Mobile WLAN gateway

摘要

A technique for operating a mobile station as wireless local-area network [“WLAN”] gateway. The mobile station is provided with a gateway application to control the following operations: activating (3-0) the WLAN means as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network; creating a network identifier (3-2, 3-4) for the WLAN base station; assigning (3-8, 3-10) an internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal; resolving domain name service [“DNS”] queries (3-12 . . . 3-18) in cooperation with an external DNS service system; assigning at least one port number for each protocol supported by the gateway application; and tunneling internet traffic (3-30 . . . 3-36) between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband connection.

主权项

1. A mobile station comprising:
a memory (MEM) for storing applications and data; a processor for executing the stored applications; a user interface comprising an input section and an output section; reception/transmission circuitry for providing a communication interface to one or more access networks (AN); authentication means operable to authenticate a user of the mobile station; a radio transceiver operable (110) to establish and maintain a broadband connection with a mobile communication network in response to a successful authentication of the user of the mobile station;wireless local-area network (WLAN) means responsive to an activation or deactivation command according to a setting received via the input section of the user interface;
wherein the memory comprises a gateway application which comprises:
a first code portion for instructing the processor to activate the WLAN means as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network;a second code portion for instructing the processor to create a network identifier for the WLAN base station;a third code portion for instructing the processor to assign an internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal;a fourth code portion for instructing the processor to resolve domain name service (DNS) queries in cooperation with an external DNS service system;a fifth code portion for instructing the processor to assign at least one port number for each protocol supported by the gateway application; anda sixth code portion for instructing the processor to tunnel internet traffic between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband connection; and the mobile station further comprises means for deactivating the WLAN means in response to that there is none of the WLAN terminal that is communicating with the WLAN base station for a predetermined period of time.