Network Architecture Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- Top-heavy at the summit. the five leading assignees alone account for 36.0% of all 102,081 records in scope, and the top ten for 47.9%.
- Filing has cooled from its peak. 2022 was the high point at 2,061 filings; the 2021→2024 span (the last complete years) shows a -10% move, from 1,847 to 1,664.
- Digital transmission dominates the claim map. H04L accounts for 12.7% of records and H04W for 9.0%, while AI-adjacent G06N sits at just 0.6% — a visible gap relative to the core.
Filing growth compares 2021 (1,847 records) with 2024 (1,664) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 102,081 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
This landscape tracks patent activity where network architecture, wireless network architecture and network virtualization claims intersect with core routing and timing mechanics: packet routing, network function, network topology, timing source, traffic routing and link synchronization. The scope spans 2015 through the current data cut-off, capturing both the infrastructure-heavy filings of telecom equipment makers and the software-defined, virtualization-era claims that followed.
Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend understate actual filing activity. Treat 2025 and 2026 figures as still filling in rather than as evidence of a slowdown.
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Filing trends and technology composition
Two views of the same 102,081-record dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 1,018 in 2017 to a peak of 2,061 in 2022. Across the last complete three-year window, 2021 (1,847) to 2024 (1,664), volume moved -10% — a modest pull-back rather than a collapse, and the 2025-2026 figures are too recent to read as a continuation of that trend.
Technology composition by IPC subclass
H04L (digital information transmission) leads at 12.7% of the 102,081 records, followed by H04W (wireless communication networks) at 9.0%. Because a single record can carry several IPC classes, these shares sum to more than 100%; G06F (electric digital data processing) at 3.5% and the smaller subclasses below it mark where claim density thins out.
Shares are the percentage of the 102,081 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Network Architecture & Virtualization Patent Landscape with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about network architecture & virtualization patent landscape and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited records and a representative recent filing
Virtual network topology configuration via MAML and transfer learning
This filing from Sun Yat-sen University builds a software-defined network architecture that receives configuration information to set up a virtual network topology, then calls a machine-learning service module executing an MAML algorithm together with transfer learning to deliver services such as transmission quality management. It sits at the intersection of software-defined networking and applied machine learning, an area that classical IPC counts for G06N still show as thin.Filed 2025-10-02 — recent enough that its full citation trail has not yet formed.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US6606744B1 | Providing collaborative installation management in a network-based supply chain environment | 2,511 |
| 2 | US6611537B1 | Synchronous network for digital media streams | 2,481 |
| 3 | US20070087756A1 | Multifactorial optimization system and method | 1,866 |
| 4 | US9432298B1 | System, method, and computer program product for improving memory systems | 1,426 |
| 5 | US20030172145A1 | System and method for designing, developing and implementing internet service provider architectures | 1,335 |
| 6 | US20170331670A1 | Network Architecture, Methods, and Devices for a Wireless Communications Network | 1,307 |
| 7 | US20060178918A1 | Technology sharing during demand and supply planning in a network-based supply chain environment | 1,304 |
| 8 | US20040064351A1 | Increased visibility during order management in a network-based supply chain environment | 1,295 |
| 9 | US7124101B1 | Asset tracking in a network-based supply chain environment | 1,277 |
| 10 | US20130132854A1 | Service Plan Design, User Interfaces, Application Programming Interfaces, and Device Management | 1,214 |
Citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records that have had more time to accumulate citations; read them as a signal of influence on the field, not of current technical importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three findings that shape where new claims are likely to survive prosecution and where they will run into dense prior art.
The top of the field is genuinely concentrated
36.0% of the 102,081 records in scope belong to just five assignees, and that share climbs to 47.9% across ten. New entrants filing broad network-architecture claims should expect to compete directly against a small set of incumbents holding the densest prior art rather than a fragmented field.
Growth has cooled from its 2022 peak, not collapsed
Filings peaked at 2,061 in 2022 and eased to 1,664 by 2024, a -10% move over that three-year span. That is a normalization after a high point, not a structural decline — and the 2025-2026 figures are still too fresh, given the roughly 18-month publication lag, to read as a continuation.
AI-adjacent claims remain thin next to core transmission claims
H04L (digital information transmission) covers 12.7% of the 102,081 records and H04W (wireless networks) 9.0%, while G06N (AI-based computing) sits at only 0.6%. Filers building machine-learning-driven network configuration, like the MAML-based topology work referenced above, are working against far less occupied claim space than those filing standard routing or transmission claims.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to network architecture & virtualization patent landscape, with the prior art for and against each one.
Assignee landscape and recent momentum
The ranked leaders in this dataset span telecom equipment vendors, chipmakers and cloud infrastructure providers, with filing volume concentrated at the top and a long tail below the ranked group of 100 companies.
One filer sits well ahead of the rest
The leading assignee's record count is more than double that of the fifth-place holder (3,989), signalling a portfolio built over many years rather than recent momentum alone.
Every major filer's latest-year count has pulled back sharply
Across the assignees with visible recent-year momentum, latest-year filing counts are down between roughly two-thirds and over 90% year-on-year. This mirrors the publication lag rather than a real drop in activity — the most recent year is always undercounted at the point of measurement.
Co-filing is limited and mostly intra-group
Only ten co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest pairings are between related entities within the same corporate family rather than cross-company joint filings, suggesting most patenting here happens inside single organisations.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 22 | -79% |
| Oracle International Corp | 11 | -84% |
| NVIDIA Corp | 10 | -66% |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson | 4 | -87% |
| AT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P. | 4 | -87% |
| Intel Corp | 2 | -93% |
| Cisco Technology, Inc. | 1 | -97% |
| Headwater Partners I LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this analysis
The dataset points to specific questions worth running deeper before committing a filing strategy or a freedom-to-operate opinion.
Map claim scope against the leading assignees
With 36.0% of records held by five companies, a new filing in core routing or topology mechanics needs a clause-by-clause comparison against those portfolios before drafting.
Explore assignee portfolios in EurekaTest the under-claimed branches
G06N-adjacent AI-driven network configuration shows far lower claim density than core H04L/H04W transmission claims — worth a targeted prior-art pull before assuming the space is open.
Run a white-space search in EurekaRe-check momentum once the lag clears
Latest-year filing counts across leading assignees are down sharply, but that reflects the roughly 18-month publication lag rather than a real slowdown; revisit this trend in a future cut.
Track filing trends in EurekaCommon questions about this landscape
The dataset's assignee ranking shows a clearly top-heavy structure: the leading assignee alone holds 11,737 records, more than double the fifth-place holder at 3,989. The top five assignees combined account for 36.0% of all 102,081 records in scope, and the top ten reach 47.9%. This concentration is typical of a field with a long operating history in telecom infrastructure, where large equipment vendors and chipmakers built portfolios over many years rather than a single recent wave of filing.
Filing peaked in 2022 at 2,061 records and eased to 1,664 by 2024, a -10% change across that three-year window — the last span that can be treated as complete. That is a pull-back from a high point, not a collapse. Figures for 2025 and 2026 look much lower still, but publication typically lags actual filing by roughly 18 months, so those years are undercounted rather than genuinely quiet.
IPC composition shows H04L (digital transmission) and H04W (wireless networks) as the densest areas, at 12.7% and 9.0% of the 102,081 records respectively. By contrast, G06N (AI-based computing) sits at only 0.6%, and multiplex communication (H04J) and switching/selecting (H04Q) are each under 1%. Machine-learning-driven network configuration and topology management, an area illustrated by a recent Sun Yat-sen University filing, sits in this thinner claim space relative to core transmission and wireless claims.
With the top five assignees holding 36.0% of all records and the top ten holding 47.9%, this field sits at a meaningfully concentrated end of the spectrum, though it still has a long tail below the ranked group of 100 companies. Co-filing is limited too: only ten co-assignee pairings appear in the dataset, and the strongest of those are between related entities inside the same corporate family rather than cross-company alliances. That combination — concentrated ownership, little cross-company collaboration — suggests most of the core claim space was built by individual organisations working independently.
The most-cited records in this dataset date back further and cover foundational concepts like collaborative network-based supply chain management and synchronous digital media streaming networks, with citation counts in the thousands. High citation counts inside a searched corpus favour older records simply because they have had more years to accumulate citations, so they are best read as a signal of historical influence rather than a guide to what is commercially important today. A freedom-to-operate review should weight recent filings and current assignee activity more heavily than raw citation rank.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.