WO2014029277A1

WO2014029277A1 - Home network interconnection method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2014029277A1
Application number: PCT/CN2013/081117
Authority: WO
Inventors: 赵家伟
Original assignee: 中兴通讯股份有限公司
Priority date: 2012-08-21
Filing date: 2013-08-08
Publication date: 2014-02-27
Also published as: CN103634170A; CN103634170B

Abstract

Disclosed are a home network interconnection method and apparatus. The method comprises: one or more AP devices sending to a home gateway a networking request for joining a home network; after the home gateway receives the networking request, verifying the AP devices according to the AP identifier information carried in the networking request; and for the successfully-verified AP devices, the home gateway setting a trigger condition, and controlling the AP devices to execute related operations of home network interconnection by issuing a function control message to the AP devices. The present invention can effectively reduce the configuration difficulty of a home network, and improve the resource utilization rate of a WLAN, while reducing the wireless radiation, and saving electrical energy.

Description

Home network interconnection method and device

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a home network communication technology, and in particular, to a home network interconnection method and apparatus. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Wireless local area network (WLAN) is a widely used wireless local area network technology. The IEEE802.il series of standards defines the technical principle and architecture of WLAN. Terminal devices supporting this standard have been widely used in our daily lives, for example. Laptops, tablets and mobile smart devices. Similarly, with the development of home fixed-line broadband, the core equipment for building a home network... Home Gateway has been widely deployed. Home gateway refers to the network between the information device and the intelligent broadband access network in the home. Access gateways, from the perspective of their uplink access, the home gateway can be divided into digital subscriber line (DSL), passive optical network (PON) and other types of access. Currently, operators The customized home gateway has also adopted the WLAN function as a standard configuration. With WLAN technology, the home gateway can provide a wireless access option for the home terminal. However, in the actual implementation of the home service, it is found that the WLAN coverage provided by the home gateway is difficult to fully meet the service quality requirements. The main reason is that the high-band radio waves used by the WLAN are greatly attenuated in the home environment, and the interference of the open-band signal is large, and The differences in housing structure, the location of home gateways, and the limitation of maximum regulatory power by local regulations have resulted in poor WLAN signal quality, especially in hops or villas with large housing areas, which are only provided by home gateways. WLAN access will cause WLAN signal instability, low access bandwidth, and unguaranteed service quality at the wireless coverage edge of a farther room. Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem of large-area coverage of the home, some families will additionally purchase one or more Access Point (AP) devices, such as wireless power cats and wireless APs, to extend the coverage of the WLAN. Such a WLAN distributed deployment and independent control networking mode can improve the coverage performance of a certain point to a certain extent, but for ordinary users, there are radio resource utilization such as complicated device configuration, increased wireless radiation, and increased interference within the system. The rate is not high enough. For example, in order to ensure the roaming experience of the mobile intelligent terminal, it is necessary to manually configure the same Service Set Identifier (SSID), authentication mode, and key for the independent AP device; the independent AP cannot adjust the transmission according to the environment adaptively. Power and working channels, usually radiated according to the maximum transmit power, will bring unnecessary energy consumption and radiation safety hazards. At the same time, the larger coverage overlap area also means the greater interference potential. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a home network interconnection method, which implements centralized management of multiple AP devices through a home gateway, and solves many shortcomings of the above single WLAN access point and multiple WLAN access points, thereby achieving simple, efficient, energy-saving and environmental protection. Home network interconnection. The invention also provides a home network interconnection device implementing the above method. According to a first aspect of the present invention, a home network interconnection method is provided, including: one or more AP devices sending a networking request to a home gateway to join a home network: after receiving the networking request, the home gateway according to the The AP identification information carried in the networked request is used to authenticate the AP device. For the AP device that is successfully authenticated, the home gateway sets a trigger condition, and sends a function control message to the AP device to control the AP device to perform home network interconnection. Related operations. The function control message includes: an AP wireless roaming control message, a terminal roaming control message, an AP energy saving control message, and an AP channel change control message. The related operations of controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection by sending the function control message to the AP device include: the home gateway according to the AP wireless roaming parameter configuration information queried by using the AP identity information, to the AP device The AP wireless roaming control message is sent, and the AP device completes the configuration update according to the configuration information, and provides the WLAN access service according to the updated configuration. The method for controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection by sending the function control message to the AP device further includes: the home gateway sending the terminal to the AP device according to the AP device, the wireless terminal user STA information, and the network load. The roaming control message controls the AP device to perform the terminal roaming operation of the STA. The method for controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection by sending the function control message to the AP device further includes: when the home gateway detects that the AP device meets the trigger condition for saving the energy, sending the AP energy-saving control to the AP device. The message controls the AP device to enter a power saving state. The operation of controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection by sending the function control message to the AP device further includes: the home gateway transmitting the AP channel to the AP device according to the set trigger condition for the AP channel change. The control message is changed to control the AP device to perform a channel change operation. The one or more AP devices are assigned an IP address by the home gateway after being powered on. According to a second aspect of the present invention, an apparatus for implementing a home network interconnection is provided, including: a control end module disposed on a home gateway, configured to connect to the AP device according to AP identification information carried in an AP device networking request The authentication is performed, and the triggering condition is set for the successfully authenticated AP device, and the AP device is configured to perform the home network interconnection related operation by sending a function control message to the AP device. The controlled terminal module set on each AP device is set to And sending the networking request for joining the home network to the home gateway, and performing a home network interconnection related operation according to the home gateway issuing the function control message. The control end module includes: a message processing sub-module, configured to perform management protocol decapsulation, message sending, and receiving processing between the home gateway and the AP device; and the AP information maintenance sub-module 220 is configured to perform authentication of the AP device, The AP information is stored, updated, and retrieved. The function control sub-module 230 is configured to send the function control message to control the AP device to perform related operations of the home network interconnection. The control end module includes: a message processing sub-module, configured to perform a management protocol decapsulation, message sending, and receiving processing between the AP device and the home gateway; and a function execution sub-module, configured to perform function control according to the home gateway The message is: performing a related operation of the home network interconnection; the backhaul interface is set to establish a data transmission channel between the AP device and the home gateway; and the wireless interface is set to establish a WLAN access channel of the AP device and the STA. Compared with the prior art, the technical effect of the present invention is that the difficulty of configuring the home network can be effectively reduced, the utilization of the WLAN resources is improved, the wireless radiation is reduced, and the power is saved. The method and apparatus for home network interconnection of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a home network logical networking scheme according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a structural diagram of a home gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a structural diagram of an access point AP device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 4 is a schematic diagram of a home network interconnection method according to an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is: (1) In a home environment, in a single WLAN AP coverage scenario provided by a home gateway or other wireless router device, there is a WIFI coverage performance of a room far from the AP. (2) In the scenario where multiple WLAN AP coverage is provided by the home gateway and other devices, as described in the above analysis, there is a problem that the parameter configuration is complex and the WLAN resource utilization rate is not high. For this reason, the embodiment of the present invention provides a home network composed of a home gateway and a plurality of AP devices as shown in FIG. 1. The core idea of the solution of the embodiment of the present invention is to set a control terminal module of the home WLAN resource on the home gateway, and other The controlled end module of the WLAN resource is set on the WLAN AP, and the home network is interconnected through the control module and the controlled terminal module. The control terminal module can form a point-to-multipoint star network with a plurality of controlled end modules, and a management protocol is defined between the control end module and the controlled end module to define related service functions and messages, in some trigger condition. Or, under the control of a function algorithm, the control terminal module of the home gateway sends a related service function instruction to the controlled end module of the AP, so that the AP supporting the controlled end module performs a specific action according to the agreed service function. The apparatus for implementing home network interconnection according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 includes: a control end module disposed on a home gateway, configured to perform verification on the AP device according to the AP identification information carried in the AP device networking request, Verify that the successful AP device sets the trigger condition, and sends the function control message to the AP device to control the AP device to perform the related operations of the home network interconnection; and set the controlled end module on each AP device to be set to the home gateway. The networking request for joining the home network is sent, and the home network interconnection related operation is performed according to the home gateway issuing the function control message. The home gateway of the present invention refers to an electronic device for setting up a home communication network, which is provided by a telecommunication operator or purchased by a user in the electronic product market, including but not limited to an xDSL terminal, a PON terminal, and a cable terminal. , HomePlugAV / IEEE 1901 Power Cat, G.hn Equipment, etc. FIG. 2 shows a structure of a home gateway control terminal module according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the home gateway control end module includes: a message processing sub-module 210 configured to perform a management protocol decapsulation between a home gateway and an AP device. , message transmission and reception processing;

The AP information maintenance sub-module 220 is configured to perform authentication of the AP device, storage, update, and retrieval of the AP information. The function control sub-module 230 is configured to send the function control message to control the AP device to perform related operations of the home network interconnection. FIG. 3 shows a structure of a controlled end module of an AP device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the AP device controlled end module includes: a message processing submodule 310 configured to perform a management protocol between the AP device and the home gateway. Decapsulation, message sending and receiving processing; the function executing sub-module 320 is configured to perform a home network interconnection related operation according to the home gateway issuing a function control message; and the return interface 330 is set to establish an AP device and the home gateway The data transmission channel; the wireless interface 340 is configured to establish a WLAN access channel of the AP device and the network client (Station, STA). FIG. 4 shows a home network interconnection method according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the home network interconnection method includes: one or more AP devices send a networking request for joining a home network to a home gateway: the home gateway receives After the networking request, according to the AP identification information carried in the networking request,

The AP device performs verification, that is, checks the legality of the AP. For the AP device that is successfully authenticated, the home gateway sets a trigger condition, and controls the AP device to perform related operations of the home network interconnection by sending a function control message to the AP device. After the home gateway verifies the legitimacy of the AP, the AP may send a response message carrying the result of the authentication to the AP. The foregoing function control message includes: an AP wireless roaming control message, a terminal roaming control message, an AP power saving control message, and an AP channel change control message. The trigger condition described above refers to a natural time, a device hardware state, a device software state, and a software algorithm execution trigger condition that satisfies the execution of the function control message. The foregoing operations for controlling the AP device to perform home network interconnection by sending a function control message to the AP device include: The home gateway sends the AP wireless roaming control message with the configuration information to the AP device according to the AP wireless roaming parameter configuration information that is queried by using the AP identification information, so that the AP device completes the configuration update according to the configuration information, and updates according to the configuration information. The latter configuration provides WLAN access services. The foregoing operations of controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection by sending the function control message to the AP device include: the home gateway sending the terminal roaming control message to the AP device according to the AP device, the wireless terminal user STA information, and the network load. And controlling the AP device to perform a terminal roaming operation of the STA. The foregoing operations of controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection by sending the function control message to the AP device include: when the home gateway detects that the AP device meets the trigger condition for saving the energy, sending the AP energy saving control message to the AP device, and controlling The AP device enters a power saving state. The foregoing operations of controlling the AP device to perform home network interconnection by sending a function control message to the AP device include: the home gateway sending the AP channel change control message to the AP device according to the set trigger condition for the AP channel change. Controlling the AP device to perform a channel change operation. After the one or more AP devices are powered on, the home gateway allocates an IP address to the home gateway. Specifically, the manner in which the AP obtains an IP address from the home gateway through a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and the manner in which the IP address is obtained through a custom private protocol. In addition, the AP setting can also obtain an IP address through static configuration, that is, statically configuring its own IP address on the AP. The home gateway can notify the AP of the management IP address of the home gateway, for example, statically configuring the management IP address of the home gateway on the AP, or by using a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) between the home gateway and the AP. The parameter item carries the IP address and the IP address carried in the custom private protocol. The AP device join message can also obtain the message through the above-mentioned home gateway and the management IP address of the AP.

(DHCP protocol or custom private protocol) to achieve. The identifier information of the AP that the device joins the message includes, but is not limited to, the vendor identifier (Vendor Identifier) of the AP, the AP model, the hardware version number, or the software version number. The home network interconnection of the present invention will be described in detail below through a specific embodiment. This embodiment can provide a guaranteed bandwidth for the home user, stable wireless coverage, and improve the user service experience. Today, with the development of Fiber To The Home (FTTH), PON terminals have been widely deployed in the home. PON terminals that support WIFI function provide WLAN coverage for the home, but in the hop or villa scenario, The wireless coverage is not good. Therefore, in this example, the remote AP is added to the study room and bedroom far from the PON terminal. In the environment without Ethernet cabling, it is assumed that the AP uplink uses power line backhaul in this embodiment, and finally constitutes The PON terminal is a WLAN resource control center, and the remote multiple power cat APs are star-shaped networking modes of the controlled end. The specific operation steps are as follows: Step 101: The home gateway receives the device join message sent by the AP, and the device join message carries the AP identifier information. In this embodiment, the PON home gateway needs to perform the AP and PON gateway IP address acquisition process before receiving the device join message sent by the power cat AP. In this embodiment, the DHCP server function is implemented on the PON gateway, and after the AP is powered on, Obtain an IP address from the PON gateway through the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), specifically comply with RFC2131 and RFC2132, and carry the PON gateway management IP through the OPTION attribute (such as ΟΡΉΟΝ43 or ΟΡΉΟΝ52) in the DHCP OFFER message replied by the PON gateway. . After the DHCP protocol is exchanged, the AP and the PON gateway each have their own management IP, and the management channel is established based on the management IP of both parties. In addition to the method of setting the IP address by using the DHCP protocol, the private discovery protocol can also be designed to run on the set service port. The advantage of the private discovery protocol can effectively solve the situation of multiple DHCP servers in the same LAN. As described in this step, when the IP address is set by using the DHCP, the AP may carry the authentication identifier information of the AP in the DHCP request message, where the authentication information includes but is not limited to the vendor identifier (Vendor Identifier) of the supporting AP, the AP model, The hardware version number, software version number, etc., can be loaded in the ΟΡΉΟΝ60 parameter item. In this embodiment, the device join message can be implemented by using the foregoing DHCP message, so there is no need to redefine the new message. Step 102: The home gateway verifies the legality of the AP according to the AP identity information. In this embodiment, the identity information reporting format is agreed between the PON gateway and the AP. The PON gateway completes the access authentication of the AP according to the set authentication policy. The legality verification timing may be set after the PON gateway receives the DHCP Discovery request message sent by the AP, and after the authentication is legal, the PON gateway continues to execute the DHCP protocol process. In this embodiment, after the authentication is legal, the PON gateway may not need to separately reply to the AP to join the device. The message should be successful. When the authentication is illegal, the PON gateway does not respond to the APDHCP Discovery message, so it does not assign an IP address to the AP, and does not need to provide a device to join the response failure message. Step 103: After the setting condition is triggered, the home gateway sends a function control message to the verified legal AP device. In this embodiment, the following control functions exist as follows: AP wireless roaming parameter synchronization, terminal roaming control,

AP energy saving control and AP channel change.

AP wireless roaming parameter synchronization

After the PON gateway queries the wireless roaming parameter configuration information of the AP according to the information such as the AP model, the POS gateway sends a configuration update control message to the AP. The most commonly used configuration information includes the SSID, authentication method, and key of the AP. After the AP completes the configuration update, the PON gateway follows the new The configuration provides WLAN access services. In a home network, a unified wireless configuration is a prerequisite for interrupted roaming. A unified configuration update feature can reduce the difficulty of individual configuration. Terminal roaming control

The PON gateway uniformly maintains the AP and STA information, network load, etc.

The PON gateway actively triggers the target STA handover process according to the above information: The basic method is that the gateway controls the old AP to send the association message, and the STA is prevented from accessing the AP, and the gateway controls the target AP to receive the STA access request.

AP energy saving control

When the PON gateway detects that an AP meets certain conditions, the PON gateway sends a power-saving status message to the AP, and the AP performs an energy-saving action. The certain condition may be a configurable policy, for example, the AP or the network associated STA is 0 or the existing STA is associated but has no traffic. AP channel change

The AP channel adjustment policy is set on the PON gateway. The adjustment policy may include the first startup, the control period, the signal strength threshold, the terminal-free association, or the terminal without service. After the AP starts the configuration update for the first time, the first startup is satisfied. The trigger condition is that the PON gateway sends a channel change control message to the AP. After receiving the control message, the AP scans all channels when the SS starts the SSID, and adjusts the current channel to the channel with the least interference. When the AP is in normal operation, if the policy meets the trigger condition, the PON gateway sends a channel change control message to the AP. After receiving the control message, the AP scans the current channel, if the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSI) value is received. When the threshold is exceeded, then the AP scans all channels and adjusts the current channel to the channel with the least interference. Step 104: The AP receives the function control message, and performs a preset function according to the function control message to complete related functions and services. As described in step 104, the AP receives the function control message from the PON gateway, and presets actions according to the function control message to complete related functions and services. Afterwards, the AP may reply the PON gateway with the result of the function control message execution. According to the method provided by the foregoing embodiment, the PON gateway adds a control end module to the software without changing the hardware design. The control end module includes a message processing submodule, an AP information maintenance submodule, and a function control submodule. as shown in picture 2. The message processing sub-module 210 is configured to complete management protocol decapsulation, message sending, and receiving between the PON gateway and the AP. The management protocol is based on the TCP/IP protocol and can be defined by a protocol data unit (PDU) message. The specific message format implements the function service described in step 103. The AP information maintenance sub-module 220: completes the AP legality authentication, the AP information storage, the update, and the retrieval. The legality authentication implements the configuration and maintenance of the authentication policy. The AP information mainly refers to the static and dynamic required for the function service described in step 103. Data, such as a STA list associated with an AP, an AP channel list, and the like. The maintenance process of the AP dynamic information also needs to define a special information query function service between the AP and the PON gateway to support. The AP information maintenance sub-module 220 and the function control sub-module 230 coordinate with each other to provide data support. The function control sub-module 230: implements a specific function service logic control algorithm, as described in step 104. In the home network communication in which the present invention includes at least one home gateway and one access point AP, the access point AP adds a controlled terminal module to the software without changing the hardware design. The controlled end module implements message interaction and function execution between the AP and the home gateway. As shown in FIG. 3, the following includes the following sub-module: The message processing sub-module 310 completes the management protocol solution between the AP and the PON gateway. Encapsulation, message transmission and reception; wherein the management control protocol is based on TCP/IP, implemented by a private message definition, implementing the functional service described in step 103. The function execution sub-module 320 implements specific function execution logic, and the function service is as described in step 103; The backhaul interface 330 is configured to implement a data transmission channel between the AP and the home gateway. In this embodiment, the AP backhaul interface includes an ITU G.hn standard, and the wireless interface 340 is configured to implement the AP and the wireless terminal. The WLAN access channel of the user (STA), in this embodiment, the AP wireless module includes an IEEE 802.1 lb/g/n 2T2R scheme, such as the Atheros AR9344 single chip solution. In summary, the solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention can effectively reduce the difficulty of configuring the home network, improve the utilization of the WLAN resource, and reduce the wireless radiation, and save power. Although the present invention has been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited thereto. Various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art in accordance with the principles of the invention. Therefore, modifications made in accordance with the principles of the invention should be construed as falling within the scope of the invention.

