Mobile router device

• US 20070110017A1
• Filed: 01/06/2007
• Published: 05/17/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WAAV Incorporated
• Original Assignee: WAAV Incorporated
• Inventors: Smith, Brian, Fulknier, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,778,230 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/60 Router architectures

Abstract

A wireless mobile router (300) includes a CPU (222) and one or more network interfaces for hosting locally reachable devices. The router (300) includes one or more cellular network interface devices (316) configured to make a network connection with a cellular network. The router (300) operates to translate data packets received from locally reachable devices and to direct the translated data packets to public IP address over the cellular network. In addition, a stack of mobile routers (400) includes two or more mobile routers (300) interfaced together to make two or more network connections with a cellular network for increasing bandwidth and for load balancing network traffic passing from the router (300) to the cellular network. The wireless mobile router (300) and the stack (400) are suitable for use in a moving vehicle.

Claims

1. A mobile network router (300) comprising:

a printed circuit (PC) board (314) formed with wire buses and associated surface mounted connectors and including a CPU (222), for performing programs steps, a memory module (224) for storing the program steps and for storing a routing table therein, and a power module (226) for receiving input power and distributing the input power as required;

a wireless network interface device (318) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured as a WiFi access point (AP); and

,

a cellular network interface device (316) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with a first cellular network using a radio frequency band approximately center around 1.9 GHz and using the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) communication standard.

2. The network router of claim 1 further comprising a second cellular wireless interface device (316) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with the first cellular network using a radio frequency band approximately center around 1.9 GHz and using the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) communication standard.

3. The network router of claim 1 further comprising a single 1.9 GHz antenna connected to each of the first and second cellular network interface device (316).

4. The network router of claim 1 further comprising a second cellular wireless interface device (316) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with a second cellular network using a radio frequency band approximately center around 4.9 GHz.

5. The network router of claim 1 further comprising a second cellular wireless interface device (316) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with the first cellular network using a radio frequency band approximately center around 1.9 GHz and using a communication standard other than the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) communication standard.

6. The network router of claim 1 further comprising a first wire Ethernet network interface device (320) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with one or more locally reachable wire Ethernet network configured devices, (333, 352).

7. The network router of claim 6 further comprising a second wire Ethernet network interface device (321) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with one or more locally reachable wire Ethernet network configured devices, (333, 352).

8. The network router of claim 7 further comprising a second cellular wireless interface device (316) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with the first cellular network using a radio frequency band approximately center around 1.9 GHz and using the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) communication standard.

9. The network router of claim 7 further comprising a second cellular wireless interface device (316) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with a second cellular network using a radio frequency band approximately center around 4.9 GHz.

10. The network router of claim 7 further comprising a second cellular wireless interface device (316) in communication with the CPU (222) and configured to communicate with the first cellular network using a radio frequency band approximately center around 1.9 GHz and using a communication standard other than the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) communication standard.

11. A method for operating a network router comprising the steps of:

communicating with locally reachable client devices;

building a routing table for associating a local IP address with each locally reachable client device;

establishing a first connection with a first cellular network;

receiving a first public IP address from the cellular network;

receiving data packets from locally reachable client devices, each data packet including a locally reachable non-routable source IP address and a public destination IP address;

translating the data packets to replace the locally reachable non-routable source IP address with the first public IP address and to add an assigned return port to the data packet;

storing information about the data packets in the routing table, said information including the data packet locally reachable non-routable source IP address, the data packet destination IP address and the data packet assigned return port; and

,

transmitting the data packet over the first cellular network using the first connection with a first cellular network.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising the steps of:

receiving a reply data packet over the first connection with the first cellular network;

reading the data packet source IP address and the assigned return port;

comparing the data packet source IP address and the assigned retuned port to the information stored about data packets in the routing table to find a matching data packet;

translating the reply data packets to replace the destination address with the locally reachable non-routable source IP address stored in the routing table with the matching data packet; and

,

routing the reply data packet to the locally reachable non-routable source IP address.

