Multi-tier wireless home mesh network with a secure network discovery protocol

• US 7,961,674 B2
• Filed: 01/27/2009
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Liu, Aixin, Patil, Abhishek, Nguyen, Djung N., Jing, Xiangpeng
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh; Ayaz R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ho; Chuong T
• Application Number:
  US12/360,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20100189011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 868 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/338, 370/331, 370/390, 370/312, 370/465, 370/328, 370/329, 709/217, 709/227, 709/200, 725/32, 725/109
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 Denial of Service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/041 Key generation or derivation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/0431 Key distribution or pre-distribution; Key agreement
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/002 Transmission of channel access control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An apparatus and method for a multi-tier wireless home mesh network is described. The method may include formation of an infrastructure-less wireless home mesh networking environment comprising a collection of nodes that operate as a decentralized, ad hoc wireless network with multiple sub-networks or tiers that are responsible for different functions within the network. Each node of the multi-tier network is configured to forward data to other nodes and is assigned to a particular tier based on the node'"'"'s performance capabilities. A further embodiment includes identification of a wireless home mesh network. Once identified, one or more proprietary messages may be exchanged in a secure manner to establish connections with a home electronics device as either a mobile node or a stationary node of the home network. A home electronics device may wirelessly communicate to route data within one or more nodes of the wireless home mesh network. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

discovering a wireless home mesh network in response to activation of an electronics device; and

joining, by the electronics device, the wireless home mesh network to establish the electronics device as one of a mobile node and a stationary node of the wireless home mesh network, wherein the wireless home mesh network includes at least one stationary home electronics device as a stationary node of the wireless home mesh network, wherein the electronics device wirelessly communicates with the stationary node of the wireless home mesh network,

wherein joining comprises

scanning one or more channels to detect the presence of available wireless networks according to detected wireless beacons,

detecting at least one ad hoc network from the detected wireless networks, preparing proprietary challenge text,

issuing a neighbor discovery request to the detected mesh network, the neighbor discovery request includes a tier type of the electronic device and the proprietary challenge text including a private key embedded within the electronic device, if the proprietary challenge text matches an expected value, receiving a neighbor response that includes a MAC address of a neighbor node, a tier type of the neighbor node and a public key embedded with the neighbor node, wherein the tier type is one of (i) a first tier node being a gateway node that establishes and controls access to an external network, (ii) a second tier node being a stationary wireless node that interconnects a plurality of stationary wireless nodes, and (iii) a third tier node being one of a plurality of mobile wireless nodes that are linked to the second tier node, and identifying the ad hoc network as a wireless home mesh network if a discovery response message is received from a node of the wireless home mesh network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein joining comprises:

identifying the wireless home mesh network from one or more detected wireless ad hoc networks;

exchanging one or more proprietary messages to establish the electronics device as one of the mobile node and the stationary node of the identified wireless home mesh network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein joining further comprises:

automatically discovering a stationary home electronics device as a stationary node of the wireless home mesh network;

issuing a connection request message to the discovered stationary node;

establishing a wireless link with the stationary node to join the wireless home mesh network as a mobile node;

sharing services and content with the stationary node; and

accessing a wired network via the wireless link with the stationary node.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initiating the wireless home mesh network if a neighbor response message is not received in response to a discovery request issued to one or more detected wireless ad hoc networks.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein joining further comprises:

discovering at least one ad hoc network;

issuing a discovery message to the ad hoc network; and

identifying the ad hoc network as a wireless home mesh network if a response to the discovery message is received.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

wirelessly interconnecting one or more stationary home electronics devices to form a backhaul of the wireless home mesh network; and

wirelessly exchanging high definition (HD) video content between the one or more stationary nodes of the wireless home mesh network.

7. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless communications interface;

a controller, including network initialization logic, to establish a wireless home mesh network; and

network discovery logic to enable exchange of one or more proprietary messages to join an identified wireless home mesh network as one of a mobile node and a stationary node of the wireless home mesh network, wherein mobile nodes and stationary nodes of the wireless home mesh network wirelessly communicate to share features and content within the wireless home mesh network

wherein to join comprises

scanning one or more channels to detect the presence of one or more available wireless networks according to detected wireless beacons,

detecting at least one ad hoc network from the one or more detected wireless networks, preparing the one or more proprietary messages,

issuing a neighbor discovery request to the detected mesh network, the neighbor discovery request includes a tier type of the electronics device and each of the one or more proprietary messages including a private key embedded within the electronics device,

if the one or more proprietary messages matches an expected value, receiving a neighbor response that includes a MAC address of a neighbor node, a tier type of the neighbor node of the wireless home mesh network and a public key embedded within the neighbor node of the wireless home mesh network, wherein the tier type is one of (i) a first tier node being a gateway node that establishes and controls access to an external network, (ii) a second tier node being a stationary wireless node that interconnects a plurality of stationary wireless nodes, and (iii) a third tier node being one of a plurality of mobile wireless nodes that are linked to the second tier node, and

identifying the ad hoc network as a wireless home mesh network if the neighbor response is received from a node of the wireless home mesh network.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the apparatus comprises one of a mobile electronics device, a game console, and a digital television.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the network discovery logic is to display a list of the one or more detected wireless home mesh networks and to join a selected wireless home mesh network.

10. A system comprising:

a wireless gateway coupled to a wired network to operate as a gateway node of a wireless home mesh network;

a stationary home electronics device including a wireless interface to communicate with the wireless gateway and to operate as a stationary node of the wireless home mesh network; and

a mobile electronics device including a wireless interface to communicate with a stationary node to join the wireless home mesh network as a mobile node, wherein the stationary node and the mobile node of the wireless home mesh network wirelessly communicate to share content and network services between the mobile node and the stationary node of the wireless home mesh network,

wherein to join comprises

scanning one or more channels to detect the presence of one or more available wireless networks according to detected wireless beacons,

detecting at least one ad hoc network from the one or more detected wireless networks, preparing proprietary challenge text,

issuing a neighbor discovery request to the detected mesh network, the neighbor discovery request includes a tier type of the mobile electronics device and the challenge proprietary text including a private key embedded within the mobile electronics device, if the proprietary challenge text matches an expected value, receiving a neighbor response that includes a MAC address of a neighbor node, a tier type of the neighbor node and a public key embedded within the neighbor node, wherein the tier type is one of (i) a first tier node being a gateway node that establishes and controls access to an external network, (ii) a second tier node being a stationary wireless node that interconnects a plurality of stationary wireless nodes, and (iii) a third tier node being one of a plurality of mobile wireless nodes that are linked to the second tier node, and identifying the ad hoc network as a wireless home mesh network if the neighbor response is received from a node of the wireless home mesh network.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the stationary home electronics device is one of a digital television, a game console, and a desktop computer.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein one or more stationary home electronics devices wirelessly interconnecting to form a backhaul of the wireless home mesh network

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the stationary nodes further comprise:

streaming logic to wirelessly exchange high definition (HD) video content between the one or more stationary nodes of the wireless home mesh network.