Disparate radios in a wireless mesh network
AssigneeRosemount Inc.
InventorKelly Michael Orth
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A wireless mesh network that makes use of strategically placed nodes with radios having superior communication range through the use of high gain antennas, MIMO technology, high power transmitters, high sensitivity receivers, a combination thereof, etc. Besides the obvious effect of extending the physical coverage area of a network, the effect of the longer distance links formed by the nodes with superior range is a flattening of the wireless mesh network by reducing hop count, thereby improving performance, latency, reliability, cost, and power consumption among other factors.
Claims20
A wireless mesh network comprising:
- a plurality of first nodes, each first node including a field device and a radio having a first communication range;
- and
- a second node including a field device and a radio having a second communication range, wherein the second communication range is greater than the first communication range;
- wherein the first and second nodes are capable of communicating with any other node of the wireless mesh network within their communication range.
A wireless mesh network comprising:
- a first cluster of nodes, each node including a field device and a radio having a link budget capable of communicating with other nodes in the first cluster, and at least one higher link budget node including a radio having a higher link budget radio capable of communicating with nodes not in the first cluster;
- and
- a second cluster of nodes, each node including a field device and a radio having a link budget capable of communicating with other nodes in the second cluster;
- wherein the higher link budget node of the first cluster is capable of forming a wireless link between the first and second clusters.
A wireless mesh network comprising a plurality of clusters of nodes wherein each node is associated with a field device and a radio having a link budget capable of communicating with other nodes in its cluster and each cluster includes at least one node that includes a radio having a higher link budget capable of establishing a link to a node in another cluster so that the clusters are interconnected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.