TWI467961B - Systems and methods for providing service("srv") node selection - Google Patents

Description

Method for providing a service node in a home communication network and system using the same

Field of the Invention This invention relates to information networks and, more particularly, to a method of transmitting information (e.g., media information) over a communication line (e.g., a coaxial cable) that forms a communication network.

It is well known that general home networking technology uses coaxial cable. The Coaxial Cable Multimedia Alliance (MoCATM) provides an appropriate specification (MoCA 1.1) for digital video and entertainment networking over existing coaxial cable in the home on its website www.mocalliance.org, which has been released to open members. The present invention is directed to the MoCA 1.1 specification and incorporates all of its contents.

The coaxial cable home network accesses a large amount of unused bandwidth available on the home coaxial cable. More than 70% of households in the United States have coaxial cables installed on their home infrastructure. Many of the primary entertainment consumption locations, such as the living room, multimedia room, and master bedroom, are already equipped with coaxial cable, which is ideal for network configuration. Home networking technology enables family members to use this infrastructure as a network system and deliver entertainment and information programming with high QoS (quality of service).

Coaxial cable home networking technology provides high speed (270 mbps), high QoS, and the inherent security of masked, wired connections combined with packet-level encryption technology. Coaxial cables are designed to carry high bandwidth video. Today, coaxial cable is often used to securely deliver millions of dollars of paid viewing and premium video content daily. The Coax Home Network can also be used as the backbone of multiple wireless access points to extend the coverage of the wireless network to the entire home of the user.

Coaxial cable home network provides video in the home via existing coaxial cable A constant, high-throughput, high-quality connection at the office. The Coax Home Network provides the primary link for digital entertainment and can also work with other wired and wireless networks to bring entertainment to the home.

Currently, coaxial cable home networks work in conjunction with access technologies, such as ADSL and VDSL services or fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), which typically enter the home via twisted pair or fiber optics, operating from a few hundred kHz to 8.5 for ADSL. MHz, 12MHz for VDSL. When the service arrives at home via xDSL or FTTH, it can be routed to the video device via coaxial cable home networking technology and indoor coaxial cable. Wired services, such as video, audio, and Internet access, can be provided by the cable operator to the home via coaxial cable and use the coaxial cable deployed within the home to reach individual cable service consumer devices in the various rooms of the home. In general, coaxial cable home network type services operate in parallel with wired services on different frequencies.

It is therefore desirable to select the SRV node selected by the MoCA device connected by the MoCA home network for the purpose of selection.

The present invention provides a system and/or method for selecting a selected serving node (SSN) using a MoCA device connected via a MoCA home network, which is clearly described in connection with at least one of the drawings and is described in the claims Complete definition.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of using a node in a home communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of nodes and a coaxial cable, the method comprising: submitting an inquiry message using an entry node, the inquiry message being In the selected field of the device attribute information element in the L2ME protocol, the ingress node is a node that needs advanced service, and the ingress node does not know which of the plurality of nodes is selected to support advanced services on the network. a node, the selected field includes a vendor-specific field; distributing the query message to a plurality of nodes; and in response to the query message, determining which of the plurality of nodes can be selected for support Advanced services on the network; disseminate information about which of the plurality of nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network to each of a plurality of nodes that can be selected to support advanced services on the network; and determine among multiple nodes Is there a node selected to support advanced services on the network?

Advantageously, said vendor specific field comprises at least one of a TLV type, a TLV length and a TLV value field.

Advantageously, the method comprises using the ingress node to select itself to support advanced services on the network if the node is unselected at the end of the query.

Advantageously, the method comprises: using an ingress node to send an advertisement to the network regarding the ingress node's own selection.

Advantageously, the method comprises selecting a node having a minimum node identification (ID) to support advanced services on the network if the node is unselected at the end of the query.

Advantageously, the method comprises advertised to said plurality of nodes that a node having a minimum node identification word has been selected to support advanced services on the network.

