System and method for transparent wireless bridging of communication channel segments

• US 7,835,372 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2006
• Issued: 11/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommWorks Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Misonimo Chi Acquisitions LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Okumoto, Max, Rimmer, James, Edler, John, Gundeti, Siddartha, Nova, Michael, Wang, Weilin
• Primary Examiner(s): Corsaro; Nick
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lebassi; Amanuel
• Application Number:
  US11/421,998
• Publication Number:
  US 20060274745A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,628 Days
• Field of Search: 370/351, 370/401, 370/402, 370/408, 370/825.02
• US Class Current: 370/401
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

Systems and methods for transparent wireless bridging of communication channels are provided. A plurality of wireless bridge devices are each deployed on a wired communication channel segment and listen for traffic to build a table of MAC addresses for the network devices on each respective segment. The bridges also collectively form a wireless mesh network and publish the MAC addresses on the wireless mesh network so each bridge receives MAC address information for every segment. Accordingly, a sending device on a first segment sends a communication to a target device on a second segment. The respective first bridge passes the communication along through the wireless mesh network to the respective second bridge and the first bridge also sends an acknowledgement to the sending device on behalf of the target device. This proxy acknowledgement allows the wireless bridge system to account for potential latency over the wireless mesh network while at the same time complying with latency requirements and meeting or exceeding the overall round-trip time for network communications.

Claims

1. A bridge device comprising:

a first communication interface communicatively coupled with one or more network devices via a respective communication channel;

a second communication interface communicatively coupled with one or more remote bridge devices via a communication network;

data storage; and

an address table stored in said data storage, the address table comprising a plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises a first address for a network device and a second address for a remote bridge device coupled to the network device via a communication channel;

wherein the bridge device is configured to;

receive a communication from a sending network device on a first communication channel, the communication comprising a given first address for a target network device;

identify in the address table a given second address that is paired with the given first address for the target network device, wherein the given second address is for a remote bridge device coupled to the target network device via a second communication channel;

send the communication over the communication network to the remote bridge device having the given second address that is paired with the given first address in the address table; and

send a response to the sending network device to avoid a timeout occurring for the communication from the sending network device.

2. The bridge device of claim 1, wherein the communication network is a wired network.

3. The bridge device of claim 1, wherein the communication network is a wireless network.

4. The bridge device of claim 3, wherein the communication network is used for building automation and control.

5. The bridge device of claim 4, wherein the communication network implements the BACnet protocol.

6. The bridge device of claim 4, wherein the communication network implements the LonTalk protocol.

7. The bridge device of claim 1, wherein the first communication channel is a direct wired link.

8. The bridge device of claim 1, wherein the first communication channel is a direct wireless link.

9. The bridge device of claim 1, wherein the first communication channel is a network.

10. A computer implemented method for handling a communication at a bridge device, the method comprising:

receiving a communication at a bridge device on a first communication channel, the communication from a sending network device on the first communication channel and destined for a target network device on a second communication channel;

parsing the communication to obtain a first address for the target network device;

identifying in an address table a second address that corresponds to the first address for the target network device, wherein the second address identifies a remote bridge device coupled to the target network device via the second communication channel;

sending the communication to the remote bridge device via a communication network; and

sending a response from the bridge device to the sending network device to avoid a timeout occurring for the communication from the sending network device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising resetting a silence timer on the sending network device after receiving the communication.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising waiting a predetermined period of time prior to sending the response from the bridge device to the sending network device.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is a token communication and the response from the bridge device to the sending network device causes the sending network device to believe that the token communication was received at the target network device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is a data expecting reply communication and the response from the bridge device to the sending network device is a reply postponed message.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is a poll for master communication, further comprising filtering a response to the poll for master communication from the target network device.

16. A tangible computer readable medium having stored thereon, computer-executable instructions that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving a communication on a first communication channel, the communication from a sending network device on the first communication channel and destined for a target network device on a second communication channel;

parsing the communication to obtain a given first address for the target network device;

identifying a given second address that corresponds to the given first address for the target network device, wherein the given second address identifies a remote bridge device coupled to the target network device via the second communication channel;

sending the communication to the remote bridge device via a communication network; and

sending a response from the bridge device to the sending network device to avoid a timeout occurring for the communication from the sending network device.

17. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 16 having stored thereon a data structure comprising:

a plurality of address pairings, wherein each address pair comprises a first address for a network device and a second address for a bridge device coupled to the network device via a communication channel.

18. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the first address comprises a media access control address and the second address comprises an internet protocol address.

19. A bridge device comprising:

means for receiving a communication from a sending network device on a first communication channel, wherein the communication is destined for a target network device on a second communication channel;

means for obtaining a first address for the target network device from the communication;

means for identifying in an address table a second address that corresponds to the first address for the target network device, wherein the second address identifies a remote bridge device coupled to the target network device via the second communication channel;

means for sending the communication to the remote bridge device via a communication network; and

means for sending a response to the sending network device to avoid a timeout occurring for the communication from the sending network device.

20. The bridge device of claim 19, further comprising means for resetting a silence timer on the sending network device after receiving the communication.

21. The bridge device of claim 19, further comprising means for waiting a predetermined period of time prior to sending the response to the sending network device.

22. The bridge device of claim 19, wherein the communication is a token communication and the response to the sending network device causes the sending network device to believe that the token communication was received at the target network device.

23. The bridge device of claim 19, wherein the communication is a data expecting reply communication and the response to the sending network device is a reply postponed message.

24. The bridge device of claim 19, wherein the communication is a poll for master communication, further comprising means for filtering a response to the poll for master communication from the target network device.