Connectionless communication network with changing topology

摘要

A connectionless communication network is disclosed which has changeable topology and means for maintaining the available bandwidth when topology changes take place. The network comprises a number of satellites or physical nodes wherein routing of connectionless packets is achieved by selecting paths from a virtual model of the network which is maintained in a connection control system. The virtual model consists of virtual nodes embodied at a given time by a particular satellite. As topology changes take place the virtual nodes become embodied by different satellites which communicate their new virtual identities to their adjacent satellites. Before a message is transmitted from one user to another, a path request is sent to the connection control centre and checks are made to ensure that the user virtual node and the adjacent virtual nodes have sufficient capacity to support the connection. This ensures that bandwidth is maintained. Services may be ATM based.