Data distribution by proxy
View Patent ↗A communication device communicates with an originating device during an originating session and receives originating data from the originating device over a wireless communication link and then communicates with a receiving device during a receiving session and sends the originating data to the receiving device over a wireless communication link, such that the originating session and the receiving session occur at different times, and at least one of the sessions is an ad hoc communication session.
1. A method for transferring data from an originating device to a destination device, the method comprising:
transmitting data from the originating device to a first intermediate device, wherein the originating device and the first intermediate device are both communicating with one another in a first ad hoc network, and neither the originating device or the first intermediate device are directly coupled to a fixed communications network;
transmitting the data from the first intermediate device to a second intermediate device, wherein: the first and second intermediate devices are both communicating with one another in a second ad hoc network, neither the first or second intermediate devices are directly coupled to a fixed communication network, the originating device is not a member of the second ad hoc network, and the first intermediate device has terminated a session with the first ad hoc network;
transmitting the data from the second intermediate device to a gateway device coupled to a wired network connection, wherein: the second intermediate device and gateway device are both communicating with one another in a third ad hoc network, the originating device and the first intermediate device are not members of the third ad hoc network, the second intermediate device has terminated a session with the second ad hoc network; and
transmitting the data to a destination device from the gateway device over the wired network connection, wherein the destination device indicates a desire to receive the transmitted data, wherein the transmitted data includes information that identifies a generation date of the data, and wherein the generation date of the data beyond a time limit for data lifetime indicates that the data should be deleted or not forwarded to a subsequent device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitted data indicates a need to be transmitted to the destination device.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitted data indicates a need to be transmitted over a wired network.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitted data is validated by one or more of the intermediate devices prior to a subsequent transmission of the data to verify that the data is legitimate for ad hoc transmission by the one or more intermediate devices, wherein the data is legitimate when the data is in a proper format and can be correctly parsed.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the devices are authenticated by another of the intermediate devices prior to a subsequent transmission of the data to verify that the transmitting devices is authorized to be transmitting data in an ad hoc fashion.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the intermediate devices determine that the transmitted data is still valid prior to a subsequent transmission of the data to verify that the data has not expired, wherein the transmitted data is associated with an expiration date and a comparison of the expiration date to a system clock value indicates that the transmitted data should be forwarded or deleted.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitted data includes a message hop count that is incremented each time the transmitted data is passed from one ad hoc network to a different ad hoc network.