WIRELESS LAN CONNECTION HANDOVER BY DOCKING SYSTEM AND GENERIC NETWORK DEVICE DRIVER

• US 20150016417A1
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Published: 01/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Dees, Walter, Holtman, Koen Johanna Guillaume
• Granted Patent: US 10,091,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/331
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1698 the I/O peripheral being a sending/receiving arrangement to establish a cordless communication link, e.g. radio or infrared link, integrated cellular phone details of antennas disposed inside a computer H01Q1/2266
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/142 over the same radio air interface technology
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/12 Setup of transport tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/10 between terminal device and access point, i.e. wireless air interface

Abstract

A wireless docking system comprising a dockee device (110, 210) and a docking station (220), the dockee device (110, 210) docking with the docking station (220), which docking station comprises: first means for establishing a first network connection (215) for connecting to the dockee device (110, 210) and second means for establishing a second network connection (225) for connecting to a wireless network access point (130, 230). The docking station (220) is configured to, in a first step, to establish a secure wireless connection between the docking station and the dockee for receiving from the dockee device (110, 210) information for accessing the wireless network access point (130, 230), and, in a second step to establish a secure wireless connection between the docking station_and the wireless network access point by connecting to the access point (130, 230) using the information received from the dockee device (110, 210) for the connection the docking station further configured to enable tunneling traffic between the dockee device (110, 210) and the wireless network access point (130, 230).

Claims

1. A wireless docking system comprising:

a dockee device and a docking station, where the docking station comprise

first means for establishing a first network connection for connecting to the dockee device; and

second means for establishing a second network connection for connecting to a wireless network access point;

wherein the dockee device has first information for accessing the wireless network access point via an initial connection between the dockee device and the wireless network access point for first traffic between the dockee device and the wireless network access point; and

the docking station is configured to;

to establish a first secure wireless connection between the docking station and the dockee for receiving from the dockee device the first information, and

to establish a second secure wireless connection between the docking station and the wireless network access point by connecting to the access point using the first information;

the docking station further configured to enable a tunneling connection for the first traffic via the first secure wireless connection.

2. The wireless docking system according to claim 1, wherein the first information include the IP address or the MAC address of the dockee device.

3. The wireless docking system according to claim 2, wherein the first secure wireless connection is a Wi-Fi Direct connection.

4. The wireless docking system according to claim 2, wherein the docking station is configured to change the source address in an IP header to match the IP address used by the dockee device.

5. The wireless docking system according to claim 2, wherein the dockee device is configured to automatically reconfigure itself to use the tunneling connection for connecting to the access point.

6. The wireless docking system according to claim 5, wherein the dockee device is at least partially responsible for constructing wireless frames that the docking station should send to the access point, by taking care of the encryption and sequencing of the frames as they are to be sent to the access point.

7. The wireless docking system according to claim 1, wherein

the first means for establishing a first network connection includes built-in first network interface for connecting to the dockee device;

and

the second means for establishing a second network connection includes a plug-in network interface device;

wherein the dockee device comprises a remote device driver and the docking station comprises a generic device driver connected to the plug-in network interface device, the generic device driver being initialized or controlled by the dockee device to enable sending of data from the dockee device to the docking station via a wireless connection between the dockee device and the plug-in network interface device.

8. The wireless docking system according to claim 7, wherein the generic device driver comprises a message discriminator for separating messages coming from the plug-in network interface that contain a wireless packet data payload apart from other messages.

9. The wireless docking system according to claim 7, wherein the generic device driver comprises a message processor for extracting wireless packet payload data out of the messages revieved from the the plug-in network interface device.

10. The wireless docking system according to claim 7, wherein the generic device driver comprises a command interpreter for interpreting the messages received from the remote device driver into commands that affect the operation of the generic device driver, the generic device driver being able to work with a specific plug-in network interface device.

11. The wireless docking station as defined in the system according to claim 1, the docking station comprising:

first means for establishing a first network connection for connecting to the dockee device; and

second means for establishing a second network connection for connecting to a wireless network access point;

wherein the docking station is configured to;

to establish a first secure wireless connection between the docking station and the dockee for receiving from the dockee device the first information, and

to establish a second secure wireless connection between the docking station and the wireless network access point by connecting to the access point using the first information;

the docking station further configured to enable a tunneling connection for the first traffic via the first secure wireless connection.

15. The dockee device as defined in the system according to claim 1, wherein

the dockee device has first information for accessing the wireless network access point via an initial connection between the dockee device and the wireless network access point for first traffic between the dockee device and the wireless network access point;

and

the dockee device is configured to cooperate with a docking station for establishing the first secure wireless connection;

the dockee device is further configured to send to the docking device the first information, the first information preferably comprising the IP address and/or the MAC address of the dockee device;

the dockee device further configured to automatically reconfigure itself to use the tunneling connection for connecting to the access point.

16. The dockee device according to claim 15, wherein the dockee device is at least partially responsible for constructing wireless frames that the docking station should send to the access point, by taking care of the encryption and sequencing of the frames as they are to be sent to the access point.

12-14. -14. (canceled)

17. A method for docking a dockee device with a docking station wirelessly, the method comprising:

establishing a first secure wireless connection between the dockee device and the docking station via a first network connection;

wherein the dockee device has first information for accessing the wireless network access point via an initial connection between the dockee device and the wireless network access point for first traffic between the dockee device and the wireless network access point;

receiving by the docking station from the dockee device the first information;

taking over by the docking station the initial connection by connecting to the access point, via a second secure wireless connection between the docking station and the wireless network access point, using the information and by tunneling the first traffic via the first secure wireless connection.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

initializing or controling a generic device driver in the docking station by the dockee device to enable sending of data from the dockee device to the docking station via the first secure wireless connection between the dockee device and a plug-in network interface device.