Method and apparatus for controlling a temporary gateway for AD-HOC data needs

Abstract

The present invention relates to Zigbee or other multi-hop networks that can become a bottleneck for certain applications, such as entertainment streaming to (multiple) areas within an area (e.g., at home). By locally utilizing a temporary gateway (50) that happens to be present in an area with high traffic volume, the overall performance across the network can be improved. Using this temporary gateway (50), (partial) data can be routed directly to or from a destination / source node (10, 40), thereby freeing up capacity in the rest of the network.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a connected device system, such as a connected lighting or automation system, adapted to form a bandwidth-limited wireless mesh network between multiple devices. The present invention also relates to a connected device (e.g., a home automation or lighting control bridge or gateway) for use in the connected device system, and to a control method for controlling transmissions over the connected device system. Background Art

[0002] In a connected lighting system, multiple lighting devices can be connected to a controller device (such as a bridge device) via a wireless network. The light output of the lighting devices—which typically may include light-emitting diodes (LEDs)—can be wirelessly controlled via the controller device, for example regarding their hue, saturation, and / or brightness. To this end, a smartphone that can be connected to the controller device can execute a software application (e.g., an app) to wirelessly control the lighting devices via the controller device.

[0003] In many cases, such connected lighting systems are based on bandwidth-limited wireless mesh networks (such as Zigbee networks based on IEEE 802.15.4). Such networks are generally designed to carry only relatively small amounts of data.

[0004] (Wireless) lighting automation and control systems are becoming more popular in both the consumer and professional spaces. The centralized application architecture of such systems is suitable for initial use cases, but can become a bottleneck for some new use cases.

[0005] WO2018228883 A1 relates to a method for extending the coverage of a wireless single-hop network (e.g., a BLE network) by relaying messages of the wireless single-hop network on a wireless multi-hop network (e.g., a ZigBee mesh network), which benefits from the combined single-hop / multi-hop (e.g., BLE / ZigBee) capabilities of a wireless combination device that can seamlessly bridge between two wireless networks.

[0006] WO2019048278 A1 relates to controlling the network initialization of a combined network device in a multi-hop network by using a point-to-point connection. Summary of the Invention

[0007] It is an object of the present invention to improve throughput and / or latency for specific use cases in a connected device system.

[0008] This object is achieved by an apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , a method as claimed in claim 12 , and a computer program product as claimed in claim 13 .

[0009] Thus, the establishment of a connection between a connecting device (e.g., a bridge, gateway, hub, router, bridger, repeater, switch, etc.) and at least one target device in a multi-hop network, or a direct connection to at least one target device, is controlled by: detecting the availability of at least one temporary gateway capable of connecting to the at least one target device or to a proxy device providing access to the at least one target device using a single-hop connection; and determining, based on at least one network- or device-related parameter, whether to establish a bypass connection to the at least one target device or to the proxy device via a selected one of the at least one temporary gateways or to establish a connection to the at least one target device or to the proxy device via the multi-hop network. Providing additional interfaces on the network device (e.g., a combined device for multi-hop connections (e.g., Zigbee, Wi-Fi, etc.) and single-hop connections (e.g., BLE, etc.)) or using technologies developed for entertainment or corresponding services with higher data rates is used to achieve lower latency (better synchronization) and / or lower occupancy of the multi-hop network. The proposed use of bypass connections via Ethernet / Wi-Fi / LTE / 5G and / or BLE and / or other network technologies offers the advantage of sending fewer messages via a multi-hop network or only over shorter distances.

[0010] According to a first option, a combined device with single-hop and multi-hop connectivity can be activated as a proxy device located near at least one target device to facilitate connection to the at least one target device. Thus, an interface with a single-hop connectivity can be established close to the at least one target device, thereby reducing latency and / or load on the multi-hop network.

[0011] According to a second option, which can be combined with the first option, the selected temporary gateway can be controlled via an Ethernet or Wi-Fi or Thread or BLE connection. This type of connection is usually available at the connection device (such as a bridge device, etc.), so that the proposed bypass connection can be established without substantial reconfiguration of the connection device.

[0012] According to a third option, which can be combined with the first or second option, the selected temporary gateway can be controlled to take over the functionality of the proxy device and send and / or receive single-hop messages to and from at least one target device. This option provides a simple solution for establishing a bypass connection with minimal reconfiguration effort. In a specific example, the selected temporary gateway can be controlled to package commands received from the connected device into a broadcast or unicast message for use as a single-hop message.

[0013] According to a fourth option, which can be combined with any of the first to third options, the role of the at least one target device can be changed to become a terminal device of the multi-hop network or to enable a single-hop connection during a bypass connection session. Thus, a single-hop connection can be established from the selected temporary gateway to the at least one target device in an efficient manner.

[0014] According to a fifth option, which can be combined with any of the first to fourth options, the selected temporary gateway and at least one target device, or the selected temporary gateway, the proxy device, and at least one target device, can be instructed by the gateway device to use a bypass connection and send a message via the selected temporary gateway. Thus, the bypass connection can be quickly established without requiring preparatory signaling between the selected temporary gateway and the target device.

[0015] According to a sixth option, which can be combined with any of the first to fifth options, the availability of at least one temporary gateway can be detected based on information received from a proxy device at the apparatus to stop sending unicast messages over the multi-hop network. This provides a simple way to detect temporary gateways.

[0016] According to a seventh option, which may be combined with any of the first to sixth options, the availability of at least one temporary gateway may be detected based on at least one of a proxy beacon observed via the temporary gateway, a control action performed by a user of the temporary gateway, a result of a proximity detection between the temporary gateway and at least one target device or proxy device, or an explicit user instruction. Thus, the detection of the temporary gateway does not require any specific two-way signaling between the connecting device and the temporary gateway or other network device.

[0017] According to an eighth option, which may be combined with any of the first to seventh options, a first cellular device (e.g., a smartphone or IoT device) may be selected as the selected temporary gateway, and a second cellular device (e.g., a smartphone or IoT device) may be used to establish a bypass connection. This provides the advantage that a fast cellular communication channel may be used as part of the bypass connection.

