TW201728213A - Method of establishing wireless mesh-like network for allowing the user to easily establish and expand the wireless mesh-like network thereby eliminating the burden of manually setting the network connection information for an added node - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of establishing a wireless mesh-like network is implemented by a primary node and an added node, and comprises the steps of: (a) the primary node periodically sending out a beacon frame containing a particular message element for a predetermined time period, wherein the particular message element includes a first key; (b) when the added node receives the beacon frame, the added node determining whether the beacon frame contains the particular message element; and (c) when the determination result of the step (b) is affirmative, the added node establishing a wireless connection with the primary node according to the beacon frame and using the first key as a key to encrypt/decrypt the transmitted data after establishing the wireless connection. The present invention allows the user to easily establish and expand the wireless mesh-like network, thereby eliminating the burden of manually setting the network connection information for the added node.

Description

Method of establishing a wireless mesh network

The present invention relates to a method of establishing a wireless network, and more particularly to a method of establishing a wireless mesh network.

Referring to FIG. 1, a wireless mesh network is a network topology formed by a plurality of wireless nodes 1 communicating and establishing connections. Each wireless node 1 is a mesh router; if the wireless node 1 is connected to the internet, the wireless node 1 is also referred to as a gateway of the wireless mesh network ( Gateway). Each wireless node 1 contains information about other wireless nodes 1 in the network, and can refer to the current network state to form a routing required for data transfer.

Each wireless node 1 can be connected to an access point such as a WiFi or WiMAX area network. Thus, when the user equipment 2 needs to access the Internet, the user equipment 2 can access the interface. The extractor 3 transmits the data to the wireless node 1 to which the picker 3 is connected, and then transmits it to the gateway through the wireless mesh network, and then transmits it to the Internet via the gateway.

In addition, each wireless node 1 can also play the role of a wireless area network access device, providing wireless local area network services to individual users, that is, the user terminal device 2 can directly access the wireless node 1, and The data is transmitted to the gateway through the wireless node 1 and then transmitted to the Internet via the gateway.

Compared with accessing the Internet through the terrorist network, the wireless mesh network has the advantages of lower hardware cost, easy construction and expansion. However, although the wireless mesh network has the above advantages, at present, if the user wants to establish or expand the wireless mesh network by adding a wireless node, the user must set multiple network parameters for the newly added node. It includes a service set identifier (SSID), channel information and keys for data transmission, etc., which is inconvenient for the user, and therefore needs to be improved.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of establishing a wireless mesh network.

Therefore, the method for establishing a wireless mesh network of the present invention is implemented by a primary node and a new node, and includes a step (a), a step (b), and a step (c).

The step (a) is that the primary node periodically sends out a beacon frame containing a specific message element for a predetermined time period, wherein the specific message element includes a first key.

The step (b) is that when the newly added node receives the beacon frame, the newly added node determines whether the beacon frame includes the specific message element.

The step (c) is that when the determination result of the step (b) is affirmative, the newly added node establishes a wireless connection with the primary node according to the beacon frame, and uses the first key as a pair after establishing the wireless connection. The key to transfer data encryption/decryption.

The effect of the invention is that the newly added node can automatically join the wireless mesh network, thereby eliminating the burden of manually setting the network connection information for the newly added node.

Before the present invention is described in detail, it should be noted that in the following description, similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Referring to FIG. 2, the method for establishing a wireless mesh network of the present invention is implemented by a primary node 5, a new node 6, and a user device 7, wherein the primary node 5 and the newly added node 6 are both Mesh network router.

Referring to Figure 3, Figure 3 illustrates the flow of steps in the method of establishing a wireless mesh network. First, a user operates the user equipment 7 to transmit a configuration information to the primary node 5 (step 41); wherein the configuration information includes a service set identifier (SSID) and a data for use. Channel information transmitted, and a first key. In practice, the user equipment 7 can be a smart phone or a personal computer, and connected to the main node 5 through the Internet, or directly connected to the main node 5 by way of wireless connection. And the user device 7 can install a specific application related to the present invention, so that the user operates the specific application to set the configuration information, and transmits the configuration information to the main node 5; or The main node 5 can provide a web interface for the user to operate the user device 7 to transmit the configuration information to the main node 5 through the web interface. In addition, the first key is used to add/decrypt data when the newly added node 6 establishes a wireless connection with the primary node 5 while transmitting data to each other.

After the step 41, the primary node 5 already has the service setting identifier, the channel information, and the first key. Then, the user operates the user terminal device 7 to transmit an operation command for triggering the establishment of the wireless connection to the primary node 5 (step 42), and triggers the primary node 5 to periodically send out according to the configuration information. a beacon frame, wherein the beacon frame includes the service setting identifier, the channel information, and a specific information element (IE) including the first key for a predetermined period of time (step 43); wherein the specific message element is a "vendor specific" message element, the primary node 5 sends the beacon frame every 100 ms, and the predetermined time period is five minutes.

In particular, the beacon frame is a beacon box defined in the IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network General Standard developed by the International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and is used to carry the information needed to establish a wireless connection. Referring to FIG. 4, the beacon frame defined by IEEE 802.11 includes a plurality of necessary message elements, such as a message element related to a service setting identifier and a message element related to channel information. In addition, IEEE 802.11 also defines a plurality of non-essential message elements that can optionally join the beacon frame, and the system developer can add non-essential message elements to the beacon frame according to their own needs; wherein, the vendor specific The message element is a non-essential message element and is designed to carry vendor-specific additional information in non-established standards and can carry up to 253 octets of information. However, the message element used to carry the first key may not be limited to the vendor specific message element. In another embodiment, the first key may also be carried by other non-essential message elements that carry an unused memory space after carrying the information defined by the standard, as long as the unused memory space is sufficient to carry The first key is OK.

