CN114666870A

CN114666870A - Method and device for establishing connection between access point of wireless local area network and access controller

Info

Publication number: CN114666870A
Application number: CN202011527032.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 姚沛雯; 白帆; 吴凯
Original assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Current assignee: China Telecom Corp Ltd
Priority date: 2020-12-22
Filing date: 2020-12-22
Publication date: 2022-06-24

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a method and a device for establishing connection between an access point of a wireless local area network and an access controller. There is provided a method for an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller, comprising performing the following operations at the access point: sending an address request message to a DHCP server; receiving an address response message from the DHCP server, wherein the address response message comprises an IP address of a unique access controller pre-allocated to the access point; sending a discovery request message to the access controller according to the IP address of the access controller; and receiving a discovery response message from the access controller, thereby establishing a connection between the access point and the access controller.

Description

Method and device for establishing connection between access point of wireless local area network and access controller

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of network technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for establishing a connection between an access point and an access controller of a wireless local area network.

Background

In a WiFi (wireless local area network based on IEEE 802.11 standard) scenario, there are multiple ACs (Access controllers) and a large number of APs (Access points), and an AP can Access a network by establishing a connection with a specific AC. The AC may be responsible for managing the APs to which the connection is established, and may issue different Service VLANs (Virtual Local Area networks) for different SSIDs (Service Set identifiers) of different APs. Since the Portal server associates the service VLAN with different Web interaction pages based on different network access servers IP (NAS-IP), port numbers (PORTID), and the like, each AP can only establish a connection with a designated AC to ensure normal operation, but cannot accept a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server to arbitrarily allocate an AC to the AP.

In the prior art, the address information of the AC can be configured in the DHCP server. The AP may send an address request message to the DHCP server. After receiving the address request message, the DHCP server may return an address response message to the AP, and issue an AC list to the AP by using the Option43 attribute included in the address response message. The AP may send a discovery request message to each AC in the list of ACs after receiving the address response message. And if the AP receives a discovery response message returned from any AC in the AC list, the AP establishes connection with the AC.

In the above connection establishment method, the AP attempts to establish a connection with the AC by sending a discovery request to each AC in the AC list issued by the DHCP server, and thus the process of the AP accessing the AC is time consuming. On the other hand, the Option43 attribute in the address response message sent by the DHCP server limits the number of bytes, and therefore the number of IP addresses of the AC that can be recorded is limited. In a very large networking environment, the problem of slow negotiation speed is caused by the fact that the number of the ACs exceeds the address number limit carried by the Option43 field and the interaction time of the AP and the AC is too long.

Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus that can reduce the interaction time required for an AP to establish a connection with an AC and overcome the limitations of the Option43 field on the number of ACs.

Disclosure of Invention

The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. However, it should be understood that this summary is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of the disclosure. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller, comprising performing the following operations at the access point: sending an address request message to a DHCP server; receiving an address response message from the DHCP server, wherein the address response message comprises an IP address of a unique access controller pre-allocated to the access point; sending a discovery request message to the access controller according to the IP address of the access controller; and receiving a discovery response message from the access controller, thereby establishing a connection between the access point and the access controller.

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an access point of a wireless local area network, comprising a memory communicatively coupled with the processor and a processor, the memory having stored therein a program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to the first aspect.

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having a program stored thereon, wherein the program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to the first aspect.

According to a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program product comprising a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method of the first aspect.

According to a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for assisting an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller, comprising performing the following operations at a DHCP server: receiving an address request message from an access point; and sending an address response message to the access point, wherein the address response message comprises an IP address of a unique access controller pre-allocated to the access point, so that the access point sends a discovery request message to the access controller according to the IP address of the access controller, and a list describing a corresponding relationship between the access point and the unique access controller pre-allocated to the access point is stored in the DHCP server.

According to a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a DHCP server comprising a memory and a processor, the memory communicatively coupled with the processor, the memory having stored therein a program that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to the fifth aspect.

According to a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having a program stored thereon, wherein the program, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method according to the fifth aspect.

According to an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program product comprising a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method of the fifth aspect.

