Method for operating a gateway in a hierarchical heterogeneous network by comparing offer messages and search messages received at the gateway regarding a service to determine if the messages relate to the same service and forwarding search messages that do not relate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10375151-B2
Application number	US-201615244282-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 23, 2016
Priority date	Aug 26, 2015
Publication date	Aug 6, 2019
Grant date	Aug 6, 2019

Abstract

A gateway, operable in a hierarchical heterogeneous network, includes at least two interfaces of which at least one is connectable to a lower network level, and the communication protocols in the network provide a message for offering a service and a message for searching for a service, receipt of a message coming in from a lower network level in the gateway at an interface for offering a service, and/or an item of information identifying the offered service, is noted in the interface receiving this message or in a management unit assigned thereto, and receipt of a message from a lower network level in the gateway at an interface for searching for a service and/or an item of information identifying the sought service is noted in the interface or management unit, and if the messages relate to the same service, a message for the service availability is sent via the interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating a gateway in a hierarchical heterogeneous network, the method comprising:
receiving, by the gateway, at a first interface of the gateway that interfaces to a first subnetwork, a message for offering a service, the message for offering the service coming in from the first subnetwork, the message for offering the service including an indication of an offered service, the first subnetwork being a network level that is lower in a hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway;
storing, by the gateway, in the first interface or in a management unit assigned to the first interface, an indication which (i) indicates receipt of the message for offering the service, and/or (ii) identifies the offered service;
receiving, by the gateway, at a second interface of the gateway that interfaces to a second subnetwork, a message for searching for a service, the message for searching for the service coming in from the second subnetwork, the message for searching for the service including an indication of a sought service, the second subnetwork being different than the first subnetwork, the second network being at a network level that is lower in the hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway;
storing, in the second interface or in a management unit assigned to the second interface, an indication which (i) indicates receipt of a message coming in from a lower network level in the gateway at an interface for searching for a service, and/or (ii)-identifies the sought service;
comparing, by the gateway, the offered service with the sought service;
determining, by the gateway based on the comparing, whether or not the offered service and the sought service relate to the same service;
based on the determining, when the offered service and the sought service relate to the same service, sending, by the gateway, a message relating to the availability of the service to the second subnetwork via the second interface; and
based on the determining, when the offered service and the sought service do not relate to the same service, forwarding, by the gateway, the message for searching for a service to a third subnetwork via a third interface, the third subnetwork being at a network level that is higher in the hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing the first interface or the management unit assigned to the first interface an address of a node that sent the message for offering a service which was received by the gateway.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the message for searching for a service and/or the message for offering a service is sent repeatedly by the node at regular intervals.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of: (i) the indication stored in the first interface or in a management unit assigned to the first interface, and/or (ii) the indication stored in the second interface or in the management use assigned to the second interface are provided with a temporal validity.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein based on the determining that the offered service and the sought service relate to the same service, the message for searching for a service is not forwarded by the gateway to a higher network level.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein in the sending step, the message relating to the availability of a service is sent to the second subnetwork via the second interface as a multicast, broadcast, or unicast.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein when the offered service and the sought service relate to the same service, the gateway sends the message relating to the availability of the service only to the second subnetwork, and when the offered service and the sought service do not relate to the same service, the gateway sends the message relating to the availability of the service only to the third subnetwork.

8. A method for operating a gateway in a hierarchical heterogeneous network, the method comprising:
receiving, by the gateway, at a first interface of the gateway that interfaces to a first subnetwork, a message for offering a service, the message for offering the service coming in from the first subnetwork, the message for offering a service including an indication of an offered service, the first subnetwork being at a network level that is lower in a hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway;
storing, by the gateway, in the first interface or in a management unit assigned to the first interface, an indication which (i) indicates receipt of the message for offering a service, and/or (ii) identifies the offered service;
receiving, by the gateway, at a second interface of the gateway that interfaces to a second subnetwork, a message for searching for a service, the message for searching a service coming in from the second subnetwork, the message for searching for a service including an indication of a sought service, the second subnetwork being different than the first subnetwork, the second subnetwork being at a network level that is lower in the hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway;
storing, in the second interface or in a management unit assigned to the second interface, an indication which (i) indicates receipt of a message coming in from a lower network level in the gateway at an interface for searching for a service, and/or (ii)-identifies the sought service;
comparing, by the gateway, the offered service with the sought service;
determining, by the gateway based on the comparing, that the offered service and the sought service do not relate to the same service; and
based on the determining that the offered service and the sought service do not relate to the same service, forwarding, by the gateway, the message for searching for a service to a third subnetwork via a third interface, the third subnetwork being at a network level that is higher in the hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein at least one of the message for offering a service or the message for searching for a service contain an item of information on the basis of which it is determined to which region of the hierarchical heterogeneous network the at least one of the message for offering a service or the message for searching for the service is forwarded.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein a plurality of messages for searching for a service and/or a plurality of messages for offering a service received by the gateway within a specifiable time interval are collected and are then forwarded to the third network within a common message.

11. The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein based on the determining that the offered service and the sought service do not relate to the same service, the gateway forwards the message for searching for a service only to the third subnetwork.

12. A gateway device including hardware, the gateway device being configured for operating in a hierarchical heterogeneous network, the gateway device including a first interface for connecting to a first subnetwork, the first subnetwork being at a network level in a hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway device, and including a second interface for connected to a second subnetwork, the second subnetwork being at network level in the hierarchy of the hierarchical heterogeneous network than the gateway device, the first subnetwork being different than the second subnetwork, the gateway device configured to:
receive, at the first interface, a message for offering a service, the message for offering the service

Assignees

• Bosch Gmbh Robert

Inventors

• Poehnl Michael
• Wagner Marco Andreas
• Lothspeich Timo

Classifications

• H04L61/2007

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/10 Primary

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L12/02 Primary

  Details · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title