WO2023045095A1

WO2023045095A1 - Method and system for acquiring and issuing synchronous configuration for mesh networking

Info

Publication number: WO2023045095A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/136292
Authority: WO
Inventors: 张书豪; 汤宪飞; 江凡; 凡玉强; 张洋舰
Original assignee: 天翼数字生活科技有限公司
Priority date: 2021-09-27
Filing date: 2021-12-08
Publication date: 2023-03-30
Also published as: CN113873554A; CN113873554B

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system for acquiring and issuing a synchronous configuration for Mesh networking. In the present invention, router configuration information is acquired by means of an operator link protocol communication between a gateway and a router, and a set of synchronous configuration source customization methods is established, so as to facilitate a user in customizing synchronous information and a synchronous configuration by means of a webpage and an application during a Mesh networking process. The acquisition of a synchronous configuration in the present invention comprises the following three synchronous scenarios: 1) the synchronous configuration is from a gateway; 2) the synchronous configuration is from any designated AP; and 3) the synchronous configuration is customized by a user.

Description

Method and system for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution in Mesh networking

technical field

The present invention generally relates to wireless communication and wireless terminals, and in particular to a method and system for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution of Mesh networking.

Background technique

Mesh network, that is, wireless mesh network, is developed from ad hoc network and is one of the key technologies to solve the "last mile" problem. In the Mesh network, different access points are mixed to form a whole mesh network in the form of star, tree, series and bus. In this network, not only the SSID is unified, but the wireless device can also freely find the node with the best signal to connect and transmit data. When the user's handheld device roams between different nodes, the connection is seamlessly switched.

However, in the home network environment, the gateway usually sends synchronization information to each AP to realize Mesh networking, and the private Mesh of the same manufacturer often establishes a set of unified configuration by default, which cannot provide users with a choice of synchronization configuration sources, and cannot realize different manufacturers. Mesh device networking. The research scope of the existing technology is mainly in the deployment and installation of Mesh networking, the determination of each Mesh target node, and the switching of Mesh devices. In terms of synchronous configuration source configuration, the gateway is generally used as the configuration source by default.

Therefore, there is a need for a technique for improving the above-mentioned deficiencies in the prior art.

Contents of the invention

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the present invention establishes a set of self-defined synchronous configuration source methods, through the interaction of the operator's link protocol between the gateway and Mesh devices of different brands, the router configuration information can be obtained, and the synchronous configuration can be delivered through the gateway , which can facilitate users to customize synchronization information and synchronization configuration through pages and APPs during the Mesh networking process.

Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution in Mesh networking. In the present invention, the router configuration information is obtained through the communication between the gateway and the router of the operator's link protocol, and a set of self-defined synchronous configuration source methods are established, which can facilitate users to customize through the web page and APP during the Mesh networking process. Synchronization information and synchronization configuration. The synchronous configuration acquisition in the present invention includes the following three synchronous scenarios: 1) the synchronous configuration comes from the gateway; 2) the synchronous configuration comes from any designated AP; 3) the synchronous configuration is defined by the user.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution of Mesh networking is disclosed, including:

According to the operator's link protocol and the Mesh networking protocol, develop a networking plug-in and integrate it into the gateway and the router associated with the gateway;

Powering on the gateway and the router;

Obtaining router device information and WLAN configuration information of the router through the networking plug-in in the gateway to complete preliminary networking;

Obtain synchronous configuration information of the gateway and synchronous configuration information of the router via the networking plug-in in the gateway and return them to the user management module;

Based on the operator link protocol, select a synchronization configuration for Mesh networking via the user management module and feed back the selected synchronization configuration to the gateway, and the synchronization configuration is obtained from the user management module through the user management module Select from the synchronous configuration information of the gateway, the synchronous configuration information of the router, and the user-defined synchronous configuration; and

