System and method of ad hoc on-demand routing by virtue of central control. A central controller of a network can communicate directly with a route-requesting network device regarding discovery of a data transmission path and perform route computation. A source network device may query the central controller with a unicast route request. In response, the central controller can identify a feasible route based on the topology information of the network. The central controller may also receive a broadcast route request along with other network nodes. As a result, the source device can be offered to select from two resultant routes, one provided by the central controller in a centralized manner and the other provided by the destination device. Further, the central controller can be used specifically for computation of constrained routes by incorporating global constraints. The central controller may be a software defined network (SDN) controller.

A unifying network model with a structure and architecture configured to address security, interoperability, mobility, and resource management, including priority and quality of services is provided. The network of the network model is structured as a hierarchical mesh network, with dynamically generated routing tables. The configuration of the network model optimizes routing and distributes communication load. Every device on the network is capable of being both an endpoint and a forwarder of communications. The network model may include underlying networks that are represented with one of two models, the link model or the star model. The nodes are organized in a hierarchical relationship structure to optimize throughput. The model may include a cryptographic method of dynamically assigning local network addresses.

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture to facilitate data transmission are disclosed. An examples apparatus includes a schedule controller to determine a first time corresponding to an end of a window for a data exchange; a data packet controller to determine a second time corresponding to an acknowledgement send during the window; a link performance calculator to calculate link performance based on the first time and the second time; and an interface to transmit the link performance to a network configuration entity.

A method of determining the proximity of a first device to a second device, the method comprising, at the second device: receiving a first packet having a first payload and a first lifetime value, the first lifetime value being such so as to cause a device receiving the first packet to not retransmit the first payload; and generating, in dependence on the first packet, a second packet having a second payload and a second lifetime value, the second payload being indicative of the proximity of the first device to the second device and the second lifetime value being such as to cause a device receiving the second packet to retransmit the second payload.

In one embodiment, when an ingress provider edge (PE) device of a computer network domain receives a frame at the ingress PE device destined to a destination media access control (MAC) address, it can determine whether the frame was received on a root or leaf Ethernet ingress segment, and also whether the destination MAC address is located via a root or leaf Ethernet segment. Accordingly, the ingress PE device may either drop or forward the frame based on the ingress Ethernet segment and destination MAC address Ethernet segment being either a root or a leaf, respectively.

A method for providing an update package to a node in a mesh network comprising a set of nodes and a gateway node arranged to provide access to an update server via a second network. The gateway node collects package information from each set node, including a first node. Each package identifies a respective node and its package version. The gateway node may query the update server based on the package information. The update server may respond to the gateway node with an updated package for the first node. The gateway node broadcasts the updated package into the mesh network as a sequence of mesh messages. Each of a first plurality of nodes of the set may forward the mesh messages to other nodes. The first node stores the mesh messages so as the sequence of mesh messages is received, assemble the updated package.

A method and apparatus for congestion control for acknowledged communication over networks detects congestion based on trends of flight size and transmission rate in order to adapt a congestion window in accordance with a detection result. Such congestion detection enables, for example, distinguishing between the congestion with or without unfair competition. Moreover, the measured transmission rate or its trend can be filtered to compensate for time variations. An end node or a proxy can be used for congestion control.

A relay device includes a target port coupled to another device; and a processor coupled to the target port and configured to extract identification information on the other device and identification information on a link aggregation group (LAG) configuration applied to the other device, from a frame received through the target port, and determine LAG configuration to be applied to the target port based on the identification information on the other device and the identification information on the LAG configuration applied to the other device.

A communication device configured to form a cluster with one or more other communication devices in its vicinity, monitor the presence, in the cluster, of those other communication devices and provide information about the presence, in the cluster, of the other communication devices to another device.

According to one embodiment, a gateway device includes a buffer memory, a conversion table, a first controller, a second controller, and a third controller. The buffer memory temporarily stores therein first-type data transmitted in the first network and second-type data transmitted in the second network. The conversion table registers therein conversion information to perform mutual format conversion with respect to the first-type data and the second-type data. The first controller is configured to generate, based on the conversion information, the first-type data from the second-type data stored in the buffer memory. The second controller is configured to generate, based on the conversion information, the second-type data from the first-type data stored in the buffer memory. The third controller is configured to read the conversion information from the conversion table and to notify the first controller and the second controller about the read conversion information.