Architecture and mechanism for forwarding layer interfacing for networks

A mobile communications station which communicates among a plurality of mobile stations in a network in which stations are arranged in clusters of communication member stations, with one member station in each cluster being a head station for the cluster, each member station communicating with the network through one or more cluster head stations, the cluster head stations communicating with other cluster head stations, said mobile communications station comprising:

• an electronic memory circuit having network information stored thereon;
• and
• an electronic processor circuit which (i) selects a routing manager from among a plurality of routing managers based on a type-of-service indicator associated with a message packet;
• (ii) selects at least one network table maintained by the selected routing manager based at least in part on a source indicator of the message packet to be transmitted;
• (iii) determines a transmission profile;
• and (iv) causes the message packet to be transmitted according to information contained in the network table and transmission profile.

Computer executable code stored on a computer readable medium, the code to operate a communications router to route messages in a network including a plurality of routers, each router having a multi-layered system architecture including a forwarding layer and a plurality of routing modules each of which maintains at least one network table, said computer executable code comprising:

• code to direct the forwarding layer to select a class of routing modules from the plurality of routing modules based on an address indicator of a message;
• code to index into at least one network table corresponding to the selected class of routing modules to obtain network information;
• code to select a radio profile for the message;
• code to direct the transmission of the message as specified by the network information and radio profile;
• and
• code to provide an interface at least between the forwarding layer and the plurality of routing modules.

In a communications system for communication among plural member communication stations in a network in which at least one of the member stations route messages for neighboring stations, each of the member stations having a multi-layered architecture including a forwarding layer, and each of the member stations having a plurality of routing managers that have access to the forwarding layer through an interface, a method of operating a communications station comprising the steps of:

• selecting a class of routing managers from the plurality of routing managers based on an address indicator of a message;
• selecting routing criteria for the message from information maintained by the selected class of routing managers;
• and
• transmitting the message based on the selected criteria.

A communications apparatus in a network for communication among a plurality of communications apparatuses, said communications apparatus routing messages for neighboring apparatuses, said communications apparatus comprising:

• an electronic memory circuit having a plurality of routing managers stored thereon, each manager defining at least one network table including a plurality of entries;
• an electronic processor circuit which (i) selects a class of routing managers from the plurality of routing managers stored in said electronic memory circuit based on an address indicator of a message;
• (ii) extracts network information from the at least one network table maintained by the selected class of routing managers;
• and (iii) controls transmission of the message according to the extracted network information;
• and
• a transmitter which transmits messages.

A wireless mobile communication station for communication among a plurality of stations in a wireless, mobile network having changing topology, said mobile station routing messages for neighboring stations, said mobile station comprising:

• metric calculation means for calculating networking routing conditions;
• and
• means for transmitting packets of information, said transmitting means comprising:
• forwarding means for selecting among a plurality of routing managers and for assigning forwarding information to a packet based on information maintained by a selected routing manager;
• and
• queuing means for queuing the packet for transmission.

A mobile communications station for use in a wireless communications network including a plurality of mobile communications stations, each station being configurable to route message packets for neighboring stations, said mobile communications station including a transceiver to transmit and receive message packets, said mobile communications station comprising:

• memory means for storing network information;
• and
• processing means for (i) determining a routing type for a message packet;
• (ii) selecting a routing manager from a plurality of routing managers that corresponds to the determined routing type;
• (iii) selecting at least one network table corresponding to the selected routing manager;
• (iv) selecting a radio profile for the message packet;
• and (v) causing the message packet to be transmitted according to information contained in the network table and radio profile.

In a communications system for communication among a plurality of member stations in a network in which at least one of the member stations routes messages for a neighboring station, each of the member stations having a transceiver and a multi-layered architecture including a forwarding layer, and each of the member stations having a plurality of routing managers that each maintains at least one table that is made accessible to the forwarding layer via an interface, a method of operating a communications station to route messages including unicast messages, a unicast message including a type-of-service indicator and a destination indicator, said method comprising the steps of:

• selecting a unicast routing manager from the plurality of routing managers when a message contains a unicast address and when the unicast address does not match an address of the communications station, the unicast routing manager maintaining a plurality of forwarding tables;
• selecting a forwarding table from the plurality of forwarding tables according to the type-of-service indicator, the selected forwarding table including a next-hop table, a neighbor table, and a radio profile table;
• indexing into the next-hop table by the destination indicator to find a corresponding neighbor index, and using the neighbor index to index into the neighbor table, the neighbor table having at least one entry including neighbor addresses and radio profile indices;
• selecting from the neighbor table at least a radio profile index and a neighbor address, and using the selected radio profile index to select a radio profile from the radio profile table;
• and
• transmitting the message according to the selected neighbor address and the selected radio profile.

In a communications system for communication among a plurality of member stations in a network in which at least one of the member stations routes messages for a neighboring station, each of the member stations having a transceiver and a multi-layered architecture including a forwarding layer, and each of the member stations having a plurality of routing managers that each maintains at least one table that is made accessible to the forwarding layer via an interface, a method of operating a member station to route messages including multicast messages, a multicast message including a type-of-service indicator and an originating source indicator, said method comprising the steps of:

• selecting a multicast routing manager from the plurality of routing managers when a message contains a multicast address, the multicast routing manager maintaining one or more forwarding tables;
• selecting a forwarding table according to the type-of-service indicator, the selected forwarding table including an origin map table, a next hop-table, a neighbor table, and a radio profile table;
• indexing into the origin map table by the originating source indicator to identify the corresponding next-hop table;
• indexing into the next-hop table using the multicast address to identify the set of corresponding neighbor indices, and using the neighbor indices to index into the neighbor table, the neighbor table having the plurality of entries including neighbor addresses and radio profile indices;
• selecting from the neighbor table at least one radio profile index and neighbor address, and using the selected radio profile index to select at least one corresponding radio profile from the radio profile table;
• and
• transmitting the message to the next-hop neighbor addresses according to the at least one corresponding selected radio profile.

In a communications system for communication among a plurality of member stations in a network in which at least one of the member stations routes messages for a neighboring station, each of the member stations having a transceiver and a multi-layered architecture including a forwarding layer, and each member station having a plurality of routing managers that each maintains at least one table that is made accessible to the forwarding layer via an interface, a method of operating a communications station to route messages including broadcast messages, a broadcast message including a type-of-service indicator, said method comprising the steps of:

• selecting a broadcast routing manager from the plurality of routing managers when a message contains a broadcast address, the broadcast routing manager maintaining a broadcast radio profile index table having one or more entries with each entry corresponding to a radio profile index number, and a broadcast radio profile table having one or more entries with each entry corresponding to a radio profile;
• indexing into the broadcast radio profile index table by using the type-of-service indicator to select a radio profile index number;
• selecting a radio profile by indexing into the broadcast radio profile table with the selected radio profile index number;
• and
• transmitting the message according to the selected radio profile.

In a communications system for communication among a plurality of member stations in a network in which at least one of the member stations routes messages for a neighboring station, each of the member stations having a transceiver and a multi-layered architecture including a forwarding layer, and each of the member stations having a plurality of routing managers that each maintains at least one table that is made accessible to the forwarding layer via an interface, a method of operating a communications station to route messages including unicast messages, a unicast message including a type-of-service indicator and a destination indicator, said method comprising the steps of:

• selecting a class of unicast routing managers from the plurality of routing managers when a message contains a unicast address and when the unicast address does not match an address of the communications station, the class of unicast routing managers maintaining a plurality of forwarding tables;
• selecting a forwarding table from the plurality of forwarding tables according to the type-of-service indicator, the selected forwarding table including a next-hop table, a neighbor table, and a radio profile table;
• indexing into the next-hop table by the destination indicator to find a corresponding neighbor index, and using the neighbor index to index into the neighbor table, the neighbor table having at least one entry including neighbor addresses and radio profile indices;
• selecting from the neighbor table at least a radio profile index and a neighbor address, and using the selected radio profile index to select a radio profile from the radio profile table;
• and
• transmitting the message according to the next-neighbor address and the selected radio profile.

In a communications system for communication among a plurality of member stations in a network in which at least one of the member stations routes messages for a neighboring station, each of the member stations having a transceiver and a multi-layered architecture including a forwarding layer, and each of the member stations having a plurality of routing managers that each maintains at least one table that is made accessible to the forwarding layer via an interface, a method of operating a member station to route messages including multicast messages, a multicast message including a type-of-service indicator and an originating source indicator, said method comprising the steps of:

• selecting a class of multicast routing managers from the plurality of routing managers when a message contains a multicast address, the class of multicast routing managers maintaining one or more forwarding tables;
• selecting a forwarding table according to the type-of-service indicator, the selected forwarding table including a an origin map table, a next hop-table, a neighbor table, and a radio profile table;
• indexing into the origin map table by the originating source indicator to identify the corresponding next-hop table;
• indexing into the next-hop table using the multicast address to identify the set of corresponding neighbor indices, and using the neighbor indices to index into the neighbor table, the neighbor table having the plurality of entries including neighbor addresses and radio profile indices;
• selecting from the neighbor table at least one radio profile index and neighbor address, and using the selected radio profile index to select at least one corresponding radio profile from the radio profile table;
• and
• transmitting the message to the selected neighbor addresses according to the at least one corresponding selected radio profile.

A method to determine a forwarding table which includes routing data in a communications system having a plurality of nodes, said method comprising the steps of:

• identifying a type-of-service indicator
• selecting a forwarding table from a plurality of forwarding tables based on the type-of-service indicator,
• arranging the plurality of forwarding tables in a table, and
• setting different table entries in the table of forwarding tables with respective different routing managers.

A method of determining routing information comprising the steps of:

• selecting a class of a routing manager based on an address indicator;
• selecting a forwarding table based on a type-of service indicator;
• and
• selecting data to access a next-hop address and a radio profile based on a destination address.

A method of accessing routing data in a communications system, said method comprising the steps of:

• constructing a set of tables which include non-redundant information;
• constructing directly indexed tables;
• linking related tables in the set of tables, and
• accessing routing data in at least one table of the set of tables.

A method of processing messages from a local control module of a member station in a communications system including a plurality of member stations, said method comprising the steps of:

• generating a message and providing the message from the control module to a forwarding layer;
• and
• specifying for the message:
• i) a unicast or broadcast next-hop address;
• ii) a type-of-service for the message;
• and iii) an identifier of a radio profile to be used when transmitting the message.

A method of determining routing information comprising the steps of:

• selecting a class of a routing manager based on an address indicator;
• selecting a forwarding table based on a type-of service indicator;
• and
• selecting data to access a next-hop address based on a source indicator.

A method of formatting a message in a communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

• attaching data to the message, the data including forwarding information;
• marking the message as forwardable or non-forwardable;
• and if forwardable,
• specifying in the data a unicast node number of the originating communications node.