WO2015071395A1

WO2015071395A1 - Method for a configuration of a repeating device within a wireless network, and a customer premises equipment device

Info

Publication number: WO2015071395A1
Application number: PCT/EP2014/074566
Authority: WO
Inventors: Koen Van Oost; Frederik Verwaest; Stijn SEGERS
Original assignee: Thomson Licensing SAS
Current assignee: Thomson Licensing SAS
Priority date: 2013-11-15
Filing date: 2014-11-14
Publication date: 2015-05-21
Anticipated expiration: 2016-05-15

Abstract

The method for a configuration of a repeating device (R) within a wireless network including an access point (2) and a first station (1), comprises the repeating device connecting to the access point as a second station via a secure wireless connection, the repeating device retrieving from the access point settings of the wireless network, and after having received the wireless network settings, the repeating device transforming from the access point mode to a repeater mode to enable a repeater function with the first station. The repeating device retrieves in particular all necessary network settings from the access point to set up a wireless link with the access point.

Description

METHOD FOR A CONFIGURATION OF A REPEATING DEVICE WITHIN A WIRELESS NETWORK, AND A CUSTOMER PREMISES EQUIPMENT

DEVICE TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to the field of customer-premises equipment devices including a Wi-Fi node and coupled to an IP (Internet Protocol) network, e.g. via a digital subscriber line to a network service provider.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Residential gateways are widely used to connect devices in the home to the Internet or to any other wide area network (WAN) . Residential gateways use in particular digital subscriber line (DSL) technology that enables a high data rate transmission over copper lines or optical lines. During the years, several DSL standards have been established differing in data rates and in range, for example ADSL and VDSL, which are referred to in this context as xDSL. Also optical transmission for Internet services is well known, for example fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fiber-to-the premises (FTTP) . Residential gateways, but also other devices such as routers, WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) forwarders, repeaters, switches, telephones and set-top boxes, are understood in this context as customer premises equipment (CPE) devices .

Residential gateways including wireless technology have a key role in today' s home and professional

environments. A mechanism for connecting wireless devices to a local area network (LAN) is called Wi-Fi, which is a brand name of the Wi-Fi Alliance for devices using the IEEE 802.11 family of standards for wireless data transmission. The IEEE 802.11 standards define two types of wireless nodes, a general wireless device that can connect to other devices, called a station (denoted as STA) , and a special type of a STA that is in control of the network, namely an access point (denoted AP) . A Wi-Fi network, also called WLAN, consists of an AP with one or several STA connected to the AP .

Together with the phenomenal success of Wi-Fi

technology, more and more issues arise in the area of "whole home coverage". As the transmission power and receiver sensitivity of a WLAN access point is limited, so is its service. The more and more Wi-Fi technology becomes actively used in multi-media applications, the more the demand rises to have whole home coverage. The most typical application in order to extend the service coverage of a WLAN access point is a WLAN repeater or "range extender". Such a repeating device connects to the main access point and repeats or extends the service area by allowing devices to connect to a WLAN repeater as if they were connecting to the main access point.

Though not standardized by IEEE or the Wi-Fi Alliance, many architectural solutions exist to build a WLAN repeater. WDS (wireless distribution system) is one of those variants. WDS, a non-infrastructure WLAN mode, offers the advantage that it is able to transparently encapsulate Layer 2 Ethernet frames and does not require a lot of protocol stack to be able to exchange frames. It can be considered as a virtual Ethernet connection, which is considered very useful when repeating the in- home LAN, as the solution behaves similar to another access point that uses wired Ethernet to make the connection to the main access point or broadband

gateway. Hence a grid of access points can be placed in the home environment, allowing client devices to roam from access point to access point.

An example wireless network including a WDS bridge is schematically illustrated in figure 1. A first access point defines together with a first station PCI a first basic service set (BSS) BSS 1, and a second access point defines together with a second station PC2 a second basic service set BSS 2. The first and second access points are connected via a WDS bridge, defining an extended service set (ESS) , a set of two interconnected BSSs that share the same SSID (Basic Service Set

Identification) and security credentials. The ESS appears as a single BSS to the stations PCI, PC2, which facilitates secure roaming applications. A typical wireless network includes the components WLAN: a

physical layer (PHY) , a WLAN driver, a WLAN management daemon and a security application providing encryption for the security of the wireless network.

