CN107124363B

CN107124363B - Message broadcasting method and device

Info

Publication number: CN107124363B
Application number: CN201710229450.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 郭攀
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-04-10
Filing date: 2017-04-10
Publication date: 2020-11-06
Anticipated expiration: 2037-04-10
Also published as: CN107124363A; WO2018188337A1; CN112383478B; CN112383478A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a message broadcasting method and device. The method is applied to a power line network, wherein the power line network comprises a central coordinator, a relay station and a terminal station, and the method comprises the following steps: the relay station acquires a first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first message; the relay station searches whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table, wherein the branch routing table comprises destination addresses of reachable terminal stations; if the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table, the relay station broadcasts the first message. By adopting the embodiment of the invention, the message transmission reliability is ensured, the number of messages in the network is reduced, the message conflict scale is reduced, and the transmission efficiency is improved.

Description

Message broadcasting method and device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for broadcasting a packet.

Background

The carrier signals transmitted in the communication network are transmitted by using messages as units, and the messages are transmitted by adopting modes such as full-network broadcasting, proxy broadcasting and the like.

The so-called full-network broadcasting is that after a sending station sends a message, all stations receiving the message broadcast the message to surrounding stations, and all surrounding stations receiving the broadcast message broadcast the message continuously, so that the message is broadcast in the full network to reach a destination station, and in the broadcasting process, any station receiving the message does not shield the message, as shown in fig. 1(a), stations in the full network include a1-a7 station, a1 station needs to send the message to a6 station, and when a1 station broadcasts the message at a relay station, stations receiving the message (such as a2, A3, and a4 stations) broadcast the message to a5, a6, and a7 stations, respectively, so that the number of messages in the network is too large, which causes severe message collision, and thus affects the transmission efficiency of the message; in the entire network, at least one proxy station and/or at least one non-proxy station exist, so-called proxy broadcasting, that is, when a station receiving a message determines that the station itself is a proxy station, the message is broadcasted, otherwise, a process of shielding the message is performed, and once a proxy station on a critical path does not receive the message, transmission of the message is interrupted, as shown in fig. 1(B), stations in the entire network include a station B1-B7, wherein the station B3 is a proxy station, and the station B1 needs to send the message to the station B6, and in the process of forwarding the message, if the station B3 does not receive the message, the message cannot be forwarded to the station B6, and even if the stations B2 and B4 receive the message, the message cannot be sent to a destination station, so that reliability of message transmission is reduced.

Disclosure of Invention

The technical problem to be solved by the embodiments of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for broadcasting a message, which reduce the number of messages in a network, reduce the message collision scale, and improve the message transmission efficiency while ensuring the reliability of message transmission.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a packet broadcasting method, including: a relay station obtains a first destination address of a terminal station carried in a first message; the relay station searches whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table, wherein the branch routing table comprises destination addresses of reachable terminal stations; if the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table, the relay station broadcasts the first message.

In the first aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, a branch broadcast is adopted, and a packet is transmitted according to a branch routing table updated in advance, so that the packet is forwarded only on a path that reaches a terminal station in a branch, and compared with a full-network broadcast, the size of a network conflict in packet transmission is reduced, and the use frequency of the full-network broadcast is reduced.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first implementation manner of the first aspect, the method further includes: and if the first destination address does not exist in the local branch routing table, the relay station does not broadcast the first message.

With reference to the first implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second implementation manner of the first aspect, the relay station determines whether a packet signal quality of a received second packet reaches a preset signal quality threshold; if the message signal quality of the received second message reaches the preset signal quality threshold, acquiring a second sending address carried in the second message; adding a second sending address carried in the second message to the local branch routing table; and shielding the second message if the message signal quality of the received second message does not reach the preset signal quality threshold. Therefore, the crosstalk signals of other branches are shielded, and the relative accuracy and high reliability of the branch are ensured.

With reference to the second implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third implementation manner of the first aspect, the determining, by the relay station, whether the packet signal quality of the received second packet reaches a preset signal quality threshold includes: and judging whether the message signal strength of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset signal strength threshold value or judging whether the message communication success rate of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset communication success rate threshold value.

With reference to the first aspect, in a fourth implementation manner of the first aspect, before the acquiring, by the relay station, the first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first packet, the method further includes: and the relay station determines that the sending mode carried in the first message is the branch broadcast. Therefore, the appointed broadcast mode of the message is executed according to the specific broadcast mode of the acquired message, and other message forwarding modes do not need to be tried one by one, so that the message transmission efficiency is improved.

