Wireless geographic routing protocol
View Patent ↗A method of operating a communication system comprises, in a wireless communication device, acquiring a packet address from a communication network, wherein the communication network assigns the packet address to the wireless communication device, and transmitting the packet address, a device identifier, and a location of the wireless communication device for delivery to a database in the communication network. The method further comprises, in a packet router, receiving a data packet with a destination address of the packet address assigned to the wireless communication device, querying the database with the packet address to determine the device identifier and the location of the wireless communication device, processing the location to select a plurality of output ports of the packet router, and broadcasting the data packet over the plurality of output ports.
1. A method of operating a communication system, the method comprising:
in a wireless communication device, acquiring a packet address from a communication network, wherein the communication network assigns the packet address to the wireless communication device;
in the wireless communication device, transmitting the packet address, a device identifier, and a geographic location of the wireless communication device for delivery to a database in the communication network;
in a packet router, receiving a data packet with a destination address of the packet address assigned to the wireless communication device, and querying the database with the packet address to determine the device identifier and the geographic location of the wireless communication device;
in the packet router, processing the geographic location to select a plurality of output ports of the packet router; and
in the packet router, broadcasting the data packet over the plurality of output ports.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet router serves an area including the location.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein broadcasting the data packet over the plurality of output ports comprises broadcasting the data packet by wirelessly propagating the data packet over the plurality of output ports.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein each output port of the plurality of output ports communicates using a different wireless protocol of a plurality of wireless protocols.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the device identifier comprises a media access control address.
6. The method of claim 5 further comprising, in the wireless communication device, identifying the media access control address in the data packet, and receiving the data packet based on the media access control address.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the location is identified by a global positioning system range.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the location to select a plurality of output ports of the packet router comprises determining a velocity of the wireless communication device, and determining if the velocity of the wireless communication device exceeds a threshold.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein broadcasting the data packet over the plurality of output ports comprises broadcasting the data packet using the plurality of output ports of the packet router if the packet router serves an area including the location and if the velocity of the wireless communication device exceeds the threshold.
10. The method of claim 8 wherein determining if the velocity of the wireless communication device exceeds the threshold comprises determining the velocity of the wireless communication device based on a series of location updates associated with the wireless communication device and timestamps corresponding to the location updates, and comparing the velocity to the threshold.
11. A communication system comprising:
a wireless communication device configured to acquire a packet address from a communication network, wherein the communication network assigns the packet address to the wireless communication device, and transmit the packet address, a device identifier, and a location of the wireless communication device for delivery to a database in the communication network; and
a packet router configured to receive a data packet with a destination address of the packet address assigned to the wireless communication device, query the database with the packet address to determine the device identifier and the location of the wireless communication device, process the location to select a plurality of output ports of the packet router, and broadcast the data packet over the plurality of output ports.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein the packet router serves an area including the location.
13. The system of claim 11 wherein the packet router configured to broadcast the data packet over the plurality of output ports comprises the packet router configured to wirelessly propagate the data packet over the plurality of output ports.
14. The system of claim 11 wherein each output port of the plurality of output ports communicates using a different wireless protocol of a plurality of wireless protocols.
15. The system of claim 11 wherein the device identifier comprises a media access control address.
16. The system of claim 15 further comprising the wireless communication device configured to identify the media access control address in the data packet, and receive the data packet based on the media access control address.
17. The system of claim 11 wherein the location is identified by a global positioning system range.
18. The system of claim 11 wherein the packet router configured to process the location to select a plurality of output ports of the packet router comprises the packet router configured to determine a velocity of the wireless communication device, and determine if the velocity of the wireless communication device exceeds a threshold.
19. The system of claim 18 wherein the packet router configured to broadcast the data packet over the plurality of output ports comprises the packet router configured to broadcast the data packet using the plurality of output ports of the packet router if the packet router serves an area including the location and if the velocity of the wireless communication device exceeds the threshold.
20. A method of operating a communication system, the method comprising:
in a wireless communication device, transmitting a packet address, a media access control address, and a location of the wireless communication device for delivery to a database in a communication network;
in a packet router, receiving a data packet with a destination address of the packet address assigned to the wireless communication device, and querying the database with the packet address to determine the media access control address and the location of the wireless communication device;
in the packet router, processing the location to select a plurality of output ports of the packet router, wherein each output port of the plurality of output ports communicates using a different wireless protocol of a plurality of wireless protocols;
in the packet router, broadcasting the data packet over the plurality of output ports; and
in the wireless communication device, identifying the media access control address in the data packet, and receiving the data packet based on the media access control address.