Patent · US Active

Topology maintenance and discovery facility for downhole networks

US7668117B2 · kind B2 · utility

4Cited by
7References
33Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 25, 2008
Grant dateFeb 23, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 4, 2028

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC E)Fixed Constructions
  • CPC primaryE21B47/12
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An apparatus and method for discovering and monitoring a collection of nodes in a downhole network may include receiving data packets originating from several downhole nodes. These packets may be read to extract a unique identifier and hop count for each of the nodes. This information may then be used to create entries in a network topology table corresponding to each of the downhole nodes. Each entry may contain unique identifier identifying the respective node and a hop count identifying a location of the node within the downhole network. The apparatus and method may further include modifying one or more entries in the topology table having conflicting hop counts to ensure that the hop counts of each entry are unique.

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