Cloud-based proximity pairing and switching for peer-to-peer devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10419912-B2
Application number	US-201815911644-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 5, 2018
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Sep 17, 2019
Grant date	Sep 17, 2019

Abstract

A first wireless communication device (UE device) associated with a certain user (or included in a specified set/group of UE devices) may establish a first communication link with an accessory device according to a short-range radio access technology, and transmit link (pairing) information associated with the first communication link to a server, such as a cloud-based server. The server may share this (first) link information with other UE devices associated with the same user (or belonging to the same specified group of UE devices as the first UE device). Link information associated with the other UE devices (i.e. second link information) may equally be shared with the accessory device, and the other UE devices and accessory device may use the first link information and second link information in establishing respective communication links between any of the other UE devices and the accessory device without having to undergo a pairing procedure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
establishing, by a first wireless device, a wireless communication link with an accessory device;
sharing, by the first wireless device with at least one second wireless device of a plurality of wireless devices, at least one item of first link information associated with the accessory device; and
sharing, by the first wireless device with the accessory device, at least one item of second link information associated with the at least one second wireless device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one item of first link information and the at least one item of second link information each comprise at least one of:
a link key;
a long term key;
a security credential;
an address; or
an out of band key.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first wireless device and the plurality of wireless devices are associated with a same account.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one item of first link information and the at least one item of second link information allow the at least one second wireless device to automatically connect with the accessory device when within a predetermined range.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein sharing, by the first wireless device with at least one second wireless device of a plurality of wireless devices, at least one item of first link information further comprises:
sharing the at least one item of first link information indirectly, by transmitting the at least one item of first link information to a server.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving, by the first wireless device, the at least one item of second link information from a local storage.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication link comprises a Bluetooth connection.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the first wireless device and the accessory device are paired.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein sharing, by the first wireless device with the at least one second wireless device of the plurality of wireless devices, the at least one item of first link information associated with the accessory device is performed automatically, responsive to the first wireless device and the accessory device being paired.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the at least one item of first link information comprises at least one of:
a Bluetooth address;
a Bluetooth device name; or
a class of device.

11. An apparatus comprising:
a processing element configured to cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising:
establishing a wireless communication link with a first device;
sharing an item of first link information associated with the first device with at least a second wireless device of a plurality of wireless devices; and
sharing an item of second link information associated with the second wireless device with the first device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the apparatus and the plurality of wireless devices are associated with a same account.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the item of first link information and the item of second link information allow the second wireless device to automatically connect with the first device when within a predetermined range.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein sharing the item of first link information further comprises:
sharing the item of first link information indirectly, by transmitting the item of first link information to a server.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the wireless communication link comprises a BLUETOOTH™ connection, and the apparatus and the first device are paired.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein sharing the item of first link information associated with the first device is performed automatically, responsive to the apparatus and the first device being paired.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the item of first link information comprises at least one of:
a Bluetooth address;
a Bluetooth device name; or
a class of device.

18. A non-transitory memory element storing instructions executable by processing circuitry to cause a wireless communication device to:
establish a short-range wireless communication link with a first device, when the wireless communication device and the first device are within an effective communication range;
share, by the wireless communication device with at least a second wireless communication device, an item of first link information associated with the first device; and
share, by the wireless communication device with the first device, an item of second link information associated with the second wireless communication device, wherein the wireless communication device and the second wireless communication device are associated with a common account.

19. The non-transitory memory element of claim 18 , wherein the short-range wireless communication link comprises a Bluetooth link and the item of first link information comprises at least one of:
a Bluetooth address;
a Bluetooth device name; or
a class of device.

20. The non-transitory memory element of claim 18 , wherein the item of first link information and the item of second link information allow the second wireless communication device to automatically connect with the first device when within a predetermined range of the first device.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Srivatsa Akshay Mangalam
• Dooley Craig P
• Shaw David John
• Batta Ganesha Adkasthala Ganapathi
• Giles Michael Jason
• Hariharan Sriram

Classifications

• H04W4/08 Primary

  User group management · CPC title

• H04W12/04

  Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA] · CPC title

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04L67/104

  Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks · CPC title

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title