Mesh infrastructure utilizing priority repeaters and multiple transceivers
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A wireless network comprising:
- a control node; and
a plurality of communication nodes in wireless communication with the control node, each of the communication nodes having a wireless communication path to the control node that is either a direct path or an indirect path through one or more communication nodes that serve as repeaters,wherein some of the communication nodes are designated as having a priority over other communication nodes with respect to their service as the repeaters, and wherein, for communication nodes that are more than one hop from the control node, the control node establishes wireless communication paths first with said priority communication nodes and subsequently with remaining communication nodes,wherein the wireless network is configurable to operate in a priority repeater mode in which each communication node that is more than one hop from the control node has a wireless communication path to the control node through a closest priority communication node that is a fewer or equal number of hops from the communication node than any other priority communication node.
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Abstract
A wireless mesh network, method, and processor-readable storage medium for using stand-alone repeaters that are designated as having priority over other communication nodes with respect to their service as repeaters are disclosed herein. According to various embodiments, a control node or collector builds a wireless mesh network by first establishing communication paths with the designated priority communication nodes and then with communication nodes that are not designated priority communication nodes.
22 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A wireless network comprising:
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a control node; and a plurality of communication nodes in wireless communication with the control node, each of the communication nodes having a wireless communication path to the control node that is either a direct path or an indirect path through one or more communication nodes that serve as repeaters, wherein some of the communication nodes are designated as having a priority over other communication nodes with respect to their service as the repeaters, and wherein, for communication nodes that are more than one hop from the control node, the control node establishes wireless communication paths first with said priority communication nodes and subsequently with remaining communication nodes, wherein the wireless network is configurable to operate in a priority repeater mode in which each communication node that is more than one hop from the control node has a wireless communication path to the control node through a closest priority communication node that is a fewer or equal number of hops from the communication node than any other priority communication node. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. In a wireless network having a control node that communicates with a plurality of communication nodes, wherein each of the communication nodes has a wireless communication path to the control node that is either a direct path or an indirect path through one or more communication nodes that serve as repeaters, and wherein a first subset of the communication nodes are designated as having a priority over other communication nodes with respect to their service as the repeaters, a method of registering said communication nodes to communicate with said control node, comprising:
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scanning to identify communication nodes within communication range of the control node, wherein the identified communication nodes may include communication nodes within said first subset and communication nodes that are not in said first subset; determining a reliability of communications between said control node and each of the identified communication nodes; registering those communication nodes having a reliability above a predetermined threshold as a first level of communication nodes of the wireless network; and instructing only the first level communication nodes that are part of said first subset to scan to identify other communication nodes of said first subset that are within communication range of the first level communication nodes and repeating the determining, registering and instructing steps at successive levels of the wireless network until all communication nodes in said first subset that have been identified have been registered; repeating said scanning, determining, registering and instructing steps using communication nodes that are not in said first subset; and configuring the wireless network to operate in a priority repeater mode in which each communication node that is more than one hop from the control node has a wireless communication path to the control node through a closest one of said first subset of the communication nodes that is a fewer or equal number of hops from the communication node than any other one of said first subset of the communication nodes. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A wireless network comprising:
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a control node; and a plurality of communication nodes in wireless communication with the control node, each of the communication nodes having a wireless communication path to the control node that is either a direct path or an indirect path through one or more communication nodes that serve as repeaters, wherein some of the communication nodes are designated as having a priority over other communication nodes with respect to their service as the repeaters, and wherein, for communication nodes that are more than one hop from the control node, the control node establishes wireless communication paths first with said priority communication nodes and subsequently with remaining communication nodes, wherein at least one communication node has a first transceiver and a second transceiver, wherein the first transceiver is configured to communicate with the control node using a first set of frequency channels and the second transceiver is configured to communicate with one or more other communication nodes using a second set of frequency channels different from the first set of frequency channels, and wherein the second set of frequency channels comprises a first frequency offset for communicating with another priority communication node and at least one additional frequency offset for communicating with at least one type of metering device. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification