2238 results about "Mobile ad hoc network" patented technology

A mobile phone system and method of initializing, at a secure transaction server (STS), a mobile payment software with a software authentication parameter, as an authentic mobile payment software; providing an STS correlation between a personal identification entry (PIE) and the authentic mobile payment software; installing, in a mobile phone, the authentic mobile payment software; and inputting, by a user, the PIE to the installed authentic mobile payment software to generate according to the PIE and the software authentication parameter a transformed secure authenticable mobile phone cashless monetary transaction over the mobile phone network, as a mobile phone wireless wallet of the user of the mobile phone. The mobile phone authenticable cashless monetary transaction is performed according to an agreement view(s) protocol.

In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a mobile broadband routable internet (MBRI) providing for carrier-grade, networked, broadband, IP-routable communication among a plurality of mobile devices, where the mobile devices may represent a plurality of nodes that are linked together through a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET). Mobile devices may operate as peers in a peer-to-peer network, with full IP routing capabilities enabled within each mobile device, thereby allowing routing of IP-based traffic, including deployment of applications, to the mobile device without need for infrastructure conventionally required for mobile ad hoc networks, such as cellular telephony infrastructure. Full IP-routing to mobile devices may allow seamless integration to the fixed Internet, such as through fixed or mobile access points, such as for backhaul purposes. Thus, the MBRI may function as a standalone mobile Internet, without connection to the fixed Internet, or as an IP-routable extension of another network, whether it be the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network, a cellular network, a personal area network, or some other type of network that is capable of integration with an IP-based network.

Described is an internetworking system having various mobile ad hoc extensions to the Internet that are particularly suited to the dynamic environment of mobile ad hoc networks. The internetworking system includes any combination of a link-state routing protocol for disseminating topology and link-state information over a multi-hop network comprised of nodes, a neighbor discovery protocol that can detect the appearance and disappearance of new neighbor nodes, an address format that facilitates deployment of IPv6 nodes in a predominantly IPv4 network infrastructure, a queuing mechanism that can update information upon resuming interrupted communications between nodes, and dynamic network measurement techniques for adaptively using wireless bandwidth when establishing and maintaining connections between nodes and a server.

The method includes nodes transmitting quality-of-service (QoS) route requests to discover traffic routing based upon a QoS parameter, and the QoS route requests including a traffic flow identifier. Each node calculates a node QoS tag value to make traffic admission control decisions, and each node determines whether to admit traffic in response to QoS route requests based upon the calculated QoS tag value and the QoS parameter of QoS route requests. Also, each node replies to QoS route requests to indicate whether the node can support the QoS parameter of the route request and admit the traffic, and each node polices admitted traffic based upon the traffic flow identifier to ensure that admitted traffic does not exceed the QoS parameter of the QoS route request.

A telecommunications system and method for performing a handover between the fixed (wireline) network and a mobile network during a call placed to or from a dual mode device, without any interruption in the voice or data connection. Therefore, for calls initiated in the fixed network, once the subscriber leaves the coverage area for the fixed mode of the dual mode device, the call continues as normal by transferring the call to the mobile network. Similarly, for calls initiated in the mobile network, once the subscriber moves back into the fixed mode coverage area, the call can be transferred to the fixed network in order to provide a lower rate to the subscriber, without any service interruption.

A method and apparatus for the transparent, non-disruptable transfer of data, particularly multimedia data, through any packet-based network, such as an ATM network is provided. The method of the present invention includes the step of setting a primary path and a secondary path between nodes of a network, or of a network domain. Accordingly, when a switch or node establishes a Virtual Path (VP) to another switch with specified effective bandwidth, it also has an alternate VP that is available, although no bandwidth is actually used. The method of the present invention further includes the step of optimizing the available capacity of the system through management actions. For handling congestion and resource failures, the total effective bandwidth on each physical link is categorized in terms of idle capacity (unused or available), used capacity (for existing VPs), and spare capacity. When a resource failure occurs, the idle capacity is used for real-time switching of the VP and service is not disrupted. This is accomplished by an alarm indication management cell which is delivered when a resource problem is encountered. This management cell sets forth the secondary path and the bandwidth associated therewith. On the other hand, if idle capacity does not exist, the spare capacity is used, while the bandwidth of all other VPs is reconfigured using virtual bandwidth optimization. Therefore, service disruption does not occur. In a wireless, mobile network, the present invention monitors node movement and takes management actions on the basis of such node movement to prevent service disruption.