By utilizing the method and the device provided by the disclosure, the DHCP server only needs to allocate the only AC to the AP, thereby avoiding the waste of time caused by the AP trying to send discovery requests to different ACs and establishing connection, and getting rid of the limitation of the Option43 attribute in the message of the DHCP server to the number of the ACs.

Other features of the present disclosure and advantages thereof will become more apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

The present disclosure may be more clearly understood from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a method for an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method for an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary configuration of a computing device in which embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure may be implemented.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings and is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the disclosure. The following description includes various details to aid understanding, but these details are to be regarded as examples only and are not intended to limit the disclosure, which is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. The words and phrases used in the following description are used only to provide a clear and consistent understanding of the disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known structures, functions, and configurations may be omitted for clarity and conciseness. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the examples described herein can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a method for an access point AP of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller AC according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

As shown in fig. 1, the wireless local area network includes an AP 101, an AC 102, and a DHCP server 103.

After the AP 101 is powered on and started, the AP 101 may send an address request message to the DHCP server 103. The address request message may include the MAC address of the AP 101 that initiated the request.

The DHCP server 103 may receive an address request message sent by the AP 101, select an idle IP address from a pre-planned address pool to be allocated to the AP 101, and retrieve an IP address of the AC 102 corresponding to the AP 101 and unique according to a pre-stored list describing a correspondence between the MAC address of the AP and the IP address of the AC.

The DHCP server 103 may be configured to store a list describing a correspondence between an AP and a unique AC previously assigned to the AP, and the list may include a correspondence between a MAC address of the AP and an IP address of the unique AC previously assigned to the AP. The address request message received by the DHCP server 103 from the AP 101 may include the MAC address of the AP 101. The DHCP server 103 may be configured to retrieve, from the list, the IP address of the corresponding and unique AC 102 previously assigned to the AP 101 according to the MAC address of the AP 101 included in the address request message after receiving the address request message from the AP 101. For a request sent by one AP, the DHCP server may feed back the IP address of only one AC, so the number of ACs in the whole network is not limited by the attribute of Option43 in the DHCP message.

The list may be manually planned per actual needs (e.g., needs of the operator or user) and may be editable. By presetting the list, it is possible to realize the pre-configuration of the correspondence between the AP and the AC.

In an embodiment according to the present disclosure, the APs in the list may include APs that have established a connection with the ACs in the list, and may also include APs that have not established a connection with any of the ACs in the list.

In embodiments according to the present disclosure, the MAC address of one AP in the list may correspond to the IP address of only one AC.

In embodiments consistent with the present disclosure, the IP address of one AC in the list may correspond to the MAC address of one or more APs. The number of MAC addresses of APs to which an IP address of an AC can correspond may be determined based on the load capabilities of the AC.

In the embodiment according to the present disclosure, because the list is editable, when one AP recorded in the list fails and is replaced with a new AP, the MAC address of the AP may be replaced with the MAC address of the new AP in the list, and the IP address of the corresponding AC is not changed, thereby reducing the influence on the WiFi traffic.

One non-limiting example of a list is table 1 below. In table 1, each row stores a correspondence between one AP and one AC previously assigned to the AP. The first column is the stored MAC address of the AP and the second column is the IP address of the corresponding AC.

TABLE 1

As shown in fig. 1, after the IP address of AP 101 is allocated and the IP address of AC 102 corresponding to and unique to the MAC address of AP 101 is retrieved, DHCP server 103 may return an address response message to AP 101. In an embodiment consistent with the present disclosure, the address response message may include a free IP address assigned to AP 101. In an embodiment according to the present disclosure, the address response message may further include an IP address of the AC 102 corresponding to and unique to the MAC address of the AP 101. The Option43 attribute in the Address response message may add the corresponding and unique IP address of the AC 102.

After receiving the address response message returned by the DHCP server 103, the AP 101 may send a discovery request message to the corresponding target AC 102 according to the IP address of the AC 102 included in the message.

After receiving the discovery request message from AP 101, target AC 102 may return a discovery response message, thereby establishing a connection between AP 101 and AC 102.

