IP ASSIGNMENT SCHEME FOR DYNAMIC PEER-TO-PEER NETWORKS
First Claim
1. A method for configuring a local station to communicate with one or more peer stations via a wireless network, the method comprising:
- receiving a message from a peer station;
parsing the received message to retrieve a peer station information element, the peer station information element including a peer station network address and a peer station bitmap that indicates at least one of allocated and unallocated network addresses within a set of network addresses;
selecting a first portion of a local station network address for the local station based on the peer station network address; and
selecting a second portion of the local station network address for the local station corresponding to a network address indicated as unallocated in the peer station bitmap.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An approach for assigning IP network addresses and for performing name resolution and service discovery in infrastructure mode and/or ad-hoc mode peer-to-peer networks. The size of an ad-hoc network and/or the size of infrastructure network basic service sets may be limited to a selected number of peer stations. A first portion of an IP network address assigned to stations joining a network may be predetermined by the network to be joined and a second portion of the IP network address may be selected dynamically, as each new station joins the network. Stations may generate layer 2 messages that include an information element containing information that supports peer-to-peer service discovery, name resolution and IP network address assignment across multiple ad-hoc and infrastructure networks. A peer-to-peer station may dynamically connect to available ad-hoc or infrastructure networks to access required services, as needed.
84 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for configuring a local station to communicate with one or more peer stations via a wireless network, the method comprising:
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receiving a message from a peer station; parsing the received message to retrieve a peer station information element, the peer station information element including a peer station network address and a peer station bitmap that indicates at least one of allocated and unallocated network addresses within a set of network addresses; selecting a first portion of a local station network address for the local station based on the peer station network address; and selecting a second portion of the local station network address for the local station corresponding to a network address indicated as unallocated in the peer station bitmap. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of performing auto-configuration and service discovery in a network, comprising:
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receiving at a local station a message from a peer station; parsing the message to retrieve an incoming peer station information element, the peer station information element including; a peer station network address allocated by the peer station; a peer station timestamp with information indicating a time at which the peer station network address was allocated by the peer station; a peer station universally unique identifier (UUID) representing a service provided by the peer station; and a peer station bitmap that indicates at least one of allocated and unallocated network addresses within a set of network addresses; storing information received in the message in a data store of the local station in association with the peer station; parsing the data store of the local station on a periodic basis to collect information for use in generating a message for transmission, the generated message including an outgoing local station information element, the outgoing local station information element including; a local station network address allocated by the local station; a local station timestamp with information indicating a time at which the local station network address was allocated by the local station; a local station universally unique identifier (UUID) representing a service provided by the local station; and a local station bitmap that indicates at least one of allocated and unallocated network addresses within the set of network addresses; and transmitting the generated message from the local station. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A local station that communicates with one or more peer stations via a network, comprising:
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a physical network unit that receives a message from a peer station; a message parsing unit that parses the message to retrieve a peer station information element, the peer station information element including a peer station network address of the peer station and a peer station bitmap that indicates at least one of allocated and unallocated network addresses within a set of network addresses; a controller that retrieves from the peer station information element a first portion of the peer station network address allocated to the peer station and uses the first portion of the peer station network address allocated to the peer station as a first portion of a local station network address allocated to the local station, and selects a second portion of the local station network address for the local station based on information contained within the peer station bitmap. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification