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US 2019/0165964 A1Published application
Limiting forwarding of multicast communications
AssigneeItron, Inc.
InventorsJerome Bartier, James Laurence Taylor, Viet-Hung Nguyen
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Abstract
Techniques for limiting forwarding of multicast communications are described herein. For example, the techniques intelligently forward data along paths of a network where members of a multicast group are located. As such, nodes that do not lead to members of the multicast group may be pruned from distribution of the data. This reduces network communications, ultimately conserving processing, communication, and/or battery resources of the nodes.
Claims20
A node of a Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) network, the node comprising:
- a radio configured to receive data destined for members of a multicast group;
- one or more processors communicatively coupled to the radio;
- and
- memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the memory storing one or more instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- determining at least one of:
- whether a pruning state is enabled to restrict data forwarding from the node for the multicast group or disabled to allow data forwarding from the node for the multicast group;
- or
- whether or not the node has received a subscription message for the multicast group from two or more different child nodes, each subscription message advertising membership to the multicast group;
- and
- based at least in part on the determining, selectively forwarding the data to an adjacent node to propagate the data to one or more of the members of the multicast group.
7 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a radio of a node, data destined for members of a multicast group;
- determining to forward the data to an adjacent node to propagate the data to a member of the multicast group, the determining including at least one of:
- determining that the node is set to a state in which data is forwarded from the node for the multicast group;
- or
- determining that the node has received at least a subscription message for the multicast group from a first child node and a subscription message for the multicast group from a second child node;
- and
- based at least in part on determining to forward the data to the adjacent node, transmitting, by the radio of the node, the data to the adjacent node.
4 more elements
A node comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors, the memory storing one or more instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- counting a number of child nodes from which the node has received a subscription message for the multicast group;
- determining at least one of (i) that the number of child nodes is greater than a threshold or (ii) that the node is part of a forwarding chain for the multicast group and is a member of the multicast group;
- based at least in part on the determining, sending a message to a child node to change the child node to a state in which data forwarding, from the child node to the node, is enabled for the multicast group;
- receiving, from the child node, data for a multicast group;
- and
- determining whether or not to send the data to an adjacent node.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.