Domains are formed in a mobile ad hoc network by exchanging topology update messages among neighboring nodes, each message including the node coverage of the originating node. The node having an optimum coverage of its neighbors becomes a domain lead (DL) node, and nodes within hearing distance or range of the DL node form a network domain. Each domain node, including the DL, selects a set of bridge nodes (BNs) that can link the domain node to nodes in corresponding neighboring domains. All domain lead nodes in the network exchange messages to inform one another of the nodes contained in their respective domains. A node in one domain seeking a route for a message destined to a node in another domain, may send a route discovery (RDisc) message to the DL node of the inquiring node's domain. A responsive route resolution (RRes) message is returned to the inquiring node.

The present invention proposes methodologies, a system and a secure spontaneous collaboration framework along with a suitable application and services suite for enabling new paradigm of social networking among users of handheld devices by bridging gab between infra-structure-based networks and mobile ad hoc networks. While supporting three different operating modes for the spontaneous collaboration that suits the user preference and network conditions, the proposed solutions hide the complexity of finding the right peer / device for spontaneous collaboration, self-organising the network to be formed on-demand, mitigating the security threat, being aware of user mobility for service continuity across wide variety of networks. Binding a given user to user's handheld device and specifying the number of applications / services enabling spontaneous collaborations that a given user is interested in are possible through user-profile creations. By taking a holistic view, the proposed solutions enable very practical, scalable, secure and economical spontaneous collaborations.

A method of testing a digital mobile phone network such as a GPRS or 3G network comprises either using real traffic or creating test traffic using test mobile phone coupled to a computer, and using the computer to measure a parameter associated with the network's response to the traffic. The measurements made by the computer are themselves sent as traffic to create one or more data streams within the mobile phone network comprising the traffic, measurements relating to the traffic, and signalling relating to the traffic, whereby this data stream or these streams can be captured at interface points within the network and analyzed to investigate the functioning of the network dynamically as the network is exercised with the traffic. Software and test equipment for performing the method are also described.

A system and method of maintaining an always-on application client communication is provided. An application programming interface implemented on a device hosting an always-on application client determines if network-based keep-alive functionality exists in a network where the device operates. If network-based keep-alive functionality exists, a network element is instructed to transmit keep-alive messages to the application server on behalf of the device. The network element can be implemented in or as a variety of existing network elements, e.g., as a GPRS gateway serving node or a standalone keep-alive network element. Alternatively, an application server communicatively connected to the always-on application client may query whether network-based keep-alive functionality exists. If network-based keep-alive functionality exists, the application server negotiates with the always-on application client to determine an application-specific mechanism for implementing the network-based keep-alive functionality. When an application server queries for network-based keep-alive functionality, an application programming interface need not be utilized.

A proactive link-state routing protocol designed for mobile ad-hoc networks is disclosed, which provides hop-by-hop routing along shortest paths to each destination. Each node running the present protocol will compute a source tree (providing paths to all reachable nodes) based on partial topology information stored in its topology table. To minimize overhead, each node reports only “part” of its source tree to neighbors. The present invention employs a combination of periodic and differential updates to keep all neighbors informed of the reportable part of its source tree. The present invention performs neighbor discovery using “differential” HELLO messages that report only “changes” in the status of neighbors. This results in HELLO messages that are much smaller than those of other link-state routing protocols.

A communication device and method are provided for communicating with a receiving device over a channel within a mobile ad-hoc network. The receiving device includes a clear-to-send (CTS) packet generating portion that can generate and a CTS packet based on a parameter of the channel and that can transmit the CTS packet over the channel. The communication device includes a transmitter portion, a receiver portion and a management portion. The transmitter portion can transmit information into the channel. The receiver portion can receive information from the channel. The management portion includes a request-to-send (RTS) packet generating portion, a CTS packet receiving portion, a threshold database, a comparator and an RES packet generating portion. The management portion is in communication with the transmitter portion and the receiver portion. The RTS packet generating portion can generate a RTS packet and can provide the RTS packet to the transmitter portion. The transmitter portion can transmit the RTS packet to the receiving device by way of the channel. The receiver portion can receive the CTS packet from the receiving device by way of the channel and can provide the CTS packet to the CTS packet receiving portion. The threshold database can store a threshold value for the parameter of the channel and can provide the threshold value to the comparator. The CTS packet receiving portion can provide channel parameter information, to the comparator, based on the CTS packet. The comparator can compare the threshold value and the channel parameter information and can generate an instruction signal based on the comparison. The RES packet generating portion can generate an RES packet based on the instruction signal and can provide the RES packet to the transmitter portion.

A system and method for improving digital communication in a wireless mobile ad-hoc network. More specifically, the system includes one or more portable network devices operable to support the seamless operation of a self-initializing, self-healing, adaptive portable network. The portable network devices implement protocols that provide bandwidth management capabilities for use with radios, routers and other wireless network devices. Each portable network device includes at least one wireless transceiver, a processor and control software. The processor and control software are logically coupled to the wireless transceiver to facilitate digital communication via a plurality of communication channels with other network devices.

