Patent ID: 8478854

Claim:
A method comprising: defining a cluster of a plurality of network controllers, wherein each respective network controller contributes at least one license to a current total amount of licenses in a license pool; identifying at least one threatened access point upon detecting a first network controller has become unavailable, wherein the threatened access point comprises any access point connected to the first network controller when the first network controller becomes unavailable; establishing a connection between a back-up controller and the threatened access point; while the first network controller is unavailable, allocating a license to each threatened access point via the back-up network controller; upon detecting the first network controller is unavailable, placing each license contributed by the first network controller into a grace pool for a grace period, wherein the current total amount of licenses accounts for each license currently in the grace pool, the grace period comprising a specified time interval; and wherein allocating a license to each threatened access point via the back-up network controller while the first network controller is in a failed state includes: during the grace period, allocating an unconsumed license to each threatened access point when a total number of access points is not greater than the current total amount of licenses, the total number of access points including each threatened access point and another access point connected to the cluster.