Patent ID: 9538452
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: H04W

Claim:
1. A method comprising: collecting, using a plurality of mobile devices, physical layer and data layer connectivity information from a plurality of wide area networks (WANs) independently of the WANs; receiving the physical layer and data layer connectivity information at a server and relating the physical layer and data layer connectivity information to specific WANs and to a plurality of geographic locations to create a network statistics database; receiving mobile device state information from the plurality of mobile devices including mobile device location information; determining that the physical layer or data layer connectivity in a given geographic location for a specific mobile device is below an acceptable criteria based on the network statistics database, wherein the specific mobile device is unable to establish a data connection with one of the plurality of WANs; generating a list of candidate donor mobile devices to serve as data connection sources for the specific mobile device for the specific mobile device to be able to establish the data connection with one of the plurality of WANs through the candidate donor mobile devices based on the physical layer and data layer connectivity information and the mobile device state information; selecting a donor device from the list of candidate donor devices based on a weighting algorithm; and using the selected donor device to establish the data connection between the specific mobile device and the one of the plurality of WANs.