Abstract:
A system, method and non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions for at least one of executing at least two applications on a network device; retrieving available network connections to the network device, transmitting a request for an update responsive to at least one of the at least two applications executing via at least one of the available network connections, transmitting a confirmation request requesting the update, wherein the network device utilizes at least two network adapters and the first network adapter is configured for transmitting the request for update data, via a first network connection, and the second network adapter is configured for transmitting the confirmation request, via a second network connection, wherein the second network connection is a faster data connection than the first network connection; and downloading the update data for the at least two applications via the second network connection.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/159,506, filed on Jun. 14, 2011, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 8,893,113, issued on Nov. 18, 2014, which is a non-provisional of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/354,326, filed on Jun. 14, 2010. The subject matter of the earlier filed applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a system, method, and computer program for simultaneous operation of a networked device using two or more disparate networks. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Many people use networked capable devices, which can be used to process network data packets, and a include personal computer, a laptop, a net book, a cellular phone, a smart phone, an music player, an electronic book enabled device and any device including a processor and memory that can receive and/or transmit information. The data packets are sent from any local area network hub, such as a switch, or router capable of using a wired connection or from a wireless network router, switch, hub, or as well from a network interface for a radio signal. The wired or wireless hub sends the data packets to a network interface controller (NIC) residing on the networked capable device. A NIC is computer hardware component designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network. It allows users to connect to each other either by using cables or wirelessly. A networked capable device sends/receives data packets via a NIC to/from a network hub. It would be beneficial for the user of a networked capable device to simultaneously send and receive data packets from more than one wired or wireless network hub, in order to maximize the amount of network data packets the networked capable devices can send and receive, and in order to selectively and/or dynamically determine which network to use in case of network routing failure or based on type of content being receive or transmitted by the networked capable device. For example, a web browser of a network capable device is requested to retrieve the content of a web page from a web server via the wireless NIC, and a gaming application is sent instructions to a game server via the wired NIC to maximize network data flow. Another example is an email application is sent mail to the mail server via the wired NIC but it failed, the invention would re-route the message via wireless NIC. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present disclosure allows a networked capable device simultaneous access to wired and/or wireless network hubs via the wired and wireless NICs. A Routing program, will reside on a networked capable device that will intercept the data packet streams from all active network interface devices attached or embedded in the device and route the packets to and from the appropriate active applications in the device. 
     In one embodiment of the disclosure, a Routing program would retrieve all Source IP Addresses associated with all available NICs in a device, examine the Source IP Addresses from the request data packets of a client application, web browser for example, and then routes the data packets, request, via the best available route. The best available route can be the default routing from the routing table based on the Source IP Address or the modified route by the Routing program. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The disclosure will now be described with reference to specific embodiments and to the accompanying drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a system for a networked capable device to send/receive data packets to/from multiple wired or wireless network controller; 
         FIG. 2  shows the Routing program running on top of NICs driver to make decision on which NIC and Route to send data packets; 
         FIG. 3  shows the location of Routing program in OSI (Open System Interconnection) Model; 
         FIG. 4  shows an un-detailed version of TCP/IP data packet diagram with all invention&#39;s relating variables highlighted; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an example for a networked capable device having three NICs simultaneously send network data packets to 1, 2 or 3 wired or wireless network hubs; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates an example of a web browser send a request and receives response to and from a web site using the invention; 
         FIG. 7A-C  illustrates how the invention routes the data using the Routing program and describes the Routing program functions including pseudo code for each function; 
         FIG. 8  illustrates how the invention routes the data using a new Routing program and describes the Routing program and describes the Routing program functions including pseudo code for each function. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     A system in accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure is depicted in  FIG. 1 . In the system shown in  FIG. 1 , a networked capable device  200  is connected to a wired network hub  201  using a cable such as a Cat 6  202  or other cable connection  202 . A Cat-6 is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols. The networked capable device  200  is also connected to a wireless network hub  211  using a wireless connection such as an 802.11b radio signal  203  or other radio signal. IEEE 802.11 is a set of standards carrying out wireless local area network (LAN) computer communication in the 2.4, 3.6 and 5 GHZ frequency bands. In  FIG. 1 , dual network interface controllers  204  are provided for a networked capable device  200  in order to send and receive data packets from a wired network hub  201  and a wireless network hub  211 . 
