Patent · US Expired

Self-configuring source-aware bridging for noisy media

US6577630B1 · kind B1 · utility

41Cited by
13References
17Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 4, 2000
Grant dateJun 10, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 30, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L12/462
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A source-aware bridging scheme for supporting bridging between a noisy (“unreliable”) network and another, reliable network. Each device connected to the medium of the unreliable network includes a source-aware MAC that maintains a Bridge Proxy Destination Address list (BPDAlist) of all destination addresses that reside on the other network and are reached by a bridge. The BPDAlist information can be learned by the source-aware MAC during a frame receive and/or received during a channel estimation cycle. The list associates destination addresses with the address of the particular bridge through which the destination addresses are accessed. The bridge serves as a proxy with respect to those destination addresses and thus maintains its own list of the destination addresses for which it serves as proxy, or, IAPlist. The IAPlist can be learned, or passed down to the source-aware MAC from a learning bridge process or from the local host to which the device is coupled. The source-aware MAC in each device, including the bridge, supports bridge proxy processing functions. If the device receives a frame intended for transmit and the destination address is a bridged address (that…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.