Method for Enabling the Efficient Operation of Arbitrarily Interconnected Mesh Networks

• US 20080112422A1
• Filed: 01/16/2008
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FireTide Incorporated (UNICOM Global, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: FireTide Incorporated (UNICOM Global, Inc.)
• Inventors: Natarajan, Mohan, Jetcheva, Jorjeta, Kailas, Sivakumar
• Granted Patent: US 8,155,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/122 by minimising distances, e.g. by selecting a route with minimum of number of hops
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/124 using a combination of metrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/26 Route discovery packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/32 Flooding denial of service attacks H04L63/1458
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/74 Address processing for routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/246 Connectivity information discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Wireless mesh networks (or “meshes”) are enabled for arbitrary interconnection to each other and may provide varying levels of coverage and redundancy as desired. Interoperability between meshes having differing configurations, internal operations, or both, may be freely intermixed and inter-operated in unrestricted combination. Enhanced explicit inter-bridge control protocols operate using pre-existing control packets. Pre-existing broadcast packet floods are used to learn the best paths across interconnected meshes (termed a “multi-mesh”). Enhanced routing protocols operating within each mesh may optionally examine information limited to the respective mesh when forwarding traffic, thus enabling robust multi-mesh scaling with respect to memory and processing time required by the routing protocols. Communication scalability is improved by enabling frequency diversity across the multi-mesh by configuring meshes within interference range of each other for operation at a plurality of frequencies. Each mesh may operate at a respective non-interfering frequency.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

operating first and second wireless mesh networks as a multi-mesh network by passing packets between the wireless mesh networks;

forwarding packets according to efficient routes based at least in part on route cost information;

wherein the operating comprises managing first and second mesh bridge nodes associated with the first and the second wireless mesh networks respectively; and

wherein the for forwarding packets comprises accumulating the route cost information at least in part during the passing.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising eliminating redundant broadcast packet flooding within each respective wireless mesh network.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the eliminating redundant broadcast packet flooding is based in part on identifiers assigned to respective ones of at least some of the packets, each respective identifier comprising a respective first portion and a respective second portion, the respective first portion uniquely identifying a respective entry point of the respective packet into the multi-mesh network, and the respective second portion uniquely identifying each respective packet in a context of the respective entry point.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the identifiers are comprised in pre-existing control packets.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the identifiers are comprised in pre-existing data packets.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising preventing forwarding loops between the wireless mesh networks.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the preventing forwarding loops is based in part on identifiers assigned to respective ones of at least some of the packets, each respective identifier comprising a respective first portion and a respective second portion, the respective first portion uniquely identifying a respective entry point of the respective packet into the multi-mesh network, and the respective second portion uniquely identifying each respective packet in a context of the respective entry point.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifiers are comprised in preexisting control packets.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifiers are comprised in pre-existing data packets.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding packets comprises accumulating the route cost information at least in part during bridge link traversal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwarding packets comprises accumulating the route cost information at least in part during traversal of at least one of the wireless mesh networks.

12. A system comprising:

a plurality of wireless mesh networks;

a plurality of bridge links coupling respective pairs of the wireless mesh networks via respective mesh bridge nodes such that each of the wireless mesh networks is coupled to at least one of the bridge links;

wherein the bridge links enable passing of packets between the wireless mesh networks; and

wherein at least a portion of the packets are forwarded according to efficient routes based at least in part on route cost information accumulated at least in part during the passing.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein redundant broadcast packet flooding is eliminated within each respective wireless mesh network.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the eliminating of redundant broadcast packet flooding is based in part on identifiers assigned to respective ones of at least some of the packets, each respective identifier comprising a respective first portion and a respective second portion, the respective first portion uniquely identifying a respective entry point of the respective packet into one of the wireless mesh networks, and the respective second portion uniquely identifying each respective packet in a context of the respective entry point.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the identifiers are comprised in pre-existing control packets.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the identifiers are comprised in pre-existing data packets.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein forwarding loops between the wireless mesh networks are prevented.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the preventing of forwarding loops is based in part on identifiers assigned to respective ones of at least some of the packets, each respective identifier comprising a respective first portion and a respective second portion, the respective first portion uniquely identifying a respective entry point of the respective packet into one of the wireless mesh networks, and the respective second portion uniquely identifying each respective packet in a context of the respective entry point.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the identifiers are comprised in pre-existing control packets.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the identifiers are comprised in pre-existing data packets.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the forwarding is based in part on accumulating the route cost information at least in part during traversal of one of the bridge-links.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the forwarding is based in part on accumulating the route cost information at least in part during traversal of at least one of the wireless mesh networks.

23. The system of claim 12, wherein the route cost information is communicated in pre-existing control packets.