Patent Document ID: 20130017796
Application ID: 13443725
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A dynamic, heterogeneous, directional wireless backbone (DWB)-based network having a multi-tiered architecture operative to provide optimized end-to-end broadband connectivity and coverage of terminal nodes in a dynamic wireless environment, the network comprising: in a first tier thereof, plural sets of terminal nodes, each said set of terminal nodes including one or more terminal nodes; and in a second tier thereof, a directional wireless backbone network that is operative to provide directional wireless communication at bandwidths up to 100 gigabits per second (Gb/s), the directional wireless backbone network including a plurality of movable backbone nodes, each of the movable backbone nodes being of higher capability than each of the one or more terminal nodes, wherein the network is operative to employ adaptive and self-organizing control methodologies, such that: movement and positioning of the backbone nodes with respect to the terminal nodes are controlled so as to automatically and continuously attempt to optimize network performance; upon detection of a link degradation event, dynamic determination is performed regarding whether to release or retain the link associated with the degradation event, or to reconfigure the topology of the directional wireless backbone network, based on a role of the link in the network; and movement and positioning of the backbone nodes are controlled based on predicted future network degradation to prevent the future degradation or to mitigate effects of the future degradation, wherein the dynamic determination regarding whether to release the link is applicable only for low priority links and is based on non-convex characterizations of potential energy of the low priority links in the presence of physical constraints, and wherein the dynamic determination regarding whether to retain the link is applicable for high priority links and is based on convex characterizations of potential energy of the high priority links.