System and method for enabling the establishment and use of a personal network

• US 20060026271A1
• Filed: 07/09/2004
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm Atheros Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm Connected Experiences, Inc. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Julia, Luc, Bing, Jehan, Le Nerriec, Yohan, Dubreuil, Jerome, Serghine, Maklouf
• Granted Patent: US 8,819,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1046 Joining mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1048 Departure or maintenance mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A personal network may be established by interconnecting a plurality of satellites as part of the personal network. Each satellite may configured to communicate with one or more other satellites. On any given one of the plurality of satellites, data indicating a connectivity status for the one or more other satellites is automatically received, and information indicating a capability of the one or more other satellites is automatically received. The given satellite may be configured to enable at least one other corresponding satellite in the plurality of satellites to be made available for use, so that a capability of the at least one other corresponding satellite is made available for the given satellite.

Claims

1. A method for establishing a personal network, the method comprising:

interconnecting a plurality of satellites as part of a personal network, wherein each satellite is configured to communicate with one or more other satellites in the plurality of satellites;

on a given satellite in the plurality of satellites, automatically receiving (i) data indicating a connectivity status for the one or more other satellites, and (ii) information indicating a capability of the one or more other satellites; and

wherein the given satellite is configured to enable at least one other corresponding satellite in the plurality of satellites to be made available for use, so that a capability of the at least one other corresponding satellite is made available for the given satellite.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the capability of the at least one other corresponding satellite supplements the capability of the given satellite.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the capability of the at least one other corresponding satellite is absent from the given satellite.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the given satellite and the at least one other corresponding satellite are each configured to be used cooperatively from an external site.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a device on which the given satellite and the one or more devices on which the at least one other corresponding satellites are provided have different primary usages.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a device on which the given satellite and the one or more devices on which the at least one other corresponding satellites are provided have different operating platforms.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a device on which the given satellite and the one or more devices on which the at least one other corresponding satellites are provided have different operating systems.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving data indicating the connectivity status includes receiving data only for a set of one or more satellites that are pertinent to given satellite.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a device on which the given satellite is provided is a roaming device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the device on which the given satellite is provided communicates with other devices in the personal network using a cellular phone network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically receiving data indicating a connectivity status includes automatically receiving data indicating an additional satellite has been interconnected to the personal network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically receiving data indicating a connectivity status includes automatically receiving data indicating that one of the plurality of satellites has disconnected from the personal network.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of interconnecting a plurality of satellites includes interconnecting two or more devices of a different type and primary function.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of interconnecting a plurality of devices satellites interconnecting two or more devices selected from a set consisting of a wireless phone, a personal digital assistant, a laptop, a media center, a terminal, a digital camera, a video recorder, a digital video recorder, sand a home networking station.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of interconnecting the personal network to an Internet site, so that data provided at the Internet site is available as part of the personal network.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of automatically receiving data indicating a connectivity status for the one or more other satellites includes receiving a notification that the one or more other satellites are actively connected to the network.

17. A method for using a personal network, the method comprising:

interconnecting a plurality of satellites as part of a personal network, wherein each satellite includes an interface for communicating with one or more other satellites in the plurality of satellites;

on a roaming device, automatically receiving data indicating a connectivity status for one or more of the plurality of satellites.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the roaming device includes the interface for communicating with one or more other satellites in the plurality of satellites.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the roaming device is not one of the plurality of satellites and has limited access to the plurality of satellites.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the step receiving data indicating a connectivity status for one or more of the plurality of satellites includes receiving the data using a public, wireless network.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the roaming device corresponds to a cellular phone, and wherein the public, wireless network corresponds to a cellular network.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of automatically receiving data indicating a connectivity status includes automatically receiving data indicating an additional satellite has been interconnected to the personal network.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of automatically receiving data indicating a connectivity status includes automatically receiving data indicating that one of the plurality of satellites has disconnected from the personal network.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of interconnecting a plurality of devices satellites interconnecting two or more devices selected from a set consisting of a wireless phone, a personal digital assistant, a laptop, a media center, a terminal, a digital camera, a video recorder, a digital video recorder, sand a home networking station

25. A method for establishing a personal network, the method comprising:

interconnecting a plurality of satellites that are each to be a part of the personal network, wherein the plurality of satellites are provided on one or more devices, and wherein each satellite is configured to communicate with one or more other satellites in the plurality of satellites;

associating with one or more of the plurality of satellites, a data structure that has data to indicate (i) a connectivity status for at least some of the other satellites, and (ii) a capability of at least some of the other satellites; and

automatically updating the data structure on at least some of the one or more satellites when either (i) an additional satellite is interconnected to be on the personal network, or (ii) another satellite is disconnected from the personal network.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of causing the additional satellite to communicate its capabilities to one or more elements of the personal network.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the step of automatically updating the data structure includes causing an announcement to be sent to the at least some of the plurality of satellites when the additional satellite is added to the personal network, wherein the announcement includes data representing the connectivity status and the capability of the additional satellite.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the step of automatically updating the data structure includes causing an announcement to be sent to the at least some of the plurality of satellites when one of the satellites of the personal network is disconnected.

29. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of maintaining a repository that includes an identification of each satellite that is designated to belong to the personal network, a connection status of each satellite, and a capability of each satellite.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the repository also includes a description of each satellite.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the additional satellite to the repository when the additional satellite is added to the personal network, and wherein the method further comprises the repository sending an announcement to all other satellites on the personal network at that time to indicate the connectivity status of the additional satellite.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the step of automatically updating the data structure includes causing an announcement to be sent by the other satellite to the repository, and wherein the method further comprises the repository sending an announcement to all other satellites on the personal network at that time indicating that the other satellite has disconnected.

33. The method of claim 25, wherein when the additional satellite is interconnected, the step of automatically updating the data structure includes detecting a capability of the additional satellite, and indicating the capability of the additional satellite in the data structure.

34. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of associating the data structure includes, on each satellite excluding from the data structure one or more other satellites in the plurality of satellites that are irrelevant to that satellite.

35. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of associating the data structure includes maintaining the data structure for one or more of the plurality of satellites on that satellite.

36. The method of claim 25, wherein the data structure also includes information about a capability of one or more of the other satellites.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the information about the capability of the one or more other satellites includes information about one or more characteristics of one or more devices on which the one or more satellites reside, wherein the one or more characteristics include at least one characteristic from a group of characteristics consisting of a processor type, a processor capability, a memory size, a display size, a display resolution, and a bandwidth of network connection.

38. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of interconnecting a plurality of satellites includes interconnecting two or more devices having a different operating system or platform.

39. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of interconnecting a plurality of satellites includes interconnecting two or more devices having a different primary usage.

40. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of interconnecting a plurality of satellites includes two or more devices across a public, wide-area network.

41. A method for enabling a user to establish a personal network, the method comprising:

enabling each satellite in a set of satellites to be designated by the user to be part of the personal network;

interconnecting each satellite in the set to be part of the personal network when that satellite is communicatively coupled to one or more other satellites in the set;

upon a first designated satellite in the set being added to the personal network, causing an announcement to be automatically sent to at least some of the plurality of satellites to notify those satellites that the particular designated satellite is added to the personal network, and to declare at least one of a functionality or a resource that the first designated satellite is to make available on the personal network;

upon a second particular designated satellite in the set being removed from the personal network, causing an announcement to be sent to at least some of the plurality of satellites to automatically notify those satellites that the second designated satellite is removed from the personal network.

42. The method of claim 41, further comprising the step of enabling the user to designate one or more relationships between satellites.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein the step of enabling the user to designate one or more relationships includes enabling the user to designate one satellite as a remote control for another satellite.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the step of enabling the user to designate one or more relationships is performed by enabling the user to designate the relationships from a single location

45. The method of claim 41, wherein the single location is provided from a web site.

46. The method of claim 41, further comprising the step of enabling the user to view a plurality of resources provided by multiple satellites in the set from a single location.

47. The method of claim 41, wherein when the first designated satellite in the set is added to the personal network, the announcement includes information for determining a capability of the first designated satellite.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the capability of the first designated satellite includes a characteristic of a device of the first designated satellite.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the characteristic of the device of the first designated satellite includes one or more of a display characteristic, a user-input characteristic, and a network connectivity characteristic.

50. The method of claim 41, wherein the step of interconnecting each satellite in the set includes interconnecting a given satellite in the set when that satellite is connected to the Internet.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein the step of interconnecting each satellite in the set includes interconnecting a given satellite in the set when that satellite is connected to a public switch telephone network or a cellular network.

52. A computer-readable medium carrying instructions for establishing a personal network, wherein the instructions when executed by one or more processors, perform steps comprising:

interconnecting a plurality of satellites as part of a personal network, wherein each satellite is configured to communicate with one or more other satellites in the plurality of satellites;

on a given satellite in the plurality of satellites, automatically receiving (i) data indicating a connectivity status for the one or more other satellites, and (ii) information indicating a capability of the one or more other satellites; and

configuring the given satellite to enable at least one other corresponding satellite in the plurality of satellites to be made available for use, so that a capability of the at least one other corresponding satellite is made available for the given satellite.

53. A system for establishing a personal network, the system comprising:

means for interconnecting a plurality of satellites as part of a personal network, wherein each satellite is configured to communicate with one or more other satellites in the plurality of satellites;

on a given satellite in the plurality of satellites, means for automatically receiving (i) data indicating a connectivity status for the one or more other satellites, and (ii) information indicating a capability of the one or more other satellites; and

means for configuring the given satellite to enable at least one other corresponding satellite in the plurality of satellites to be made available for use, so that a capability of the at least one other corresponding satellite is made available for the given satellite.