Patent ID: 8116230
Filing Date: 2012-02-14
Classification: H04L,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for establishing communication pathways between infrastructure devices in a wide area communication network, the infrastructure devices comprising a home infrastructure device of a source wireless communication device (WCD), a first infrastructure device and a second infrastructure device, the method comprising: generating, at a home steward module of the source WCD, a destination WCD distribution list for communications from the source WCD to a first communication group comprising the source WCD and a first destination WCD, and communicating the destination WCD distribution list to an envoy packet duplicator module located at the first infrastructure device, the source WCD communicating through a first envoy module, both of which are located at the first infrastructure device, prior to a direct link being established for the source WCD from the first infrastructure device to the second infrastructure device; communicating, from the home steward module, a first network socket of the envoy packet duplicator module to a second envoy module for the first destination WCD that is located at the second infrastructure device; generating, at the home steward module, a first mapping comprising a second network socket for the second envoy module mapped to a first destination WCD identifier of the first destination WCD, and communicating the first mapping to the envoy packet duplicator module; and establishing, prior to transmission of a group message packet to the first communication group by the source WCD, a first communication connection between the first network socket and the second network socket, wherein the first communication connection traverses the Internet and at least one of a firewall or Network Address Translator is present along the first communication connection such that the envoy packet duplicator module and the second envoy module are each protected from the Internet by the at least one of the firewall or Network Address Translator, wherein the envoy packet duplicator module shares the first network socket with the first envoy module and is able to establish a link to the second envoy module upon receiving the second network socket before duplicating and sending packets to the first destination WCD through the second network socket.