US-20260129547-A1 - RECONFIGURABLE MULTI-RADIO BRIDGE

Abstract

Methods and systems describe herein relate to a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge that may connect a local area network (LAN) with an access point (AP) or other WAP to the backhaul and may dynamically change and/or select transmission methods. An example implementation of a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge performs a method including discovering a topology of a network that includes one or more wireless stations (STAs), evaluating a metric for each of at least two routes discovered in the topology, receiving a packet that identifies a first STA of the one or more STAs as an intended destination of the packet, selecting a route of the at least two routes over which to send the packet based on the metric, and sending the packet from a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge over the selected route toward the first STA.

Inventors

• Debashis Dash
• Hossein Dehghan-Fard
• Simon Duxbury
• Wanjui HO

Assignees

• MAXLINEAR, INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20251230

Claims (1)

1. 1 . A method of dynamic route selection, the method comprising: collecting metrics for one or more wireless stations (STAs) in a network that includes the one or more STAs; receiving a packet that identifies a first STA of the one or more STAs as an intended destination of the packet; dynamically selecting a route of two or more routes in the network over which to send the packet based on the metrics, each of the two or more routes reaching the first STA; and sending the packet from a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge over the selected route toward the first STA.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This patent application is a continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 17/521,635 filed on November 8, 2021, which is continuation of U.S. Patent Application No. 16/671,149 filed on October 31, 2019, which claims the benefit of prior filed co-pending U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/756,008 filed on November 5, 2018, each of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. FIELD The implementations discussed herein are related to a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge. BACKGROUND Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described herein are not prior art to the claims in the present application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section. Home, office, stadium, and outdoor networks, a.k.a. wireless local area networks (WLAN) are established using a device called a Wireless Access Point (WAP). The WAP may include a router. The WAP wirelessly couples all the devices of the local network, e.g. wireless stations such as: computers, printers, televisions, digital video (DVD) players, security cameras and smoke detectors to one another and to the Cable or Subscriber Line through which Internet, video, and television is delivered to the local network. Most WAPs implement the IEEE 802.11 standard which is a contention based standard for handling communications among multiple competing devices for a shared wireless communication medium on a selected one of a plurality of communication channels. The frequency range of each communication channel is specified in the corresponding one of the IEEE 802.11 protocols being implemented, e.g. “a”, “b”, “g”, “n”, “ac”, “ad”, “ax”. Communications follow a hub and spoke model with a WAP at the hub and the spokes corresponding to the wireless links to each ‘client’ device. After selection of a communication channel(s) for the associated local network, access to the shared communication channel(s) relies on a multiple access methodology identified as Collision Sense Multiple Access (CSMA). CSMA is a distributed random access methodology for sharing a single communication medium, by having a contending communication link back off and retry access if a prospective collision on the wireless medium is detected, i.e. if the wireless medium is in use. WAPs connect to a core or backbone network through a backhaul network or link. Some backhaul links are wired. When backhaul technology changes, hardware in the WAPs that connects to wired backhauls may have to be changed, which may increase costs and/or downtime in a network. Traditional network devices fail to effectively manage LAN communications for wireless stations with multiple connection routes. The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some implementations described herein may be practiced. SUMMARY This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential characteristics of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. Some example implementations described herein generally relate to a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge. An example implementation of a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge performing a method includes discovering a topology of a network that includes one or more wireless stations (STAs); evaluating a metric for each of at least two routes discovered in the topology; receiving a packet that identifies a first STA of the one or more STAs as an intended destination of the packet; selecting a route of the at least two routes over which to send the packet based on the metric, each of the at least two routes reaching the first STA; and sending the packet from a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge over the selected route toward the first STA. In an example systems, a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge can include memory and a processor operatively coupled to the memory, where the processor configured to discover a topology of a network that includes one or more wireless stations (STAs); evaluate a metric for each of at least two routes discovered in the topology; receive a packet that identifies a first STA of the one or more STAs as an intended destination of the packet; select a route of the at least two routes over which to send the packet based on the metric, each of the at least two routes reaching the first STA; and send the packet from a reconfigurable multi-radio bridge over the selected route toward the first STA. In an example implementation, a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising instructions that when execute by a processor, the instructions to discover a topology of a network that in