Advantageously, the method comprises: if the communication link between the selected node and the network is terminated, transmitting a communication to the network via the network advertisement.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of using a node in a home communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of nodes and a coaxial cable, the method comprising: submitting an inquiry message using an entry node, the inquiry message being In at least one of a TLV type, a TLV length, and a TLV value field of a device attribute information element in the L2ME protocol, the ingress node is a node requiring an advanced service, and the ingress node does not know which one of the plurality of nodes Is a node selected to support advanced services on the network, the selected field includes a vendor-specific field; and the query message is distributed to a plurality of nodes; Responding to the query message, determining which of the plurality of nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network; disseminating information about which of the plurality of nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network to be able to select the support network Each of the plurality of nodes of the advanced service; and determining whether one of the plurality of nodes is selected to support advanced services on the network.

Advantageously, the method comprises using the ingress node to select itself to support advanced services on the network if the node is unselected at the end of the query.

Advantageously, the method comprises: using an ingress node to send an advertisement to the network regarding the ingress node's own selection.

Advantageously, the method comprises selecting a node having a minimum node identification (ID) to support advanced services on the network if the node is unselected at the end of the query.

Advantageously, the method comprises advertised to said plurality of nodes that a node having a minimum node identification word has been selected to support advanced services on the network.

Advantageously, the method comprises: if the communication link between the selected node and the network is terminated, transmitting a communication to the network via the network advertisement.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of using a node in a home communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of nodes and a coaxial cable, the method comprising: submitting a selection message using an ingress node, the selection message being In the selected field of the device attribute information element in the L2ME protocol, the ingress node is a node that needs advanced service, and the ingress node does not know which of the plurality of nodes is selected to support advanced services on the network. a node, the selected field includes a vendor-specific field; distributing the selection message to a plurality of nodes; and in response to the selection message, determining which of the plurality of nodes can be selected for support Advanced services on the network; disseminate information about which of the plurality of nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network to each of a plurality of nodes that can be selected to support advanced services on the network; and determine among multiple nodes Is there a node selected to support advanced services on the network?

Advantageously, said vendor specific field comprises at least one of a TLV type, a TLV length and a TLV value field.

Advantageously, the method comprises: using the ingress node to select itself to support advanced services on the network if the node is unselected at the end of the selection.

Advantageously, the method comprises: using an ingress node to send an advertisement to the network regarding the ingress node's own selection.

Advantageously, the method comprises selecting a node having a minimum node identification (ID) to support advanced services on the network if the node is unselected at the end of the selection.

Advantageously, the method comprises advertised to said plurality of nodes that a node having a minimum node identification word has been selected to support advanced services on the network.

Advantageously, the method comprises: if the communication link between the selected node and the network is terminated, transmitting a communication to the network via the network advertisement.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of using a node in a home communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of nodes and a coaxial cable, the method comprising: submitting an acknowledgment message using an ingress node, the acknowledgment message being In at least one of a TLV type, a TLV length, and a TLV value field of a device attribute information element in the L2ME protocol, the ingress node is a node requiring an advanced service, and the ingress node does not know which one of the plurality of nodes Is a node selected to support advanced services on the network, the selected field includes a vendor-specific field; and the confirmation message is distributed to a plurality of nodes; In response to the confirmation message, a response message is received from a node that can select an advanced service on the support network.

Advantageously, the method comprises: using an ingress node to send an advertisement to the network regarding the ingress node's own selection.

