System and method for communication in a wireless mobile ad-hoc network
First Claim
1. A method of communicating in an ad-hoc network, comprising:
- providing at least one portable network device including a transceiver and a processor that implements a data communication protocol to communicate communications data to other network devices through one or more network ports connected to the other network devices in the ad-hoc network, the communications data being divided into data packets, and each data packet being encoded with a protocol header that includes the packet'"'"'s source address and cost information;
detecting an incoming data packet received by the portable network device;
identifying an ingress port on which the data packet was received;
reading the packet'"'"'s source address and cost information;
comparing the packet'"'"'s source address, cost information, and ingress port with source address, cost information, and ingress port stored in a bridge table in the portable network device to determine retransmission parameters for each data packet;
determining based on the retransmission parameters whether the data packet should be dropped or retransmitted through one or more of the network ports of the portable network device and processing the data packet accordingly; and
determining whether lower cost routing is available for packets to the source based on the results of said comparing step and, if so, storing new cost and routing information associated with the lower cost routing in the bridge table.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for improving digital communication in a wireless mobile ad-hoc network. More specifically, the system includes one or more portable network devices operable to support the seamless operation of a self-initializing, self-healing, adaptive portable network. The portable network devices implement protocols that provide bandwidth management capabilities for use with radios, routers and other wireless network devices. Each portable network device includes at least one wireless transceiver, a processor and control software. The processor and control software are logically coupled to the wireless transceiver to facilitate digital communication via a plurality of communication channels with other network devices.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method of communicating in an ad-hoc network, comprising:
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providing at least one portable network device including a transceiver and a processor that implements a data communication protocol to communicate communications data to other network devices through one or more network ports connected to the other network devices in the ad-hoc network, the communications data being divided into data packets, and each data packet being encoded with a protocol header that includes the packet'"'"'s source address and cost information; detecting an incoming data packet received by the portable network device; identifying an ingress port on which the data packet was received; reading the packet'"'"'s source address and cost information; comparing the packet'"'"'s source address, cost information, and ingress port with source address, cost information, and ingress port stored in a bridge table in the portable network device to determine retransmission parameters for each data packet; determining based on the retransmission parameters whether the data packet should be dropped or retransmitted through one or more of the network ports of the portable network device and processing the data packet accordingly; and determining whether lower cost routing is available for packets to the source based on the results of said comparing step and, if so, storing new cost and routing information associated with the lower cost routing in the bridge table. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An ad-hoc mesh network, comprising:
a portable network device that includes; at least one wireless transceiver and a processor that performs stored program steps to operate the portable mesh network device as a node in the ad-hoc mesh network by implementing a data communication protocol that communicates communications data to other mesh network devices in the ad-hoc mesh network through one or more mesh network ports, the communications data being divided into data packets, and each data packet being encoded with a protocol header that includes the packet'"'"'s source address and cost information; and a bridge table that identifies known mesh network devices and cost information for data transmissions to the known mesh network devices, the processor being configured to detect an incoming data packet received by the portable network device, identify an ingress port on which the data packet was received, read the packet'"'"'s source address and cost information, compare the packet'"'"'s source address, cost information, and ingress port with source address, cost information, and ingress port stored in the bridge table to determine retransmission parameters for each data packet, determine based on the retransmission parameters whether the data packet should be dropped or retransmitted through one or more of the network ports of the portable network device and process the data packet accordingly; and determine whether lower cost routing is available for packets to the source based on the results of said comparison and, if so, storing new cost and routing information associated with the lower cost routing in the bridge table. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An ad-hoc mesh network, comprising:
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a portable network device that includes; at least one wireless transceiver and a processor that performs stored program steps to operate the portable mesh network device as a node in the ad-hoc mesh network by implementing a data communication protocol that communicates communications data to other mesh network devices in the ad-hoc mesh network through one or more mesh network ports, the communications data being divided into data packets, and each data packet being encoded with a protocol header that includes packet source and cost information; and a bridge table that identifies known mesh network devices and cost information for data transmissions to the known mesh network devices; wherein the processor is configured to compare the packet source and cost information in the data packet with corresponding information in the bridge table to determine whether lower cost routing is available for transmitting data packets to the source and, if so, to store new cost and routing information associated with the lower cost routing in the bridge table; wherein implementation of the data communication protocol causes each mesh network device in the ad-hoc mesh network to determine retransmission parameters for each data packet, the retransmission parameters establishing whether the data packet should be dropped or retransmitted to other mesh network devices in the ad-hoc mesh network and through which mesh network port the data packet should be retransmitted; wherein the protocol header further includes destination information; wherein the bridge table further identifies at least one mesh network device with a source address that corresponds to the packet source information and at least one mesh network device with a destination address that corresponds to the packet destination information; wherein each mesh network device in the ad-hoc mesh network is configured to compare the packet destination information with corresponding information in the bridge table in that mesh network device to determine if the destination address is at least one of broadcast, multicast, or local and to update the retransmission parameters so that the destination information identifies a data packet as undeliverable when the destination address is not at least one of broadcast, multicast, or local; wherein the processor of the portable network device sends the data packet back to the at least one mesh network device with the source address that corresponds to the packet source information via a mesh network port through which the data packet was received when the destination information identifies that data packet as undeliverable; and wherein a processor at the at least one mesh network device with the source address that corresponds to the packet source information that updates its bridge table to remove the destination address when the destination information identifies that data packet as undeliverable. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification