Communications Meshes

• US 20070189191A1
• Filed: 04/19/2007
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stephen Ades
• Original Assignee: Stephen Ades
• Inventors: Ades, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 7,733,797 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0863 by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0866 Checking the configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Methods are disclosed for forming a network (1) of nodes (A-H) from a plurality of nodes (A-H) and a plurality of potential transmission links (2) between respective nodes (A-H). Methods are also disclosed for adapting an initial mesh communications network configuration to a final mesh communications network communications configuration. Methods are also disclosed such that at least some of the changes to the initial mesh communications network configuration that are required as part of the adaptation to the final mesh communications network configuration form a group of changes such that all of the changes within the group can occur substantially simultaneously. Various other methods useful in or to a mesh communications network (1) are also disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method of forming a network of nodes, the method comprising:

identifying an unconnected node, the unconnected node having a connection available to the network of nodes;

identifying all detectable transmission paths between the unconnected node and a destination node, each transmission path comprising a plurality of attribute values;

comparing an attribute value from each transmission path against a criterion;

selecting a transmission path with an attribute value matching the criterion; and

connecting the unconnected node with the destination node via the selected transmission path, the unconnected node now a connected node within the network of nodes.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

repeating the method of claim 1 for all detectable unconnected nodes until all detectable unconnected nodes are connected to any of a plurality of destination nodes within the network of nodes.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein comparing the attribute value from each transmission path against the criterion terminates when a first transmission path with the attribute value matching the criterion is found.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein connecting the unconnected node with the destination node via the selected transmission path further comprises:

communicatively connecting the unconnected node with a connection node, the connection node having an existing connection with the destination node within the network of nodes via one or more of the plurality of transmission paths.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the criterion comprises one of a plurality of criteria selected from the group of:

number of total links for the connection node, number of available links for the connection node, number of wireless transmission links available for the connection node, number of cabled transmission links available for the connection node, current bandwidth requirements for the connection node, bandwidth hops between the unconnected node and the destination node, bandwidth distance between the unconnected node and the destination node, data flow rate of the connection node, total distance of wireless transmission between the unconnected node and the connection node, number of previously used links in the selected transmission path, total currently committed data flow of the selected transmission path, number of wireless transmission links in the selected transmission path, expected data flow rate of the selected transmission path, total number of nodes between the unconnected node and the destination node along the selected transmission path, number of timeslots available at the connection node, number of antennas of the connection node, number of unused antennas of the connection node, and number of other connected nodes orphaned by connecting the unconnected node to the connection node.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

establishing an order of preference for the plurality of criteria; and

wherein comparing the attribute value of each transmission path against the criterion comprises;

comparing the attribute value of each transmission path against each criterion of a subset of the plurality of criteria in the order of preference.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein selecting the transmission path with the attribute value matching the criterion comprises:

selecting the transmission path comprising at least one attribute matching each criterion of the subset of the plurality of criteria.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

marking as potential transmission paths, each transmission path with an attribute value matching the criterion but not selected as the transmission path used for connecting the unconnected node.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmission paths comprise exclusively wireless nodes.

10. A method of generating a topology of a virtual network of nodes, the method comprising:

retrieving from a data-repository, all unconnected node representations, destination node representations, and transmission path representations of the virtual network of nodes;

identifying an unconnected node representation, the unconnected node representation having a virtual connection available to the virtual network of nodes;

identifying all transmission path representations between the unconnected node representation and a destination node representation, each transmission path representation comprising a plurality of attribute values;

comparing an attribute value from each transmission path representation against a criterion;

selecting a transmission path representation with an attribute value matching the criterion;

establishing a virtual connection between the unconnected node representation and the destination node representation via the selected transmission path representation, the unconnected node representation now a connected node representation within the virtual network of nodes; and

storing in a data-repository, a representation of the virtual network of nodes.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

repeating the method of claim 10 for all unconnected node representations until all unconnected node representations are virtually connected to any of a plurality of destination node representations within the virtual network of nodes.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

retrieving from the data-repository, the representation of the virtual network of nodes; and

applying the representation of the virtual network of nodes to a corresponding actual network of nodes.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein connecting the unconnected node representation with the destination node representation via the selected transmission path representation further comprises:

establishing a virtual communications connection between the unconnected node representation and a connection node representation, the connection node representation comprising an existing virtual connection with the destination node representation within the virtual network of nodes via one or more of the plurality of transmission path representations.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the criterion comprises one of a plurality of criteria selected from the group of:

number of total links for the connection node representation, number of available links for the connection node representation, number of wireless transmission links available for the connection node representation, number of cabled transmission links available for the connection node representation, current bandwidth requirements for the connection node representation, number of bandwidth hops between the unconnected node representation and the destination node representation, bandwidth distance between the unconnected node representation and the destination node representation, virtual data flow rate of the connection node representation, total virtual distance of virtual wireless transmission between the unconnected node representation and the connection node representation, number of previously used links in the selected transmission path representation, total currently committed data flow of the selected transmission path representation, number of virtual wireless transmission links in the selected transmission path representation, expected data flow rate of the selected transmission path representation, total number of node representations between the unconnected node representation and the destination node representation along the selected transmission path representation, number of virtual timeslots available at the connection node representation, number of virtual antennas of the connection node representation, number of unused virtual antennas of the connection node representation, and number of other connected node representations orphaned by virtually connecting the unconnected node representation with the connection node representation.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

establishing an order of preference for the plurality of criteria; and

wherein comparing the attribute value of each transmission path representation against the criterion comprises;

comparing the attribute value from each transmission path representation against each criterion of a subset of the plurality of criteria in the order of preference.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein selecting the transmission path representation whose attribute value matches the criterion comprises:

selecting the transmission path representation whose attribute value matches each of the criterion of the subset of the plurality of criteria.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

marking as potential transmission path representations, each transmission path representation with the attribute value matching the criterion but not selected as the transmission path representation used for virtually connecting the unconnected node representation.