Extended ring-like communication architecture

摘要

Various systems and methods for fault-tolerant and otherwise optimized communication, in which a system includes communication nodes connected by wireless data links together forming a ring structure, as well as additional wireless data links operative to partition the ring structure into multiple sub-ring structures. The system is operative to select, per each of the sub-ring structures, one of the wireless data links to remain dormant, thereby effectively creating a certain communication tree structure. The system is further operative, upon detecting a communication problem or inefficiency in any or all of the sub-ring structures, to shut-down, per sub-ring structure detected, the problematic or otherwise inefficient wireless data link, and to reactivate instead the dormant wireless data link, thereby effectively switching to a new communication tree structure, and thus resolving the problem or otherwise improving efficiency.

主权项

1. A system for fault-tolerant communication, comprising:
N nodes, out of which one node is a gateway node; N wireless data links, each wireless data link directly connecting two of the nodes, forming a ring structure; and K wireless data links in addition to the N wireless data links, in which each of the K wireless data links directly connecting two of the nodes that were not previously directly connected, thereby forming K+1 (K plus one) sub-ring structures in conjunction with the ring structure, wherein: the system is configured, per each of the sub-ring structures, to substantially not use one of the wireless data links belonging to the sub-ring structure, thereby forming a tree structure operative to transport data between the gateway node and each of the other N−1 (N minus one) nodes; and the system is further configured, per each of the sub-ring structures, to detect a reduction in performance of one of the wireless data links belonging to the sub-ring structure, and consequently (i) activate the wireless data link that was substantially not in use in conjunction with the sub-ring structure and (ii) deactivate the wireless data link associated with said reduction in performance detected, thereby switching to a new tree structure and circumventing said reduction in performance.