obtaining the first source MAC address of the client device in the roaming determination module comprises:

and acquiring the first source MAC address corresponding to the MAC address of the client device from the recorded table entry information of the client device according to the MAC address of the client device.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein obtaining the second source MAC address of the client device in the roaming determination module comprises:

sending a detection message to the client device corresponding to the obtained IP address;

and analyzing the reply message returned from the client equipment to obtain the second source MAC address.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the probe packet comprises any of:

21. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the detection unit is specifically configured to: within a preset time period, obtaining a disassociation message of disassociation of the client device, and then obtaining an association message of an association event of the client device.

22. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

replacing the first source MAC address in the table entry information of the client equipment with the second source MAC address; and sending a notification message of the source MAC address change of the roaming client terminal equipment to all neighbor nodes of the device to which the processing unit belongs, so that each neighbor node updates respective neighbor table information according to the new source MAC address.

23. A gateway comprising the apparatus of any of claims 14 to 22.