1. A computer hardware system for editing a video signal comprising:
a first signal bus employing a first bus interface;
a second signal bus employing a second bus interface, and including an array of point-to-point interconnects, wherein each point-to-point interconnect is a multiplexed channel link capable of carrying a digital video stream, said video signal being carried by second signal bus along one or more of said point-to-point interconnects;
a router circuit for managing the routing of point-to-point interconnects on said second signal bus;
an IO circuit for inputting and outputting said video signal to said computer hardware system, said IO circuit converting said video signal into said digital video streams and routing said digital video streams to said router circuit;
a general purpose computer connected to said first bus and operating according to a first operating system; and
a plurality of video graphics computers, said video graphics computers having inputs and outputs connected to said point-to-point interconnects of said second signal bus, said routing circuit being operative to vary routing of said video streams through said point to point interconnects so as to pass said video streams through different ones of said video graphics computers.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein said general purpose computer is operative to command said video graphics computers to vary the alterations of a video signal input to each of said video graphics computers.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein said general purpose computer is operative to command said routing circuit to vary said routing of point-to-point interconnects on said second signal bus such that different video signals are presented to different ones of said video graphics computers.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of routing comprising:
receiving updated link information from at least one other node in a wireless utility network;
receiving a packet from a node in the wireless utility network, the packet including a route to a destination address, the route specifying a path through one or more nodes in the wireless utility network;
determining whether there is an alternate route to the destination address;
in the event of the determination of at least one alternate route to the destination address, comparing the at least one alternate route to the route included in the packet to determine a preferred route;
in the event the preferred route is the at least one alternate route, replacing the route included in the packet with the preferred route; and
transmitting the packet according the to included route,
wherein the determination of the preferred route includes the received updated link information obtained by the utility node from at least one neighboring utility node, and wherein the obtained information is used to determine an updated path cost of the route included in the packet for comparison to determine the preferred route.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received link cost information used to update path cost specifies one of: least possible number of hops, most robust hops, lowest traffic hops, or fastest hops.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the received link cost information specifies link cost for at least one link in the wireless utility network.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein the route included in the received packet was determined by a gateway associated with the wireless utility network.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein path cost is based upon a combination of at least one of: least possible number of hops, most robust hops, lowest traffic hops, or fastest hops, links with low link costs.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the received link cost information is retrieved from packets received by the utility node for forwarding to another node in the wireless utility network.
7. The method of claim 2, wherein the received link cost information is received in response to at least one request for information of neighboring utility nodes.
8. The method of claim 2, further comprising:
transmitting the selected route to at least one other node in the wireless utility network.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein in the event the selected route is the route included in the packet prior to transmission, transmitting the selected route to at least one other node in the wireless utility network includes transmitting the updated path cost for the selected route.
10. A wireless utility network, comprising:
a plurality of utility nodes arranged to communicate within a wireless utility network; and
at least one gateway to the wireless utility network arranged to communicate with at least one of the utility nodes in the wireless utility network, the at least one gateway connecting the wireless utility network to at least one other network;
wherein a packet transmitted from one utility node in the wireless utility network to another utility node in the wireless utility network is transmitted according to a route included in the transmitted packet,
wherein the route included in the transmitted packet is updated with received network information to determine an updated path cost of the included route and compared to alternate routes to select a preferred route based upon path cost, and
wherein the selected preferred route is included in the packet and the packet is transmitted to another node in the utility network according to the selected preferred route.
11. The wireless utility network of claim 10, wherein the received link cost information used to update path cost specifies one of: least possible number of hops, most robust hops, lowest traffic hops, or fastest hops.
12. The wireless utility network of claim 10, wherein the received link cost information is retrieved from packets received by the utility node for forwarding to another node in the wireless utility network.
13. The wireless utility network of claim 10, wherein the received link cost information is received in response to at least one request for information of neighboring utility nodes.
14. The wireless utility network of claim 10, further comprising:
transmitting the selected route to at least one other node in the wireless utility network.
15. The wireless utility network of claim 14, wherein in the event the selected route is the route included in the packet prior to transmission, transmitting the selected route to at least one other node in the wireless utility network includes transmitting the updated path cost for the selected route.
16. A wireless network, comprising
at least one server including a server controller and a radio for communicating in a wireless network, wherein the server controller controls the receipt and transmission of packets via the server radio, and wherein the server controller may select a route to nodes in the wireless network;
a plurality of nodes in the wireless network including a node controller and a node radio, wherein the node controller controls the receipt and transmission of packets via the node radio, and wherein the node controller may select a route to the at least one server;
wherein a packet transmitted from one utility node in the wireless utility network to the server in the wireless utility network is transmitted according to a route included in the transmitted packet,
wherein the route included in a transmitted packet is updated with received network information to determine an updated path cost of the included route and compared to alternate routes to select a preferred route based upon path cost, and
wherein the selected preferred route is included in the packet which is transmitted to another node in the utility network according to the selected preferred route.
17. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein inclusion of the selected route replaces the route included in a transmitted packet.
18. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein the received link cost information used to update path cost specifies one of: least possible number of hops, most robust hops, lowest traffic hops, or fastest hops.
19. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein path cost is based upon a combination of at least one of: least possible number of hops, most robust hops, lowest traffic hops, or fastest hops.
20. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein the received link cost information is retrieved from packets received by the utility node for forwarding to another node in the wireless utility network.
21. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein the received link cost information is received in response to at least one request for information of neighboring utility nodes.
22. The wireless network of claim 16, wherein the selected preferred route is transmitted to at least one other node in the wireless utility network.
23. The wireless network of claim 22, wherein in the event the selected preferred route is the route included in the packet prior to transmission, transmitting the selected route to at least one other node in the wireless utility network includes transmitting the updated path cost for the selected route.
24. The wireless network of claim 23, wherein the server receiving a packet from a node examines the packet to retrieve updated path cost information, and wherein the updated path cost information is used by the server controller in route selection.
25. The wireless network of claim 24, wherein the server calculates the path cost of a route based on at least one of: least possible number of hops, most robust hops, lowest traffic hops, or fastest hops.