Methods and procedures for subnetwork formation enabling device centric compute resource and network connectivity resource sharing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12563450-B2
Application number	US-202418616419-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2024
Priority date	Apr 7, 2023
Publication date	Feb 24, 2026
Grant date	Feb 24, 2026

Abstract

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. The method may be performed by a device. In certain configurations, the device provides a distributed device cloud function (DDCF) for handling communication for the device with one or more neighboring devices in a network via underlying access technologies. The device obtains a network address from the network or from an AP. The DDCF is configured to allow dynamic sharing of compute resources and network connectivity resources of the device with the neighboring devices in the network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of wireless communication of a device, comprising:
providing a distributed device cloud function (DDCF) for handling communication for the device with one or more neighboring devices in a network via underlying access technologies; and obtaining a network address from the network or from an access point (AP), wherein the DDCF is configured to allow dynamic sharing of compute resources and network connectivity resources of the device with the neighboring devices in the network, wherein the device is a user device configured to obtain the network address from the AP or from the network, wherein when the user device is not in a subnetwork:
attempting to connect, with the underlying access technologies, to the neighboring devices; and
receiving a response from one of the neighboring devices to establish connectivity using a protocol under a corresponding radio access technology (RAT).

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating a service bearer between a renter device in the network and the user device, wherein the user device functions as a proxy device for an unsubscribed device intended to access compute resources of the renter device through the proxy device.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from another device, duplicated resource inquiry messages, including a first message forwarded by another user device and a second message directly from the another device; identifying the duplicated resource inquiry messages by corresponding message sequence numbers, and identifying forwarding loops of the duplicated resource inquiry messages by path vectors in the device cloud message; and selecting an optimal link from the forwarding loops of the duplicated resource inquiry messages.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the DDCF, DDCF messages in a point-to-point communication to a destination device through an encrypted secure channel.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
subscribing, by the DDCF, to a reward or payment service for a sharing service fee in exchange of sharing of compute resource and network connectivity provided by the reward or payment service.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the device is configured to be connected to a plurality of subnetworks, and the device has an active traffic connection to one of the subnetworks, and standby connections to other ones of the subnetworks.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the DDCF is configured to generate one or more device cloud packet data units (PDUs), each device cloud PDU includes a device cloud protocol header and one or more device cloud messages, and each device cloud message includes a device cloud message header and a device cloud message payload.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein contents in the device cloud message payload of each device cloud message are based on a message type field in the device cloud message header of each device cloud message.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the DDCF is placed below a network layer, and the method further comprises:
receiving, by the DDCF, a packet from one of the neighboring devices; determining, by the DDCF, whether the packet received is an IP network packet or a device cloud packet based on a header of the packet; in response to determining the packet received to be the IP network packet, allowing the IP network packet to transparently pass through the DDCF and reach an upper layer; and in response to determining the packet received to be the device cloud packet, processing, by the DDCF, the device cloud packet.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the header of the packet includes:
a protocol version field indicating a protocol version of the packet and identifying the packet as the device cloud packet or the IP network packet, a protocol type field indicating a type of the device cloud packet, a segment number field indicating a segment order of the device cloud packet as a segment in a segmented message, a more field indicating whether any additional segment follows the device cloud packet in the segmented message, and a sequence number field indicating an incrementing sequence number of the message.

11 . A method of wireless communication of a device, comprising:
providing a distributed device cloud function (DDCF) for handling communication for the device with one or more neighboring devices in a network via underlying access technologies; and obtaining a network address from the network or from an access point (AP), wherein the DDCF is configured to allow dynamic sharing of compute resources and network connectivity resources of the device with the neighboring devices in the network, wherein the device is an AP in a subnetwork, and the AP is configured to provide a Network Address Translation (NAT) function to forward a message to the neighboring devices in the subnetwork or to the network.

12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the DDCF, DDCF broadcast messages to autonomously discover an eligible neighboring subnetwork within a reachable distance; and in response to discovering the eligible neighboring subnetwork, establishing a network connection with an AP of the eligible neighboring subnetwork and configuring routing with the eligible neighboring subnetwork.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the subnetwork and the eligible neighboring subnetwork merge to form a single subnetwork in response to establishing the network connection between the AP of the subnetwork and the AP of the eligible neighboring subnetwork.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the network and the eligible neighboring subnetwork in a merged single subnetwork split to become individual subnetworks in response to a last communication channel between the AP of the subnetwork and the AP of the eligible neighboring subnetwork becomes inactive, or in response to the network connection between the AP of the subnetwork and the AP of the eligible neighboring subnetwork being lost.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the subnetwork is an open subnetwork with a boundary not predetermined and supporting dynamic addition of user devices and removal or uncoordinated devices from the subnetwork, and the DDCF broadcast messages are not encrypted.

16 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the subnetwork is identified by a unique subnetwork identifier (ID).

17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the subnetwork has a boundary based on service connectivity of the subnetwork.

18 . An apparatus for wireless communication, the apparatus being a device, comprising:
a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to: provide a distributed device cloud function (DDCF) for handling communication for the device with one or more neighboring devices in a network via underlying access technologies; and obtain a network address from the network or from an access point (AP); wherein the DDCF is configured to allow dynamic sharing of compute resources and network connectivity resources of the device with the neighboring devices in the network, wherein the device is a user device, and the user device is configured to obtain the network address from the AP or from the network, wherein when the user device is not in a subnetwork, the at least one processor is further configured to:
attempt to connect, with the underlying access technologies, to the neighboring devices; and
receive a response from one of the neighboring devices to establish connectivity

Assignees

• Mediatek Inc

Inventors

• Kim Bong Ho
• Calin Doru

Classifications

• H04L67/567

  Integrating service provisioning from a plurality of service providers · CPC title

• H04L61/2567

  for reachability, e.g. inquiring the address of a correspondent behind a NAT server · CPC title

• H04W48/16 Primary

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W28/16 Primary

  Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service] · CPC title

• H04W16/16

  for PBS [Private Base Station] arrangements · CPC title