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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11849378-B2
Application number	US-202217888289-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 15, 2022
Priority date	Jun 5, 2015
Publication date	Dec 19, 2023
Grant date	Dec 19, 2023

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. An apparatus comprising:
a processor configured to:
cause an accessory device to establish, in response to the accessory device coming within a predetermined range of a wireless device with which the accessory device has not previously paired, a direct wireless connection with the wireless device without engaging in a pairing procedure with the wireless device, by using a first item of link information associated with the wireless device, wherein the first item of link information was previously received by the accessory device from a second device different from the wireless device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the wireless device and the second device are included in a set of devices associated with a common user.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to further cause the accessory device to:
become disconnected from the wireless device when the accessory device is within at least a specified proximity of a third device, to allow the accessory device to connect to the third device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first item of link information comprises at least one of:
a security credential;
a link key;
a long term key; or
an out-of-band key.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein coming within the predetermined range of the wireless device comprises coming within an effective communication range of the wireless device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine that the accessory device is within the predetermined range based on at least one or more signal metrics.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the one or more signal metrics include signal strength, and wherein coming within the specified range is determined by comparing results of the proximity calculations to a threshold value.

8. An accessory device comprising:
a radio interface configured to enable wireless communications by the accessory device according to a specified wireless protocol with one or more wireless devices; and
a processor communicatively coupled to the radio interface and configured to interoperate with the radio interface to:
establish, in response to the accessory device coming within a threshold range of a wireless device with which the accessory device has not previously paired, a direct wireless connection between the accessory device and the wireless device without engaging in a pairing procedure, using a first item of link information associated with the wireless device, wherein the first item of link information was previously received by the accessory device from a second device different from the wireless device.

9. The accessory device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
disconnect the accessory device from the wireless device when the accessory device is within a threshold proximity of a third device, to allow the accessory device to connect to the third device.

10. The accessory device of claim 8 , wherein the first item of link information comprises at least one of:
a security credential;
a link key;
a long-term key; or
an out-of-band key.

11. The accessory device of claim 8 , wherein coming within the threshold range of the wireless device comprises coming within effective communication range of the wireless device.

12. The accessory device of claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine that the accessory device is within the threshold range based on at least one or more signal metrics.

13. The accessory device of claim 12 , wherein the one or more signal metrics comprise a signal strength metric, and wherein coming within the threshold range is determined by comparing the signal strength metric to a threshold value.

14. A non-transitory memory element storing instructions executable by a processor to:
cause an accessory device to establish, in response to the accessory device coming within a threshold range of a wireless device with which the accessory device has not previously paired, a direct wireless connection with the wireless device without engaging in a pairing procedure with the wireless device, using a first item of link information associated with the wireless device, wherein the first item of link information was previously received by the accessory device from a second device different from the wireless device.

15. The non-transitory memory element of claim 14 , wherein the instructions are executable by the processor to:
further cause the accessory device to become disconnected from the wireless device when the accessory device is within a threshold proximity of a third device, to allow the accessory device to connect to the third device.

16. The non-transitory memory element of claim 14 , wherein the first item of link information comprises at least one of:
a security credential;
a link key;
a long-term key; or
an out-of-band key.

17. The non-transitory memory element of claim 14 , wherein coming within the threshold range of the wireless device comprises coming within an effective communication range of the wireless device.

18. The non-transitory memory element of claim 14 , wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to determine that the accessory device is within the threshold range by performing a proximity calculation based on one or more signal metrics.

19. The non-transitory memory element of claim 18 , wherein the one or more signal metrics comprise signal strength, and wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to determine that the accessory device is within the threshold range by comparing a result of the proximity calculation to a threshold value.

20. The non-transitory memory element of claim 14 , wherein the wireless device and the second device are included in a set of devices associated with a common user.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H04L67/306

  User profiles · 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

• H04M1/72412

  using two-way short-range wireless interfaces · CPC title

• H04W4/08 Primary

  User group management · CPC title