Method, Communication Device and System for Detecting Neighboring Nodes in a Wireless Multihop Network Using Ndp

• US 20070274232A1
• Filed: 06/14/2004
• Published: 11/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Axelsson, Leif, Riomar, Henrik
• Application Number:
  US11/547,605
• Publication Number:
  US 20070274232A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• 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 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/28 for reactive routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/30 for proactive routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/045 involving different protocol versions, e.g. MIPv4 and MIPv6

Abstract

A method is presented for neighbor discovery in a wireless multihop packet based communication network using Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) wherein the network is built up by client and/or server devices and/or infrastructure devices, network traffic is based on using NDP forwarding and rebroadcasting to locate devices in such a network architecture. The invention also includes devices for such a network and the complete communication system is described.

Claims

1. A method for detecting adjacent nodes, so called “

neighbor discovery”

in a wireless multihop data communication network using Internet Protocol (IP), and specially Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the method comprising the steps of;

broadcasting an neighbor discovery protocol (NDP) solicitation from a first network node (101) to a second node (102);

said second node (102) receiving said NDP solicitation determining the destination of said NDP solicitation;

transmitting said NDP solicitation if said NDP solicitation is determined to be destined to a third node (104); and

forwarding NDP advertisement from a said third node (104) to said first network node (101) via said second node(s) (102, 103).

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said second node (102, 103) comprises a plurality of nodes.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising arranging a pending list of stored detected previous NDP solicitations and NDP advertisement forwards in said nodes.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of limiting the storage time in the pending list of the stored previous NDP solicitations or NDP advertisement forwards.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of limiting the rate of NDP advertisement forwards a node are allowed to send to a specific destination.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of measuring link quality between nodes and distributing link quality information to nodes during NDP message procedures.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said link quality information comprises at least one of acknowledgement information, radio link quality, data rate throughput, and bit-error rate.

8. The method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of using said link quality information to determine when at least part of an routing and/or NDP Neighbor Cache table should be updated.

9. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising the step of comparing said link quality information with a threshold value in order to determine if an update is to be done.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein an NDP error message is generated and distributed to listening nodes in said network when a node cannot communicate with a certain node.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising modifying said NDP solicitation prior to rebroadcasting or forwarding said NDP solicitation.

12. A communication device (500) with routing means in a multihop wireless network using Internet Protocol (IP), especially IP version 6 (IPv6), said device comprising:

an instruction set memory (502);

at least one wireless transceiver (506);

means for providing neighbor discovery protocol (NDP) instructions in said instruction set memory; and

means for providing NDP message forwarding and rebroadcasting instructions in said instruction set memory.

13. The device (500) according to claim 12, wherein said means for NDP advertisement forwarding and NDP solicitation broadcasting include means for determining the destination of an NDP message.

14. The device (500) according to claim 12, wherein the communication device is a client system or server system.

15. The device (500) according to claim 14, wherein said client system may be one or several of laptop, personal computer (PC), personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile phone, or embedded computer.

16. The device (500) according to claim 12, wherein the communication device is an infrastructure system.

17. The device (500) according to claim 16, wherein said infrastructure system is one or several of WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) infrastructure devices, and mobile phone infrastructure devices.

18. The device (500) according to claim 12, wherein said NDP advertisement forwarding or NDP solicitation rebroadcasting instructions modify said NDP message to appear to originate from the device.

19. A system for multihop wireless data communication in a packet based network using Internet Protocol, and specially Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) said system comprising:

a plurality of communication devices (401, 402 . . . 408, 40n);

said communication devices comprising;

an instruction set memory (502);

at least one wireless transceiver (506);

means for providing neighbor discovery protocol (NDP) instructions in said instruction set memory; and

means for providing NDP advertisement forwarding and NDP solicitation rebroadcasting instructions in said instruction set memory; and

a communication network (410) built up by said communication devices.

20. The system according to claim 19 said communication device further comprising means for determining the destination of said NDP message.

21. The system according to claim 19, wherein said communication device is a client or server system.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein said client or server system may be one or several of laptop, personal computer (PC), workstation, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile phone, or embedded computer.

23. The system according to claim 19, wherein said communication device is an infrastructure system.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein said infrastructure system may be one or several of WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) infrastructure devices, and mobile phone infrastructure devices.

25. The system according to claim 19, further comprising at least one gateway connected to an external network.

26. An instruction set for “

neighbor discovery”

in a wireless multihop data communication network using Internet Protocol, and specially Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the instruction set comprising;

a first instruction set for broadcasting a neighbor discovery protocol (NDP) solicitation from a first network node to a second node;

a second instruction set in said second node for receiving said NDP solicitation determining the destination of said NDP message;

a third instruction set transmitting said NDP solicitation if said NDP solicitation is determined to be destined to a third node; and

a fourth instruction set for forwarding NDP advertisements from a said third node to said first network node via said second node(s).