Method and apparatus for a wireless home mesh network with network topology visualizer

• US 8,824,336 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2011
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Jing, Xiangpeng, Patil, Abhishek, Bhatnagar, Anuj, Liu, Aixin, Nguyen, Djung N.
• Primary Examiner(s): ABELSON, RONALD B
• Application Number:
  US13/191,328
• Publication Number:
  US 20110280156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,134 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/255, 370/328
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/248 Connectivity information update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An apparatus and method for a wireless home mesh network with a network topology visualizer is described. In one embodiment, the method may include collecting node topology information by a node of a wireless home mesh network, where the node topology information includes a list of neighbor nodes for the node. Thereafter, a communication socket is opened, and a node topology packet, including a lust of neighbor nodes, is transmitted in order to produce a global network topology map. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one computer readable medium accessible to the processor to configure the processor for;

exchanging one or more messages to discover a topology of a wireless home mesh network including mobile nodes and at least one stationary node;

determining whether a node topology packet has been received from each node of the wireless home mesh network, a node topology packet including local neighbors of a mesh node sending the node topology packet;

filtering the node topology packets according to a route table of a display node, node topology packets whose entries are not present in the route table of the display node being deleted;

using each of the node topology packets to create a visualizer file readable by a mesh visualizer tool, node connectivity information including local neighbors of a node being compiled as node topology packets are received from each node of the network to establish a global network topology map of the network;

presenting an interactive mesh topology map based on the global network topology map, a display window being reset while nodes and connections are deleted according to a local list, the mesh topology map being gradually increased as further neighbors of the display node, as well as remote nodes, are added to network topology;

determining whether a detected node is detected for a first time; and

responsive to detecting a detected node for the first time, assigning coordinates to the detected node according to the discovery of a first neighbor for the detected node.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises one of a mobile electronics device, a gaming console, and a digital television.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message of the one or more messages includes a node topology packet including the local route table for one of the mobile nodes.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message of the one or more messages includes a node name and a node address being one of an Internet Protocol Address or a Media Access Control address.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message of the one or more messages includes a node network capability that includes quality-of-service priority for one of the mobile nodes.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message of the one or more messages includes a node service capability that identifies if one of the mobile nodes supports video, voice or data streaming.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message of the one or more messages includes a node power attribute that identifies a battery level for one of the mobile nodes.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message of the one or more messages includes a node communication attribute that identifies a radio type for one of the mobile nodes.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the message of the one or more messages includes a node type that identifies a tier level of a mobile node of the mobile nodes that provided the message.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor configure the processor to detect a selection by an input device of a node on the network topology map presented on the display, and display additional information regarding the node responsive to the selection.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor configure the processor receive from user input a drag and drop of a node on the map from a first location on the map to a second location on the map.

12. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one computer readable medium accessible to the processor to configure the processor for;

exchanging one or more messages to discover a topology of a wireless home mesh network including mobile nodes and at least one stationary node;

determining whether a node topology packet has been received from each node of the wireless home mesh network, a node topology packet including local neighbors of a mesh node sending the node topology packet;

filtering the node topology packets according to a route table of a display node, node topology packets whose entries are not present in the route table of the display node being deleted;

using each of the node topology packets to create a visualizer file readable by a mesh visualizer tool, node connectivity information including local neighbors of a node being compiled as node topology packets are received from each node of the network to establish a global network topology map of the network;

presenting an interactive mesh topology map based on the global network topology map, a display window being reset while nodes and connections are deleted according to a local list, the mesh topology map being gradually increased as further neighbors of the display node, as well as remote nodes, are added to network topology;

determining whether a detected node is detected for a first time; and

responsive to detecting a detected node for the first time, assigning coordinates to the detected node according to the discovery of a first neighbor for the detected node.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the message includes a node topology packet including a local route table for the first node.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the message includes a node name and a node address being one of an Internet Protocol Address or a Media Access Control address.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the message includes a node network capability that includes quality-of-service priority for the first node.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the message includes a node service capability that identifies if the first node supports video, voice or data streaming.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the message includes a node power attribute that identifies a battery level for the first nodes.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the message includes a node communication attribute that identifies a radio type for the first node.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor configure the processor to detect a selection by an input device of a node on the network topology map presented on the display, and display additional information regarding the node responsive to the selection.