Abstract: Multiple simultaneous associations with Wireless Access Points (WAPs) may be formed by a given wireless client to enable handoffs between the WAPs to be accelerated and, optionally, to enable both WAPs to provide simultaneous wireless services to the wireless client. Upon forming a primary association with one WAP the wireless client scans for beacon signals from other WAPs. Upon detecting another WAP, the wireless client transmits a Request To Send (RTS) message to the new WAP indicating the identity of the primary WAP. The wireless client may also identify the new WAP to the primary WAP using a RTS message. The primary and secondary WAPs exchange information so that, in the event of a handoff, the required information has already been shared with the new WAP. Optionally, the several WAPs may provide simultaneous service to the wireless client.

Abstract: A document generation system for generating a customised document using content elements selected by rules operating on input information, the content elements comprising conditional and unconditional text is provided. The system provides means to generate a program structure, containing information about the space characters to be inserted between the conditional and unconditional text in the generated document. The program structure is evaluated to determine the positions of the space characters. The program structure may be an XML structure.

Abstract: The invention discloses methods and apparatus for regulating the transfer of data bursts across a data network comprising electronic edge nodes interconnected by fast-switching optical core nodes. To facilitate switching at an electronic edge node, data bursts are organized into data segments of equal size. A data segment may include null data in addition to information bits. The null data are removed at the output of an edge node and the information data is collated into bursts, each carrying only information bits in addition to a header necessary for downstream processing. To ensure loss-free transfer of bursts from the edge to the core, burst transfer permits are generated at controllers of the optical core and sent to respective edge nodes based on flow-rate-allocation requests. Null-padding is not visible outside the edge nodes and only the information content is subject to transfer rate regulation to ensure high efficiency and high service quality.

Abstract: Migrating from a legacy spectrum allocation to a target spectrum allocation can be accomplished by adding new access points and, at a selected time, activating the new access points and deactivating the legacy access points with a remote network manager. Alternatively, the new access points can initially support legacy channels and at a selected time be reconfigured to support only the target channels. Alternatively, the new access points are initially activated in a mode which supports only a subset of the target channels and at a selected time reconfigured to support only the target channels. A remote network manager may be employed to remotely monitor, reconfigure, and trigger activation and deactivation of access points in support of the technique. New access points adapted to respond to inputs from the remote network manager further facilitate the invention.

Abstract: A tuning device for an optical fiber grating includes a multi-part confinement member. The confinement member includes a feature such as a channel in which the fiber grating is disposed. Movement of the different parts of the confinement member relative to one another causes compression or tension of the fiber grating. The confinement member may include first and second slides. One end of the fiber is bonded to the first slide, the other end of the fiber is bonded to the second slide. The grating section of the fiber is confined in a channel formed by adjacent surfaces of the slides. The dimensions of the channel are selected such that the fiber grating is maintained in a relatively straight orientation without buckling when compression strain is applied to the fiber. An actuator may be employed to control the strain applied to the fiber, i.e., to axially compress or stretch the fiber grating by driving one or both of the slides in a controlled manner.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling bandwidth in a Virtual Private Network assigns and allocates transmission bandwidth to packet VPNs for either connectionless or connection-oriented communication. The method creates two views of transmission facilities: a user plane view and a control plane view. In the user plane view, the bandwidth of the transmission facility is split into quantified and identified partitions. In the control plane view, transmission facilities are represented as logical links forming a topology that can be used for the purpose of routing the VPN. The two views are tied together by assigning user plane partitions to VPN control plane links. As a result, the allocation of bandwidth to VPNs becomes a controllable and viewable entity, thereby facilitating management and QoS provisioning in a VPN network.

Abstract: A system for providing multiple graphical representations for wireless network devices indicating status of the devices. The generated graphical representations of the devices are indicative of radio frequency channels the devices are operating on, as well as whether devices are on, off or in a standby mode. A device in standby mode monitors the wireless network to determine when it can resume normal operation. A menu or other interface construct is generated to enable a user to determine additional properties of the devices, such as addresses. Device representations may also indicate that devices are operating within the wireless network, but do not support one or more functions associated the system for managing the wireless network.

Abstract: The performance and ease of management of wireless communications environments is improved by a mechanism that enables access points (APs) to perform automatic channel selection. A wireless network can therefore include multiple APs, each of which will automatically choose a channel such that channel usage is optimized. Furthermore, APs can perform automatic power adjustment so that multiple APs can operate on the same channel while minimizing interference with each other. Wireless stations are load balanced across APs so that user bandwidth is optimized. A movement detection scheme provides seamless roaming of stations between APs.

Abstract: A wireless access point broadcasts a unique RF domain identifier for each supported service set per radio. Within a wireless local area network (“WLAN”) the RF domain identifier is unique for each supported service set, and hence identifies the service set. In addition to identifying the service sets supported by the access point, RF domain identifiers may be used to adjust transmit power in order to differentiate service sets. For example, if a first access point receives a beacon with an RF domain identifier transmitted by a second access point, the transmit power of communications associated with the service set associated with the received RF domain identifier is reduced at the first access point if that service set is also supported on the same radio by the first access point. In one embodiment the first and second access points both reduce transmit power until the beacons are no longer received by the respective nearby access point.

Abstract: A computer network processes data packets in the event of a network link failure. The network includes a plurality of routers that deliver data packets to the network via a plurality of links. At least one router includes a protection cycle manager. The protection cycle manager has a protection cycle packet identifier and a protection cycle packet processor. The protection cycle packet identifier identifies, as protection cycle packets, data packets having a specific protection cycle format. The protection cycle packet processor processes protection cycle packets to determine whether the packet destination corresponds to the routing node, and if the packet destination corresponds to the routing node, the protection cycle packet is treated by the routing node as a data packet received from the packet source via the failed link. Otherwise, if the packet destination does not correspond to the routing node, the protection cycle packet is sent to a protection cycle node for the routing node.

