Managed microcell wireless mesh network architecture
A wireless network with tiered centralized control is provided. The wireless network includes a controlling node and a plurality of participant nodes. Each participant node includes an electronically steerable antenna. The plurality of participant nodes report various network information to the controlling node, such as interference and throughput measurements. The controlling node examines the network topology and provides instructions to one or more participant nodes in order to optimize the network. The instructions can include transmit and receive antenna pointing directions, assigned frequency/channel, and the amount of transmit power to use between specific participant nodes. The optimization of the network is performed to deterministically manage the capacity and reliability of the network by managing the multi-hop paths of the network so that no single path becomes congested while other paths within the network remain underutilized and to heal the network by creating new physical layer and logical layer paths around unexpected obstacles, interference, and/or broken nodes.
1. A system comprising:
a controlling node comprising an antenna and a controller;
a plurality of participant nodes each comprising participant units, each participant node including an electronically steerable-beam antenna and a participant controller,
wherein the controlling node, based on system topology information, provides each of the plurality of participant nodes with information on an antenna direction, wherein the antenna direction of one of the plurality of participant nodes allows transmission or reception of information directly from the electronically steerable-beam antenna of the one of the plurality of participant nodes to the electronically steerable-beam antenna of another one of the plurality of participant nodes,
wherein the system topology information includes an amount of performance information as seen by each node forwarded by each of the plurality of participant nodes.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controlling node also provides a transmit power level to each of the plurality of nodes.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein information received by one of the plurality of participant nodes in a first physical direction is forwarded to another of the plurality of participant nodes in a second physical direction.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the participant controller examines a label associated with each received packet to determine where to route the packet.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controlling node comprises a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) switch, thereby providing telephone service to the plurality of participant nodes.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controlling node is connected to a telephone network, a data network and/or a video network.
7. A method for controlling a wireless network comprising:
determining a topology of the network;
providing, by a controlling node, first and second antenna pointing directions for each of a plurality of participant nodes of the network to achieve the determined network topology;
receiving, by the controlling node, information from the plurality of participant nodes, the information identifying a communication parameter relative to each of the other participant nodes from which a particular participant node is able to receive signals; and
reconfiguring the network based on the information, wherein the reconfiguration includes an identification of a new first and second antenna pointing directions for at least one of the plurality of participant nodes.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the communication parameter is a signal-to-noise ratio.
9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reconfiguration is also based on an amount of traffic forwarded by each of the plurality of participant nodes.
10. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
receiving a packet;
examining a label of the packet; and
determining where to route the packet based on the label.
11. The method of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of participant nodes is assigned a subnet address, the method further comprising:
receiving a packet by a participant node; and
transmitting the packet based on a subnet address of the packet.
12. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
determining, by one of the plurality of participant nodes, that a connection with another participant node has been broken;
examining, by the one of the plurality of participant nodes, a control table; and
changing the first or second antenna directions based on information in the control table.
13. In a network comprising a controlling node and first, second and third participant nodes, a method comprising:
transmitting a first packet from the first participant node in a first antenna direction to the second participant node;
determining that the second participant node did not receive the first packet; and
transmitting the first packet in a second antenna direction to the third participant node based on information received from the controlling node or information stored in the first participant node, wherein the information stored in the first participant node was received from the controlling node, and wherein information received from the controlling node and the information stored in the first participant node includes the first and second antenna directions, and the first and second antenna directions are determined based on signal-to-noise ratio measurements.
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:
determining by the second participant node that it cannot receive packets from the first participant node; and
adjusting a direction of an antenna of the second participant node based on information received from the controlling node or information stored in the second participant node, wherein the direction of the antenna is a direction for receiving packets.
15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:
sending communication parameters from the first, second and third nodes to the controlling node; and
providing, by the controlling node, information associated with the communication parameters to the first, second and third nodes.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the information associated with the communication parameters is an antenna pointing direction, transmission power level, or a transmission frequency.
17. In a network comprising a controlling node and first and second participant nodes, a method comprising:
transmitting a first packet from the first participant node in a first antenna direction to the second participant node;
determining that the second participant node did not receive the first packet;
determining an adjusted communication parameter associated with the transmission of the first packet; and
retransmitting the first packet using the adjusted communication parameter, wherein the adjusted communication parameter is received from the controlling node or is stored in the first participant node, wherein the adjusted communication parameter stored in the first participant node was received from the controlling node, wherein the adjusted communication parameter is a second antenna direction to a third participant node, and the first and second antenna directions are determined based on signal-to-noise ratio measurements.
18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:
reporting to the controlling node that the second participant node did not receive the first packet; and
transmitting adjusted communication parameters from the controlling node to the first and second nodes based on the report.