Valuation of and marketplace for inter-network links between balloon network and terrestrial network

• US 8,971,274 B1
• Filed: 11/09/2012
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SOFTBANK Corporation (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Teller, Eric, DeVaul, Richard Wayne, Biffle, Clifford L., Weaver, Joshua, Staaf, Anton Valdemar
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Jianye
• Application Number:
  US13/673,700
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/329
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18504 Aircraft used as relay or high altitude atmospheric platform
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1428 Invoice generation, e.g. customization, lay-out, database processing, algorithms for calculating the bill or formatting invoices as WWW pages invoicing in general G06Q30/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/22 with access to wired networks

Abstract

Embodiments relate to a marketplace for inter-network links between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network. An example method may involve a computer-based purchasing agent: (i) determining a demand for inter-network bandwidth between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network, (ii) determining one or more offers to provide an inter-network link, wherein the inter-network link provides inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network, and wherein each offer is associated with a corresponding client device, (iii) based at least in part on a comparison of: (a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link, selecting one or more of the offers to provide an inter-network link, and (iv) initiating a process to establish an inter-network link at each client device that corresponds to one of the one or more selected offers.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, by a computing device, a demand for inter-network bandwidth between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network;

determining one or more offers to provide an inter-network link, wherein the inter-network link provides inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network, and wherein each offer is associated with a corresponding client device;

comparing (a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link;

selecting one or more of the offers to provide an inter-network link based at least in part on the comparison of;

(a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link; and

initiating a process to establish an inter-network link between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network at each client device that corresponds to one of the one or more selected offers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the demand for inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network comprises a demand for additional bandwidth between a first balloon in the balloon network and a first node in the terrestrial data network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the demand for inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network comprises a demand for additional bandwidth between one or more balloons serving a particular geographic area and the terrestrial data network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the demand for inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network comprises a demand for additional bandwidth between the balloon network and one or more nodes of the terrestrial data network that provide service in a particular geographic area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the demand for inter-network bandwidth comprises:

determining an amount of bandwidth demand for inter-network bandwidth; and

determining bid pricing for the determined amount of bandwidth demand.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the amount of bandwidth demand is determined based at least in part on one or more of:

(a) resource utilization via one or more existing inter-network links, (b) an expected change in latency for traffic through the balloon network, (c) an expected change in network capacity of the balloon network, (d) an expected change in latency for traffic through the terrestrial data network, (e) an expected change in network capacity of the terrestrial data network, and/or (f) one or more factors related to the existing or potential offers to provide inter-network links.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the bid pricing comprises determining a bid price per unit of bandwidth for the determined amount of bandwidth demand.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein each offer comprises offer pricing for an inter-network link, and wherein selecting one or more of the offers to provide an inter-network link comprises:

selecting one or more of the offers that;

(a) provide one or more inter-network links that collectively provide an amount of additional inter-network bandwidth that meets the determined amount of bandwidth demand and (b) have offer pricing that collectively meets the bid pricing for the determined amount of bandwidth demand.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the demand for inter-network bandwidth comprises determining both an amount of demand and bid pricing, for a particular period of time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the demand for inter-network bandwidth comprises:

determining a plurality of bandwidth-demand levels, wherein each bandwidth-demand level corresponds to an amount of bandwidth demand, and wherein each bandwidth-demand level has an associated priority with respect to the other bandwidth-demand levels; and

determining respective bid pricing for each bandwidth-demand level, wherein the bid pricing for each bandwidth-demand level is determined based at least in part on the priority of the bandwidth-demand level.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the offers comprises one or more of:

(a) identification information for the client device that is offering inter-network bandwidth via an inter-network link, (b) an indication of the amount of inter-network bandwidth that is being offered via the inter-network link, and (c) pricing information for the available bandwidth, and (d) location information for the client device at which the inter-network link is being offered.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating the process to establish an inter-network link at each client device that corresponds to one of the one or more selected offers comprises sending a message to each corresponding client device that indicates that the corresponding offer has been accepted.

13. A computing system comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium;

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium and executable by at least one processor to cause the client device to;

determine a demand for inter-network bandwidth between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network;

determine one or more offers to provide an inter-network link, wherein the inter-network link provides inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network, and wherein each offer is associated with a corresponding client device;

compare (a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link;

select one or more of the offers to provide an inter-network link based at least in part on the comparison of;

(a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link; and

initiate a process to establish an inter-network link between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network at each client device that corresponds to one of the one or more selected offers.

14. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the demand for inter-network bandwidth comprises an amount of bandwidth demand for inter-network bandwidth and bid pricing for the determined amount of bandwidth demand.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions executable by a client computing device to cause the client computing device to perform functions comprising:

determining a demand for inter-network bandwidth between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network;

comparing (a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link;

determining one or more offers to provide an inter-network link, wherein the inter-network link provides inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network, and wherein each offer is associated with a corresponding client device;

selecting one or more of the offers to provide an inter-network link based at least in part on the comparison of;

(a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link; and

initiating a process to establish an inter-network link between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network at each client device that corresponds to one of the one or more selected offers.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein determining the demand for inter-network bandwidth comprises:

determining an amount of bandwidth demand for inter-network bandwidth; and

determining bid pricing for the determined amount of bandwidth demand.

17. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, based at least in part on a measure of bandwidth utilization by a client device, an amount of available bandwidth that the client device can provide for an inter-network link between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network;

determining offer pricing information for the available bandwidth;

sending an offer message that indicates an offer to provide an inter-network link between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network via the client device, wherein the offer message comprises;

(a) an indication of the amount of available bandwidth and (b) the pricing information for the available bandwidth; and

receiving a message indicating that the offer is selected, wherein selection of the offer is based at least in part on a comparison of;

(a) demand for inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network and (b) the offer and zero or more other offers to provide an inter-network link where each of the other offers is associated with a corresponding other client device;

initiating a process to establish the inter-network link between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network via the client device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the method is performed by the client device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the method is performed by a selling-agent module on behalf of the client device.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the offer message comprises one or more of:

identification information for the client device and location information for the client device.

21. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining, by a computing device, a demand for inter-network bandwidth between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network;

based at least in part on the demand for inter-network bandwidth, generating at least one request for an inter-network link, wherein the inter-network link provides inter-network bandwidth between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network; and

initiating a process to make the inter-network link available to one or more client devices, wherein the process makes the inter-network link available via an inter-network marketplace, and wherein the process comprises;

comparing (a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) one or more offers to provide an inter-network link between a balloon network and a terrestrial data network, wherein each offer is associated with a corresponding client device;

selecting one or more of the offers to provide an inter-network link based at least in part on the comparison of;

(a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link; and

initiating a process to establish an inter-network link between the balloon network and the terrestrial data network at each client device that corresponds to one of the one or more selected offers.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising, in response to the at least one request for an inter-network link, receiving one or more offers to provide an inter-network link, wherein each offer is associated with a corresponding client device.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

based at least in part on a comparison of;

(a) the demand for inter-network bandwidth and (b) the one or more offers to provide an inter-network link, selecting one or more of the offers to provide an inter-network link; and

initiating a process to establish an inter-network link at each client device that corresponds to one of the one or more selected offers.