Robust multipath routing

An article comprising a computer program product having stored therein instructions that, if executed, result in:

• receiving a packet stream at a first node, the packet stream comprising Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets;
• identifying a subset of packets of the packet stream, the identifying comprising identifying at least one of a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet, a Request to Send (RTS) packet, a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, or a packet bearing an urgent pointer;
• generating at least one copy of a packet of the subset of packets;
• and
• determining a first route for transmitting packets of the packet stream other than the subset of packets from the first node to a second node;
• determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets from the first node to the second node;
• and
• determining a third route for transmitting the at least one copy of a packet from the first node to the second node;
• wherein the first route is different than the second route and the third route is different than both the first route and the second route.

A wireless communication system comprising:

• a wireless node including a processor and a wireless transceiver coupled to the processor;
• wherein the processor is capable of:
• receiving a stream of packets, the stream of packets comprising Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets;
• identifying a subset of packets of the stream of packets, the identifying comprising identifying at least one of a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet, a Request to Send (RTS) packet, a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, or a packet bearing an urgent pointer;
• generating a copy of a packet of the subset of packets;
• and
• determining a first route for transmitting packets of the stream of packets other than the subset of packets to another wireless node;
• determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets to the other wireless node;
• and
• determining a third route for transmitting the copy of a packet to the other wireless node;
• wherein the first route is different than the second route and the third route is different than both the first route and the second route.

A wireless network node comprising:

• a wireless transceiver;
• and
• a processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and configured to use the wireless transceiver to transmit packets to another wireless network node;
• wherein the processor is further configured to:
• identify at least one packet of a packet stream, the packet stream comprising Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) packets, wherein the identifying the at least one packet of the packet stream comprises identifying at least one of a TCP acknowledgement (ACK) packet, a Request to Send (RTS) packet, a Clear to Send (CTS) packet, or a packet bearing an urgent pointer;
• generate a copy of the identified at least one packet;
• and
• determine a first path for transmitting the packet stream to the other wireless node;
• determine a second path, different from the first path, for transmitting the identified packet to the other wireless node;
• and
• determine a third path, different than both the first path and the second path, for transmitting the copy of the identified packet to the other wireless node.

A method for communicating over a wireless network, comprising:

• receiving a packet stream at a first node;
• identifying a subset of packets of the packet stream;
• generating at least one copy of a packet of the subset of packets;
• determining a first route for transmitting packets of the packet stream other than the subset of packets from the first node to a second node, wherein the determining the first route comprises performing a multipath routing algorithm using a first value for a weighting variable;
• determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets from the first node to the second node;
• and
• determining a third route for transmitting the at least one copy of a packet from the first node to the second node;
• wherein the second route is different than the first route and the third route is different than both the first route and the second route.

An article of manufacture comprising a computer program product having stored therein instructions that, if executed, result in:

• receiving a packet stream at a first node;
• identifying a subset of packets of the packet stream;
• generating at least one copy of the subset of packets;
• determining a first route for transmitting packets of the packet stream other than the subset of packets from the first node to a second node, wherein the determining the first route comprises performing a multipath routing algorithm using a first value for a weighting variable;
• determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets from the first node to the second node;
• and
• determining a third route for transmitting the copy of the subset of packets from the first node to the second node;
• wherein the first route is different than the second route and the third route is different than both the first route and the second route.

A wireless communication system, comprising:

• a wireless node including a processor and a wireless transceiver coupled to the processor;
• wherein the processor is capable of:
• receiving a stream of packets;
• identifying a subset of packets of the stream of packets;
• generating a copy of the subset of packets;
• determining a first route for transmitting packets of the stream of packets other than the subset of packets to another wireless node by executing a multipath routing algorithm with a first value for a weighting variable;
• determining a second route for transmitting the subset of packets to the other wireless node;
• and
• determining a third route for transmitting the copy of the subset of packets the other wireless node;
• wherein the first route is different than the second route and the third route is different than both the first route and the second route.

A wireless network node comprising:

• a wireless transceiver;
• and
• a processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and configured to use the wireless transceiver to transmit packets to another wireless network node;
• wherein the processor is further configured to:
• identify at least one packet of a packet stream;
• generate a copy of the identified packet;
• determine a first path for transmitting the packet stream to the other wireless node by executing a multipath routing algorithm with a first value for a weighting variable;
• determine a second path, different from the first path, for transmitting the identified packet to the other wireless node;
• and
• determine a third path, different than both the first path and the second path, for transmitting the copy of the identified packet to the other wireless node.