System and method for automatically segmenting and merging routing domains within networks

• US 20080175257A1
• Filed: 01/24/2007
• Published: 07/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eaton Intelligent Power Limited (Eaton Corporation PLC.)
• Original Assignee: Cooper Technologies Company (Eaton Corporation PLC.)
• Inventors: Winter, Timothy Clark, Chakravarthi, Prakash, Anand, Minakshisundaran Balasubramanian
• Granted Patent: US 8,295,295 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/04 Interdomain routing, e.g. hierarchical routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update

Abstract

A system and a method for automatically segmenting and merging routing domains within a network. The system includes one or more gateway devices and a plurality of nodes segmented into one or more routing domains. Each of said plurality of nodes maintains a single gateway device from among said plurality of gateway devices as the node'"'"'s primary gateway at any time. Each of said gateway devices possesses a gateway color attribute. Each of said plurality of nodes maintains a node color attribute value whose value is derived from the value of said gateway color attribute of then node'"'"'s primary gateway. Each node'"'"'s routing domain is determined by the node'"'"'s color attribute value.

Claims

1. A system for automatically segmenting and merging routing domains within a network, comprising:

one or more gateway devices; and

a plurality of nodes segmented into one or more routing domains in which;

each of said plurality of nodes maintains a single gateway device from among said plurality of gateway devices as the node'"'"'s primary gateway at any time;

each of said gateway devices possesses a gateway color attribute;

each of said plurality of nodes maintains a node color attribute value whose value is derived from the value of said gateway color attribute of the node'"'"'s primary gateway; and

each node'"'"'s routing domain is determined by the node'"'"'s color attribute value.

2. The system of claim 1 in which said node color attribute value in each of said plurality of nodes is equal to the value the said gateway color attribute of the primary gateway of that node.

3. The system of claim 1 in which the value of the said gateway color attribute is unique for each gateway.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of routing tables, in which each of said plurality of nodes maintains a routing table containing only entries that describe paths to destination nodes whose node color attribute value is equal to or otherwise related to each node'"'"'s node color attribute value.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of routing tables, in which each of said gateway devices maintains a routing table containing only entries that describe paths to destination nodes whose node color attribute value is equal to or otherwise related to each gateway devices'"'"' gateway color attribute value.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of routing tables, in which each of said plurality of nodes maintains a routing table containing only entries that describe paths to a gateway device.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of routing tables, in which each of said plurality of nodes maintains a routing table containing only entries that describe a path to a destination node or gateway device with whom direct communication is possible.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of routing tables, in which each of said plurality of nodes maintains a routing table containing only entries that describe paths to each node'"'"'s primary gateway.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of routing tables, in which each of said gateway devices maintains a routing table containing only entries that describe paths to a gateway device.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a plurality of routing tables, in which each of said gateway devices maintains a routing table containing only entries that describe a path to a destination node or gateway device with whom direct communication is possible.

11. The system of claim 1 in which the one or more gateway devices and plurality of nodes segmented into one or more routing domains form a first network.

12. The system of claim 11 in which said gateway devices are operative for communicating in the first network as well as in a second network.

13. The system of claim 11 in which the one or more routing domains are sub-networks of the first network.

14. The system of claim 1 in which one or more of said one or more gateway devices are specially designated nodes operatively equivalent to other nodes except that the specially designated nodes include different gateway color attributes.

15. A method for automatically segmenting and merging routing domains within a network, in which the network includes one or more gateway devices and a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:

providing a local routing table at each of said nodes and gateway devices;

providing a gateway color attribute in each gateway device;

setting the gateway color attribute in each gateway device to a value;

each of said nodes selecting a gateway device as said node'"'"'s primary gateway; and

each of said nodes setting a node color attribute whose value is derived from the value of the gateway color attribute of said node'"'"'s primary gateway.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

each of said nodes obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in said node'"'"'s vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes whose node color attribute value is not related to said node'"'"'s own node color attribute value.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

each of said gateway devices obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in the vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes whose node color attribute value is not related to said gateway'"'"'s gateway color attribute value.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising each of said nodes obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in said node'"'"'s vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes which are not directly communicable with said node and whose node color attribute value is not equal to or otherwise related to said node'"'"'s node color attribute value.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising each of said gateway devices obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in said gateway device'"'"'s vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes which are not directly communicable with said gateway device and whose node color attribute value is not equal to or otherwise related to said gateway device'"'"'s gateway color attribute value.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising each of said nodes and gateway devices obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in said node'"'"'s and said gateway device'"'"'s vicinity and maintaining routing information describing each such gateway device destination.

