Cloud-Based Social Bandwidth Manager for Automatic Tethering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Configuring a tethering session between a smartphone and other devices is cumbersome and complicated for end-users, requiring manual entry of long passphrases and complex network configurations.
Innovation Solution
A social bandwidth sharing system that uses a cloud-based manager and applications to simplify the process by storing and broadcasting wireless network security credentials, allowing authorized devices to automatically connect to an Internet-connected user's network without needing to manually input passphrases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual tethering configuration is used, then security credentials can be verified, but user operation complexity increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a social bandwidth manager as an intermediary service that mediates between tethering devices. This manager handles the complex credential verification process automatically, eliminating the need for users to manually input and verify long passphrases. The intermediary service maintains credential databases and performs automated authentication, thus preserving security while dramatically simplifying user operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables devices to automatically obtain and configure network credentials without user intervention. The social bandwidth manager provides self-service functionality where devices can autonomously register, authenticate, and connect to networks using credentials managed by the system, eliminating manual configuration steps while maintaining secure credential verification.
2Reliability
If long passphrases are used for security, then network security is improved, but user memory burden and input complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the passphrase management function from the user device and relocates it to a centralized social bandwidth manager. Complex long passphrases are generated and managed by the manager service rather than being stored or handled by individual devices. This extraction maintains strong security through centralized credential management while removing the burden of passphrase complexity from the user experience and device storage requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring each device to store and manage unique long passphrases, the system uses credential copying where a single credential set managed by the social bandwidth manager can be shared across multiple authorized devices. The manager maintains the master credential and distributes access rights without requiring each device to independently handle complex passphrase generation and storage.
Data Source
AI summary
A decryption key and a network name are received by a cloud-based social bandwidth manager from an Internet-connected device that acts as a wireless access point for a wireless network, wherein a beacon broadcasted by the Internet-connected device includes the network name and an encrypted passphrase, and wherein the encrypted passphrase can be decrypted using the decryption key. An indication that a wireless enabled device is an authorized device to associate with the wireless network and share an Internet connection of the Internet-connected device is received from the Internet-connected device The network name and the decryption key are transmitted to the authorized wireless enabled device, wherein the authorized wireless enabled device is configurable to detect the beacon and decrypt the encrypted passphrase included in the beacon using the decryption key and associate with the wireless network using the decrypted passphrase to share the Internet connection of the Internet-connected device.