Using WDS has advantages as mentioned before, but there are also severe issues to overcome before being able to deploy a WDS based WLAN repeater. As IEEE abandoned standardization of WDS in 2007, the Wi-Fi Alliance never added WDS to its interoperability test plan. This effectively means that no decent interoperability and no means to benefit from standardized configuration methods such as a wireless protected setup (WPS), 802. lx, or even device detection, e.g. scanning for beacons and based on that a launch for a connection attempt, are available .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The method for a configuration of a repeating device within a wireless network including an access point and a first station comprises

the repeating device connecting to the access point as a second station via a secure wireless connection, the repeating device retrieving from the access point network settings of the wireless network, and after having received the network settings, the

repeating device transforming from the access point mode to a repeater mode to enable a repeater function with the first station. The repeating device retrieves in particular all necessary network settings from the access point to set up a wireless link with the access point .

In a preferred embodiment, the repeating device boots in a station mode after switching on the repeating device within the wireless network, for providing a connection of the repeating device with the access point as the second station. The repeating device then retrieves the necessary network settings from the access point: a Basic Service Set Identification of the access point, a network channel on which the access point operates - implicitly derived by scanning for the access point and connecting to it -, and a security mechanism of the access point, to set up a wireless link with the access point. Retrieval of the security mechanism requires for example to retrieve both the set of security

credentials, e.g. a Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) key and or passphrase, and the type and version of the

encryption that is applied by the access point, e.g. WPA version 2.

A customer premises equipment device comprises a software application for performing the method. The customer premises equipment device is in particular a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) repeater, for example, but not limited to, a WDS based WLAN repeater.

A non-transitory program storage medium has stored therein a software application including instructions, which when executed by the customer premises equipment device perform a method for a configuration of a repeating device within a wireless network. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail below by way of example with reference to schematic drawings, which show:

Fig. 1 two wireless networks being interconnected via a WDS bridge according to prior art, Figs. 2-4 a wireless network including a repeating

device for illustrating a method for an automatic configuration of the repeating device according to the invention,

Fig. 5 a message flow diagram for illustrating a

method for an automatic configuration of a repeating device, and

Fig. 6 an architecture for a wireless network in

accordance with figure 4.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments In the following description, example methods for a configuration of a wireless repeating device within a wireless network are described. For purposes of

explanation, various specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of preferred embodiments. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details.

A customer premises equipment (CPE) device includes in a preferred embodiment a controller, e.g. a

microprocessor, a non-volatile memory, in which an operating system is stored, a volatile memory for the operation of the CPE device, a Wi-Fi node for a wireless operation, and a broadband connection, e.g. an xDSL connection. The Wi-Fi node includes a complex software driver, a physical layer with data buffers and an antenna. A CPE device of this kind is for example a residential gateway, which has a central position within a wireless local area network (WLAN) , or a WLAN

repeater .

A method for an automatic configuration of a wireless repeating device R within a wireless network including an access point 2 (AP) and a first station (STA) 1 is explained with regard to figures 2-4. STA 1 in figure 2 experiences a weak RF signal connection to the AP 2, e.g. due to a large path loss. Adding a repeating device, e.g. a repeater R, in between the AP 2 and the STA 1 is presented as a solution to overcome the large path loss, figure 3.

The problem that presents itself is that WDS - as mentioned before - has no mechanism to find the

operating channel on which the AP 2 operates and

retrieve the security credentials to connect the

repeater R with the AP 2.

This can be solved by allowing the repeater R, e.g. a WDS-repeater , to boot as a station functional role. In the station role as a second station, figure 3, R will scan and connect with a given AP, here AP 2, hence the issue of not being able to establish the operating channel of the AP 2 is solved.

The repeater R boots up in the station functional role and can then be connected to the AP 2, either via WPS (wireless protected setup) , or via a manual

configuration, or network credentials, Fig. 3. When the AP-STA link has been established between AP 2 and repeater R, a dedicated application included in the repeater R contacts the AP 2 to retrieve the necessary information to configure the repeater R, e.g. as a WDS repeater. The first station 1 then connects to the repeater R because the repeater R is providing a higher signal strength with regard to AP 2, figure 4.

As shown in Fig. 5, the application included in the repeater R requests:

A security key to encrypt the WDS link AP 2 - repeater R (note that the actual key is irrelevant for the concept of the system. The « key » could even be a set of VPN credentials to set up a tunnel between 2 WDS nodes ; an example could be a 64 character key that can be used to AES encrypt the WDS frames) .

A Media Access Control (MAC) address of the remote WDS peer: AP 2.

By connecting as a station to the AP 2, the repeater application included in the repeater R « learns » a set of parameters from the station configuration with AP 2 :

SSID on which the first STA 1 is connected to configure the new repeater AP .