102‧‧‧Client node

104‧‧‧NC

106‧‧‧Other nodes

108‧‧‧First news

112‧‧‧Respond

114‧‧‧Message

202‧‧‧Supporting the entry node of SRV

204‧‧‧NC

206‧‧‧Other nodes

208‧‧‧ wave0

210‧‧‧ wave 1

212‧‧‧ wave 2

214‧‧‧ wave 3

216‧‧‧First message submission

218‧‧‧SSN request

222‧‧‧Other nodes supporting SRV

302‧‧‧Any node supporting SRV

304‧‧‧NC

306‧‧‧Other nodes

308‧‧‧ wave0

310‧‧‧ wave 1

318‧‧‧Supporting SRV nodes

320‧‧ Notice

402‧‧‧ Entrance node

404‧‧‧NC

406‧‧‧Supporting SRV nodes

408‧‧‧ wave0

502‧‧‧ Entrance node

504‧‧‧NC

506‧‧‧Supporting SRV nodes

508‧‧‧ wave0

510‧‧‧ wave 1

602‧‧‧ bits (bit)

604‧‧‧ octets (octets)

606‧‧‧ IE starting offset

608‧‧‧Attribute ID

610‧‧‧ Length (UInteger8)

612‧‧‧Vendor ID

614‧‧‧TLV type

616‧‧‧TLV length

618‧‧‧TVL value

700‧‧‧Data Processing System

702‧‧‧Single or multi-chip modules

704‧‧‧I/O circuit

706‧‧‧ Peripherals

708‧‧‧ processor

710‧‧‧ memory

712‧‧‧System bus or other interconnected components

720‧‧‧ boards

730‧‧‧End User System

1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a message exchanged in an L2ME protocol for use in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a message exchanged in an SRV node selection process in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 3 is used in accordance with the present invention. Schematic diagram of an embodiment of an SRV node selection query for an L2ME submission rule; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of details of each message exchanged in a node selection process in accordance with the present invention; FIG. 5 is an exchange in a node confirmation process in accordance with the present invention. A schematic diagram of the details of each message; FIG. 6 is a table of IEEE SRV device attribute information elements (IE); and FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a single-wafer or multi-chip module of the present invention in a data processing system.

The various embodiments are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of an embodiment, in which various embodiments that may be employed to implement the invention are described. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized, and structural and functional modifications may be made to the embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

After reading the following description, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various features described herein can be implemented by a method, a data processing system, or a computer program product. Therefore, these features can be expressed in a hardware manner, all in a software manner, or a combination of hardware and software. In addition, the above features may also be implemented in a computer program stored on one or more computer readable storage media. Expressed in the form of a product, the computer readable storage medium includes computer readable code segments or instructions stored in a storage medium. Any computer readable storage medium for use may be utilized, including hard disks, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or combinations of the above.

In addition, various signals characterizing data or events described herein may be transmitted between the source station and the destination station in the form of electromagnetic waves through signalling media such as metal wires, optical fibers, and/or wireless transmission media (eg, air and/or control items). .

For ease of reference, the following glossary gives the meaning of the various abbreviations and symbols used in this patent application: Digital PHY - including MoCA integrated circuit 埠, which constitutes signals to and from the receiver and/or transceiver integrated circuits Transmission channel.

EN-MoCA has a node (the term "node" can be replaced here with "module").

IE-Information Element.

L2ME-(MoCA) Layer 2 management entity.

MAC Media Access Control - Includes MoCA Integrated Circuit Logic, which schedules digits when it is required to transmit signals to the receiver and/or transceiver integrated circuits, and/or when it needs to receive signals from the receiver and/or transceiver integrated circuits PHY on and off.

MAP-media access plan.

NC-MoCA network controller.

The physical layer of the PHY-MoCA network.

QoS - quality of service.

SRV Service - A generic name for a service running in a higher layer relative to the MoCA layer.

The SRV node selected by the SSN (SRV Select Node) - is selected for the node running the SRV service (for all devices connected to the same network).

Some advanced services implemented on MoCA networks (such as IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging System (AVB) Broadband Reservation) require the MoCA network to select a node for the entire The MoCA network runs predetermined services.

If the service is optional, the Network Control Node (NC) may not support this optional service. If the NC does not support the optional service, the NC cannot be selected as the SSN. Alternatively, any SRV-capable node - that is, capable of supporting the advanced service (although optional) - is optionally available as an SSN. In some embodiments of the invention, the SRV node selection protocol described herein is preferably orthogonal to NC selection and NC switching/backup.

In some embodiments of the invention, the possible SSN selection rules for selecting SRV nodes are as follows: These rules include query messages that need to be sent by any of the SRV-enabled nodes that are allowed to enter the network, one of which will be The description will be made in conjunction with FIG. 2 and the corresponding parts of the specification.

After the inquiry is completed, any SRV-capable node that shares the same SRV node query related information (which is forwarded through the ingress node) can be used as an SRV-selected node. Further, after the query is completed, preferably all SRV-capable nodes (including the ingress nodes, as defined below) share the same information about which nodes on the network are SRV-enabled, and which node, if any, is the SRV selection node.

If no nodes have been selected at the end of the query, the ingress node can select itself as the selected node and send its own selected notification to the network. Alternatively, other SRV-capable nodes can be selected and the selection notified to the NC.

Another embodiment of the present invention employs efficient techniques to support dynamic SRV selection.

This topology change is achieved, at least in part, by network advertisements if the SRV selection node is removed from the network (or by appropriate shutdown/failure and/or power saving).

The SRV-enabled node with the smallest node ID (NID) becomes the SRV selection node and submits a selection to advertise the selection to other nodes.

This approach is preferably fully compatible with current MoCA specifications and does not require any modifications to the specification.

In some embodiments of the invention, when the selected SRV node exhibits a fail, the other SRV-capable nodes may be dynamically selected as the new SSN. The SRV selection protocol may include a recovery agreement to dynamically select one of the nodes supporting the SRV as a new SRV selection node.

The SRV selection protocol may be based on the L2ME architecture message protocol as specified in the MoCA 1.1 specification and/or the 2.0 specification, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

If all nodes do not support SRV, the ingress node becomes the SRV selection node.

If more than one node (other than the ingress node) is SRV-capable and no node is an SRV-select node, the ingress node may select the SRV-capable node with the smallest NID as the SRV selection node.

When the SSN submits an SRV node selection L2ME message (see FIG. 4 and corresponding description) before entering the power saving mode, the ingress node may reset its own NID bit to correspond to the SSN bitmask.

The ingress node response can be used to confirm the SSN selection of the ingress node to the NC. In response to a message from the NC regarding SSN selection, all other SRV-enabled nodes may send an empty response (zero length payload) to the NC.

1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a message exchanged in an L2ME discovery protocol for use in accordance with the present invention. An L2ME device discovery protocol is a protocol used by a node to discover the attributes of a particular set of other nodes.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary client node 102, NC 104, and other nodes 106. The first message 108 in the agreement is submitted - that is, the node sends a request to the NC to run a "device discovery" transaction (a multiplex of information between the NC and other nodes of the network). The device discovery transaction enables the MoCA node to discover the capabilities of each of the other nodes. In particular, each MoCA node preferably has a set of associated attributes for characterizing its capabilities, such as The maximum aggregation size and the amount of packet data that the node can process. These attributes are also vendor specific. Message 108 preferably includes a header for indicating that the message is directed to device discovery. The message 108 also includes a payload indicating that the discovery points to the node attribute IE. Thus, the L2ME device discovery protocol enables any node in the MoCA network to regain the attributes of one or more specific nodes in the MoCA network.

The NC preferably broadcasts the request to other nodes 106. The NC forwards the payload and the request. Each of the other nodes 106 sends a response, such as 112. Each of the other nodes 106 identifies them by fields characterized by a particular bit configuration. This field is often referred to as a WAVENODE MASK or as a bit mask or node ID (NID) bit mask. Such a mask preferably indicates the range of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. These addresses can be used to identify the IP address of the node supporting the SRV.

