Adaptive recovery from node failures in a network system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10680876-B2
Application number	US-201615543331-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 7, 2016
Priority date	Jan 14, 2015
Publication date	Jun 9, 2020
Grant date	Jun 9, 2020

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for failure recovery in a network system, wherein a linked list is created, where each network node knows the network address of its neighbor node in at least one direction, wherein each network node sends a beacon to its neighbor node and has its neighbor node acknowledge receipt of the beacon, and wherein a network node checks with a switch device the port status of a port to which a neighbor node that has failed is connected in order to identify a replacement node.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A network system for enabling failure recovery, comprising:
a network node, wherein the network node comprises a memory and a first hardware processor that is configured to:
create a logic link to at least one neighbor node in at least one of an upstream and downstream direction of the neighbor node by storing in said memory network information including at least an address and port identification of the neighbor node, wherein the neighbor node is connected to a switch device and wherein the port identification is an identification of a port of said switch device to which the neighbor node is connected;
send a first beacon signal from the network node to the neighbor node;
check for a receipt of an acknowledgement signal from the neighbor node, said acknowledgement signal acknowledging receipt by the neighbor node of the first beacon signal;
check, based on the port identification, a status of the port of said switch device to which the neighbor node is connected, if no acknowledgement signal has been received by the network node in response to the first beacon, signal for a predetermined time period, wherein the status of the port of the switch device at least indicates an address of a given node connected to the port;
determine based on the checked status of the port whether the neighbor node has been replaced, wherein the processor determines that the neighbor node has been replaced by determining that the address of the given node connected to the port is different from the address of the neighbor node stored in the network node; and
automatically configure the given node in response to the determination that the neighbor node has been replaced,
wherein the network system further comprises the given node and an additional node, wherein the additional node comprises a second hardware processor that is configured to receive, from the neighbor node, a second beacon signal comprising data defining a configuration of the neighbor node and wherein the given node is configured in accordance with said configuration.

2. The network system according to claim 1 , wherein the network information includes at least one of an address of the switch device, a network layer address, or a link layer address.

3. The network system according to claim 1 , wherein the network node comprises a luminaire device, and wherein the first beacon signal comprises at least one of a link layer address of the network node, a current control mode, a lighting scene or a sensor datum.

4. The network system according to claim 1 , wherein the first hardware processor is configured to establish a temporary logic link with a particular node, which is a neighbor of the neighbor node, in the at least one of the upstream and downstream direction by sending a multicast signal within a group of nodes, if no acknowledgement signal has been received from the neighbor node in response to the first beacon signal for the predetermined time period, and by building up a temporary link list when the network node receives a reply from the particular node.

5. The network system according to claim 1 , wherein said address of the neighbor node is a link layer address and wherein said first hardware processor is configured to request a link layer address from a link layer address table of the switch device and to determine based on a received link layer address whether the neighbor node has been replaced or not.

6. The network system according to claim 5 , wherein said first hardware processor is configured to convert the received link layer address into a network layer address or to check an address resolution protocol table for an assigned network layer address, to copy configuration information of the network node to the given node, to update neighbor information on the given node, and to change neighbor information of the network node with network information of the given node, if the first hardware processor has determined that the neighbor node has been replaced.

7. The network system according to claim 1 , further comprising a luminaire device, wherein said network system comprises a lighting network.

8. The network system according to claim 1 , wherein the network node is a first network node and wherein the network system comprises comprising a plurality of network nodes, which includes said first network node, and said switch device, which comprises a plurality of respective ports to which said plurality of network nodes are connected.

9. The network system according to claim 8 , wherein respective hardware processors of the plurality of network nodes are adapted to create logic links so as to set up a logical circular linked list.

10. A method of enabling failure recovery in a network system, the method comprising:
creating a logic link to at least one neighbor node in at least one of an upstream and downstream direction of the neighbor node by storing network information including at least an address and a port identification of the neighbor node, wherein the neighbor node is connected to a switch device and wherein the port identification is an identification of a port of said switch device to which the neighbor node is connected;
receiving from the neighbor node a first beacon signal comprising data defining a configuration of the neighbor node;
sending a second beacon signal from a network node to the neighbor node;
checking at the network node for a receipt of an acknowledgement signal from the neighbor node, said acknowledgement signal acknowledging receipt by the neighbor node of the second beacon signal;
checking at the network node based on the port identification a status of the port of said switch device to which the neighbor node is connected;
if no acknowledgement signal has been received by the network node in response to the second beacon signal for a predetermined time period, wherein the status of the port of the switch device at least indicates an address of a given node connected to the port;
determining at the network node based on the checked status of the port that the neighbor node has been replaced by determining that the address of the given node connected to the port is different from the stored address of the neighbor node; and
automatically configuring the given node in accordance with said configuration in response to the determination that the neighbor node has been replaced.

11. A non-transitory storage medium comprising a code of instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of claim 10 .

Assignees

• Signify Holding Bv

Inventors

• Chen Jinyun
• Zhang Shengli

Classifications

• H05B47/175

  by remote control · CPC title

• H04L41/0659 Primary

  by isolating or reconfiguring faulty entities · CPC title

• H04L41/0803

  Configuration setting · CPC title

• H04L43/0817 Primary

  by checking functioning · CPC title

• H05B47/199

  Commissioning of light sources · CPC title