Method and apparatus for a wireless home mesh network with network topology visualizer

• US 7,990,897 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2009
• Issued: 08/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2009
• 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: Bhatnagar, Anuj, Liu, Aixin, Patil, Abhishek, Nguyen, Djung N., Jing, Xiangpeng
• Primary Examiner(s): ABELSON, RONALD B
• Application Number:
  US12/402,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20100232317A1
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/255, 370/328
• US Class Current: 370/255
• 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 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An apparatus and method for a wireless home mesh network with a network topology visualizer is described. In one embodiment, the method may include displaying the network topology of a wireless home mesh network. The mobile nodes and stationary nodes of the wireless home mesh network may wirelessly communicate to share topology information regarding the wireless home mesh network. The topology information may include local connectivity information of a node, such as the direct neighbors of the node and the neighbors'"'"' neighbor information. In one embodiment, the local connectivity information is combined with the received node information to form an interactive global topology map of the wireless home mesh network to display for a user. In another embodiment, the combined topology information may be stored for offline processing. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

collecting, by an electronics device, node connectivity and network topology information regarding mobile nodes and stationary nodes of a wireless home mesh network in response to a transmission of a series of unicast transmissions by an electronic device;

formulating a network topology map of the wireless home mesh network by the electronic device based on the collected node connectivity and network topology information; and

displaying, by the electronics device, the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the node connectivity and network topology information includes information that identifies nodes in direct communications with a node sending one of the series of unicast transmissions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving of the series of unicast transmissions further comprises:

receiving a node topology packet from each node of the wireless home mesh network, each node topology packet including connectivity information for the respective node;

locally storing gathered connectivity information for offline processing; and

compiling connectivity information from each node topology packet to determine the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

discovering the local neighbors of a display node within the wireless home mesh network;

placing the display node on the network topology map;

placing the local neighbors of the display node on the network topology map; and

dynamically re-drawing the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network according to the local connectivity of each node.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

clearing a display window for the network topology map;

assigning coordinates to each node of the wireless home mesh network; and

drawing the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network on the display window.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein collecting further comprises:

compiling each local route table of the mobile nodes and stationary nodes of the wireless home mesh network to determine global network topology information;

logging the global topology information within a trace file that is read by a display engine to dynamically draw a network topology graph.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

displaying a link status of each of the links within the wireless home mesh network.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing historical information regarding the network topology map.

8. A method, comprising:

detecting, by one of a mobile node and a stationary node of a wireless home mesh network, a unicast node topology message from a new node, the node topology message including at least a local routing table of the new node of the wireless home mesh network;

placing the new node within a network topology map of the wireless home mesh network; and

displaying the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

redrawing the network topology map in response to user reconfiguration of the network.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a wireless communications interface;

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

network topology discovery logic to enable exchange by unicast transmissions one or more proprietary messages to discover a topology of a wireless home mesh network including mobile nodes and stationary nodes; and

topology generation logic to compile each node topology packet to determine the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network for subsequent display; and

topology display logic to dynamically re-draw the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network according to a local route table of each node.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus comprises one of a mobile electronics device, a gaming console, and a digital television.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a user interface to display the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network,

wherein the user interface is to detect selection of a node within a network topology map and display additional information regarding the node.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the proprietary message is a node topology packet including a local routing table of a node.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the node topology information includes at least one of a node routing table, a node neighbor table, a node identifier, a node address, a node type, a node network capability, a node service capability, a node power attribute, and a node communication attribute.

16. 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 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 and mobile nodes of the wireless home mesh network are configured to transmit unicast messages including a node topology message to a display node of the wireless home mesh network without being prompted by prior broadcast transmissions, the display node to display a network topology of the wireless home mesh network determined according to received node topology messages.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the stationary home electronics device is one of a digital television, a gaming console, and a desktop computer.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the network topology map is to display one or more stationary home electronics devices wirelessly interconnected to form a backhaul of the wireless home mesh network.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the display node further comprises:

a user interface to dynamically re-draw the network topology map of the wireless home mesh network according to a local route table of each node.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the node topology message includes at least one of a node routing table, a node neighbor table, a node identifier, a node address, a node type, a node network capability, a node service capability, a node power attribute, and a node communication attribute.