System and Method for Transparent Wireless Bridging of Communication Channel Segments

• US 20060274745A1
• Filed: 06/02/2006
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommWorks Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Kiyon, Inc.
• Inventors: Okumoto, Max, Rimmer, James, Edler, John, Gundeti, Siddartha, Nova, Michael, Wang, Weilin
• Granted Patent: US 7,835,372 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/462 LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

Systems and methods for transparent wireless bridging of communication channels are provided. A plurality of wireless bridge devices are each deployed on a wired communication channel segment and listen for traffic to build a table of MAC addresses for the network devices on each respective segment. The bridges also collectively form a wireless mesh network and publish the MAC addresses on the wireless mesh network so each bridge receives MAC address information for every segment. Accordingly, a sending device on a first segment sends a communication to a target device on a second segment. The respective first bridge passes the communication along through the wireless mesh network to the respective second bridge and the first bridge also sends an acknowledgement to the sending device on behalf of the target device. This proxy acknowledgement allows the wireless bridge system to account for potential latency over the wireless mesh network while at the same time complying with latency requirements and meeting or exceeding the overall round-trip time for network communications.

Claims

1. A technical system for bridging a first communication channel with a second communication channel over a communication network, the system comprising:

two or more bridge devices, each bridge device communicatively coupled with one or more network devices via a respective communication channel;

a communication network communicatively coupling the two or more bridge devices;

an address table stored at each of the two or more bridge devices, the address tables being substantially the same and comprising a plurality of entries, wherein each entry comprises a media access control address and an internet protocol address, wherein the media access control address in a first pair is for a network device and the internet protocol address in the first pair is for a bridge device;

wherein a communication received by a bridge device from a network device on a communication channel comprises a target network device media access control address and the communication is sent by the bridge device over the communication network to the internet protocol address paired with the media access control address in the address table.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication network is a wired network.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication network is a wireless network.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the communication network is used for building automation and control.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the communication network implements the BACnet protocol.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the communication network implements the LonTalk protocol.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a first respective communication channel is a direct wired link.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a first respective communication channel is a direct wireless link.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a first respective communication channel is a network.

10. A computer implemented method for bridging a first communication channel having one or more network devices and a bridge device with a second communication channel having one or more network devices and a bridge device, the bridge devices communicatively coupled over a communication network, the method comprising:

receiving a communication at a bridge device on a first communication channel, the communication from a sending network device on the first communication channel and destined for a target network device on a second communication channel;

parsing the communication to obtain a media access control address for the target network device;

identifying an internet protocol address in an address table, wherein the internet protocol address corresponds to the media access control address for the target network device and the internet protocol address identifies a device other than the target network device;

sending the communication to the internet protocol address via the communication network; and

sending a response from the bridge device to the sending network device to avoid a timeout occurring for the communication from the sending network device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising resetting a silence timer on the sending network device after receiving the communication.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising waiting a predetermined period of time prior to sending the response from the bridge device to the sending network device.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is a token communication and the response from the bridge device to the sending network device causes the sending network device to believe that the token was received at the target network device.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is a data expecting reply communication, further comprising delaying a response from the remote device at the bridge device to enable communication over a high-latency link.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the communication is a poll for master communication, further comprising filtering a response to the poll for master communication from the target network device.

16. A computer readable medium having stored thereon a data structure for use in bridging a first communication channel having one or more devices with a second communication channel having one or more devices, wherein the bridge comprises a communication network, the data structure comprising:

a plurality of address pairings, wherein a first address in an address pair comprises a media access control address for a first device on a communication channel and a second address in the address pair comprises an internet protocol address for a second device on the communication channel.

17. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the bridge communication network is a wireless communication network.

18. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the bridge communication network is a wired communication network.

19. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the second device is communicatively coupled to the bridge communication network.

20. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the first communication channel is a network.

21. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the first communication channel is a direct wire communication link.

22. The data structure of claim 16, wherein the second communication channel is a direct wireless communication link.