TWI689212B - Method for requesting traffic, method for sharing traffic and apparatuses using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for requesting traffic, a method for sharing traffic, and apparatuses using the same methods are provided. The method for requesting traffic includes: searching for a first device capable of sharing traffic with a requesting device without a network connection via a wireless transmission technology; choosing a sharing device out of the first device and sending a request to the sharing device to ask the sharing device to request a server to authenticate the requesting device; receiving a response sent by the sharing device in response to the request and determining whether the requesting device is successfully authenticated by the server; and when the requesting device is successfully authenticated by the server, establishing a connection with the sharing device based on the response to receive a network traffic shared by the sharing device.

Description

Flow request method, flow sharing method and device

The present invention relates to a flow request method, a flow sharing method and a device thereof, and in particular to a flow request method and a device performed when a demander device lacks a network connection, and a sharer device according to Flow sharing method and device performed by a request of a consumer device.

There are many current mobile Internet access schemes, and users can choose a tariff plan according to their personal usage habits. If the user's traffic exceeds the tariff plan, additional charges are required. In this case, many people choose to eat enough to eat on the Internet because they are worried about being charged high tariffs for exceeding the traffic, but the actual usage may not be needed. Therefore, if we can match those with surplus flow with those who need it, it will certainly create greater economic value.

In the current practice, the demand side is the node that learns the sharing traffic through the server. Therefore, before establishing a connection with the sharing point, the demand side may not be able to connect to the server due to lack of network connection. Furthermore, the server uses the location information of the Location Based Service (LBS) as a screening basis, but the LBS information is inaccurate for indoor positioning, and coupled with the floor and building cover, it is impossible to ensure that the sharing point is connectable line.

In view of this, the present invention proposes a traffic request method and device thereof, which can allow a demander device lacking a network connection to find a sharer device willing to share traffic, thereby accessing the network through the connection with the sharer device road. Correspondingly, the present invention proposes a traffic sharing method and device, which allows a sharer device willing to share traffic to assist a requester device that lacks a network connection to request authentication from the server, and then transfer the traffic after the requester device passes the verification Share to demander device. In this way, a secure mechanism can be provided to allow two strangers to share traffic.

The present invention provides a flow request method suitable for a consumer device, including: searching for at least a first device that can share traffic to a consumer device through a wireless communication technology in the absence of a network connection; from at least A first device selects a sharer device and sends a request to the sharer device to make the sharer device replace the requester device to request authentication from a server, where the request includes identity information of the requester device; receiving the sharer device A response to the request, and based on the response to determine whether the requester's device passes the server's verification; and when the requester's device passes the server's verification, a connection is established with the sharer device based on the response to accept sharing through the connection Internet traffic shared by the user's device.

The present invention provides a consumer device, which includes a storage circuit, a transceiver, and a processor. The storage circuit stores multiple modules. The processor is coupled to the storage circuit and the transceiver, and accesses the modules to perform the following steps: In the absence of a network connection, the transceiver is controlled to search for at least one of the devices that can share the traffic to the consumer through a wireless communication technology The first device; select a sharer device from at least one first device, and control the transceiver to issue a request to the sharer device, so that the sharer device replaces the requester device to request authentication from a server, where the request includes the requester device Identity information; control the transceiver to receive a response from the sharer device in response to the request, and based on the response to determine whether the demander device passes the server's verification; and when the demander device passes the server's verification, control the transceiver based on the response Establish a connection with the sharer device to accept a network traffic shared by the sharer device through the connection.

The present invention provides a traffic sharing method suitable for a sharer device, including: receiving a request from a requester device through a wireless communication technology, and replacing the requester device with a request to request verification from a server based on the request, wherein the request includes a request The identity information of the requester's device; the server receives a verification result of the requester's device and determines whether the requester's device passes the verification; when the requester's device passes the verification, it sends a response to the requester's device; After establishing a connection with the sharer device based on the response, share a network traffic with the requester device through the connection.

The invention provides a sharer device, which includes a storage circuit, a transceiver and a processor. The storage circuit stores multiple modules. The processor is coupled to the storage circuit and the transceiver, and accesses the modules to perform the following steps: control the transceiver to receive a request from a requester device through a wireless communication technology, and substitute the requester device request to a server based on the request Verification, where the request includes the identity information of the demander device; control the transceiver to receive a verification result of the server verifying the demander device, and then determine whether the demander device passes the verification; when the demander device passes the verification, control the transceiver Send a response to the requester device; after the requester device establishes a connection with the sharer device according to the response, control the transceiver to share a network traffic with the requester device through the connection.