[0018] According to a ninth option, which may be combined with any one of the first to eighth options, a decision on using a bypass connection may be made based on at least one of the following: a network load of the multi-hop network, a local busyness of the multi-hop network at at least one target device, a number of network devices in a cluster including at least one target device that do not support a required feature, a number of messages expected to be sent per unit time, a length of a message, a number of target devices within a one-hop range of the proxy device, a number of target devices within a one-hop range of the connecting device, a number of hops from the connecting device to at least one target device or the proxy device, or an importance of a message to be sent via the connection to be established. Thus, it may be ensured that the selection of the bypass connection reduces latency and / or improves throughput of the multi-hop network.

[0019] According to the tenth option, which can be combined with any of the first to ninth options, a voice control device (e.g., a voice assistant such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa) or a mesh router (e.g., a WiFi mesh router) can be selected as the selected temporary gateway and notified of technical details regarding at least one target device and how to control the at least one target device. This provides the advantage that the voice control system can be used to directly control the luminaires of the lighting system.

[0020] According to an eleventh option, which may be combined with any of the first to tenth options, a proxy device of a multi-hop network may be selected as the selected temporary gateway, wherein control commands for at least one target device are packaged in a single unicast message and sent to the proxy device, and wherein the proxy device is controlled to propagate the unicast message to the at least one target device via a single-hop transmission. Thus, by first carrying multiple control commands in a single unicast message and then forwarding the control commands to the target device in a single-hop transmission, a connection via the multi-hop network can be used as a more efficient bypass connection.

[0021] The detection and / or determination regarding the temporary gateway can be performed at the connecting device or at another network device (e.g., a potential temporary gateway, a target device, a proxy device, or another network device). That is, the apparatus can be provided at the connecting device, at the temporary gateway, at the target device, at the proxy device, or at another network device in the multi-hop network. Note that the apparatus described above can be implemented based on an arrangement of discrete hardware circuits, integrated chips, or chip modules with discrete hardware components, or based on a signal processing device or chip controlled by a software routine or program stored in a memory, written on a computer-readable medium, or downloaded from a network (such as the Internet).

[0022] It should be understood that the apparatus of claim 1, the network device of claim 14, the network system of claim 15, the method of claim 16 and the computer program product of claim 17 may have similar and / or identical preferred embodiments, in particular as defined in the dependent claims.

[0023] It shall be understood that a preferred embodiment of the invention can also be any combination of the dependent claims or the above-described embodiments with the respective independent claim.

[0024] These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025] In the following drawings:

[0026] Figure 1 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network used in conjunction with various embodiments;

[0027] Figure 2 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network with a temporary gateway according to a first embodiment;

[0028] Figure 3 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network in which a temporary gateway acts as a proxy according to a second embodiment;

[0029] Figure 4 shows a schematic block diagram of a connection device according to various embodiments;

[0030] Figure 5 shows a flow chart of a gateway control process according to various embodiments;

[0031] Figure 6 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network in which a voice control system acts as a temporary gateway according to a third embodiment; and

[0032] Figure 7 FIG. 4 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network in which a proxy device acts as a temporary gateway according to a fourth embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] Embodiments of the present invention will now be described based on a Zigbee network as an example of a multi-hop technology network. Furthermore, in some embodiments, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection is used as an example of a point-to-point connection based on a single-hop technology. According to various embodiments, data throughput (and / or latency) for specific use cases (e.g., entertainment streaming) can be improved by utilizing a bypass connection from a "real" gateway to a temporary "ephemeral" gateway connected to another node on the same wireless network as the real gateway.

[0034] In various embodiments of the present invention, a combined BLE and Zigbee radio is used as an example to provide improved throughput and / or latency. However, the present invention is equally applicable to any other combination of single-hop technologies (e.g., BLE, infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), wireless local area communication (Wi-Fi), cellular communication (e.g., 5G), ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, etc.) with multi-hop technologies (e.g., Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth mesh, Wi-Fi mesh, WirelessHART, Smart RF, CityTouch, IP500, and any other mesh- or tree-based technology).

[0035] Figure 1 A schematic architecture of a multi-hop Zigbee lighting network is shown, in which a connecting device (B) 20 (such as a bridge or gateway or hub or switch or router or bridger, etc.) is connected via unicast hopping links on various luminaire devices (L) 30 to a proxy device 44, which may also be a luminaire device and is configured to provide access to the other luminaire devices 40 of the cluster.

[0036] A connected lighting system may include at least one smart lighting device (e.g., a light bulb) 40 and a connected device 20, which functions as a Zigbee transceiver, for example, to communicate with the lighting devices 30, 40. The connected device 20 can be connected to a home router (not shown) via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. The connected lighting devices 30, 40 can be physically turned on and off using a conventional light switch (not shown). To turn the lights on and off, as well as to change their color and brightness, a manufacturer or third-party app on a mobile device (not shown) (or a computer (not shown)) may be required. Using this app, a user can send commands to a bridge via the internet and / or a home router. The bridge converts the commands into Zigbee command frames and transmits them to the lighting devices 30, 40.

[0037] As an example, entertainment streams can be provided from an entertainment source 10 (i.e., a data source) to multiple areas of a home (where hops to proxy devices 44 may be required), and a voice control system can be provided (where commands may have to propagate through connected device 20 even though the voice assistant device is located near the light fixture device 40). This can also be applied to pushing firmware upgrades (typically image sizes greater than or equal to 200 KB) from connected device 20 to (multiple) devices in remote corners of the network. Another use case requiring significant bandwidth is a major reconfiguration of devices (e.g., all devices in an entire commercial building).

[0038] In various embodiments, the connection device may be a central bridge that can stream lighting control information (ie, entertainment information) to luminaire devices in a wireless multi-hop network.

[0039] In the entertainment scenario, one of the luminaire devices 40 of the cluster in the entertainment area is assigned as a "proxy node", e.g. Figure 1 The connected device 20 sends the lighting commands for the cluster to the proxy 44 in a unicast message (e.g., using normal Zigbee unicast routing if necessary). The proxy 44 then sends (multiple) Inter-PAN (Personal Area Network) messages to the luminaires 40 in the cluster. Inter-PAN signaling is a form of broadcast that is not rebroadcast by luminaires 40 or other types of nodes (i.e., a single-hop broadcast). Therefore, the message reaches all luminaires 40 or other nodes within radio frequency (RF) range of the proxy 44, but only takes up a single RF message. If the single-hop broadcast should include devices that are not part of the cluster, some group addressing can be provided to allow luminaires 40 to filter the messages upon receipt.

