Determining associations in a mesh network

• US 20090180396A1
• Filed: 01/11/2008
• Published: 07/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ruckus IP Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Ruckus Wireless, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kish, William S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,355,343 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0823 characterised by the purposes of a change of settings, e.g. optimising configuration for enhancing reliability for optimising operational conditions of wireless networks H04W24/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/125 based on throughput or bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/22 using selective relaying for reaching a BTS [Base Transceiver Station] or an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/246 Connectivity information discovery

Abstract

Determining associations in wireless mesh networks are provided. In a mesh network that includes a wired border node and multiple wireless nodes, each wireless node advertises a backhaul throughput approximating the throughput between that wireless node and the wired border node. Using the advertised backhaul throughput information and the stored local throughput information, a receiving node determines a node association from among various candidate nodes.

Claims

1. A method for determining associations in a mesh network, the method comprising:

storing information concerning local throughputs, each local throughput approximating a throughput between a first node and a node from a plurality of candidate nodes in the network;

receiving information concerning backhaul throughput from one or more candidate nodes in the network, each backhaul throughput approximating a throughput between a node from the one or more candidate nodes and a wired border node in the network;

determining an uplink throughput for each of the one or more candidate nodes in the network, each uplink throughput being based on at least the stored local throughput and the backhaul throughput associated with each candidate node in the network; and

connecting the first node to a second node, the second node selected from the plurality of candidate nodes in the network based on at least an uplink throughput determined for the second node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the local throughputs between the first node and each of the plurality of other nodes in the network.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a data table including throughput information associated with the plurality of other nodes in the network and sorting the data table by ranking the uplink throughputs associated with the plurality of other nodes in the network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the uplink throughput associated with the second node is the greatest uplink throughput among the uplink throughputs associated with the plurality of other nodes in the network.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving updated backhaul throughputs from the plurality of nodes in the network.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising disconnecting the first node from the second node and connecting the first node to a third node based on an uplink throughput of the third node exceeding the uplink throughput of the second node by a threshold amount.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting the first node to the second node is further based on heuristics.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the first node broadcasting the uplink throughput associated with the second node as the backhaul throughput of the first node to the other nodes in the network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining an uplink throughput includes the formula 1/(1/local throughput+1/backhaul throughput).

10. An apparatus for determining associations in a mesh network, the apparatus comprising:

a data table configured to store estimated throughput information concerning one or more of a plurality of nodes in the network;

a processor configured to identify a node from the plurality of nodes for establishing a wireless connection based on at least the estimated throughput information maintained in the data table; and

an antenna configured to wirelessly connect the identified node.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the antenna is further configured to receive the estimated throughput information from the one or more of the plurality of nodes in the network.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the antenna is further configured to receive updated estimated throughput information from the one or more of the plurality of nodes in the network.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the data table is further configured to receive updates concerning the estimated throughput information associated with the plurality of nodes in the network.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the antenna is further configured to broadcast estimated throughput to other nodes from the plurality of nodes in the network.

15. A mesh network system, comprising

a wired border node configured to act as a gateway between a wired network and a plurality of wireless nodes;

and

a first wireless node configured to;

store information concerning local throughputs, each local throughput approximating a throughput between the first node and a candidate node from a plurality of candidate nodes, the plurality of candidate nodes including the border node and one or more of the plurality of other wireless nodes,

receive backhaul throughputs from one or more candidate nodes, each backhaul throughput approximating a throughput between a candidate node from the one or more candidate nodes and the wired border node,

determine an uplink throughput for the one or more candidate nodes based on at least the stored local throughout and the backhaul throughput received from the one or more candidate nodes, and

wirelessly connect to a candidate node based on at least the uplink throughput determined for the candidate node.

16. The mesh network system of claim 15, wherein the wireless node is further configured to be able to connect to one candidate node only.

17. The mesh network system of claim 15, further comprising the plurality of other wireless nodes.

18. The mesh network system of claim 15, wherein a set of wireless nodes from the plurality of wireless nodes automatically connects to the wired border node.

19. A computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a computer processor to perform a method for determining associations in a wireless network comprising:

storing information concerning local throughputs, each local throughput approximating a throughput between a first node and a node from a plurality of candidate nodes in the network;

receiving information concerning backhaul throughput from one or more candidate nodes in the network, each backhaul throughput approximating a throughput between a node from the one or more candidate nodes and a wired border node in the network;

determining an uplink throughput for each of the one or more candidate nodes in the network, each uplink throughput being based on at least the stored local throughput and the backhaul throughput associated with each candidate node in the network; and

connecting the first node to a second node, the second node selected from the plurality of candidate nodes in the network based on at least an uplink throughput determined for the second node.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising executable instructions for:

receiving updated throughput information;

disconnecting the first node from the second node; and

connecting the first node to a third node based on an updated uplink throughput of the third node exceeding an updated uplink throughput of the second node by a threshold amount.