Robust Multipath Routing

• US 20100309841A1
• Filed: 06/04/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Conte, Thomas M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,582,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/24 Multipath
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/243 using M+N parallel active paths
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/30 Routing of multiclass traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing

Abstract

Implementations related to robust multipath routing are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for communications over a wireless network, comprising:

receiving a packet stream at a first node;

identifying a subset of packets of the packet stream;

determining a first route for transmitting packets of the packet stream other than the subset of packets from the first node to a second node; and

determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets from the first node to the second node;

wherein the first route is different than the second route.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet stream comprises Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying a subset of packets comprises identifying at least one of a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet, a Request to Send (RTS) packet, a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, or a packet bearing an urgent pointer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a first route comprises performing a multipath routing algorithm using a first value for a weighting variable.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining a second route comprises performing the multipath routing algorithm using a second value for the weighting variable.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a subset of packets comprises identifying one or more important packets of the stream of packets.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating at least one copy of a packet of the subset of packets; and

determining a third route for transmitting the at least one copy of a packet from the first node to the second node;

wherein the third route is different than the first route and the second route.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node and the second node comprise a wireless ad hoc network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first node and the second node comprise a wireless mesh network.

10. An article comprising:

a computer program product having stored therein instructions that, if executed, result in;

receiving a packet stream at a first node;

identifying a subset of packets of the packet stream;

determining a first route for transmitting packets of the packet stream other than the subset of packets from the first node to a second node; and

determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets from the first node to the second node;

wherein the first route is different than the second route.

11. The article of claim 10, wherein the packet stream comprises Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets.

12. The article of claim 11, wherein identifying a subset of packets comprises identifying at least one of a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet, a Request to Send (RTS) packet, a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, or a packet bearing an urgent pointer.

13. The article of claim 10, wherein determining a first route comprises performing a multipath routing algorithm using a first value for a weighting variable.

14. The article of claim 13, wherein determining a second route comprises performing the multipath routing algorithm using a second value for the weighting variable.

15. The article of claim 10, wherein identifying a subset of packets comprises identifying one or more important packets of the packet stream.

16. The article of claim 10, the computer program product having stored therein instructions that, if executed, further result in:

generating at least one copy of a packet of the subset of packets; and

determining a third route for transmitting the at least one copy of a packet from the first node to the second node;

wherein the third route is different than both the first route and the second route.

17. A wireless communications system, comprising:

a wireless node including a processor and a wireless transceiver coupled to the processor;

wherein the processor is capable of;

receiving a stream of packets;

identifying a subset of packets of the stream of packets;

determining a first route for transmitting packets of the stream of packets other than the subset of packets to another wireless node; and

determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets to the other wireless node;

wherein the first route is different than the second route.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is capable of determining the first route by executing a multipath routing algorithm with a first value for a weighting variable.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processor is capable of determining the second route by executing the multipath routing algorithm with a second value for the weighting variable.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is further capable of:

generating a copy of a packet of the subset of packets; and

determining a third route for transmitting the copy of a packet to the other wireless node;

wherein the third route is different than both the first route and the second route.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the stream of packets comprise Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the processor is capable of identifying a subset of packets by identifying at least one of a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet, a Request to Send (RTS) packet, a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, or a packet bearing an urgent pointer.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is capable of identifying a subset of packets by identifying one or more important packets of the stream of packets.

24. A wireless network node, comprising:

a wireless transceiver; and

a processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and configured to use the wireless transceiver to transmit packets to another wireless network node;

wherein the processor is further configured to;

identify at least one packet of a packet stream;

determine a first path for transmitting the packet stream to the other wireless node; and

determine a second path, different from the first path, for transmitting the identified packet to the other wireless node.

25. The node of claim 24, wherein the packet stream comprises Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets.

26. The node of claim 25, wherein the identified packet comprises one of a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet, a Request to Send (RTS) packet, a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, or a packet bearing an urgent pointer.

27. The node of claim 24, wherein the processor is configured to determine the first path by executing a multipath routing algorithm with a first value for a weighting variable.

28. The node of claim 27, wherein the processor is configured to determine the second path by executing the multipath routing algorithm with a second value for the weighting variable.

29. The node of claim 24, wherein the processor is further configured to:

generate a copy of the identified packet; and

determine a third path for transmitting the copy of the identified packet to the other wireless node;

wherein the third path is different than both the first path and the second path.