Data distribution by proxy

• US 20060193283A1
• Filed: 02/25/2005
• Published: 08/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Harris, Adam, McCarroll, William
• Granted Patent: US 8,837,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• 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

Abstract

A communication device communicates with an originating device during an originating session and receives originating data from the originating device over a wireless communication link and then communicates with a receiving device during a receiving session and sends the originating data to the receiving device over a wireless communication link, such that the originating session and the receiving session occur at different times, and at least one of the sessions is an ad hoc communication session.

Claims

1. A method of operating a communication device for network communications, the method comprising:

communicating with an originating device during an originating session and receiving originating data from the originating device over a communication link;

communicating with a receiving device during a receiving session and sending the originating data to the receiving device over a wireless communication link;

wherein the originating session and the receiving session occur at different times, and at least one of the sessions is an ad hoc communication session.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

validating the originating data to ensure that the originating data is valid; and

authenticating the originating data to ensure that the originating device is an authorized data source;

wherein the originating data includes information that uniquely identifies a source device as the source of the originating data, such that the communication device will not send the originating data if validation fails or if authentication fails.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data includes an expiration time, and the communication device will not send the data if the expiration time has passed.

4. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data includes time data that identifies an origination time at which the originating data was first generated, and the communication device will not send the originating data if the time data indicates the origination time is greater than a current time by at least a sending limit time value.

5. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data includes message data intended for a network device comprising a network node.

6. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data is generated by a network device comprising a network node.

7. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data is generated by the communication device.

8. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data includes status information for a software application.

9. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data includes update information for a software application.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the software application is installed on the communication device.

11. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the communication device validates the originating data by determining that the originating data relates to a predetermined software application.

12. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the communication device validates the originating data by decoding validation information encrypted in the originating data.

13. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the communication device authenticates the originating device by determining that the originating device is an authorized source of data.

14. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the communication device authenticates the originating device by decoding authentication information encrypted in the originating data.

15. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein the authentication information includes machine identification information of the originating device.

16. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating device is a network node, and the originating data is sent to the communication device only after the originating device has determined that the communication device has become an authorized device.

17. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the communication device selectively rejects the originating data in accordance with one or more filters that relate to the content of the data.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein the communication device will not send the originating data to the receiving device if the data has been rejected.

19. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the communication device receives the originating data from a sending device and then stores the data if it is not in communication with a device comprising a suitable receiving device.

20. A method as defined in claim 19, wherein the communication device does not store the originating data if the communication device has insufficient available memory to store the data.

21. A method as defined in claim 19, wherein the communication device determines if it has insufficient available memory and replaces an amount of stored data in the memory with the data sufficient to store the originating data in the memory.

22. A method as defined in claim 19, wherein the originating data includes an expiration time, and the communication device will not store the data if the expiration time has passed.

23. A method as defined in claim 19, wherein the originating data includes time data that identifies an origination time at which the data was first generated, and the communication device will not store the data if the sent time is greater than a current time by at least a sending limit time value.

24. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating data includes a message hop counter value, and the communication device increments the message hop counter value before sending the data to the receiving device.

25. A method as defined in claim 24, wherein the receiving device comprises a network node, the originating data includes a data message identifier, and the receiving device will reject the data if the hop counter value of the received data is greater than the hop counter value of a previously received copy of the data having the same data message identifier.

26. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the originating device comprises a fixed network node.

27. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein at least one of the communication device or receiving device is capable of wireless communication.

28. A communication device comprising:

a communications interface that supports data transfer between the communication device and a receiving device in an ad hoc manner; and

a data store that stores data for transfer from the communication device to the receiving device; and

a processor that executes operations such that the communication device communicates with an originating device during an originating session and receives originating data from the originating device over a communication link and communicates with the receiving device during a receiving session and sends the originating data to the receiving device over a communication link, wherein the originating session and the receiving session occur at different times, and at least one of the sessions is an ad hoc communication session.

29. A communication device as defined in claim 28, wherein the originating data includes information that uniquely identifies an originating device that is the source of the originating data;

and the processor validates the originating data to ensure that the data is valid and authenticates the data to ensure that the originating device is an authorized data source, and will not send the data if validation fails or if authentication fails.

30. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the originating data includes an expiration time, and the communication device will not send the data if the expiration time has passed.

31. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the originating data includes time data that identifies an origination time at which the data was first generated, and the communication device will not send the data if the sent time is greater than a current time by at least a sending limit time value.

32. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the communication device validates the originating data by determining that the data relates to a predetermined software application.

33. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the communication device validates the originating data by decoding validation information encrypted in the data

34. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the communication device authenticates the originating device by determining that the originating device is an authorized source of data.

35. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the communication device authenticates the originating device by decoding authentication information encrypted in the originating data.

36. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the communication device selectively rejects the originating data in accordance with one or more filters that relate to content of the data.

37. A communication device as defined in claim 36, wherein the communication device will not send the originating data to the receiving device if the data has been rejected.

38. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the communication device receives the originating data from a sending device and then stores the data if it is not in communication with a device comprising a suitable receiving device.

39. A communication device as defined in claim 38, wherein the communication device does not store the originating data if the communication device has insufficient available memory to store the data.

40. A communication device as defined in claim 38, wherein the communication device determines if it has insufficient available memory and replaces an amount of stored data in the memory with data sufficient to store the originating data in the memory.

41. A communication device as defined in claim 38, wherein the originating data includes an expiration time, and the communication device will not store the data if the expiration time has passed.

42. A communication device as defined in claim 29, wherein the originating device comprises a fixed network node.

43. A communication device as defined in claim 28, wherein the communication device is capable of wireless communication.

44. A method of operating a communication device that is capable of ad hoc communication, the method comprising:

receiving originating data from an originating device that generated the data in an original communication session, such that the communication device and the originating device comprise an ad hoc network,

sending the originating data to a receiving device in a receiving communication session, such that the communication device and receiving device comprise an ad hoc network, and wherein the data includes information that uniquely identifies the originating device that generated the data;

wherein the communication device is in direct communication with either the originating device or the receiving device while receiving the originating data and sending the originating data, but is not in communication with both devices at the same time.

45. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein sending the originating data from the communication device to the receiving device comprises repeatedly sending the data from a next communications device to a different communications device one or more times until the data is received at a receiving device that is a fixed network node.

46. A method as defined in claim 45, wherein the originating data further includes time data that identifies the time at which the originating device generated the data, and each communications device that receives the originating data will not send the data to a next communications device if the time data is greater than a current time by at least a limit value.

47. A method as defined in claim 45, wherein the originating data further includes an expiration date, and each communications device that receives the data will not send the data to a next communications device if the expiration date has passed.

48. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the originating data further includes an expiration date.

49. A method as defined in claim 48, wherein each communications device that receives the originating data will not send the data if the expiration date has passed.

50. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the originating data further includes time data that identifies the time at which the originating device generated the data.

51. A method as defined in claim 50, wherein each communications device that receives the originating data will not send the data to a next communications device if the sent time is greater than a current time by at least a limit value.

52. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the originating data includes message data intended for a communications device comprising a network node.

53. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the originating data includes status information for a software application.

54. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the originating data includes update information for a software application.

55. A method as defined in claim 54, wherein the software application is installed on the communications device.

56. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein the originating data from the computing device further includes an expiration date.

57. A method as defined in claim 47, wherein the subsequent device will not send the originating data if the expiration date has passed.

58. A method as defined in claim 44, wherein at least one of the original communication session or the receiving communication session is a wireless communication session.

59. A communication device that exchanges data over a computer network, the communication device comprising:

a processor that executes a wireless communication process that enables the communication device to communicate with other devices over wireless connections;

communication means for communicating with an originating device during an originating session and receiving originating data from the originating device over a communication link and communicating with the receiving device during a receiving session, and sending the originating data to the receiving device over a communication link, wherein the originating session and the receiving session occur at different times, and at least one of the sessions is an ad hoc communication session, such that sending the originating data to the receiving device occurs without direct communication between the originating device and the receiving device.

60. A communication device as defined in claim 59, wherein the originating data includes information that uniquely identifies an originating device that is the source of the data, such that the communication device will not send the data if validation fails or if authentication fails.

61. A communication device as defined in claim 60, wherein the communication means enables operation in an infrastructure mode and in an ad hoc mode, wherein in the infrastructure mode, the communication device can communicate with a fixed network access point and, in the ad hoc mode, the communication device can directly communicate with suitably configured wireless communication devices.