Patent ID: 9723552
Date: 2017-08-01
CPC Classifications: G06Q,H04L,H04W,Y02D

Claim:
1. An apparatus for collaborative communication, the apparatus comprising: a first processing node having a low power subsystem to connect, in a local network, with at least one other processing node, the first processing node being configured to be selectively enabled as a first master node in the local network, based on a first set of criteria; the first processing node having a high power subsystem for communicating over a wireless wide area network (WWAN), the first processing node configured to activate the high power subsystem in response to the first processing node being enabled as the first master node, the first processing node being configured to communicate with a back end server over the WWAN using the high power subsystem of the first processing node, when the high power subsystem is activated; the first processing node being configured to be selectively disabled from being the first master node, based on a second set of criteria; the first processing node being further configured to deactivate the high power subsystem of the first node while maintaining operation of the low power subsystem of the first node, in response to the first processing node being disabled from being the first master node such that one of the at least one other processing nodes may be selected as a second master node in the local network for communicating with the back end server; wherein the second set of criteria includes at least one of (i) a WWAN condition and (ii) a transition cost of changing a power state of the high power subsystem.