Channel on which the AP 2 operates.

Security credentials of the GW AP to configure the new repeater AP . In combination with the connection information obtained from the remote side, AP 2, the repeater application can trigger the repeater device R - currently in station role - to switch to an access point role and enable a parallel WDS node configuring both of them with the acquired information.

Figure 6 depicts the newly created architecture, corresponding with figure 4.

Part of the solution is the set-up of the repeater R, but equally important is the fact that the repeater application maintains the wireless system. The

maintenance feature is important as a WDS device is not able to recover from a link down, e.g. after a power loss; an application is needed to arrange this and leveraging on a fall back to the station role is needed as this step again offers a standardized way to retrieve the operating channel of the wireless connection.

The repeater application realises the maintenance function through a link detection coupled to a role change trigger. Link detection is realised by sending probe signals through the WDS link: AP 2 - repeating device R. When the repeater application determines that the link is lost by not having received a probe signal during a defined time window, it will transition the repeater device R back into the station mode so that the repeater device R can start to recover the lost link.

In a preferred aspect, the invention leverages on the fact that a repeating device can act as a station first and via this way retrieves all necessary configuration to set up a wireless link, e.g. a WDS link. By using classical infrastructure mode WLAN roles such as access point and station, all the standardized techniques such as WPS, WPA-PSK ... can be applied to form a connection between the repeating device and an access point. After an initial secure connection has been set up between the repeating device and the access point, an application can run so that credentials and/or wireless network information can be exchanged and the repeating device can transition from infrastructure mode device STA to non-infrastructure mode AP/WDS-repeater . Though there is virtually no interoperability on WDS level between devices and or chipset vendors, the concept of using a multi-role device to retrieve all the configuration info in a standard way via a dedicated application is

universal for a repeating device. The advantage of a transparent Layer 2 (L2) bridging, as illustrated with regard to the figures 2-6, allows an end user therefore to install a WDS based WLAN repeater in an equally easy way as a normal Wi-Fi device. Also other embodiments of the invention may be utilized by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. The method as described may be used in particular for all kinds of CPE devices using Wi-Fi. The invention resides therefore in the claims herein after appended.

Claims

1. Method for a configuration of a repeating device (R) within a wireless network including an access point (2) and a first station (1), comprising

the repeating device (R) connecting to the access point as a second station via a secure wireless connection,

the repeating device retrieving from the access point network settings of the wireless network, and

after having received the network settings, the repeating device transforming from the access point mode to a repeater mode to enable the

repeating device with a repeater function for a connection with the first station (1) .

2. The method of claim 1, comprising: the repeating

device (R) retrieving one or more of the following network settings from the access point (2) : a Basic Service Set Identification (SSID) of the access point, a network channel on which the access point operates and security credentials of the access point, to set up a wireless link.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, comprising: the

repeating device (R) booting in a station mode after switching on the repeating device within the

wireless network, for providing a connection of the repeating device to the access point (2) as the second station.

4. The method of claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the repeating device (R) is configured to set up a wireless distribution system (WDS) link to the access point (2) establishing a wireless distribution system configured to use: the same radio channel as the first station, a same method of encryption, e.g. none, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) , or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) , and/or a same encryption key .

The method of claim 1, comprising: after having connected as a station (STA) to the access point (2), the repeating device (R) retrieving from the access point (2) one or more of the following parameters of the network configuration:

SSID on which the first station (1) is connected with the access point (2),

a network channel on which the access point (2) operates, and/or

security credentials of the access point (2) to configure the repeating device (R) .

The method of one of the preceding claims,

comprising: for providing a maintenance function to recover from a link down, the repeating device (R) including a fall back function to a station role to retrieve again the network settings of the wireless network .

The method of one of the preceding claims, wherein the wireless network is a network according to an IEEE 802.11 specification.

Customer premises equipment device (R) comprising a software application for performing a method according to one of the preceding claims.

The customer premises equipment device of claim 8, the customer premises equipment device being a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) repeater (R) , e.g. a WDS based WLAN repeater.

10. The customer premises equipment device of claim 8 or 9, the customer premises equipment device comprising a microprocessor, a non-volatile memory, in which an operating system is stored, a volatile memory for the operation of the CPE device, and a Wi-Fi node for a wireless operation.

11. A non-transitory program storage medium, having

stored therein a software application including instructions, which when executed by a customer premises equipment device according to any of the claims 8-10, perform a method in accordance with one of the claims 1-7.