With reference to the second implementation manner of the first aspect or the third implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth implementation manner of the first aspect, the broadcasting the first packet includes: the relay station acquires a serial number identifier of the first message, and searches whether the serial number identifier exists in a broadcast record, wherein the serial number identifier is used for uniquely identifying the first message; if the relay station does not have the serial number identifier in the broadcast record, the relay station broadcasts the first message; and if the serial number identification exists in the broadcast record, the relay station does not broadcast the first message. Therefore, multiple broadcasting of the same broadcast message is avoided, and broadcast storm is avoided.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a message broadcasting apparatus, including: the address acquisition module is used for acquiring a first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first message; an address lookup module, configured to lookup whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table, where the branch routing table includes destination addresses of reachable terminal stations; and the message broadcasting module is used for broadcasting the first message if the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table.

In the second aspect of the embodiment of the present invention, by using a branch broadcast manner and transmitting a packet according to a branch routing table updated in advance, the packet is only forwarded on a path that reaches a terminal station in a branch, so that, compared to a full-network broadcast, the network conflict scale in packet transmission is reduced, and the use frequency of the full-network broadcast is reduced.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first implementation manner of the second aspect, the packet broadcasting device further includes: the message broadcasting equipment further comprises: and the message shielding module is used for not broadcasting the first message if the first destination address does not exist in the local branch routing table.

With reference to the second aspect, in a second implementation manner of the second aspect, the packet broadcasting device further includes a signal determining module, specifically configured to: judging whether the message signal quality of the received second message reaches a preset signal quality threshold value; if the message signal quality of the received second message reaches the preset signal quality threshold, acquiring a second sending address carried in the second message; adding a second sending address carried in the second message to the local branch routing table; and shielding the second message if the message signal quality of the received second message does not reach the preset signal quality threshold. Therefore, the crosstalk signals of other branches are shielded, and the relative accuracy and high reliability of the branch are ensured.

With reference to the second implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third implementation manner of the second aspect, the signal determining module is specifically configured to: and judging whether the message signal strength of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset signal strength threshold value or judging whether the message communication success rate of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset communication success rate threshold value.

With reference to the second aspect, in a fourth implementation manner of the second aspect, the packet broadcasting device further includes a broadcast mode determining module, specifically configured to: and determining that the sending mode carried in the first message is the branch broadcast. Therefore, the appointed broadcast mode of the message is executed according to the specific broadcast mode of the acquired message, and other message forwarding modes do not need to be tried one by one, so that the message transmission efficiency is improved.

With reference to the second aspect, in a fifth implementation manner of the second aspect, the packet broadcasting module is specifically configured to: acquiring a serial number identifier of the first message, and searching whether the serial number identifier exists in a broadcast record, wherein the serial number identifier is used for uniquely identifying the first message; if the serial number identification does not exist in the broadcast record, broadcasting the first message; and if the serial number identification exists in the broadcast record, not broadcasting the first message. Therefore, multiple broadcasts of the same broadcast message are avoided, and broadcast storms are avoided.

With reference to the second implementation manner of the second aspect or the third implementation manner of the second aspect, in a sixth implementation manner of the second aspect, the first packet is a packet for transmitting data, and the second packet is a packet for updating the local branch routing table.

In one possible design, the message broadcasting device includes a processor and a transceiver in its structure. The processor is configured to execute the message broadcasting method provided in the first aspect of the present invention. Optionally, the device may further include a memory, where the memory is used to store an application program code and a routing table entry, etc. that support the message broadcasting device to execute the above method, and the processor is configured to execute the application program stored in the memory.

By implementing the embodiment of the invention, the current relay station acquires the second sending address carried by the second message, and adds the second sending address to the local branch routing table so as to update the local branch routing table. When the first message needs to be transmitted on the branch route, the relay station acquires a first destination address carried by the first message, searches whether the first destination address exists in a local branch route table, broadcasts the first message in the branch if the first destination address exists, and does not broadcast the first message if the first destination address exists. By adopting the embodiment of the invention, the message is transmitted by adopting a branch broadcasting mode and according to the pre-updated branch routing table, so that the message is only forwarded on the path reaching the terminal station in the branch, the network conflict scale in the message transmission is reduced and the use frequency of the whole network broadcasting is reduced compared with the whole network broadcasting, and compared with the proxy broadcasting, even if the proxy station on the path only reaching the terminal station can not successfully receive the message, the message can be transmitted through other paths in the branch to finish the message transmission, thereby improving the reliability of the message transmission.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or the background art of the present invention, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments or the background art of the present invention will be described below.

