Self-configuring source-aware bridging for noisy media

• US 6,577,630 B1
• Filed: 08/04/2000
• Issued: 06/10/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intellon Corporation (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Markwalter, Brian E., Kostoff, Stanley J. II
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): HYUN, SOON D
• Application Number:
  US09/631,738
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• Field of Search: 370/392, 370/393, 370/401, 370/471, 370/474, 370/475, 370/445, 370/447, 370/465, 370/389
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone

Abstract

A source-aware bridging scheme for supporting bridging between a noisy (“unreliable”) network and another, reliable network. Each device connected to the medium of the unreliable network includes a source-aware MAC that maintains a Bridge Proxy Destination Address list (BPDAlist) of all destination addresses that reside on the other network and are reached by a bridge. The BPDAlist information can be learned by the source-aware MAC during a frame receive and/or received during a channel estimation cycle. The list associates destination addresses with the address of the particular bridge through which the destination addresses are accessed. The bridge serves as a proxy with respect to those destination addresses and thus maintains its own list of the destination addresses for which it serves as proxy, or, IAPlist. The IAPlist can be learned, or passed down to the source-aware MAC from a learning bridge process or from the local host to which the device is coupled. The source-aware MAC in each device, including the bridge, supports bridge proxy processing functions. If the device receives a frame intended for transmit and the destination address is a bridged address (that is, is included in the BPDAlist, the bridge proxy processing replaces the destination address with the appropriate bridge address and encapsulates the frame with bridge information that enables the bridge to reconstruct the original frame. If the device is a bridge, the processing replaces the source address with the address of the bridge and updates the IAPlist with the source address. If a frame with bridge information is received from the medium, the bridge proxy processing restores the frame from the bridge information and may use the bridge information to update the BPDAlist.

Claims

1. A method of source-aware bridging by a device coupled to a network comprising:

maintaining a list of addresses of devices connected to the network by a bridge in association with an address of the bridge to which the devices are connected;

associating with the list a channel map for the list;

determining if a frame from a local LLC and having a header and a body is to be transmitted onto a medium of the network;

if the frame is to be transmitted onto the medium, determining if a destination address in the header matches one of the addresses in the list, a match indicating that it is known that the device is connected to the network by the bridge; and

if the destination address matches one of the addresses in the list, replacing the destination address in the header with the address of the bridge associated with the matched one of the addresses and inserting in the body a source address from the header as an original source address and the destination address as an original destination address to enable the bridge to send the frame to the original destination address.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the source address in the header of the frame received from the LLC is the same as that of the device; and

if it is determined that the destination address matches one of the addresses in the list and the source address is not the same as that of the device, replacing the source address in the header with that of the device and storing the source address in a list of addresses of devices for which the device serves as a bridge proxy.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if it is determined that it is unknown whether the destination address corresponds to a device connected to the network by the bridge, replacing the destination address with a broadcast address and inserting in the body the source address as an original source address and the destination address as an original destination address.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining if the frame received from the local LLC is to be transmitted onto the medium of the network comprises determining if the destination address is the same as that of the device.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

if it is determined that the destination address is the same as that of the device, storing a list of addresses of devices for which the device is to serve as a bridge proxy if such the list is present in the frame.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information from the local LLC; and

storing a list of addresses of devices for which the device is to serve as a bridge proxy if such the list is included in the received information.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining if the destination address belongs to a multicast transmission; and

if it is determined that the destination address belongs to a multicast transmission and a valid channel map exists for any individual address, replacing the destination address with an address for which the valid channel map exists and inserting in the body of the frame a multicast with response MAC management entry that includes a copy of the replaced destination address.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

providing in the header an indication that the frame is multicast-addressed and that the MAC management entry instead of the destination address is to be checked for an actual destination address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the frame specifies that a response is requested, further comprising:

sending the frame to the bridge to cause the bridge to forward the frame to the destination address and to return the response.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving the response from the bridge.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the medium is an unreliable medium.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the unreliable medium is a power line.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining comprises:

receiving information in the list in a channel estimation response from the bridge.

14. A method of bridging by a device coupled to a network comprising:

maintaining a list of addresses of devices connected to the network by a bridge in association with an address of the bridge to which the devices are connected;

receiving a frame from a medium of the network, the frame having a header and a body and the header specifying a destination address and a source address;

determining if the frame includes a replace bridge address MAC management entry, the replace bridge address entry including an original source address and an original destination address;

if the replace bridge address MAC management entry is determined to be included in the frame and the original source address is different from the source address, storing the original source address as an address of a bridged device in association with the source address as an address of a bridge through which the bridged device is connected to the network; and

restoring the original source address and the original destination address to the header.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

prior to determining if the replace bridge address MAC management entry is included in the frame, determining if the frame includes a multicast with response MAC management entry, the multicast with response MAC management entry including addresses of intended frame recipients, one of the addresses corresponding to the device; and

if it is determined that the frame includes the multicast with response MAC management entry, replacing the destination address with an address corresponding to the address in the multicast with response MAC management entry.

16. A computer program residing on a computer-readable medium for performing bridging by a device coupled to a network, the computer program comprising instructions causing a computer to:

maintain a list of addresses of devices connected to the network by a bridge in association with an address of the bridge to which the devices are connected;

associate with the list a channel map for the list;

determine if a frame received from a local LLC is to be transmitted onto a medium of the network, the frame having a header and a body;

if the frame is to be transmitted onto the medium, determine if a destination address in the header matches one of the addresses in the list, the match indicating that it is known that the device is connected to the network by the bridge; and

if the destination address matches one of the addresses in the list, replace the destination address in the header with the address of the bridge associated with the matched one of the addresses and insert in the body a source address from the header and the destination address to enable the bridge to send the frame to the destination address.

17. A computer program residing on a computer-readable medium for performing bridging by a device coupled to a network, the computer program comprising instructions causing a computer to:

maintain a list of addresses of devices connected to the network by a bridge in association with an address of the bridge to which the devices are connected;

receive a frame from a medium of the network, the frame having a header and a body and the header specifying a destination address and a source address;

determine if the frame includes a replace bridge address entry, the replace bridge address entry including an original source address and an original destination address;

if the replace bridge address entry is determined to be included in the frame and the original source address is different from the source address, store the original source address as an address of a bridged device in association with the source address as an address of a bridge through which the bridged device is connected to the network; and

restore the original source address and the original destination address to the header.