Mobile Remote Access

• US 20110051698A1
• Filed: 08/25/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Verma, Mohan
• Granted Patent: US 9,667,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/164 at the network layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/062 Pre-authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/069 using certificates or pre-shared keys
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

Providing mobile remote access in a secure manner. A bridge application is provided for devices such as smart phones which establishes a first secure connection to a host controller using a carrier network, advertises one or more SSIDs using a second wireless connection on the device such as an IEEE 802.11 interface, accepting and authenticating connections from a target device to the advertised SSID, and acting as a bridge for traffic between the target device and the host controller. The bridge application may be delivered to the device fully configured, or it may be delivered unconfigured with configuration information either supplied by the user or provided in an e-mail to the user of the device.

Claims

1. A method of operating a bridge between a wireless target device and a controller, the bridge operating in a smart device having a first wireless connection for connecting to the Internet through a cellular carrier and a second wireless connection for connecting to the wireless target device, comprising:

establishing a connection between the smart device and the controller using the first wireless connection,

establishing a connection between the wireless target device and the smart device using the second wireless connection, and

transferring data between the controller and the wireless target device using the smart device'"'"'s first and second wireless connections.

2. The method of claim 1 where the connection between the smart device and the controller is a secure connection.

3. The method of claim 2 where the secure connection is an IPSEC tunnel.

4. The method of claim 2 where the secure connection is a GRE tunnel.

5. The method of claim 1 where the wireless connection between the smart device and the wireless target device is an IEEE 802.11 WiFi connection.

6. The method of claim 5 where the IEEE 802.11 WiFi connection is a WPA secure connection.

7. The method of claim 5 where encryption and decryption of the WPA secure connection takes place in the controller.

8. The method of claim 1 where the information for connecting the smart device to the controller is preconfigured.

9. The method of claim 1 where the information for connecting the smart device to the controller is configured by the user of the smart device.

10. Software for operating a bridge in a smart device having a first wireless connection for connecting to the Internet through a carrier network and a second wireless connection for connecting to a target device comprising:

a first path object for establishing a connection between the smart device and the controller using the first wireless connection,

a second path object for establishing a connection between the smart device and the target device using the second wireless connection, and

a bridge object for transferring data between the target device and the controller using the connection between the target device and the smart device, and the connection between the smart device and the controller,

wherein the first path object, the second path object and the bridge object are software digitally encoded in a computer readable medium executable by a computing device, which causes the computing device to perform a set of actions for which the first path object, the second path object and the bridge object are configured.

11. The software of claim 10 where the first path object establishes a secure connection between the smart device and the controller.

12. The software of claim 11 where the secure connection is an IPSEC tunnel.

13. The software of claim 11 where the secure connection is a GRE tunnel.

14. The software of claim 10 where the second path object establishes a secure IEEE 802.11 WPA connection between the smart device and the controller.