     A networked capable device  206  is connected to a wired network hub  208  using a cable such as a Cat 6  205  or other cable connection. The networked capable device  206  is also connected to two wireless network hubs  211  and  212  using wireless connections such as an 802.11b or other radio signal  207 . Three network interface controllers  209  are provided for the networked capable device  206  in order to send and receive data packets from a wired network hub  208  and the wireless network hubs  211  and  212 . 
     When a user is using a networked capable device of the present disclosure, it may be desirable to send and receive data packets to and from two or more wired and/or wireless network hubs in order to, for example, increase the number of data packets the networked capable device can send and receive to and from multiple applications run on the networked capable device. This is achieved by having a Routing program on a networked capable device that intercepts the data packet streams to any active network interface controllers that are attached or embedded in the device. The Routing Program can be installed in the networked capable device as a 3 rd  party software or be part of an operation system. In Windows Operating System, the Routing Program can run as a Windows Service and it would start automatically when the networked capable device starts up. A Windows Service in a Windows Operating System is a long-running application that does not have a Graphical User Interface or produce any visual output. The Routing program would intercept, modify if necessary, and route the packets to and from the appropriate active applications in the device. 
     The Routing program is a system program running above the Device Driver layer to query all available Source IP Address associated with the NICs in a device.  FIG. 2  shows the position of Routing program in a typical Operating System layers. 
     In order to comply with the rules of networking for all systems to be able to communicate,  FIG. 3  shows the Routing program location in Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. It is in the Transport Layer of the OSI model. The Routing program intercepts data packets, determines the Source IP Address to route the data packets and re-inject the modified data back into the Transport layer. The Transport layer manages end to end message delivery in a network and also provides the error checking and recovery of data in the data transfers across the network. Then, the Network layer translates the Source or Local IP Address into MAC address and routes the data packets to the Destination IP Address. According the figure, the NIC device driver would fall between the Network and Data Link layers of the OSI model. The NIC is the Data Link and Physical layer of the OSI model. 
       FIG. 4  shown the data packet diagram with data that the Routing program needed for processing. The Source IP Address of the sending application is used to determine which available NIC to send the data to the network. The Source Port Number is used to determine which application sends the request and receive the response. The FIN and RST flags are used to determine if the request data is routed to the Destination IP Address and Destination Port Number of the receiving computer. 
     In accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure, the Routing program intercepts data packets from the device&#39;s application, modify the routing if needed, and route the data to the destination. These operations can be accomplished by examine the data packets and modify if needed the Source IP Address that represents the device&#39;s NIC using the operating system provided Kernel APIs. For Windows OS, the Windows Filtering Platform (WFP), and IP Helper APIs can be used to achieve the tasks. WFP is a low-level Kernel-Mode Filtering Engine to examine, filter and modify outgoing and incoming data packets. It is used by 3 rd  party anti-virus, parent control, firewall software to inspect inbound and outbound data packets. IP Helper is to retrieve information about the network configuration of the local computer and able to modify that configuration including the IP route entry. 
     During the use of multiple applications that send and receive data packets on a networked capable device  200  or  206 , it may be desirable to send and receive packets from two distinct wired and/or wireless network hubs, as illustrated in  FIG. 5 . For example, a web browser, Application App A  217 , sends a request to retrieve the content of a web page from a web server. The Routing program  213  intercepts request from the Application App A  217 , exams the Source IP address, modify the Source IP Address to NIC A  214  if it is not belonged to NIC A  214 , and re-inject the request packets back into the Transport layer for the routing via NIC A  214  to the network hub  215 . The Routing is based on the Source IP Address routing in the routing table. The wired or wireless network hub A  215  receives response data packets  216  to the NIC A  214 . The NIC A  214  send the response data packets  216  to the application A  217  on the networked capable device that send and receive data packets. 
