Patent ID: 7596151

Claim:
A system for discovering a path maximum transfer unit (MTU) in an ad hoc network, comprising: a path MTU-determining unit operable to extract MTU values of nodes present on a transmission path from a MTU table constructed of MTU values of nodes present in the ad hoc network by using hello messages, and determining one of the extracted MTU values as a path MTU value, a MTU table-managing unit operable to update the MTU table based on addresses and MTU values of nodes included in the hello messages wherein the hello messages are received periodically; and a hello message-transmitting unit operable to insert the addresses and MTU values of nodes stored in the MTU table into each of the hello messages, and periodically transmitting the resultant hello messages, wherein when updating the MTU table: the path MTU-determining unit analyzes the received hello messages and extracts the addresses and MTU values of both the nodes transmitting the hello messages and the nodes present in the network; and the MTU table-managing unit compares the extracted addresses and MTU values with the addresses and MTU values of nodes stored in the MTU table and determines whether there are any addresses and MTU values of nodes that should be added or changed; and the MTU table-managing unit updates the MTU table based on the extracted addresses and MTU values, if it is determined that there are any addresses and MTU values of nodes which should be added or changed.