Dedicated backhaul for whole home coverage

• US 10,681,698 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2018
• Issued: 06/09/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NETGEAR, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NETGEAR, Inc.
• Inventors: Emmanuel, Joseph Amalan Arul, Amini, Peiman
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jay P
• Application Number:
  US15/940,890
• Publication Number:
  US 20180288768A1
• Time in Patent Office: 803 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/44 Star or tree networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0888 Throughput
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/20 Hop count for routing purposes, e.g. TTL
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/06 Testing, supervising or monitoring using simulated traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A dedicated backhaul for whole home coverage variously applies optimization techniques, e.g. using the 5 GHz high band or low band as a dedicated backhaul; using the 2.4 GHz band as backup if the 5 GHz band fails to reach between nodes; using Ethernet when it is better than the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands and it is available; and using a spanning tree protocol or a variant to avoid loops. The dedicated backhaul is used if the received signal strength indication (RSSI) of the dedicated channel is above a threshold. In embodiments, a daisy chain uses probe request contents to communicate hop count and link quality between the nodes by attempting to route directly if link quality is better than a defined threshold. For each extra hop, there must be some percentage gain over smaller hops. If the link is below some threshold, it is not used.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for establishing a backhaul communication among nodes in a mesh wireless network, the method comprising:

performing an attempt to utilize a first channel in a default frequency band as a backhaul with second node in the network, wherein the backhaul is to provide communication of management functions between the nodes in the network, as opposed to a front haul that provides wireless data communication to clients in the network; and

upon detecting that a received signal strength of the first channel from the second node is below a threshold, performing an attempt to utilize a different channel in the default frequency band and/or a channel in a different frequency band that has a lower frequency range than the default frequency band, to establish the backhaul with the second node,

wherein, in any of said attempts, channels in a given frequency band are prioritized based on a corresponding received signal strength.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said attempts are performed on a first radio, the method further comprising:

upon failure of all said attempts, performing an attempt to establish the backhaul with the second node utilizing a different radio.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said different radio is the same radio as the front haul.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring received signal strengths of probes from all nodes within a communication range; and

selecting the second node based on the measured received signal strengths of the probes.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

utilizing a spanning tree based protocol to avoid loops in said attempts.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

measuring a link quality among one or more of the nodes in the network; and

selectively causing a number of nodes in the network to form a particular connection topology based on the measured link quality.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the formed connection topology is a star topology if the link quality exceeds a predetermined threshold.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the formed connection topology is a daisy chain topology if the link quality does not exceed a predetermined threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

maintaining a hop count for nodes connected in the daisy chain topology, wherein whether a given node can be added to the daisy chain topology as an extra hop is further based on the hop count.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the backhaul, a configuration from the second node.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

causing the configuration from the second node to be pushed through the backhaul to a target node, wherein said causing is triggered by an initiation from a user.

12. A network device capable of establishing a backhaul communication among nodes in a mesh wireless network, the device including a network controller configured to perform operations comprising:

performing an attempt to utilize a first channel in a default frequency band as a backhaul with second node in the network, wherein the backhaul is to provide communication of management functions between the nodes in the network, as opposed to a front haul that provides wireless data communication to clients in the network; and

upon detecting that a received signal strength of the first channel from the second node is below a threshold, performing an attempt to utilize a different channel in the default frequency band and/or a different frequency band that has a lower frequency range than the default frequency band, to establish the backhaul with the second node,

wherein, in any of said attempts, channels in a given frequency band are prioritized based on a corresponding received signal strength.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein said attempts are performed on a first radio, the operations further comprising:

upon failure of all said attempts, performing an attempt to establish the backhaul with the second node utilizing a different radio.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein said different radio is the same radio as the front haul.

15. The device of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

measuring received signal strengths of probes from all nodes within a communication range; and

selecting the second node based on the measured received signal strengths of the probes.

16. The device of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

utilizing a spanning tree based protocol to avoid loops in said attempts.

17. The device of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

measuring a link quality among one or more of the nodes in the network; and

selectively causing a number of nodes in the network to form a particular connection topology based on the measured link quality.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the formed connection topology is a star topology if the link quality exceeds a predetermined threshold.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the formed connection topology is a daisy chain topology if the link quality does not exceed a predetermined threshold.

20. The device of claim 19, the operations further comprising:

maintaining a hop count for nodes connected in the daisy chain topology, wherein whether a given node can be added to the daisy chain topology as an extra hop is further based on the hop count.

21. The device of claim 12, the operations further comprising:

receiving, via the backhaul, a configuration from the second node.

22. The device of claim 21, the operations further comprising:

causing the configuration from the second node to be pushed through the backhaul to a target node, wherein said causing is triggered by an initiation from a user.