Claims

A claim for rights, a method of home networking, including:

The one or more APs send a network request to the home gateway to join the home network: after receiving the networking request, the home gateway verifies the AP device according to the AP identity information carried in the networking request;

For the successfully verified AP device, the home gateway sets a trigger condition, and controls the AP device to perform related operations of the home network interconnection by sending a function control message to the AP device. The method according to claim 1, wherein the function control message comprises: an AP wireless roaming control message, a terminal roaming control message, an AP energy saving control message, and an AP channel change control message. The method according to claim 2, wherein the controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection related operation by sending the function control message to the AP device includes:

The home gateway sends the AP wireless roaming control message with the configuration information to the AP device according to the AP wireless roaming parameter configuration information that is queried by using the AP identification information, so that the AP device completes the configuration update according to the configuration information, and updates according to the configuration information. The latter configuration provides WLAN access services. The method of claim 3, wherein the controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection related operation by sending the function control message to the AP device further includes:

The home gateway sends the terminal roaming control message to the AP device according to the AP device, the wireless terminal user STA information, and the network load, and controls the AP device to perform the terminal roaming operation of the STA. The method of claim 4, wherein the controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection related operation by sending the function control message to the AP device further includes:

When the home gateway detects that the AP device meets the trigger condition for energy saving, it sends an AP energy saving control message to the AP device to control the AP device to enter the energy saving state. The method of claim 5, wherein the controlling the AP device to perform the home network interconnection related operation by sending the function control message to the AP device further includes:

The home gateway sends the AP channel change control message to the AP device according to the set trigger condition for the AP channel change, and controls the AP device to perform a channel change operation. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more AP devices are assigned an IP address by the home gateway after being powered on. A device for interconnecting a home network, comprising:

The control terminal module is configured to perform the verification on the AP device according to the AP identifier information carried in the AP device networking request, set the trigger condition for the successfully verified AP device, and send the function control to the AP device. a message, controlling an AP device to perform a related operation of the home network interconnection;

The controlled end module disposed on each AP device is configured to issue the networking request for joining the home network to the home gateway, and perform a home network interconnection related operation according to the home gateway issuing the function control message. The device according to claim 8, wherein the control terminal module comprises:

a message processing sub-module, configured to perform management protocol decapsulation, message sending, and receiving processing between the home gateway and the AP device;

The AP information maintenance sub-module is configured to perform authentication of the AP device, storage, update, and retrieval of the AP information.

The function control sub-module is configured to deliver the function control message, and control the AP device to perform related operations of the home network interconnection. 0. The device according to claim 8, wherein the controlled end module comprises:

a message processing sub-module, configured to perform management protocol decapsulation, message sending, and receiving processing between the AP device and the home gateway;

The function execution sub-module is configured to perform a home network interconnection related operation according to the home gateway issuing the function control message;

The backhaul interface is configured to establish a data transmission channel between the AP device and the home gateway. The wireless interface is configured to establish a WLAN access channel between the AP device and the STA.