In the embodiment according to the present disclosure, when the AP 101 goes online again after being offline, because the MAC address of the AP 101 is not changed, the DHCP server 103 allocates the AC 102 that has originally established connection with the AP 101 according to the list of the correspondence between the pre-stored AP and the AC, thereby ensuring that the service data delivered by the AC 102 to the AP 101 is not affected, and further ensuring that the WiFi service is not affected.

Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method for an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The method may be performed at an access point.

At S201, an address request message may be sent to the DHCP server.

At S202, an address response message may be received from the DHCP server.

At S203, a discovery request message may be sent to the access controller according to the IP address of the access controller.

At S204, a discovery response message may be received from the access controller, thereby establishing a connection between the access point and the access controller.

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary configuration of a computing device 300 capable of implementing embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure.

Computing device 300 is an example of a hardware device to which the above-described aspects of the disclosure can be applied. Computing device 300 may be any machine configured to perform processing and/or computing. Computing device 300 may be, but is not limited to, a workstation, a server, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a Personal Data Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, an in-vehicle computer, or a combination thereof.

As shown in fig. 3, computing device 300 may include one or more elements that may be connected to or in communication with bus 302 via one or more interfaces. The bus 302 may include, but is not limited to, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, an enhanced ISA (eisa) bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus. Computing device 300 may include, for example, one or more processors 304. The one or more processors 304 may be any kind of processor and may include, but are not limited to, one or more general purpose processors or special purpose processors (such as special purpose processing chips). The processor 304 may be, for example, a processing circuit in an AP configured to implement the flow steps shown in fig. 2.

The computing device 300 may also include or be connected to a non-transitory storage device 314, which non-transitory storage device 314 may be any non-transitory and may implement a storage device for data storage, and may include, but is not limited to, a disk drive, an optical storage device, a solid state memory, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a compact disk, or any other optical medium, a cache memory, and/or any other memory chip or module, and/or any other medium from which a computer may read data, instructions, and/or code. Computing device 300 may also include Random Access Memory (RAM)310 and Read Only Memory (ROM) 312. The ROM 312 may store programs, utilities or processes to be executed in a nonvolatile manner. The RAM 310 may provide volatile data storage and store instructions related to the operation of the computing device 300.

In summary, according to a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method for an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller, the method including: sending an address request message to a DHCP server; receiving an address response message from the DHCP server, wherein the address response message comprises an IP address of a unique access controller pre-allocated to the access point; sending a discovery request message to the access controller according to the IP address of the access controller; and receiving a discovery response message from the access controller, thereby establishing a connection between the access point and the access controller.

In some embodiments, the DHCP server has stored therein a list describing the correspondence between access points and unique access controllers pre-assigned to the access points.

In some embodiments, the list includes a correspondence between a MAC address of an access point and an IP address of a unique access controller pre-assigned to the access point, the address request message includes the MAC address of the access point, and the DHCP server is configured to retrieve, after receiving the address request message from the access point, the IP address of the unique access controller pre-assigned to the access point from the list according to the MAC address of the access point included in the address request message.

In some embodiments, the access points in the list include access points that have established a connection with an access controller in the list, and access points that have not established a connection with any access controller in the list.

In some embodiments, the IP address of one access controller in the list corresponds to the MAC address of one or more access points, wherein the number of MAC addresses of access points to which the IP address of one access controller corresponds is based at least on the load capacity of that access controller.

In some embodiments, when the access point fails and is replaced with a new access point, the MAC address of the access point in the list is replaced with the MAC address of the new access point and the IP address of the corresponding access controller is unchanged.

In some embodiments, the DHCP server is configured to assign an IP address to the access point after receiving the address request message, the address response message further including the IP address assigned to the access point.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: and the DHCP server allocates an IP address to the access point after receiving the address request message, and the address response message also comprises the IP address allocated to the access point.

The method and apparatus according to the present disclosure may have the following advantages:

when the access point establishes connection with the access controller, the access point only sends a discovery request message to the only target access controller, but not sends discovery requests to all the access controllers in the network, so that the time for establishing connection between the access point and the access controller is effectively shortened, and the speed for establishing connection between the access point and the access controller is improved;

because the DHCP server only issues an IP address of an access controller to the access point, the number of the access controllers in the network is not limited by the number of bytes of the Option43 attribute in the DHCP message;

the correspondence between the access point and the access controller can be ensured by editing the list describing the correspondence between the access point and the access controller, and the WiFi service is not influenced under the conditions of fault replacement, online again after offline and the like.

