Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
Method of and devices for supporting selective forwarding of messages in a network of communicatively coupled communication devices

Abstract:

A gateway device and a configuration client for supporting selective forwarding of messages published to a group address or a virtual address in a wireless mesh network of communicatively coupled communication devices, such as a Bluetooth Mesh system. The configuration client maintains a mapping between unicast addresses of communication devices and group and virtual addresses in the network. At receipt of a message including a group or virtual address, the gateway device retrieves, from the configuration client, the unicast addresses of those communication devices collectively identified by the group or virtual address in the received message. If the retrieved unicast addresses are all serviced by the gateway device, the message is transmitted by the gateway device on all interfaces corresponding to the communication devices addressed by the retrieved unicast addresses.