Methods and systems for enabling end-user equipment at an end-user premise to effect communications when an ability of the end-user to communicate via a communication link connecting the end-user equipment to a communications network is disrupted

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9681485-B2
Application number	US-200813138031-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2008
Priority date	Dec 23, 2008
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

A method for effecting communications, such as telephone calls, accesses to data network sites, alarm system communications, and/or other communications, over a communications network. The method comprises: determining that an ability of first end-user equipment at a first end-user premise to communicate via a first communication link connecting the first end-user equipment to the communications network is disrupted; establishing a wireless communication link between the first end-user equipment and second end-user equipment at a second end-user premise; and causing information transmitted by or destined for the first end-user equipment to be exchanged over the communications network via the wireless communication link and a second communication link connecting the second end-user equipment to the communications network. Also provided are apparatus and computer-readable media containing a program element executable by a computing system to perform such a method.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for effecting a communication over a communications network, said method comprising:
determining that an ability of first end-user equipment at a first end-user premise to communicate via a first communication link connecting the first end-user equipment to the communications network is disrupted;
establishing a wireless communication link between the first end-user equipment and second end-user equipment at a second end-user premise upon the ability of the first end-user equipment to communicate via the first communication link being determined to be disrupted; and
causing information pertaining to the communication to be exchanged between the first end-user equipment and the communications network via the wireless communication link and a second communication link connecting the second end-user equipment to the communications network.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 , said determining comprising verifying the ability of the first end-user equipment to communicate via the first communication link.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 , said verifying comprising:
performing a verification of a state of the first communication link based on a signal conveyable via the first communication link; and
determining that the first communication link is disrupted based on a result of the verification.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 , said determining that the first communication link is disrupted based on a result of the verification comprising determining that the signal is not received within a period of time or does not satisfy a quality-of-service condition.

5. A method as claimed in claim 2 , said verifying comprising:
performing a verification of a state of a software or hardware component of the first end-user equipment; and
determining that the software or hardware component of the first end-user equipment is disrupted based on a result of the verification.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 , said determining comprising receiving information indicative of a disruption of the ability of the first end-user equipment to communicate via the first communication link.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6 , the information indicative of a disruption of the ability of the first end-user equipment to communicate via the first communication link comprising information indicative of a disruption of the first communication link.

8. A method as claimed in claim 1 , said establishing comprising causing a first one of the first end-user equipment and the second end-user equipment to wirelessly transmit certain information to a second one of the first end-user equipment and the second end-user equipment to establish the wireless communication link.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8 , the certain information comprising an identifier of the second end-user equipment.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 , the identifier of the second end-user equipment comprising at least one of a hardware identifier and an IP address.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 , the hardware identifier comprising at least one of a MAC address and an Ethernet hardware address.

12. A method as claimed in claim 9 , the certain information comprising access information for the second end-user equipment.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12 , the access information for the second end-user equipment comprising at least one of a password and a wireless network key.

14. A method as claimed in claim 12 , the certain information comprising an identifier of the first end-user equipment.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14 , each of the identifier of the first end-user equipment and the identifier of the second end-user equipment comprising at least one of a hardware identifier and an IP address.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15 , the hardware identifier comprising at least one of a MAC address and an Ethernet hardware address.

17. A method as claimed in claim 14 , the certain information comprising access information for the first end-user equipment.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17 , each of the access information for the first end-user equipment and the access information for the second end-user equipment comprising at least one of a password and a wireless network key.

19. A method as claimed in claim 1 , the first-end user equipment comprising a communication apparatus connected to the first communication link and to an end-user device at the first end-user premise, said method being performed by the communication apparatus.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19 , said establishing comprising wirelessly transmitting certain information to the second end-user equipment to establish the wireless communication link between the communication apparatus and the second end-user equipment.

21. A method as claimed in claim 20 , the second end-user equipment comprising a communication apparatus connected to the second communication link and to an end-user device at the second end-user premise, said wirelessly transmitting comprising wirelessly transmitting the certain information to the communication apparatus of the second end-user equipment to establish the wireless communication link between the communication apparatus of the first end-user equipment and the communication apparatus of the second end-user equipment.

22. A method as claimed in claim 20 , the second end-user equipment comprising a communication apparatus connected to the second communication link and to an end-user device at the second end-user premise, said wirelessly transmitting comprising wirelessly transmitting the certain information to the end-user device at the second end-user premise to establish the wireless communication link between the communication apparatus of the first end-user equipment and the end-user device at the second end-user premise.

23. A method as claimed in claim 19 , said establishing comprising causing the end-user device at the first end-user premise to wirelessly transmit certain information to the second end-user equipment to establish the wireless communication link between the end-user device at the first end-user premise and the second end-user equipment.

24. A method as claimed in claim 19 , comprising, prior to said determining, receiving a request for the communication to be effected over the communications network from the end-user device.

25. A method as claimed in claim 1 , said method being performed by an apparatus residing in the communications network.

26. A method as claimed in claim 1 , the communication being one of a telephone call effected using the first end-user equipment, an access to a data network site effected using the first end-user equipment, and an alarm system communication effected using the first end-user equipment.

27. Apparatus for effecting a communication over a communications network, said apparatus comprising:
a processing entity configured to determine that an ability of first end-user equipment at a first end-user premise to communicate via a first communication link connecting the first end-user equipment to the communications network is disrupted; and
a routing entity configured to:
establish a wireless communication link between the first end-user equipment and second end-user equipment at a second end-user premise upon the ability of the first end-user equipment to communicate via the first communication link being determined to be disrupted; and
cause inf

Assignees

• Arsenault Jonathan Allan
• Clark David William
• Wolf Eric John
• Murray Sean Maclean
• Bce Inc

Inventors

• Arsenault Jonathan Allan
• Clark David William
• Wolf Eric John
• Murray Sean Maclean

Classifications

• H04L67/14

  Session management (for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066) · CPC title

• H04L69/40

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04K2203/18

  for wireless local area networks or WLAN · CPC title

• H04W76/028 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04K3/88

  related to allowing or preventing alarm transmission · CPC title