System, device and computer readable medium for providing a managed wireless network using short-range radio signals

• US 7,039,033 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2001
• Issued: 05/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: FCO V CLO Transferor LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: IXI Mobile (R&D) Ltd. (IXI Mobile, Inc.)
• Inventors: Haller, Amit, Fornell, Peter, Itzchak, Avraham, Glick, Amir, Haparnas, Ziv
• Primary Examiner(s): Duong, Frank
• Application Number:
  US09/850,399
• Publication Number:
  US 20020163895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,821 Days
• Field of Search: 370/259, 370/260, 370/320, 370/321, 370328-339, 370/342, 370/347, 370400-401, 370/395.5, 370/395.54, 370465-649, 455/403, 455/422, 455/550, 455/556, 455/557, 709/203, 709/208
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0281 Proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2876 Pairs of inter-processing entities at each side of the network, e.g. split proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72445 for supporting Internet browser applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

A system, a wireless hand-held device, and software component for accessing information responsive to short-range radio signals is provided. The system includes a wireless gateway device coupled to a network, such as a cellular network. The wireless gateway device includes a network manager software component for accessing information from the network responsive to a first short-range radio signal. The network may be a corporate, private or public network, such as the Internet. A first wireless device is coupled to the wireless gateway device. The first wireless device provides the first short-range radio signal. In an embodiment of the present invention, the first wireless device is a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant or thin terminal having a Bluetooth™ processor and transmitter. In an embodiment of the present invention, the network manager software component includes a plug and play software component for loading and executing software for the first wireless device. In an embodiment of the present invention, a second wireless device accesses information on the first wireless device using the wireless gateway device.

Claims

1. A system for providing access to the Internet, comprising:

a first wireless device, in a short distance wireless network, having a software component to access information from the Internet by communicating with a cellular network in response to a first short-range radio signal, wherein the first wireless device communicates with the cellular network and receives the first short-range radio signal; and

,

a second wireless device, in the short distance wireless network, to provide the first short-range radio signal,

wherein the software component includes a network address translator software component to translate between a first Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) address provided to the first wireless device from the cellular network and a second address for the second wireless device provided by the first wireless device,

wherein the software component includes a service repository software component to identify a service provided by the second wireless device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the second wireless device is selected from a group consisting of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a headset, a pager, a printer, a watch, and a digital camera.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first wireless device is a cellular telephone using a protocol selected from a group consisting of a Global System for Mobile Communications (“

GSM”

) protocol, a Code Division Multiple Access (“

CDMA”

) protocol, a cellular telephone using a CDMA 2000 protocol, and a Time Division Multiple Access (“

TDMA”

) protocol.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the service repository software component identifies whether the service is available at a particular time.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the software component includes a domain naming service (“

DNS”

) software component to translate between a human readable name and a second Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) address.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the software component includes a security software component to control access between the cellular network and the first wireless device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the second wireless device is a thin terminal.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the second wireless device includes a Bluetooth™

processor and a 2.4 GHZ transmitter.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first wireless device includes a Bluetooth™

processor and a 2.4 GHZ transmitter.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the second wireless device includes a Bluetooth™

processor and a 5.7 GHZ transmitter.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the first wireless device includes a Bluetooth™

processor and a 5.7 GHZ transmitter.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the software component includes a plug and play software component to load and execute software for the second wireless device.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the software component includes a PIN number management software component to obtain and provide PIN numbers.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the second wireless device includes an application software component that registers an availability of the service with the service repository software component.

15. The system of claim 1, furthering comprising:

a third wireless device, in the short distance wireless network, having an application software component to obtain the service from the second wireless device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first wireless device includes a service logical driver corresponding to the service, and wherein the application software component uses the service logical driver to obtain the service from the second wireless device.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the software component operates with an operating system software component.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the operating system software component is a Stinger operating system.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the operating system software component is a Linux operating system.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the operating system software component is a EPOC operating system.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the operating system software component is a PocketPCoperating system.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the service repository software component identifies a class, attribute and instance of the service.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the first wireless device further includes a virtual private network (“

VPN”

) software component.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the first wireless device further includes a firewall software component.

25. A system for providing access to information on a cellular network, comprising:

a first wireless device, in a short distance wireless network, to provide a first short-range radio signal; and

,

a second wireless device, in the short distance wireless network and the cellular network, to selectively transfer information, including Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) data packets, between the first wireless device and the cellular network in response to a security software component,

wherein the second wireless device includes a service repository software component that identifies a plurality of services, in the short distance wireless network, associated with a plurality of wireless devices, and wherein the service repository software component searches for a service, in the plurality of services, to be used by an application software component stored in the first wireless device.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the first wireless device provides execution space for executable software from the second wireless device.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the security software component is a firewall software component to control access to the cellular network.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the security software component is a virtual private network (“

VPN”

) to control access to the cellular network.

29. The system of claim 25, wherein the security software component is a uniform resource locator (“

URL”

) filter to control access to the cellular network.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the first short-range radio signal is selected from a group consisting of a HomeRF signal, an 802.11 signal and Bluetooth™

.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the information is provided in the form of data packets.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein the second wireless device is coupled to the cellular network by a landline network.

33. The system of claim 25, wherein the second wireless device is coupled to the cellular network by either an Ethernet connection, DSL connection or a cable modem.

34. A handheld device for providing a short distance wireless network, comprising:

a storage device;

a processor, coupled to the storage device; and

,

the storage device to store a software component; and

, the processor operative with the software component to;

provide an Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) data packet from the handheld device to a terminal using short-range radio signals,

control access between the short distance wireless network and a cellular network,

translate between a first IP address provided to the handheld device and a second IP address for the terminal provided by the handheld device in the short distance wireless network,

enumerate a list of services available from the handheld device and the terminal, wherein the handheld device and terminal register services available on the list, and

search the list of services for a service to be used by an application software component stored on the terminal.

35. The device of claim 34, wherein the software component includes a management software component.

36. The device of claim 34, wherein the application software component uses a service logical driver stored in the storage device to obtain a service available on the handheld device.

37. The device of claim 34, further comprising:

a Bluetooth™

transmitter, coupled to the processor, to generate the short-range radio signals.

38. The device of claim 34, further comprising:

a GSM transmitter, coupled to the processor.

39. The device of claim 34, wherein the search includes searching the list of services by class, attribute or instance.

40. The device of claim 34, wherein the software component includes a plug and play software component to identify the terminal in the short distance wireless network and obtain the application software component for the terminal.

41. The device of claim 34, wherein the software component includes a PIN number management software component to provide a PIN number used in pairing the handheld device to the terminal in the short distance wireless network.

42. A first wireless handheld device, comprising:

a storage device;

a processor, coupled to the storage device; and

,

the storage device to store a software component; and

, the processor operative with the software component to;

access the Internet through a cellular network,

provide a first short-range radio signal to a second wireless handheld device and a second short-range radio signal to a third wireless handheld device,

control access between the Internet and the first, second and third wireless handheld devices,

translate between a first Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) address provided to the first wireless handheld device from the cellular network and a second address for the second wireless handheld device provided by the first wireless handheld device, and a third address for the third wireless handheld device provided by the first wireless device,

enumerate a list of services available from the first, second and third wireless handheld devices, wherein the first, second and third wireless handheld devices register services available on the list, and

search the list of services for a class of service to be used by an application software component at a particular time, the application software component stored on the second wireless handheld device.

43. The first wireless handheld device of claim 42, wherein the first wireless handheld device includes a service logical driver corresponding to a service available from the third wireless device, and the application software component uses the service logical driver to obtain the service from the third wireless device.

44. The first wireless handheld device of claim 42, wherein the first wireless handheld device includes a 5.7 GHZ transmitter coupled to the processor.

45. The first wireless handheld device of claim 42, wherein the second wireless handheld device is selected from a group consisting of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a headset, a pager, a watch, and a thin terminal a digital camera.

46. The first wireless handheld device of claim 42, wherein the second wireless handheld device is a thin terminal.

47. The first wireless handheld device of claim 42, wherein the first wireless handheld device includes a 2.4 GHZ transmitter coupled to the processor.

48. An article of manufacture, including a computer readable medium, comprising:

a short-range radio software component to communicate with a device in a short distance wireless network by using a short-range radio signal;

a cellular software component to communicate with a cellular network by using a cellular signal;

a network software component to selectively transfer an Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) data packet between the device and the cellular network;

a service repository software component to identify a plurality of available services from a plurality of devices in the short distance wireless network, the service repository software component having a uniform interface so that both a local application software component and a remote application software component identifies the plurality of available services; and

a plurality of service logical drivers corresponding to the plurality of available services that are used to obtain the plurality of services, the plurality of service logical drivers are used in obtaining the plurality of services.

49. The article of manufacture of claim 48, wherein the cellular software component is a GSM component.

50. The article of manufacture of claim 48, wherein the short-range radio software component is a Bluetooth™

component.

51. The article of manufacture of claim 48, further comprising security software component to control access between the short distance wireless network and the cellular network.

52. The article of manufacture of claim 48, further comprising a network address translator software component to translate between a first Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) address and a second IP address.

53. The article of manufacture of claim 48 further comprising a domain naming service (“

DNS”

) software component to translate between a human readable name and an Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) address.

54. The article of manufacture of claim 48, further comprising a plug and play software component to identify the terminal in the short distance wireless network and obtain an application software component for the terminal.

55. The article of manufacture of claim 48, wherein the article of manufacture is a memory storage device in a cellular telephone.

56. A handheld device for providing a short distance wireless network, comprising:

a storage device;

means for identifying an availability of a plurality of services to a plurality of application software components in the short distance wireless network;

means for selectively providing the plurality of services to the plurality of application software components in the short distance wireless network; and

means for selectively transferring an Internet Protocol (“

IP”

) data packet between a cellular network and a selected application software component in the plurality of application software components in the short distance wireless network.