Progressive Channel Scanning for WLAN Connection Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless local area network (WLAN) channel scanning methods face significant delays due to the need to scan multiple channels, leading to incomplete scans when interrupted by operating systems like Microsoft Windows XP, which prevents connection to access points operating on unsampled channels.
Innovation Solution
A progressive channel scanning method that checks for completed scans, starts from a designated start-up channel, deletes previous scanning results, and continues scanning from the next channel, with the option to use active scanning with a valid service set identifier to detect hidden access points.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a dual-band station scans all 38 channels sequentially, then complete channel coverage is achieved, but the total scanning time exceeds 5 seconds which causes operating system interruption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the complete channel scanning task into multiple segments, each handled by a separate worker thread. Instead of scanning all 38 channels sequentially in one process, the scanning range is segmented and distributed across multiple parallel threads, allowing the system to complete comprehensive scanning within the operating system's timeout threshold.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous channel scanning by launching multiple worker threads that operate simultaneously and continuously. The main thread continuously launches new worker threads to scan additional channels, ensuring that scanning action never stops and all channels are eventually covered without interruption.
2Productivity
If the operating system interrupts the scanning procedure after approximately 3 seconds, then the system responds to other tasks, but the scanning procedure cannot complete and channels beyond the scanned range are missed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the scanning task into multiple smaller sub-tasks executed by different worker threads. Each thread scans a portion of channels independently, so that even if the overall scanning process spans multiple seconds and encounters OS interruptions, individual thread executions complete their assigned segments before timeout occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-launching multiple worker threads before the operating system can interrupt the main process. This ensures that scanning operations are already in progress across multiple channels when the timeout threshold is approached, maximizing the likelihood of completing at least some scanning tasks before interruption.
3Ease of operation
If the wireless device driver deletes all previous channel scanning results before beginning a scanning operation, then the scanning process starts fresh, but previously scanned channels are lost and cannot be connected to
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the scanning results storage by worker thread, with each thread maintaining its own scanning results independently. This eliminates the need to delete all previous results before starting, as each thread's results are isolated and preserved separately, allowing accumulation of scanning data across multiple operations.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of deleting all previous scanning results, the patent selectively manages results by allowing each worker thread to retain its own scanning data. The system recovers and maintains scanning results across multiple scanning operations, only discarding results when specifically needed for a new scanning cycle on the same channel segment.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for progressively scanning channels first checks whether all channel scanning tasks are completed so as to determine a channel that will be scanned first. During the scanning process, the method records a channel as a last scanned channel after completing a channel scanning task for the channel. In addition, the method scans a channel with a valid service set identifier to increase the possibility of detecting hidden access points.