Method for determining connection topology of home network

• Main Authors: FLEURY JEAN-FRANCOIS, BURDIN NICOLAS, HENRY JEAN-BAPTISTE
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 15.03.2011
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

A method is provided in order to determine connection topology of a home network. The main idea of the present invention is to send out a topology determination message on each link of the network, wherein the topology determination message is constituted of two consecutive packets, first one being a broadcast packet with a predetermined payload that identifies it as a topology determination packet, and second one being a unicast packet with the same content and a non-existent destination MAC address. If a node receives both the broadcast and unicast packet from a sending node, the sending node is determined to be on the same physical link with said receiving node and the MAC address of the sending node is added into a local link nodes list of said receiving node, otherwise if said receiving node receives only the broadcast packet from the sending node, the send node is determined not to be on the same physical link with said receiving node.