RSSI-Based Access Point, Switch, and Site Redundancy Scoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Commercial premises often lack network redundancy, leading to WAN connectivity loss when switches fail, especially in areas with critical applications or high traffic, necessitating inefficient resource allocation and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A network management system (NMS) determines redundancy scores for access points (APs), switches, and sites based on received signal strength indicators (RSSIs) and neighbor relationships, enabling proactive recommendations for optimal AP and switch placement and configuration to enhance redundancy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If network redundancy is increased by adding more switches and APs, then network reliability improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of network topology and traffic patterns to determine optimal placement of redundant switches and APs before deployment, using simulation and prediction algorithms to pre-calculate redundancy requirements based on criticality scores and traffic density metrics
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts redundancy parameters such as switch/AP placement, configuration, and activation status based on changing network conditions, traffic patterns, and failure probabilities, optimizing the balance between reliability and complexity through continuous parameter tuning
2Reliability
If network redundancy is increased by deploying more infrastructure, then network reliability improves, but resource allocation efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements differentiated redundancy strategies for different network zones based on local traffic patterns and criticality requirements, deploying high redundancy only in high-traffic critical areas while using minimal redundancy in low-traffic areas, optimizing resource allocation through spatially varying quality levels
Solution Approach 2:
The system deploys redundancy selectively rather than uniformly across the entire network, applying partial redundancy measures only where critical analysis identifies genuine needs based on traffic density and application criticality, avoiding excessive redundancy deployment in non-critical zones
3Measurement precision
If manual network configuration and monitoring is performed, then network control precision improves, but labor time and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors network performance, traffic patterns, and failure events, using this feedback to automatically update redundancy assessments, adjust configurations, and optimize resource allocation without manual intervention, creating a closed-loop control system that maintains precision while eliminating time-consuming manual operations
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-configuration and self-monitoring of network redundancy by automatically analyzing topology data, calculating criticality scores, determining optimal placements, and adjusting configurations based on observed network conditions, eliminating the need for manual assessment and reducing operational time
Data Source
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AI summary
This disclosure describes a network management system configured to determine, for each AP of the plurality of APs and based on received signal strength indicators (RSSIs) of each AP of the plurality of APs, one or more strong neighbors of each AP. compute an AP redundancy score for each AP of the plurality of APs indicative of a redundancy of each AP; compute, based on the AP redundancy scores, at least one of: a switch redundancy score for each network switch associated with one or more of the plurality of APs, wherein the switch redundancy score is indicative of a redundancy of each network switch, or a site redundancy score, wherein the site redundancy score is indicative of an overall redundancy of the network site; and invoke, based on the AP redundancy scores, the switch redundancy score, or the site redundancy score, one or more actions.