Energy-efficient on-the-fly Wi-Fi hotspot using mobile devices

• US 8,532,074 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2010
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Navda, Vishnu, Ramjee, Ramachandran, Sharma, Ashish, Padmanabhan, Venkat N.
• Primary Examiner(s): HAN, CLEMENCE S
• Application Number:
  US12/846,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20120026992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0203 in the radio access network or backbone network of wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/12 Application layer protocols, e.g. WAP [Wireless Application Protocol]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

One or more mobile devices and a cloud server computing device are utilized to provide Internet access to one or more client computing devices. One of the clients is designated as a Wi-Fi access point. The Wi-Fi access point implements a reverse-infrastructure Wi-Fi mode which tethers available mobile devices and other clients to the access point. The cloud server periodically computes an optimal number of the mobile devices to be used for data striping, and transmits a webpage to a requesting client by striping data associated with the webpage across the optimal number of the mobile devices.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented process for utilizing one or more mobile devices to provide Internet access to one or more client computers, comprising:

using the client computers to perform the following process actions;

designating one of the client computers as a Wi-Fi access point (AP); and

using the Wi-Fi AP to implement a reverse-infrastructure Wi-Fi mode which tethers available mobile devices and other client computers to the Wi-Fi AP.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the process action of designating one of the client computers as a Wi-Fi AP comprises an action of implementing a consensus-based protocol on each of the client computers to select a client computer to be designated as the Wi-Fi AP.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the available mobile devices comprise mobile devices that are turned on, and are idle.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein,

the Wi-Fi AP establishes an on-the-fly Wi-Fi hotspot which generates a Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN),

the available mobile devices and other client computers are tethered to the Wi-Fi AP via the WLAN, and

the process action of using the Wi-Fi AP to implement a reverse-infrastructure Wi-Fi mode which tethers available mobile devices and other client computers to the Wi-Fi AP comprises the actions of:

each available mobile device and each other client computer joining the WLAN by associating with the Wi-Fi AP as a Wi-Fi client;

computing an optimal beacon interval (b_optimal); and

periodically transmitting at b_optimal a beacon over the WLAN to each available mobile device and each other client computer.

5. The process of claim 4, wherein the optimal beacon interval (b_optimal) is given by the equation

6. The process of claim 4, wherein the process action of using the Wi-Fi AP to implement a reverse-infrastructure Wi-Fi mode which tethers available mobile devices and other client computers to the Wi-Fi AP further comprises the actions of:

whenever a new mobile device or client computer becomes available, said new mobile device or client computer joining the WLAN by associating with the Wi-Fi AP as a Wi-Fi client; and

whenever an existing mobile device or client computer that is currently a member of the WLAN becomes unavailable, said existing mobile device or client computer leaving the WLAN by disassociating with the Wi-Fi AP.

7. The process of claim 4, wherein each available mobile device is configured to operate in Wi-Fi adaptive power save mode.

8. The process of claim 4, wherein the process action of designating one of the client computers as a Wi-Fi AP comprises the actions of:

whenever the Wi-Fi AP leaves the WLAN, detecting an absence of the beacon on the client computers remaining on the WLAN; and

implementing a leader election procedure on said remaining client computers to designate another client computer as the Wi-Fi AP.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein,

the Wi-Fi AP establishes an on-the-fly Wi-Fi hotspot which generates a Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN),

the available mobile devices and other client computers are tethered to the Wi-Fi AP via the WLAN,

a session comprises a period of time during which a given client computer is accessing a plurality of webpages which are located on the Internet,

an idle time period comprises a period of time between successive sessions, and

the process action of using the Wi-Fi AP to implement a reverse-infrastructure Wi-Fi mode which tethers available mobile devices and other client computers to the Wi-Fi AP comprises the actions of:

each available mobile device and each other client computer joining the WLAN by associating with the Wi-Fi AP as a Wi-Fi client;

computing a first optimal beacon interval (b_optimal);

computing a second optimal beacon interval (b<sub>optimal—

session</sub>);

during a given session, periodically transmitting at b_optimal a beacon over the WLAN to each available mobile device and each other client computer; and

during the idle time period between successive sessions, periodically transmitting at b<sub>optimal—

session</sub> the beacon over the WLAN to each available mobile device and each other client computer.

10. The process of claim 9, wherein,

the first optimal beacon interval (b_optimal) is given by the equation

11. The process of claim 1, wherein the mobile devices comprise smartphones.

12. A computer-implemented process for utilizing a mobile device to provide Internet access to a client computer, comprising the following process actions:

designating the client computer as a Wi-Fi access point (AP); and

whenever the mobile device is located in the vicinity of the Wi-Fi AP, and is turned on, and is idle, using the Wi-Fi AP to implement a reverse-infrastructure Wi-Fi mode which tethers the mobile device to the Wi-Fi AP, wherein,

the Wi-Fi AP establishes an on-the-fly Wi-Fi hotspot which generates a Wi-Fi wireless local area network (WLAN),

the mobile device is tethered to the Wi-Fi AP via the WLAN, and

said implementation comprises;

the mobile device joining the WLAN by associating with the Wi-Fi AP as a Wi-Fi client;

computing an optimal beacon interval b_optimal which is given by the equation