Based on the above, the flow request method and the device proposed by the present invention can allow a demander device lacking a network connection to find the first device nearby through wireless communication technology, and select a sharer device from it, thereby allowing the sharer device to serve instead The device makes a request to verify the demander device. After the verification is successful, the requester device can access the network through the connection with the sharer device. Correspondingly, the present invention proposes a traffic sharing method and device, which allows the sharer device to request the server to verify the requester device according to the request of the requester device, and send the requester device accordingly after passing the verification Response, so that the requester device can respond to establish a connection with the sharer device and access the network through the traffic shared by the sharer device.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and understandable, the embodiments are specifically described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings for detailed description as follows.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a consumer device, a sharer device, and a server according to an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the consumer device 10 includes the storage circuit 11, the transceiver 12 and the processor 13, and the sharer device 20 includes the storage circuit 21, the transceiver 22 and the processor 23. The consumer device 10 and the sharer device 20 may be a smart phone, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook PC (Notebook PC), etc., but it is not limited thereto. The storage circuit 11 and the storage circuit 21 may be a memory, a hard disk, or any other component that can be used to store data, and may be used to record multiple codes or modules.

The transceiver 12 and the transceiver 22 respectively include at least a transmitter circuit, a receiver circuit, an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, and a digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion Components of low-noise amplifiers (LNA), mixers, filters, matching circuits, transmission lines, power amplifiers (PA), one or more antenna units and local storage media, but not only Restricted to this, to provide wireless access to the consumer device 10 and the sharer device 20, respectively.

The processor 13 is coupled to the storage circuit 11 and the transceiver 12, and the processor 23 is coupled to the storage circuit 21 and the transceiver 22. The processor 13 and the processor 23 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose or special-purpose programmable microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and programmable control One of a device, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD) or other similar devices, or a combination thereof. In the embodiment of the present invention, the processor 13 and the processor 23 can respectively access the modules and the program codes in the storage circuit 11 and the storage circuit 21 to execute the method proposed by the present invention, details of which will be described in detail later.

The server 30 can be used by the requester device 10 and the sharer device 20 to register in advance through a specific application, and store the individual device information, user account, and user password of the requester device 10 and the sharer device 20 accordingly, and It is set up specifically to manage the traffic request/sharing service of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart of a flow request method and a flow sharing method according to an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the steps S210-S240 of the traffic request method S200 can be performed by the consumer device 10, and the steps S310-S340 of the traffic sharing method S300 can be performed by the consumer device 20, so that the consumer device 10 can complement each other. The network traffic can be accessed through the traffic shared by the sharer device 20. The details of each step of the flow request method S200 and the flow sharing method S300 are described below with the components shown in FIG. 1.

In step S210, in the absence of a network connection, the transceiver 12 searches for the first device that can share the traffic to the consumer device 10 through wireless communication technology. In one embodiment, the wireless communication technology includes Bluetooth communication technology and wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, Wi-Fi) communication technology, or other point-to-point communication technology, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The one or more first devices searched by the transceiver 12 are, for example, various devices within the transmission range of the wireless communication technology, such as smart phones, tablet computers, etc., but they are not limited thereto.

Next, in step S220, the processor 13 selects the sharer device 20 from the first device, and sends a request RQ to the sharer device 20. In this embodiment, the request RQ includes the identity information of the requester device 10, which is used to allow the sharer device 20 to request the server 30 for verification instead of the requester device 10. In an embodiment, the processor 13 may select the sharer device 20 from the first devices according to the signal strength and available traffic of each first device, wherein the signal strength of the sharer device 20 may be higher than the first threshold and share The available traffic of the user device 20 may be higher than the second threshold. In different embodiments, the first threshold and the second threshold can be set to any value according to the designer's needs. For example, the first threshold value is at least -87 dBm, and the second threshold value is at least 2 GB, but the invention may not be limited to this.

In another embodiment, the processor 13 can also divide the first device into multiple groups according to the signal strength of each first device, and then select one of the first devices from one or more groups as a sharer装置20。 20 devices. For example, the processor 13 may classify the first devices with signal strength greater than -60 dBm as the first group (good signal), and classify the first devices with signal strength between -60 dBm and -87 dBm The second group (medium signal), and the first device with a signal strength below -87 dBm is classified as the third group (poor signal). Then, the processor 13 may select one first device from the first group and/or the second group as the sharer device 20, for example. Alternatively, the processor 13 may also select, from the first group and/or the second group, the first device whose available traffic is higher than the second threshold as the sharer device 20.

After the requester device 10 sends the request RQ, accordingly, in step S310, the transceiver 22 receives the request RQ from the requester device 10 through wireless communication technology, and the processor 23 replaces the requester device 10 to the server according to the request RQ 30 Request verification. Specifically, since the consumer device 10 lacks connection and cannot be directly connected to the server 30, the sharer device 20 can request verification from the server 30 instead of the consumer device 10. In this way, the demander device 10 can find the sharer device 20 without connecting to the Internet. Compared with the conventional method of having to obtain the sharer device from the server, the method of the present invention is not limited in its use object, so it can be extended to the user device 10 who cannot access the Internet but has occasional Internet access requirements.

Then, in step S320, the transceiver 22 receives the verification result of the server 30 verifying the consumer device 10, and the processor 23 accordingly determines whether the consumer device 10 passes the verification. Next, in step S330, when the consumer device 10 passes the verification, the transceiver 22 sends a response RS to the consumer device 10. In one embodiment, the response RS may include the connection method and the connection password specified by the sharer device 20, and the specified connection method may be used by the consumer device 10 to search for the wireless communication technology used by the first device The same or different, and the aforementioned connection password is used to enable the consumer device 10 to pass the verification of the aforementioned connection method.

After the sharer device 20 sends the response RS, the transceiver 12 receives the response RS from the sharer device 20 in response to the request RQ in step S230, and the processor 13 determines whether the requester device 10 passes the server 30 based on the response RS Verification. Next, in step S240, when the requester device 10 passes the authentication of the server 30, the transceiver 13 establishes a connection with the sharer device 20 based on the response RS. As described in the previous embodiment, the transceiver 13 can establish a connection with the sharer device 20 based on the connection method and the connection password specified by the sharer device 20 in the response RS.

In step S340, after the consumer device 10 establishes a connection with the sharer device 20 according to the response RS, the processor 23 shares the network traffic with the consumer device 10 through the connection. Correspondingly, the requester device 10 can accept the network traffic shared by the sharer device 20 through this connection.

As can be seen from the above, since the demander device 10 of the present invention searches for the sharer device 20 through peer-to-peer communication technologies such as Bluetooth communication technology and Wi-Fi communication technology, compared to LBS technology, it can solve inaccurate indoor positioning, floors and buildings Object shielding and the inability to ensure that the sharer’s device is connectable. Moreover, since the requester device needs to pass the authentication of the server 30 to make subsequent connections, the present invention provides a security mechanism that allows two strangers to share traffic. Furthermore, the present invention can subsequently plan a business model so that users who are temporarily needed can borrow traffic, and resource holders can also get feedback from them to achieve the purpose of sharing economy.

In an embodiment, when the demander device 10 intends to actively terminate the aforementioned connection, the transceiver 12 may send an end-of-use network signal to the server 30 and terminate the aforementioned connection. In another embodiment, after receiving the aforementioned end-of-use network signal, the server 30 may correspondingly send the end-of-sharing notification to the sharer device 20, and the sharer device 20 may stop sharing with the requester device 10 through the connection Network traffic, and sends a disconnection information to the server 30, wherein the aforementioned disconnection information includes the identity information of the sharer device 20 and the identity information of the requester device 10, for the server 30 to perform corresponding management actions For example, the demander device 10 is charged and/or paid to the sharer device 20 according to the traffic used by the demander device 10, but it is not limited thereto.

In one embodiment, when the aforementioned connection is unexpectedly interrupted, the consumer device 10 can search again for a device that can share traffic to the consumer device 10 through wireless communication technology, and can find it again according to the teaching in the previous embodiment For other sharer devices, the relevant details can refer to the related description of FIG. 2 and will not be repeated here. In addition, when the aforementioned connection is interrupted, the sharer device 20 can also stop sharing network traffic with the demander device 10 through the connection, and send the disconnection information to the server 30, so that the server 30 can perform corresponding management actions .

In one embodiment, when the accumulated traffic of the sharer device 20 reaches the flow threshold, the sharer device 20 may send a disconnection notification to the demander device 10 through the aforementioned connection, so that the demander device 10 closes the connection accordingly line. Moreover, the sharer device 20 can send the disconnection information to the server 30, so that the server 30 can perform corresponding management actions.