Sending the selected synchronization configuration to each of the routers via the gateway to complete Mesh networking.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the networking plug-in is integrated in the middleware of the gateway and the router.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the routers are multiple routers from different manufacturers, and the operator link protocol is used to uniformly manage the routers from different manufacturers adapted to the networking plug-in, And the Mesh networking protocol is based on the Mesh networking standard "Multi-AP Specification" formulated by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the gateway and the router are powered on, the Mesh function of the gateway is disabled by default, and the Mesh function of the gateway is turned on before selecting a synchronous configuration.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the router device information, WLAN configuration information, and synchronization configuration information of the router are obtained through the networking plug-in in the gateway, and the synchronization configuration information of the gateway is obtained by calling the It is realized by the corresponding open interface of the networking plug-in.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the router device information includes manufacturer name, model, MAC address, hardware version, firmware version, and connection status, and the WLAN configuration information includes Wi-Fi configuration information of the router device, The synchronous configuration information of the router includes Mesh capability support status, current Mesh function enabled status, router 2.4G/5G Wi-Fi name, password, and Wi-Fi synchronous enabled status, and the synchronous configuration information of the gateway includes Mesh capability Support status, current Mesh function enable status, gateway 2.4G/5G Wi-Fi name, password, and encryption method.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the user management module is implemented in an APP or a web page on the user side.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the synchronous configuration information of the gateway and the synchronous configuration information of the router are returned to the user management module via the networking plug-in of the gateway.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the synchronization configuration comes from any one of the routers in case the synchronization configuration comes from synchronization configuration information of the routers.

In one embodiment of the invention, completing Mesh networking includes sending an auto-configuration message from said gateway to each of said routers.

In another embodiment of the present invention, a computer system is disclosed, including means for executing the steps in the above method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a computer-readable storage medium storing instructions is disclosed, and the instructions are used to execute the steps in the above method according to one embodiment of the present invention when executed by a processor.

Other aspects, features, and embodiments of the invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following description of specific exemplary embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Although features of the invention may be discussed below with respect to certain embodiments and figures, all embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the advantageous features discussed herein. In other words, while one or more embodiments may be discussed as having certain advantageous features, one or more of such features may also be used in accordance with the various embodiments of the invention discussed herein. In like manner, although exemplary embodiments may be discussed below as device, system, or method embodiments, it should be appreciated that such exemplary embodiments can be implemented in various devices, systems, and methods.

Description of drawings

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description of what has been briefly summarized above may be had by reference to various aspects, some of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of the disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects.

FIG. 1 shows a business flow chart of an existing Mesh networking method.

Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of a system for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution in Mesh networking according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 shows a service flowchart of a Mesh networking method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of a method for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution for Mesh networking according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Various embodiments will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and which show specific exemplary embodiments. Embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and these The scope of the embodiments is fully conveyed to those of ordinary skill in the art. Various embodiments may be implemented as methods, systems or devices. Accordingly, these embodiments may take the form of a hardware implementation, an entirely software implementation, or a combination of software and hardware aspects. Therefore, the following detailed description is not limiting.

The steps in each flowchart may be performed by hardware (eg, processors, engines, memories, circuits), software (eg, operating systems, applications, drivers, machine/processor executable instructions), or a combination thereof. As will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, the methods involved in the various embodiments may include more or fewer steps than shown.

Various aspects of the present disclosure will be described in detail below through block diagrams, data flow diagrams, and method flowcharts.

FIG. 1 shows a service flowchart of an existing Mesh networking method 100 .

As shown in FIG. 1 , an existing Mesh networking method 100 is implemented by a gateway 102 and a router 104 . The router 104 may be specifically, the gateway 102 and the router 104 are first connected to each other by electricity in step 1 to complete the preliminary networking.

Then in step 2, the gateway 102 obtains the device information of the downlink router 104 through the Mesh networking protocol.

Then in step 3, the router 104 provides information such as device model and SSID to the gateway 102 .

Then in step 4, the gateway 102 sends the synchronization configuration information to each router 104 .

Finally in step 5, the gateway 102 and the router 104 complete the Mesh networking.

It can be seen that Mesh networking is usually implemented in the way that the gateway sends synchronization information to each AP. However, the private Mesh of the same manufacturer often establishes a set of unified configuration by default, and cannot provide users with different synchronization configuration source options.