[0040] If the cluster and proxy devices 44 are several hops away from the connecting device 20, a considerable latency (and also the total RF transmission time for all messages involved) will be established.

[0041] An additional problem is that, due to all the header and security overhead, the available payload for a unicast Zigbee message to be delivered to a designated proxy device 44 is much smaller than the payload available in an Inter-PAN message. Therefore, if the connecting device 20 itself cannot be a proxy device but needs to tunnel messages to the proxy device 44 through the Zigbee network, it can only provide smaller data chunks. This results in smaller clusters, or less granularity of per-cluster control, or message fragmentation, which can lead to reduced quality of the entertainment stream (e.g., in terms of reliability, synchronization, and / or richness of effects).

[0042] Recent advances in integrated circuit design have made it possible to combine Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Zigbee technologies on a single radio chip, allowing low-power / low-cost devices to operate as part of both a BLE network and a Zigbee network simultaneously, utilizing a single wireless radio module. This can be achieved by rapidly switching between BLE and Zigbee device operation over time, allowing the device to remain connected and operate in both networks simultaneously. The possibility of providing constrained devices with combined Zigbee and BLE RF functionality (i.e., Zigbee / BLE combination devices) that operate on both BLE and Zigbee networks simultaneously opens up new solutions to improve upon the limitations of these existing technologies. An example of a BLE network might include a mobile phone device acting as a master device, which can provide internet connectivity to an ecosystem of resource-constrained devices, such as lighting devices 30, 40, sensors, wearables, and building automation equipment.

[0043] As described in more detail below, the connection device 20 can be adapted to provide a single-hop connection (point-to-point connection) over Bluetooth by activating a Zigbee-BLE combination device as a proxy device near the device to be controlled (e.g., a cluster of lighting devices). If the proxy device is already operational, the connection device 20 can simply connect to it and use it. Thus, multi-hop paths can be bypassed or tunneled to an ephemeral (i.e., temporary) gateway via a single-hop connection (a "wormhole channel").

[0044] Figure 2 A schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network with an ephemeral gateway (GW) 50 according to a first embodiment is shown.

[0045] Note that network components with the same reference numerals will not be described again herein, but have the same or similar structures and functions as those described above.

[0046] The ephemeral gateway 50 is connected to and controlled by the connected device 20 via an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection or link 100, and is connected to the proxy device 44 via a single-hop BLE connection or link 110. It can be implemented on a smartphone of a user in the entertainment area so that streaming commands are sent by the connected device 20 via the smartphone acting as the ephemeral gateway 50 over the BLE connection 110 to the proxy device 44, which then forwards the corresponding lighting commands to the luminaire device 40 in a Zigbee Inter-PAN message. Thus, the luminaire device 40 receives the same lighting commands as before (see Figure 1), but bypassing or tunneling the Ethernet or Wi-Fi link 100 to the ephemeral gateway 50 and the subsequent BLE link 110 to the proxy device 44 replaces the Zigbee hop via the light fixture device 30. The connected device 20 may decide to use the user's smartphone since it is likely to be in the area where the user is enjoying the entertainment content, thereby reducing latency and network load.

[0047] If the luminaire devices 30, 40 are connected via Wi-Fi mesh, or Thread, or Bluetooth mesh, or any other broadcast or direct connection type instead of a Zigbee network, a similar setup can be used, where at least one luminaire device 40 has mesh combination RF capabilities (e.g., a Wi-Fi / BLE combination device) and acts as a proxy device 44, and an ephemeral gateway 50 (e.g., a smartphone) uses a single-hop BLE link 110 to that proxy device 44 to feed data into the cluster of luminaire devices 40 under the control of the connected device 20.

[0048] Alternatively, for this scenario, if both the smartphone acting as the ephemeral gateway 50 and the proxy device 44 have Wi-Fi capabilities, a Wi-Fi connection may be used instead of BLE for the link 110 .

[0049] The connected device 20 may designate the proxy device 44 to perform a specific task (eg, obtain the energy consumption history for the last two years from a specific node or a group of nodes) and send the results via another interface (eg, BLE).

[0050] Figure 3 A schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network in which an ephemeral gateway acts as a proxy according to a second embodiment is shown.

[0051] In a second embodiment, the ephemeral gateway 50 (e.g., a smartphone) itself takes over the functionality of the proxy device 44 (which is therefore no longer required), i.e., it is controlled by the connection device 20 to send out a message 120 (e.g., a Zigbee Inter-PAN (or Wi-Fi mesh, Thread, or Bluetooth mesh, or any other broadcast or direct connection type) command) directly to the cluster of luminaire devices 40. This particular embodiment will require a Zigbee or Wi-Fi interface on the ephemeral gateway 50 (e.g., a smartphone).

[0052] Another approach in which the ephemeral gateway 50 takes over the functionality of the proxy device 44 (assuming all luminaire devices 40 in the entertainment area are BLE-capable) would be to use a BLE message as the message 120 , such as packaging the command received from the connected device 20 in a BLE advertisement (so that all luminaire devices 40 in the cluster can receive the same message from the connected device 20 via the ephemeral gateway 50 ), or sending a separate BLE message (unicast) from the ephemeral gateway 50 to each luminaire device 40 as the message 120 .

[0053] To give luminaires 40 sufficient "air time" to listen for BLE advertisements / messages, they can switch to becoming Zigbee end devices for the duration of the entertainment session, for example, under the control of the connection device 20 or under the control of the ephemeral gateway 50. Alternatively, luminaires 40 can be BLE-only devices. Alternatively, luminaires 40 can be combined Zigbee / BLE devices (with the wormhole connection enabled by the connection device 20 when the entertainment stream begins responding) that disable their Zigbee portion during the entertainment session and operate as BLE-only devices—either until some "end" message is received, or with some timeout (watchdog) functionality—in which normal operation (Zigbee) is resumed if no messages are received over the wormhole channel. Alternatively, luminaires 40 can retain their Zigbee role, but extend the time spent on the BLE connection at the expense of time spent on the Zigbee network.

[0054] Figure 4 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a connection device 20 according to various embodiments, which can be used in Figure 2 、 Figure 3 、 Figure 6 and Figure 7 provided in any one of the architectures in .

[0055] The connection device 20 includes a transceiver (TRX) 42 for transmitting messages to / and receiving messages from (a plurality of) lighting devices on a multi-hop network (e.g., Wi-Fi, Zigbee, etc.), and transmitting messages to / and receiving messages from an ephemeral gateway 50 via a single-hop connection (e.g., Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.). As an example, the transceiver 42 may include several RF units for enabling communication via different wired and / or wireless single-hop or multi-hop connections.

[0056] Furthermore, the connection device comprises a gateway discovery unit (GD) 43 for discovering or detecting the availability (e.g., presence and / or location) of an ephemeral gateway 50 based on information received from the ephemeral gateway 50 or the multi-hop network via the transceiver 42. When the gateway discovery unit 43 detects the availability of an ephemeral gateway (e.g., the ephemeral gateway 50), it provides corresponding information to a gateway selection unit (GS) 41, which is adapted to select either a fast bypass or tunnel connection (i.e., a wormhole channel) to at least one target device of the cluster of luminaire devices 40 via the ephemeral gateway 50, or a more constrained conventional multi-hop connection via the luminaire devices 30.

[0057] If the gateway discovery unit 43 of the connection device 20 detects the presence and / or location of the ephemeral gateway 50 (relative to the luminaire devices 30, 40 in the multi-hop lighting network and / or relative to the connection device 20), the gateway selection unit 41 of the connection device 20 can instruct the ephemeral gateway 50 and the luminaire devices 40 and / or the proxy device 44 to connect to the multi-hop network via BLE using a wormhole channel, and send messages for the cluster of luminaire devices 40 via the ephemeral gateway 50 rather than in a conventional manner via a centralized multi-hop path from the connection device 20 via the proxy device 44 to the cluster of luminaire devices 40. In this way, messages are sent in a possible manner.

[0058] Another way that gateway discovery unit 43 detects ephemeral gateway 50 can be based on information received at connected device 20 from proxy device 44. When proxy device 44 receives, for example, a stream command via BLE (or other technology), it can notify connected device 20 to stop sending unicast messages over the multi-hop network (e.g., Zigbee) to prevent duplicate traffic. Because the contents of Inter-PAN messages are actually tunneled within these messages (e.g., both over Zigbee and via ephemeral gateway 50), any transition between the two paths will be completely seamless, as duplicate messages can be identified and discarded.

[0059] Yet another way in which gateway discovery unit 43 detects ephemeral gateway 50 can be based on information received at connected device 20 from proxy device 44. For example, when proxy device 44 establishes a BLE connection to ephemeral gateway 50, proxy device 44 can notify connected device 20 of this. Alternatively, the BLE connection established between proxy device 44 and ephemeral gateway 50 can allow ephemeral gateway 50 to directly notify connected device 20 of its arrival and / or its wormhole capabilities via a multi-hop network (e.g., by including a list of interfaces, etc.). The act of connecting to a multi-hop network via BLE can automatically trigger ephemeral gateway 50 to search for connected device 20, such as via Wi-Fi. The discovery of wormhole opportunities can be simplified if there are multiple ways to identify multiple interfaces of an ephemeral gateway or connected device as available for connection to the same network—e.g., providing a description of a connection via another connection, using addresses across multiple interfaces with a defined relationship (e.g., a portion of the address being the same or derived in a known manner), or network identifiers across multiple connections with a defined relationship (e.g., a portion of the address being the same or derived in a known manner). Furthermore, establishment of a wormhole connection may be facilitated by the connected device 20 and the ephemeral gateway 50 exchanging information about relevant devices, e.g., the ephemeral gateway 50 sharing a list of devices it can reach directly via BLE or the connected device 20 instructing the ephemeral gateway 50 to discover some devices.

[0060] Gateway discovery unit 43 can determine the location of ephemeral gateway 50 based on at least one of the following: proxy beacon(s) observed by the (potential) ephemeral gateway(s), control actions performed by a user of the (potential) ephemeral gateway(s), the results of proximity detection between the (potential) ephemeral gateway(s) and at least one target device or proxy device, or explicit user indications of location, for example. Proxy beacons are messages, such as BLE advertisements, or other equivalent messages (e.g., Zigbee beacons or link status messages), sent by nodes in the network. Potential ephemeral gateways can listen to these beacons to determine which nodes are nearby and their status. Proximity can be determined, for example, as being within (radio) range, or being within range and having a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) or link quality indicator above a predetermined threshold. This information (proximity and / or status) can be used by the potential ephemeral gateway, connecting device 20, proxy device 44, or one of the target devices 40, or another device to determine which device to use as an ephemeral gateway to transmit information to / from certain nodes (or to not use such a gateway at all and use the existing network). To aid in this determination, the beacon may contain relevant information such as local network load, node characteristics such as available features and / or remaining capacity (processing, storage, networking, battery, etc.), and the like.

[0061] If the ephemeral gateway 50 is battery powered, the user may be provided with the option to opt in / out of the proposed tunneling or bypass service.

[0062] If the ephemeral gateway 50 is a portable device that can be removed from its current location, the user may be provided with the option to opt in / out of the proposed tunneling or bypass service.

[0063] As another option, the gateway discovery unit 43 of the connection device 20 may be adapted to detect the removal / disappearance (both planned / announced and unplanned / silent) of the ephemeral gateway 50 .

[0064] Furthermore, the gateway discovery unit 43 of the connection device 20 may be adapted to arbitrate between multiple available ephemeral gateways 50 , such as different smartphones (eg, smartphones of family members) in an entertainment area or other potential gateway usage area for all current family members.

[0065] As another option, two smartphones can serve as ephemeral gateways 50 within the same network. Both smartphones can connect via a cellular communication channel (e.g., 5G), Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Therefore, because cellular communication channels to base stations have very low latency, in some scenarios, it may be advantageous to transmit real-time data from a first smartphone (a first ephemeral gateway) to a second smartphone (a second ephemeral gateway) in a different part of the service usage area (e.g., a residence or other recreational area) via a cellular communication channel. The second smartphone can then establish a wormhole channel (e.g., via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) or Inter-PAN signaling) and locally inject the wormhole data into the lighting network or other target network. This may also be relevant for augmented reality applications, where lighting plays a role in larger spaces (such as open-plan offices or trade show halls), or for street lighting infrastructure, where a group of streetlights (e.g., depicting the upcoming paths of cars via multiple projection devices) can signal to pedestrians the intention of multiple autonomous vehicles to be in the same visible area.

[0066] Using two or more ephemeral gateways 50 connected via cellular communications provides the following advantages:

[0067] The cellular communication channel between the ephemeral gateways 50 provides an extended or enhanced bypass for a portion of the (Zigbee) mesh network that the connecting device 20 and the target devices (e.g., the luminaire devices 40 of the target cluster) do not need to be aware of;

[0068] The bypass connections (wormhole channels) from the connecting devices 20 to the ephemeral gateways 50 can each handle a portion of the traffic, and the ephemeral gateways can even serve target devices in the same area by offloading the traffic load.

[0069] In the case where a smartphone is used as an ephemeral gateway 50 and the user moves with the smartphone to another location (e.g., another room in the home), the streaming can easily follow the user, as the luminaires 30, 40 in the new location now come within range of the user as they move. The same applies to the aforementioned street lighting use case, where the streetlight signals the user the intention of the autonomous vehicle. In this case, the autonomous vehicle and smartphone can be connected to the same cellular network (e.g., 5G), while the streetlight is connected to a cheaper, lower-data-rate network such as Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). Using a traditional entertainment setup, the connected device 20 would have to select one of the luminaires 40 in the new room as the new proxy device 44 and set up a stream in that luminaire's 40 cluster, replacing the stream in the original room / cluster.

[0070] Another benefit of using an ephemeral gateway 50 can be a richer experience. If a connected device 20 directly controls all entertainment zones, it may need to reduce the amount of control traffic flowing (e.g., in terms of update frequency, number of bits representing color or light intensity, and / or number of lights controlled independently per zone). Alternatively, if a connected device 20 controls a particular entertainment zone via a hub located several hops away (e.g., another connected device), similar limitations may apply. Alternatively, a connected device 20 may have an internal limit on how many messages it can dispatch to an interface on a multi-hop mesh network (e.g., Zigbee), but there are no such limitations when messages are sent to an ephemeral gateway 50 via Ethernet / Wi-Fi connection 100.

[0071] Discovery of the presence of ephemeral gateway 50 by gateway discovery unit 43 may allow connected device 20 to redirect some traffic through ephemeral gateway 50, thereby reducing the total amount of traffic in the multi-hop mesh network, and thus connected device 20 may also be able to elevate control traffic for the newly redirected entertainment area and / or other entertainment areas.

[0072] In a simple embodiment, the connected device 20 and the ephemeral gateway(s) 50 can utilize the proxy devices 44 available in the network. In a more detailed embodiment, the connected device 20 can control the proxy behavior of a node (e.g., a luminaire device 30, 40) via a multi-hop network (e.g., Zigbee), for example by enabling and disabling it.

[0073] However, note that Figure 4 The blocks shown in may also be provided in other network devices, such as in one of the target devices 40, in the proxy device 44, in the ephemeral gateway 50, or in another network device connected to the multi-hop network.

[0074] Figure 5 A generalized flow diagram of a gateway control process (eg, at a connecting device 20, an ephemeral gateway 50, a proxy device 44, or another network device) is shown in accordance with various embodiments.

[0075] The process begins at step S500 where the connected device 20 is active, or where the entertainment source 10 requests a traffic-intensive action (such as an entertainment service or software update).

[0076] In step S501 , a gateway discovery process is initiated to detect the availability (i.e. presence and / or location) of at least one ephemeral gateway 50 , e.g. based on information obtained from potential ephemeral gateway(s) or from proxy device(s) 44 of the multi-hop network, as explained above.

[0077] Then, in step S502, the process checks and decides whether gateway usage is required for the current service or communication situation. More specifically, a decision can be made for each broadcast message whether to use the legacy approach along the luminaire devices 30 via a multi-hop path, or the new proposed approach via the ephemeral gateway(s) 50. Alternatively, a decision can be made for multiple messages—for example, corresponding to a specific service (entertainment stream), addressed to a specific device, for a given duration, etc.

[0078] This decision may be based on at least one of the following: for example, the load of the multi-hop network (e.g., how full the broadcast buffer in a node (e.g., luminaire device 30) is, or how many broadcasts have been sent recently), the local busyness of the multi-hop network (e.g., for presence sensing or asset tracking), the number of messages expected to be sent per unit time, the length of the message, the number of luminaire devices in the cluster that need to be controlled that do not support the required features (e.g., combined radio devices for establishing a connection to the ephemeral gateway 50, or replay capabilities, etc.), the number of target luminaire devices 40 within one hop of the proxy device 44 (the same message can be sent from two proxy devices to cover a larger area), the number of target luminaire devices 40 within one hop of the connected device 20 (where the connected device 20 can send the Inter-PAN message itself, which has the same latency as the legacy broadcast), the number of hops from the connected device 20 to at least one target device 40 or proxy device 44, or the importance of the message being sent (e.g., if security is involved, sending the message via both the multi-hop legacy method and the new gateway method to maximize the likelihood that the message will be delivered).

[0079] If it is decided in step S502 to use the ephemeral gateway 50, the process branches to step S504 and the data is bypassed via the wormhole channel via the ephemeral gateway 50. If not, the process continues at step S503 and the data is forwarded via a conventional multi-hop path.

[0080] Finally, the process jumps back to step S501 and starts again.

[0081] As an alternative to the active establishment of a wormhole connection in step S501 , even the search for an ephemeral gateway 50 may be conditional, eg depending on the size of the cluster to be controlled or the distance to the cluster.

