System and method to improve the network performance of a wireless communications network by finding an optimal route between a source and a destination

• US 20040252643A1
• Filed: 06/07/2004
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Strong Force IoT Portfolio 2016, LLC (Strong Force Intellectual Capital, LLC)
• Original Assignee: MeshNetworks, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Joshi, Avinash
• Granted Patent: US 7,280,483 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/127 based on intermediate node capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/46 in multi hop networks, e.g. wireless relay networks

Abstract

A system and method for calculating an optimal route at a node by making use of routing metrics which if carefully chosen, can provide stability to the network and also provide features like Self Healing and Load Balancing. A Routing metric is calculated as a scalar number based upon a number of factors, such as number of hops, data rate, link quality and device type. Each factor can be determined by evaluation of Hello messages, or other routing messages as required.

Claims

1. A method for calculating an optimal route between nodes in a wireless ad-hoc multi-hopping peer-to-peer communication network, the method comprising:

when one of the nodes acts as a source node and attempts to send a data packet to another one of the nodes which is a destination node which is not within direct communication with the source node, the source node transmits a route request message;

when other nodes receive the route request message, and one of those other nodes has a route to the destination nodes, that one of the nodes transmits a route reply message for delivery along a path including those other nodes, the route reply message including a route metric for the route between that one node and the destination node, and each of those other nodes, upon receipt of the route reply message, adds its respective route metric for a route between itself and the node from which it received the route reply message, before delivery of the route reply message to the source node; and

the source node transmits the data packet for delivery to the destination node based on the route reply message.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the routing metric to the destination included in the route reply message received by the source node further includes a bias component that is based on the type of next hop/neighbors in the route between the source node and destination node.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the source node and destination node are mobile nodes.