An efficient protocol for call setup and path migration in IEEE 802.6 based personal communication networks

The DQDB (IEEE 882.6) MAN has been proposed as a component of the personal communication networks, in which the base stations of the 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, efficiency, and speed 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-byte physical addresses, a path can be specified in a 53-octet DQDB slot