[0082] In yet another alternative, a wormhole connection may be reactively established while an entertainment session is already in progress—eg, as a result of network congestion.

[0083] In yet another embodiment, the decision to establish a wormhole connection may be triggered by a user.

[0084] In yet another embodiment, the decision may be triggered by the appearance of an ephemeral gateway (eg, as announced) when an entertainment session is already in progress.

[0085] In conventional systems, a voice-controlled device (e.g., a voice assistant or voice controller) communicates with a connected device 20 (possibly via a cloud system). This incurs latency (i.e., latency). In cases where the cloud is involved, the reliability of the cloud connection can impact performance. However, such a voice-controlled device is typically located in the same room / area as the target luminaire 40 to be controlled. Therefore, conventional approaches to integrating voice-controlled devices with lighting systems via the connected device 20 are inefficient in terms of latency and the number of over-the-air messages (i.e., RF load).

[0086] In the following embodiments, a voice-controlled device or other directly connected device (e.g., a mesh router) may be used to establish a bypass or wormhole connection and thereby improve efficiency and reduce latency when connecting to other devices that use a voice-controlled device or can establish a direct connection.

[0087] Figure 6 A schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network according to a third embodiment is shown in which a voice control device (e.g., a voice controller or voice assistant (such as Google Home or Amazon Alexa)) acts as an ephemeral gateway 50. The voice control device or voice command device includes a voice user interface to allow verbal human interaction with devices of the multi-hop network (e.g., luminaire devices 40), using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and optionally answer questions that may result in messages being sent to the devices.

[0088] In a third embodiment, the voice control device or system, acting as an ephemeral gateway 50, is adapted to directly control the luminaire devices 40, e.g., it sends lighting commands via a single-hop connection 110 (e.g., via BLE) to the proxy device 44, which sends them in an Inter-PAN message to the cluster of involved luminaire devices 40. Note that only a single message of this format may need to be sent, unlike the message flow used in the entertainment scenario described above.

[0089] As an alternative, a more general proxy approach can be used, where Zigbee messages (e.g. multicast with context recall) are packaged in BLE (i.e. Zigbee / BLE tunneling approach).

[0090] Yet another alternative mechanism is to use the above combined Figure 3 The entertainment scenario explains the BLE notification / message 120.

[0091] In all approaches, by communicating with the connected device 20 via an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection 100, or by communicating with the device to be controlled (e.g., the luminaire device 40) via a control mechanism using a single-hop connection 110 (e.g., BLE, Zigbee over BLE tunneling, etc.), the voice control device (which acts as an ephemeral gateway 50) can be informed about the luminaire devices 40, groups, scenes, etc. required for the voice user interface of the voice control device, as well as the technical details of how to control the luminaire devices 40 (e.g., Zigbee group address and scene ID).

[0092] Optionally, because the connected device 20 can be notified about the light commands issued by the voice-controlled device (ephemeral gateway 50) to the luminaire devices 40, the connected device 20 knows the current state of the luminaire devices 40 (this is faster and more efficient than polling the luminaire device status). To achieve this, the connected device 20 can be notified directly by the voice-controlled device, or it can receive state change reports from the luminaire devices 40 via a multi-hop network (e.g., Zigbee).

[0093] A similar use case could be a warehouse application, where a forklift driver carries a permanently powered voice control device (e.g., a voice assistant) and can use it to communicate his or her intentions to the system (e.g., "I'm going to drive to Island B now."). The voice control on the forklift then alerts other warehouse workers in the adjacent space via a signal transmitted through the approaching forklift's surrounding lighting. In the case of autonomous forklifts or mobile robots, the impending maneuver can be communicated to the humans present in the space.

[0094] In manufacturing, reliable low-latency communications may be disrupted by the presence or movement of metal objects and interference generated by the manufacturing process (e.g., welding in an automobile factory disrupts wireless communications). Therefore, the proposed local communication without a round trip to a "normal" gateway (e.g., connection device 20) is desirable to ensure low latency.

[0095] On the other hand, multicast and broadcast messages in multi-hop mesh networks (such as Zigbee and Wi-Fi) can have the disadvantage that each message is typically rebroadcast by every node. For large networks, this results in a very large network load, which can even limit the possible size of the network in order to guarantee certain performance requirements (unless specific measures are taken, such as disabling rebroadcast on some nodes). For example, if ten lighting devices are to be addressed in a network of fifty nodes in a room two hops away from the connected device, ten unicast messages (taking twenty transmissions) or one broadcast / multicast message (taking at least fifty transmissions or even more, depending on the node's passive acknowledgment strategy) may be sent (as network-level messages).

[0096] However, due to the size of buffers in devices and requirements in network specifications to handle very spread-out networks, the number of broadcasts is limited, which restricts the freedom to send messages. Even if this limit is maintained on average, peak excursions may cause messages to be delayed or lost.

[0097] The unicast method may be advantageous in terms of the number of transmissions, but has the following practical disadvantage: all involved luminaires receive the message one after another (“popcorn effect”).

[0098] Another aspect is that broadcasts "just work" and do not require any kind of pre-established information or topology knowledge. They are also unaffected by topology changes. In order for unicast communication to work, unicast routing must be in place (which may require a prior route discovery broadcast). If routing is not in place when the command is to be sent (depending on the application's request to the underlying stack), then upon receiving a request to send a frame from the next higher layer, a route discovery broadcast may be performed, potentially interfering with unicast transmissions from other devices and resulting in significantly longer overall execution delays for devices where routing does not exist, as well as a higher number of messages on the network.

[0099] Note that previously established routes may be interrupted due to nodes not being present in the network (e.g. due to power outages or outages) and / or due to changing propagation conditions (a metal door closing), interference (a streaming session starting in one corner of the network), and they are not repaired proactively (when the problem occurs) but reactively (when the next frame using that route needs to be sent).

[0100] For example, a history of energy consumption may be needed if there is a hardware problem with the driver of one of the light fixtures 40. Pushing this amount of data across multiple hops to the connected device 20 can be burdensome to the network.

