WLAN Virtualization via Superframe Time Slot Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional WLAN virtualization systems fail to isolate wireless resources and bandwidth between virtual Basic Service Sets, leading to interference and collisions, especially when coexisting with legacy devices, and struggle with backward compatibility.
Innovation Solution
A WLAN virtualization method and system that utilize a single Access Point to manage multiple virtual Basic Service Sets through a superframe structure, including a Contention-Free Period and a Contention Period, scheduled by a beacon frame, ensuring non-overlapping CP intervals and allowing classification based on physical layer, QoS, or security level, to isolate resources and support different WLAN standards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If multiple virtual APs are configured using a single physical AP with conventional SSID-based virtualization, then the costs of installing and managing APs are reduced and interference between physical APs is mitigated, but wireless resources and wireless services of virtual service groups cannot be isolated from each other, leading to interference and collisions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the wireless communication medium into multiple time slots, assigning each virtual AP a dedicated time slot for transmission. This temporal segmentation ensures that virtual APs transmit without interfering with each other, effectively isolating wireless resources while maintaining the simplicity of using a single physical AP.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic time slot allocation where each virtual AP is assigned a specific time slot that repeats periodically. This periodic action structure ensures consistent resource isolation across multiple transmission cycles, preventing collisions and interference between different virtual service groups.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a malicious user performs a Denial of Service Attack on a virtual AP, then the attack encroaches all wireless resources of the AP, but with time slot isolation, the attack can be confined to only the attacker's allocated time slot
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the wireless medium into dedicated time slots for each virtual AP, the patent ensures that a DOS attack on one virtual AP can only affect its specific time slot, preventing the attack from encroaching on other virtual APs' resources and maintaining the security and isolation of differential services.
3Productivity
If WLAN standards are upgraded and legacy devices coexist with newly introduced devices, then new standards provide improved performance, but backward compatibility problems occur and protection mechanisms increase cost and reduce resource efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the wireless medium into separate time slots for different WLAN standards (e.g., 802.11e and 802.11g). This allows legacy devices and new devices to transmit simultaneously without interference, as each standard has its own dedicated time slot, thereby maintaining backward compatibility while achieving high throughput performance for both standards.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic time slot allocation where legacy and new WLAN standards are assigned alternating time slots. This periodic structure enables both legacy and new devices to operate efficiently without requiring complex protection mechanisms, as the time slot isolation automatically prevents interference between different standards.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a WLAN virtualization system which is capable of efficiently separating a Basic Service Set (BSS) into a plurality of virtual BSSs in a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) manner. The WLAN virtualization system includes an Access Point (AP) for providing a plurality of vBSSs, and a plurality of stations corresponding to the vBSSs provided by the AP. Each of the vBSSs is operated on a superframe basis, the superframe being scheduled by a beacon frame transmitted from the AP. The superframe includes the beacon frame, one contention-free period, and one contention period. The CPs of the vBSSs include intervals which do not overlap each other. The vBSSs can be classified into any groups designated by a service provider based on certain criteria such as physical layer, QoS, security level, or network access authority, and times can be allocated to superframes at different rates or frequencies.