A method and apparatus for storing data on application-level activity and other user information to enable real-time multi-dimensional reporting about a user of a mobile data network. A data manager receives information about application-level activity from a mobile data network and stores the information to provide dynamic real-time reporting on network usage. The data manager comprises a database, data processing module, and analytics module. The database stores the application-level data for a predetermined period of time. The data processing module monitors the data to determine if it corresponds to a set of defined reports. If the data is relevant, the processing module updates the defined reports. The analytics module accesses the database to retrieve information satisfying operator queries about network usage. If the operator chooses to convert the query into a defined report, the analytics module creates a newly defined report and populates it accordingly.

Mobile routers establish a tree-based network topology in an ad hoc mobile network, the tree-based network topology having a single clusterhead and attached mobile routers. Each attached mobile router has a default egress interface configured for sending messages toward the clusterhead, and ingress interfaces configured for receiving messages from attached network nodes that are away from the clusterhead. A neighbor advertisement message received from an ingress interface away from a clusterhead is used by the attached mobile router to identify specified network prefixes that are reachable via the source of the neighbor advertisement message. The attached mobile router outputs on its default upstream interface a second neighbor advertisement message that specifies the network prefix used by the attached mobile router, and the specified network prefixes from the neighbor advertisement message received on the ingress interface. Hence, connectivity is established with minimal routing overhead.

The present invention provides a wireless ad hoc network suitable for sharing data on a peer-to-peer basis between nodes, some of which may be aircraft, having a terminal device comprising a wireless communications transceiver, a sensor, and a computing device. Multiple hops between nodes maximize range of the network. In addition, architectures for terminal devices allow for use of a wide variety of wireless communications transceivers and sensors, without affecting applications that use the network. Such invention may include, among others, a fire fighting application allowing different aircraft to co-ordinate firefighting activities by using shared fire and positional data for aircraft.

The present invention is a method for providing services for a mobile ad hoc network, which includes receiving a service discovery request of a client node of the network. The method further includes directing the service discovery request to at least one node of the mobile ad hoc network. The method further includes receiving a service discovery request response from a node included in the at least one node, the response indicating that a service providing node is present within the network and is capable of providing the requested service. The method further includes determining a data transfer route for connecting the service providing node with the client node. The method further includes transmitting a service reservation request to the service providing node, wherein the service reservation request specifies a future time that a service is to be provided to the client node.

A method for IP [=Internet Protocol] communication between a mobile terminal and its correspondent node in a mobile radio network. The method comprises establishing (2-2) an IP connection between the mobile terminal and its correspondent node. After detecting a period of inactivity in the IP connection, (2-4) keep-alive messages are sent via the IP connection at predetermined intervals, which are varied. The method comprises monitoring (2-6) the lengths of several periods of inactivity at which the mobile radio network disconnects the IP connection. Based on the monitored lengths of periods of inactivity, a maximum interval (TINT) between keep-alive messages is determined (2-8) such that the maximum interval meets a predetermined criterion of statistical confidence, and the interval between keep-alive messages is set (2-10) to the maximum interval (TINT).

The present invention relates to a system for providing location information using a mobile communication network, and more particularly, to a system for providing emergency relief location information using a mobile communication network, by which location and situation information of a mobile communication subscriber can be easily known through the mobile communication network using the mobile communication terminal. An object of the present invention is to provide a system for providing emergency relief location information using a mobile communication network, capable of notifying location and situation information of a given mobile communication subscriber who is placed in an emergency situation through a mobile communication terminal of a given relief personnel adjacent to the place where the emergency situation has occurred. Another object of the present invention is to provide a system for providing emergency relief location information using a mobile communication network, which can prevent in advance illegal deposit withdrawal by stopping a transaction of financial accounts owned by a given mobile communication subscriber in case of emergency. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a system for providing location information using a mobile communication network, which can provide location information that allows the location among the mobile communication subscribers to be easily found through the satellite communications and the mobile communication network.

A system and method for information dissemination in a wireless mobile ad hoc network. A method describes receiving a request to communicate a message from a source node to a destination, identifying each neighbor node of an ad hoc network, invoking a proactive border node broadcast protocol at the source node when the destination is a neighbor node and wherein the number of hops to the destination is less than a predetermined number of hops, invoking an on-demand border node broadcast protocol at the source node when the number of hops from the source node to the destination exceeds the predetermined number, and communicating the message from the source node based on the invoked broadcast protocol. A computer readable medium containing a computer program for information dissemination in a wireless mobile ad hoc network is also provided. Finally, a system for information dissemination in a wireless mobile ad hoc network is described.

