Method and apparatus for communicating information by splitting information among a plurality of proximal units

• US 20030026221A1
• Filed: 08/02/2001
• Published: 02/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kotzin, Michael D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,002,942 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing

Abstract

A method and apparatus splits information into subsets of information to be communicated for a wireless apparatus. The split information (512a-512d) is transmitted to a plurality of proximal wireless units (106b-106n). The plurality of proximal wireless units convey at least some of the transmitted split information to a destination wireless apparatus (106a). This splitting operation is used in both uplink and downlink communications.

Claims

1. A method for communicating information for a wireless apparatus in communication with a first wireless communication system and also in communication with a second wireless communication system comprising:

splitting information to be communicated for the wireless apparatus;

transmitting the split information to a plurality of proximal wireless units; and

conveying, by the plurality of proximal wireless units, at least some of the transmitted split information to the wireless apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1 including the steps of:

receiving, by the wireless apparatus, the conveyed information; and

combining, by the wireless apparatus, the conveyed split information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless apparatus is a member of a local area network (LAN) and including the steps of:

receiving, by the wireless apparatus, data indicating an amount of data to be sent via a wide area network (WAN) for the wireless apparatus;

notifying the wide area network which of the plurality of wireless units will participate in sharing their wireless resources for use in facilitating communication with the wireless apparatus;

sending to each of the participating wireless units, a partial bandwidth request indicating an amount of data to receive from the wide area network;

receiving, from the WAN, by each of the participating wireless units, portions of a communication destined for the wireless apparatus;

retransmitting by the plurality of participating wireless units, respective portions of the communication to the wireless apparatus;

combining received portions of the communication retransmitted by the plurality of participating wireless units to obtain a complete communication.

4. A method for communicating information for a wireless apparatus in communication with a first wireless communication system and also in communication with a second wireless communication system comprising:

splitting information to be communicated to the second wireless communication system;

transmitting the split information to a plurality of proximal wireless units; and

conveying, by the plurality of proximal wireless units, at least some of the transmitted split information to the second wireless communication system.

5. The method of claim 4 including the steps of:

receiving, by the second wireless communication system, the conveyed information; and

combining, by the second wireless communication system, the conveyed split information.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the wireless apparatus is a member of a wireless local area network (LAN), wherein the second wireless communication system is a wireless wide area network (WAN) and including the steps of:

determining which of the plurality of proximal wireless units will participate in sharing their wireless resources to determine how to split information to be communicated from the wireless local area network to the wireless wide area network;

notifying the wide area network which of the plurality of wireless units will participate in sharing their wireless resources for use in facilitating communication with the wireless apparatus;

sending to each of the participating wireless units, a partial bandwidth request indicating an amount of data to receive from the wireless device;

sending, by the wireless device, each of the participating wireless units, portions of a communication associated with the wireless apparatus, destined for the WAN;

retransmitting by the plurality of participating wireless units, respective portions of the communication to the WAN; and

combining, by a WAN network element, received portions of the communication retransmitted by the plurality of participating wireless units to obtain a complete communication.