Automatic reconfiguration of multipoint communication channels
US5805578A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 12, 1996 |
| Grant date | Sep 8, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 12, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L45/48
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method of reconfiguring a multipoint communications channel to reconnect selected nodes after failures occur in the network disclosed. The method for this invention requires that a selected node (leader) participating in the multipoint communication channel act as the coordinator of the re-establishment protocol. The coordinator (leader) monitors the state of network topology to determine failures, recomputes an alternative feasible communication channel path in the case of failure, and generates messages to join new network elements in the multipoint communication channel. By using a novel tree recomputation method that rejoins the disconnected subtrees created by the network failure to the tree containing the coordinator, along with network topology information, the coordinator is able to minimize messaging and preserve the original channel to the maximum possible extent. The invention can be practiced in a network which provides quality-of-service characteristics to multipoint connections, by ensuring that the recomputation of the multipoint communication channel preserves the quality-of-service of the original connection.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.