Processing mesh communications

• US 9,910,976 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2014
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Williamson, Paul Nicholas, Graube, Nicolas Guy Albert, Heydon, Robin
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): AGUREYEV, VLADISLAV Y
• Application Number:
  US14/505,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20150245220A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/14 Relay systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/71 Wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/14 Network analysis or design
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0852 Delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/115 using a dedicated packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/16 in connection oriented networks, e.g. frame relay
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/1584 Full Mesh, e.g. knockout
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0853 using an additional device, e.g. smartcard, SIM or a different communication terminal cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving additional secure or trusted devices H04L9/3234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 : Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0861 : Generation of secret information including derivation or calculation of cryptographic keys or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 : Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 : Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/77 : Graphical identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 : Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/06 : Testing, supervising or monitoring using simulated traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 : Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 : Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0251 : using monitoring of local events, e.g. events related to user activity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/38 : TPC being performed in particular situations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 : Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 : Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 : Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 10/40 : Controlling or monitoring, e.g. of flood or hurricane; Forecasting, e.g. risk assessment or mapping
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A communication device comprising: a first processing function for performing protocol processing of received datagrams; a second processing function for performing protocol processing for received datagrams at a higher level than the first processing function; and a power controller; the device being configured such that the power controller can place the second processing function in a low power state while the first processing function remains capable of performing protocol processing of received datagrams; and the first processing function comprising a mesh datagram processing function configured to process datagrams of a mesh protocol by analyzing received datagrams of the mesh protocol, determining a subset of those datagrams for retransmission, and causing the device to retransmit the determined ones of those datagrams.

Claims

1. A communication device comprising:

a first processing circuit configured to process received packets according to a mesh protocol by computing a value of a security function based on a payload of a respective one of the received packets and a stored key of a mesh sub-network of which the communication device is a member;

a second processing circuit configured to process at least a first one of the received packets at a higher protocol layer than the first processing circuit; and

a power controller coupled with the first and second processing circuits and configured to place the second processing circuit in a low power state while the first processing circuit remains in an operational state;

wherein the first processing circuit is configured to retransmit at least a second one of the received packets to another device according to the mesh protocol while the second processing circuit is in the low power state, the retransmitting based at least in part on a match between the computed value of the security function and a Message Authentication Code (MAC) field of the respective packet.

2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to demodulate signals representing the received packets.

3. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to perform error correction and error checking on signals representing the received packets.

4. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit implements a protocol physical layer and a protocol data link layer of the communication device.

5. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the second processing circuit implements a protocol application layer of the communication device.

6. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit resides in a first power domain, the second processing circuit resides in a second power domain, and power consumption of each of the first and second power domains is independently controllable by the power controller.

7. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit comprises hardware logic, and the second processing circuit comprises a processor configured to execute instructions stored in a non-transient memory of the communication device.

8. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to determine whether each of the received packets comprises a mesh protocol packet.

9. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to determine whether to pass the first one of the received packets to the second processing circuit for protocol application layer processing based, at least in part, on a mesh network address stored in the communication device.

10. The communication device of claim 9, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to further:

pass the first one of the received packets to the second processing circuit based on a match between a payload of the first one of the received packets and the mesh network address stored in the communication device.

11. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to further:

determine whether a time-to-life (TTL) value of the second one of the received packets is greater than a threshold;

retransmit the second one of the received packets to the other device if the TTL value is greater than the threshold; and

update the TLL value of the second one of the received packets.

12. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to retransmit the second one of the received packets to the other device based on a power reserve of the communication device.

13. The communication device of claim 1, the first processing circuit configured to operate in a first mode and a second mode, wherein:

when operating in the first mode, the first processing circuit is to retransmit the received packets to the other device in accordance with the mesh protocol; and

when operating in the second mode, the first processing circuit is to pass the received packets to the second processing circuit.

14. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is configured to pass received packets not associated with the mesh protocol to the second processing circuit.

15. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the first processing circuit is to retransmit the second one of the received packets to the other device by:

determining whether the second one of the received packets matches a list of previously received packets; and

retransmitting the second one of the received packets if there is not a match with the list of previously received packets.

16. A method for processing packets received by a communication device, the method comprising:

processing the received packets according to a mesh protocol using a first processing circuit of the communication device by computing a value of a security function based on a payload of a respective one of the received packets and a stored key of a mesh sub-network of which the communication device is a member;

processing at least a first one of the received packets at a higher protocol layer than the first processing circuit using a second processing circuit of the communication device;

placing the second processing circuit in a low power state while the first processing circuit remains in an operational state; and

retransmitting at least a second one of the received packets to another device according to the mesh protocol using the first processing circuit while the second processing circuit is in the low power state, the retransmitting based at least in part on a match between the computed value of the security function and a Message Authentication Code (MAC) field of the respective packet.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first processing circuit implements a protocol physical layer and a protocol data link layer of the communication device, and the second processing circuit implements a protocol application layer of the communication device.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the retransmitting comprises:

retransmitting the second one of the received packets to the other device based on a power reserve of the communication device.