Channel assay for thin client device wireless provisioning

The task of configuring a thin client device for networking functionality and connectivity is simplified using a portable computer-readable media device to transfer and automatically load RF interference data into a provisioning device. A wireless radio frequency channel that is usable for the wireless protocol to be employed by the device and which is not currently experiencing prohibitive RF interference is selected by the provisioning device based on the interference data. The portable media device includes, in an embodiment of the invention, a spectrum chip and its support electronics such as a radio receiver and receive-chain processor, to analyze ongoing local RF emissions/transmissions to identify a channel having the least interference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention pertains generally to computer network device configuration and, more particularly, to configuring a wireless computer network thin client device to utilize a particular communication channel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The use of computer networks continues to grow in many commercial, institutional and home settings. As computer networks become more prevalent, ways of simplifying the networks and increasing efficiency, productivity, and ease of administration are also becoming critical. One significant network improvement in recent years has been the advent of wireless networking. The use of wireless network technology in the home has become especially popular as of late. In addition to facilitating Internet connectivity, home networking permits personal computing devices and various consumer electronic devices and appliances within the home to communicate with each other. Wireless technology, such as used in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks and networks of Bluetooth-enabled devices, is attractive in home as well as corporate environments for reasons of convenience, mobility and flexibility.

As with many networking technologies, one impediment to the wider adoption of wireless networking technology has been the difficulty experienced by non-expert users in configuring network devices. This is especially true in informal settings lacking dedicated network administrators. Configuring network devices often requires substantial and in-depth knowledge of the nature of networking as well as the hardware, software, and protocols of the network. With respect to “thin-client” devices that typically run a reduced version of an operating system and do not have support for standard user interface components (e.g., a monitor, keyboard, and/or mouse), this problem is even more daunting; the user is not even able, with respect to such devices, to access the familiar features and aspects that generally provide them comfort and assistance. This lack of standard I/O capabilities very often may preclude the casual and non-expert user from configuring a thin client device for a home network, thus causing a substantial impediment to technology adoption.

One of the more difficult problems facing users of wireless technology is radio interference. Wireless protocols typically allow operation at one of a number of different frequencies or “channels.” Each channel represents a portion of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. When multiple devices use the same portion of the RF spectrum at the same time, each will typically experience radio interference. The effects of interference range from complete inability to communicate at the worst to greatly increased error rates at the best. Either effect is detrimental to network performance and is preferably to be avoided. In order to avoid RF interference, RF (wireless) devices that are not intending to communicate with each other should operate on different channels. In some wireless technologies, adjacent or harmonic channels to one already in use are also to be avoided. In addition, devices other than wireless networking devices may also impact channel availability. For example, a number of toys and appliances generate RF radiation purposefully or incidentally, and such RF radiation may interfere with one or more wireless networking channels.

The typical casual or non-expert user will not know what RF spectrum use is ongoing and will be unable to properly select a channel for wireless device operation. Thus, in addition to the difficulty of provisioning thin client wireless devices generally, the casual user also faces an additional hurdle of somehow selecting an interference free channel. Thus there is a pressing and unresolved need for a simple and easy way to configure such thin client devices for optimal network connectivity on one or more appropriate wireless channels.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the invention, the task of configuring a thin client device for networking functionality and connectivity is made particularly simple and easy by using a portable computer-readable media device, such as a USB flash drive or an SD memory card, or other externally installable device, to transfer and automatically load network settings into the thin client device. The configuration data includes an identification of an appropriate wireless radio frequency channel over which the device is to transmit and receive data. The wireless radio frequency channel is selected as a channel that is usable for the wireless protocol to be employed by the device but which is not currently experiencing prohibitive RF interference. The portable media device includes, in an embodiment of the invention, a spectrum chip and its support electronics such as a radio receiver and receive-chain processor, to analyze ongoing local RF emissions/transmissions to identify a channel having the least interference. Measurements of the RF environment are taken at various times to be uploaded into a host such as a host PC. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the data is processed within the portable media device itself so that there is no need for a host device especially configured to process the interference data. Thus, either the portable media device has wireless processing to determine an appropriate channel or the host that writes the configuration information to the portable media device has the RF processing facilities and determines the appropriate channel.

A user is then able to install the portable media device in a thin client computing device to transfer the configuration data and any other data to the device. The thin client device detects the connection of the portable media device and automatically loads the configuration data, and may provide signals to indicate completion of the configuration operation. Alternatively or additionally, the data can be held in the portable media for later upload. A Channel Assay application on a host PC or on the portable media device itself includes heuristics to correlate the RF environment with the device and time of day and select the best possible (i.e., least interference overall) WLAN channel to use for communication. A network setup wizard is used in an embodiment of the invention to download the channel information to the device to be provisioned as will be described later. If the wireless network performance is later seen to deteriorate, the RF measurement and channel assay process can be repeated to find the best channel under the changed RF environment. The device will provide the wireless heuristics to the Network Setup Wizard that will determine to which channel the wireless access points should be assigned. As a result, a thin client device may be provisioned with the network settings and other configuration data quickly and conveniently without the need for a more conventional user interface.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments which proceeds with reference to the accompanying figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Methods and systems for configuring network devices with a portable media device will now be described with respect to various embodiments. The skilled artisan will readily appreciate that the methods and systems described herein are merely exemplary and that variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The present invention will be more completely understood through the following detailed description, which should be read in conjunction with the attached drawings. In this description, like numbers refer to similar elements within various embodiments of the present invention. The invention is illustrated as being implemented in a suitable computing environment. Although not required, the invention will be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as procedures, being executed by a personal computer. Generally, procedures include program modules, routines, functions, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may be practiced in a variety of computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, and microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics devices. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices. The term computer system may be used to refer to a system of computers such as may be found in a distributed computing environment.

FIG. 1illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment100in which the invention may be implemented. The computing system environment100is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Nor should the computing environment100be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary operating environment100. Although at least one embodiment of the invention does include each component illustrated in the exemplary operating environment100, another more typical embodiment of the invention excludes some or all non-essential components, for example, input/output devices other than those required for network communications.

That said, one example system for implementing the invention includes a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer110. Components of the computer110may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit120, a system memory130, and a system bus121that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit120. The system bus121may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures.

The system memory130includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM)131and random access memory (RAM)132. By way of example, and not limitation,FIG. 1illustrates operating system134, application programs135, other program modules136and program data137.

The computer110may also include other removable and non-removable, volatile and nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,FIG. 1illustrates a hard disk drive141that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive151that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk152, and an optical disk drive155that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk156such as a CDROM. Other computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, DVDs, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive141is typically connected to the system bus121through a non-removable memory interface such as interface140, and magnetic disk drive151and optical disk drive155are typically connected to the system bus121by a removable memory interface, such as interface150.

The computer system may include interfaces for additional types of removable non-volatile storage devices. For instance, the computer may have a USB port153that can accept a USB flash drive (UFD)154, or a SD card slot157that can accept a Secure Digital (SD) memory card158. A USB flash drive is a flash memory device that is fitted with a USB connector that can be inserted into a USB port on various computing devices. A SD memory card is a stamp-sized flash memory device. Both the USB flash drive and SD card offer high storage capacity in a small package and high data transfer rates. Other types of removable storage media may also be used for implementing the invention.

The drives and their associated computer storage media, discussed above and illustrated inFIG. 1, provide storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer110. InFIG. 1, for example, hard disk drive141is illustrated as storing an operating system144, application programs145, other program modules146and program data147. Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system134, application programs135, other program modules136, and program data137. Operating system144, application programs145, other program modules146, and program data147are given different numbers herein to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies. A user may enter commands and information into the computer110through input devices such as a tablet, or electronic digitizer,164, a microphone163, a keyboard162and pointing device161, commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball or touch pad. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit120through a user input interface160that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor191or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus121by way of an interface, such as a video interface190. The monitor191may also be integrated with a touch-screen panel or the like. Note that the monitor and/or touch screen panel can be physically coupled to a housing in which the computing device110is incorporated, such as in a tablet-type personal computer. In addition, computers such as the computing device110may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers197and printer196, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface194or the like.