The present invention establishes a set of self-defined synchronous configuration source methods, through the interaction between the gateway and the operator's link protocol between different brands of Mesh equipment, the router configuration information can be obtained, and the synchronous configuration is issued through the gateway, which can facilitate the user in the Mesh group During the network process, the synchronization information and synchronization configuration can be customized through the webpage and APP.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a system 200 for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution in Mesh networking according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the system 200 includes a gateway 202 , a router 204 , and a user management module 206 . The gateway 202 and the router 204 each include a networking plug-in, which is based on an operator link protocol (such as the e-Link protocol of China Telecom, etc.) and a Mesh networking protocol (based on the Mesh networking protocol formulated by the Wi-Fi Alliance). Standard "Multi-AP Specification"), and is integrated in the gateway 202 and the router 204. In an embodiment of the present invention, the networking plug-in is integrated in the middleware of the gateway 202 and the router 204 .

Gateway 202 may be associated with one or more routers 204 for network coverage. The one or more routers 204 may be from the same manufacturer (such as Huawei, ZTE, etc.), or from different manufacturers. The operator's link protocol in the present invention can support the unified management of cross-vendor routers (APs) by the user via the user management module 206 (such as via the user-side APP or webpage) to improve networking efficiency.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the user module 206 may be an APP or a web page on the user side, or the user module 206 may be implemented in the APP or web page for interacting with the gateway 202, including feeding back the user page to the gateway 202 The information processing mechanism includes functions such as information return to the gateway, information query, information interaction and instruction issuance.

Specifically, the gateway 202 is used to obtain the downlink device information and WLAN configuration information, that is, the router device information of the router 204 and the WLAN configuration information. The router 204 provides its device information and WLAN configuration information to the gateway 202 to complete preliminary networking.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the router device information includes manufacturer name, model, MAC address, hardware version, firmware version, and connection status, and the WLAN configuration information includes Wi-Fi configuration information of the router device.

After the gateway 202 obtains the device information and WLAN configuration information of the router 204, it obtains the synchronous configuration information of the gateway 202 and the synchronous configuration information of the router 204 through the networking plug-in in the gateway, and returns the two synchronous configuration information to the user management Module 206. In one embodiment of the present invention, the router device information, WLAN configuration information and synchronous configuration information of the router, as well as the synchronous configuration information of the gateway itself are obtained by invoking the corresponding open interface of the networking plug-in through the networking plug-in of the gateway.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the synchronous configuration information of the router includes Mesh capability support status (support Mesh/not support Mesh), current Mesh function enablement status (Mesh function enable/Mesh function not enable), router 2.4G/5G Wi -Fi name, password, and Wi-Fi synchronization enabled status, and the synchronization configuration information of the gateway includes Mesh capability support status, current Mesh function enabled status, gateway 2.4G/5G Wi-Fi name, password, and encryption method. Since the interfaces invoked to acquire synchronous configuration information of the gateway and the router are different, the acquired configuration information is similar but not identical.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the called open interface is encapsulated according to the dbus interface of the gateway, and is shown by the following table (as an example and not a limitation):

Table 1: Example of call interface

As can be understood by those skilled in the art, the calling order, interface names, calling parameters, etc. in the above table are exemplary rather than limiting.

The user management module 206 selects a synchronization configuration for Mesh networking based on the operator's link protocol and feeds back the selected synchronization configuration to the gateway 202 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the synchronous configuration for Mesh networking can be configured by the user through the user management module 206 from the synchronous configuration information of the gateway 202, the synchronous configuration information of the router 204, and the user-defined synchronous configuration to choose from. In an embodiment of the present invention, when the user selects the synchronous configuration for Mesh networking from the synchronous configuration information of the router 204, the synchronous configuration information from any router can be selected.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the user can make this choice via an APP on the user side (such as the Xiaoyi Guanguan APP of China Telecom, etc.) or a webpage (such as the user management page of the gateway 202, etc.). In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the user can also open the user management page of the gateway to query the relevant information of the gateway and connected devices.

When the gateway 202 receives the synchronous configuration for Mesh networking from the user module 206, it sends the selected synchronous configuration to each router 204 to complete the Mesh networking. In an embodiment of the present invention, the gateway 202 completes Mesh networking by sending an auto-configuration message to each router 204 .

