Dynamic Orthogonal DHCP IP Pools for Wireless Access Points
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless access points (APs) operating in standalone mode without a network controller struggle to assign unique IP addresses to clients, leading to IP address collisions when APs attempt to provide DHCP addresses locally, as they often assign the same IP address to multiple clients, especially when clients roam between APs, and manual configuration of different DHCP IP address pools is time-consuming and error-prone.
Innovation Solution
Each AP derives a standalone pool of non-overlapping IP addresses based on its distinct IP address, allowing it to dynamically assign unique IP addresses to wireless client devices without intervention from a network controller, ensuring that the IP addresses do not overlap with those from other APs, thereby preventing collisions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If APs provide DHCP addresses locally in standalone mode, then operational autonomy is improved, but IP address collision risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the DHCP address pool into multiple orthogonal pools, with each AP assigned a unique pool based on its identifier. This segmentation ensures that each AP operates independently with its own non-overlapping address range, eliminating IP address collisions while maintaining standalone operational autonomy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements local quality by deriving unique DHCP address pools locally at each AP based on its own identifier. Each AP generates its own orthogonal address pool independently, ensuring local operational autonomy while guaranteeing that locally-generated addresses do not conflict with addresses from other APs.
2Reliability
If manual configuration of DHCP IP address pools is performed, then IP address uniqueness is improved, but configuration time and error rate increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables APs to self-configure their DHCP address pools automatically upon receiving their identifiers. Each AP independently derives its orthogonal address pool using a deterministic algorithm based on its identifier, eliminating the need for manual configuration while ensuring IP address uniqueness across the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-defining the relationship between AP identifiers and their corresponding orthogonal DHCP address pools. When an AP receives its identifier, it can immediately generate its unique address pool without requiring manual intervention, thus reducing configuration time and potential errors.
Data Source
AI summary
An access point (AP) operates in a network of APs, each configured with a distinct IP address with which to communicate with a wide area network (WAN), and each configured to connect wirelessly with wireless client devices seeking access to the WAN via the each AP. The AP derives, based on the distinct IP address, a standalone pool of IP addresses for assignment to wireless client devices, such that the IP addresses do not overlap with IP addresses of any other standalone pool of IP addresses derived by any other of the APs; The AP operates in a standalone mode to: receive from wireless client devices connecting with the AP respective requests for IP addresses for use by the wireless client devices; and responsive to each request, dynamically assign to the wireless client device that sent the request a respective IP address from the standalone pool of IP addresses.