An Efficient Protocol for Call Setup and Path Migration in IEEE 802.6 Based Personal Communication Networks

Recently, DQDB (IEEE 802.6) MAN has been proposed as a component of the Personal Communication Networks, in which base stations of wireless infrastructures are connected by a number of DQDBs which in turn are connected by bridges. We propose a protocol for call setup and path migration in a cluster of DQDBs. To pursue simplicity, eeciency, and fastness in path setup, we use a link-state-like routing method for path selection, and a source-routing-based protocol for path establishment. The feasibility of the source routing protocol in a DQDB cluster is guaranteed by our novel labeling scheme. Each label represents the routing direction from one DQDB to another such that a path can be represented by a sequence of labels. Because of the locality property of the labels, a few bits are enough to denote the labels unambiguously. Using multi-bit labels instead of multi-bye physical addresses, a path can be speciied in a 53-octet DQDB slot.