Wireless technology allows networked devices to move freely within a network area without being tethered to a wall or other physical devices. In addition, wireless technology allows a network to add new devices without requiring the expansion of the underlying infrastructure. Contrary to wire-based networks, where adding a new connection location would require new wiring, hubs, routers, wall sockets, etc., adding a new network node to a wireless network typically does not require adding further equipment. Because of these benefits, a variety of applications are implementing wireless technology.
For example, a home appliance control network is one application in which the lack of added wiring infrastructure or positioning restrictions can be appreciated. A homeowner may implement a network without requiring any wiring by simply connecting appliances through wireless interfaces. The appliances in such a network may transmit information to each other and/or to a control center (e.g., a personal computer), and receive control instructions. A user is thus able to control a variety of home appliances individually or in coordination in order to provide desired functionality. A user may, for instance, control an air conditioning system in coordination with the opening and closing of the windows to provide climate control while saving energy.
However, most home owners are not network specialists. The set-up of the network and the individual configuration of each wireless device or node can therefore be a source of great frustration to the homeowner. Further, such networks may also suffer from less than optimal performance, due to the homeowner's reliance on poorly tuned manufacturer default settings that fail to anticipate all network conditions.
Current wireless networks are typically built around a main point of contact, also known as an access point, and a number of wireless devices. The access point acts as a hub that wirelessly connects other devices and manages network traffic. In order to expand a network to an area larger than a single access point, additional access points may be added and configured to communicate with other neighboring access points and other wireless devices. To setup such network, a user typically has to configure the access point and all other wireless devices. The configuration may require selecting a given transmission frequency (or channel) and other communication parameters. Existing wireless communication protocols may allow access points to automatically discover other nodes in the vicinity and establish communication connections. In the latter case, the user is still required to provide basic configuration for each device.
Although, the existing technologies may use protocols that enable access points to automatically discover wireless devices, significant user assistance is still required to complete the configuration. The system complexity and amount of user intervention increases further when the chosen application requires the network to cover areas larger than the range of a single access point. As mentioned above wireless networking is implemented in a wide variety of applications, the users of which may not possess the technical savvy to perform complex configuration steps. Therefore, there is a need for a system that enables networked wireless devices to discover and configure each other in a manner that provides optimal performance and requires less user intervention.
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