Distributed networking agent and method of making and using the smae

• US 20060072505A1
• Filed: 09/02/2005
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Dynamics C4 Systems Incorporated (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Dynamics C4 Systems Incorporated (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Stewart, Richard, Kelley, William, Stewart, Alan, Carrillo, Steve, Bristow, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,742,436 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/083 for increasing network speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/18 based on predicted events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/38 adapting due to varying relative distances between nodes

Abstract

The present invention relates to an agent for distributed networking and a processor-readable software code. The agent may include, for example, a cosite analyzer, an EMI sniffer, an asset controller module, an asset discovery module, and a link negotiator. The agent may be configured to initiate and optimize network configurations for radio communications systems based on parameters. The software code may receive data associated with a network plan, may determine if any planned links are included in the network plan and may establish connectivity of a confirmed link between at least two nodes in the network. Additionally, the software code may determine if a non-planned link should be added to the network and may establish connectivity for the non-planned link based on a priority associated with the non-planned link.

Claims

5. The processor-readable software code of clam 4, wherein the link priority is defined as:

α

*Separation Value β

*Link Utilization+δ

*COI+γ

*NeedLine+ε

*Role Priority, where α

, β

, δ

, γ

, ε

are associated with the network plan.

6. The processor-readable software code of claim 5, wherein priority is given to existing links at least in part by setting the separation value and Link Utilization of the new links to zero.

7. The processor-readable software code of claim 5, wherein priority is given to existing links at least in part by setting the Separation Value, Link Utilization, Needline, and Role Priority to zero.

9. A distributed networking agent comprising:

a cosite analyzer module configured to interface with an EMI sniffer to determine spectrum availability within a network;

an asset controller module configured to provide at least one of initialization and maintenance of network links based on spectrum availability;

an asset discovery module configured to detect the presence of a new node; and

a link negotiator module configured to determine whether to add an additional link to the network, whereby the distributed networking agent is configured to initiate and optimize network configurations for radio communication systems based on parameters.

1. Processor-readable software code stored on a processor-readable medium, the code comprising code to:

receive data associated with a network plan;

determine if the network plan includes any planned links;

establish connectivity for a confirmed planned link between at least two nodes within a network based on the network plan;

determine if a non-planned link should be added to the network based on the network plan; and

establish connectivity for the non-planned link, the non-planned link being associated with one of a mobile or static radio unit and the connectivity for the non-planned link being based on a priority associated with the non-planned link.

2. The processor-readable software code of claim 1, wherein the confirmed planned link is associated with a node outside of a control plane.

3. The processor-readable software code of claim 1, wherein determining whether a non-planned link should be added includes determining whether the non-planned link should be added based on a link priority.

4. The processor-readable software code of claim 3, wherein the link priority is based on the following equation:

Link Priority=β

*Old Link Priority+(1−

β

) New Link Priority, where β

is associated with the network plan.

8. The processor-readable software code of claim 1, wherein determining if a non-planned link should be added to the network based on a network plan includes determining if a lower priority link should be removed from the network.

10. The distributed networking agent of claim 9 wherein the cosite analyzer module is configured to generate an interference profile associated with a radio within the network.

11. The distributed networking agent of claim 9 wherein the EMI sniffer is configured to sample an available spectrum using antennas.

12. The distributed networking agent of claim 9 wherein the asset controller is configured to update a table based on one of an availability or unavailability of a network resource.

13. The distributed networking agent of claim 9 wherein the asset discovery module is configured to receive an asset discovery message from a remote node.

14. The distributed networking agent of claim 9 further comprising:

a healing module configured to run a healing algorithm, the healing algorithm being configured to connect at least two fragmented networks.

15. The distributed networking agent of claim 9, the distributed networking agent being configured to implement a defragment algorithm, the defragment algorithm being configured to analyze an existing network topology and determine if all discovered nodes are part of the existing network topology.

16. The distributed networking agent of claim 15, wherein the score is:

α

*Distance+β

*COI+δ

*Mobility value,

where α

, β and

δ

are predetermined values established by a network policy.

15-1. The distributed networking agent of claim 9 wherein the defragment algorithm is configured to calculate a score associated with a prospective link to a node not within a network fragment.

17. A method comprising:

receiving data associated with a network plan;

determining if the network plan includes any planned links;

establishing connectivity for a planned link between at least two nodes within a network based on the network plan;

determining if a non-planned link should be added to the network based on the network plan; and

establishing connectivity for the non-planned link, the non-planned link being associated with one of a mobile or static radio unit and the connectivity for the non-planned link being based on a priority associated with the non-planned link.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the planned link is associated with a node outside of a control plane.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein a number of planned links is substantially less than a number of non-planned links.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the planned links are preferred over the non-planned links.

19. The method of 17, wherein the step of determining whether a non-planned link should be added includes determining whether the non-planned link should be added based on a link priority.