Patent Application
20060095546
The present invention relates generally to electronic devices with short-range communication capabilities, such as WLAN and BlueTooth capabilities. More particularly, the present invention relates to electronic devices with enhanced functionality on the devices' socket implementation.
Society is continuously becoming increasingly well-networked and equipped with various devices that may establish local networks. More and more people also carry portable devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), that provide users with personal connectivity and control services.
A Spontaneous network is one type of ad hoc network, but spontaneous networks do not necessarily need multiple hop routes to reach other peers. A hop is defined as a logical connection between two nodes without any opto-electronic processing at intermediate devices. In a single-hop topology, optical signals carry information from a source node to the destination node without undergoing any opto-electronic conversion. Spontaneous networks without multihop represent a simplified scenario where the emphasis is on creating an optimal user experience and solving problems due to missing infrastructure services. In this environment, several kind of terminals may exist and may be equipped with several radios.
In one scenario, a terminal is equipped with short-range radio, such as a wireless local area network (WLAN) or Bluetooth connection, in addition to cellular bearers. The terminal is constantly connected to cellular bearers that allow Internet or voice communication to occur whenever needed. The short-range radio provides additional means of using local services over local area networks. Other situations may involve a multi-hop ad hoc environment, although a single-hop scenario is primarily discussed herein.
In the single-hop scenario, the terminal normally does not convey traffic from a wide area network (WAN) to a local area network (LAN) environment, and hence it does not act as a router. When local services are to be used, the short-range radio is activated, which consequently configures itself automatically for the current network. Even if this radio interface is continuously active, it needs to determine the proper network configuration when entering a new network.
The automatic configuration of the network is not sufficient for an optimal user experience. The user wishes to locate peers and services that are available nearby. It would be desirable to use the service location protocol to locate peers based on a set of predetermined parameters and returning a set of services that is considered to be capable of fulfilling the user's wishes. Typically, in a spontaneous network, many services are needed for this to properly function. However, items such as domain name services and applications servers are missing.
In ad hoc networks, which can be either multi-hop manet type networks or spontaneous networks, there is a very limited infrastructure, if any infrastructure exists at all. As most of the applications in the Internet do expect certain services to be available, the ad hoc environment causes problems in their function. For example, domain name services do not function and IP addresses of services may not be correct. It can also be difficult to locate available services. These problems can be the most severe on legacy applications that are made for Internet operation and do not have features for helping them in an ad hoc environment.
The present invention addresses the issues identified above by having all terminals equipped with a number of application server functionalities. For example, most mobile phones are equipped with web servers according the principles of the present invention, providing a user with specific weblog service. In addition to local servers, legacy applications that are not built with an ad hoc environment in mind require additional assistance. Legacy applications include problems such as converting domain names into IP addresses, which is a basic service of infrastructured networks.
The present invention addresses this issue by adding new functionality on the terminal's socket implementation. When a legacy application opens a network socket, this initiates service discovery and an ad hoc network compatible DNS/IP service. The purpose of this enhanced functionality is to provide a valid server and IP address for the legacy application without requiring changes into it.
The present invention possesses a number of advantages over the prior art. The present invention can be incorporated into a wide variety of electronic devices, including, but not limited to most cellular terminals and/or personal digital assistants. The present invention permits the same applications to be used in both network infrastructure and within ad hoc networks. Furthermore, one could also provide Java API with the present invention, which provides application developers with new ways of creating widely functional applications with a number of potentially powerful new features.
One embodiment of the present invention involves a method of maintaining the configuration of a server within a network. After daemons are initiated for the server, it is determined whether network interfaces are available. If network interfaces are available, the available network interfaces are configured. It is then determined whether infrastructure exists. If no infrastructure is detected, an enhanced socket operation is initiated until a router advertisement is received in order to continue to configure the available network interfaces as necessary. Other embodiments of the invention relate to computer software programs, electronic devices, modules and mobile terminals that are capable of accomplishing these steps.
These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention, together with the organization and manner of operation thereof, will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like elements have like numerals throughout the several drawings described below.
