Transferring data using ad hoc networks

• US 8,265,004 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2006
• Issued: 09/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Toutonghi, Michael J
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): SIVJI, NIZAR N
• Application Number:
  US11/558,905
• Publication Number:
  US 20080112354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,131 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/338, 713/182, 713/150, 709/229, 709/227, 709/206, 726/30, 726/11, 726/10, 455/412.1, 455/41.2, 455/515
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method for a local device to establish an ad hoc communications channel with a broadcast device is disclosed. The method comprises upon determining that the ad hoc communications link with the broadcast device is required, accessing memory to obtain connection parameters for the broadcast device; and establishing a communications link with the broadcast device by sending a connection request to the broadcast device based on the connection parameters.

Claims

1. A method for a local device to establish an ad hoc wireless communications link with a broadcast device, the local device having been assigned a first identifier and the broadcast device having been assigned a second identifier, the method comprising:

receiving from a trusted system, at the local device, the second identifier for the broadcast device;

upon determining that the ad hoc wireless communications link with the broadcast device is to be formed, monitoring for a communication from the broadcast device identifying the local device by the first identifier for the local device, while the local device is in a low power discoverable mode in which a radio of the local device is turned on selectively;

receiving connection parameters for the broadcast device from the broadcast device during a service registration operation with the broadcast device; and

establishing the ad hoc wireless communications link with the broadcast device by sending a connection request to the broadcast device based on the connection parameters.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ad hoc wireless communications link is performed with a Bluetooth implementation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the local device does not perform a scan to obtain the connection parameters of the broadcast device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising saving the received connection parameters for the broadcast device in a memory of the local device to enable future connections with the broadcast device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the service registration operation comprises receiving a service discovery request to discover a predefined service running on the local device from the broadcast device, and responding to the service discovery request with a confirmation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises, with the local device, registering with a server that facilitates communication with the broadcast device, the server being at least a portion of the trusted system.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein registering with the server comprises the receiving the second identifier of the broadcast device and a key for encrypting and decrypting communications with the broadcast device.

8. A method for establishing a secure wireless communications channel between a first device and a second device using a wireless ad hoc communications protocol, in which the first and second devices have been assigned a first and second globally unique identifier (GUID), respectively, comprising:

receiving from a trusted system, at the first device, the second GUID for the second device and an encryption key, the trusted system being separate from the first device and the second device;

saving the encryption key received from the trusted system; and

on the first device, polling for the second device based on the second GUID of the second device, receiving a response to the polling for the second device, authenticating the response, and establishing the secure wireless communications channel with the second device using the ad hoc wireless communications protocol by encrypting packets sent to the second device using the encryption key.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a link layer key exchange of the ad hoc wireless communications protocol is not performed.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the first and second GUIDs for the first and second devices are generated by the trusted system.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the ad hoc wireless communications protocol comprises the Bluetooth wireless standard.

12. At least one hardware recordable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method for a local device to establish an ad hoc wireless communications link with a broadcast device, the local device having been assigned a first identifier and the broadcast device having been assigned a second identifier, the method comprising:

receiving from a trusted system, at the local device, the second identifier for the broadcast device and an encryption key, the trusted system being separate from the local device and the broadcast device;

upon determining that the ad hoc wireless communications link with the broadcast device is to be formed, monitoring for a communication from the broadcast device identifying the local device, the monitoring being performed while the local device is in a low power discoverable mode in which a radio of the local device is turned on selectively;

receiving connection parameters for the broadcast device from the broadcast device during a service registration operation with the broadcast device; and

establishing the ad hoc wireless communications link with the broadcast device by sending a connection request to the broadcast device based on the connection parameters.

13. At least one hardware recordable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a processor of a first device, cause the processor to perform a method for establishing a wireless communications channel between the first device and a second device using an ad hoc communications protocol, in which each of the devices has been assigned a respective identifier, the method comprising, on the first device:

receiving at the first device, from a trusted system separate from the first device and the second device, the identifier for the second device;

polling for the second device based on the identifier for the second device; and

upon receiving a response to the polling of the second device, authenticating the response in software, and establishing the wireless communications channel with the second device.

14. At least one hardware recordable medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions that, when executed by a processor of a cellular mobile phone, causes the cellular mobile phone to perform a method for establishing a secure wireless communications channel between the cellular mobile phone and a computer using an ad hoc communications protocol, in which each of the cellular mobile phone and the computer has been assigned a respective identifier, the method comprising:

at the cellular mobile phone;

requesting from a trusted server the identifier for the computer and an encryption key, said encryption key corresponding to another encryption key received by the computer from the trusted server, and the server being separate from the cellular mobile phone and the computer;

storing in memory the encryption key received from the trusted server;

upon determining that the secure wireless communications channel with the computer is to be formed using the ad hoc communications protocol, checking the memory for the encryption key and the identifier for the computer;

when the encryption key and the identifier for the computer are found in the memory, in a low power discoverable mode in which an ad hoc radio of the cellular mobile phone is turned on selectively, listening for the computer to poll the cellular mobile phone using the identifier of the cellular mobile phone;

receiving from the computer a message comprising connection parameters during a service registration operation with the computer;

authenticating the message from the computer using the encryption key;

when the message is authentic, establishing the secure wireless communications channel with the computer by sending a connection request to the computer based on the connection parameters and encrypting packets sent to and decrypting packets received from the computer using the encryption key; and

when the encryption key and the identifier for the computer are not found in the memory or when the secure wireless communications channel cannot be established based communications parameters in the memory, transferring data over a cellular network.

15. A system to establish an ad hoc secure wireless communications link with a computer, the system comprising:

a processor, and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the system to carry out acts comprising;

receiving from a trusted server an identifier for the computer and an encryption key, said received encryption key corresponding to another encryption key received by the computer from the trusted server, the trusted server being separate from the system and the computer;

saving the encryption key received from the trusted server;

upon determining that the ad hoc secure communications link with the computer is to be formed, while the system is in a low power discoverable mode in which a radio of the system is turned on selectively, listening for the computer to poll the system based on the identifier of the computer;

receiving connection parameters for the computer from the computer during a service registration operation with the computer; and

establishing the ad hoc secure wireless communications link with the computer by sending a connection request to the computer based on the connection parameters and encrypting packets sent to and decrypting packets received from the computer using the encryption key.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system is a cellular phone.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the ad hoc secure wireless communications link is in accordance with a Bluetooth protocol implementation.