Fig. 1(a) is a schematic logical structure diagram of a network-wide broadcast route according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 1(b) is a schematic diagram of a logical structure of a proxy broadcast route according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a logic structure of a power line branch line according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a logical structure of a branch broadcasting route according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a branch circuit forming method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a message structure of a datagram according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a branched circuit formed interface provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7(a) is an interface schematic diagram of a station communication range provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7(b) is an interface schematic diagram of another site communication range provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a schematic logical structure diagram of a unicast route according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating another message broadcasting method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a branched transmission interface according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a branch broadcasting device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another branch broadcasting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

The terms "first," "second," "third," and "fourth," etc. in the description and claims of the invention and in the accompanying drawings are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular order. Furthermore, the terms "include" and "have," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to only those steps or elements listed, but may alternatively include other steps or elements not listed, or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by one skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

The technical scheme in the embodiment of the invention is suitable for a power line network. An application scenario of the embodiment of the present invention is described below with a power line network as an example. The power line network is a shared network formed by communication devices on a power line, and is formed by using the power line as a shared medium to transmit carrier communication signals. Generally, a power line network is a multi-stage multi-relay network topology. This is because, under ideal conditions, the carrier communication signal transmitted on the power line is successfully received by all the communication devices on the power line, and in practical applications, the transmission distance of the carrier communication signal is relatively limited due to the influence of factors such as signal attenuation and noise, but the range to which the power line is connected is generally large, so to transmit the carrier communication signal to the terminal station, a relay station is generally adopted to extend the transmission distance of the carrier communication signal, and thus, a power line network with a multi-stage multi-relay network topology is formed.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a logic structure of a power line network provided in this embodiment, where the communication device includes: a Central Coordinator (CCO), a relay station, and a terminal station, which are connected to each other through a power line. The structure shown in the figure comprises 3 levels, wherein the level of the first row of equipment is the first level, the level of the middle row of equipment is the second level, and the level of the last row of equipment is the third level. The central coordinator is used for creating and sending messages; the relay station may be a computer system device providing relay service, and is configured to receive and forward a packet, so as to transmit the packet to a terminal station, and in order to transmit a longer distance, the packet may be generally forwarded to a next-stage relay station, and the next-stage relay station continues to forward the packet; the terminal station may be a network terminal device, such as an electric meter (station), a mobile phone (cell phone), a smart phone (smartphone), a computer (computer), a tablet computer (tablet computer), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Mobile Internet Device (MID), and the like, and is configured to receive and process a message.

In the embodiment of the invention, a central coordinator creates a first message and broadcasts the first message in a branch, a relay station receiving the first message acquires a first destination address of a terminal station to which the first message carried by the first message arrives, and searches whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table storing a plurality of addresses, if so, the relay station indicates that the current relay station broadcasts the first message and then has a route to the terminal station, so that the current relay station continuously broadcasts the first message, and if not, the current relay station indicates that the current station does not have the route to the terminal station, and at the moment, the current relay station does not broadcast the first message. As shown in fig. 3, stations in the whole network include stations D1-D14, stations D1 need to send messages to stations D10, and after the stations D1 broadcast the messages, stations D2-D6 all receive the messages, at this time, the stations search in their respective branch routing tables whether addresses of stations D10 exist, if so (e.g., stations D4 and stations D5), the messages are broadcast, and if not (e.g., stations D2, stations D3 and stations D6), the messages are not broadcast. After the messages are broadcasted by the D4 and the D5, the relay station receiving the messages continuously transmits the messages in the same way until the relay station reaches the terminal station D10. The relay station transmits the message by adopting a branch broadcasting mode according to the pre-updated branch routing table, so that the message is only forwarded on a path reaching the terminal station in the branch, the network conflict scale in message transmission is reduced and the use frequency of the whole network broadcast is reduced compared with the whole network broadcast, and compared with the proxy broadcast, even if the proxy station on the only path reaching the terminal station can not successfully receive the message, the message can be transmitted through other paths in the branch to complete message transmission, thereby improving the reliability of message transmission.

The message broadcasting method is described in detail by the embodiments shown in fig. 4 to 10.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process of forming a local branch routing table of a packet according to an embodiment of the present invention. The following description takes a relay station as an example, and the method includes:

step S101: and the relay station judges whether the message signal quality of the received second message reaches a preset signal quality threshold value.

