Method and system for communication between coordinator-based wireless networks

A method for communication between networks, comprising

• receiving, at a second relay device within a second coordinator-based wireless network, a frame from a first relay device within a first coordinator-based wireless network;
• and
• encapsulating the frame received at the second relay device and transmitting a resulting frame to a second wireless network device within the second coordinator-based wireless network,
• wherein the frame received at the second relay device is obtained by encapsulating a subframe specifying physical addresses of the first and second wireless network devices as first source and destination addresses, respectively, the frame specifying backbone physical addresses of the first and second relay devices as second source and destination addresses, respectively.

A wireless network device within a first coordinator-based wireless network transmitting data to another wireless network device within a second coordinator-based wireless network device, the wireless network device comprising:

• a control unit which generates a data frame containing the data to be transmitted;
• and
• a transceiving unit which transmits the data frame,
• wherein the data frame is obtained by encapsulating a subframe specifying physical addresses of the wireless network device and the other wireless network device of the second coordinator-based wireless network device as first source and destination addresses, respectively, the data frame specifying logical addresses of the wireless network device and a relay device within the first coordinator-based wireless network as second source and destination addresses, respectively.

A relay device within a first coordinator-based wireless network, which connects a wired network to a wireless network, the relay device comprising:

• a wireless network interface unit which receives a data frame to be transmitted to a second wireless network device within a second coordinator-based wireless network from a first wireless network device within the first coordinator-based wireless network;
• a control unit which encapsulates the data frame into a frame format supported by the wired network;
• and
• a wired network interface unit which transmits the data frame encapsulated by the control unit to the wired network,
• wherein the data frame is obtained by encapsulating a subframe specifying physical addresses of the first and second wireless network devices as first source and destination addresses, respectively, the data frame specifying logical addresses of the first wireless network device and the relay device as second source and destination addresses, respectively.

A relay device within a second coordinator-based wireless network, which connects a wired network to a wireless network, the relay device comprising:

• a wired network interface unit which receives a data frame to be transmitted to a second wireless network device within the second coordinator-based wireless network from a first wireless network device within a first coordinator-based wireless network;
• a control unit which encapsulates the data frame into a frame format supported by the second coordinator-based wireless network;
• and
• a wireless network interface unit which transmits the data frame encapsulated by the control unit to the second wireless network device,
• wherein the data frame is obtained by encapsulating a subframe specifying physical addresses of the first and second wireless network devices as first source and destination addresses, respectively, the data frame specifying backbone physical addresses of relay devices within the first and second coordinator-based wireless networks as second source and destination addresses, respectively.