According to the principles of the present invention, the socket API of an electronic device is modified to detect when the interface in question is in an ad hoc network mode. If the interface is not in an ad hoc network mode, the operation continues normally as occurs in conventional systems. If the interface is in an ad hoc network mode, however, then the opening of a socket results in a check of the address type. If the address is not a local address, then name resolution or service discovery is initiated. The local address is provided according the Ipv6 link local address (part of fe80::/10 address space) or Ipv4 using 169.x.x.x according to one embodiment of the invention.
For exemplification, the system 10 shown in
The exemplary communication devices of the system 10 may include, but are not limited to, a mobile telephone 12, a combination PDA and mobile telephone 14, a PDA 16, an IMD 18, a desktop computer 20, and a notebook computer 22. The communication devices may be stationary or mobile as when carried by an individual who is moving. The communication devices may also be located in a mode of transportation including, but not limited to, an automobile, a truck, a taxi, a bus, a boat, an airplane, a bicycle, a motorcycle, etc. Some or all of the communication devices may send and receive calls and messages and communicate with service providers through a wireless connection 25 to a base station 24. The base station 24 may be connected to a network server 26 that allows communication between the mobile telephone network 11 and the Internet 28. The system 10 may include additional communication devices and communication devices of different types.
The communication devices may communicate using various transmission technologies including, but not limited to, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Short Messaging Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), e-mail, Instant Messaging Service (IMS), Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, etc. A communication device may communicate using various media including, but not limited to, radio, infrared, laser, cable connection, and the like.
For service discovery, the type of the socket that is to be opened is determined based upon well known TCP/UDP ports (from e.g. IANA) is determined, and known port types can also be added based on specific applications. Based on this information, service discovery can be restricted to most potential services. This may also be a configurable feature. When results arrive, the user can be provided with the possibility to select between found services.
The present invention is based primarily on existing IETF specified solutions that are extended in order to enable legacy application support and to make user interaction as easy as possible. A logical architecture according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown in
Application servers 140 are usually located somewhere in the infrastructured Internet. Because one cannot rely on having network connectivity to these servers, some of these application server functionalities are placed into mobile terminals. Server functionalities, such as HTTP server functionality, are not very processing and communication-intensive, if only a few connections are served at the time. Other servers, such as chat and gaming servers, could be part of the mobile terminal.
The terminal may have several application-level protocols such as session initiation protocol (SIP) 150. These protocols are used by applications such as chatting or gaming. Service discovery, namely Service Location Protocol (SLP), is a significant part of the architecture. In other embodiments of the invention, other service discovery protocols besides SLP could be used. In mobile terminals, there are two functions. First, a SLP user agent 155 is used to locate services and peers on the proximity network. The SLP user agent receives its assignments from applications or from the modified protocol stack. SLP service agents 160 keep record of the terminal's own services. In practice, the earlier mentioned application servers provide these services. The record is called the service discovery database 170 and can also be used by service agents.
The final architectural piece is the TCP/IP protocol suite, shown generally at 180. The actual protocol implementation is standard using an automatic configuration of the network interface. The present invention is primarily focused on the socket interface implementation. These changes cause the socket interface 185 to check the current network status for an interface and to request service discovery when needed. Other components include the transmission control protocol (TCP) 190 and the internet protocol (IP) 195.
In a “spontaneous” mode, which is detected by the interface and can be detected if only a link local address exists, opening a socket results additional operations before the actual connection can be established. If the address of the open request can be found from the service discovery data base and the address is not a global address, the terminal may proceed to establish a connection. If no valid entry exists, the next phase involves whether the address is a local address or a global address. If it is a DNS name, one must perform multicast DNS messages to determine the IP address. If this is a local address, one may proceed to connection establishment. For global addresses, a service discovery is performed. If the socket type is registered, only specific services can be discovered. If the service type is not known, an open service discovery is performed. Finally, user is always given possibility to choose among found services.
While several embodiments have been shown and described herein, it should be understood that changes and modifications can be made to the invention without departing from the invention in its broader aspects. For example, but without limitation, the present invention could be incorporated into a wide variety of electronic devices, such as cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, and other devices. Various features of the invention are defined in the following Claims.
