System and method for communicating over mesh networks waveform-enhanced, link-state routing
View Patent ↗A communication system includes a plurality of mobile nodes forming a mesh network. A plurality of wireless communication links connect the mobile nodes together. Each mobile node is formed as a communications device and operative for transmitting data packets wirelessly to other mobile nodes via the wireless communications link from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and multiple waveforms.
1. A communications system, comprising:
a plurality of mobile nodes forming a mesh network;
a plurality of wireless communication links connecting the mobile nodes together;
each mobile node comprising a communications device and operative for transmitting data packets wirelessly to other mobile nodes via the wireless communications link from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and multiple waveforms, wherein each node is operative for predicting 1-hop neighboring connectivity using heuristics based on reception characteristics for a received packet on a base waveform that is chosen from the multiple waveforms wherein at least one of the multiple waveforms has a different range, transmission distance or reach that is greater than the other multiple waveforms resulting in different connectivity.
2. The communications system according to claim 1 , wherein each mobile node is operative using multiple link state routing processes operating in parallel at a mobile node for each waveform.
3. The communications system according to claim 2 , wherein each mobile node is operative for transmitting and receiving separate HELLO and topology control messages per waveform.
4. The communications system according to claim 1 , and further comprising a network connectivity model at each mobile node for each waveform.
5. The communications system according to claim 4 , and further comprising a routing table at each mobile node that defines wireless routes for multiple network connectivity models based on routing criteria.
6. The communications system according to claim 5 , wherein said routing criteria comprises one or more of at least a minimum number of hops, minimum end-to-end latency, maximum data throughput, congestion avoidance, minimum power consumption, a minimum bandwidth and dropped packets per route.
7. The communications system according to claim 1 , wherein each mobile node is operative using a single link state routing process for all waveforms by transmitting separate HELLO messages to 1-hop neighbors and flooding one topology control message per waveform.
8. The communications system according to claim 7 , and further comprising a routing table at each node that segregates link state information for each 1-hop neighbor by waveform.
9. The communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said reception characteristics comprise a received signal-to-noise ratio.
10. The communications system according to claim 1 , wherein said link state routing protocol comprises an Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol.
11. The communications system according to claim 1 , wherein the multiple waveforms have different ranges.
12. A communications system, comprising:
a plurality of wireless nodes forming a mesh network;
a plurality of wireless communication links connecting the mobile nodes together;
each wireless node comprising a communications device and operative for transmitting data packets wirelessly to other nodes via the wireless communications link from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and a base waveform that is chosen from multiple waveforms wherein at least one of the multiple waveforms has a different range, transmission distance or reach that is greater than the other multiple waveforms resulting in different connectivity by predicting 1-hop neighborhood connectivity based on a heuristic regarding packet reception characteristics and waveform performance.
13. A communications system according to claim 12 , wherein a 1-hop neighborhood connectivity is predicted for each non-base waveform.
14. A communications system according to claim 12 , wherein each 1-hop neighborhood for each waveform of a mobile node is distributed via a single topology control message.
15. The communications system according to claim 12 , and further comprising a network connectivity model at each mobile node for each waveform.
16. The communications system according to claim 15 , and further comprising a routing table at each mobile node defined by network connectivity models.
17. The communications system according to claim 12 , wherein said link state routing protocol comprises an Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol.
18. A method for communicating, comprising:
forming a mesh network from a plurality of mobile nodes;
transmitting a data packet across the mesh network from a source mobile node through intermediate neighboring mobile nodes to a destination mobile node using a link state routing protocol and multiple waveforms; and
predicting 1-hop neighboring connectivity using heuristics based on reception characteristics for a received packet on a base waveform that is chosen from the multiple waveforms wherein at least one of the multiple waveforms has a different range, transmission distance or reach that is greater than the other multiple waveforms resulting in different connectivity.
19. The method according to claim 18 , which further comprises using multiple link state routing processes operating in parallel at a mobile node for each waveform.
20. The method according to claim 18 , which further comprises transmitting separate HELLO and topology control messages per waveform.
21. The method according to claim 18 , which further comprises building a network connectivity model at each mobile node.
22. The method according to claim 21 , which further comprises building a routing table at each mobile node that defines wireless routes for multiple network connectivity models based on routing criteria.
23. The method according to claim 18 , which further comprises transmitting separate HELLO messages to 1-hop neighbors and flooding one topology control message per waveform.
24. The method according to claim 18 , which further comprises predicting 1-hop neighborhood connectivity based on heuristics regarding packet reception characteristics and waveform performance.
25. The method according to claim 18 , which further comprises distributing each 1-hop neighborhood for each waveform via a single topology control message.