Gateway advertisement in a wireless mesh

• US 10,123,262 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2016
• Issued: 11/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kuehnel, Thomas W., Manchanda, Alok, Mandhana, Taroon, Hassan, Amer A., Karki, Mukesh, Huitema, Christian, Atas, Yusuf
• Primary Examiner(s): Choi, Eunsook
• Application Number:
  US15/292,714
• Publication Number:
  US 20170034773A1
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0809 Plug-and-play configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/17 Selecting a data network PoA [Point of Attachment]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A computing environment containing a mesh network that is adapted to provide a reliable transport mechanism over which services may be delivered. Nodes of the mesh can automatically select routable addresses without conflicts, which allows nodes of the mesh to be accessed, even as the mesh changes through the addition or deletion of nodes. Also, nodes communicate with a protocol that supports service advertisements. These advertisements can identify mesh nodes that supply services, such as file or print servers, for which devices that have not yet connected to the network may be searching Advertisements can also identify services to be used by nodes in the network, allowing, for example, a node to select a gateway providing a reliable connection to an external network. The mesh network can be used as a transport for communication using protocols, such as TCP/IP, that generally exhibit poor performance when using unreliable transports.

Claims

1. A method performed on a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, by the computing device via a layer three or above networking protocol, a service advertisement from within a mesh network;

converting, by the computing device, the received service advertisement from the layer three or above networking protocol to a layer two networking protocol; and

advertising, by the computing device via the layer two networking protocol, the converted service advertisement on the mesh network, where the converted service advertisement as advertised is aggregated with other converted service advertisements for other services provided by the mesh network.

2. The method of claim 1 where the advertising comprises broadcasting, on the mesh network via the layer two networking protocol, the converted service advertisement.

3. The method of claim 1 where the advertising comprises:

receiving, via a second layer two networking protocol from a device outside the mesh network, a request for a service corresponding to the received service advertisement; and

responding, to the requesting device via the second layer two networking protocol, the received service advertisement.

4. The method of claim 1 where the layer three or above networking protocol comprises a Universal Plug and Play (“

UPnP”

) Discovery Protocol or a Web Services Discovery (“

WSD”

) Protocol or Internet Control Message Protocol (“

ICMP”

).

5. The method of claim 1 where the layer two networking protocol is a variant of a wireless Ethernet protocol.

6. The method of claim 1 where the service advertisement indicates a service provided by a node of the mesh network.

7. The method of claim 1 where the aggregated service advertisements are advertised in a single message that is in the form of a beacon or a wireless communication or some other format.

8. A computing device comprising:

at least one processor;

memory that is coupled to the at least one processor and that includes computer-executable instructions that, based on execution by the at least one processor, configure the computing device to;

receive, via a layer three or above networking protocol, a service advertisement from within a mesh network;

convert the received service advertisement from the layer three or above networking protocol to a layer two networking protocol; and

advertise, via the layer two networking protocol, the converted service advertisement on the mesh network, where the converted service advertisement as advertised is aggregated with other converted service advertisements for other services provided by the mesh network.

9. The computing device of claim 8 where the converted service advertisement is advertised by broadcasting the converted service advertisement on the mesh network via the layer two networking protocol.

10. The computing device of claim 8 where the service advertisement is advertised:

in response to receiving, via a second layer two networking protocol from a device outside the mesh network, a request for a service corresponding to the received service advertisement; and

by responding, to the requesting device via the second layer two networking protocol, the received service advertisement.

11. The computing device of claim 8 where the layer three or above networking protocol comprises a Universal Plug and Play (“

UPnP”

) Discovery Protocol or a Web Services Discovery (“

WSD”

) Protocol or Internet Control Message Protocol (“

ICMP”

).

12. The computing device of claim 8 where the layer two networking protocol is a variant of a wireless Ethernet protocol.

13. The computing device of claim 8 where the service advertisement indicates a service provided by a node of the mesh network.

14. The computing device of claim 8 where the aggregated service advertisements are advertised in a single message that is in the form of a beacon or a wireless communication or some other format.

15. At least one computer-readable medium comprising:

at least one memory that includes computer-executable instructions that, based on execution by a computing device, configure the computing device to;

receive, via a layer three or above networking protocol, a service advertisement from within a mesh network;

convert the received service advertisement from the layer three or above networking protocol to a layer two networking protocol; and

advertise, via the layer two networking protocol, the converted service advertisement on the mesh network, where the converted service advertisement as advertised is aggregated with other converted service advertisements for other services provided by the mesh network.

16. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 15 where the converted service advertisement is advertised by broadcasting the converted service advertisement on the mesh network via the layer two networking protocol.

17. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 15 where the service advertisement is advertised:

in response to receiving, via a second layer two networking protocol from a device outside the mesh network, a request for a service corresponding to the received service advertisement; and

by responding, to the requesting device via the second layer two networking protocol, the received service advertisement.

18. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 15 where the layer three or above networking protocol comprises a Universal Plug and Play (“

UPnP”

) Discovery Protocol or a Web Services Discovery (“

WSD”

) Protocol or Internet Control Message Protocol (“

ICMP”

), or where the layer two networking protocol is a variant of a wireless Ethernet protocol.

19. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 15 where the service advertisement indicates a service provided by a node of the mesh network.

20. The at least one computer-readable medium of claim 15 where the aggregated service advertisements are advertised in a single message that is in the form of a beacon or a wireless communication or some other format.