Distributed networking agent and method of making and using the same

• US 7,742,436 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2005
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: General Dynamics C4 Systems Incorporated (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: General Dynamics C4 Systems Incorporated (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Stewart, Richard, Kelley, William, Stewart, Alan, Carrillo, Steve, Bristow, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Jayanti K
• Assistant Examiner(s): CAMPBELL, MATTHEW T
• Application Number:
  US11/217,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20060072505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,754 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/395.2, 370/315, 370/316, 370/255, 370/310, 370/351, 455/3.01
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/042 comprising distributed management centres cooperatively managing the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/083 for increasing network speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/145 involving simulating, designing, planning or modelling of a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/18 based on predicted events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/38 adapting due to varying relative distances between nodes

Abstract

The present invention relates to an agent for distributed networking and a processor-readable software code. The agent may include, for example, a cosite analyzer, an EMI sniffer, an asset controller module, an asset discovery module, and a link negotiator. The agent may be configured to initiate and optimize network configurations for radio communications systems based on parameters. The software code may receive data associated with a network plan, may determine if any planned links are included in the network plan and may establish connectivity of a confirmed link between at least two nodes in the network. Additionally, the software code may determine if a non-planned link should be added to the network and may establish connectivity for the non-planned link based on a priority associated with the non-planned link.

Claims

1. Processor-readable software code stored on a processor-readable medium, the code comprising code to:

cause a wireless communication node of a network that includes a plurality of wireless communication nodes to receive information from a network administrator that identifies a planned link between the wireless communication node and a destination node of the network, wherein the information includes an identification of the destination node;

establish connectivity for the planned link between the communication node and the destination node;

determine whether an additional link should be added to the network based on a link priority associated with the additional link, wherein the additional link is a link between the wireless communication node and another node of the network, and the additional link is not specified by the network administrator; and

when the additional link should be added to the network, establish connectivity for the additional link, the connectivity for the additional link being based on the link priority associated with the additional link, and

wherein the link priority is based on the following equation;

Link Priority=β

*Old Link Priority+(1−

β

) New Link Priority, where β

is associated with a network plan.

2. The processor-readable software code of claim 1, wherein a pre-planned link of the one or more pre-planned links is associated with a node outside of a control plane.

3. The processor-readable software code of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a lower priority link should be removed from the network when resources for the additional link are not available.

4. The processor-readable software code of clam 1, wherein the link priority is defined as:

α

*Separation Value β

*Link Utilization+δ

*COI+γ

*NeedLine+ε

*Role Priority, where α

, β

, δ

, γ

, ε

are associated with the network plan.

5. The processor-readable software code of claim 4, wherein priority is given to existing links at least in part by setting the separation value and Link Utilization of new links to zero.

6. The processor-readable software code of claim 4, wherein priority is given to existing links at least in part by setting the Separation Value, Link Utilization, Needline, and Role Priority to zero.

7. A method, implemented in a wireless communication node, for forming a network, the method comprising:

interfacing with an electromagnetic interference (EMI) sniffer of the communication node to determine spectrum availability within the network;

receiving information from a network administrator that identifies a planned link between the wireless communication node and a destination node of the network, wherein the information includes an identification of the destination node;

establishing connectivity for the planned link between the communication node and the destination node based on the spectrum availability;

making a determination of whether to add an additional link to the network based on an ability of the additional link to lower an impact of a high traffic load between a particular source node and a particular destination node;

when the determination is made to add the additional link, initiating the additional link to minimize the impact of the high traffic load on the network; and

implementing a defragment algorithm, the defragment algorithm being configured to analyze an existing network topology and determine if all discovered nodes are part of the existing network topology, wherein the defragment algorithm is configured to calculate a score associated with a prospective link to a node not within a network fragment, and wherein the score is;

α

*Distance+β

*COI+δ

*Mobility value, where α

, β and

δ

are predetermined values established by a network policy.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising generating an interference profile associated with a radio within the network.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising sampling, by the EMI sniffer an available spectrum using antennas.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating a table based on one of an availability or unavailability of a network resource.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving an asset discovery message from a remote node.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising running a healing algorithm, the healing algorithm being configured to connect at least two fragmented networks.

13. A method performed within a wireless communication node of a network that includes a network administrator system and a plurality of wireless communication nodes, the method comprising:

receiving information from the network administrator system that identifies one or more pre-planned links between the wireless communication node and one or more destination nodes of the network, wherein the information includes identification of the destination nodes;

establishing connectivity for the pre-planned links between the communication node and the destination nodes;

determining whether a number of the pre-planned links established meets a connectivity goal for the wireless communication node;

when the number of pre-planned links established does not meet the connectivity goal, determining that an additional link, which is not specified by the network administrator system, should be added to the network, wherein the additional link is a link between the wireless communication node and another node of the network, and wherein determining that the additional link should be added includes determining that the additional link should be added to the network based on a link priority associated with the additional link;

determining whether assets are available to establish the additional link;

when the assets are not available to establish the additional link, establishing connectivity for the additional link using assets of an existing link, the connectivity for the additional link being based on the link priority associated with the additional link, and

wherein the link priority is based on the following equation;

Link Priority=β

*Old Link Priority+(1−

β

) New Link Priority, where β

is associated with a network plan.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein a pre-planned link of the one or more pre-planned links is associated with a node outside of a control plane.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein a number of pre-planned links is substantially less than a number of non-planned links.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the additional link has a higher priority than a priority of the existing link.