[0101] In another example, due to network performance issues, it may be necessary to read the statistics collected in the diagnostic cluster of some or all luminaire devices 40 to identify the possible cause of the problem. Pushing large amounts of data under already deteriorating network traffic conditions can not only cause further degradation of the network, but also the probability of receiving the requested information is low.

[0102] In the above case, the wormhole connection may be used in the upstream direction, ie for the luminaire device 40 to report to the connected device 20, for example to push the diagnostic or energy consumption data.

[0103] Figure 7 FIG. 4 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network in which a proxy device acts as an ephemeral gateway according to a fourth embodiment.

[0104] In a fourth embodiment, a combination of unicast and proxy-based single-hop transmission (e.g., Inter-PAN) is proposed as an alternative to the conventional broadcast concept described above. The connected device 20 packages the light control commands and sends them via a unicast message to the proxy device 44. The proxy device 44 propagates the unicast message to the luminaire devices 40 (e.g., in the room) that need to receive it, for example, via Inter-PAN.

[0105] For the above example, this would result in only three Zigbee transmissions, two for the unicast message to the proxy device 44, and one for the Inter-PAN message. This is a significant reduction compared to the two legacy unicast / broadcast alternatives mentioned above.

[0106] The roles of the proxy devices 44 may be static roles, for example given their physical location (through which other devices can be reached) or their capabilities (eg requiring special hardware / software).

[0107] The proxy device 44 may also be assigned dynamically, depending on the current network topology (eg, taking into account the current location of the portable device).

[0108] There may be multiple of the proxy devices 44 in the network.

[0109] As a further option, assuming that the communication content pushed into the multi-hop network by the connected device 20 actually comes from the cloud or the Internet, the cloud or the Internet can select at least one of a plurality of available ephemeral gateways (e.g., depending on their locations) to best deliver the communication content to the cluster of target luminaire devices 40.

[0110] Even if connecting device 20 wants to deliver a broadcast message to the entire network, it may still send it as several proxy messages via a proxy device, such as proxy device 44 .

[0111] Given the above example of a network with fifty nodes, if the fifty nodes can be grouped into three groups of five nodes each, one hop away from the connected device 20, and seven groups of five nodes each, two hops away from the connected device 20, then the total number of network-level messages will be three unicast messages and three one-hop broadcast messages plus fourteen (seven times two) unicast messages and seven one-hop broadcast messages, for a total of twenty-seven messages (compared to at least fifty messages in the case of the conventional broadcast method described above).

[0112] Furthermore, connected device 20 may want to influence the bypass or wormhole topology, for example by explicitly instructing ephemeral gateway 50 which proxy device it should connect to the network via BLE. It may also consider the proxy device's neighbor table for this decision, for example to prevent overlap. Messages arriving at luminaire 40 via multiple means (e.g., directly from connected device 20 via a multi-hop network and through proxy device 44 via a wormhole connection, or from two proxy devices via two wormhole connections) may need to be identified as the same message to allow for deduplication (i.e., limit processing load) and avoid adverse effects, particularly in the case of relative commands (e.g., toggle, step-up). This can be achieved, for example, by identifying messages—which are transmitted across those multiple channels as part of the same service—and providing them with linkable sequence numbers.

[0113] Furthermore, connection device 20 may also need to control proxy behavior, such as enabling additional interface(s) on strategically located nodes. This node could be a neighboring node of the node of interest, or the node of interest itself. By specifying tasks for proxy device 44, connection device 20 limits the amount of data that proxy device 44 can send (or display) via the additional interface(s).

[0114] The same concept can be used to send large amounts of data to a device, such as changing several bindings and scenarios on a device, or performing a software update (Over-the-Air Update (OTAU)). If the command / message is unique to each device, the proxy device 44, acting as an ephemeral gateway, can use unicast to every node in the area. If the command / message is shared among multiple devices, it can use an Inter-PAN mechanism (or multicast with a radius of 1).

[0115] In various of the above-described embodiments, the connected device 20 may be able to discover the proxy capabilities of nodes (eg, luminaire devices 30 , 40 ) in the vicinity of the node of interest.

[0116] As an alternative to the above-described beaconing method whereby a potential ephemeral gateway detects a node (eg, luminaire device 40 ), the node itself may detect the presence of a potential ephemeral gateway and notify connected device 20 , or connected device 20 may detect the presence of ephemeral gateway 50 .

[0117] The connection 100 between the connected device 20 and the ephemeral gateway 50 can be a Wi-Fi or BLE connection, a 5G connection, or a UWB connection. However, other "helper" devices can be connected via Ethernet (or Power over Ethernet (PoE)) and located near the target device (e.g., the target luminaire device 40 or the proxy device 44) and act as the ephemeral gateway 50.

[0118] If the connection 100 between the connecting device 20 and the ephemeral gateway 50 is a BLE connection, there may be two BLE connections, one between the connecting device 20 and the ephemeral gateway 50, and one between the ephemeral gateway 50 and the target device 40 or proxy device 44, which may be optimized into a single BLE connection between the connecting device 20 and the target / proxy device 40 / 44.

[0119] Using various embodiments, lower latency (better synchronization) and / or lower occupancy of the multi-hop network can be achieved, which becomes particularly important as all functional light fixtures 30, 40 become connected (e.g., the average US home has 45 light fixtures) and additionally provides new decorative lighting and more spatially distributed user interface buttons. Using Ethernet / Wi-Fi and / or BLE and / or other network technologies for wormhole channels via ephemeral gateways means that fewer messages are sent over the multi-hop network, or only over shorter distances, allowing more (other) messages to fit within the multi-hop network, such as for light control of remaining lights. Furthermore, multiple entertainment sessions (in different areas of the home) can be enabled in parallel.

[0120] In general, Zigbee or other multi-hop networks can become a bottleneck for certain applications, such as entertainment streaming to (multiple) locations within a region (e.g., at home) that requires hopping. By utilizing an ephemeral gateway 50 that happens to be located in a high-volume data traffic area, overall performance across the network can be improved. Using this ephemeral gateway 50, (partial) data can be routed directly to or from the destination / source node 10, 40, freeing up capacity in the rest of the network. The connection between the ephemeral gateway 50 and the proxy device 44 or target device 40 can be any type of single-hop broadcast or other direct communication to the target device(s) 40 or target cluster.

