Scalable WLAN Gateway Bandwidth Aggregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless broadband modems face challenges in sharing connections among multiple users, as they often require a master terminal to consume resources, are limited by insufficient bandwidth, and have USB connections that hinder mobility, especially for mobile clients.
Innovation Solution
A communication device with enhanced functionality acts as a WLAN gateway, utilizing a processor, memory, and radio transceivers to establish and manage multiple simultaneous wireless broadband connections, allowing multiple clients to share a single subscription and increasing bandwidth through a scalable gateway architecture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a master terminal is used to share a single wireless broadband connection among several users, then the connection sharing is enabled, but the resources of the master terminal are consumed and the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system is segmented into multiple equal peer devices, each capable of independent operation. Instead of one master terminal controlling multiple clients, each device runs the gateway application independently, allowing any device to function as both client and gateway simultaneously. This eliminates the resource consumption and complexity associated with a dedicated master terminal.
Solution Approach 2:
Each peer device is designed with universal functionality to act as both a wireless broadband client and a WLAN access point. The gateway application enables any device to provide internet connectivity to others while simultaneously using the connection itself, removing the need for specialized master terminal hardware or software.
2Productivity
If a single wireless broadband connection is shared among several users, then resource utilization is improved, but the bandwidth per user becomes insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple wireless broadband connections are merged at the WLAN network level. Each peer device establishes its own separate broadband connection while sharing the WLAN medium, effectively combining multiple high-speed connections to provide aggregate bandwidth that exceeds any single connection, thus maintaining high speed while improving resource utilization.
3Ease of manufacture
If wireless broadband modems are provided at nominal cost by mobile network operators, then device cost is reduced, but the ability to share connections among multiple users is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway application enables peer devices to provide their own internet connectivity services to others without requiring additional infrastructure or permission from mobile network operators. Each device uses its own subscription to create a shared WLAN network, allowing connection sharing among multiple users while keeping device costs low, as no special hardware or expensive modifications are needed.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B~1D
Figure 2
AI summary
A technique for combining transmission bandwidths of several communication devices, such as mobile stations (MS1, MS2) is disclosed. A master mobile station (MS1) establishes (7-0) a WLAN access point communicating with WLAN client terminals (CT). One or more slave mobile stations (MS2) may detect a predefined network identifier and join the WLAN network. The master (MS1) assigns IP addresses for the client terminals (CT) and slave mobile stations (MS2). The master also resolves DNS queries in cooperation with external DNS servers. Traffic, including internet packets (IP1 -IP4), between the client terminals and various internet hosts (HO) is tunneled over multiple simultaneous transmission paths (7-6, 7-8; 7-18, 7-22) between the master (MS1) and a multiplexing/demultiplexing computer (SM). The inventive bandwidth combination technique is transparent to the client terminals (CT) and the internet hosts (HO).