Specifically, the message is a data unit for information exchange and transmission in the network, that is, a data block to be sent by the station at one time. The message carries complete data information, such as an OSTEI sending address, an ottei destination address, an STEI of a previous hop station of the current relay station, an DTEI address of a next hop station through which the current relay station forwards the message to the terminal station, a destination port, a source sending port, a data length, a protocol used, encryption, and the like. Typically, this information may be provided in the header of the message. In the embodiment of the present invention, the packet to be transmitted is used as the second packet, that is, the second packet is a packet for updating the local branch routing table.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, a message structure diagram of an IP datagram includes a data portion and a header (header) portion, where the header includes information such as a source IP address (an sending address OSTEI), a destination IP address (a destination address ODTEI), and the like.

The message signal quality is used for describing the communication quality between the two stations, and the distance between the two stations is measured according to the communication quality, so that whether the two stations belong to the same branch network is judged. For a plurality of stations, for example, if a station a can receive messages sent by a station B and a station C, the station a determines that the quality of a message signal of the received message sent by the station B is higher than that of a message sent by the station C, so the station a can determine that the distance between the station B and the station a is closer to that of the station C according to the quality of the message signal, and thus the possibility of belonging to the same physical branch is higher.

The message signal quality may include a message signal strength or a message communication success rate, which is not specifically limited herein.

The two sites can be understood to communicate with each other, one of the sites analyzes and counts the load of a plurality of messages sent by the other site, and whether the two sites are sites in the same physical branch is determined according to the success rate of the message communication. For example, after station a1 receives 10 messages continuously transmitted by station D1, the load of the 10 messages is analyzed, and if none of 9 messages is successfully analyzed, station a1 may consider the message communication power of the message transmitted by station D1 to be 10%, and normally set the communication success rate threshold to be 20%, so that station a1 and station D1 may not belong to the same physical branch.

Judging whether two sites belong to the same physical branch according to the message signal strength can be understood that the two sites are communicated with each other, wherein one site calculates and counts the signal-to-noise ratio of a message sent by the other site, so that whether the two sites are sites in the same physical branch is determined. For example, after the station a2 receives the message sent by the station D2, the signal-to-noise ratio of the message is calculated, but the signal-to-noise ratio threshold is usually set to be within the range of-5 to 0db, and if the calculated signal-to-noise ratio is less than 0db, it can be considered that the station a1 and the station D1 do not belong to the same physical branch.

In specific implementation, as shown in fig. 6, which is an interface schematic diagram for transmitting a second message, in the process that a station 5 sends the second message to a station 4, other stations such as 41, 42, 43, and 44 within the communication range of the station 5 may also receive the second message, and if a station (e.g., 44) that receives the second message detects that the signal strength of the message is less than or equal to a preset signal strength threshold (signal strength difference), or detects that the message communication success rate with the station 5 is less than or equal to a preset communication success rate threshold (communication success rate is low), it is determined that the station and the station 5 do not belong to the same branch network, and at this time, the station 44 selects to shield the second message, so that crosstalk between different branches can be reduced; if the signal strength is good or the communication success rate is high, the station is determined to belong to the same branch line (e.g. 41, 4, 42) as the station No. 5.

The communication range refers to a communication range between the local station and another station. That is, one station transmits a carrier communication signal, and the other station has a possibility of successfully receiving the carrier communication signal, and if the reception is successful, it indicates that the station that has received the carrier communication signal is within the communication range of the station that has transmitted the carrier communication signal. Of course, the communication range is limited due to factors related to noise, signal attenuation, and the like. As shown in fig. 7(a), A, B, C represents three branch lines in the power line network, and when each branch line is far away, each station and its corresponding communication station can be considered to belong to the same branch line (the communication range is shown by a dotted line in the figure).

In addition, as shown in fig. 7(b), when the branch lines are relatively close to each other, the communication stations corresponding to the stations may include stations of the same branch line, and may also include stations of different branch lines (the communication range is shown by a dotted line in the figure), but the signal strength on the same branch line and the signal strength on different branch lines are different.

Step S102: and if the message signal quality of the second message received by the relay station reaches the preset signal quality threshold, acquiring a second sending address carried in the second message.

Specifically, the address information carried in the second packet may include a second sending address, a previous hop address of the current relay station, a second destination address, and a next hop address of the current relay station.

In a specific implementation, when the relay station receives the second packet, the address information carried in the second packet is extracted, such as the second sending address OSTEI and the last hop address STEI of the current relay station, and the address information may further include the second destination address ODTEI and the next hop address DTEI of the current relay station. For example, as shown in fig. 6, a message sent from the station No. 5 to the station No. 1 is a second message, and is sent in a unicast manner, and in the sending process, if the current relay station is the station No. 3, that is, the message is sent from the station No. 4 to the station No. 3, the address information OSTEI carried by the message is 5, the ottei is 1, the STEI is 4, and the DTEI is 3.

The unicast mode is a process in which a message is correspondingly sent from a designated station to another designated station, and one-to-one sending is realized. As shown in fig. 8, stations in the whole network include a station No. C1-C7, a station No. C1 needs to send a message to a station No. C6, and in the process of forwarding the message, if the station No. C1 dynamically selects a next-hop station as a station No. C3 according to the principle of an optimal path (a shortest path, a path with optimal signal quality, etc.), based on the same manner, after receiving the message, the station No. C3 correspondingly sends the message to a destination station No. C6, and in this process, one-to-one forwarding is implemented.

In fact, whatever the way the message is sent, what the relay station receives is a broadcast message, with the difference that the receiving station forwards the message. That is to say, in a unicast message manner, a station that receives a message may also be a station near a target station, for example, in fig. 8, in a process that a message is unicast from C1 to C3, C2 and C4 may also receive a message, but C2 and C4 do not forward the received message.

Step S103: the relay station adds the second transmission address to the local branch routing table.

Specifically, the local branch routing table includes destination addresses odeti of reachable terminal stations. And the current relay station adds the acquired second sending address to a local branch routing table to update the branch routing table.

As shown in fig. 6, taking the current relay station as the station No. 3 as an example, the address information of the received second message is: the OSTEI is 5, the ottei is 1, and the last hop address STEI is 4, at this time, the site 3 adds the address of the site 5 to the local branch routing table. That is, at this time, a route from station No. 3 to station No. 5 is formed.

For example, as shown in table 1, the branch routing table local to site No. 3 in fig. 6 includes an ODTEI, and when site No. 3 acquires an address of site No. 5, the address is added to the ODTEI in table 1, so as to obtain table 2.

Optionally, as shown in table 1, the branch routing table may further include a Level corresponding to the site and a next hop address Nexthop when the packet is forwarded from the current site to the ODTEI, where if the ODTEI is an address of the site No. 5, it indicates that the Level where the site No. 5 is located is 4, and the site No. 3 is forwarded by the site No. 4 after forwarding the packet to the Nexthop (site No. 4).

TABLE 1

ODTEI	Level	Nexthop
				4	3	4
2	1	2
			1	0	2

TABLE 2

ODTEI	Level	Nexthop
				4	3	4
2	1	2
			1	0	2
5	4	4

Optionally, in an implementation scenario as shown in fig. 4, after the step S102, the method further includes:

acquiring a next hop address carried in the second message, judging whether a local address of a current relay station is matched with the next hop address, if so, forwarding the second message, and executing the step S104; and if the local address is not matched with the next hop address, not forwarding the second message (shielding the second message).

Specifically, the next hop address DTEI is an address of a next hop station that forwards a packet when the previous hop station of the current relay station sends the second packet to the second destination address, that is, when the station No. 4 sends the packet to the station No. 1, the packet is forwarded to the station No. 3 first, and then the DTEI at this time is 3.

For example, when the station No. 5 sends the second packet to the station No. 4, the station nos. 41 and 42 also receive the packet, but determine that the local address is not matched with the DETI of the second packet according to the DETI carried in the second packet, 41(42), thereby determining that the packet is not sent to the station No. 4, and therefore, the packet is not forwarded, and the station No. 4 determines that the address is matched, and forwards the packet.

Optionally, if the packet signal quality of the second packet received by the relay station is less than the preset signal quality threshold, step S104 is executed: and the relay station shields the second message.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the current relay station obtains the second sending address carried in the second packet, and adds the second sending address to the local branch routing table to update the local branch routing table. When the first message needs to be transmitted on the branch route, the relay station acquires a first destination address carried by the first message, searches whether the first destination address exists in a local branch route table, broadcasts the first message in the branch if the first destination address exists, and does not broadcast the first message if the first destination address exists. By adopting the embodiment of the invention, the message is transmitted by adopting a branch broadcasting mode and according to the pre-updated branch routing table, so that the message is only forwarded on the path reaching the terminal station in the branch, the network conflict scale in the message transmission is reduced and the use frequency of the whole network broadcasting is reduced compared with the whole network broadcasting, and compared with the proxy broadcasting, even if the proxy station on the path only reaching the terminal station can not successfully receive the message, the message can be transmitted through other paths in the branch to finish the message transmission, thereby improving the reliability of the message transmission.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a message broadcasting method according to another embodiment of the present invention. The following description takes a relay station as an example, and the method includes:

step S201: and the relay station determines that the sending mode carried in the first message is the branch broadcast.

