WiMAX Base Station Multicast Routing via CPE Lookup Tables
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional WiMAX networks face inefficiencies in managing and routing CPE-to-CPE multicast transmissions, requiring management by the Access Network even for devices behind the same Base Station, leading to increased latency and complexity.
Innovation Solution
A wireless communication system that utilizes a base station connected to CPEs through a time division multiplexing (TDM) scheme, employing a look-up table to identify and forward multicast messages efficiently, allowing CPEs to share communication channels and reducing the need for network router intervention by using group identifiers and MAC addresses for message routing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional WiMAX networks manage and route CPE-to-CPE multicast transmissions through the Access Network, then multicast messages can be delivered to multiple CPEs, but message transmission latency increases and network complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the multicast routing function from the Access Network (base station) and implements it directly in the CPE devices. Each CPE maintains a multicast routing table and can independently forward multicast packets to other CPEs in the network, eliminating the need for centralized routing through the base station and thereby reducing transmission latency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the multicast routing functionality into the CPE devices themselves, combining the roles of end-user equipment and network router. This allows CPEs to perform both local communication and multicast routing functions, eliminating the need for separate network infrastructure and reducing the number of hops messages must traverse.
2Ease of operation
If conventional WiMAX networks manage and route CPE-to-CPE multicast transmissions through the Access Network, then centralized control is maintained, but network complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling CPE devices to autonomously perform multicast routing functions. Each CPE independently maintains routing tables, makes forwarding decisions, and manages multicast group memberships without requiring complex centralized control mechanisms, thereby simplifying overall network architecture while maintaining operational capability.
3Loss of energy
If CPEs share communication channels using TDM scheme, then bandwidth usage is optimized, but message transmission speed may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the communication channel into dedicated TDM time slots for different CPEs and traffic types. By allocating specific time slots for multicast transmissions versus unicast transmissions, the system optimizes bandwidth utilization while ensuring that multicast messages can be transmitted efficiently without excessive delays caused by shared channel contention.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A WiMAX based system having a base station which communicates to a plurality of consumer premises equipment (CPE) is disclosed. The base station obtains and stores information corresponding to the MAC addresses of each of the CPEs. Messages from one CPE can be sent to the base station and then sent to another CPE using the MAC address stored in the base station. Each CPE may originate an uplink multicast message for transmission to more than one CPEs. When the base station receives the uplink multicast message, the base station broadcasts the multicast message to all of the CPEs identified in the multicast message including the originating CPE. When the originating CPE recognizes the multicast message as a message it originated, the originating CPE drops the multicast message. The CPEs may be grouped into virtual local area networks (VLANs) using group identifiers which permit multicast messages to be transmitted to specific groups of CPEs. Electronic devices having MAC addresses may be connected to each CPE and different electronic devices connected to the same CPE may be part of different VLANs.