Ad hoc wireless networking

• US 9,374,850 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2014
• Issued: 06/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Alam, Mohammad Shabbir, Madhavan, Poovanpilli G., Agiwal, Ankur, Mittal, Sharad, Zan, Xinyan, Li, Frank, Deng, Zhong, Stewart, John-Paul M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Chi H
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOM, SHICK C
• Application Number:
  US14/221,288
• Publication Number:
  US 20140321320A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/065 using assembly or disassembly of packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/06 Transport layer protocols, e.g. TCP [Transport Control Protocol] over wireless transmission control protocol/Internet protocol [TCP/IP] or user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A software architecture providing ad hoc wireless networking capabilities. The software architecture may be compatible with wireless devices, such as UWB devices operating according to the WLP communication protocol. The software architecture may include user mode and kernel mode modules, and may include a multiplexing driver framework to enable system connection to multiple ad hoc networks.

Claims

1. A method of enabling a computer system to maintain concurrent connections with a plurality of ad hoc wireless networks using a single physical adapter, the ad hoc wireless networks of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks each employing an ad hoc network protocol for communications, the method comprising:

associating a driver to the physical adapter that is configured to receive data from multiple ad hoc wireless networks of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks;

establishing, by the driver, at least two interfaces between the physical adapter and at least one upper layer networking stack, each of the at least two interfaces concurrently interfacing the physical adapter with the at least one upper layer networking stack for a different ad hoc wireless network of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks;

receiving, by the driver, an outgoing data packet from the at least one upper layer networking stack;

adding, by the driver, a network protocol frame header to the outgoing data packet; and

forwarding, by the driver, the data packet over the physical adapter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least two interfaces created by the driver are virtual interfaces.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

maintaining, by the driver, information mapping the virtual interfaces to the physical adapter.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the virtual interfaces emulate IEEE Ethernet connections to the at least one upper layer networking stack.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the upper layer networking stack comprises a TCP/IP networking component.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver is a kernel mode module, and wherein the method further comprises:

using the driver to expose a set of private interfaces with which user mode modules of the computer system interact.

7. A computer-readable storage device having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions for causing a computing device to perform operations, the operations comprising:

creating, by a networking driver, at least two interfaces between the shared physical adapter and at least one upper layer networking stack, the individual interfaces of the at least two interfaces concurrently interfacing the shared physical adapter and the at least one upper layer networking stack for respective ad hoc wireless networks of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks, and the shared physical adapter being configured to receive data from at least two ad hoc wireless networks;

receiving, by the networking driver, an outgoing data packet from the at least one upper layer networking stack;

adding a network protocol header to the outgoing data packet; and

forwarding the data packet via the shared physical adapter.

8. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an incoming data packet at the shared physical adapter;

examining a network protocol frame header on the incoming data packet; and

extracting a network identification tag.

9. The computer-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

routing the incoming data packet to a specific interface of the at least two interfaces based on the extracted network identification tag.

10. The computer-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the incoming data packet conforms to a wireless networking protocol.

11. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein:

the at least one upper layer networking stack includes a plurality of upper layer networking stacks; and

the operations further comprise multiplexing data packets between the shared physical adapter and the plurality of upper layer networking stacks.

12. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an incoming data packet at the shared physical adapter; and

multiplexing the incoming data packet to a specific interface of the at least two interfaces.

13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of the computer-readable instructions are part of a kernel mode driver module.

14. A computing device, comprising:

a physical wireless network adapter configured to receive data from two or more ad hoc wireless networks of a plurality of ad hoc wireless networks; and

a memory and a processor that are respectively configured to store and execute instructions for performing operations to maintain concurrent connections with the two or more ad hoc wireless networks of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks via the physical wireless network adapter, the operations comprising;

associating a driver to the physical wireless network adapter;

providing, by the driver, an interface between the physical wireless network adapter and at least one upper layer networking stack, the interface allowing the at least one upper layer networking stack to maintain concurrent connections with the two or more ad hoc wireless networks of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks;

adding a network protocol frame header to the outgoing data packet; and

forwarding the data packet over the physical wireless network adapter.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the interface includes two or more virtual interfaces that are respectively associated with particular ad hoc wireless networks of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks.

16. The computing device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an incoming data packet at the shared physical adapter; and

multiplexing the incoming data packet to a specific virtual interface of the at least two virtual interfaces.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the at least two virtual interfaces emulate Ethernet connections to the at least one upper layer networking stack.

18. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

routing a data packet between the physical wireless network adapter and the at least one upper layer networking stack based on a particular ad hoc wireless network associated with the data packet.

19. The computing device of claim 14, wherein:

the at least one upper layer networking stack includes a plurality of upper layer networking stacks; and

the operations further comprise;

multiplexing data packets between the physical wireless network adapter and the plurality of upper layer networking stacks based on ad hoc wireless networks associated with the data packets.

20. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an incoming data packet at the physical wireless network adapter;

examining a network protocol frame header on the incoming data packet;

extracting a network identification tag; and

routing the incoming data packet based on the extracted network identification tag.