DIRECTIONAL TOPOLOGY DISCOVERY 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 from a first direction;
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, first hop count, and first direction;
receiving, after the first data packet, a second data packet originating from a second downhole node from a second direction;
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, second hop count, and second direction; and
modifying the first entry in the event the second hop count matches the first hop count and the second direction matches the first direction.
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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, a hop count identifying a location of the node within the downhole network, and a direction identifier. The method may further include modifying one or more entries in the topology table having a conflicting hop count and direction identifier.
25 Citations
25 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 from a first direction; 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, first hop count, and first direction; receiving, after the first data packet, a second data packet originating from a second downhole node from a second direction; 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, second hop count, and second direction; and modifying the first entry in the event the second hop count matches the first hop count and the second direction matches the first direction. - 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 from a first direction; 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, first hop count, and first direction; receiving, after the first data packet, a second data packet originating from a second downhole node from a second direction; 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, second hop count, and second direction; and modifying the first entry in the event the second hop count matches the first hop count and the second direction matches the first direction. - 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, hop count, and direction identifier associated with a node; and the network topology table being further configured such that no two entries, representing active nodes, have the same hop count and direction identifier. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification