Network with prioritized data transmission between sub-networks

• US 20040133620A1
• Filed: 11/04/2003
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Habetha, Joerg
• Application Number:
  US10/476,803
• Publication Number:
  US 20040133620A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/569 of the traffic information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

The invention relates to a network with several sub-networks (1,2,3) which each comprise a controller for controlling the sub-network and which can each be connected via bridge terminals (4,5). To make the data passage through a bridge terminal as efficient as possible, the traffic passed by this terminal is either prioritized by the relevant controllers, or a fixed capacity is reserved for the transmitted data in the relevant sub-networks.

Claims

1. A network with a plurality of sub-networks which each comprise a controller for controlling a sub-network and which can be interconnected by means of respective bridge terminals, wherein a higher priority is given to the links between the sub-networks than to the links within a sub-network.

2. A network as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the links are each allocated a basic priority in dependence on the nature of the data to be transmitted over the respective link, and in that the priority of the link is increased if it is a link between two sub-networks.

3. A network as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that, each time at the start of participation of a bridge terminal in a sub-network, links from this sub-network to some other sub-network of the same or a similar basic priority connected to the bridge terminal are joined together, and in that a fixed, common transmission capacity is allocated to the joined-together links for the duration of participation in the sub-network.

7. A network as claimed in claim 1 or 4, characterized in that the network is a network in accordance with the HIPERLAN/2 standard.

8. A network as claimed in claim 1 or 4, characterized in that the bridge terminal chooses its duration of participation in the sub-networks taking part in a connection in dependence on the nature of the data to be transmitted.

9. A network as claimed in claim 1 or 4, characterized in that the bridge terminal always remains in the target sub-network during at least two MAC (Medium Access Control) frames.

4. A network with a plurality of sub-networks, which each comprise a controller for controlling a sub-network and which can be interconnected by means of respective bridge terminals, wherein a fixed transmission capacity is assigned to the links between the sub-networks.

5. A network as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the mechanisms of Fixed Capacity Agreement (FCA) or Fixed Slot Allocation (FSA) are provided for the allocation of the fixed transmission capacity.

6. A network as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that a basic priority is assigned to the links in dependence on the nature of the data to be transmitted over the respective link, and links with the same or a similar basic priority are joined together, and a fixed common transmission capacity is allocated to the joined-together links.

10. Method to control a network with a plurality of sub-networks which can be interconnected by means of respective bridge terminals,

wherein a higher priority is given to the lins between the sub-networks than to the links within a sub-network or

wherein a fixed transmission capacity is assigend to the links between the sub-networks.

11. Controller to control a sub-network which can be interconnected by means of respective bridge terminals with at least another sub-network, wherein by the controller

a higher priority is given to the links between the sub-networks than to the links within a sub-network or

a fixed transmission capacity is assigned to the links between the sub-networks.