OPTIMIZING COMMUNICATION FOR MESH ROUTING PROTOCOLS USING DIRECTIONAL BEAM FORMING

• US 20150002336A1
• Filed: 06/28/2013
• Published: 01/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Thubert, Pascal, Wetterwald, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 9,426,716 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/367
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/20 based on geographic position or location
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

In one embodiment, a first communication is transmitted from a transmitting node in a network using a mesh routing protocol. The first communication is received at a particular node in the network. Based on the first communication, a directional attribute is computed. Based on the directional attribute, a particular direction is computed. Then, a second communication is transmitted from the particular node using a beam forming technique in the second direction.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a particular node in a network which applies a mesh routing protocol, a first communication transmitted from a transmitting node in the network;

computing a directional attribute based on the first communication;

computing a particular direction based on the directional attribute; and

transmitting, from the particular node, a second communication using a beam forming technique in the particular direction.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the computing of the directional attribute comprises:

computing one or more of;

i) a direction from the particular node toward the transmitting node, ii) a direction from the transmitting node toward the particular node, iii) a region of the network that is substantially reached by the first communication, iv) a region of the network that is substantially unreached by the first communication, and v) a direction from one of the particular node and the transmitting node to one of the substantially reached region of the network and the substantially unreached region of the network.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the particular direction is a direction opposite to the direction from the particular node to the transmitting node.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the particular direction is a direction from the particular node toward the substantially unreached region of the network.

5. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

dividing the substantially reached region of the network into one or more sectors; and

applying a redundancy-based transmission algorithm to each sector of the substantially reached region of the network on a sector-by-sector basis.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

determining whether the second communication can reach farther than the first communication, wherein

the second communication is transmitted only if the second communication can reach farther than the first communication.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a third node in the network using the second communication, the third node being isolated from a directed acyclic graph (DAG) in the network in which the transmitting node and the particular node reside.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

reporting the third node to a centralized management node.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first communication includes an indication of one or more of:

i) an energy level of the first communication, ii) one or more sectors of the network to be reached by the first communication, iii) a location of the transmitting node, and iv) an orientation of the transmitting node.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first communication is received using the beam forming technique.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more network interfaces that communicate with a network which applies a mesh routing protocol;

a processor coupled to the one or more network interfaces and configured to execute a process; and

a memory configured to store program instructions which contain the process executable by the processor, the process comprising;

receiving, as a particular node in the network, a first communication transmitted from a transmitting node in the network;

computing a directional attribute based on the first communication;

computing a particular direction based on the directional attribute; and

transmitting, from the particular node, a second communication using a beam forming technique in the particular direction.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the computing of the directional attribute comprises:

computing one or more of;

i) a direction from the particular node toward the transmitting node, ii) a direction from the transmitting node toward the particular node, iii) a region of the network that is substantially reached by the first communication, iv) a region of the network that is substantially unreached by the first communication, and v) a direction from one of the particular node and the transmitting node to one of the substantially reached region of the network and the substantially unreached region of the network.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the particular direction is a direction opposite to the direction from the particular node to the transmitting node.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the particular direction is a direction from the particular node toward the substantially unreached region of the network.

15. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the process further comprises:

dividing the substantially reached region of the network into one or more sectors; and

applying a redundancy-based transmission algorithm to each sector of the substantially reached region of the network on a sector-by-sector basis.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the process further comprises:

determining whether the second communication can reach farther than the first communication, wherein

the second communication is transmitted only if the second communication can reach farther than the first communication.

17. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the process further comprises:

detecting a third node in the network using the second communication, the third node being isolated from a directed acyclic graph (DAG) in the network in which the transmitting node and the particular node reside.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the process further comprises:

reporting the third node to a centralized management node.

19. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the first communication includes an indication of one or more of:

i) an energy level of the first communication, ii) one or more sectors of the network to be reached by the first communication, iii) a location of the transmitting node, and iv) an orientation of the transmitting node.

20. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the first communication is received using the beam forming technique.

21. A tangible non-transitory computer readable medium storing program instructions that cause a computer to execute a process, the process comprising:

receiving, at a particular node in a network which applies a mesh routing protocol, a first communication transmitted from a transmitting node in the network;

computing a directional attribute based on the first communication;

computing a particular direction based on the directional attribute; and

transmitting, from the particular node, a second communication using a beam forming technique in the particular direction.