21. The method of claim 15 in which said setting the gateway color attribute in each gateway device to a value comprises setting the gateway color attribute in each gateway device to a unique value.

22. The method of claim 15 in which said setting of said gateway color attribute for each gateway occurs at the time of manufacture of the gateway devices.

23. The method of claim 15 in which said setting of said gateway color attribute for each gateway is performed manually in an operating network.

24. The method of claim 15 in which said setting of said gateway color attribute for each gateway is performed automatically by each gateway device.

25. The method of claim 15 further comprising a node:

changing the node'"'"'s selection of primary gateway from a first primary gateway to a second primary gateway;

deriving the node'"'"'s node color attribute value from the value of the gateway color attribute of the second primary gateway,

examining the node'"'"'s local routing table and performing an action on each entry in the node'"'"'s local routing table describing a path to a destination node whose node color attribute value is not related to the node'"'"'s own node color attribute value.

26. A method for dynamically segmenting a network into multiple sub-networks or routing domains, in which the network includes one or more gateway devices and a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:

providing a local routing table at each of said nodes and gateway devices;

providing a gateway color attribute in each gateway device;

setting the gateway color attribute in each gateway device to a value;

each of said nodes selecting a gateway device as its primary gateway;

each of said nodes setting a node color attribute whose value is equal to the value of the gateway color attribute of its primary gateway;

each of said nodes obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in the vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes whose node color attribute value is not equal to its own node color attribute value; and

each of said gateway devices obtaining routing information from other nodes and gateway devices in the vicinity and discarding routing information describing destination nodes whose node color attribute value is not equal to its own gateway color attribute value.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising a node:

changing the node'"'"'s selection of primary gateway from a first primary gateway to a second primary gateway;

setting the node'"'"'s node color attribute value equal the gateway color attribute of the second primary gateway;

examining the node'"'"'s local routing table and performing an action on each entry in the node'"'"'s local routing table describing a path to a destination node whose node color attribute value is not equal or not related to the node'"'"'s own node color attribute value.

28. The method of claim 27 in which said action performed by the node on each entry in the node'"'"'s local routing table describing a path to a destination node whose node color attribute value is not related to the node'"'"'s node color attribute value comprises deleting that entry.

29. The method of claim 27 in which said action performed by the node on each entry in the node'"'"'s local routing table describing a path to a destination node whose node color attribute value is not equal to the node'"'"'s node color attribute value comprises deleting that entry.

30. The method of claim 27 in which said action performed by the node on each entry in the node'"'"'s local routing table describing a path to a destination node whose node color attribute value is not related to the node'"'"'s node color attribute value comprises marking that entry for deletion at a later time.

31. The method of claim 27 in which said action performed by the node on each entry in the node'"'"'s local routing table describing a path to a destination node whose node color attribute value is not equal to the node'"'"'s node color attribute value comprises marking that entry for deletion at a later time.

32. The method of claim 27 in which said node changing the node'"'"'s selection of primary gateway is performed by said node by considering one or more of a plurality factors including one or more of the following:

the total number of other nodes whose primary gateway is the first primary gateway;

the total number of other nodes whose primary gateway is the second primary gateway;

the total amount of data traffic flowing into the first primary gateway;

the total amount of traffic flowing into the second primary gateway;

the quality of the wireless links in the path to the first primary gateway;

the quality of the wireless links in the path to the second primary gateway;

the number of hops to the first primary gateway; and

the number of hops to the second primary gateway.