Wireless internetwork transfer apparatus, systems, and methods

• US 20060133415A1
• Filed: 12/21/2004
• Published: 06/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Mueller, Peter D.
• Application Number:
  US11/018,542
• Publication Number:
  US 20060133415A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

Apparatus and systems, as well as methods and articles, may operate to communicate a data packet between at least two wireless networks across a peer-to-peer link.

Claims

1. An apparatus, including:

a peer-to-peer link to communicate at least one data packet between at least two wireless networks.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

a first wireless mobile device to connect to the peer-to-peer link to communicate with the at least two wireless networks.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the first wireless mobile device comprises at least one of a hand-held computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, and a cellular telephone.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further including:

a first baseband processing module associated with a first media access control (MAC) format to communicate with a first one of the at least two wireless networks; and

a second baseband processing module associated with a second MAC format to communicate with a second one of the at least two wireless networks.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first MAC format and the second MAC format are substantially identical.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, further including:

a MAC conversion module coupled to at least one of the first baseband processing module and the second baseband processing module to convert the first MAC format to the second MAC format.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein one of the at least two wireless networks comprises at least one of an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 network, a general packet radio service (GPRS) network, and a wideband code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) network.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the peer-to-peer link comprises a buffer.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the buffer is capable of substantially simultaneous access by at least two devices.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the peer-to-peer link comprises a bus.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the peer-to-peer link comprises at least two distinct buses.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further including:

at least one of a hub and a switch to couple together the at least two distinct buses.

13. A system, including:

a peer-to-peer link to connect to at least two wireless networks to communicate at least one data packet between the at least two wireless networks;

a first wireless mobile device to connect to the peer-to-peer link to communicate with the at least two wireless networks; and

an omnidirectional antenna coupled to the first wireless mobile device.

14. The system of claim 13, further including:

a second wireless mobile device to connect to the first wireless mobile device, to communicate with a first one of the at least two wireless networks across the peer-to-peer link.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein one of the wireless networks is unavailable to the second wireless mobile device.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein one of the wireless networks is not directly accessible by the second wireless mobile device.

17. A method, including:

communicating at least one data packet between at least two wireless networks across a peer-to-peer link.

18. The method of claim 17, further including:

bypassing a processor associated with a wireless mobile device connected to the at least two wireless networks.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the processor comprises at least one of an application processor and a graphics processor.

20. The method of claim 17, further including:

enabling a wireless mobile device to communicate with one of the wireless networks at a time when a selected network is unavailable to the wireless mobile device.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the wireless mobile device comprises an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 network-compliant laptop computer, and the selected network comprises an IEEE 802.11 hotspot.

22. The method of claim 17, further including:

traversing one of the wireless networks to access the Internet from a wireless mobile device, wherein the device does not support a connection to the one of the wireless networks.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the one of the wireless networks comprises a cellular network and the wireless mobile device comprises a laptop computer.

24. The method of claim 17, further including:

converting the at least one data packet from a first media access control (MAC) format associated with a first one of the at least two wireless networks to a second MAC format associated with a second one of the at least two wireless networks, wherein the first MAC format comprises a format different from the second MAC format.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein converting the at least one data packet is performed by a MAC conversion module associated with at least one baseband processing module.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein one of the wireless networks comprises a selected one of an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 network, a general packet radio service (GPRS) network, and a wideband code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) network.

27. The method of claim 17, wherein the at least one data packet comprises a voice over internet protocol (VoIP)-formatted packet.

28. An article including a machine-accessible medium having associated information, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

communicating at least one data packet between at least two wireless networks across a peer-to-peer link.

29. The article of claim 28, wherein the information, when accessed, results in a machine performing:

broadcasting the at least one data packet to the at least two wireless networks.

30. The article of claim 28, wherein at least one of the at least two wireless networks comprises a selected one of a wireless local-area network (WLAN) and a wireless wide-area network (WWAN).