Creation of a wireless mesh network among proximately located wireless devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10856202-B2
Application number	US-201514797195-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2015
Priority date	Jul 13, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2020
Grant date	Dec 1, 2020

Abstract

A wireless device receives a packet from a sender node according to a routing protocol and determines a position information of the sender node. The wireless device calculates a distance to the sender node from the wireless device and discards the packet if the distance is outside of a range. Otherwise, the packet is processed according to the routing protocol. As a result, the approach may be suited to testing type environments where the wireless devices are proximately placed and yet one may wish to simulate real-world distances between the wireless devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed in a wireless device, said method comprising:
receiving a packet from a sender node that is in a real-world environment according to a routing protocol, wherein said wireless device is one node in a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes are all within a communication range of each other, the plurality of nodes communicate in a manner that treats messages according to a routing protocol of a a test environment, wherein said sender node is located at a distance within a wireless transmission range of said wireless device, and wherein said real-world environment includes all nodes that are within a wireless transmission range of said wireless device and wherein said real-world;
determining a position information of said sender node;
calculating a distance to said sender node from said wireless device, wherein said distance is in X, Y, Z coordinates; and
if said distance to said sender node from said wireless device is within said communication range of said wireless device, then processing said packet according to said routing protocol in said test environment, else discarding said packet;
wherein said position information of said sender node and said distance are part of a medium access control (MAC) address of said sender node, wherein said MAC address is part of said packet received from said sender node, said determining comprises: examining said MAC address in said packet for said position information of said sender node.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: maintaining, in said wireless device, a position information for said wireless device, wherein said distance is calculated based on said position information of said sender node and said position information of said wireless device.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said maintaining comprises: receiving said position information of said wireless device from a user; and storing said position information in a memory contained in said wireless device, wherein said examining retrieves said position information from memory and said calculating is performed using the retrieved position information.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein said position information is in the form of Cartesian coordinates, and said distance is the spatial distance between Cartesian coordinates of said sender node and that of said wireless device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, in said wireless device, a value representing a signal strength with which said packet is received; and
modifying said value for said packet based on said distance to said sender node and providing said modified value to a routing adapter layer, wherein said routing adapter layer is designed to choose a parent node from a plurality of parent nodes based on signal strengths of packets received from each of the parent node, wherein providing said modified value causes said routing adapter layer to select one of said plurality of parent nodes as said parent node based on said modified value.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
overwriting at least one bit in said packet by a simulation layer, thereby generating an error packet;
forwarding said error packet to a higher layer in said wireless device for further processing; and
generating an error by said higher layer while processing said error packet.

7. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for enabling a wireless device to process packets, wherein execution of said one or more instructions by one or more processors contained in said wireless device said wireless device to perform the actions of:
receiving a packet from a sender node that is in a real-world environment according to a routing protocol, wherein said wireless device is one node in a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes are all within a communication range of each other, the plurality of nodes communicate in a manner that treats messages according to a routing protocol of a a test environment, wherein said sender node is located at a distance within a wireless transmission range of said wireless device, and wherein said real-world environment includes all nodes that are within a wireless transmission range of said wireless device and wherein said real-world;
determining a position information of said sender node;
calculating a distance to said sender node from said wireless device, wherein said distance is in X, Y, Z coordinates; and
if said distance to said sender node from said wireless device is within said communication range of said wireless device, then processing said packet according to said routing protocol in said test environment, else discarding said packet;
wherein said position information of said sender node and said distance are part of a medium access control (MAC) address of said sender node, wherein said MAC address is part of said packet received from said sender node, said determining comprises: examining said MAC address in said packet for said position information of said sender node.

8. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising instructions to cause said wireless device to perform the actions of: maintaining, in said wireless device, a position information for said wireless device, wherein said distance is calculated based on said position information of said sender node and said position information of said wireless device.

9. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 8 , wherein said maintaining comprises: receiving said position information of said wireless device from a user; and storing said position information in a memory contained in said wireless device, wherein said examining retrieves said position information from memory and said calculating is performed using the retrieved position information.

10. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 9 , wherein said position information is in the form of Cartesian coordinates, and said distance is the spatial distance between Cartesian coordinates of said sender node and that of said wireless device.

11. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising instructions to cause said wireless device to perform the actions of:
generating, in said wireless device, a value representing a signal strength with which said packet is received; and
modifying said value for said packet based on said distance to said sender node and providing said modified value to a routing adapter layer, wherein said routing adapter layer is designed to choose a parent node from a plurality of parent nodes based on signal strengths of packets received from each of the parent node, wherein providing said modified value causes said routing adapter layer to select one of said plurality of parent nodes as said parent node based on said modified value.

12. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising instructions to cause said wireless device to perform the actions of:
overwriting at least one bit in said packet by a simulation layer, thereby generating an error packet;
forwarding said error packet to a higher layer in said wireless device for further processing; and
generating an error by said higher layer while processing said error packet.

13. A wireless device comprising: a processor and a memory, said memory to store instructions which when retrieved and executed by said processor causes said wireless device to perform the actions of:
receiving a packet from a sender node that is in a real-world environment according to a routing protocol, wherein said wireless device is one node in a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes are al

Assignees

• Gainspan Corp

Inventors

• Purohit Sibasis

Classifications

• H04W40/20

  based on geographic position or location · CPC title

• H04W40/02 Primary

  Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing · CPC title

• H04W4/02 Primary

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W24/06

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using simulated traffic · CPC title