The subject matter of the present disclosure is provided as examples of apparatus, systems, and methods for performing the features described in the present disclosure. However, other features or variations are contemplated in addition to the features described above. It is contemplated that the implementation of the components and functions of the present disclosure may be accomplished with any emerging technology that may replace the technology of any of the implementations described above.

Additionally, the above description provides examples, and does not limit the scope, applicability, or configuration set forth in the claims. Changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements discussed without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Various embodiments may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. For example, features described with respect to certain embodiments may be combined in other embodiments.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous.

Claims

1. A method for an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller, comprising performing the following operations at the access point:

sending an address request message to a DHCP server;

receiving an address response message from the DHCP server, wherein the address response message comprises an IP address of a unique access controller pre-allocated to the access point;

sending a discovery request message to the access controller according to the IP address of the access controller; and

receiving a discovery response message from the access controller, thereby establishing a connection between the access point and the access controller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the DHCP server has stored therein a list describing correspondence between access points and unique access controllers pre-assigned to access points.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the list comprises a correspondence between MAC addresses of access points and IP addresses of unique access controllers pre-assigned to access points, the address request message comprising the MAC address of the access point, the DHCP server being configured to retrieve from the list the IP address of a unique access controller pre-assigned to an access point from the MAC address of the access point comprised in the address request message after receiving the address request message from the access point.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the access points in the list include access points that have established a connection with an access controller in the list, and access points that have not established a connection with any access controller in the list.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the IP address of one access controller in the list corresponds to a MAC address of one or more access points, wherein the number of MAC addresses of access points to which the IP address of one access controller corresponds is based at least on a load capacity of the access controller.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein when the access point fails and is replaced with a new access point, the MAC address of the access point in the list is replaced with the MAC address of the new access point and the IP address of the corresponding access controller is unchanged.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the DHCP server is configured to assign an IP address to the access point after receiving the address request message, the address response message further including the IP address assigned to the access point.

8. An access point of a wireless local area network, comprising a memory communicatively coupled with the processor and a processor, the memory having stored therein a program that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the method of any of claims 1-7.

9. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a program is stored, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1-7.

10. A computer program product comprising a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the method of any one of claims 1-7.

11. A method for assisting an access point of a wireless local area network to establish a connection with an access controller, comprising performing the following operations at a DHCP server:

receiving an address request message from an access point; and

sending an address response message to the access point, wherein the address response message comprises an IP address of a unique access controller pre-allocated to the access point, so that the access point sends a discovery request message to the access controller according to the IP address of the access controller,

the DHCP server stores a list describing the corresponding relation between the access point and the only access controller pre-allocated to the access point.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the list includes a correspondence between MAC addresses of access points and IP addresses of unique access controllers pre-assigned to access points, the address request message includes the MAC addresses of the access points, and the DHCP server is configured to retrieve the IP addresses of the unique access controllers pre-assigned to the access points from the list according to the MAC addresses of the access points included in the address request message after receiving the address request message from the access points.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the access points in the list include access points that have established a connection with an access controller in the list, and access points that have not established a connection with any access controller in the list.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein an IP address of one access controller in the list corresponds to a MAC address of one or more access points, wherein a number of MAC addresses of access points to which the IP address of one access controller corresponds is based at least on a load capacity of the access controller.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein when the access point fails and is replaced with a new access point, the MAC address of the access point in the list is replaced with the MAC address of the new access point and the IP address of the corresponding access controller is unchanged.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising: and the DHCP server allocates an IP address to the access point after receiving the address request message, and the address response message also comprises the IP address allocated to the access point.

17. A DHCP server comprising a memory and a processor, the memory communicatively coupled with the processor, the memory having stored therein a program that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the method of any of claims 11-16.

18. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a program is stored, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to carry out the method according to any one of claims 11-16.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer program which, when executed by a processor, carries out the method of any one of claims 11-16.