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

• US 20150007288A1
• Filed: 09/19/2014
• Published: 01/01/2015
• 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: Jing, Xiangpeng, Patil, Abhishek P., Liu, Aixin, Nguyen, Djung N.
• Granted Patent: US 9,161,291 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/6
• 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 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. Method, comprising;

determining whether a computerized wireless node (CWN) detects a wireless mesh network (WMN);

responsive to a determination that the CWN does not detect the WMN, establishing the CWN as either a mobile node or a stationary node of a WMN; and

causing the CWN, pursuant to being established as either a mobile node or a stationary node of a WMN, to periodically emit a beacon to enable identification of a WMN by any newly-added electronics devices.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

responsive to the CWN detecting a WMN, causing the CWN to transmit a first discovery message as a broadcast or multicast to all identified wireless ad hoc networks in an attempt to identify a WMN local to the CWN, with existing nodes of the WMN responding to the discovery message to establish a new connection.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

causing an electronics device that desires to join a WMN to send to one or more detected wireless ad hoc networks a network discovery message to find an existing WMN from among detected wireless ad hoc networks.

4. The method of claim 3, the network discovery message being proprietary to a manufacturer of the WMN.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the network discovery message includes a security field to protect the WMN from denial-service (DOS) attack from DOS devices.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the DOS device are not made by the manufacturer.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

responsive to receipt of a response from a neighbor device to the network discovery message, determining that a detected ad hoc network is a WMN;

responsive to determining that detected ad hoc network is a WMN, saving information pertaining to the neighbor device.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying multiple ad hoc networks as WMNs;

presenting a list of the WMNs on a display;

receiving user selection from the list to join a user-selected WMN.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

generating a connection request message which validates an encrypted phrase.

10. A computer memory that is not a transient signal and that includes instructions executable by a processor for undertaking a process comprising:

determining whether a computerized wireless node (CWN) detects a wireless mesh network (WMN);

responsive to a determination that the CWN does not detect the WMN, establishing the CWN as either a mobile node or a stationary node of a WMN; and

causing the CWN, pursuant to being established as either a mobile node or a stationary node of a WMN, to periodically emit a beacon to enable identification of a WMN by any newly-added electronics devices.

11. The computer memory of claim 10, wherein the process undertaken by the processor by executing the instructions further comprises:

responsive to the CWN detecting a WMN, causing the CWN to transmit a first discovery message as a broadcast or multicast to all identified wireless ad hoc networks in an attempt to identify a WMN local to the CWN, with existing nodes of the WMN responding to the discovery message to establish a new connection.

12. The computer memory of claim 10, wherein the process undertaken by the processor by executing the instructions further comprises:

causing an electronics device that desires to join a WMN to send to one or more detected wireless ad hoc networks a network discovery message to find an existing WMN from among detected wireless ad hoc networks.

13. The computer memory of claim 12, the network discovery message being proprietary to a manufacturer of the WMN.

14. The computer memory of claim 12, wherein the network discovery message includes a security field to protect the WMN from denial-of-service (DOS) attack from DOS devices.

15. The computer memory of claim 14, wherein the DOS device are not made by the manufacturer.

16. The computer memory of claim 10, wherein the process undertaken by the processor by executing the instructions further comprises:

responsive to receipt of a response from a neighbor device to the network discovery message, determining that a detected ad hoe network is a WMN;

responsive to determining that detected ad hoc network is a WMN, saving information pertaining to the neighbor device.

17. The computer memory of claim 10, wherein the process undertaken by the processor by executing the instructions further comprises:

identifying multiple ad hoc networks as WMNs;

presenting a list of the WMNs on a display;

receiving user selection from the list to join a user-selected WMN.

18. The computer memory of claim 10, wherein the process undertaken by the processor by executing the instructions further comprises:

generating a connection request message which validates an encrypted phrase.