Method, apparatus, system, and article of manufacture for providing distributed convergence nodes in a communication network environment
US8503449B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 15, 2010 |
| Grant date | Aug 6, 2013 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 12, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L45/00
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system, apparatus, article of manufacture, and method provides one or more distributed convergence nodes referred to as “Supernodes”, each of which is embodied as a functional technology component within an application that automatically determines whether said component should become “active” and assume the responsibility of forwarding IP multicast data present on a LAN (which supports IP multicast communication) to a “Routing Supernode” via a WAN (which does not support IP multicast communication). The Routing Supernode, in turn, is responsible for forwarding that traffic to other Supernodes present on other LANs. The traffic sent to and from the Routing Supernode is sent via unicast communication. All Supernodes are responsible not only for forwarding traffic present on their respective LAN across the WAN to a Routing Supernode, but they are also responsible for forwarding traffic received over the WAN from the Routing Supernode onto their own respective LANs. An election process determines which device in a LAN is to operate as a SuperNode.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.