Ricochet Networks, Inc.

Apple Inc.

Metricom, Inc.

Azaire Networks, Inc.

Michael W Ritter

Robert J Friday

George Henry Flammer, Iii

Nishi Kant

Brett D Galloway

Jonathan M Zweig

George H Flammer

David L Paulsen

Mayank Chaudhary

Alan B Oppenheimer

Kerry E Lynn

Jeffery L Mullins

John Bettendorff

Arty Srivastava

Allam Zaheer Ahmed

Chih-hsin Alan Chuang

A method and system are provided for integrating a WLAN radio access network into a GSM/GPRS core network wherein gateways are added that transparently transport services between the two networks. A further aspect of the invention is secure authentication. The system has two network elements: a Radio Link Manager (RLM) and a Radio Access Controller (RAC), and a software application, a Multi-Link Client (MLC) to control the functionality of the integration and the authentication. The MLC resides on a user device. The RAC provides protocol stacks and interworking functions to allow the MLC to talk to a Home Location Register (HLR). The RLM and MLC set up a 'tunnel' employing, for example, PPP over Ethernet (PPPOE), and all of the data packets received on this tunnel are forwarded by the RLM to the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN over a further tunnel using the GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP).

Method and system for transparently and securely interconnecting a WLAN radio access network into a GPRS/GSM core network

In a mesh communication network, a poll request protocol (PRP) is provided in which a special packet is broadcast by the congested node when it is ready to provide services. The controlling node (usually the more congested node) broadcasts a packet to request poll signals from nodes desiring resources of the controlling node. The contending nodes then have equal chances to request the services of the controlling node by sending poll signals. The controlling node can then arbitrate the requests, determine the most fair and efficient use of its resources, and broadcast a scheduling packet to inform the contending nodes when to inform the contending nodes of controlling node scheduling. The contending nodes then send their packets to the controlling node without lost packets caused by congestion collisions. The controlling node can then send data to the contending nodes also without lost packets.

Method and apparatus for contention management in a radio-based packet network

In an imperfect mesh network or in a star network, the directionality of transmission and reception at each node, as through a directional antenna, is selected to maximize combined or multiple-link end-to-end information throughput. To this end, a maximum throughput metric is provided for separate links through the network between a source node and a collection of end-point nodes to be optimized which is based on 1) measurement of link quality with respect to neighboring nodes and 2) information about link quality and other factors related to propagation delay or &ldquo;latency&rdquo; as reported to it by other nodes regarding their neighboring links, and 3) based upon the busy-ness or capacity utilization at each link.

Method for maximizing throughput for multiple links using directional elements

A method and apparatus for assigning a unique network address to a first node within a network which is arbitrarily connected. The first node may include a shared network resource, such as a networked printer device, or a modem, in addition to a stand-alone computer system. The network may include a network which is wireless, wherein various nodes comprise radio transceiver circuitry, including radio frequency modems. A first provisional network address for use in assigning the unique network address is determined by the first node. The first node broadcasts probes containing the provisional network address until a first probe response to one of the probes is received or a first interval of time elapses. If the first probe response to one of the probes is received, then the first node determines a second provisional network address and repeats selection of the address and broadcasting, until no probe response is received in the first interval of time. Using the first provisional network address, the first node broadcasts forward probes in the network until a second probe response to one of the forward probes is received by the first node or a second period of time has transpired. If a second probe response to one of the forward probes is received by the first node, then the first node determines a third provisional network address and repeats the steps of selecting, broadcasting probes and forward probes until no the response is received in the second interval of time. The final provisional network address may be used as the unique network address for the first node.

Dynamic address assignment in an arbitrarily connected network

In a packet communication system, loose source routing is employed to permit communication over networks of disparate types, including geographic and path-unaware types. No information resides on a wired access point (WAP). All of the intelligence of the system resides in Name Servers, which provide opaque addresses that end nodes (radios) in a wireless cloud can use to send packets to other end nodes (radios) in other wireless clouds. (A cloud is the set of radios serviced by a particular WAP.) According to the invention, the method employs an ordered list called a path and the network address of a packet consists of such an ordered list of addresses with a 'marker' that flags the current destination of the packet and a 'direction bit' that tells which direction on the list the next destination is. Each address in the path is type-length-value (TLV) encoded. The address has preferably a 4 bit 'type' field, followed by a 4 bit 'length' field (indicating length in words) of the value, and then the actual 'value' of the address. Each address describes a 'place' that the packet must 'visit.' These 'places' may be areas which a packet must traverse, and not necessarily actual node addresses.

Method of loose source routing over disparate network types in a packet

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Los Altos, CA, United States of America

Michael W Ritter