12. The method of claim 111 further comprising the steps of:

establishing a second connection with the first cellular network;

receiving a second public IP address from the cellular network;

determining which of the first and the second connections with the first cellular network to send the next data packet over; and

,

wherein the step of translating the data packets to replace the locally reachable non-routable source IP address includes inserting one of the first public IP address and the second public IP address.

14. A stack of wireless network routers (402, 404) comprising:

a master router (402) comprising a first CPU (222) configured to exchange data packets with one or more locally reachable devices and a first cellular network interface device (316) in communication with the first CPU (222) and wherein the first cellular network interface device (316) is configured to establish a first network connection with a first cellular network;

a slave router (404) comprising a second CPU (222) and a second cellular network interface device (316) in communication with the second CPU (222) and wherein the second cellular network interface device (316) configured to establish a second network connection with the first cellular network;

means for forming a network connection between the master router (402) and the slave router (404) for exchanging network signals between the first and second CPU; and

,

program means stored on the master router (402) for sending data packets received from locally reachable devices over one of the first network connection with a first cellular network and second network connection with the first cellular network.

15. The stack of claim 14 further comprising:

one or more additional slave routers (406, 408) each comprising an additional CPU (222) and an additional cellular network device (318) configured to establish additional network connections with the first cellular network;

means for forming a network connection between the master router (402) and the one or more additional slave routers (406, 408) for exchanging network signals between the first CPU (222) and each of the additional CPU'"'"'s; and

,

program means stored on the master router (402) for sending data packets received from the locally reachable devices over one of the first network connection with a first cellular network and the second network connection with the first cellular network and the additional network connections with the first cellular network.

16. The stack of claim 14 wherein the master router (402) further comprises a wireless network interface device (318) in communication with the first CPU (222) and configured as a WiFi access point.

17. The stack of claim 14 wherein the master router (402) further comprises a first wire network interface device 320 in communication with the first CPU (222) and configured as a wire Ethernet node.

18. The stack of claim 14:

wherein the master router (402) further comprises a first wire network interface device (320) and a second wire network interface device (321) in communication with the first CPU (222) and wherein each of the first and second wire interface devices (320, 321) is configured as a wire Ethernet node;

wherein the slave router (404) further comprises a first wire network interface device (320) and a second wire network interface device (321) in communication with the second CPU (222) and wherein each of the first and second wire interface devices (320, 321) is configured as a wire Ethernet node; and

,

wherein said means for forming a network connection between the master router (402) and the slave router (404) comprises a wire connection between the master router second wire network interface device (321) and the slave router first wire network interface device (320).

19. The stack of claim 14:

wherein the master router (402) further comprises a third cellular network interface device (316) in communication with the first CPU (222) and configured to establish a third network connection with a first cellular network; and

,

wherein the slave router (404) further comprises a fourth cellular network interface device (316) in communication with the second CPU (222) and configured to establish a fourth network connection with a first cellular network.

20. A stack of wireless network routers (402, 404) comprising:

a master router (402) comprising a first CPU (222) configured to exchange data packets with one or more locally reachable devices and a first cellular network interface device (316) in communication with the first CPU (222) and wherein the first cellular network interface device (316) is configured to establish a first network connection with a first cellular network;

a slave router (404) comprising a second CPU (222) and a second cellular network interface device (316) in communication with the second CPU (222) and wherein the second cellular network interface device (316) is configured to establish a second network connection with a second cellular network;

means for forming a network connection between the master router (402) and the slave router (404) for exchanging network signals between the first and second CPU; and

,

program means stored on the master router (402) for sending data packets received from locally reachable devices over one of the first network connection with a first cellular network and second network connection with the second cellular network.

21. The stack of claim 20 wherein the first cellular network interface device is configured to establish the first network connection with a cellular network operating in a first radio frequency range and wherein the second cellular network interface device is configured to establish the second network connection with a cellular network operating in a second radio frequency range that is different than the first radio frequency range.