In one embodiment of the present invention, the gateway 202, as the control node (including the control module) of EasyMesh, is responsible for sending messages to multiple downlink routers to realize interaction and configuration synchronization. The gateway 202, as a control node, sends messages to each slave node and a newly added node, and completes interaction between each node to realize configuration synchronization. The sent message contains one or more BSS information to be synchronized, and the information includes modifiable WLAN configuration parameters (SSID name, wireless authentication method, wireless encryption method, wireless password, etc.).

FIG. 3 shows a service flowchart of a Mesh networking method 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the service process of the Mesh networking method 300 involves the following three parties: a gateway 302 , a router 304 , and a user 306 . The gateway 302 can be associated with one or more routers 304, and both the gateway 302 and the router 304 can include a networking plug-in, which is developed according to the operator's link protocol and the Mesh networking protocol and is integrated in the gateway and router. Router 304 may be from the same manufacturer or from a different manufacturer. The operator link protocol can support users to manage cross-vendor routers in a unified manner through user-side APP and webpage. The user 306 can participate in the business process through the user management module. The user management module can be an APP or a user management page on the user side, and is used for unified management of the gateway 302 and its connected router 304 .

First in step 1, the gateway 302 and the router 304 are powered on and networked. At this time, the Mesh function of the gateway 302 is disabled by default.

Then in step 2, the gateway 302 obtains the device information and WLAN configuration information of the downlink router 304 through the networking plug-in of the gateway (based on the Mesh networking protocol). In one embodiment of the present invention, the router device information includes manufacturer name, model, MAC address, hardware version, firmware version, and connection status, and the WLAN configuration information of the router includes Wi-Fi configuration information of the router device. In another embodiment of the present invention, the gateway 302 obtains these information by calling the corresponding open interface of the networking plug-in of the gateway.

Then in step 3, router 104 provides device information and WLAN configuration information to gateway 102 .

Next in step 4, the gateway 302 obtains the synchronous configuration information of the gateway and the connected router through the networking plug-in in the gateway and returns the synchronous configuration information to the user 306, that is, the user management module (for example, using a user page or APP form). In an embodiment of the present invention, the gateway 302 obtains the synchronization configuration information by invoking the corresponding open interface of the networking plug-in of the gateway.

Proceeding to step 5, the user 306 selects a synchronization configuration for Mesh networking through the user management module based on the operator's link protocol and feeds back the selected synchronization configuration to the gateway 302 . In one embodiment of the present invention, the synchronous configuration for Mesh networking can be obtained by the user 306 via the user management module from the synchronous configuration information of the gateway 302, the synchronous configuration information of the router 304, and the user-defined synchronous configuration to choose from. In an embodiment of the present invention, when the user 306 selects the synchronous configuration for Mesh networking from the synchronous configuration information of the router 304, the synchronous configuration information from any router can be selected. In another embodiment of the present invention, the user can make this choice via an APP or a web page on the user side. In one embodiment of the present invention, the Mesh function of the gateway is turned on before the synchronization configuration is selected.

Then in step 6, when the gateway 302 receives the synchronous configuration for Mesh networking from the user 306, it sends the selected synchronous configuration to each router 304.

Finally in step 7, the gateway 302 and the router 304 complete the Mesh networking. In an embodiment of the present invention, the gateway 302 completes Mesh networking by sending an auto-configuration message to each router 304 .

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of a method 400 for synchronous configuration acquisition and distribution in Mesh networking according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The method 400 starts at step 402, developing a networking plug-in according to the operator's link protocol and the Mesh networking protocol and integrating it into a gateway and a router associated with the gateway. In an embodiment of the present invention, the networking plug-in can be integrated into the middleware of the gateway and the router. In an embodiment of the present invention, the router may be one or more routers, and may be multiple routers from different manufacturers. routers for unified management, and the Mesh networking protocol is based on the Mesh networking standard "Multi-AP Specification" formulated by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Proceed to step 404, power on the gateway and the router. In an embodiment of the present invention, when the gateway and the router are powered on, the Mesh function of the gateway may be disabled by default.

Then in step 406, the router device information and WLAN configuration information of the router are obtained through the networking plug-in in the gateway to complete preliminary networking. In an embodiment of the present invention, the gateway obtains the router device information and WLAN configuration information of the downlink router by invoking the corresponding open interface of the networking plug-in of the gateway. In one embodiment of the present invention, the router device information may include manufacturer name, model, MAC address, hardware version, firmware version, and connection status, and the WLAN configuration information may include router device Wi-Fi configuration information.

Then in step 408, the synchronous configuration information of the gateway and the synchronous configuration information of the router are acquired through the networking plug-in in the gateway and returned to the user management module. In an embodiment of the present invention, the synchronous configuration information of the gateway and the synchronous configuration information of the router can be obtained by invoking the corresponding open interface of the networking plug-in by the gateway, and returned to the user management module through the networking plug-in of the gateway. In an embodiment of the present invention, the user management module can be implemented in an APP or a web page on the user side.

Next in step 410, based on the operator's link protocol, select the synchronization configuration for Mesh networking via the user management module and feed back the selected synchronization configuration to the gateway, wherein the synchronization configuration is synchronized from the gateway through the user management module Choose from configuration information, router synchronization configuration information, and user-defined synchronization configuration. In an embodiment of the present invention, if the synchronization configuration is from the synchronization configuration information of the router, the synchronization configuration may come from any router. In an embodiment of the present invention, the Mesh function of the gateway is enabled before selecting the synchronization configuration.

Finally, in step 412, the selected synchronization configuration is delivered to each router via the gateway to complete the Mesh networking. In an embodiment of the present invention, completing Mesh networking may include sending an auto-configuration message from the gateway to each router.

After step 412, method 400 ends.

The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present invention can easily think of changes or Replacement should be covered within the protection scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be determined by the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A method for synchronous configuration acquisition and delivery for Mesh networking, comprising:

According to the operator's link protocol and the Mesh networking protocol, develop a networking plug-in and integrate it into the gateway and the router associated with the gateway;

Powering on the gateway and the router;

Obtaining router device information and WLAN configuration information of the router through the networking plug-in in the gateway to complete preliminary networking;

Obtain synchronous configuration information of the gateway and synchronous configuration information of the router through the networking plug-in in the gateway and return them to the user management module;

Based on the operator link protocol, select a synchronization configuration for Mesh networking via the user management module and feed back the selected synchronization configuration to the gateway, and the synchronization configuration is obtained from the user management module through the user management module Select from the synchronous configuration information of the gateway, the synchronous configuration information of the router, and the user-defined synchronous configuration; and

Sending the selected synchronization configuration to each of the routers via the gateway to complete Mesh networking.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the networking plug-in is integrated in the middleware of the gateway and the router.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the routers are multiple routers from different manufacturers, and the operator link protocol is used to uniformly manage the routers from different manufacturers adapted to the networking plug-in , and the Mesh networking protocol is based on the Mesh networking standard "Multi-AP Specification" formulated by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
The method according to claim 1, wherein when the gateway and the router are powered on, the mesh function of the gateway is turned off by default, and the mesh function of the gateway is turned on before the synchronization configuration is selected.
The method according to claim 1, wherein obtaining the router device information, WLAN configuration information and synchronous configuration information of the router and the synchronous configuration information of the gateway through the networking plug-in in the gateway is by calling the It is realized by the corresponding open interface of the networking plug-in described above.
The method of claim 5, wherein:

The router device information of the router includes manufacturer name, model, MAC address, hardware version, firmware version, and connection status;

The WLAN configuration information of the router includes Wi-Fi configuration information of the router device;

The synchronous configuration information of the router includes Mesh capability support state, current Mesh function open state, router 2.4G/5G Wi-Fi name, password, and Wi-Fi synchronously open state; and

The synchronous configuration information of the gateway includes Mesh capability support status, current Mesh function enablement status, gateway 2.4G/5G Wi-Fi name, password, and encryption method.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the user management module is implemented in an APP or a web page on the user side.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the synchronous configuration information of the gateway and the synchronous configuration information of the router are returned to the user management module via the networking plug-in of the gateway.
The method of claim 1, wherein the synchronization configuration is from any of the routers if the synchronization configuration is from synchronization configuration information of the routers.
The method of claim 1, wherein completing mesh networking includes sending an auto-configuration message from the gateway to each of the routers.