MULTI-TIER WIRELESS HOME MESH NETWORK WITH A SECURE NETWORK DISCOVERY PROTOCOL

• US 20110211565A1
• Filed: 05/06/2011
• Published: 09/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Liu, Aixin, Patil, Abhishek, Nguyen, Djung N., Jing, Xiangpeng
• Granted Patent: US 8,644,220 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 Denial of Service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/041 Key generation or derivation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/0431 Key distribution or pre-distribution; Key agreement
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/002 Transmission of channel access control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An apparatus, system and method for a multi-tier wireless home mesh network is described. The method may include formation of an infrastructure-less wireless home mesh networking environment comprising a collection of nodes that operate as a decentralized, ad hoc wireless network with multiple sub-networks or tiers that are responsible for different functions within the network. Each node of the multi-tier network is configured to forward data to other nodes and is assigned to a particular tier based on the node'"'"'s performance capabilities. A further embodiment includes identification of a wireless home mesh network. Once identified, one or more proprietary messages may be exchanged in a secure manner to establish connections with a home electronics device as either a mobile node or a stationary node of the home network. A home electronics device may wirelessly communicate to route data within one or more nodes of the wireless home mesh network. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method of joining a wireless home mesh network (WHMN) comprising:

broadcasting, by a first node, a WHMN discovery request to discover at least one WHMN, the WHMN discovery request including at least a tier type of the first node and a first challenge text, the first challenge text including a secret key combined with an extended service set identification (ESSID);

receiving the first challenge text by a second node in a first wireless ad hoc network;

if the first challenge text is verified by the second node to be an expected value, sending by the second node a WHMN discovery response including at least the tier type of the second node and a second challenge text, the second challenge text being derived from at least a public key of the second node and a MAC address of the second node;

receiving the WHMN discovery response by the first node, the receipt of the WHMN discovery response indicates to the first node that the first wireless ad hoc network is a WHMN; and

connecting to the first wireless ad hoc network by the first node using parameters included in the WHMN discovery response.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein

the tier type is one of (i) a first tier node being a gateway node that establishes and controls access to an external network, (ii) a second tier node being a stationary wireless node that interconnects a plurality of stationary wireless nodes, and (iii) a third tier node being one of a plurality of mobile wireless nodes that are linked to the second tier node.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the WHMN includes at least one first tier node and one second tier node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first node is a third tier node and the second node being a second tier node.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the first node:

establishing a wireless link between the first node with the second node to join the WHMN as a mobile node;

sharing services and content with the second node; and

accessing a wired network via the wireless link with the second node.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

wirelessly interconnecting one or more second tier nodes to form a backhaul of the WHMN; and

wirelessly exchanging high definition (HD) video content between the second tier nodes.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

scanning one or more channels to detect the presence of one or more available wireless networks.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein connecting to the first wireless ad hoc network includes:

sending, by the first node, a connection request message including an encrypted phrase to the second node; and

receiving, by the first node, a connection confirmation message from the second node if the connection request message is validated by the second node.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the WHMN discovery request is proprietary and is recognized by WHMN-enabled nodes.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating, by the first node, a WHMN if the WHMN discovery response is not received by the first node.

11. An apparatus comprising:

means for establishing a wireless communication interface;

means for establishing a wireless home mesh network (WHMN);

means for broadcasting a WHMN discovery request to discover at least one WHMN, the WHMN discovery request including at least a tier type of the apparatus and a first challenge text, the first challenge text including a secret key combined with an extended service set identification (ESSID); and

means for sending a WHMN discovery response including at least the tier type of the apparatus and a second challenge text, the second challenge text being derived from at least a public key of the apparatus and a MAC address of the apparatus.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the means for broadcasting the WHMN discovery request to display a list of one or more detected WHMN and to join a selected WHMN.

13. The apparatus of claim 11,

wherein the tier type is one of (i) a first tier node being a gateway node that establishes and controls access to an external network, (ii) a second tier node being a stationary wireless node that interconnects a plurality of stationary wireless nodes, and (iii) a third tier node being one of a plurality of mobile wireless nodes that are linked to the second tier node, and

wherein the WHMN comprises at least one first tier node and a second tier node.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the WHMN discovery request is a request to join an identified WHMN as a second tier node or a third tier node, wherein the second and third tier nodes of the identified WHMN wirelessly communicate to share features and content within the identified WHMN.

15. A system comprising:

a first tier node being a wireless gateway coupled to a wired network to operate as a gateway node of a wireless home mesh network (WHMN);

a second tier node being a stationary wireless device that communicates with the first tier node, interconnects a plurality of stationary wireless nodes, and operates as the stationary wireless node of the WHMN;

a third tier node being a mobile wireless device to communicate with the second tier node to join the WHMN as a mobile wireless node of the WHMN, wherein the stationary node and the mobile node of the WHMN wirelessly communicate to share content and network services,

wherein joining the WHMN includes

broadcasting, by the third tier node, a WHMN discovery request, the WHMN discovery request including at least a first challenge text, the first challenge text including a secret key combined with an extended service set identification (ESSID),

if the first challenge text is verified by the second tier node to be an expected value, receiving the WHMN discovery response by the first tier node, the WHMN discovery response including at least a second challenge text, the second challenge text being derived from at least a public key of the second tier node and a MAC address of the second tier node, and

connecting to the WHMN by the first node using parameters included in the WHMN discovery response.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein one or more second tier nodes wirelessly interconnecting to form a backhaul of the WHMN.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the stationary nodes further comprise:

streaming logic to wirelessly exchange high definition (HD) video content between the one or more stationary nodes of the WHMN.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein joining the WHMN further includes the third tier node

establishing a wireless link between the third tier node with the second tier node to join the WHMN as a mobile node,

sharing services and content with the second tier node, and

accessing a wired network via the wireless link with the second tier node.

19. A system comprising:

means for operating as a gateway node of a wireless home mesh network (WHMN), the means for operating as a gateway node being coupled to a wired network;

means for operating as a stationary wireless node of the WHMN that communicates with the means for operating as the gateway node, and interconnects a plurality of stationary wireless nodes;

means for operating as a mobile wireless node to communicate with the means for operating as the stationary wireless node to join the WHMN, wherein means for operating as the stationary node and the means for operating as the mobile node of the WHMN wirelessly communicate to share content and network services,

wherein joining the WHMN includes

broadcasting, by the means for operating as the mobile wireless node, a WHMN discovery request, the WHMN discovery request including at least a first challenge text, the first challenge text including a secret key combined with an extended service set identification (ESSID),

if the first challenge text is verified by the means for operating as the stationary wireless node to be an expected value, receiving the WHMN discovery response by the means for operating as the mobile wireless node, the WHMN discovery response including at least a second challenge text, the second challenge text being derived from at least a public key of the means for operating as the stationary wireless node and a MAC address of the means for operating as the stationary wireless node, and

connecting to the WHMN by the means for operating as the mobile wireless node using parameters included in the WHMN discovery response.