Wireless Bandwidth Aggregation

• US 20100195611A1
• Filed: 04/12/2010
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Allen, Todd W., Jones, Kevin W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,170,056 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for dynamic bandwidth expansion for wireless clients of a wireless wide-area network (WWAN), wherein each client has an allocated bandwidth for communicating over the WWAN and the clients are within wireless signal reception of each other. The WWAN clients may voluntarily or in a predetermined manner join a pool of bandwidth-sharing clients. A wireless aggregation server and a wireless pool boss work in cooperation to utilize unused transmit and receive bandwidth from each of the pool members.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon which, when loaded by a computer, provide for dynamic bandwidth allocation among a plurality of wireless device clients of a wireless wide-area network (WWAN), wherein the clients are within wireless signal reception of each other, and wherein each client has an allocated bandwidth for communicating over the WWAN, the computer-readable instructions comprising instructions for:

forming a pool of at least two clients wherein an unused portion of a client bandwidth is available for sharing by at least one client in the pool;

identifying a communication manager to manage traffic between the pool clients and the WWAN, wherein each client has access, if needed, to a entire client'"'"'s own allocated bandwidth, wherein each client has access to at least a portion of other clients'"'"' unused bandwidths, and wherein the communication manager controls sharing of unutilized bandwidths and flow of data by identifying clients of the pool with excess bandwidth and choosing at least some identified clients of the pool to participate in the communication process; and

receiving data from a data transmitting client of the pool, prepares the received data for distribution among pool clients chosen for reception, and distributes the prepared data among the chosen pool clients for transmission over the WWAN; and

obtaining data portions received by clients chosen for reception from the WWAN, assembles obtained data for transmission to a destination pool client, and transmits assembled data to the destination pool client.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for identifying a communication manager to manage traffic between the pool clients and the WWAN comprises identifying one of the pool clients as the communication manager selected to manage communication traffic between the pool clients and the WWAN.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for identifying a communication manager to manage traffic between the pool clients and the WWAN comprises instructions for instructions for identifying a dedicated appliance as the communication manager selected to manage communication traffic between the pool clients and the WWAN.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for identifying a communication manager to manage traffic between the pool clients and the WWAN comprises instructions for identifying at least a subset of the pool clients as the communication manager to participate in managing communication traffic between the pool clients and the WWAN.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the WWAN employs wireless technology that is cellular, wireless LAN, or short-range radio frequency (RF).

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the pool of clients form a WiFi hotspot.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the WWAN employs GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution), 1xRTT (Single Carrier (1x) Radio Transmission Technology), EVDO (Evolution Data Only, Evolution Data Optimized), or UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) cellular wireless technology.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the pool is a peer-to-peer wireless LAN, an infrastructure wireless LAN, or a terrestrial LAN.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein pool clients are connected via any combination of wired, fiber, or wireless infrastructures.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein pool clients connections employ LAN/MAN/WAN, WiFi, infrared, Bluetooth, Ultrawideband, or WiMax technologies in any combination of ad-hoc, peer-to-peer, or access point (control point) configurations.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the pool clients are coupled via WiFi, infrared, Bluetooth, Ultrawideband, or WiMax protocols.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein an authorization scheme allows a subset of users in a single office of an enterprise, any employee of the single office, any employee of the enterprise, or any combination thereof, to form a closed pool.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein joining a pool is voluntary or mandatory at least during predetermined times, and wherein either all pool clients have similar transmission, reception, or both priorities, or pool clients have differing priorities.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein client priority is based on first come first served, application priority, time limits, or organizational rank of a pool client.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein a local or remote registration scheme determines pool group(s) and associated available pool client services, client priorities of transmission and reception, client limitations, or a combination thereof.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein an allocated bandwidth is available in the pool if a bandwidth owner is logged off.

17. A first pool client of a plurality of pool clients of a wireless wide-area network (WWAN) wireless that functions to share transmission bandwidth among a plurality of WWAN device clients, the client configured to:

request a transmission of data via a message sent to a wireless pool boss object device, the wireless boss object device responding by providing a status of other clients in the pool and associated unused bandwidth that is useful to transmit the data; and

parcel out packets of the data to be transmitted by at least one other client in the plurality of pool clients in the pool using the unused bandwidth, the wireless boss object device requesting and receiving packets of the data to be transmitted from the at least one other client in the plurality of pool clients via the unused bandwidth, the wireless boss object device sending the packets of the data to an wireless aggregation server, wherein a server transmits the data to an external network.

18. The client of claim 17, wherein the wireless aggregation server exposes packet information from each packet containing the data and resequences the packets before transmitting the data to the external network.

19. An apparatus in a system configured to be a wireless wide-area network (WWAN) wireless that functions to share reception bandwidth with WWAN device clients, the apparatus configured to:

coordinate packet traffic of a plurality of clients forming a wireless pool of available client bandwidth for the reception of data;

check the status of the plurality of clients to identify unused bandwidth for each of the plurality of clients;

communicate with a wireless aggregation server in order to receive packets inbound to the wireless pool, wherein the inbound packets are received and buffered by the wireless aggregation server; and

provide to the wireless aggregation server bandwidth sharing capability information of the plurality of clients, wherein the wireless aggregation server organizes the buffered packets into smaller components, each smaller component tagged for a respective client in the wireless pool, the smaller components transmitted to the wireless pool boss object device, each respective client of the wireless pool receiving the smaller components from the wireless pool boss object device, each respective wireless pool client reassembling the smaller components into original internet protocol (IP) packets.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein after reassembling the smaller components into original IP packets, each wireless pool client forwards the IP packets to a client-based application for processing.