System and method for high throughput communication in a mesh hybrid network

• US 8,995,454 B2
• Filed: 01/11/2011
• Issued: 03/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Iotive Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mobix Wireless Solutions Ltd.
• Inventors: Hemli, Ronel, Appelbaum, Ofir
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Jr., Michael J
• Application Number:
  US13/004,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20120177057A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,540 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/406
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/121 by minimising delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/1283 with disjoint links
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/48 Routing tree calculation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/193 at the transport layer, e.g. TCP related
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

System and method for increasing throughput and reducing the transmission delay in a hybrid mesh network. The hybrid mesh network including a plurality of physical mediums and a plurality of nodes linked over the plurality of physical mediums to form at least one route including a retransmitting node, linked over one physical medium with a preceding node and over other physical medium with a following node. The network is configured such that there is no link on anyone of the physical mediums between the preceding node and the following node, and each two nodes of the route with a link on one of the physical mediums do not have any links on the same physical medium with any other of nodes in the route. This enables the retransmitting node to start retransmitting a message received from the preceding node to the following node before completing receiving the message.

Claims

1. A hybrid mesh network, the network comprising:

two different types of shared physical mediums; and

a plurality of nodes linked over said physical mediums to form at least one ultimate throughput mesh hybrid (UTMH) route comprising a plurality of retransmitting nodes, each linked over a first physical medium with a corresponding first node and over a second physical medium with a corresponding second node, and each configured to start retransmitting a message received over one of the physical mediums over the other physical medium before completing receiving the message;

wherein there is no link on any of said physical mediums between said first node and said second node, and

wherein each two nodes of said at least one UTMH route which are linked on one of said physical mediums do not have any links on the same physical medium with any other of said nodes in said at least one UTMH route.

2. The network of claim 1, wherein said retransmitting nodes are configured to start retransmitting a message received from said first node over said first physical medium to said second node over said second physical medium before completing receiving the message.

3. The network of claim 1, wherein said nodes to build a tree of said at least one UTMH route in the network based on topology of the network and on available links in the two separate physical mediums between the nodes.

4. The network of claim 1, further comprising:

a master device to build a tree of said at least one UTMH route in the network based on topology of the network and on available links in the two separate physical mediums between the nodes and to communicate data indicative of the tree to the nodes.

5. The network of claim 1, wherein routes are to be calculated by:

assigning a weight of 1 to each link in each of said at least one UTMH route;

assigning a weight equivalent to average message length to all other links in the network; and

solving a single-source shortest route problem for a graph with nonnegative edge route costs.

10. The network of claim 1, wherein said first physical medium is power line communication (PLC) physical medium and said second physical medium is a radio frequency (RF) physical medium.

6. A method for high throughput communication in a mesh hybrid network comprising two different types of shared physical mediums and a plurality of nodes, the method comprising:

linking a plurality of retransmitting nodes, each with a corresponding first node over a first physical medium and with a corresponding second node over a second physical medium to form at least one ultimate throughput mesh hybrid (UTMH) route, wherein each of said retransmitting nodes is configured to start retransmitting a message received over one of the physical mediums over the other physical medium before completing receiving the message

wherein there is no link on any of said physical mediums between said first node and said second node, wherein each two nodes of said at least one UTMH route with a link on one of said physical mediums do not have any links on the same physical medium with any other of said nodes in said at least one UTMH route.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

start retransmitting a message received from said first node over said first physical medium to said second node over said second physical medium before completing receiving the message.

8. The method of claim 6, comprising:

building a tree of said at least one UTMH route in the network based on topology of the network and on available links in the two separate physical mediums between the nodes; and

communicating data indicative of the tree to the nodes.

9. The method of claim 6, comprising:

assigning a weight of 1 to each link in each of said at least one UTMH route;

assigning a weight equivalent to average message length to all other links in the network; and

solving a single-source shortest route problem for a graph with nonnegative edge route costs.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein said first physical medium is power line communication (PLC) physical medium and said second physical medium is a radio frequency (RF) physical medium.