Methods and Systems for Network Connectivity

• US 20200136945A1
• Filed: 09/05/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Labrador Diagnostics LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Theranos IP Company, LLC
• Inventors: Balwani, Sunny
• Granted Patent: US 11,323,345 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0654 using network fault recovery ring fault isolation or reconfiguration in loop networks without recovery actions by a network management system H04L12/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/728 for backup paths
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/746 Reaction triggered by a failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1023 based on a hash applied to IP addresses or costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for connecting an electronic device to a network. In some situations, the electronic device connects to a first network provider and pings a first server having a static internet protocol address and a second server having a dedicated uniform resource locator. If the electronic device receives a response from the first and second server, the electronic device maintains its connection to the first network provider. Otherwise, the electronic device connects to a second network provider and pings the first and second servers.

Claims

1-26. -26. (canceled)

27. A system for establishing network connectivity for a network device, comprising:

a) a network connectivity controller for locating network providers, the network connectivity controller having a processor for executing machine-readable code configured to;

establish a connection to a network provider;

ping a first server having a static internet protocol (IP) address with the aid of the network provider;

ping a second server having a static uniform resource locator (URL) with the aid of the network provider; and

determine whether to maintain connectivity to said network provider based on whether a response was received by said network device from said first server and/or whether a response was received by said network device from said second server; and

b) a graphical user interface for displaying a list of network providers to a user, the list of network providers generated with the aid of one or more network connectivity criteria.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said one or more network connectivity criteria are selected from the group consisting of a bandwidth of another network provider, cost to maintain connectivity to another network provider, cost to transmit information with the aid of another network provider, a download rate of another network provider and an upload rate of another network provider.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein said one or more network-connectivity criteria are location-based, time based or bandwidth-based.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein said machine-readable code is configured to determine whether to maintain connectivity to said network provider based on whether a response was received by said network device from said first server and whether a response was received by said network device from said second server.

31. A network device comprising:

a plurality of network connectivity interfaces wherein at least two of said interfaces use different communication protocols;

a programmable processor programmed to perform;

a) a first network connectivity request using one of said network connectivity interfaces to verify end-to-end connectivity to a first server;

b) a second network connectivity request using said one of said network connectivity interfaces to verify end-to-end connectivity to a second server;

c) a determination whether to establish network connectivity using another of said network connectivity interfaces based on whether a response was received from said first server and/or whether a response was received from said second server, wherein said another of said network connectivity interfaces operates using a communication protocol different from a communication protocol of said one of said network connectivity interface;

d) intermittently repeating said steps a, b, and c to determine if failed end-to-end connectivity is caused by an error with connection pathway, the first server, or the second server.

32. The device of claim 31 wherein the programmable processor is configured to continue to sending connectivity requests until all network interfaces have been tested or at least one network pathway is confirmed for connectivity.

33. The device of claim 31 wherein the programmable processor is configured, based on connectivity pathway testing, determining if any connectivity error is caused by the servers or the connectivity pathways, and ranking connectivity pathway.

34. The device of claim 33 wherein the programmable processor is configured to maintain connectivity with a network connectivity interface with a highest ranked connectivity pathway.

35. The device of claim 31, wherein at least one of said network connectivity interface and said another network connectivity interface is a non-cellular, wireless data interface while the other is a cellular data interface.

36. The device of claim 31, wherein a data packet used for the connectivity request for said first server comprises a ping packet.

37. The device of claim 31, wherein a data packet used for the connectivity request for said second server comprises a ping packet.

38. The device of claim 31, wherein connectivity to a network provider is maintained if the first server responds to the network device in response to said pinging the first server and/or the second server responds to the network device in response to said pinging the second server.

39. The device of claim 31, further comprising connecting to another network provider if the first server does not respond to the network device in response to said pinging the first server and/or the second server does not respond to the network device in response to said pinging the second server.

40. The device of claim 31, wherein a network provider is selected from the group consisting of a wireless router, Bluetooth router, wired router, cellular network router, radiofrequency (RF) device and optoelectronic device.

41. The device of claim 31, further comprising:

connecting to an additional network provider;

pinging the first server with the aid of the additional network provider;

pinging the second server with the aid of the additional network provider; and

determining whether to maintain connectivity to the additional network provider based on whether a response was received by the network device from the first server and/or whether a response was received by the network device from the second server.

42. The device of claim 41, wherein determining whether to maintain connectivity to the additional network provider is based on whether a response was received by the network device from the first server and whether a response was received by the network device from the second server.

43. The device of claim 41, wherein connecting to said additional network provider comprises terminating connectivity to said network provider.

44. The device of claim 31, wherein a network provider is selected from the group consisting of a wireless router, Bluetooth router, wired router, cellular network router, radiofrequency (RF) device and optoelectronic device.

45. The device of claim 31, wherein the first and second servers are send connectivity requests simultaneously.

46. A network device comprising:

a plurality of network connectivity interfaces wherein at least two of said interfaces use different communication protocols;

a programmable processor programmed to perform;

a) a first network connectivity request using one of said network connectivity interfaces to verify end-to-end connectivity to a first server;

b) a second network connectivity request using said one of said network connectivity interfaces to verify end-to-end connectivity to a second server;

c) a determination whether to establish network connectivity using another of said network connectivity interfaces based upon any one network termination condition selected from the group consisting of (a) a response was not received by the network device from said first server and a response was not received by the network device from said second server after said pinging, (b) a network bandwidth of another network provider is higher than a network bandwidth of said network provider, (c) a network cost of another network provider is lower than a network cost of said network provider, (d) network access provided by another network provider is more robust than network access provided by said network provider, (e) connectivity between the network device and another network provider is via wired connection and connectivity between the network device and said network provider is via wireless connection and (f) another network provider is in closer proximity to the network device than said network provider, wherein said network connectivity interface operates differently from said another network connectivity interface;

intermittently repeating said step to ping the first server and said determining step to verify network connectivity,

wherein said another of said network connectivity interfaces operates using a communication protocol different from a communication protocol of said one of said network connectivity interface;

d) intermittently repeating said steps a, b, and c to determine if failed end-to-end connectivity is caused by an error with connection pathway, the first server, or the second server.