Method and system for communicating state information between devices of a communications network
First Claim
1. A method of communicating state information between a first entity and a second entity, the method comprising:
- (a) sending a first message containing state information from the first entity to the second entity, wherein the first message comprises a state of the first entity, a value indicating the first entity'"'"'s current known state of the second entity, and a value indicating a current known state of the first entity that has been acknowledged as having been received by the second entity;
(b) if after a first time interval, no confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity, resending the first message from the first entity to the second entity;
(c) repeating step (b) until the confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity or until a second time interval expires, wherein the second time interval is at least equal to the first time interval;
(d) if after the second time interval expires and no confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity, resending the first message from the first entity to the second entity requiring the second entity to send the confirmation message; and
(e) if during any of steps (a)-(d) a second message containing updated state information is available before the confirmation message has been received by the first entity, terminating the sending of the first message and sending the second message in accordance with steps (a)-(d).
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and system of communicating state information between devices of a communications network is provided. A gateway of a packet network may change operating states during transmission of packets to another gateway. The gateway may indicate the state change to the receiving gateway by sending a burst of messages to the receiving gateway. If the gateway does not respond to any of these messages, the gateway may then send another message to the receiving gateway, which requires the receiving gateway to respond. Or, the gateway may send individual messages to the receiving gateway for a desired amount of time and, if the receiving gateway does not respond to any of these, then the gateway may again send the must respond message to the receiving gateway.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of communicating state information between a first entity and a second entity, the method comprising:
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(a) sending a first message containing state information from the first entity to the second entity, wherein the first message comprises a state of the first entity, a value indicating the first entity'"'"'s current known state of the second entity, and a value indicating a current known state of the first entity that has been acknowledged as having been received by the second entity; (b) if after a first time interval, no confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity, resending the first message from the first entity to the second entity; (c) repeating step (b) until the confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity or until a second time interval expires, wherein the second time interval is at least equal to the first time interval; (d) if after the second time interval expires and no confirmation message has been received by the first entity from the second entity, resending the first message from the first entity to the second entity requiring the second entity to send the confirmation message; and (e) if during any of steps (a)-(d) a second message containing updated state information is available before the confirmation message has been received by the first entity, terminating the sending of the first message and sending the second message in accordance with steps (a)-(d). - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system comprising:
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a first communication device; a second communication device in communication with the first communication device, wherein the first communication device sends a burst of messages to the second communication device and, after a timeout period, if the first communication device has not received a response from the second communication device, the first communication device sends a message to the second communication device, wherein the message requires that the second communication device respond, and wherein the first communication device sends all messages of the burst of messages to the second communication device in rapid succession, wherein the first communication device sends the burst of messages to the second communication device upon a state transition and to indicate the state transition, wherein each message of the burst of messages indicates a state transition of the first communication device; and a network device in communication with the first communication device and wherein the first communication device sends the burst of messages to the second communication device in response to receiving data from the network device causing the state transition of the first communication device. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification