Method and apparatus for providing network communicatiions

• US 20070030847A1
• Filed: 03/10/2006
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trilliant Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SkyPilot Networks Incorporated (Trilliant Networks Incorporated)
• Inventors: Cheng, Linker, Frei, Randall
• Granted Patent: US 7,697,516 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/04 Scheduled access hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method and apparatus for admitting an additional node into a communications network that uses a scheduled communications protocol. Specifically, the node detects the presence of a network, establishes a communication link with a node already present on the network using a unicast messaging protocol, and then communicates pre-admission information to the node on the network. After pre-admission is complete, the new node is admitted to the network.

Claims

1. A method for admitting a node to a network comprising:

while a first node is operating within a first network, performing pre-admission communications with a second node without interrupting the operation of the first node within the first network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the broadcast message comprises network and node parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the network and node parameters comprise a node identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-admission communication comprises:

listening for an advertising message from the first node; and

negotiating admission into the network using a unicast message that is transmitted from the second node to the first node.

2-1. The method of step 1 wherein the collecting step further comprises calculating a received signal strength from the at least one node on the mesh network.

3. The method of step 1 wherein the estimating step further comprises estimating the parameters of the data link using link capacity.

6. The method of step 1 further comprising transmitting pre-authentication information from the selected node on the mesh network to a mesh gateway.

7. The method of step 6, wherein the mesh gateway authenticates the node that seeks to join the mesh network.

8. Apparatus for providing network communication comprising:

means for listening for an identifying broadcast message from at least one node in a mesh network;

means for collecting an indicia of proximity from the at least one node;

means for selecting a node based upon the indicia of proximity;

means for estimating communication parameters of the selected node; and

means for negotiating admission into the network using a unicast message to the selected node.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the broadcast message comprises network and node parameters.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the network and node parameters comprise a node identifier.

9. The apparatus of step 8 wherein the collecting step further comprises calculating a received signal strength from the at least one node on the mesh network.

10. The apparatus of step 8 wherein the means for estimating estimates the parameters of the data link using link capacity.

13. The method of step 12 further comprising means for transmitting pre-authentication information from the selected node on the mesh network to a mesh gateway.

14. The method of step 13, wherein the mesh gateway authenticates the node that seeks to join the mesh network.

15. A network comprising:

a mesh gateway;

a plurality of nodes;

a first node seeking admission to the network, where the first node comprises;

means for listening for an identifying broadcast message from at least one node in a mesh network;

means for collecting an indicia of proximity from the at least one node;

means for selecting a node based upon the indicia of proximity;

means for estimating communication parameters of the selected node; and

means for negotiating admission into the network using a unicast message to the selected node.

18. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the broadcast message comprises network and node parameters.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the network and node parameters comprise a node identifier.

16. The apparatus of step 15 wherein the collecting step further comprises calculating a received signal strength from the at least one node on the mesh network.

17. The apparatus of step 16 wherein the means for estimating estimates the parameters of the data link using link capacity.

20. The method of step 19 further comprising means for transmitting pre-authentication information from the selected node on the mesh network to a mesh gateway.