System and method for communicating over mesh networks waveform-enhanced, link-state routing

• US 8,488,589 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2012
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stingray IP Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rudnick, William M., Sherman, Stephen G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ajibade Akonai, Olumide T
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLLIDAY, JAIME MICHELE
• Application Number:
  US13/483,194
• Publication Number:
  US 20120236724A1
• Time in Patent Office: 412 Days
• Field of Search: 370310-351
• US Class Current: 370/351
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/124 using a combination of metrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/32 Flooding denial of service attacks H04L63/1458
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/44 Distributed routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/52 Multiprotocol routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/54 Organization of routing tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/583 Stackable routers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/60 Router architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/30 for proactive routing

Abstract

A communication system includes a plurality of mobile nodes forming a mesh network. A plurality of wireless communication links connect the mobile nodes together. Each mobile node is formed as a communications device and operative for transmitting data packets wirelessly to other mobile nodes via the wireless communications link from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and multiple waveforms.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising:

a plurality of mobile nodes forming a mesh network;

a plurality of wireless communication links connecting the mobile nodes together;

each mobile node comprising a communications device and operative for transmitting data packets wirelessly to other mobile nodes via the wireless communications link from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and multiple waveforms, wherein each node is operative for predicting 1-hop neighboring connectivity using heuristics based on reception characteristics for a received packet on a base waveform that is chosen from the multiple waveforms wherein at least one of the multiple waveforms has a different range, transmission distance or reach that is greater than the other multiple waveforms resulting in different connectivity.

2. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein each mobile node is operative using multiple link state routing processes operating in parallel at a mobile node for each waveform.

3. The communications system according to claim 2, wherein each mobile node is operative for transmitting and receiving separate HELLO and topology control messages per waveform.

4. The communications system according to claim 1, and further comprising a network connectivity model at each mobile node for each waveform.

5. The communications system according to claim 4, and further comprising a routing table at each mobile node that defines wireless routes for multiple network connectivity models based on routing criteria.

6. The communications system according to claim 5, wherein said routing criteria comprises one or more of at least a minimum number of hops, minimum end-to-end latency, maximum data throughput, congestion avoidance, minimum power consumption, a minimum bandwidth and dropped packets per route.

7. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein each mobile node is operative using a single link state routing process for all waveforms by transmitting separate HELLO messages to 1-hop neighbors and flooding one topology control message per waveform.

8. The communications system according to claim 7, and further comprising a routing table at each node that segregates link state information for each 1-hop neighbor by waveform.

9. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein said reception characteristics comprise a received signal-to-noise ratio.

10. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein said link state routing protocol comprises an Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol.

11. The communications system according to claim 1, wherein the multiple waveforms have different ranges.

12. A communications system, comprising:

a plurality of wireless nodes forming a mesh network;

a plurality of wireless communication links connecting the mobile nodes together;

each wireless node comprising a communications device and operative for transmitting data packets wirelessly to other nodes via the wireless communications link from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and a base waveform that is chosen from multiple waveforms wherein at least one of the multiple waveforms has a different range, transmission distance or reach that is greater than the other multiple waveforms resulting in different connectivity by predicting 1-hop neighborhood connectivity based on a heuristic regarding packet reception characteristics and waveform performance.

13. A communications system according to claim 12, wherein a 1-hop neighborhood connectivity is predicted for each non-base waveform.

14. A communications system according to claim 12, wherein each 1-hop neighborhood for each waveform of a mobile node is distributed via a single topology control message.

15. The communications system according to claim 12, and further comprising a network connectivity model at each mobile node for each waveform.

16. The communications system according to claim 15, and further comprising a routing table at each mobile node defined by network connectivity models.

17. The communications system according to claim 12, wherein said link state routing protocol comprises an Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol.

18. A method for communicating, comprising:

forming a mesh network from a plurality of mobile nodes;

transmitting a data packet across the mesh network from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and multiple waveforms; and

predicting 1-hop neighboring connectivity using heuristics based on reception characteristics for a received packet on a base waveform that is chosen from the multiple waveforms wherein at least one of the multiple waveforms has a different range, transmission distance or reach that is greater than the other multiple waveforms resulting in different connectivity.

19. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises using multiple link state routing processes operating in parallel at a mobile node for each waveform.

20. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises transmitting separate HELLO and topology control messages per waveform.

21. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises building a network connectivity model at each mobile node.

22. The method according to claim 21, which further comprises building a routing table at each mobile node that defines wireless routes for multiple network connectivity models based on routing criteria.

23. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises transmitting separate HELLO messages to 1-hop neighbors and flooding one topology control message per waveform.

24. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises predicting 1-hop neighborhood connectivity based on heuristics regarding packet reception characteristics and waveform performance.

25. The method according to claim 18, which further comprises distributing each 1-hop neighborhood for each waveform via a single topology control message.