Patents by Inventor Floyd J. Backes

Floyd J. Backes has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7970408
    Abstract: An access point in a wireless network includes an external indication of the access point's proximity to another access point. The external indication can be a LED that blinks at a rate that is related to the proximity of the access point to the other access point. An access point is also capable of producing a network map that indicates the access point's proximity relative to other access points that are coupled to the network. The access point is further capable of monitoring wireless network traffic to ascertain whether wireless network traffic has exceeded a threshold, and if so, releasing some client devices so that wireless network traffic no longer exceeds the threshold. The access point is also capable of automatically choosing one of a plurality of radio frequencies on which to operate. The access point chooses a frequency after evaluating frequencies on which other access points may be operating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: Autocell Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Gary Vacon, Paul D. Callahan, Floyd J. Backes, William R. Hawe
  • Publication number: 20090323595
    Abstract: An access point in a wireless network includes an external indication of the access point's proximity to another access point. The external indication can be a LED that blinks at a rate that is related to the proximity of the access point to the other access point. An access point is also capable of producing a network map that indicates the access point's proximity relative to other access points that are coupled to the network. The access point is further capable of monitoring wireless network traffic to ascertain whether wireless network traffic has exceeded a threshold, and if so, releasing some client devices so that wireless network traffic no longer exceeds the threshold. The access point is also capable of automatically choosing one of a plurality of radio frequencies on which to operate. The access point chooses a frequency after evaluating frequencies on which other access points may be operating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2009
    Publication date: December 31, 2009
    Inventors: Gary Vacon, Paul D. Callahan, Floyd J. Backes, William R. Hawe
  • Patent number: 7606573
    Abstract: An access point in a wireless network includes an external indication of the access point's proximity to another access point. The external indication can be a LED that blinks at a rate that is related to the proximity of the access point to the other access point. An access point is also capable of producing a network map that indicates the access point's proximity relative to other access points that are coupled to the network. The access point is further capable of monitoring wireless network traffic to ascertain whether wireless network traffic has exceeded a threshold, and if so, releasing some client devices so that wireless network traffic no longer exceeds the threshold. The access point is also capable of automatically choosing one of a plurality of radio frequencies on which to operate. The access point chooses a frequency after evaluating frequencies on which other access points may be operating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2009
    Assignee: Autocell Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Gary Vacon, Paul D. Callahan, Floyd J. Backes, William R. Hawe
  • Patent number: 7505434
    Abstract: A wireless access point is operable to tag packets received from mobile clients. For example, a VLAN tag or Layer-3 tunnel tag for a packet is determined based at least in-part on a mapping between a mobile client and tag maintained by the access point. In one embodiment the access point uses Association IDs (“AIDs”) to uniquely identify mobile clients in the BSS. Hence, the mapping is between A/Ds and VLAN tags/Layer-3 tunnel tags. The mapping may be generated by snooping authentication related communications or from information maintained by a switch, such as a MAC address to tag mapping.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2009
    Assignee: Autocell Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventor: Floyd J. Backes
  • Patent number: 5956335
    Abstract: A method for connecting a first communication system with a third communications system, by passing through a second communications system, is disclosed. A first frame is received from the first communications system, where the first frame has a multicast address as a destination address. The multicast address requires the frame to be transmitted onto the second multicast address is translated into a functional address. The functional address is written into a second frame, and the second frame is transmitted onto the second communications system. A station receiving the second frame translates the functional address into a multicast address and writes the multicast address into the destination address field of a third frame, and transmits the third frame onto the third communications system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 21, 1999
    Assignee: Cabletron Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Floyd J. Backes, William R. Hawe, G. Paul Koning, David J. Mitton, Radia J. Perlman
  • Patent number: 5949783
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are disclosed for efficiently supporting multiple VLAN's over an emulated LAN having a plurality of distributed LAN emulation servers. Each distributed LAN emulation server in an emulated LAN has a list of VLAN's that are reachable over each of its preestablished output connections. Each distributed LAN emulation server in the emulated LAN also has a predetermined threshold value for determining the most efficient utilization of its preestablished output connections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 7, 1999
    Assignee: 3COM Corporation
    Inventors: David J. Husak, Floyd J. Backes
  • Patent number: 5796740
    Abstract: An apparatus for forwarding a data packet from a first link to a second link is disclosed. The apparatus is coupled with a plurality of computer networks through ports on the apparatus. The apparatus maintains a spanning tree list indicating which of the apparatus ports are active. The apparatus receives a packet, and determines if the packet was received from a port that is active. If the packet was received from a port that is not active, the packet is discarded. If the packet is not discarded, the data link source address of the packet is stored in a database within the apparatus for the computer network coupled with the port from which the packet was received. The apparatus then decides, responsive to a contents of a data link destination address field in the packet, whether to forward the packet as a bridge or to forward the packet as a router.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 18, 1998
    Assignee: Cabletron Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Radia Joy Perlman, Alan J. Kirby, Floyd J. Backes, Charles W. Kaufman
  • Patent number: 5500860
    Abstract: An apparatus for forwarding a data packet from a first link to a second link is disclosed. The apparatus is coupled with a plurality of computer networks through ports on the apparatus. The apparatus maintains a spanning tree list indicating which of the apparatus ports are active. The apparatus receives a packet, and determines if the packet was received from a port that is active. If the packet was received from a port that is not active, the packet is discarded. If the packet is not discarded, the data link source address of the packet is stored in a database within the apparatus for the computer network coupled with the port from which the packet was received. The apparatus then decides, responsive to a contents of a data link destination address field in the packet, whether to forward the packet as a bridge or to forward the packet as a router.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 1991
    Date of Patent: March 19, 1996
    Assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation
    Inventors: Radia J. Perlman, Alan J. Kirby, Floyd J. Backes, Charles W. Kaufman
  • Patent number: 5428615
    Abstract: A connection apparatus for connecting a first communication system with a second communication system and a third communication system. A first frame is received from the first communication system, where the first frame has a multicast address as a destination address, and where the destination address requires the first frame to be transmitted onto the second communication system. The multicast address is translated into a functional address, and the functional address is written into a second frame transmitted onto the second communication system. The second frame is received and is transmitted onto a third communication system, and the functional address is translated into a multicast address for the third communication system, and the multicast address is written into a destination field of the frame as it is transmitted onto the third communication system. The second communication system may be a token ring system based upon an IEEE 802.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 27, 1995
    Assignee: Digital Equipment Corp.
    Inventors: Floyd J. Backes, William R. Hawe, G. Paul Koning, David J. Mitton, Radia J. Perlman
  • Patent number: 5018137
    Abstract: A method for improving communications in a bridge network between end nodes involving sensing trunking configurations and executing binding schemes to make certain daughter bridges involved in the trunking conditions behave as a plurality of bridges and forward messages in the correct time sequence. This can be done by creating "forwarding groups" associating different groups of networks connected to those daughter bridges.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 1990
    Date of Patent: May 21, 1991
    Assignee: Digital Equipment Corporation
    Inventors: Floyd J. Backes, George Varghese, Charles W. Kaufman