Patent ID: 7656851
Filing Date: 2010-02-02
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of exchanging information among nodes in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET), comprising: providing a controller or a processor at each node for performing operations to be carried out by or at the node; forming a number of logical domains in the network by periodically exchanging first topology update (TU determining, within each group of neighboring nodes, a node having an optimum node coverage among the nodes of each group, and designating the determined node as a domain lead (DL) node of the group; defining a domain as containing all nodes within a one hop range of the DL node; associating with each node of a given domain including the DL node, a set of one or more bridge nodes (BN) for linking each node with other nodes in neighboring domains by defining, at each node of the given domain, a first routing table for identifying other nodes that are in a range of one hop (H periodically updating the H selecting, at each node, members of the set of bridge nodes from among H periodically originating domain topology update (TUd) messages from each of a number of DL nodes in the network, and forwarding the TUd messages through the set of bridge nodes associated with each DL node originating a TUd message, including identifying in each TUd message those nodes contained in the domain of the originating DL node, thereby disseminating network node topology information via an architecture defined by the DL nodes and the sets of bridge nodes associated with each of the DL nodes in the network.