System and Method for Transparent Wireless Bridging of Communication Channel Segments
First Claim
1. A technical system for bridging a first communication channel with a second communication channel over a communication network, the system comprising:
- two or more bridge devices, each bridge device communicatively coupled with one or more network devices via a respective communication channel;
a communication network communicatively coupling the two or more bridge devices;
an address table stored at each of the two or more bridge devices, the address tables being substantially the same and comprising a plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises a media access control address and an internet protocol address, wherein the media access control address in a first pair is for a network device and the internet protocol address in the first pair is for a bridge device;
wherein a communication received by a bridge device from a network device on a communication channel comprises a target network device media access control address and the communication is sent by the bridge device over the communication network to the internet protocol address paired with the media access control address in the address table.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods for transparent wireless bridging of communication channels are provided. A plurality of wireless bridge devices are each deployed on a wired communication channel segment and listen for traffic to build a table of MAC addresses for the network devices on each respective segment. The bridges also collectively form a wireless mesh network and publish the MAC addresses on the wireless mesh network so each bridge receives MAC address information for every segment. Accordingly, a sending device on a first segment sends a communication to a target device on a second segment. The respective first bridge passes the communication along through the wireless mesh network to the respective second bridge and the first bridge also sends an acknowledgement to the sending device on behalf of the target device. This proxy acknowledgement allows the wireless bridge system to account for potential latency over the wireless mesh network while at the same time complying with latency requirements and meeting or exceeding the overall round-trip time for network communications.
130 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A technical system for bridging a first communication channel with a second communication channel over a communication network, the system comprising:
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two or more bridge devices, each bridge device communicatively coupled with one or more network devices via a respective communication channel;
a communication network communicatively coupling the two or more bridge devices;
an address table stored at each of the two or more bridge devices, the address tables being substantially the same and comprising a plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises a media access control address and an internet protocol address, wherein the media access control address in a first pair is for a network device and the internet protocol address in the first pair is for a bridge device;
wherein a communication received by a bridge device from a network device on a communication channel comprises a target network device media access control address and the communication is sent by the bridge device over the communication network to the internet protocol address paired with the media access control address in the address table. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer implemented method for bridging a first communication channel having one or more network devices and a bridge device with a second communication channel having one or more network devices and a bridge device, the bridge devices communicatively coupled over a communication network, the method comprising:
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receiving a communication at a bridge device on a first communication channel, the communication from a sending network device on the first communication channel and destined for a target network device on a second communication channel;
parsing the communication to obtain a media access control address for the target network device;
identifying an internet protocol address in an address table, wherein the internet protocol address corresponds to the media access control address for the target network device and the internet protocol address identifies a device other than the target network device;
sending the communication to the internet protocol address via the communication network; and
sending a response from the bridge device to the sending network device to avoid a timeout occurring for the communication from the sending network device. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a data structure for use in bridging a first communication channel having one or more devices with a second communication channel having one or more devices, wherein the bridge comprises a communication network, the data structure comprising:
a plurality of address pairings, wherein a first address in an address pair comprises a media access control address for a first device on a communication channel and a second address in the address pair comprises an internet protocol address for a second device on the communication channel. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
Specification