Systems, methods and apparatus for supporting multiple network addressing modes

A network apparatus comprising:

• a processor and non-transitory computer readable medium storing processing instructions for determining and assigning node addresses for network devices based on multiple network addressing modes, wherein the processing instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• select one of an automap full mode, an automap-by-type full mode, an automap light mode, an automap-by-type light mode and a manual node commissioning mode for determining and assigning the node addresses for the network devices,
• in response to selecting the automap full mode, determine and assign the node addresses for the network devices according to relative geographical locations of the network devices in a network, wherein the node addresses follow a network address sequence, and are assigned automatically,
• in response to selecting the automap-by-type full mode, determine and assign the node addresses for the network devices according to the relative geographical locations of the network devices in the network within device type specific address ranges, wherein the node addresses follow the network address sequence within the appropriate device type specific address ranges, and are determined and assigned automatically,
• in response to selecting the automap light mode, determine and assign the node addresses for newly added network devices to an existing network according to geographical locations of the newly added network devices in the network, wherein the added network devices are addressed to follow a network address sequence starting with a next available address in an original network address geography,
• in response to selecting the automap-by-type light mode, determine and assign the node addresses for the newly added network devices to the existing network according to the geographical locations of the added network devices in the network within device type specific address ranges, wherein the added network devices are addressed to follow the network address sequence starting with the next available address within the appropriate device type specific address ranges in the original network address geography, and
• in response to selecting the manual node commissioning mode, determine and assign the node addresses for the network devices, wherein the node address for each network device is uniquely and individually determined and assigned.

A system comprising:

• a network having network devices;
• a set of network devices to be added to the network;
• and
• a network apparatus having a processor and non-transitory computer readable medium storing processing instructions for determining and assigning node addresses for the network devices in the network based on multiple network addressing modes, wherein the processing instructions comprise:
• a mode selector to select one of an automap full mode, an automap-by-type full mode, an automap light mode, an automap-by-type light mode and a manual node commissioning mode for determining or selecting the node address for the added network devices;
• an automap full mode address determiner, in response to selecting the automap full mode, to determine the node addresses for the network devices according to relative geographical locations of the network devices in a network, wherein the node addresses follow a network address sequence;
• an automap-by-type full mode address determiner, in response to selecting the automap-by-type full mode, to determine the node addresses for the network devices according to the relative geographical locations of the network devices in the network within device type specific address ranges, wherein the node addresses follow the network address sequence within the appropriate device type specific address ranges;
• an automap light mode address determiner, in response to selecting the automap light mode, to determine the node addresses for a set of newly added network devices to an existing network according to geographical locations of the added network devices in the network, wherein the added network devices are addressed to follow a network address sequence starting with a next available address in a original network address geography;
• an automap-by-type light mode address determiner, in response to selecting the automap-by-type light mode, to determine the node addresses for the set of newly added network devices to the existing network according to the geographical locations of the added network devices in the network within device type specific address ranges, wherein the added network devices are addressed to follow the network address sequence starting with the next available address within the appropriate device type specific address ranges in the original network address geography;
• a manual node commissioning mode address selector, in response to selecting the manual node commissioning mode, to select the node address for network devices, wherein the node address for each network device is uniquely and individually determined;
• and
• a node address assigner to assign the device addresses based one the determined or selected node addresses for the network devices by the selected mode from the mode selector.