Wireless Bandwidth Aggregation
First Claim
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.
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Accused Products
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.
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Citations
20 Claims
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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Specification