The computer110preferably operates or is adaptable to operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer180. The remote computer180may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a peer device or other network node, and typically includes some or all of the elements described above relative to the computer110, although only a memory storage device181has been illustrated inFIG. 1. The logical connections depicted inFIG. 1include a LAN171and a WAN173, but may also include other networks. For example, in the present invention, the computer110may comprise the source machine from which data is being migrated, and the remote computer180may comprise the destination machine, e.g., a thin client device. Note however that source and destination machines need not be initially connected by a network or otherwise, but instead, data may be migrated by way of any media capable of being written by the source platform and read by the destination platform or platforms. For example, one non-limiting instance of such a medium is a portable flash memory medium.

When used in a LAN environment, the computer110is connectable to the LAN171through a network interface or adapter170. The computer110may also include a modem172or other means for establishing communications over the WAN173. The modem172, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus121by way of the user input interface160or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer110, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation,FIG. 1illustrates remote application programs185as residing on memory device181. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used.

Turning toFIG. 2, the present invention is directed to a simple and convenient way for a user to set up thin client computing devices in a home network or the like, especially with respect to radio frequency channel selection. The term “thin client” commonly refers to a computing device that is quipped with a microprocessor but runs a simplified or reduced operation system (e.g., Windows CE of Microsoft Corporation or an “embedded” version of an operating system) and does not have or support conventional user interface I/O devices such as a monitor and a keyboard. As a result, thin client devices typically have very limited input means, such as buttons with predefined functions that a user can use to enter commands. Some of them may not even have any user-operable input means. They also typically have very limited signaling means, such as LED's as indicator lights, or a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen for displaying simple signals and messages. Due to the limited user interface I/O capabilities, it can be a very complex and laborious task to configure a thin client device. Conventionally, the task of configuring a thin client device is made easier by connecting the thin client device to a personal computer, and running a proprietary configuration program on the personal computer that interacts with the thin client device to change settings on the device. This approach becomes impractical for many new thin client devices for use in a network environment that rely on wireless transmissions for network communications. The present invention allows such thin client devices to be configured easily with desired network settings and other operation parameters with minimal user intervention.

By way of example,FIG. 2shows an exemplary network environment having various thin client devices provisionable in keeping with various embodiments of the invention as described herein. A user's personal computer (PC)200is connected to an Ethernet-based local area network (LAN)202. Other devices connected to the Ethernet include, for example, other PC's210, a printer212, a networkable television214, a networkable telephone216. The LAN may include a wireless access point218for forming an infrastructure wireless network. The LAN may further include a residential gateway device222that is connected to an external wide area network (WAN) through, for instance, a broad-band modem220for accessing the Internet212. The residential gateway device222may also have wireless transmission capabilities to enable it to function as a wireless access point to communicate with wireless computing devices.

The network environment ofFIG. 2includes wireless networks. In an infrastructure wireless network203, wireless computing devices communicate with each other through the wireless access point218. An ad hoc wireless network234may also be formed among computing devices that communicate wirelessly in a peer-to-peer fashion without going through an access point. The wireless devices may include notebook computers230, a tablet computing device232, and various other types of wireless devices such as a wireless television238, a cellular phone240, a wireless printer250, a media center extender260, a pocket PC262, a wireless picture frame268, wireless speakers270, a wireless media player272, etc. Other types of existing and new wireless devices can be added to the wireless networks. Wireless devices may communicate utilizing any suitable wireless communication protocol. Examples of suitable wireless communication protocols include wireless communication protocols in accordance with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1x series of standards, the Bluetooth® group of standards and the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) group of standards. As can be seen, many devices in wired and wireless networks are thin client devices and can be difficult or cumbersome to configure for networking and other functions in the conventional way.

