Automatic network address assignment in a wireless mesh

Abstract

A computing environment containing a mesh network that is adapted to provide a reliable transport mechanism over which services may be delivered. Nodes of the mesh can automatically select routable addresses without conflicts, which allows nodes of the mesh to be accessed, even as the mesh changes through the addition or deletion of nodes. Also, nodes communicate with a protocol that supports service advertisements. These advertisements can identify mesh nodes that supply services, such as file or print servers, for which devices that have not yet connected to the network may be searching. Advertisements can also identify services to be used by nodes in the network, allowing, for example, anode to select a gateway providing a reliable connection to an external network. The mesh network can be used as a transport for communication using protocols, such as TCP/IP, that generally exhibit poor performance when using unreliable transports.

1 . A method performed on a computing device that is coupled to a network, the method comprising:
 generating a suffix based on a media access control (“MAC”) address that is associated with the computing device; and   combining the generated suffix with a prefix that corresponds to a network, where the combining results in a network address for the computing device, the network address configured for uniquely identifying the computing device on the network.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  where the prefix corresponds to a subnet of the network. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  where the prefix corresponds to a private address space, or where the prefix is sufficient to allow for messages using the resulting network address to be routed using network address translation (“NAT”) operations. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising detecting any conflict between the resulting network address and any other network address of the network. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising modifying, in response to a detected conflict, the suffix of the resulting network address sufficient to eliminate the any detected conflict. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  where the resulting network address is an internet protocol (“IP”) address. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising assigning the resulting network address to the computing device. 
     
     
         8 . At least one computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:
 generating a suffix based on a media access control (“MAC”) address that is associated with the computing device; and   combining the generated suffix with a prefix that corresponds to a network, where the combining results in a network address for the computing device, the network address configured for uniquely identifying the computing device on the network.   
     
     
         9 . The at least one computes-readable storage medium of  claim 8  where the prefix corresponds to a subnet of the network. 
     
     
         10 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 8  where the prefix corresponds to a private address space, or where the prefix is sufficient to allow for messages using the resulting network address to be routed using network address translation (“NAT”) operations. 
     
     
         11 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 8 , the method further comprising detecting any conflict between the resulting network address and any other network address of the network. 
     
     
         12 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 11 , the method further comprising modifying, in response to a detected conflict, the suffix of the resulting network address sufficient to eliminate the any detected conflict. 
     
     
         13 . The at least one computer-readable storage medium of  claim 8  where the resulting network address is an internet protocol (“IP”) address. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising assigning the resulting network address to the compute no device. 
     
     
         15 . A computing device comprising at least one software module configured for causing the computing device to perform a method comprising:
 generating a suffix based on a media access control (“MAC”) address that is associated with the computing device; and   combining the generated suffix with a prefix that corresponds to a network, where the combining results in a network address for the computing device, the network address configured for uniquely identifying the computing device on the network.   
     
     
         16 . The computing device of  claim 15  where the prefix corresponds to a subnet of the network. 
     
     
         17 . The computing device of  claim 15  where the prefix corresponds to a private address space, or where the prefix is sufficient to allow for messages using the resulting network address to be routed using network address translation (“NAT”) operations. 
     
     
         18 . The computing device of  claim 15 , the method further comprising detecting any conflict between the resulting network address and any other network address of the network. 
     
     
         19 . The computing device of  claim 18 , the method further comprising modifying, in response to a detected conflict, the suffix of the resulting network address sufficient to eliminate the any detected conflict, or further comp sing assigning the resulting network address or the modified network address to the computing device. 
     
     
         20 . The computing device of  claim 15  where the resulting network address is an internet protocol (“IP”) address.