Silicon Laboratories Inc.

Matteo Paris

Richard A Kelsey

Methods of reassembling a mesh network which has been disrupted by the unavailability of a node or a link are disclosed. Nodes continuously receive beacon messages originating from a leader node. These beacon messages may be transmitted directly by the leader node, or may have been retransmitted by an intermediate node. When a node determines that it has not received a beacon message in a certain time period, it concludes that it is now disconnected from that leader node. At this point, it may choose to act as a leader node and form a new network, or may join with another network. The determination of which network to join may be based on some indicia associated with the leader node of that network.

Mesh network defragmentation

A method of efficiently disseminating various types of information throughout a mesh network is disclosed. Information is typically propagated through the network using a variety of protocols and messages. However, in one embodiment, a single message, communicates all of this information at once. The message includes data originating at the leader, which does not change as the messages are propagated through the network, as well as topology and link information that is created by the forwarding nodes. The data originating at the leader includes the identity of the leader node and a sequence number. Additionally, a version number is included by the leader which represents the state of the quasi-static information. Quasi-static information may include, for example, the identity of a node that has access to a central control system or the internet. This compact message format allows improved efficiency and use of the network.

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Concord, MA, United States of America

Matteo Paris