Analog Devices International Unlimited Company

Aleksandr Lushin

Lance Robert Doherty

Jonathan Noah Simon

Alain Pierre Levesque

Gina Aquilano

David Ramsay Hanson Bacher

A system and method for providing multiple modes of communication in wireless networks includes a network manager and a plurality of network nodes. The plurality of network nodes form a wireless network with the network manager and are configured to communicate data to the network manager using respective communication links having a first bandwidth. The plurality of network nodes are further configured to transition to a two-hop mode of communication upon one or more failures in communication to the network manager. While in the two-hop mode of communication, a respective network node of the plurality of nodes is configured to transmit node data to at least one other network node over a communication link having a second bandwidth different than the first bandwidth. The other network nodes are configured to listen for communication from the respective network node and re-transmit to the network manager the node data received from the respective network node.

Two-hop wireless network communication

In a wireless mesh network having multiple network managers, the network managers maintain network security through the use of encryption keys and packet counters. To ensure that each network manager can authenticate communications with any node of the network, the authentication data is replicated in a disjoint manner in all network managers. Advantageously, network reliability is assured by providing redundant managers that can seamlessly maintain network operation even if multiple network managers fail; newly joining managers can obtain full authentication data for the network upon joining; and network throughput is increased by ensuring that any of the multiple managers can authenticate the communications of any network node. The disjoint replication of the authentication data across all network managers is performed with low data-rate manager-to-manager packets propagated through the network. The disjoint security methods and systems can advantageously be used in wireless battery monitoring systems, for example.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Aleksandr Lushin