Automatic association of local area network station addresses with a repeater port
US5179554A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 8, 1991 |
| Grant date | Jan 12, 1993 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 8, 2011 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L45/02
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Automatic tracking of the topology of an extended local area network by augmenting a station address list kept by a bridge with a list of repeater numbers and repeater port numbers. The bridge periodically iterates through its list of stations to select a station address. The selected address table is forwarded to all of the repeaters connected to the bridge. The repeaters watch for the selected address appearing as a source address in a message on one of their ports. If the address is seen, they report the repeater port number back to the bridge. Because the repeaters are interconnected such that a predetermined port number is always used as the common port between repeaters, any possible ambiguities are eliminated.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.