Systems and methods for networking and wirelessly routing communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10959112-B2
Application number	US-201816199917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2018
Priority date	Apr 6, 2017
Publication date	Mar 23, 2021
Grant date	Mar 23, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods include [i] identifying operational attributes of the mesh radio network; [ii] identifying an Internet communication request originating from at least one of the plurality of network communication devices or identifying an Internet communication response originating from the one or more Internet sources; [iii] generating an Internet communication routing table for the mesh radio network; [iv] transmitting the Internet communication routing table to the mesh radio network; and [v] in response to identifying the Internet communication requests, selecting an optimal communications routing path for the Internet communication request or the Internet communication response based on the Internet communication routing table.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a set of wireless nodes defining a network, wherein at least one of the wireless nodes is connected to an external data source via a physical communication medium; and
a central controller that includes one or more programs that, when executed by the central controller, cause the central controller to:
identify respective operational attributes associated with the set of wireless nodes based on operational attributes data that is provided by one or more of the set of wireless nodes and determined by applying test loads;
generate a first routing table for the network based on the respective operational attributes associated with the set of wireless nodes, wherein the first routing table indicates a first set of wireless communication paths between the set of wireless nodes and the external data sources;
transmit the first routing table to one or more wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes;
detect a change in the operational attributes associated with one or more of the wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes;
generate a second routing table for the network based on the change in the operational attributes, wherein the second routing table indicates a second set of wireless communication paths between the set of wireless nodes and the external data source; and
transmit the second routing table to one or more wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more programs further causes the central controller to:
identify the respective operational attributes by collecting the operational attributes in one of an active mode and a passive mode;
the passive mode includes acquiring operational attributes data as the one or more of the set of wireless nodes provide operational attributes data to the central controller, and
the active mode includes acquiring operational attributes based on applying test loads during a test period to the network and collecting the operational attributes of the network during the test period.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein
the operational attributes of each of the wireless nodes includes an offline/online status of each of the wireless nodes, wherein a default offline status is assigned to wireless nodes that fail to provide an affirmative offline/online status.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein
identifying the respective operational attributes includes collecting operational attributes of each active radio link between pairs of wireless nodes within the network.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein
identifying the respective operational attributes includes collecting operational attributes of each of the wireless nodes.

6. A method comprising:
at a central controller of a network that includes a set of wireless nodes that are in wireless communication with each other:
identifying respective operational attributes associated with the set of wireless nodes based on operational attributes data that is provided by one or more of the set of wireless nodes and determined by applying test loads;
generating a first routing table for the network based on the respective operational attributes associated with the set of wireless nodes, wherein the first routing table indicates a first set of wireless communication paths between the set of wireless nodes and the external data sources;
transmitting the first routing table to one or more wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes;
detecting a change in the operational attributes associated with one or more of the wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes;
generating a second routing table for the network based on the change in the operational attributes, wherein the second routing table indicates a second set of wireless communication paths between the set of wireless nodes and the external data source; and
transmitting the second routing table to one or more wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
identifying each radio link between the set of wireless nodes; and
generating a normalizing routing score for each radio link.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
identifying each pair of wireless nodes having a radio link; and
identifying a physical distance between each identified pair of wireless nodes.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising: generating a scored routing graph base on:
the normalizing routing score for each radio link; and
the identified physical distance between each identified pair of wireless node.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
generating the first routing table includes identifying one or more whitelisted wireless nodes within the network, the one or more whitelisted wireless nodes satisfy a whitelist performance threshold, and
identifying the first set of wireless communication paths based on the one or more whitelisted nodes.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
generating the first routing table includes using a maximum/minimum algorithm to compute the first set of wireless communication paths, and
the maximum/minimum algorithm identifies the first set of wireless communication paths based on maximum available bandwidths along routes and minimum total routing distances between sources of communications and destinations of communications within the network.

12. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
identifying the respective operational attributes by collecting the operational attributes in one of an active mode and a passive mode;
the passive mode includes acquiring operational attributes data as the one or more of the set of wireless nodes provide operational attributes data to the central controller, and
the active mode includes acquiring operational attributes based on applying test loads during a test period to the network and collecting the operational attributes of the network during the test period.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein:
the operational attributes of each of the wireless nodes includes an offline/online status of each of the wireless nodes, wherein a default offline status is assigned to wireless nodes that fail to provide an affirmative offline/online status.

14. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
identifying the respective operational attributes includes collecting operational attributes of each active radio link between pairs of wireless nodes within the network.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein
collecting operational attributes of each active radio link includes collecting an available bandwidth of each active radio link.

16. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
identifying the respective operational attributes includes collecting operational attributes of each of the wireless nodes.

17. The method of claim 6 , wherein detecting the change in the operational attributes comprises:
detecting that one of the wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes has switched from an online status to an offline status.

18. The method of claim 6 , wherein detecting the change in the operational attributes comprises:
detecting that a new wireless node has been added to the network.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein detecting the change in the operational attributes comprises:
detecting that one of the wireless nodes in the set of wireless nodes has switched from an online status to an offline status.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein detecting the change in the operational attributes comprises:
detecting that a new wireless node has been added to the network.

Assignees

• Common Networks Inc
• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Jen Mark
• Brock Zachary
• Kochhar Amrik

Classifications

• H04W40/248 Primary

  Connectivity information update · CPC title

• H04L45/42

  Centralised routing · CPC title

• H04W24/04

  Arrangements for maintaining operational condition · CPC title

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04W28/16

  Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service] · CPC title