Systems, methods and articles for providing communications and services via a peer-to-peer network over a data transport link

• US 8,868,679 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2011
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Bell, Jack W., Fishburn, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Lai, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ganguly, Sumitra
• Application Number:
  US13/114,830
• Publication Number:
  US 20110289186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,246 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/00 Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Network communications, Web-based services and customized services using the Web-based services may be provided over a peer-to-peer network from a first peer to a second peer (e.g., automobile head unit) wherein the first peer has a separate connection to a more general server-based network such as the Internet. A communications device application based on a peer communications framework component in communication with a peer network stack on the communications device may work as middleware, with a connection to both a more general server-based network such as the Internet and to an external device, such as a head unit of an automobile. Although the communications device has a separate connection out to the Internet via a general network stack co-existing on the same communications device, the peer network stack and the general network stack are not directly connected.

Claims

1. A method of providing services to a user via a head unit of an automobile and a communications device having a handheld form factor, the method comprising:

receiving from the head unit, by the communications device and via a wireless data transport link, a service request for Web service functionality from a remote server;

determining, by the communications device, whether to provide the head unit with the requested Web service functionality using only information previously stored on the communications device;

in response to determining to provide the requested Web service functionality using only information previously stored on the communications device, providing the requested Web service functionality by sending at least some of the information previously stored on the communications device to the head unit via the wireless data transport link, and otherwise;

sending, via a general network protocol stack of the communications device, a programmatic request to the remote server for the requested Web service functionality; and

forwarding, by the communications device and via the wireless data transport link, at least a portion of information received from the remote server via a peer-to-peer network protocol stack of the communications device to provide the requested Web service functionality.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications device receives the information from the Web service via a server-based network.

3. A method of providing communications between a head unit of an automobile, a communications device having a handheld form factor, and a server-based network through which Internet access is provided, the method comprising:

receiving, by the communications device and via a serial data transport link between the head unit and the communications device, one or more requests for functionality from an indicated Web service via a peer-to-peer network protocol stack by the communications device;

determining, by the communications device, that at least one of the one or more requests cannot be handled locally by the communications device; and

providing, by the communications device and based at least in part on the determining, the requested functionality in response to the at least one request by;

forwarding the at least one request to the indicated Web service from the communications device via a general network protocol stack separate from the peer-to-peer network protocol stack;

receiving a response from the indicated Web service via the general network protocol stack; and

forwarding at least a portion of the response to the head unit over the serial data transport link.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving one or more additional requests from the head unit for functionality from the indicated Web service;

determining that the one or more additional requests for the functionality from the indicated Web service are to be handled locally by the communications device; and

responsive to the determination, providing the requested functionality locally via the communications device.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the providing of the requested functionality occurs irrespective of whether network packets sent over the serial data transport link from the head unit containing the one or more requests include a network address of the communications device as a destination network address.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

configuring a user interface of the head unit to visually match a corresponding user interface of the communications device by communicating information over the serial data transport link from the communications device to the head unit, the information containing data for use by the head unit to configure the user interface of the head unit to visually match the corresponding user interface of the communications device.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the information included in the at least a portion of the response forwarded to the head unit is for display on the user interface of the head unit configured to visually match the corresponding user interface of the communications device.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, by the communications device and from the head unit, at least one additional request for functionality from a second indicated Web service;

determining whether the second indicated Web service corresponds to a service on a specified list of services; and

providing the requested functionality only if it is determined that the second indicated Web service corresponds to a service on the specified list of services.

9. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

caching at least a portion of the response on the communications device based upon previous monitoring on the server-based network of types and patterns of the received one or more requests.

10. The method of claim 3 wherein the serial data transport link between the head unit and the communications device is one of a Bluetooth®

Serial Port Profile (SPP) type serial data transport link or Universal Serial Bus (USB) type serial data transport link.

11. A method for communicating in a communication network environment between a first and a second network peer over a direct serial data transport link between the first network peer and the second network peer, wherein there is an established data transport connection between the first network peer and the second network peer over the direct serial data transport link and wherein the first network peer has a separate connection over a separate network interface to a network external to the link, the method comprising:

receiving communications from the second network peer by the first network peer over the direct serial data transport link, the direct serial data transport link supporting at least one network in which only two network addresses are used at a given time on the network, the two network addresses consisting of a first network address for the first network peer and a second network address for the second network peer;

extracting payloads by the first network peer from the communications irrespective of whether network packets containing the payloads include the first network address as a destination network address, the extracted payloads including at least one service request for functionality from an indicated Web service;

determining, by the first network peer, whether to handle the at least one service request locally; and

in response to determining to handle the at least one service request locally, responding to the at least one service request by providing data to the second network peer that was stored by the first network peer prior to the receiving of the communications, and otherwise responding to the at least one service request by forwarding data to the second network peer, the forwarded data being received from the indicated Web service by the first network peer through the separate connection to the external network.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the data provided to the second network peer is provided over the established data transport connection between the first network peer and the second network peer.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein there is a second established connection using a second transport on a separate network, the second transport being separate from the established data transport connection between the first network peer and the second network peer.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the network external to the link is a server-based network.

