Wireless router system and method

• US 20040116119A1
• Filed: 06/20/2003
• Published: 06/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Banh, Vi Thuan, Patterson, Ian M., Mousseau, Gary P., Lazaridis, Mihal, Gilhuly, Barry J., Rogobete, Adrian, Burns, Anthony G., Lewis, Allan D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,010,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/435.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/033 of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/00 Communication routing or communication path finding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/14 Backbone network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/18 Service support devices; Network management devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/24 between backbone network devices

Abstract

A wireless router employing a technique to couple a plurality a host services or host systems and a plurality of wireless networks. A method to route data items between a plurality of mobile devices and a plurality of host systems through a common wireless router. A point-to-point communication connection is preferably established between a first host system and a common wireless router, a mobile network message at a mobile device is generated, the mobile network message is transmitted via a wireless network to the common wireless router which in turn routes a data item component of the mobile network message to the appropriate host service.

Claims

5. A method to route data between a plurality of mobile devices and a plurality of message servers comprising of the following steps:

(a) generating a mobile data at a mobile device comprising of;

a destination identifier; and

,

an encrypted data payload comprising a body of an email message and addressing information for the body;

(b) generating a wireless network message comprising;

the mobile data, a wireless network protocol layer conforming to protocols required by a wireless network, and a wireless router address;

(c) transmitting the wireless network message via the wireless network to a wireless router;

(d) upon reception of the wireless network message at the wireless router;

removing the wireless network protocol layer from the wireless network message thereby extracting the mobile data;

adding a mobile identifier to the mobile data, if the mobile identifier is not already contained in the mobile data;

routing, via the Internet, the mobile data to a message server, identified by the destination identifier, operating at a particular corporate enterprise computer system.

6. A wireless router method for routing data between a plurality of corporations and a plurality of mobile devices, the method comprising:

(a) upon reception of a wireless network message at the wireless router originating from a first mobile device via a wireless network coupled to the wireless router, the steps comprising;

recovering a first mobile data item generated at the mobile device by removing a first wireless protocol network layer from the wireless network message, said first mobile data item comprising of an encrypted data payload and a corporation identifier;

if the first mobile data item lacks a mobile identifier, then;

adding a mobile identifier to the first mobile data item;

routing the first mobile data item to a first corporation from the plurality of corporations using a host service identifier in the first mobile data item.

(b) upon reception of a corporate data item at the wireless router originating from a second corporation, the steps comprising;

adding a network protocol layer to the corporate data item;

routing the corporate data item to a second mobile device, via the wireless network, using a mobile identifier in the corporate data item.

7. A method to route data items between a plurality of mobile devices and a plurality of host systems, the method comprising of the following steps:

(a) establishing a point-to-point communication connection between a first host system and a wireless router;

(b) generating a first mobile network message at a first mobile device comprising;

a. a first data item having at least a data payload

b. a first host service identifier associated with said data payload,

c. a first wireless router address, and

d. a first set of network protocols, and;

(c) transmitting said first mobile network message from the first mobile device to a first wireless network in communication therewith;

(d) routing said first mobile network message from the first wireless network to the wireless router based on the first wireless router address;

(e) receiving said first mobile network message at said first wireless router;

(f) routing said first data item from the wireless router to a first host service based on the first host service identifier.

8. A method of routing as claimed in claim 7, wherein the first data item further includes a first mobile identifier.

9. A method of routing as claimed in claim 7, further comprising the step of adding a first mobile device identifier to the first data item before step (e).

10. A method of routing as claimed in claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

(g) generating a second mobile network message at a second mobile device comprising;

a. a second data item having at least a data payload and a second host service identifier associated with said data payload,

b. a second wireless router address, and

c. a second set of network protocols, and;

(h) transmitting said mobile network message from a second mobile device to a second wireless network in communication therewith;

(i) routing said mobile network message from the wireless network to the first wireless router based on the second wireless router address; and

,

(j) routing said second data item from the wireless router to a second host service based on the second host service identifier.

11. A method to route data items between a plurality of mobile devices and a plurality of host systems, the method comprising of the following steps:

(a) establishing a point-to-point communication connection between a first host system and a wireless router;

(b) generating a first mobile network message at a first mobile device comprising;

a. a first data item having at least a data payload,

b. a first host system identifier associated with said data payload,

c. a first wireless router address, and

d. a first set of network protocols,

(c) transmitting said first mobile network message from the first mobile device to a first wireless network in communication therewith;

(d) routing said first mobile network message from the first wireless network to the wireless router based on the first wireless router address;

(e) receiving said first mobile network message at said wireless router; and

,

(f) routing said first data item from the wireless router to the first host system based on the first host system identifier contained in said first mobile network message, wherein

a. said first data item is routed through the established point-to-point communication connection between the wireless router and first host system, and,

b. said first data item includes an identification associating the first mobile device to the first data item before said routing in step (f).

12. A method of routing as claimed in claim 11, wherein the established point-to-point communication connection is a secure and authenticated TCP/IP connection.

