Patent · US Active

Private virtual LAN spanning a public network for connection of arbitrary hosts

US8489701B2 · kind B2 · utility

77Cited by
4References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 28, 2007
Grant dateJul 16, 2013
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 21, 2031

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L67/1046
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Architecture for exposing a virtual private network of peer devices into the public domain via an overlay network. Computing devices, peripheral devices, as well as mobile devices can be physically distributed, but appear to belong to the same virtual private (or home) network, and be accessible from anywhere. Benefits include access to user media/documents from anywhere, searching of all connected devices from one location, multicast and broadcast connectivity, management of the private network and the associated policies, and device discovery on the private network from across public networks. P2P networks and ad-hoc networks can be exposed as a virtual interface, as well as the utilization of client operating systems to create the virtual network, grouping, graphing, the integration with relay services and other NAT/firewall traversal schemes, and the creation of a P2P overlay manager on a physical NIC (network interface card) address rather than a virtual address.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.