In accordance with a feature of the invention, the process of configuring a thin client device is made very simple and easy by using a portable media device to transfer configuration data and initiate automatic configuration of the device. Referring toFIG. 3, a configuration program322on a computer312assists a user in generating the configuration data for the thin client device314. Once the configuration data are generated, they are stored on a portable media (PM) device326connected to the computer312. The portable media device326may be, for example, a USB flash drive328that may be inserted into a USB port330, or a SD memory card334that may be inserted into a SD card slot336. It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to these two portable memory media types, and other types of portable media may be used instead or additionally for implementing the invention.

The configuration data generated by the configuration program322includes network settings for the thin client device to communicate wirelessly with other computing devices on a wireless network. As will be discussed later, the network settings include, in an embodiment of the invention, an identification of a wireless channel for network communications. Depending on its network location and functions, the thin client device314may require network settings for other types of networks additionally. For example, the residential gateway222inFIG. 2may require wireless network settings when it functions as an access point, LAN settings for communications over the Ethernet, and WAN settings for communicating with the WAN206through the broad band modem, which may require its own special settings. In addition to network settings, the configuration data may include other parameters pertaining to the operations of the device, such as device-specific configuration information, security information, and file sharing information.

After the configuration data are stored on the portable media device326, the portable media device326is disconnected from the first computer312and used to transfer the configuration data to one or more thin client devices such as device314. In a preferred embodiment, to set up a thin client device, all the user has to do is to connect the portable media device326to that device. The thin client device314detects the connection of the portable media device, and may run a configuration program344to load the configuration settings from the portable media device326and automatically configure the thin client device using the received configuration data.

As discussed above, the network settings include, in an embodiment of the invention, an identification of a wireless channel for the device314being provisioned to communicate over. A schematic view of the logical architecture of portable media device326in a corresponding embodiment of the invention is shown inFIG. 4. The device326(400) includes in overview, ordinary USB flash drive components401and associated functionality as well as a spectrum chip403and a radio frequency receiver405. The receiver incorporates or is attached to an antenna407. The antenna407may be internal or external to device400, but is preferably internal for purposes of compactness and robustness.

The ordinary flash drive components401will not be described at length herein other than to point out that the components can access the spectrum chip403via a hardware interface as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art. In addition, it should be noted that ordinary flash drive components401are capable of reading data from the spectrum chip403over the interface as will be readily appreciated by those of skill in the art. The spectrum chip403may be any suitable chip, but in an embodiment of the invention the proprietary Spectrum Processor™ chip produced by Cognio™ of Waltham, Mass. is utilized. The manner in which the Spectrum Processor™ chip operates will be known to those of skill in the art, but other readers are referred, for the operation of such chips, to U.S. Pat. No. 6,785,520, entitled “System and Method for Antenna Diversity Using Equal Power Joint Maximal Ratio Combining,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,728,517, entitled “Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Transceiver,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,605, entitled “System and Method for Real-Time Spectrum Analysis in a Communication Device,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,450, entitled “Voltage-Controlled Oscillator with an Automatic Amplitude Control Circuit,” U.S. Pat. No. 6,687,492, entitled “System and Method for Antenna Diversity Using Joint Maximal Ratio Combining,” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,264, entitled “Wideband Multi-Protocol Wireless Radio Transceiver System,” each of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety for all that it teaches without any exclusion or limitation whatsoever, including as well the entirety of the contents of all referenced and/or incorporated materials.

The spectrum usage data provided by the chip403may be of any format, but in an embodiment of the invention the data is in the form of periodigram data representing spectrum data collected over a certain window of time such as one minute or ten minutes, or a longer or shorter period of time as appropriate. The user may walk or otherwise transport the device400throughout the location of intended use during a data gathering phase so that the gathered data accurately reflects the current interference potential at that location. The ordinary flash drive components401may access the data from the spectrum chip403as it gathered, after collection is finished, or not until the data is required during a device configuration event depending upon designer preferences.

