INTELLIGENT BRIDGING OF WI-FI FLOWS IN A SOFTWARE-DEFINED NETWORK (SDN)

摘要

Wi-Fi flows are intelligently bridged in a software-defined network (SDN) controller of a wireless communication network that centrally coordinates data plane behavior. A default mode tunnels packets received at an access point to the SDN controller for layer 2 routing decisions. A bridging policy concerning bridging of specific types of traffic flows for the wireless communication network is received at the SDN. Data plane traffic flow for each of a plurality of access points distributed around the wireless communication network is centrally monitored. New data streams tunneled to the SDN controller are matched to bridging policies with deep packet inspection. Responsive to matching, the tunnel mode is converted to a bridge mode by sending a rule concerning the new data stream to the access point. As a result, subsequent packets of the new data stream are transferred at the access point without tunneling additional packets to the SDN controller).

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for intelligent bridging of Wi-Fi flows in a software-defined network (SDN) controller in a wireless communication network by centrally coordinating data plane behavior, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a bridging policy of a plurality of policies concerning bridging of at least one specific type of traffic flow for the wireless communication network; centrally monitoring data plane traffic flow at each of the plurality of access points distributed around the wireless communication network; receiving a new data stream at the SDN controller from an access point of the plurality of access points, the new data stream being tunneled from the access point in a default tunneling mode for new data streams at the access point, the new data stream comprising at least one packet sent from a first station to a second station; matching the bridging policy to the new data stream by identifying characteristics of the new data stream with deep packet inspection on the at least one packet from the new data stream; and responsive to matching the new data stream to the bridging policy, converting the tunnel mode to a bridge mode by sending a rule concerning the new data stream to the access point so that subsequent packets of the new data stream are transferred at the access point without tunneling additional packets to the SDN controller.