     Another scenario is a Routing program  213  intercept request packets from Application App B  217 , exams and modifies if needed the Source IP address to match the one on NIC B  214 , and re-inject the request packets back into the Transport layer for routing to the network hub B  215 . However, if the data packets unable to route to the Destination IP Address because of network failure. For example, the NIC B  214  goes bad or the network hub B  215  loss of power, the Routing program will modify the data packets Source IP Address to the next available NIC, NIC C  214 , then route the data packet based on the routing of the new Source IP Address. Since the Routine program is locating in the Transport layer, it has access to the acknowledgement of the successful data transmission and error checking of data packets for the case of network failure. If the network routing via NIC C  214  is unsuccessful then the Routing program  213  will modify the data packet&#39;s Source IP Address to NIC A  214 &#39;s IP Address and use its routing. If the network routing via NIC A  214  is unsuccessful then this networked capable device is unable to communicate to the external network or isolated. 
     In the example illustrated in  FIG. 6 , a web browser  241  is request to retrieve the content of a web page from a Web Server  246  where the web browser device  240  has the Routing program  242  installed and running. As the Web Browser  241  issue the request packets to the destination IP address, the Routing program  242  intercept the data packets in the Transport Layer, modify the Source IP Address to the IP Address of NIC A  243 , and re-inject the modified packet back into the Transport layer. The data packet would route to Network A  244  via NIC A  243  using the routing in the routing table for NIC A  243  IP Address. The routing table in Network A  244  directs the request data packets to the next hop or the next router in the external network  245  until the request data packets get to web site  246 . For Windows Vista Operating System or later, WFP APIs can be use to register or hook in FWPM_LAYER_OUTBOUND_TRANSPORT_V4 layer of TCP Packet Flows to retrieve and modify the request data packet. The modification is done by clone the original packet, modifies the copied packet, drops the original packet and re-injects the copied back into the registered layer. The FWPM_LAYER_OUTBOUND_TRANSPORT_V4 layer is the Transport Layer that the WFP filter engine traversed during a typical TCP session. If the request from the web browser  241  fails to route to web site  246  by inspecting TCP flags of the incoming packet, Inbound Process, at the Transport layer based on the Source IP Address, the Routing program  242  will change the Source IP Address to the next available local IP Address of NIC B  243  that retrieve by the Routing program at start up, and re-inject the failure packet back into the data stream at the Outbound Transport Layer Based on the routing of the new Source IP Address of NIC B  243 , the modified request packet will get route to Network B  244 , then to the web site  246 . This allows continuous transmission and receipt of packets regardless of failure in one NIC or/and Network Hub or/and a specific route to the web site. 
