Ad hoc wireless networking

• US 9,872,202 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2016
• Issued: 01/16/2018
• 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:
  US15/164,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20160269934A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 Ultra wideband (UWB) devices operating according to the WiMedia Logical Link Control Protocol (WLP). 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 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:

associating a driver to a physical adapter that is configured to concurrently interface the computing device to multiple ad hoc wireless networks of a 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, the at least two interfaces concurrently interfacing the physical adapter with the at least one upper layer networking stack for different ad hoc wireless networks of the multiple ad hoc wireless networks;

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

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

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

2. The computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the at least two interfaces established by the driver are virtual interfaces.

3. The computer-readable storage device of claim 2, further comprising:

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

4. The computer-readable storage device of claim 2, wherein the virtual interfaces emulate IEEE Ethernet connections to the at least one upper layer networking stack.

5. The computer-readable storage device of claim 4, wherein the upper layer networking stack comprises a TCP/IP networking component.

6. The computer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the driver is a kernel mode module, and wherein the operations further comprise:

providing a set of private interfaces with which user mode modules of the computing device communicate with the driver.

7. A method of enabling a computing device to maintain concurrent connections with a plurality of ad hoc wireless networks using a shared physical adapter, the method comprising:

creating, by a networking driver, at least two concurrent interfaces between the shared physical adapter and at least one upper layer networking stack, the individual interfaces of the at least two concurrent interfaces 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 interface data between the computing device and the respective 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 header to the outgoing data packet; and

forwarding the data packet via the shared physical adapter.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving an incoming data packet at the shared physical adapter;

examining a network header on the incoming data packet; and

extracting a network identification tag.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

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

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the incoming data packet conforms to a wireless networking protocol.

11. The method 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 method of claim 7, further comprising:

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 method of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of the networking driver is executing in a kernel mode for the computing device.

14. A computing device, comprising:

a wireless network adapter configured to concurrently interface the computing device to 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 concurrently interface the computing device to the two or more ad hoc wireless networks of the plurality of ad hoc wireless networks via the wireless network adapter, the operations comprising;

associating a driver to the wireless network adapter;

providing, by the driver, an interface between the wireless network adapter and at least one upper layer networking stack, the interface at least partially enabling 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 header to an outgoing data packet; and

forwarding the outgoing data packet to at least one of the two of more ad hoc wireless networks via the 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 via the wireless network 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 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 via the wireless network adapter;

examining a network header on the incoming data packet;

extracting a network identification tag; and

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