The invention targets at a QoS-aware handover procedure in a typical dynamic mobile ad-hoc scenario (cf. FIGS. 23 to 27) wherein the connectivity of fixed (AR1, AR2, CN) and / or mobile nodes (MN, M1, M2, M3, M4, EN1, EN2) is unpredictably time-varying and, due to the mobility of mobile nodes, handovers will inevitably frequently occur. Thereby, resources are pre-allocated along potential routing paths in advance, and the flow traffic is redirected to the path having the best available QoS capabilities. According to the new QoS situation of the selected path, adaptive real-time applications can have the opportunity to individually adjust traffic generation. With this concept, packet loss can be avoided and degradation effects on the running real-time application during the QoS-aware handover can be minimized. The QoS-aware handover procedure comprises the steps of handover candidates selection, handover initiation, QoS metrics probing and resource pre-allocation (soft reservation), QoS metrics collection, handover decision, handover confirmation (hard reservation), and reservation release. In particular, the proposed solution thereby pertains to a method for proactively probing the QoS situation of each potential routing path, pre-allocating resources along the best available QoS path before the handover of the QoS data flow to be transmitted to a new access point (AP) is initiated, providing efficient resource reservation management and maintenance within the underlying mobile ad-hoc networks and incorporating advanced QoS support features offered by adaptive real-time applications. The invention further proposes an "information dissemination" approach, which optimizes prior-art address resolution mechanisms.

A method is provided for sending data in a wireless ad-hoc network including a plurality of nodes grouped into clusters of nodes and a plurality of wireless links connecting the plurality of nodes, where each cluster node has a designated cluster leader node. The method may include sending a cluster-level route request from a source node of a source cluster to a cluster leader node of the source cluster, and determining a cluster-level route between the source cluster and a destination cluster including a destination node responsive to the cluster-level route request and using a plurality of the cluster leader nodes. Furthermore, at least one cluster target node may be designated in a cluster along the cluster-level route, and a node-level route determined from the source node to the destination node including the at least one cluster target node. In addition, the method may also include generating a mission data packet for transferring the data.

The mobile ad hoc network includes a plurality of wireless mobile nodes and a plurality of wireless communication links connecting the nodes together. The method includes node advertisement, or group of mobile nodes, in the mobile ad hoc network. The group of mobile nodes includes a temporary or permanent association of two or more of the plurality of mobile nodes. The method includes transmitting node / group information using a beacon signal, determining a node / group condition of the corresponding mobile node or group of nodes, and varying the beacon signal based upon the determined condition.

Systems and methods to control media are disclosed. A particular method includes receiving a speech input at a mobile communications device. The speech input is processed to generate audio data. The audio data is sent, via a mobile data network, to a first server. The first server processes the audio data to generate text based on the audio data. Data related to the text is received from the first server. One or more commands are sent to a second server via the mobile data network. In response to the one or more commands, the second server sends control signals based on the one or more commands to a media controller. The control signals cause the media controller to control multimedia content displayed via a display device.

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) may include a plurality of mobile nodes each including a wireless communications device and a controller connected thereto. The controller may operate in accordance with a multi-layer protocol hierarchy. More particularly, at an upper protocol layer, the controller may establish a quality-of-service (QoS) threshold. Furthermore, at at least one intermediate protocol layer below the upper protocol layer, the controller may select between unicast and multicast communications modes based upon the QoS threshold. As such, at a lower protocol layer below the at least one intermediate protocol layer, the controller may cooperate with the wireless communications device to transmit data to at least one destination mobile node based upon the selected communications mode.

A Swarm Autonomous Routing Algorithm (SARA) is performed by simple communication node devices for node to node communications in a network, especially a Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET). Each node maintains a table of pheromone values for known neighbor nodes. Pheromone values are dynamic for adapting to a dynamic arrangement of nodes, and are updated either passively or actively. Routing tables are not used. When a node receives a packet, it uses the pheromone table to simply determine whether or not to forward (rebroadcast) the packet to a neighbor node, and if possible, determines and indicates the best neighbor node for next forwarding the packet. Destination Zone Routing (DZR) and Swarm Location Service (SLS) are alternative enhancements of SARA that can be used for more efficient routing when nodes are location aware / knowledgeable. SLS may also be used to improve routing algorithms other than SARA.

A method and system for geocasting data packets in a MANET. The MANET is combined with a long-range network such that a wireless terminal can decide whether to rebroadcast a geocast packet over the MANET, the long-range network, or not at all, depending on the wireless terminal's proximity to the geocast region, the location of the originating wireless terminal, or both. A wireless terminal close to or within the geocast region can rebroadcast on the MANET, whereas a wireless terminal far from the geocast region can rebroadcast on the long-range network.