Specifically, the sending modes of the message include a plurality of modes such as UNICAST, full-network BROADCAST, BRANCH BROADCAST, PROXY BROADCAST, and the like, and the corresponding sending fields are respectively UNICAST, BROADCAST, BRANCH _ BROADCAST, PROXY _ BROADCAST, and the like, and are used for determining which mode the first message is sent.

The first message is a message for transmitting data. The first message also has a message format similar to that shown in fig. 5, and is not described here again.

Step S202: and the relay station acquires the first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first message.

In a specific implementation, when the relay station receives the first message, the destination address carried in the first message is extracted, and in the embodiment of the present invention, the address of the terminal station to which the first message arrives is used as the first destination address.

Step S203: and the relay station searches whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table.

Specifically, the local branch routing table is a branch routing table of the current relay station, where the branch routing table includes a destination address (ODTEI) of a reachable terminal station, and may further include an address (Nexthop) of a next-hop station that forwards a message from the current relay station, a Level (Level) of the station, a sending address (OSTEI), and the like. The Level is the Level to which each site belongs, the Level is formed in networking, and the OSTEI is the address of the CCO for creating the message. In the embodiment of the present invention, the branch routing table local to the relay station is updated in advance (for example, addresses are added and deleted) by using the implementation method shown in fig. 4.

In specific implementation, the current relay station receiving the message searches whether a first destination address reaching the terminal station exists in an ODTEI entry of a local branch routing table, and if so, determines that the current relay station and the terminal station belong to the same branch line. For example, if site 1 needs to send the first packet to site 5, the ODTEI entry is looked up in the local branch routing table of site 1, and if the ODTEI has the address of site 5, it indicates that site 1 and site 5 belong to the same branch line.

Step S204: if the relay station has the first destination address in the local branch routing table, acquiring a serial number identifier of the first message, and searching whether the serial number identifier exists in a broadcast record.

Specifically, the sequence number identifier is used to uniquely identify the first packet, and may be a sequence number field PacketIndex of the first packet, where the field is usually located in a packet header (as shown in fig. 5), and the field is assigned by a CCO according to an increasing sequence when the first packet is created, and the sequence number field cannot be modified when the relay station forwards the packet.

In a specific implementation, after determining that the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table, obtaining the serial number identifier of the first packet, and searching whether the serial number identifier of the first packet exists in the broadcast record, if so, indicating that the packet has been broadcast, at this time, not forwarding the first packet, avoiding broadcast storm caused by rebroadcast, and if not, indicating that the packet is broadcast for the first time, and no broadcast record exists, so that the first packet can be broadcast. Wherein, the non-forwarding may be masking, filtering or discarding, or may be that the record list is not broadcast, etc.

For example, a schematic diagram corresponding to the branch routing table formed by the implementation method shown in fig. 6 is shown in fig. 10, where addresses of site No. 5 are stored in the local branch routing tables of site No. 1, 2, 21, 3, 4, and 42. When the first message needs to be sent from the site No. 2 to the site No. 5, the address of the site No. 5 is determined to exist by searching the local branch routing table of the site No. 2, and then whether the serial number identifier of the first message exists is searched in the broadcast record.

Step S205: if the serial number identification does not exist in the broadcast record, the relay station broadcasts the first message.

Specifically, the first packet may be an uplink packet or a downlink packet. That is, if the transmission of the second packet in the unicast manner is a downlink process, the first packet is an uplink packet, and similarly, if the transmission of the second packet in the unicast manner is an uplink process, the first packet is a downlink packet.

In a specific implementation, a current relay station acquires a hierarchy of a terminal station corresponding to a first destination address and a hierarchy of the current relay station, if the first message is a downlink message, the relay station broadcasts the first message when the hierarchy of the terminal station is greater than or equal to the hierarchy of the current relay station, and the relay station does not broadcast the first message when the hierarchy of the terminal station is less than the hierarchy of the current relay station; if the first message is an uplink message, the relay station broadcasts the first message when the hierarchy of the terminal station is smaller than or equal to the hierarchy of the relay station, and the relay station does not broadcast the first message when the hierarchy of the terminal station is larger than the hierarchy of the relay station.

Typically, the CCO level is 0, the level of the primary site closest to the CCO is 1, the level of the secondary site further away is 2, and so on, the level of each level of site can be specified.

For example, as shown in fig. 10, if the levels of sites No. 1 to 5 are 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 in sequence, when a message is sent from site No. 1 to site No. 4, it is determined to be a downlink message, and during the sending process, the level of site No. 4 is greater than or equal to that of a relay site, so that the relay site that receives the message continues to broadcast the message, and after reaching site No. 4, its peer site continues to broadcast the message, and its subordinate sites stop broadcasting. Similarly, when the message is sent from the site No. 5 to the site No. 2, the message is determined to be an uplink message according to the hierarchical relationship, and after the message reaches the site No. 2, the peer site of the site No. 2 broadcasts the message, and the subordinate site of the site No. 2 stops broadcasting.

Further, if the serial number identifier exists in the broadcast record, step S206 is executed: the first message is not broadcast.

Optionally, before step S205 is executed, the previous hop address carried in the first packet may also be updated.

Specifically, the last hop address (STEI) is the address of the current relay station. Taking the current relay station as the station No. 3 as an example, that is, when the message information received by the station No. 3 is OSTEI 5, ottei 1, STEI 4, DTEI 3, and the station No. 3 broadcasts the message, the STEI is updated to 3, so that the station No. 4 can determine the previous hop address when receiving the message.

Optionally, if the first destination address does not exist in the local branch routing table, the first packet is not forwarded.

Specifically, as shown in the site 44 in fig. 10, after receiving the first packet, 44 searches the ODTEI of its local branch routing table, determines that there is no address reaching the site No. 5, and then masks or discards or filters the first packet.

In the embodiment of the present invention, by updating the local branch routing table in advance, when the first packet needs to be transmitted in a branch, the relay station obtains the first destination address carried by the first packet, and searches whether the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table, if so, continues to search whether the serial number identifier of the first packet exists in the broadcast record, and if not, broadcasts the first packet. By adopting the embodiment of the invention, the message is transmitted by adopting a branch broadcasting mode and according to the branch routing table updated in advance, so that the message is only forwarded on the path reaching the terminal station in the branch, the network conflict scale in the message transmission is reduced and the use frequency of the whole network broadcasting is reduced compared with the whole network broadcasting, and compared with the proxy broadcasting, even if the proxy station on the path only reaching the terminal station can not successfully receive the message, the message can be transmitted through other paths in the branch to finish the message transmission, thereby improving the reliability of the message transmission.

The method of embodiments of the present invention is set forth above in detail and the apparatus of embodiments of the present invention is provided below.

Referring to fig. 11, fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a message broadcasting apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 11, the apparatus includes an address obtaining module 101, an address searching module 102, and a message broadcasting module 103, wherein the detailed description of each module is as follows.

An address obtaining module 101, configured to obtain a first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first packet.

An address lookup module 102, configured to lookup whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table, where the branch routing table includes destination addresses of reachable terminal stations.

A packet broadcasting module 103, configured to broadcast the first packet if the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table.

The message broadcasting device 10 further includes a message shielding module 104, configured to not broadcast the first message if the first destination address does not exist in the local branch routing table.

Optionally, the message broadcasting device 10 further includes a signal determining module 105, specifically configured to:

judging whether the message signal quality of the received second message reaches a preset signal quality threshold value;

if the message signal quality of the received second message reaches the preset signal quality threshold, acquiring a second sending address carried in the second message;

adding a second sending address carried in the second message to the local branch routing table;

and shielding the second message if the message signal quality of the received second message does not reach the preset signal quality threshold.

Optionally, the signal determining module 105 is specifically configured to:

and judging whether the message signal strength of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset signal strength threshold value or judging whether the message communication success rate of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset communication success rate threshold value.

Optionally, the message broadcasting device 10 further includes a broadcast mode determining module 106, specifically configured to:

and determining that the sending mode carried in the first message is the branch broadcast.

Optionally, the message broadcasting module 103 is specifically configured to:

acquiring a serial number identifier of the first message, and searching whether the serial number identifier exists in a broadcast record, wherein the serial number identifier is used for uniquely identifying the first message;

if the serial number identification does not exist in the broadcast record, broadcasting the first message;

and if the serial number identification exists in the broadcast record, not broadcasting the first message.

Optionally, the first packet is a packet for transmitting data, and the second packet is a packet for updating the local branch routing table.

The message broadcasting device in the embodiment shown in fig. 11 may be implemented as the message broadcasting device shown in fig. 12. As shown in fig. 12, a schematic structural diagram of a message broadcasting device is provided for the embodiment of the present invention, and the message broadcasting device 1000 shown in fig. 12 includes: a processor 1001 and a transceiver 1004. Where the processor 1001 is coupled to the transceiver 1004, such as via a bus 1002. Optionally, the message broadcasting apparatus 1000 may further include a memory 1003. It should be noted that the transceiver 1004 is not limited to one in practical application, and the structure of the message broadcasting device 1000 does not constitute a limitation to the embodiment of the present invention.

