Multi-path connection management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12219003-B2
Application number	US-202318236943-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 22, 2023
Priority date	Sep 9, 2019
Publication date	Feb 4, 2025
Grant date	Feb 4, 2025

Abstract

A device implementing a system for multipath connection management may include first and second local communication interfaces, and a processor configured to establish a primary connection for communicating between the first local communication interface and a first remote communication interface of an other device, and a secondary connection for communicating between the second local communication interface and a second remote communication interface. The processor may be configured to transmit application and control data over the primary connection and concurrently transmit a copy of control data over the secondary connection. The processor may be configured to determine that a degradation of the quality of the primary connection is attributable to the other device. The processor may be configured to switch the secondary connection to the first local communication interface and the second remote communication interface. The processor may be configured to transmit a copy of the application and control data over the secondary connection.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
attempting, by a device, to establish a first link as a primary connection for communicating with an other device;
when the first link cannot be established within a threshold amount of time, attempting to establish a second link as the primary connection for communicating with the other device, the second link differing from the first link; and
upon establishing the first or second link as the primary connection for communicating with the other device:
selecting an additional available link as a secondary connection for communicating with the other device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting that a quality of the primary connection satisfies a link quality degradation condition; and
responsive to detecting that the quality of the primary connection satisfies the link quality degradation condition, concurrently transmitting a copy of at least a portion of application data over the secondary connection.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
responsive to detecting that the quality of the primary connection satisfies the link quality degradation condition and prior to concurrently transmitting the copy of the at least the portion of the application data over the secondary connection:
determining that the quality of the primary connection satisfying the link quality degradation condition is caused by the other device; and
select another additional available link as the secondary connection with the other device.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
responsive to detecting that the quality of the primary connection satisfies the link quality degradation condition, reducing a quality of the application data transmitted over the primary connection based at least in part on a bandwidth constraint of the secondary connection.

5. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
when transmission of the copy of the at least the portion of the application data satisfies a bandwidth condition, display an indication that the copy of the at least the portion of the application data is being transmitted over the secondary connection, the indication being separate and independent from display of the application data.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein detecting that the quality of the primary connection satisfies the link quality degradation condition comprises:
detecting that at least one of a round trip time metric, a packet loss metric, or a time without receiving packets metric satisfies the link quality degradation condition.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second link differs from the first link based at least in part on one or more of: a packet type, an internet protocol (IP) version, or a connection type.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the packet type comprises at least one of a user data protocol (UDP) packet or a transmission control protocol (TCP) packet, the IP version comprises at least one of IPV4 or IPV6, and the connection type comprises at least one of a peer-to-peer connection or a connection through a relay server.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a list of a plurality of additional available links with the other device; and
continuously re-evaluating the plurality of additional available links with the other device and updating the list accordingly.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
transmitting, to the other device, a list of available local communication interfaces;
receiving, from the other device, a list of available remote communication interfaces; and
generating the plurality of additional available links based at least in part on the list of available local communication interfaces and the list of available remote communication interfaces.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
detecting that a least one of the primary connection or the secondary connection has disconnected; and
selecting at least one of the plurality of additional available links as the at least one of the primary connection or the secondary connection that disconnected.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of: a first local communication interface of the first link differs from a second local communication interface of the second link, or a first remote communication interface of the first link differs from a second remote communication interface of the second link.

13. A device comprising:
a first local communication interface;
a second local communication interface;
at least one processor configured to:
establish a primary connection for communicating between the first local communication interface and a first remote communication interface of an other device;
establish a secondary connection for communicating between the second local communication interface and a second remote communication interface of the other device;
provide, for transmission, application data and control data over the primary connection and provide, for transmission, at least a portion of the control data over the secondary connection; and
in response to a determination that a quality of the primary connection satisfies a degradation condition, switch the secondary connection to utilize the first local communication interface and the second remote communication interface; and

provide, for transmission, a copy of the application data and the control data over the secondary connection and provide, for transmission, the application data and the control data over the primary connection.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the first local communication interface and the first remote communication interface comprise a first communication interface type, and the second local communication interface and the second remote communication interface comprise a second communication interface type.

15. The device of claim 14 , wherein the first communication interface type comprises a Wi-Fi communication interface and the second communication interface type comprises a cellular communication interface.

16. The device of claim 14 , wherein the at least the portion of the control data comprises at least one of a request for a key frame or a connection termination message.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising code that, when executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform operations, the code comprising:
code to attempt, for a pre-determined amount of time, to establish a primary connection for communicating between a first combination of at least a first local communication interface and a first remote communication interface of an other device;
code to, when the primary connection is not established for the pre-determined amount of time, attempt to establish the primary connection for communicating between a second combination of at least a second local communication interface and at least one of the first remote communication interface or a second remote communication interface of the other device;
code to, upon establishing the primary connection, establish a secondary connection that differs from the primary connection; and
code to provide, for transmission, application data and control data over the primary connection and a copy of at least a portion of the control data over the secondary connection.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the code further comprises:
code to detect that a quality of the primary connection satisfies a connection degradation condition; and
code to, responsive to detection that the quality of the primary conne

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Pollack Daniel B
• Bhooma Padmavathy
• Zhang Jingyao
• Lu Chieh
• Santhanam Karthick
• Garrido Christopher M
• Patterson Bradley F
• Robertson Kevin Arthur
• Shiang Hsien-Po
• Sun Qian
• Ortega Gonzalez Erik Vladimir

Classifications

• H04L69/167

  Adaptation for transition between two IP versions, e.g. between IPv4 and IPv6 (translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses H04L61/2503) · CPC title

• H04L1/0002

  by adapting the transmission rate · CPC title

• H04W76/15

  Setup of multiple wireless link connections · CPC title

• H04L43/16

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title

• H04L67/75

  Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display · CPC title