TOPOLOGY MAINTENANCE AND DISCOVERY FACILITY FOR DOWNHOLE NETWORKS
First Claim
1. A method to discover and monitor a collection of nodes in a downhole:
- network, the method comprising;
receiving a first data packet originating from a first downhole node;
reading, from the first packet, a first unique identifier and a first hop count associated with the first downhole node;
creating a first entry in a network topology table corresponding to the first downhole node and storing the first unique identifier and the first hop count;
receiving, after the first data packet, a second data packet originating from a second downhole node;
reading, from the second packet, a second unique identifier and a second hop count associated with the second downhole node;
creating a second entry in the network topology table corresponding to the second downhole node and storing the second unique identifier and the second hop count; and
modifying the first entry in the event the second hop count conflicts with the first hop count.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for discovering and monitoring a collection of nodes in a downhole network may include receiving data packets originating from several downhole nodes. These packets may be read to extract a unique identifier and hop count for each of the nodes. This information may then be used to create entries in a network topology table corresponding to each of the downhole nodes. Each entry may contain unique identifier identifying the respective node and a hop count identifying a location of the node within the downhole network. The apparatus and method may further include modifying one or more entries in the topology table having conflicting hop counts to ensure that the hop counts of each entry are unique.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method to discover and monitor a collection of nodes in a downhole:
- network, the method comprising;
receiving a first data packet originating from a first downhole node; reading, from the first packet, a first unique identifier and a first hop count associated with the first downhole node; creating a first entry in a network topology table corresponding to the first downhole node and storing the first unique identifier and the first hop count; receiving, after the first data packet, a second data packet originating from a second downhole node; reading, from the second packet, a second unique identifier and a second hop count associated with the second downhole node; creating a second entry in the network topology table corresponding to the second downhole node and storing the second unique identifier and the second hop count; and modifying the first entry in the event the second hop count conflicts with the first hop count. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- network, the method comprising;
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11. A computer-readable medium storing a program of computer-executable instructions to perform operations to discover and monitor a collection of nodes in a downhole network, the operations comprising:
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receiving a first data packet originating from a first downhole node; reading, from the first packet, a first unique identifier and a first hop count associated with the first downhole node; creating a first entry in a network topology table corresponding to the first downhole node and storing the first unique identifier and the first hop count; receiving, after the first data packet, a second data packet originating from a second downhole node; reading, from the second packet, a second unique identifier and a second hop count associated with the second downhole node; creating a second entry in the network topology table corresponding to the second downhole node and storing the second unique identifier and the second hop count; and modifying the first entry in the event the second hop count conflicts with the first hop count. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. An apparatus to discover and monitor a collection of nodes in a downhole network, the apparatus comprising a machine-readable medium storing executable and operational data structures, the data structures comprising:
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a network topology table maintained to monitor a plurality of nodes in a downhole network, the network topology table comprising a plurality of entries, each entry storing a unique identifier identifying a node and hop count associated with the node; and the network topology table being further configured such that no two entries, representing active nodes, have the same hop count. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A system comprising:
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a downhole network comprising a plurality of network nodes positioned along a drill string; a network topology table maintained to monitor the plurality of network nodes, the network topology table storing an operating status associated with at least one of the network nodes; and the network topology table further configured to designate whether the operating status is at least one of expected and unexpected. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method comprising:
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providing a downhole network comprising a plurality of network nodes positioned along a drill string; monitoring an operating status associated with at least one of the network nodes; and designating whether the operating status is at least one of expected and unexpected. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification