Dual Wireless LAN Interfaces with Layer 2 Tunneling for Redundant Frame Transmission

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing communication technologies do not adequately address the reliability of wireless communication systems, which can lead to unstable communication quality.

Innovation Solution

A communication device and system that utilize dual wireless LAN interfaces and Layer 2 tunneling with encapsulation protocols to transmit frames through redundant paths, ensuring reliable communication by setting MAC addresses and using sequence numbers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If communication is performed through redundant paths using encapsulation protocols, then reliability of communication is improved, but device complexity increases due to multiple wireless LAN interfaces and encapsulation processing

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvereliability of wireless communicationVSAvoiddevice complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The communication device is divided into multiple functional components: first and second wireless LAN interfaces for different access points, an encapsulation unit for protocol processing, and a redundancy unit for generating duplicate frames. This segmentation allows each component to handle specific tasks independently, improving reliability through redundant paths while organizing complexity into manageable modules.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The encapsulation unit acts as an intermediary that wraps transmission frames with encapsulation headers containing sequence numbers and path identification. This intermediary layer enables the system to manage multiple redundant paths systematically, allowing the redundancy unit to generate duplicate frames with different source MAC addresses corresponding to different wireless LAN interfaces.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Stability of the object's composition

If multiple encapsulated frames are transmitted through different wireless LAN interfaces, then communication stability is improved, but transmission time increases due to duplicate frame generation and transmission

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecommunication stabilityVSAvoidtransmission time

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The redundancy unit pre-generates multiple encapsulated frames with different source MAC addresses before transmission is needed. By preparing redundant frames in advance with proper encapsulation headers and sequence numbers, the system can quickly switch to alternative paths if the primary path fails, improving communication stability without significant time loss during actual transmission.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS12301446B2Communication device, communication system, communication method, and non-transitory computer readable medium storing communication program

Publication Date: 2025.05.13 NEC CORP

AI summary

A communication device (10) includes a wireless LAN interface (11) that wirelessly communicates with an access point (31), a wireless LAN interface (12) that wirelessly communicates with an access point (32), an encapsulation unit (13) that encapsulates, in accordance with a specified encapsulation protocol, a transmission frame to be transmitted to a communication device (20) at the other side via Layer 2 tunneling, and a redundancy unit (14) that generates a first encapsulated frame where a MAC address of the wireless LAN interface (11) is set to a source MAC address and a second encapsulated frame where a MAC address of the wireless LAN interface (12) is set to a source MAC address by using the encapsulated transmission frame.