FIG. 5illustrates a flow chart showing a process of configuring a thin client device, in particular a wireless access point, according to an embodiment of the invention after the data gathering described above is complete. Typically, wireless network components can be categorized as devices or access points (some devices may act as both). The thin client provisioning as discussed herein pertains mainly although not exclusively to access points, since devices usually scan while access points usually do not. At step501of the flow chart500, the user installs the USB flash drive or other portable memory media device into a device on the wireless network such as a PC. Subsequently at step503, a Plug and Play (PnP) event on that host detects the portable memory media device and launches a Network Setup Wizard. The Network Setup Wizard then queries the portable memory media device for RF interference data in step505.

At step507, the Network Setup Wizard determines the best channel for the wireless network. Typically this determination will be made based on the level of interference on each channel. Thus, the channel with the least amount of interference on average will be selected in an embodiment of the invention as the current channel for the network. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, other criteria may additionally or alternatively be used. For example, a channel with severe but infrequent interference may be selected in preference to a channel with more constant but lower average level interference. The Network Setup Wizard then writes a configuration file to the portable memory media device in step509, and creates a wireless profile on the host PC in step511. Finally at step513, the user removes the portable memory media device and installs it in the thin client device to be provisioned, and any other devices to be provisioned. When the portable media device is installed in the device to be provisioned it determines if the portable media contains valid wireless configuration information (e.g., it looks for the presence of the XML configuration file—WSETTING.WFC). If the file is present, then it is loaded into an XML parser to obtain the values of the wireless configuration information. The wireless configuration thus specified is then applied to the wireless radio. If the provisioned device is an access point, then the wireless channel information is also applied (wireless clients scan all channels).

In an embodiment of the invention, the following schema is used by the Network Setup Wizard to set the channel to be used on the wireless network:

As noted above, in an alternative embodiment of the invention, a PC or other computing device is not needed to select an appropriate channel based on the interference data gathered by the portable memory media. In this case, the steps ofFIG. 5are slightly altered so that an appropriate sequence of events is as follows. As before, an interference spectrum is gathered at the location for the device to be provisioned via the portable memory device. Next, a channel on which the wireless device is to operate is selected at the portable memory device by logic within the device based on the interference spectrum. Finally, an indication of the selected channel is downloaded from the first computing device to the first wireless device during provisioning. This embodiment of the invention is particularly useful when network devices are capable of provisioning and being provisioned via a portable memory device, but where the devices are not yet adapted to include radio frequency selection logic or understanding.

Turning now toFIG. 6, a software architecture used in an embodiment of the invention for generating network settings and other configuration data is now described. A configuration program602is executed on a computer and communicates with the computer through a wireless configuration application programming interface (API)604to generate network configuration settings. In the Windows™ operating system environment of Microsoft™ Corporation, for example, the WZCDLG.DLL library can be used for generating wireless settings.

In accordance with a feature of the embodiment, the network settings and other configuration data for the wireless ad hoc network are stored in the format of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file. The use of an XML file presents a standard format that can be recognized by many different devices. The configuration program602outputs the XML files to the computer through a provisioning API606. The configuration program602further outputs XML files for writing into an attached portable media device, such as a USB flash drive608. To that end, a flash configuration device driver610reads configuration files and writes a device configuration file to the USB flash drive when it is provisioned. As discussed above, the USB flash drive608contains a radio spectrum chip and associated logic (RF Hardware and Logic630) for gathering RF interference data and provides RF data (e.g., interference spectra) to the configuration program602in an embodiment of the invention. The RF data is then incorporated into the XML files that the configuration program602outputs for writing into the portable media device.

