Transporting management traffic through a multi-hop mesh network
View Patent ↗The disclosure relates to techniques and technologies for efficiently transporting management information between mesh nodes across multiple hops or “mesh links” in a multi-hop mesh network. These techniques and technologies are general purpose and provide an extensible mechanism for transporting management traffic across a mesh network. These techniques and technologies can be applied in a number of applications relating, for example, to security, routing, radio measurements, mesh node management, etc.
1. A method of communication between a transmitter node and a receiver node in a multi-hop communication network, comprising:
formatting information into a data structure to generate a mesh action frame, wherein the mesh action frame comprises:
a header comprising a source address (SA) that identifies a source node, a destination address (DA) that identifies a recipient node, a transmitter address (TA) that identifies a sender node, and a receiver address (RA) that identifies a receiver node; and
a body field comprising a mesh action data unit, wherein the mesh action data unit comprises:
a category field configured to specify at least one of a plurality of category values, wherein each category value corresponds to a particular management category;
an action field configured to specify at least one of a plurality of management action values for each category field; and
a contents field comprising information corresponding to the action value specified in the action field, wherein the category value and the action value uniquely identify the contents field; and
sending the mesh action frame from the transmitter node.
2. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving the mesh action frame at the receiver node; and
acting on the mesh action frame at the receiver node.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the category field is used to identify management categories which categorizes management traffic into different classes.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein for each category value at least one different action value is defined for use in the action field.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the category field allows a recipient node to redirect the mesh action frame to an appropriate processing engine.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the appropriate processing engine can then parse the contents field based upon the action value specified in the action field.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the header allows an intermediate node to forward management traffic without examining the mesh action data unit.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the body field further comprises:
a security field that allows the contents field to be encrypted to provide hop-by-hop security; and
a Message Integrity Check (MIC) field calculated over the security field and the mesh action data unit to allow the mesh action data unit to be integrity-protected against modification during transmission.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mesh action frame further comprises:
a frame check sequence (FCS) field calculated over the header and the body field for detecting errors in the mesh action frame which occur during transmission.
10. A method for communicating management traffic across one or more mesh links, the method comprising:
formatting a modulated data signal having a data structure encoded thereon, the data structure comprising:
a header comprising a source address (SA) that identifies a source node, a destination address (DA) that identifies a recipient node, a transmitter address (TA) that identifies a sender node, and a receiver address (RA) that identifies a receiver node; and
a body field comprising a mesh action data unit, wherein the mesh action data unit comprises:
a category field configured to specify at least one of a plurality of category values, wherein each category value corresponds to a particular management category;
an action field configured to specify at least one of a plurality of management action values for each category field; and
a contents field comprising information corresponding to the action value specified in the action field, wherein the category value and the action value uniquely identify the contents field; and
communicating the modulated data signal across the one or more mesh links.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the category field is used to identify management categories which categorizes management traffic into different classes.
12. The method of claim 10 , wherein for each category value at least one different action value is defined for use in the action field.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the category field allows a recipient node to redirect the data structure to an appropriate processing engine.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the appropriate processing engine can then parse the contents field based upon the action value specified in the action field.
15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the header allows an intermediate node to forward management traffic without examining the mesh action data unit of the data structure.
16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the body field further comprises:
a security field that allows contents field to be encrypted to provide hop-by-hop security.
17. The method of claim 10 , wherein the body field further comprises:
a Message Integrity Check (MIC) field calculated over the security field and the mesh action data unit to allow the mesh action data unit to be integrity-protected against modification during transmission.
18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
a frame check sequence (FCS) field calculated over the header and the body field for detecting errors in the data structure which occur during transmission.