13. A method of routing as claimed in claim 12, wherein the TCP/IP connection utilizes a hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP).

14. A method of transferring as claimed in claim 13, wherein the contents of the hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) follow an Extended Markup Language (XML) format. 14 A method of routing as claimed in claim 12, wherein the TCP/IP connection is initiated by the first host system to the wireless router, wherein the host system includes a firewall behind which said TCP/IP connection is initiated.

15. A method of routing as claimed in claim 11, wherein a wireless network carrier hosts the wireless router.

16. A method of routing as claimed in claim 14, wherein the data payload comprises an encrypted email message, wherein the email message includes at least a message body and address header.

17. A method of routing as claimed in claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

decrypting the encrypted email message behind the firewall at said first host system.

18. A method to route data items between a plurality of mobile devices and a plurality of host systems, the method comprising of the following steps:

(a) establishing a plurality of point-to-point communication connections, wherein each host system of the plurality of host systems has an established point-to-point communication connection between the host system and a common wireless router;

(b) sending data items from each of the host systems to the common wireless router through each host system'"'"'s corresponding point-to-point communication connection, wherein each of the data items includes a data payload, and a first mobile device identifier associated with said data payload;

(c) receiving the sent data items at the common wireless router;

(d) performing the following steps for each received data item;

i. associating a particular wireless network of a plurality of wireless networks in communication with the common wireless router and a second mobile device identifier;

ii. generating a mobile network message comprising the data item and a wireless network protocol layer including the second mobile device identifier;

iii. routing each generated mobile network message to a mobile device corresponding to the second mobile device identifier through the particular wireless network associated with the mobile device.

1. A method to route data items between a plurality of mobile devices and a plurality of host services, the method comprising of the following steps:

(a) generating a mobile data item, at a mobile device, comprising of;

a host service identifier; and

,

a data payload;

(b) preparing a wireless network message containing the mobile data item by;

adding to the mobile data item a wireless network protocol conforming to protocols required by a wireless network associated with the mobile device; and

,

addressing the mobile data item with an address associated with a wireless router;

(c) transmitting the wireless network message via the wireless network to the wireless router;

(d) upon reception of the wireless network message at the wireless router;

removing the wireless network protocol from the wireless network message thereby recovering the mobile data item;

extracting at least a mobile identifier from the wireless network message;

adding the mobile identifier to the mobile data item;

routing the mobile data item to a host service corresponding to the host service identifier in the mobile data item.

19. A method of routing as claimed in claim 18, wherein the first mobile device identifier is an IPv6 address and the second mobile device identifier is an IPv4 address.

20. A method of routing as claimed in claim 19, wherein the first mobile device identifier is an IPv4 address and the second mobile device identifier is an IPv6 address.

21. A method of routing as claimed in claim 19, wherein the first mobile device identifier is a manufactured device code and the second mobile device identifier is an IPv4 address.

22. A method of routing as claimed in claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

(i) returning a confirmation to the sending host system when the data item is received by the mobile device.

(j) deleting the data item at the wireless router after receiving confirmation that it has been delivered to the second mobile device.

21-1. A method of routing as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

(e) receiving a returned data item from the wireless network that has not been received by the mobile device;

(f) storing the returned data item;

(g) after expiration of a period of time, generating a second mobile network message comprising the returned data item and a wireless network protocol layer including the second mobile device identifier; and

,

(h) routing the second generated mobile network message to the mobile device corresponding to the second mobile device identifier through the particular wireless network associated with the mobile device.

23. A routing method for exchanging data messages comprising:

(a) sending a first data message from a first system to a wireless router, the first data message includes a first payload and a first mobile destination identifier;

(b) receiving the first data message at the wireless router;

(c) examining the first data message;

(d) generating a second data message for transmission on a wireless network, the second data message including the payload, and a second mobile destination identifier;

(e) routing a second data message to a wireless network for eventual receipt by a mobile device associated with the second mobile destination identifier;

(f) receiving a third data message from the mobile device at the wireless router, the third data message including a second payload, the second mobile destination identifier and a host service identifier associated with the second payload;

(g) examining the third data message;

(h) generating a fourth data message having the second payload and the first mobile destination identifier; and

,

(i) routing the fourth data message from the wireless router to the host service.

2. A method of claim 1 wherein the host service is a message server operating at a corporate enterprise computer system:

3. A method of claim 2, further comprising of the following steps:

sending a second data item from the message server to the router, the second data item includes at least a second data payload and a second mobile device identifier;

receiving the second data item at the router;

routing the second data item from the router to a second mobile device associated with the second mobile device identifier via a wireless network;

4. A method of claim 3, wherein exchange of first and second data items between the router and the message server is through a point-to-point communication connection.

24. A routing method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the first and second mobile destination identifiers are equal.

25. A routing method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the first mobile destination identifier is an IPv4 address and the second mobile destination identifier is an IPv6 address.

25-2. A routing method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the first mobile destination identifier is an IPv6 address and the second mobile destination identifier is an IPv4 address.