Method and apparatus for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network

• US 20050237993A1
• Filed: 04/25/2005
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Hong, Jin-woo, Sung, Hyun-ah, Bae, Dae-gyu
• Granted Patent: US 7,349,413 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4616 LAN interconnection over a LAN backbone
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for communication between multiple coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a wired backbone network by means of a wired/wireless relay device. In the communication method, communication is performed between coordinator-based wireless networks in a network including the coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a wired backbone network by means of a combination of identification information of a network device and identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network including the network device.

Claims

1. A method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, comprising:

acquiring identification information of a second coordinator-based wireless network, including a destination network device, from a relay device connecting a first coordinator-based wireless network to a backbone network;

generating a frame containing the identification information; and

transmitting the generated frame to the relay device.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, and the header portion contains information regarding whether or not the destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network to which the destination network device belongs.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, the header portion contains information regarding whether or not the destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the frame body portion contains the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network including the destination network device.

4. A method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, comprising:

receiving a frame containing identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network from a relay device connecting the coordinator-based wireless network including the relay device to a backbone network;

extracting the identification information from the received frame; and

processing the received frame according to the extracted identification information.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, and the header portion contains information regarding whether or not the destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network including the destination network device.

6. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, the header portion contains information regarding whether or not the destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the frame body portion contains the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network including the destination network device.

7. A method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, comprising:

managing identification information of multiple coordinator-based wireless networks;

providing a network device with the identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network to which a destination network device belongs;

converting a frame containing the identification information, which has been received from the network device, to a frame supported by the backbone network; and

transmitting the converted frame to the backbone network.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the managing of the identification information comprises:

providing the backbone network with a packet containing the identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network within a predetermined period;

receiving a packet containing the identification information of another coordinator-based wireless network from the backbone network, extracting the identification information from the received packet, and updating the identification information; and

informing a coordinator in the coordinator-based wireless network of overlapping information when the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network overlaps with already managed identification information of said another coordinator-based wireless network.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the managing of the identification information comprises:

providing the backbone network with a packet containing the identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network within a predetermined period;

receiving a packet containing the identification information of another coordinator-based wireless network from the backbone network, extracting the identification information from the packet, and updating the identification information; and

informing a relay device in a corresponding coordinator-based wireless network of overlapping information when the identification information of the packet received from the backbone network overlaps with already managed identification information of said another coordinator-based wireless network.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising storing the frame received from the network device before transmitting the received frame to the backbone network.

11. A method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, comprising:

managing identification information of multiple coordinator-based wireless networks;

converting a frame containing the identification information received from a backbone network to a frame supported by a coordinator-based wireless network; and

transmitting the converted frame to a network device in the coordinator-based wireless network.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the managing of the identification information comprises:

providing the backbone network with a packet containing the identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network within a predetermined period;

receiving a packet containing the identification information of another coordinator-based wireless network from the backbone network, extracting the identification information from the received packet, and updating the identification information; and

informing a coordinator in the coordinator-based wireless network of overlapping information when the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network overlaps with already managed identification information of said another coordinator-based wireless network.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the managing of the identification information comprises:

providing the backbone network with a packet containing the identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network within a predetermined period;

receiving a packet containing the identification information of another coordinator-based wireless network from the backbone network, extracting the identification information from the received packet, and updating the identification information; and

informing a relay device in a corresponding coordinator-based wireless network of overlapping information when the identification information of the packet received from the backbone network overlaps with already managed identification information of said another coordinator-based wireless network.

14. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising storing the frame received from the backbone network before transmitting the received frame to the network device in the coordinator-based wireless network.

15. A network device comprising:

a control module for acquiring identification information of a second coordinator-based wireless network from a relay device connecting a first coordinator-based wireless network to a backbone network, the second coordinator-based wireless network including a destination network device, and generating a frame containing the identification information;

a transceiving module for transmitting the frame generated by the control module; and

a storage module for storing one of the frame generated by the control module and the frame received from the transceiving module.

16. The network device as claimed in claim 15, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, and the header portion contains information regarding whether or not the destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network to which the destination network device belongs.

17. The network device as claimed in claim 15, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, the header portion contains information regarding whether or not the destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the frame body portion contains the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network including the destination network device.

18. A network device comprising:

a transceiving module for receiving a frame containing identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network from a relay device connecting the coordinator-based wireless network to a backbone network;

a control module for extracting the identification information from the frame received from the transceiving module, and processing the frame according to the extracted identification information; and

a storage module for storing one of the frame received from the transceiving module and the frame processed by the control module.

19. The network device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, and the header portion contains information regarding whether or not a destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network including the destination network device.

20. The network device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the frame containing the identification information includes a frame body portion containing data to be transmitted and a header portion containing information about the data to be transmitted, the header portion contains information regarding whether or not a destination network device belongs to another coordinator-based wireless network, and the frame body portion contains the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network including the destination network device.

21. A relay device connecting a coordinator-based wireless network to a backbone network, comprising:

a transceiving module for providing a network device with identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network including a destination network device, receiving a frame containing the identification information from the network device, and transmitting the received frame to the backbone network;

a control module for managing the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network, and converting the frame of the coordinator-based wireless network, which contains the identification information and has been received from the transceiving module, to a frame supported by the backbone network; and

a storage module for storing at least one of the frame provided by the transceiving module, the frame converted by the control module, and the identification information managed by the control module.

22. A relay device connecting a coordinator-based wireless network to a backbone network, comprising:

a transceiving module for receiving a frame containing identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network including a destination network device from a backbone network, and transmitting the received frame to a network device;

a control module for managing the identification information of the coordinator-based wireless network, and converting the frame of the backbone network received from the transceiving module to a frame supported by the coordinator-based wireless network; and

a storage module for storing at least one of the frame provided by the transceiving module, the frame converted by the control module, and the identification information managed by the control module.

23. A computer readable recording medium storing a program for performing a method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, said method comprising:

acquiring identification information of a second coordinator-based wireless network, including a destination network device, from a relay device connecting a first coordinator-based wireless network to a backbone network;

generating a frame containing the identification information; and

transmitting the generated frame to the relay device.

24. A computer readable recording medium storing a program for performing a method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, said method comprising:

receiving a frame containing identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network from a relay device connecting the coordinator-based wireless network including the relay device to a backbone network;

extracting the identification information from the received frame; and

processing the received frame according to the extracted identification information.

25. A computer readable recording medium storing a program for performing a method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, said method comprising:

managing identification information of multiple coordinator-based wireless networks;

providing a network device with the identification information of a coordinator-based wireless network to which a destination network device belongs;

converting a frame containing the identification information, which has been received from the network device, to a frame supported by the backbone network; and

transmitting the converted frame to the backbone network.

26. A computer readable recording medium storing a program for performing a method for communicating between coordinator-based wireless networks connected through a backbone network, comprising:

managing identification information of multiple coordinator-based wireless networks;

converting a frame containing the identification information received from a backbone network to a frame supported by a coordinator-based wireless network; and

transmitting the converted frame to a network device in the coordinator-based wireless network.