Method and apparatus for obtaining situational awareness information from nodes in a communications network

• US 7,672,281 B1
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Issued: 03/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Collins, Inc. (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Humphries, Thomas S., Kambhampati, Raja
• Primary Examiner(s): Pérez-Gutiérrez; Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chakour; Issam
• Application Number:
  US11/301,919
• Time in Patent Office: 1,540 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338, 370/331
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method of communicating in a wireless ad-hoc network is disclosed. The network has a plurality of nodes, including a requesting node, configured for wireless communication therebetween. Each node transmits a situational awareness message to adjacent nodes. The message informs other nodes of a geographic location of the transmitting node. Each adjacent node, upon receiving the message, re-transmits the message to nodes adjacent the adjacent nodes when the transmitting node is within a predetermined re-transmitting distance. The requesting node transmits a situational awareness request to the nodes in the network. Each node in the set of nodes transmits a situational awareness response to the situational awareness request. The situational awareness response provides a geographic location of said each node in the set of nodes. Each node in the network that receives the situational awareness response re-transmits the situational awareness response along a transmission path toward the requesting node.

Claims

1. A method of sharing situational awareness information between nodes in a wireless communications network, each node being one of a plurality of node types, each node type being differentiated from other node types by non-communications characteristics of an entity associated with said each node, the network including a requesting node, the method comprising:

a first node periodically transmitting a situational awareness message;

a second node receiving the situational awareness message;

the second node determining a distance from the first node to the second node;

the second node re-transmitting the received situational awareness message when the first node is within a predetermined distance of the second node, the predetermined distance being dependent on the node type of the first node;

the requesting node transmitting a situational awareness request to a set of nodes in the network;

the nodes in the set of nodes transmitting a situational awareness response in response to the situational awareness request; and

each node in the network upon receiving any situational awareness response, re-transmitting the response toward the requesting node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each node receiving a situational awareness response re-transmits the situational awareness response regardless of a distance between the re-transmitting node and the node transmitting the situational awareness response.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the situational awareness request to each node is transmitted along a transmission path, and wherein the situational awareness response is transmitted along the transmission path.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-communications characteristics include at least one of speed, bearing, and operating condition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of nodes comprises all nodes in the network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of nodes comprises all nodes with a geographic region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting node is outside a geographic region that defines the set of nodes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting node is within a geographic region that defines the set of nodes.