Apparatus and method for relaying by mobile device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10039045-B2
Application number	US-201615055181-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2016
Priority date	Sep 30, 2015
Publication date	Jul 31, 2018
Grant date	Jul 31, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus and method for relaying by a mobile device, the apparatus including: a wireless access node connecting module configured to connect to an external wireless access point through a station node of Wi-Fi, which is inbuilt in the mobile device; a relay instruction sending module configured to send a relay instruction to a Wi-Fi module inbuilt in the mobile device through a P2P node of Wi-Fi, which is inbuilt in the mobile device so that logon information of the mobile device is broadcasted, and one or more external electronic devices connect with the mobile device through the P2P node; a packet forward enabling module configured to enable a packet forward function; and a packet forward configuring module configured to send configuration information of packet forwarding to the Wi-Fi module so that a data packet is forwarded between the station node and the P2P node.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A mobile device comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing at least one instruction, the processor configured to execute the at least one instruction to:
connect to an external wireless access point through a station node of Wi-Fi, wherein the station node is inbuilt in the mobile device;
send a relay instruction to a Wi-Fi module inbuilt in the mobile device through a P2P node of Wi-Fi so that logon information of the mobile device is broadcasted, and one or more external electronic devices connect with the mobile device through the P2P node based on the logon information, wherein the P2P node is inbuilt in the mobile device;
enable a packet forward function to support forwarding of a data packet between different nodes of Wi-Fi that are inbuilt in the mobile device;
send a routing table for packet forwarding to the Wi-Fi module, wherein the routing table comprises a route between a first IP address of the P2P node and a second IP address of the station node; and
send configuration information of a network address translation (NAT) function to the Wi-Fi module so that the first IP address of the P2P node is translated and a data packet is forwarded between the station node and the P2P node.

2. The mobile device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction:
send configuration information of a Domain Name System (DNS) to the Wi-Fi module so that a data packet received by the P2P node from the one or more electronic devices is forwarded.

3. The mobile device according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to:
in response to the one or more external electronic devices being verified successfully against the broadcasted logon information, have the one or more external electronic devices connect with the P2P node.

4. The mobile device according to claim 3 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to:
receive, by the P2P node, a data packet from an external electronic device;
forward the data packet from the P2P node to the station node; and
send the data packet from the station node to the external wireless access point for forwarding to a target device.

5. The mobile device of according to claim 3 , wherein the processor is further configured to execute the at least one instruction to:
receive, by the station node, a data packet from the external wireless access point;
forward the data packet from the station node to the P2P node; and
send the data packet from the P2P node to an external electronic device.

6. A method for relaying by a mobile device, the method comprising:
connecting, by a station node of Wi-Fi, to an external wireless access point, wherein the station node is inbuilt in the mobile device;
sending, by a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) node of Wi-Fi, a relay instruction to a Wi-Fi module inbuilt in the mobile device, so that logon information of the mobile device is broadcasted, and one or more external electronic devices connect with the mobile device through the P2P node based on the logon information, wherein the P2P node is inbuilt in the mobile device;
enabling, by the mobile device, a packet forward function to support forwarding of a data packet between different nodes of Wi-Fi that are inbuilt in the mobile device;
sending, by the mobile device, a routing table for packet forwarding to the Wi-Fi module, wherein the routing table comprises a route between a first IP address of the P2P node and a second IP address of the station node; and
sending, by the mobile device, configuration information of a network address translation (NAT) function to the Wi-Fi module so that the first IP address of the P2P node is translated and a data packet is forwarded between the station node and the P2P node.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein after the routing table and configuration information of the NAT function are sent to the Wi-Fi module, the method further comprises:
sending, by the mobile device, configuration information of a Domain Name System (DNS) to the Wi-Fi module so that a data packet received by the P2P node from the one or more external electronic devices is forwarded.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein sending, by the mobile device, configuration information of the DNS to the Wi-Fi module comprises:
sending an address of a gateway of the DNS in a Transport Control Protocol (TCP) to the Wi-Fi module; and
sending the address of the gateway of the DNS in a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to the Wi-Fi module.

9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein sending, by the P2P node of Wi-Fi, the relay instruction to the Wi-Fi module inbuilt in the mobile device comprises:
detecting a first channel, over which the station node is connected with the external wireless access point;
calculating a second channel that does not interfere with the first channel;
obtaining the logon information of the mobile device, wherein the logon information comprises a service set identifier and a password;
calculating a first length of the service set identifier, and a length of the password;
encapsulating information associated with the second channel, the service set identifier, the first length of the service set identifier, the password, and the length of the password, in the relay instruction; and
sending the relay instruction to the Wi-Fi module through the P2P node in a group mode to broadcast the service set identifier at the first length over the second channel.

10. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the method further comprises:
in response to one or more external electronic devices being verified successfully against the broadcasted logon information, having the one or more external electronic devices connect with the P2P node.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein having the one or more external electronic devices connect with the P2P node comprises:
upon receiving a request from the one or more external electronic devices for a service set identifier in the logon information, returning a response message to the one or more external electronic devices;
upon receiving a connection request from the one or more external electronic devices, verifying a password in the connection request for consistency with a password in the logon information according to a second length of the password in the logon information; and
in response to the passwords in the connection request being consistent with the password in the logon information, having the one or more external electronic devices connect with the P2P node.

12. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, by the P2P node, a data packet from an external electronic device;
forwarding the data packet from the P2P node to the station node; and
sending the data packet from the station node to the wireless access point for forwarding to a target device.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the data packet comprises Uniform Resource Locator (URL) information, and the wireless access point maps the URL information to an IP address through a Domain Name System (DNS), and forwards the data packet to the target device at the IP address.

14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein forwarding the data packet from the P2P node to the station node comprises:
determining whether a source address of the data packet is a first IP address of the P2P node;
in response to determining that the source address of the data packet is the first IP address of the P2P node, translating the first IP

Assignees

• Hisense Mobile Communications Tech Co Ltd
• Hisense Usa Corp
• Hisense Int Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sun Zizhi
• Zheng Bin
• Yang Chuanqing
• Chen Shijiao
• Zhao Linhu
• Shang Shidong
• Zhou Changsheng

Classifications

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W40/02 Primary

  Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing · CPC title

• H04W88/04

  adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user · CPC title

• H04L61/2514

  between local and global IP addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/1511

  Electricity · mapped topic