NETWORK CONNECTIVITY PROTOCOL FOR REAL-TIME APPLICATIONS

• US 20160066352A1
• Filed: 09/01/2015
• Published: 03/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: YANG, Yan, TUNG, Berkat S., JEONG, Hyeonkuk, WOOD, Justin N., DE FILIPPIS, Pierre J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,661,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/10 Architectures or entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/246 Connectivity information discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Apparatus and methods to evaluate connectivity between a primary device and a secondary device to support a connection for a real-time application to a remote device are disclosed. The primary device receives a connection request from the remote device and sends invitations to one or more secondary devices to connect with the remote device, the invitations sent through a first communication path. A secondary device that receives the invitation sends a connectivity evaluation packet to the primary device through a second communication path. When a connectivity response is received from the primary device through the second communication path and a user accepts the invitation, the secondary device sends an invitation response to the primary device and subsequently establishes a connection to the primary device through the second communication path. In some embodiments, the first communication path includes a cloud-based server that provides a guaranteed delivery message service.

Claims

1. A method to evaluate connectivity between a secondary device and a primary device to support a connection for a real-time application, the method comprising:

at the secondary device;

receiving an invitation through a first communication path from the primary device to connect with a remote device;

sending at least one connectivity evaluation packet to the primary device through a second communication path;

determining whether a connectivity response is received from the primary device;

when the connectivity response is received from the primary device, providing an indication of the invitation to connect with the remote device at the secondary device;

in response to input accepting the invitation to connect with the remote device, sending to the primary device an invitation response to accept the request to connect with the remote device through the first communication path; and

in response to a connection establishment request from the primary device, establishing a connection to the primary device through the second communication path to connect with the remote device to support the real-time application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one connectivity evaluation packet comprises one or more user datagram protocol (UDP) packets.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more UDP packets each include one or more Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for the secondary device and one or more port identifiers of the secondary device through which to establish the connection to the primary device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the invitation to connect with the remote device comprises a push notification using a guaranteed delivery message service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the invitation to connect with the remote device includes one or more IP addresses for the primary device and one or more port identifiers of the primary device through which to establish the connection between the secondary device and the primary device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication path traverses a wide area network and the second communication path traverses a separate local area network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the connection between the primary device and the secondary device through the second communication path comprises an ad hoc peer-to-peer connection.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one connectivity evaluation packet includes a plurality of port identifiers of the secondary device, and further comprising at the secondary device:

when receiving a plurality of connectivity responses from the primary device through at least two ports identified by the plurality of port identifiers of the secondary device, selecting one of the plurality of port identifiers to include in the invitation response based on performance criteria for the connection to the primary device through the second communication path.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the performance criteria comprises a round trip delay.

10. A method to evaluate connectivity between a primary device and one or more secondary devices to support a connection for a real-time application, the method comprising:

at the primary device;

receiving a connection request from a remote device;

sending an invitation through a first communication path to one or more secondary devices to connect with the remote device;

determining whether at least one connectivity evaluation packet is received from the one or more secondary devices;

when a connectivity evaluation packet is received from a secondary device of the one or more secondary devices, sending a connectivity response to the secondary device;

determining whether an invitation response is received from the secondary device; and

when the invitation response is received from the secondary device, the invitation response indicating acceptance of the invitation to connect to the remote device, establishing a first connection with the remote device and a second connection with the secondary device through a second connection path to support the connection for the real-time application.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the connectivity evaluation packet from the secondary device comprises a user datagram protocol (UDP) packet.

12. The method of claim 11, the UDP packet includes one or more Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for the secondary device and one or more port identifiers of the secondary device through which to establish the connection to the primary device.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the invitation to connect with the remote device comprises a push notification using a guaranteed delivery message service.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the invitation to connect with the remote device includes one or more IP addresses for the primary device and one or more port identifiers of the primary device through which to establish the connection between the secondary device and the primary device.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the first communication path includes a cloud-based server with which the primary device and the one or more secondary devices are associated with a common identifier.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the invitation is sent through the first communication path only to secondary devices that are actively signed in to the cloud-based server.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the connection between the primary device and the secondary device through the second communication path traverses a local area network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the connection between the primary device and the secondary device comprises an ad hoc peer-to-peer connection.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein the connectivity evaluation packet includes a plurality of port identifiers of the secondary device, and further comprising at the primary device:

sending at least one connectivity response to each port identified by the plurality of port identifiers of the secondary device.

20. A secondary wireless device configured to evaluate connectivity between a primary wireless device and the secondary wireless device to support a connection for a real-time application to a remote device, the secondary wireless device comprising:

wireless circuitry configured to support communication in accordance with a wireless local area network (WLAN) communication protocol;

one or more processors; and

a storage device storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the secondary wireless device to;

in response to receipt of an invitation to connect with the remote device, the invitation received through a first communication path from the primary wireless device, send at least one connectivity evaluation packet to the primary wireless device through a second communication path;

determine whether a connectivity response is received from the primary wireless device through the second communication path;

when the connectivity response is received from the primary wireless device through the second communication path and a user of the secondary wireless device accepts the invitation to connect with the remote device, send to the primary wireless device an invitation response to accept the request to connect with the remote device through the first communication path; and

establish a connection to the primary wireless device through the second communication path to connect with the remote device to support the real-time application.