Then, the newly added node 6 receives the beacon frame (step 44), and further determines whether the beacon frame includes the specific message element (step 45), and when the determination result is affirmative, according to the beacon frame and the The primary node 5 establishes a wireless connection and, in conjunction with the primary node 6, forms a wireless mesh network (step 46).

Referring to Figure 5, each message element in the beacon box has three fields, a predefined unique element ID field, and a length field and an information field. The component identification number of the vendor-specific message component is “221”, so when the primary node 5 carries the first key by using the vendor-specific message component, the newly added node 6 only needs to determine whether the beacon frame is The message element having the component identification number "221" can be judged whether the beacon frame contains the specific message element.

After the power on, the newly added node 6 can establish a wireless connection with the primary node 5 through the steps 44~46 in a short time, so the primary node 5 is transmitting the component containing the specific message. After the beacon frame reaches the time period, the next transmitted beacon frame does not include the specific message element to avoid sending the first key all the time. In addition, in another embodiment, in order to protect the first key, the primary node 5 and the newly added node 6 may pre-store a second key for encrypting/decrypting the first key, and In step 43, the primary node 5 first encrypts the first key by using the second key, and then sends the beacon frame outward, and in step 46, the newly added node 6 is based on the second key pair. The encrypted first key is decrypted.

In particular, after the user transmits the configuration information to the primary node 5 by the step 41, the primary node 5 stores the configuration information. When the user wants to add a node, the node to be connected only needs to be powered on and the user terminal device 7 is triggered to perform the step 43 after the user terminal 7 is operated as in step 42. Automatically connecting the main node 5, the user does not need to manually set the configuration information required for establishing a wireless connection to the newly added node 6, which is very convenient, especially when the user needs to add multiple nodes. For example, referring to FIG. 6, after the three new nodes 6 in FIG. 6 are powered on, the user operates the user equipment 7 to trigger the main node 5 to perform the step 43, and the three newly added nodes 6 can Automatically connecting to the primary node 5 wirelessly; in addition, since the three newly added nodes 6 have the same service setting identifier and channel for data transmission after wirelessly connecting with the primary node 5, they can further Whether the protocol establishes a wireless connection.

In addition, the new node 6 can play the role of the primary node 5 after joining the wireless mesh network to wirelessly connect other nodes to be added. In particular, since the newly added node 6 has stored the service setting identifier, the channel information for data transmission, and the first key, when the newly added node 6 plays the role of the primary node 5, The user only needs to operate the user equipment 7 to connect to the new node 6 and trigger the new node 6 to perform the step 43 as shown in the step 42. The new node 6 can wirelessly connect other nodes to be added. Therefore, by the method for establishing a wireless mesh network by the present invention, the user can conveniently establish and expand a wireless mesh network that meets his own needs.

In summary, the present invention establishes a wireless mesh network method, by which the primary node sends configuration information for establishing a wireless connection to the newly added node, so that the newly added node can automatically according to the configuration information. Wirelessly connecting the main node to the wireless mesh network eliminates the burden on the user to manually set the configuration information for the newly added node, so that the user can easily establish and expand the wireless mesh network, so that it can be achieved. The object of the invention.

However, the above is only the embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the invention is not limited thereto, and all the equivalent equivalent changes and modifications according to the scope of the patent application and the patent specification of the present invention are still The scope of the invention is covered.

1‧‧‧Wireless node
2‧‧‧User device
3‧‧‧ picker
41~46‧‧‧Steps
5‧‧‧ main node
6‧‧‧Adding nodes
7‧‧‧User device

Other features and effects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the architecture of an existing wireless mesh network; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a new The incremental node establishes a wireless connection with a primary node to form a wireless mesh network; FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating the flow of steps of the method for establishing a wireless mesh network of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a beacon frame Figure 5 is a schematic diagram showing the format of a message element; and Figure 6 is a diagram illustrating a plurality of newly added nodes establishing a wireless connection with the primary node to form a wireless mesh network.

41~46‧‧‧Steps

Claims (4)

A method for establishing a wireless mesh network is implemented by a primary node and a new node, and includes the following steps: (a) the primary node periodically sends out a beacon frame containing a specific message element. a predetermined time period, wherein the specific message element includes a first key; (b) when the newly added node receives the beacon frame, the newly added node determines whether the beacon frame includes the specific message element; and c) when the judgment result of the step (b) is affirmative, the newly added node establishes a wireless connection with the primary node according to the beacon frame, and uses the first key as the transmission data after establishing the wireless connection. The decrypted key. The method for establishing a wireless mesh network according to claim 1, wherein the primary node and the newly added node both include a second key for adding/decrypting the first key, and wherein the step is (a) the primary node first encrypts the first key by using the second key, and then sends the beacon frame outward, and in the step (c), the newly added node is based on the second key pair. The encrypted first key is decrypted. The method for establishing a wireless mesh network according to claim 1, further comprising the following steps performed before the step (a): (d) the primary node receives a service setting identifier from a user equipment. a channel information for data transmission and configuration information of the first key; and (e) the primary node receives an operation command for triggering establishment of a wireless connection from the user terminal device; Step (a), the primary node is triggered by the operation command to send the beacon frame according to the configuration information, and the beacon frame further includes the service setting identifier and the channel information. A method of establishing a wireless mesh network as described in claim 1, wherein the specific message element is a vendor specific message element.