Detecting device presence for a layer 3 connection using layer 2 discovery information

• US 8,656,015 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2011
• Issued: 02/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Navasivasakthivelsamy, Arunkumar, Desai, Mitesh K., Rajpure, Dattatraya B., Filgueiras, Henrique M. A., Sankaranarayan, Mukund, Gupta, Abhinav, Murching, Arvind M., Miryala, Manoj Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): SALL, EL HADJI MALICK
• Application Number:
  US13/230,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20130067065A1
• Time in Patent Office: 890 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/224, 709/227, 709/200
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0212 managed by the network, e.g. network or access point is master and terminal is slave
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/25 Maintenance of established connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Techniques for monitoring presence of a remote device at Layer 2 that allow reducing power consumption without compromising the device'"'"'s availability. A device that pairs with a remote wireless device may establish a Layer 3 connection, such as an IP connection, to the remote device to provide services to a user. The Layer 3 connection may be formed over a Layer 2 connection via an access point or as a peer-to-peer wireless connection between the devices. When the Layer 3 connection is not actively used to access the remote device, the Layer 3 connection and the supporting Layer 2 connection (e.g., WI-FI, WI-FI DIRECT™ or BLUETOOTH®) may be terminated and presence of the remote device may be monitored using a Layer 2 device discovery mechanism. The Layer 2 and Layer 3 connections to the device may be reestablished when use of the remote device is desired.

Claims

1. A method of operating a computer comprising at least one processor, the method comprising, with the at least one processor:

establishing an Internet Protocol (IP) connection with a first device and as part of the establishing obtaining information about the first device;

accessing a set of device objects representing respective devices, and storing, in a device object representing the first device, the information about the first device;

after determining that the IP connection to the first device has been terminated, determining from the device object that presence of the first device is to be monitored for, and in response monitoring for presence of the first device at a wireless link layer via a wireless interface of the computer and not at an IP layer, the monitoring performed while the computer has no IP connection with the first device; and

based on the monitoring, providing an indication that indicates whether the first device is present.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

monitoring for presence of the first device at the wireless link layer comprises monitoring for presence of the first device using a Layer 2 device discovery mechanism.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

the Layer 2 device discovery mechanism operates in accordance with a Wi-Fi Direct protocol.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

establishing the IP connection with the first device comprises establishing the IP connection over a Wi-Fi Direct connection.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, while performing the monitoring, using an IP-based discovery protocol to perform IP-based monitoring for presence of the first device.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein monitoring for presence of the first device using the Layer 2 device discovery mechanism comprises:

receiving, from the first device, a message in accordance with the Layer 2 device discovery mechanism, the message indicating presence of the first device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

providing the indication comprises displaying on a user interface a representation indicating that the first device is available.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

providing the indication comprises taking an action that depends on the first device being available.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

providing the indication comprises updating the device object to indicate that the first device is available; and

the method further comprises maintaining, in the device objects, indicia of available devices, the indicia including an indication that a second device is available formed based on an active IP connection being maintained to the second device.

10. A computer comprising at least one processor and a wireless interface, the computer adapted to, with the at least one processor:

establish a connection to a device at Layer 3, Layer 3 comprising a network-level layer;

store information about the device obtained in conjunction with establishing the Layer 3 connection;

terminate communication with the device at Layer 3;

while communication with the device at Layer 3 is terminated, based on the stored information about the device, determining whether to monitor, at Layer 2, for presence of the device; and

responsive to the determining, monitoring at Layer 2 for presence of the device using the wireless interface.

11. The computer of claim 10, wherein:

the connection to the device at Layer 3 comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) connection.

12. The computer of claim 10, wherein:

Layer 2 comprises a Wi-Fi Direct protocol.

13. The computer of claim 10, wherein:

monitoring for presence of the device at Layer 2 comprises monitoring presence of the device using a Layer 2 device discovery mechanism.

14. The computer of claim 10, wherein the computer is further adapted to:

based on the monitoring, provide an indication that indicates whether the device is present.

15. The computer of claim 14, wherein:

providing the indication comprises taking an action that depends on the device being available for connecting to the device at Layer 3.

16. At least one computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a first wireless device, implement a method of monitoring for presence of a second wireless device by a computer, the method performed by the first wireless device and comprising:

establishing a connection to the second wireless device at an Internet Protocol (IP) layer and storing an indication of the second wireless device responsive to the establishing the connection;

after determining that the connection to the at least device at the IP layer has been terminated, based on the stored indication of the second wireless device, while the first wireless device has no IP connection with the second wireless device, monitoring for presence of the second wireless device at a wireless link layer, the monitoring performed below the IP layer; and

based on the monitoring, storing an indication of presence of the second wireless device when the monitoring determines that second wireless device is present.

17. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein:

the IP layer comprises Layer 3; and

providing the indication comprises taking an action that depends on the second device being available for connecting to the first device at Layer 3.

18. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein:

monitoring for presence of the first device at the wireless link layer is performed using a Layer 2 device discovery mechanism.

19. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein:

the Layer 2 device discovery mechanism operates in accordance with a Wi-Fi Direct protocol.

20. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein:

providing the indication comprises displaying on a user interface a representation indicating that the second device is available.