Adaptive topology discovery in communication networks
US7911978B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 29, 2008 |
| Grant date | Mar 22, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 3, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W40/246
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A topology discovery process is used to discover all of the links in an ad hoc network and thereby ascertain the topology of the entire network. One of the nodes of the network, referred to as the coordinator, receives the topology information which can then be used to, for example, distribute a routing table to each other node of the network. The process has a Diffusion phase in which a k-resilient mesh, k>1, is created by propagating a topology request message through the network. Through this process, the nodes obtain information from which they are able to discern their local neighbor information. In a subsequent, Gathering phase, the local neighbor information is reported upstream from a node to its parents in the mesh and thence to the parents' parents and so forth back to the coordinator. The robustness of the Diffusion phase is enhanced by allowing a node to have more than one parent as well as by a number of techniques, including use of a so-called diffusion acknowledgement message. The robustness of the Gathering phase is enhanced by a number of techniques including the use of timeouts that ensure that a node will report its neighbor information upstream even if it never …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.