MOBILE NODE ASSIGNEMENT TO A ROUTER IN A WPAN

• US 20120176986A1
• Filed: 09/02/2010
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Rudland, Philip Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,837,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update

Abstract

A method to assign a mobile node (1) to a router in a wireless multihop mesh network, the network comprising a plurality of routers (3, 5, 7), said method comprises: in a first router (5): receiving (52) from the mobile node a request to join the network; then informing (54) a server (9) that the mobile node has joined or attempted to join the network; and sending (58) to the mobile node a positive response and recording the connection of the mobile node; and in the server (9): recording (60) an association record between the mobile node and the router; and if an association record already exists between the mobile bile node and another router, sending (62) a message to the other router for suppressing any connection record between the mobile node and the other router.

Claims

1. Method to assign a mobile node to a router in a wireless multihop mesh network, said network comprising a plurality of routers, said method comprising:

in a first router;

receiving from the mobile node a request to join the network;

then

informing a server that the mobile node has joined or attempted to join the network; and

sending to the mobile node a positive response and recording the connection of the mobile node; and

in the server;

recording an association record between the mobile node and the router; and

if an association record already exists between the mobile node and another router, sending a message to the other router for suppressing any connection record between the mobile node and the other router.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the mobile node sends heartbeat messages at periodic time intervals and the router transfers said heartbeat messages to the server which updates the association record with the reception time of the last received heartbeat message.

3. Method according to claim 2, wherein, if no heartbeat message is received for a predetermined duration, the server deletes the association record between the mobile node and the router and sends a message to the router for cancelling the connection with the mobile node and suppressing any record of said connection.

4. Method according to claim 2, wherein the server sends a response to the mobile node at reception of each heartbeat message and if the mobile node does not receive said response within a predetermined time, said mobile node sends a new join request.

9. Computer software product stored on a recording media and comprising a set of instructions to enable a computer to practice the method according to claim 1 when the computer executes said set of instructions.

5. Server in a wireless multihop mesh network, said network comprising a plurality of routers, said server comprising:

an interface for communicating with the routers;

a mobile node manager comprising a mobile node memory and, on reception of a message sent by a first router informing that a mobile node has joined or attempted to join the network, configured for,

recording in the mobile node memory an association record between the mobile node and the router; and

if an association already exists between the mobile node and another router, sending a message to the other router for suppressing any connection record between the mobile node and the other router.

6. Server according to claim 5, wherein the mobile node is configured to send heartbeat messages at periodic time intervals and the first router is configured to transfer said heartbeat messages to the server, the mobile node manager is configured to update the association record with the reception time of the last received heartbeat message.

7. Server according to claim 6, wherein, if no heartbeat message is received for a predetermined duration, the mobile node manager is configured to delete the association between the mobile node and the router and to send a message to the first router for cancelling the connection with the mobile node and suppressing any record of said connection.

8. Server according to claim 6, wherein the server is configured to send a response to the mobile node at reception of each heartbeat message so that, if the mobile node does not receive said response within a predetermined time, said mobile node is configured to send a new join request.