Abstract: An operating network comprising a large number of nodes interconnected by links determines potential link-capacity enhancement with the help of a companion phantom network. In one embodiment, the operating network and the phantom network are topologically coincident and each node participates in seeking an actual-connection setup through the operating network and a phantom connection through the phantom network for each connection request. Each node associates with each of its output links an operating capacity, a phantom capacity, an operating vacancy, and a phantom vacancy. The phantom vacancy data is used for link provisioning. In another embodiment, nodes may be added to or deleted from the operating network and the phantom network may not topologically coincide with the operating network.

Abstract: In a first mode of burst communication in a telecommunication network comprising electronic edge nodes interconnected by bufferless core nodes, data bursts are formulated at the edge nodes, respective burst descriptors are communicated to a controller of a core node, and burst-transfer schedules are sent from the core node to respective edge nodes. In a second mode, each burst-stream is allocated a flow rate and a core node determines burst sizes and schedules burst-transfer permits. In a bimodal burst-switching network comprising edge nodes interconnected by core nodes, an edge node selects to send to a core node burst-transfer requests according to the first mode, or flow-rate-allocation requests according to the second mode, depending on proximity, storage capacity at the edge node, and delay-tolerance specifications.

Abstract: The present invention relates to debugging of document templates or master documents used in the automated generation of customised documents.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for hiding an initiator's identity (ID), e.g. a ClientID, in a shared key authentication protocol, using authentication based on a hint of the ID. The hint is a function of the ID which cannot be readily inverted to produce the initiator's identity, for example, a hash function over the ID, such as a modular N sum hash of the initiator's identity where N corresponds to N hash buckets in a shared key database; a cryptographic hash over the ID and a corresponding shared key; or a function of the ID which cannot be readily inverted to produce the initiator's identity and a pair of MAC values wherein the MAC values are compared to find a shared key. The resulting hash may be reduced to a required number of bits for identification of a hash bucket in the database.

Abstract: An improved method is described for providing Differentiated Services (Diffserv) traffic to a node in a network that implements a security method that discards duplicate packets received at the node. The method includes the step of identifying at least two service levels to be provided to received traffic and assigning separate sequential sequence numbers and different anti-replay bitmasks to each of the service levels. The anti-replay bitmask indicates the sequence numbers of packets that have been previously received at the node that should be compared against a received packet to determine whether a duplicate packet has been received. Such an arrangement reduces the possibility that traffic having lower priority is dropped as a security measure.

Abstract: Frames of customer traffic may be encapsulated by adding Mac-in-Mac (MiM) encapsulation fields for transportation of the frames over a portion of provider network. The MiM encapsulated traffic may be further encapsulated using VPLS by adding VPLS encapsulation fields for transportation of the frames over another portion of the provider network. The MiM encapsulations use provider network_MAC addresses which enables VPLS MAC learning to occur using provider network MAC address space. MiM tunnels are mapped to VPLS service instances which are assigned pseudowire tags for transportation over the VPLS portion of provider network. The MiM header is retained when the MiM encapsulated frames are transported over the VPLS portion of the provider network. As VPLS frames exit the core network, the VPLS encapsulation fields are removed to extract the original MiM encapsulated frames for further transportation over the MiM portion of the provider network.

Abstract: A system, device, and method for managing alternate site switching in an optical communication system recovers from failures/degradations that are uncorrected by the core optical communication network. When an uncorrected failure/degradation is detected, communications for a protected end-system are switched from a primary end-system to a backup end-system. The backup end-system may be selected a priori, for example, during connection establishment, in order to reduce switching time once a decision has been made to switch communications from the primary end-system to the backup end-system. Provisions are made for completing the alternate site switching within a specified amount of time. Load balancing may be used to further reduce switching time from the primary end-system to the backup end-system. This alternate site switching augments the various protection mechanisms provided by the core optical communication network in order to provide end-to-end protection for the optical communication path.

Abstract: Bit-stream Huffman coding may be used for data compression to quickly and efficiently compress relatively small and large datasets. A symbol used in data compression may not be a byte or 8 bits. Rather it has any number of bits. For a certain dataset, a symbol has a dynamic number of bits according to the data size. A symbol may have less than 8 bits for a small dataset, or more than 8 bits for a large dataset. For rapid processing, a large dataset may be broken into smaller datasets that are fast encoded in parallel. Accordingly, the Huffman encoding inputs from a bit-stream instead of a conventional byte-stream and outputs a bit-stream. In particular, bit-stream Static and Adaptive Huffman codings are presented with extended algorithms. Hardware implementation with parallel Huffman encoders and decoders is also illustrated for fast network data compression.

Abstract: End-to-end security is established automatically for network communications. In one embodiment a first host is associated with a policy manager that determines, for the first host, whether a secure session is permissible. If the secure session is determined to be permissible then the policy manager signals to intermediate devices in order to prompt establishment of SA/DA pinholes. In an alternative embodiment a neutral policy broker determines, for both first and second hosts, whether the secure session is permissible and signals to the intermediate devices to establish the pinholes if the secure session is permissible. In another embodiment the end-to-end session includes back-to-back tunnel mode sessions linked by at least one intermediate device. The intermediate device is operative to decrypt and re-encrypt traffic in the session, and may be configured by a policy manager or policy broker.