[0121] Although the present invention has been described and illustrated in detail in the accompanying drawings and the foregoing description, such illustration and description should be considered illustrative or exemplary and not restrictive. The present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. The proposed connection establishment process can be applied to and potentially standardized in other types of multi-hop networks, and with other types of messages and single-hop connections. Furthermore, the present invention can be applied in any product or system that provides access to a multi-hop network (e.g., Zigbee or other) via a single-hop connection (e.g., BLE or other).

[0122] Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article "a" or "an" does not exclude a plurality. A single processor or other unit may perform the functions of several items recited in a claim. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

[0123] The foregoing description describes certain embodiments of the present invention in detail. However, it will be appreciated that no matter how detailed the foregoing appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways and is therefore not limited to the disclosed embodiments. It should be noted that the use of a particular term when describing certain features or aspects of the present invention should not be understood as indicating that the term is being redefined herein to be limited to include any specific characteristics of the feature or aspect of the invention associated with the term.

[0124] A single unit or device may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

[0125] The described operation - similar to Figure 5 The operation indicated in , or by Figure 2 、 Figure 3 、 Figure 4 、 Figure 6 and Figure 7 The operations performed by the apparatus or block or unit of the computer program may be implemented as program code means of a computer program and / or as dedicated hardware. The computer program may be stored and / or distributed on a suitable medium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium, provided together with or as part of other hardware; but may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

Claims

1. An apparatus, included in a connecting device (20), for establishing a connection between the connecting device and at least one target device (40) in a multi-hop network, the apparatus comprising: a discovery unit (43) for detecting the availability of at least one temporary gateway (50), the at least one temporary gateway (50) being connectable to the connection device (20) using another network technology than the multi-hop network and being connected to the at least one target device (40) or the proxy device (44) via a single-hop connection (110; 120), wherein the proxy device (44) provides access to at least one target device (40) located within a one-hop range of the proxy device (44), wherein the discovery unit (43) is adapted to detect the availability of the at least one temporary gateway (50) based on information communicated to the discovery unit (43), the information being indicative of at least one of: a proxy beacon that has been observed by the temporary gateway (50), a control action that has been performed by a user of the temporary gateway (50), a result of a proximity detection between the temporary gateway (50) and the at least one target device (40) or the proxy device (44), or an explicit user indication; and - a selection unit (41) for deciding, based on at least one network or device-related parameter, whether to establish a bypass connection to the at least one target device (40) or the proxy device (44) via a temporary gateway selected from the at least one temporary gateway (50), or to establish a connection to the at least one target device (40) via the multi-hop network.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to activate a combination device providing both single-hop and multi-hop connections as the proxy device (44), and wherein the proxy device (44) is located in the vicinity of the at least one target device (40) for facilitating connection to the at least one target device (40).

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to control the selected temporary gateway (50) via an Ethernet or Wi-Fi or Thread or BLE connection (100).

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to control the selected temporary gateway (50) to take over the function of the proxy device (44) and to send and / or receive single-hop messages to and from the at least one target device (40).

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to control the selected temporary gateway (50) to package the command received from the connection device (20) in a broadcast or unicast message to be used as a single-hop message.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to change the role of the at least one target device (40) to become a terminal device of the multi-hop network, or to enable the at least one target device (40) to have a single-hop connection during the session of the bypass connection.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to instruct - the selected temporary gateway (50) and the at least one target device (40), or - the selected temporary gateway (50), the proxy device (44) and the at least one target device (40) exchange messages using the bypass connection and via the selected temporary gateway (50).

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit (41) is adapted to select a first cellular network device as the selected temporary gateway (50) and to establish the bypass connection using a second cellular network device having a single-hop connection (110; 120) to the at least one target device (40), wherein the first cellular network device and the second cellular network device are connected via a cellular communication channel.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit (41) is adapted to decide based on at least one of: a network load of the multi-hop network, a local busyness of the multi-hop network at the at least one target device (40), a number of network devices in a cluster including the at least one target device (40) that do not support the required feature, a number of messages expected to be sent per unit time, a length of a message, a number of target devices (40) within a one-hop range of the proxy device (44), a number of target devices (40) within a one-hop range of the connecting device (20), a number of hops from the connecting device (20) to the at least one target device (40) or the proxy device (44), or an importance of a message to be sent via the connection to be established.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the gateway discovery unit (43) is adapted to select a voice control device or a mesh router as the selected temporary gateway (50), and to inform the voice control device or the mesh router of technical details about the at least one target device (40) and how to control the at least one target device (40).

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is adapted to select a proxy device (44) as the selected temporary gateway, package a control command in a single unicast message and send the control command to the proxy device (44), and control the proxy device (44) to propagate the unicast message to the at least one target device (40) via a single-hop transmission.

12. A method, performed by means included in a connecting device (20), for establishing a connection between the connecting device and at least one target device (40) in a multi-hop network, the method comprising the following steps: - detecting, by a discovery unit (43) comprised in the apparatus, the availability of at least one temporary gateway (50), the at least one temporary gateway (50; 44) being connectable to the at least one target device (40) or proxy device (44) via a single-hop connection (110; 120), wherein the proxy device (44) provides access to at least one target device (40) located within one-hop range of the proxy device (44), wherein the discovery unit (43) is adapted to detect the availability of the at least one temporary gateway (50) based on information communicated to the discovery unit (43), the information being indicative of at least one of: a proxy beacon that has been observed by the temporary gateway (50), a control action that has been performed by a user of the temporary gateway (50), a result of a proximity detection between the temporary gateway (50) and at least one target device (40) or the proxy device (44), or an explicit user indication; and - Based on at least one network or device-related parameter, a selection unit (41) included in the apparatus determines whether to establish a bypass connection to the at least one target device (40) or the proxy device (44) via a temporary gateway selected from the at least one temporary gateway (50; 44), or to establish a connection to the at least one target device (40) via the multi-hop network.

13. A computer program product comprising code means for performing the steps of claim 12 when run on a computer device.

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