Each of the responses 112 preferably includes an attribute IE corresponding to each of the other nodes 106. At 114, the NC broadcasts the set of responses in message 114. The set and response message 114 includes a payload that includes an aggregated IE for each of the other nodes 106 that the device discovers.

2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a message exchanged in an SRV node selection processing transaction in accordance with the present invention. 2 shows messages exchanged between the ingress node 202, the NC 204, and other nodes 206 that support SRV. For this application, the ingress node is the node that needs the SRV service, and it does not know which node is the SSN. The ingress node also acts as a node that submits a processing transaction request (see detailed description below) to the NC. As specified by the IEEE 802.1Qat specification, for example, the SRV protocol is used to select an assigned Multiple Stream Reservation Protocol (MSRP) node (DMN).

In accordance with the method of the present invention, the message (as shown in Figure 2) uses, at least in part, the L2ME message protocol to determine the SRV capabilities of each node on the network. Thus, the device discovery protocol according to the present invention acquires SRV capabilities for each node on the network. Information, leveraging L2ME message architecture and protocols.

The message protocol includes wave 0 208, wave 1 210, wave 2 212, and wave 3 214. Wave 0 208 includes a first message submission 216 from the ingress node 202 to the NC 204. The ingress node 202 is a node that requires an SRV service, which does not know which node is the SSN. To reiterate, the ingress node 202 submits a request in 216 for an SSN processing transaction on the network.

At 218, the NC 204 advertises the SSN request of the ingress node to the node. The other node 206 and the ingress node 202 respond to the SSN request 218 in 220.

In wave 1 210, at 224, NC 204 notifies the ingress node 202 and other SRV-enabled nodes 222 of the response to the SSN request. Using the response received at 226, ingress node 202 can construct an SRV Advertisement message indicating the bit mask of the supporting SRV (defining which nodes are bit masks that support SRV) and the SRV selection bit mask (defining which node is the SSN (if There is a bit mask). In one embodiment of the invention, when the ingress node determines that the network already has an SSN, the ingress node defaults to the SSN that already exists in the network. If there is no SSN in the network, the ingress node initiates a node selection process transaction to determine if the ingress node should be an SSN, or another node (e.g., with a minimum NID) should become an SSN. At 228, the ingress node transmits information about the two bitmasks to the NC.

In wave 2 212, at step 230, NC 204 advertises an ingress node SRV bitmask determination 226 to other SRV-capable nodes 222. At 232, the SRV-enabled node 222 sends their response to the ingress node determination to the NC 204.

In Wave 3 214, NC 204 may advertise the ingress node and other SRV-supporting nodes related to SRV in an L2ME link format (as suggested in MoCA Specification 1.1, the present invention is incorporated by reference in its entirety or in conjunction with any other suitable MoCA specification). Indicate the response to the request, as shown in step 234. Thereafter, the node 222, which preferably supports the SRV, may reply at step 236. At step 238, the ingress node 202 preferably responds to the announcement with a null response.

3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an SRV node selection query using an L2ME submission rule in accordance with the present invention.

Waves 0 308 show that in some embodiments of the invention, any SRV-enabled node 302 may submit an SRV node query to the NC 304 if it is allowed to enter the network. At step 314, the NC 304 can advertise the SRV query of the ingress node to the other node 306. The response of the SRV-enabled node 318 may indicate its corresponding SRV mode, as shown in step 316.

Wave 1 310 shows that node 318 supporting SRV receives announcement 320 from NC 304. The announcement 320 preferably includes a response to the SRV query. At step 322, a response to the SRV query 320 can be sent to the NC.

At the end of the query, all SRV-capable nodes 318 include ingress nodes 304 sharing the same information about which nodes on the network are SRV-capable nodes and which nodes, if any, are SRV-select nodes. If there is no SRV selection node, the SRV-enabled node with the smallest node ID (NID) or any other suitable optional node can become the SRV selection node and can submit an SRV node selection message to advertise other SRV-enabled nodes.

If the SRV selection node is removed from the network (or by proper shutdown/power saving and/or failure), then in one embodiment of the invention, the SRV-enabled node with the smallest NID becomes the SRV selection node, and The SRV node selection message is submitted to inform other nodes that support the SRV.

4 is a schematic diagram of an SRV node selection query using L2ME submission rules in accordance with the present invention. In particular, Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a method in accordance with the present invention showing that an SRV node is required to perform when the SRV selection node is shut down (e.g., by selection or due to entering a power saving mode and/or failure) Processing operations. 4 shows a wave 0 408 that includes communication between an ingress node 402 having a minimum node ID (NID), an NC 404, and other SRV-enabled nodes 406 after an SSN node link failure. According to the present invention, when the SRV selection node is dropped, the SRV-capable node having the relatively smallest NID becomes the SRV selection node, and the SRV node is selected to submit the L2ME message.

Specifically, the SRV selection ingress node 402 preferably shows the SRV node selection Hand in 408. The submission preferably informs other SRV-enabled nodes about the SRV selection submission, step 410. At step 412, the SRV-enabled node 402/406 sends a response to the submission 408 to the NC 404.

In this way, the method realizes that after the connection failure between the SSN and the network, a node supporting the SRV can send an SRV node to the NC to select and submit an L2ME message.

It should be reiterated that in addition to node selection in the event of a failure, the previous SRV selection node may also remove itself from a set of SRV-capable nodes and send an L2ME message indication before entering the power save mode and/or shutting down. It is not available.

An exemplary L2ME SRV validation processing transaction in accordance with the present invention will be described in the following FIG. 5 and corresponding portions of the specification. The NC node may begin the processing transaction upon receiving a Submit L2ME frame from the ingress node, or independently (ie, without receiving a prompt from other nodes).

5 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an SRV node selection L2ME validation processing transaction in accordance with the present invention. Ingress node 502, NC 504, SRV-enabled node 506, wave 0 508, and wave 1 510 are shown in FIG. Specifically, at step 512, the ingress node 502 sends a Submit L2ME frame to the NC 504 to trigger the SRV node acknowledgment.

At step 514, the NC 504 notifies all network nodes about the SRV node confirmation submission of the ingress node 502.

At step 516, the node 506 supporting the SRV sends a response.

In some embodiments of the invention, a node (not shown) that does not support SRV may return a generic L2ME response error code.

Following wave 0 508, an embodiment of a possible L2ME Wave 1 request 510 is shown.

In wave 1 510, at step 518, NC 504 notifies node 502 and node 506 of the response to the SRV node acknowledgment submission in L2ME. This announcement can be implemented in the connection payload format available in L2ME.

Using the response received in step 518, the ingress node 502 can acknowledge the SRV Advertisement message to indicate: ● SRV selects NID; and ● supports NV bit mask of SRV.

The SRV-enabled node preferably includes an IEEE SRV Device Attribute Information Element (see Figure 6 and its description), with the L2ME payload of the Device Discovery Protocol submitted by the Coaxial Cable Multimedia Alliance MoCA v2.0 specification for L2ME processing transaction messages. Such content preferably includes information that effectively forms an overlay on the MoCA L2ME protocol. Such coverage is possible because the L2ME protocol in MoCA has provisions to deliver vendor-specific information elements that are not interpreted by MoCA. Accordingly, the L2ME protocol is retained unchanged, as specified in the MoCA. The only request is to get the vendor ID value assigned to the particular entity to which the SRV belongs. For example, one can have a vendor ID assigned to the name ACME Company. As a result, ACME defines several TLV types (TLV TYPEs) for multiple services (SRVs).

As further described herein, when the L2ME device discovery processing transaction is completed, preferably all SRV-enabled nodes in the MoCA network can share the same information about other SRV-enabled nodes. The information includes: 1) which MoCA nodes are supporting SRV; and 2) which MoCA node is selected as the SSN.

If no node is selected as the SSN, the SSN selection will be performed.

Figure 6 is a table of IEEE SRV Device Attribute Information Elements (IE). In general, the IEEE SRV Device Attributes IE field can be defined by the table in FIG. The general format of the device attribute information elements is described in the MoCA v2.0 specification of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The table in Figure 6 illustrates the IEEE SRV Device Attribute IE, showing the bits 602 for each attribute digit, the octets 604 corresponding to each attribute digit, and each IE The initial offset 606.

The format of the device attribute information element (IE) is defined in MoCA. The MoCA specification states that when the attribute field is set to 0xFF, the first 16 bits of the information field define the supply. Business ID. The vendor ID is assigned by MoCA to a specific vendor or entity.

In any case, the supplier ID is vendor specific. In the next embodiment of the present invention, the TLV type, the TLV length (TLV LENGTH), and the TLV value (TLV VALUE) are vendor-specific - that is, for each of these fields, each vendor has a different value, which is supplied by Stipulated by the business, not by MoCA. This means that vendor-specific messages can be ignored - that is, the MoCA L2ME protocol transmits these messages on the MoCA without interpreting the contents of the vendor-specific messages. Thus, a node using the MoCA L2ME protocol transmits the IE to other nodes without attempting to interpret the vendor specific message. Accordingly, the SRV selection protocol (which is implemented using TLV type, TLV length, and TLV values) is an overlay agreement on the MoCA standard L2ME protocol.

The table in Figure 6 illustrates the following attributes:

Attribute ID 608; the value of the attribute ID is 0xFF.

Length (UInteger8) 610; the value of the length can be 1. In some embodiments of the invention, the actual length of the attribute IE is (length + 1) * 32 in units of bits.

Vendor ID 612; The value of the Vendor ID is preferably assigned by the MoCA Alliance, and is referred to and incorporated herein.

TLV type 614; (eg SRV IEEE Audio Video Bridging System (AVB) (IEEE 802.1Qat) may set the TLV type value to 0. In another embodiment of the invention, for other suitable services, the TLV type may be specified For the same value or other suitable value.)

TLV length 616: (this length is the length required to implement the service specified by TVL type 614)

TVL value 618; it should be noted that in accordance with the present invention, in the TLV value field, the IE may include two Bit mask (not shown): one to indicate whether the node is a node supporting SRV, and the other to indicate whether the node is an SRV selection node.

In the first mask of the TVL value field, a value of 1 corresponding to the node ID indicates that the node is capable of acting as a node supporting the SRV in the network. A value of 0 indicates that the node is not capable of acting as a node supporting SRV in the network.

In the second bit mask of the TVL value field, a value of 1 corresponding to the bit of the node ID indicates that the node is selected as the SRV node in the network. A value of 0 indicates that the node is not the selected node. Whether the selected node exists on the network or whether there is no selected node on the network needs to be determined by the second bit mask. Then, the first mask indicates which nodes are supporting SRV, and based on the selection. The criteria - for example the node with the smallest NID - indicates which node should be selected as the SRV node. The second mask also indicates to other SRV-capable nodes that one node has been selected as the SRV node. This prevents other nodes from requesting to become SRV nodes and causing conflicts.

According to the present invention, selection and confirmation of SRV: if any of the following occurs, 1) the SRV selection node indicates that the selected SRV node has been removed from the network (due to failure, power state/shutdown, etc.), or 2) If the SRV-enabled node discovery processing transaction indicates that no SRV selection node is found, the RSV-capable node with the smallest node ID or other suitable selected node may start as the SRV and confirm the processing transaction to other SRV-supporting nodes by generating the L2MESRV. Confirm this choice.

FIG. 7 illustrates a single or multi-chip module 702 in a data processing system 700 in accordance with the present invention, which may be one or more integrated circuits. Data processing system 700 can include one or more of the following components: I/O circuitry 704, peripherals 706, processor 708, and memory 710. These components are communicatively coupled by system bus or other interconnecting component 712 and assembled on a circuit board 720 included in end user system 730. System 700 can be configured for use with a cable television tuner in accordance with the present invention. It should be noted that the system 700 is only an example, and the actual scope and spirit of the invention should be defined by the claims.

Systems and methods for providing MoCA SSN selection strategies are described above.

The present invention has been described in terms of several specific embodiments, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the steps shown in the figures may be performed in a different order and one or more of the steps shown are optional. The methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other elements, steps, computer executable instructions, or computer readable data structures. In this regard, other embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented in part or in whole on a computer readable medium, such as by storing computer executable instructions or modules or by using a computer readable data structure.

102‧‧‧Client node

104‧‧‧NC

106‧‧‧Other nodes

108‧‧‧First news

112‧‧‧Respond

114‧‧‧Message

Claims (10)

A method of providing a service node in a home communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of nodes and a coaxial cable, the plurality of nodes comprising an ingress node and a network control node, wherein the method comprises: receiving An inquiry message sent by the ingress node, the inquiry message is in at least one field of a device attribute information element in an L2ME agreement, the ingress node is a node requiring an advanced service, and the ingress node does not know a plurality of nodes Which of the nodes is selected to support the advanced service on the network, the device attribute information element includes a vendor specific field; the inquiry message is distributed to a plurality of nodes; and the plurality of nodes are determined according to the inquiry message Which of the nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network; disseminate information about which of the plurality of nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network to the ingress node and multiple to be able to select advanced services on the network Each of the nodes; and receiving a message issued by the ingress node to select from among the plurality of nodes A node that supports advanced services on the network. The method of claim 1, wherein the ingress node submits an inquiry message in the selected field of the device attribute information element in the L2ME protocol. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the vendor-specific field includes at least one of a TLV type, a TLV length, and a TLV value field. The method of claim 2, wherein if the node is unselected at the end of the inquiry, the ingress node is used to select itself to support the advanced service on the network. The method of claim 4, wherein the ingress node is used to send an advertisement to the network regarding the ingress node's own selection. The method of claim 2, wherein if the node is unselected at the end of the inquiry, the node having the smallest node identifier is selected to support the network. Advanced service on. The method of claim 6, wherein the plurality of nodes are advertised that the node having the smallest node identifier is selected to support advanced services on the network. The method of claim 1, wherein the ingress node submits the query message in at least one of a TLV type, a TLV length, and a TLV value field of the device attribute information element in the L2ME protocol. A method of providing a service node in a home communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of nodes and a coaxial cable, the plurality of nodes comprising an ingress node and a network control node, wherein the method comprises: receiving a selection message sent by the ingress node, the selection message is in a selected field of a device attribute information element in an L2ME protocol, the ingress node is a node requiring an advanced service, and the ingress node is not aware of the plurality of nodes Which node is selected to support the advanced service on the network, the device attribute information element includes a vendor-specific field; the selection message is distributed to a plurality of nodes; and the plurality of nodes are determined according to the selection message Which of the nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network; disseminate information about which of the plurality of nodes can be selected to support advanced services on the network to the ingress node and multiple nodes that can be selected to support advanced services on the network Each of the nodes; and receiving a message sent by the ingress node to select from a plurality of nodes for support A node for advanced services on the network. A method of providing a service node in a home communication network, the communication network comprising a plurality of nodes and a coaxial cable, the plurality of nodes comprising an ingress node and a network control node, wherein the method comprises: receiving The acknowledgment message sent by the ingress node selects a node from the plurality of nodes to support the advanced service on the network, and the acknowledgment message is in the TLV type, TLV length and TLV value field of the device attribute information element in the L2ME protocol. At least one The entry node is a node that requires an advanced service, the device attribute information element includes a vendor-specific field; the confirmation message is distributed to a plurality of nodes; and the received support network is received according to the confirmation message. A reply message from the node of the advanced service on the road.