A technique for implementing AP-local dynamic switching involves Layer 2 switching. This may be accomplished by providing data associated with wireless stations to an AP sufficient to enable the AP to determine whether traffic from a particular wireless station should be locally switched. Alternatively, the wireless station may be able to determine whether to locally switch traffic based upon the traffic itself. For example, it may be desirable to AP-locally switch voice traffic to avoid latency, which is particularly detrimental to voice transmissions such as voice-over-IP. Traffic that is not to be switched locally is Layer 2 tunneled upstream.

A technique for implementing AP-local dynamic switching involves Layer 2 switching. This may be accomplished by providing data associated with wireless stations to an AP sufficient to enable the AP to determine whether traffic from a particular wireless station should be locally switched. Alternatively, the wireless station may be able to determine whether to locally switch traffic based upon the traffic itself. For example, it may be desirable to AP-locally switch voice traffic to avoid latency, which is particularly detrimental to voice transmissions such as voice-over-IP. Traffic that is not to be switched locally is Layer 2 tunneled upstream.

The present disclosure relates to an environment control device (ECD) and a method. The ECD and method comprise a first communication interface, a second communication interface of the Wi-Fi type, and a processing unit. The processing unit sends a DHCP-DISCOVER message via the first communication interface. The processing unit also configures the ECD to operate the second communication interface as a Wi-Fi Access Point if a DHCP-OFFER message is received in response to the DHCP-DISCOVER message via the first communication interface. The processing unit also configures the ECD to operate the second communication interface as a Wi-Fi hotspot if no DHCP-OFFER message is received in response to the DHCP-DISCOVER message via the first communication interface.

A method comprises: a mobile tag receiving at least one first Bluetooth Low Energy message transmitted from each of at least two fixed tags, each first Bluetooth Low Energy message including at least an identifier corresponding to the respective fixed tag; the mobile tag measuring a radio parameter for each of the received first Bluetooth Low Energy messages; and the mobile tag transmitting a second Bluetooth Low Energy message including the identifiers of each of the fixed tags, the measured radio parameters associated with each of the received first Bluetooth Low Energy messages, and an identifier corresponding to the mobile tag, said second Bluetooth Low Energy message enabling the calculation of a position of the mobile tag by a server apparatus. A further method comprises: a Bluetooth receiver device receiving at least one second Bluetooth Low Energy message from a mobile tag; the Bluetooth receiver device decoding from the message identifiers of at least two fixed tags from which first Bluetooth Low Energy messages have been transmitted; the Bluetooth receiver device decoding from the message measured radio parameters associated with the first Bluetooth Low Energy messages; and the Bluetooth receiver device decoding from the message an identifier corresponding to the mobile tag; server apparatus retrieving position data corresponding to each of the fixed tags using their respective identifiers; and the server apparatus using the position data and the radio parameters included in the second Bluetooth Low Energy message to calculate a position of the mobile tag.

A client access point joins a wireless network over a wireless connection in order to allow stations access to the wireless network. To join, the client access point (having a wireless connection to a mesh network) receives a beacon frame with unique identifiers of authorized client access points from a host access point (having a wired connection to the mesh network). Responsive to a unique identifier of the beacon frame matching the unique identifier of the client access point, a connection request for a connection is sent. A connection response confirming configuration of the client access point with the host access point in accordance is received.

A method for providing increased backhaul capacity in an ad-hoc mesh network is disclosed. The method involves attaching a mobile base station in an ad-hoc mesh network to a macro cell; measuring at least one of a backhaul signal quality with the macro cell and a throughput to the macro cell; reporting information, including a signal quality parameter, a physical position of the mobile base station, a cell identifier of the macro cell, and the measured throughput, to a coordinating node; determining if the connection between the mobile base station and the macro cell is currently in use by the ad-hoc mesh network, and whether the link exceeds a minimum quality threshold; and sending, to the mobile base station, an instruction to advertise a connection from the mobile base station to the macro cell to other nodes in the ad-hoc mesh network.

A plurality of communications nodes are configured to form a wireless backhaul network to communicate data from a core network of the wireless communications network for transmitting to one or more communications devices or to communicate data to the core network received from the one or more communications devices. At least a first and a second of the plurality of communications nodes are donor communications nodes formed from radio network infrastructure equipment having a physical connection to the core network. According to example embodiments, a migrating communications node determines that it should migrate from a first attachment point in the wireless backhaul network in which the migrating node communicates the data to or from the core network via the first donor communications node. The term “attachment point” is used to express a link of a communications node to other nodes in the backhaul network. The radio communications links are formed to communicate data to and from the core network via donor communications nodes and may be also via one or other nodes according to an established hierarchy of the wireless backhaul network. The migrating communications node determines a second attachment point in the wireless backhaul network to which the migrating communications node should attach to the wireless backhaul network to communicate the data to or from the core network, and the migrating communications node migrates from the first attachment point to the second attachment point. The second attachment point is determined by biasing a selection of the second attachment point either to provide the migrating communications node with radio communications resources from the first donor communications nodes when attached to the wireless backhaul network at the second attachment point as an intra-donor migration, or to provide the migrating communications node with radio communications resources from the second donor communications node when attached to the wireless backhaul network at the second attachment point as an inter-donor migration.

The performance and ease of management of wireless communications environments is improved by a mechanism that enables access points (APs) to perform automatic channel selection. A wireless network can therefore include multiple APs, each of which will automatically choose a channel such that channel usage is optimized. Furthermore, APs can perform automatic power adjustment so that multiple APs can operate on the same channel while minimizing interference with each other. Wireless stations are load balanced across APs so that user bandwidth is optimized. A movement detection scheme provides seamless roaming of stations between APs.

A wireless earphone comprises a transceiver circuit for receiving streaming audio from a data source over a local ad hoc wireless network. When the data source and the earphone are out of range, they transition automatically to an infrastructure wireless network. If there is no common infrastructure wireless network for both the data source and the speakerphone set, the earphone connects to a host server via an available wireless network.

A sensor kit and associated method configured for monitoring an industrial setting is disclosed. The sensor kit can include an edge device and a plurality of sensors that capture sensor data and transmit the sensor data via a self-configuring sensor kit network. At least one sensor can capture sensor measurements and output instances of sensor data, generate and output reporting packets, and transmit the reporting packets to the edge device via the self-configuring sensor kit network in accordance with a first communication protocol. The edge device receives reporting packets from the plurality of sensors via the self-configuring sensor kit network, generates a data block based on the sensor data, and transmits the data block to one or more node computing devices that collectively store a distributed ledger that is comprised of a plurality of data blocks.