The configuration program602stores several files on the USB flash drive608for use in the network configuration process. In the embodiment illustrated inFIG. 6, the files include the XML files representing the generated network configuration settings. In one implementation, the XML files containing the wireless network settings are give a special extension name such as “wfc” as shown by element612ofFIG. 6, to indicate that the file contains wireless configuration settings. Thus, when the USB flash drive is plugged into another computing device, the operating system of that device will recognize the files612as containing wireless network setup information and will invoke the wireless configuration program on that device to handle the files. The USB flash drive608may store several XML files representing the generated network configuration settings. A WSETTING.XML file612contains settings for a wireless network. In an embodiment of the invention, the WSETTING.XML file612contains the RF channel designation generated pursuant to the RF interference data transferred from the USB flash drive608. An LSETTING.XML file622contains settings for a LAN. An NSETTING.XML file628contains settings for a WAN. These XML files are described in greater detail below. By storing network configuration settings for LAN, WAN and wireless networks, a single USB flash drive608can be used to configure a variety of devices (such as personal computers, routers, printers, PDAs, and WAPs) to communicate over a variety of types of networks, The USB flash drive may also be used to store device-specific configuration data, which preferably are in an XML file. InFIG. 6, the XML file containing device-specific configuration data is the DEVICE SETTING.WFC file628.

In addition, a network setup application614(called “Downlevel Flash Config Wizard” inFIG. 6) may be stored on the USB flash drive608in order to facilitate the configuring of network settings for other devices. When the USB flash drive608is attached to another device, that device can run the network setup application to load the relevant network settings from the USB flash drive608to the other device.

As also shown inFIG. 6, the USB flash drive608may be used to store device configuration log files616that are written into the flash drive by devices that were provisioned for the wireless network using the flash drive. In one implementation, each device configuration log file is identified by a file name that contains the last 8 bytes of the MAC address of the provisioned device in ASCII-HEX format. This file name allows the computer on which the network settings are created to identify the provisioned device.

In an embodiment of the invention, the USB flash drive608further stores an autorun file, such as wireless.cfg618. When the USB flash drive608is attached to a compatible device that recognizes the autorun file, the detection of wireless.cfg618automatically triggers the device to execute the network setup program610. In this way, no user intervention is required to transfer the network settings to the device after the USB flash drive608has been attached.

FIG. 7illustrates a schema700corresponding to an XML file used in an embodiment of the invention for storing wireless network settings on a portable media device for transfer to a thin client. Each element of schema700represents a wireless configuration setting. Service set identifier (SSID)710is a 1-32 byte string representing the name of the wireless network. SSID710can only occur once. Network Key715is a string that the PC will automatically generate, or alternatively, receive from the PC user. The Network Key715is used for encryption on the wireless network. Authentication Type720indicates the authentication protocol used by the wireless network. Authentication Type720allows a range of possible values, including open, shared, WiFi Protected Access (WPA), WPA Pre-Shared Key (PSK), WPA-none, WPA2, or WPA2 PSK. Encryption Type725indicates the encryption protocol used by the wireless network. Encryption Type725allows a range of possible values, including none, Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP), Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

Type730indicates a connection type, and may have as its value either extended service set (ESS) in the case of an ad hoc network, or infrastructure basic service set (IBSS) in the case of an infrastructure network. Key Index735indicates the location of the specific key used to encrypt messages, and may have a value of 1, 2, 3, or 4. Key Index735is used with WEP. Key Provided Info740indicates whether a key is provided automatically, and can have a value of either 0 or 1. The “802.1X” field745indicates whether IEEE 802.1X protocol is used on the network, and can have a value of either 0 or 1. 2.4 GHz Channel750indicates which 2.4 GHz Channel, if any, is being used by the wireless network, and can have a value in the range of 1 to 14. 5 GHz Channel755indicates which 5 GHz channel, if any, is being used by the wireless network, and can have a value of 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 149, 153, 157, or 161. WAP Mode760indicates the mode in which the wireless access point is operating. WAP Mode760can have a value of infrastructure, bridge, repeater, or station.

All references, including publications, patent applications, patents and appendices, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.