Peer-to-peer sharing of network resources

• US 10,425,947 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2018
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, University College Dublin
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dunne, Jonathan, French, Paul B., Galvin, Jr., James P., Han, Yi, O'Sullivan, Patrick J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Foud, Hicham B
• Application Number:
  US15/912,375
• Publication Number:
  US 20180199329A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1074 for supporting data block transmission mechanisms file transfer H04L67/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/51 based on terminal or device properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/563 of the wireless resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

A first mobile device determines a second mobile device losing connectivity to a second network or a communication link between the second mobile device and the second network degrading below a threshold value, the second mobile device assigned a role of sharing broker that brokers sharing of network resources of at least a first network among a plurality of other mobile devices via the second network, the first mobile device and the plurality of other mobile devices participating in a sharing group. Responsive to the determination, the role of sharing broker is activated on the first mobile device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a first mobile device, a second mobile device losing connectivity to a second network or a communication link between the second mobile device and the second network degrading below a threshold value, the second mobile device assigned a role of sharing broker that brokers sharing of network resources of at least a first network among a plurality of other mobile devices via the second network, the first mobile device and the plurality of other mobile devices participating in a sharing group; and

responsive to determining the second mobile device losing connectivity to the second network or the communication link between the second mobile device and the second network degrading below the threshold value, and further responsive to the first mobile device being selected based on votes of users of the plurality of other mobile devices participating in the sharing group, activating, using a processor, on the first mobile device the role of sharing broker that brokers the sharing of the network resources of at least the first network among the plurality of other mobile devices via the second network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein activating on the first mobile device the role of sharing broker that brokers the sharing of the network resources of at least the first network among the plurality of other mobile devices via the second network further is responsive to the first mobile device being selected from a list of the plurality of other mobile devices participating in the sharing group.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mobile device and the plurality of other mobile devices participating in the sharing group establish peer-to-peer communication links among themselves via the second network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the network resources of the first network are shared over the peer-to-peer communication links.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the role of sharing broker is distributed among the first mobile device and at least one of the plurality of other mobile devices.

7. A method claim 1, comprising:

determining, by a first mobile device, a second mobile device losing connectivity to a second network or a communication link between the second mobile device and the second network degrading below a threshold value, the second mobile device assigned a role of sharing broker that brokers sharing of network resources of at least a first network among a plurality of other mobile devices via the second network, the first mobile device and the plurality of other mobile devices participating in a sharing group;

responsive to determining the second mobile device losing connectivity to the second network or the communication link between the second mobile device and the second network degrading below the threshold value, activating, using a processor, on the first mobile device the role of sharing broker that brokers the sharing of the network resources of at least the first network among the plurality of other mobile devices via the second network;

receiving, by the first mobile device, from each of the plurality of other mobile devices, information related to an availability of at least one network resource provided by at least the first network offered for sharing by the respective other mobile device;

receiving, by the first mobile device, a request from a third mobile device to access the network resource provided by the first network shared by at least one of the plurality of other mobile devices;

selecting, by the first mobile device, at least one of the other mobile devices to share the network resource provided by the first network with the third mobile device based on at least one parameter indicated by the third mobile device or at least one parameter indicated by at least one of the plurality of other mobile devices; and

communicating, from the first mobile device to the third mobile device, peer-to-peer network connection information of the selected at least one of the other mobile devices, wherein the peer-to-peer network connection information is configured to be processed by the third mobile device to establish a peer-to-peer communication link between the third mobile device and each of the selected at least one of the other mobile devices via the second network and access the network resource of the first network shared by the selected at least one of the other mobile devices via the peer-to-peer communication link.

3. A method, comprising:

determining, by a first mobile device, a second mobile device losing connectivity to a second network or a communication link between the second mobile device and the second network degrading below a threshold value, the second mobile device assigned a role of sharing broker that brokers sharing of network resources of at least a first network among a plurality of other mobile devices via the second network, the first mobile device and the plurality of other mobile devices participating in a sharing group;

responsive to determining the second mobile device losing connectivity to the second network or the communication link between the second mobile device and the second network degrading below the threshold value, activating, using a processor, on the first mobile device the role of sharing broker that brokers the sharing of the network resources of at least the first network among the plurality of other mobile devices via the second network; and

responsive to the activating on the first mobile device the role of sharing broker that brokers the sharing of the network resources of at least the first network among the plurality of other mobile devices via the second network, automatically communicating an indicator to the plurality of other mobile devices, the indicator indicating that the first mobile device has assumed to role of sharing broker.