In summary, the flow request method and device proposed by the present invention can allow a demander device that lacks a network connection to find a nearby first device through wireless communication technology, and based on the signal strength or available traffic of each first device Select the sharer device, and then let the sharer device make a request to the server to authenticate the requester device. After the verification is successful, the requester device can access the network through the connection with the sharer device. In this way, the demander device can find the sharer device without connecting to the Internet. Compared with the conventional method of having to obtain the sharer device from the server, the method of the present invention is not limited in its use object, so it can be extended to demander devices that cannot access the Internet but have occasional Internet access requirements.

Correspondingly, the present invention proposes a traffic sharing method and device, which allows the sharer device to request the server to verify the requester device according to the request of the requester device, and send the requester device accordingly after passing the verification Response, so that the requester device can respond to establish a connection with the sharer device and access the network through the traffic shared by the sharer device. In this way, the consumer device that needs to use the network temporarily, and the sharer device that holds the resource can also get feedback from it.

Although the present invention has been disclosed as above with examples, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Any person with ordinary knowledge in the technical field can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The scope of protection of the present invention shall be subject to the scope defined in the appended patent application.

10‧‧‧ demander device 11, 21‧‧‧ storage circuit 12, 22‧‧‧ transceiver 13, 23‧‧‧ processor 20‧‧‧ sharer device 30‧‧‧ server S200‧‧‧ flow request Method S210~S240‧‧‧Step S300‧‧‧Flow sharing method S310~S340‧‧‧Step RQ‧‧‧Request RS‧‧‧Response

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a consumer device, a sharer device, and a server according to an embodiment of the invention. 2 is a flowchart of a flow request method and a flow sharing method according to an embodiment of the invention.

S200‧‧‧Flow request method

S210~S240‧‧‧Step

S300‧‧‧Flow sharing method

S310~S340‧‧‧Step

Claims (7)

A flow request method suitable for a consumer device, including: searching for at least one first device that can share traffic to the consumer device through a wireless communication technology in the absence of a network connection; from the at least one The first device selects a sharer device, and sends a request to the sharer device, so that the sharer device replaces the requester device to request authentication from a server, wherein the request includes identity information of the requester device, The step of selecting the sharer device from the at least one first device includes selecting the sharer device from the at least one first device based on a signal strength and an available flow rate of each of the at least one first device, wherein the sharer device The signal strength of is higher than a first threshold, and the available traffic of the sharer device is higher than a second threshold; receiving a response from the sharer device in response to the request, and judging the demander based on the response Whether the device passes the authentication of the server; and when the demander device passes the authentication of the server, establishes a connection with the sharer device based on the response to accept a share of the sharer device through the connection Internet traffic. The method according to item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the wireless communication technology includes a Bluetooth communication technology and a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) communication technology. The method according to item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein before the step of searching the at least one first device that can share the traffic to the consumer device through the wireless communication technology, the method further includes: The device information, a user account, and a user password of the requester device are registered on the server through an application in advance. The method as described in item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein when the requester device passes the authentication of the server, the response includes a connection method and a connection password specified by the sharer device, and the requester device The connection is established with the sharer device based on the connection method and the connection password. The method as described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application further includes sending a signal to end the use of the network to the server and interrupting the connection when the consumer device wants to actively disconnect the connection. The method described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application further includes: when the connection is accidentally interrupted, searching for at least one second device that can share traffic to the consumer device through the wireless communication technology. A consumer device includes: a storage circuit storing multiple modules; a transceiver; and a processor coupled to the storage circuit and the transceiver to access the modules to perform the following steps: in the absence of a In the case of a network connection, control the transceiver to search for at least one first device that can share traffic to the requester device through a wireless communication technology; select a sharer device from the at least one first device, and control the transceiver The device sends a request to the sharer device to allow the sharer device to request authentication from a server instead of the requester device, where the request includes a body of the requester device Information, wherein the step of selecting the sharer device from the at least one first device includes selecting the sharer device from the at least one first device based on a signal strength and an available flow rate of each of the at least one first device, wherein the The signal strength of the sharer device is higher than a first threshold, and the available traffic of the sharer device is higher than a second threshold; controlling the transceiver to receive a response from the sharer device in response to the request, and Determine whether the requester device passes the authentication of the server based on the response; and when the requester device passes the authentication of the server, control the transceiver to establish a connection with the sharer device based on the response to pass the Connect to accept a network traffic shared by the sharer device.

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