15. A method for communicating in a communication network environment between a first and a second network peer over a peer-to-peer network connection on a serial data transport link between the first network peer and the second network peer, the method comprising:

receiving communications from the second network peer by the first network peer on the peer-to-peer network connection over the serial data transport link, wherein the received communications include a request for functionality from one or more Web services and wherein the first network peer has one or more first Web services available natively at the first network peer; and

determining, by the first network peer, whether to handle the request locally, wherein the determining is based at least in part on whether the requested functionality is from the one or more first Web services or from one or more second Web services not available natively at the first network peer; and

based at least in part on the determining, handling the received communications while keeping the peer-to-peer connection over the serial data transport link between the first network peer and the second network peer active, wherein the handling of the received communications by the first network peer enables the second network peer to handle network communications in a same manner irrespective of whether the requested functionality is from the one or more first Web services or from the one or more second Web services.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the peer-to-peer network connection is a connection using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and either Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) or Point to Point Protocol (PPP).

17. The method of claim 15 wherein at least one of the one or more second Web services not available natively at the first network peer is an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) service or a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service.

18. A system, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one non-transitory processor-readable storage medium coupled to the at least one processor;

a peer communications control component that is under control of the at least one processor and that causes a user interface of a head unit of an automobile to visually match a corresponding user interface of the system;

a first communications component that is in operable communication with the peer communications control component and has a peer-to-peer network protocol stack to receive requests through a data transport connection over a serial data transport link from a head unit of an automobile and forward requests to the peer communications control component; and

a second communications component that is in operable communication with the peer communications control component and has a general network protocol stack to exchange communications with a server-based network that is external to the data transport connection and that is operable to provide Internet access, and wherein the second communications component;

forwards a first request for functionality of an indicated Web service received from the first communications component via the peer communications control component to the indicated Web service via the server-based network using the general network protocol stack;

based at least in part on the forwarded first request, receives a response from the indicated Web service via the general network protocol stack; and

forwards at least a portion of the response to the head unit over the serial data transport link;

wherein the peer communications control component determines whether one or more requests for Web service functionality received through the first communications component from the head unit correspond to a Web service on a specified list of services and, if it is determined that the one or more requests correspond to a Web service on the specified list of services, the peer communications control component forwards such one or more received requests to the server-based network through the second communications component.

19. An article of manufacture comprises a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon to provide communications between a head unit of an automobile, a communications device having a handheld form factor, and a server-based network through which Internet access may be provided, wherein the instructions cause the communications to be provided by:

receiving one or more requests via a peer-to-peer network protocol stack by the communications device from the head unit over a serial data transport link between the head unit and the communications device; and

determining whether the one or more requests are to be handled locally by the communications device or by a service via a server-based network and, based on the determination, performing a service specified in the one or more requests in response to the one or more requests, by;

if the requests are to be handled by the service via the server-based network;

forwarding a request to the server-based network from the communications device via a general network protocol stack separate from the peer-to-peer network protocol stack;

receiving a response from the server-based network via the general network protocol stack; and

forwarding at least a portion of the response to the head unit over the serial data transport link; and

otherwise, performing the service locally, wherein the performing of the service locally includes the communications device generating data at runtime based on the one or more requests.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 19 wherein the communications device and the head unit each have a network address to use over the serial data transport link and the performing the service occurs irrespective of whether a network packet containing the one or more requests sent over the serial data transport link from the head unit includes the network address of the communications device as a destination network address.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 19 wherein the communications are further provided by:

configuring a user interface of the head unit to visually match a corresponding user interface of the communications device by communicating information over the serial data transport link from the communications device to the head unit, the information containing data for use by the head unit to configure the user interface of the head unit to visually match the corresponding user interface of the communications device.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 21 wherein the information included in the at least a portion of the response forwarded to the head unit is for display on the user interface of the head unit configured to visually match the corresponding user interface of the communications device.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 19 wherein the communications are provided further by:

receiving at least one additional request via the peer-to-peer network protocol stack by the communications device from the head unit over a serial data transport link;

determining whether the at least one additional request corresponds to a service on a specified list of services; and

in response to determining that the at least one additional request corresponds to a service on the specified list of services, forwarding the at least one additional request to the server-based network from the communications device via the general network.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 19 wherein the communications are provided further by:

if the requests are to be handled by the service via the server-based network, caching at least a portion of the response on the communications device based upon previous monitoring on the server-based network types and patterns of received requests.