Managing wireless wide area network bandwidth constraints in a communication network
A technique to manage wireless wide area network bandwidth constraints in a communication network includes; prioritizing client activities in a serving access point; detecting that wired domain access is inactive while wireless wide area domain access is active; and utilizing an available bandwidth of the wireless aide area domain access for the highest priority client activities. The lower priority client activities can be address in various different ways including transferring to other available wired access.
1. A method to manage wireless wide area network bandwidth constraints in a communication network having wired domain access, wireless local area domain access, and wireless wide area domain access, the method comprising:
prioritizing client activities of client devices by a serving access point of the client devices, wherein prioritizing includes assigning different prioritized client activities to either a critical-priority wireless local area network or at least one non-critical-priority wireless local area network;
detecting that wired domain access is inactive to the serving access point while wireless wide area domain access is active for the serving access point;
in response to detecting that the wired domain access is inactive while the wireless wide area domain access is active, the serving access point utilizing an available bandwidth of the wireless wide area domain access to transfer critical-priority client activities in the critical-priority wireless local area network assigned to the wireless wide area domain access; and
de-authenticating at least one client device running non-critical-priority client activities on at least one of the non-critical-priority wireless local area networks.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-critical wireless local area networks operate under a flexible beacon of the serving access point, and wherein the de-authenticating step includes shutting down communication with, and stopping the flexible beacon to, non-critical-priority clients in at least one non-critical-priority wireless local area network.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein beacon stopping for a wireless local area network is triggered upon a numbers of packets dropped from a queue to the wireless wide area domain access from that wireless local area network exceeding a threshold.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein beacon stopping for a wireless local area network is triggered upon detecting a failure in wired domain access.
5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the non-priority wireless local area networks are configured to respond to beacon stopping, and further comprising forcing the non-priority client activities to roam to other available wired access in a second wireless local area network.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-critical wireless local area networks operate under a flexible beacon of the serving access point, and wherein the remaining non-critical-priority wireless local area networks are enabled to respond to de-authenticating by accepting de-authenticated packets from the de-authenticated at least one client device that is forced to roam to a remaining non-critical-priority wireless local area network having a connection to the wired domain access such that the at least one client device can communicate over the wired domain access.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising de-authenticating the non-priority client activities.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forcing the non-priority client activities to roam to wired access in a second access point via a backhaul bridge between the serving access point and the second access point.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein prioritizing client activities can dynamically change depending on a time of day.
10. An access point configured to manage wireless wide area network bandwidth constraints in a communication network having wired domain access, wireless local area domain access, and wireless wide area domain access, the access point comprising:
a transceiver configured to communicate with client devices serviced by the access point; and
a processor coupled to the transceiver, the processor configured to prioritize client activities of client devices serviced by the access point, wherein prioritizing includes assigning different prioritized client activities to either a critical-priority wireless local area network or at least one non-critical-priority wireless local area network, detect that wired domain access is inactive to the serving access point while wireless wide area domain access is active for the serving access point, in response to detecting that the wired domain access is inactive while the wireless wide area domain access is active, the serving access point utilizing an available bandwidth of the wireless wide area domain access to transfer critical-priority client activities in the critical-priority wireless local area network assigned to the wireless wide area domain access, and de-authenticate at least one client device running non-critical-priority client activities on at least one of the non-critical-priority wireless local area networks.
11. The access point of claim 10 , further comprising a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory stores associations between priorities, client devices, client activities, and wireless local area networks.
12. A system configured to manage wireless wide area network bandwidth constraints in a communication network having wired domain access, wireless local area domain access, and wireless wide area domain access, the system comprising:
wired domain access;
wireless wide area domain access;
wireless local area domain access including at least two wireless local area network; and
an access point configured to prioritize client activities of client devices serviced by the access point, wherein prioritizing includes assigning different prioritized client activities to either a critical-priority wireless local area network or at least one non-critical-priority wireless local area network, detect that the wired domain access to the serving access point is inactive while the wireless wide area domain access is active for the serving access point, in response to detecting that the wired domain access is inactive while the wireless wide area domain access is active, the serving access point utilizing an available bandwidth of the wireless wide area domain access to transfer critical-priority client activities in the critical-priority wireless local area network assigned to the wireless wide area domain access, and de-authenticate at least one client device running non-critical-priority client activities on at least one of the non-critical-priority wireless local area networks.