System and method to facilitate the use of multiple radios to increase the capacity of a wireless communication network

• US 20070127386A1
• Filed: 12/07/2005
• Published: 06/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ruckus IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: MeshNetworks, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramachandran, Shyamal, Joshi, Avinash
• Granted Patent: US 8,787,350 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• 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 40/22 using selective relaying for reaching a BTS [Base Transceiver Station] or an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/30 for proactive routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A system and method for increasing the capacity of a wireless network (100, 300) including a plurality of access points (APs) (106, 305) and a plurality of nodes (200), at least one of said nodes (200) and at least one of said APs (106, 305) including multiple radios (310), the method comprising: (i) determining the routing metrics to one of said APs through each radio interface that is common between one of the nodes and that AP; (ii) selecting the radio interface whose routing metrics meet a desired criteria for packet stream transmission between the at least one node and the AP; and (iii) transmitting at least one packet stream from the node to the AP through the selected radio interface.

Claims

1. A method for operation of a wireless communication network comprising the steps of:

communicatively coupling an origination node to each of a plurality of neighboring nodes through at least one radio interface;

at each of the plurality of neighboring nodes;

calculating a routing metric to the origination node for each radio interface commonly coupled between the neighboring node and the origination node; and

selecting a communication route from the calculated routing metrics.

2. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 1, wherein the routing metric is selected from a group of metrics comprising a queue size, a congestion on the air-interface, an interference, a data rate, a packet completion rate, and a scheme implemented by the network provider to use specific radios for specific tasks.

3. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

sending a message on one or more radio interfaces from the origination node to the plurality of neighbor nodes prior to the calculating step.

4. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 3, wherein the sent message comprises an advertisement setting each of the routing metrics to zero.

5. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of nodes initiates the calculating step in response to receiving the message from the origination node.

6. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 1, wherein the selecting step further comprises:

selecting a neighboring node for communication with the origination node.

7. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 1, further comprising, prior to the selecting step, the step of:

tabulating the calculated routing metrics in a priority list, and

wherein the selecting step comprises selecting the communication route from the priority list.

8. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 7, wherein the priority list comprises a sorted list of each of the plurality of neighboring nodes along with a routing metric for each associated radio interface communicatively coupled to at least one other network node.

9. A method of operation of a wireless communication network as claimed in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

sending a route request message to the origination node through the selected communication route.

10. A wireless communication network comprising:

an origination node communicatively coupled to and interfacing with a plurality of radios;

a plurality of nodes, wherein each node is communicatively coupled to and interfacing with at least one of the plurality of radios; and

a routing engine adapted to;

calculate a routing metric to the origination node for each radio interface of each of the plurality of nodes commonly coupled between the node and the origination node; and

select a communication route and a communication node pair from the calculated routing metrics.

11. A wireless communication network as claimed in claim 10, wherein the routing metric is selected from a group of metrics comprising a queue size, a congestion on the air-interface, an interference, a data rate, a packet completion rate, and a scheme implemented by the network provider to use specific radios for specific tasks.

12. A wireless communication network as claimed in claim 10, wherein the origination node is an Intelligent Access Point.

13. A wireless communication network as claimed in claim 10, wherein the origination node further comprises a transmitter for transmitting a message on one or more radio interfaces to the plurality of nodes indicating a communication requirement.

14. A wireless communication network as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

a memory coupled to the routing engine for storing a priority list of the calculated routing metrics.

15. A wireless communication network as claimed in claim 14, wherein the priority list comprises a sorted list of each of the plurality of neighboring nodes along with a routing metric for each associated radio interface communicatively coupled to at least one other network node.

16. A method for increasing the capacity of a wireless network including a plurality of access points (APs) and a plurality of nodes, at least one of said nodes and at least one of said APs including multiple radios, the method comprising:

(i) determining the routing metrics to one of said APs through each radio interface that is common between one of the nodes and that AP;

(ii) selecting the radio interface whose routing metrics meet a desired criteria for packet stream transmission between the at least one node and the AP; and

(iii) transmitting at least one packet stream from the node to the AP through the selected radio interface.

17. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the determining step includes a receiving by the node of a broadcast message from the AP on each of the radio interfaces that is common to the node and the AP.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the broadcast message received by the at least one node comprises information pertaining to the amount of bandwidth available for packet stream transmission over each of the radio interfaces that is common to the node and the AP.

19. A method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:

controlling the node to tabulate the routing metrics for each radio interface in a priority list.

20. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the node comprises a routing engine which supports multiple radio interfaces and which utilizes layer 2 routing.

21. A method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the node selects a different radio interface for the transmission of each different packet stream.

22. A method of operation of a wireless communication network comprising the steps of:

communicatively coupling a source node to each of a plurality of neighboring nodes through at least one radio interface;

calculating a routing metric to the source node for each of the plurality of neighboring nodes using a quantity of associated radios; and

selecting a communication route from the calculated routing metrics.

23. A method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the calculating step further includes calculating the routing metric using one or more parameters selected from a group comprising number of hops, throughput, and packet completion rate.

24. A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein the calculating step further includes calculating the routing metric using a data rate and a load associated with each of the associated radios.