The processor 1001 is applied to the embodiment of the present invention, and is configured to implement the function of the address lookup module 102 shown in fig. 11. The transceiver 1004 includes a receiver and a transmitter, and the transceiver 1004 is applied to implement the functions of the address obtaining module 101 and the message broadcasting module 103 shown in fig. 10 in the embodiment of the present invention.

The processor 1001 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) device, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other Programmable logic device, transistor logic device, hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor 1001 may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs and microprocessors, and the like.

Bus 1002 may include a path that transfers information between the above components. The bus 1002 may be a PCI bus or an EISA bus, etc. The bus 1002 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 12, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

The memory 1003 may be, but is not limited to, a ROM or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a RAM or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, an EEPROM, a CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including compact disk, laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk, blu-ray disk, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

Optionally, the memory 1003 is used for storing application program codes for implementing the present invention, and the processor 1001 controls the execution. The processor 1001 is configured to execute application program codes stored in the memory 1003 to implement the actions of the message broadcasting apparatus provided in any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 9.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a computer storage medium is provided for storing computer software instructions for the data receiving apparatus, which includes a program designed for the data receiving apparatus to execute the above aspects.

While the invention has been described in connection with various embodiments, other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a review of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the word "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, apparatus (device), or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein. A computer program stored/distributed on a suitable medium supplied together with or as part of other hardware, may also take other distributed forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

The present invention has been described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (devices) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be evident that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the specification and figures are merely exemplary of the invention as defined in the appended claims and are intended to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents within the scope of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A message broadcasting method is applied to a power line network, wherein the power line network comprises a central coordinator, a relay station and a terminal station, and the method comprises the following steps:

the relay station acquires a first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first message;

the relay station searches whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table, wherein the branch routing table comprises destination addresses of terminal stations which can be reached after the relay station broadcasts the message;

if the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table, the relay station broadcasts the first message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

and if the first destination address does not exist in the local branch routing table, the relay station does not broadcast the first message.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

the relay station judges whether the message signal quality of the received second message reaches a preset signal quality threshold value;

if the message signal quality of the second message received by the relay station reaches the preset signal quality threshold, acquiring a second sending address carried in the second message;

and the relay station adds the second sending address carried in the second message to the local branch routing table.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the method further comprises:

and if the message signal quality of the second message received by the relay station does not reach the preset signal quality threshold, discarding the second message.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of the relay station determining whether the message signal quality of the received second message reaches a preset signal quality threshold comprises:

and the relay station judges whether the message signal strength of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset signal strength threshold value or judges whether the message communication success rate of the received second message is greater than or equal to a preset communication success rate threshold value.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the obtaining the first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first packet, further comprising:

and the relay station determines that the sending mode carried in the first message is the branch broadcast.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcasting of the first packet by the relay station comprises:

the relay station acquires a serial number identifier of the first message, and searches whether the serial number identifier exists in a broadcast record, wherein the serial number identifier is used for uniquely identifying the first message;

if the serial number identification does not exist in the broadcast record, the relay station broadcasts the first message;

and if the serial number identification exists in the broadcast record, the relay station does not broadcast the first message.

8. The method according to claim 3 or 5, wherein the first packet is a packet for transmitting data, and the second packet is a packet for updating the local branch routing table.

9. A message broadcasting device, comprising:

the address acquisition module is used for acquiring a first destination address of the terminal station carried in the first message;

an address lookup module, configured to lookup whether the first destination address exists in a local branch routing table, where the branch routing table includes destination addresses of terminal stations that can be reached after the relay station broadcasts the packet;

and the message broadcasting module is used for broadcasting the first message if the first destination address exists in the local branch routing table.

10. The message broadcasting device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the message broadcasting device further comprises:

and the message shielding module is used for not broadcasting the first message if the first destination address does not exist in the local branch routing table.

11. The message broadcasting device of claim 9, wherein the message broadcasting device further comprises a signal determination module, specifically configured to:

and adding the second sending address carried in the second message into the local branch routing table.

12. The message broadcasting device of claim 11, wherein the signal determination module is further configured to:

and if the message signal quality of the received second message does not reach the preset signal quality threshold value, discarding the second message.

13. The message broadcasting device of claim 12, wherein the signal determining module is specifically configured to:

14. The message broadcasting device according to claim 9, wherein the message broadcasting device further includes a broadcasting mode determining module, specifically configured to:

15. The message broadcasting device of claim 9, wherein the message broadcasting module is specifically configured to:

16. The message broadcasting device according to claim 11 or 13, characterized in that the first message is a message for transmitting data, and the second message is a message for updating the local branch routing table.