       FIG. 7A-C  shows a flow diagram of the Routing program  231 . The Routing program retrieves all Source IP Addresses associated with all available NICs in a network capable device and saves them in memory or a Circular list for later access by the Outbound Process  232  and Inbound Process  234 . In Windows Operating System, the retrieval of the Source IP Address can be accomplished by using the IP Helper API, GetAdaptersAddresses. Psuedo code segment using IP Helper API to retrieve available Source IP Addresses that associates with the NICs in a device is at  237 . Psuedo code for function NextSIP  236  returns the next available Source IP Address in the Circular list  233  is at  238 . The Outbound Process  232  registered with FWPM_LAYER_OUTBOUND_TRANSPORT_V4 layer when Routine program start up. It intercepts request data packets from Application A  230 , saves the intercepted data packet as Previous packet, and call function NextSIP  236  to retrieve the Next Source IP Address. If the request data packet Source IP Address is match with the Previous packet&#39;s Source IP Address, the Outbound Process  232  clones the original request packet, modifies the copied packet with the Source IP Address from NextSIP function, drops the original packet and re-injects the copied back into the Transport layer. The checking of the packet&#39;s Source IP Address and the Previous packet&#39;s Source IP Address is to make sure that all packets with the same Source IP Address are assigned to the same NextSIP function&#39;s Source IP Address. If the request data Source IP Address is not match with the Previous packet&#39;s Source IP Address, the Outbound Process  232  call the NextSIP function to get the next available Source IP Address from available NICs, saves the request data packet as a Previous packet, and clones the original packet, modifies the copied packet with the Source IP Address from NextSIP function  236 , drops the original packet and re-injects the copied back into Transport Layer. The pseudo code segment using WFP API for the Outbound Process  232  is shown in  239 . Once the modified packet injected back into the data stream, it travels to NIC A  235  and route to the network. The Inbound Process  234  registers with the FWPM_LAYER_INBOUND_TRANSPORT_V4, intercepts the response data packets from NIC A  235  while the data is route back to Application  230  by the Source Port Number, saves it as a Previous packet, calls function NextSIP  236  to retrieve the next available NIC&#39;s Source IP Address. The Inbound process checks the response TCP flags for acknowledgement of the successful data transmission. If there is any error, the Inbound Process checks for the same Source IP Address from the Response packet with the Previous packet, modify the response data packet to the Source IP Address from function NextSIP  236 , clear the TCP flags and re-inject the modify packet into the Outbound Transport Layer to route to the Destination via NIC B  235 . The pseudo code segment using WFP API for Inbound Process is shown in  240 . 
     For Windows 7 Operating System and later, Microsoft offers new WFP layers for easy redirect IP packets without clone, drop, modify, and re-inject every data packets from the existing Transport Layer. In the OSI model, the new WFP layers would be located in the Session Layer where the communication is established between devices. It is a “Pre-Connect” layers that allow to do Bind Redirect and Connect Redirect. Bind Redirect, FWPM_LAYER_ALE_BIND_REDIRECT_V4(V6), controls the connection between the application and Destination IP Address. Once the bind request is modified, the new Source IP Address will be bound to the socket until it is closed by the Application or the connection failure because of network bouncing. The Connect Redirect, FWPM_LAYER_ALE_CONNECT_REDIRECT_V4(V6), controls the current data packets send by the Application. The modification of the Source IP Address only affects the current flow and will not alter the Application socket connection. With the new features, the Routing program can run in the Session Layer of the OSI model instead of the Transport Layer to modify the connection Source IP Address instead of the routing data packets. The Bind Redirect function can be use to alter the Application socket connection to the Destination IP Address and Port number with another available Source IP Address to use different routing. The Routing program also uses FWPM_LAYER_ALE_FLOW_ESTABLISHED_V4(V6) to check for successful IP connection to the Destination IP Address. The checking of IP connection is to notify the Routing program of connection failure via the existing NIC and need to change to a different Source IP Address that associated with another NIC in a device. 
       FIG. 8  shows the new Routing program  251  with Connection Function  252 , and the pseudo code segment for the new function  254 . The Connection Function  252  registers with FWPM_LAYER_ALE_BIND_REDIRECT_V4 for 32-bit IP address or FWPM_LAYER_ALE_BIND_REDIRECT_V6 for 128-bit IP address, obtains a handle to the BIND REDIRECT LAYER that will be used in modify function calls, modifies the Source IP Address based on if the connection request Source IP Address is the different from the next available Source IP Address from the NextSIP function  253 , and releases the handle that obtained in from previous 2 steps. Then, the function check for connection established by look at the FWPM_LAYER_ALE_FLOW_ESTABLISHED_V4 layer for successful status code. If the IP connection failed, an error flag with the failed Source IP Address is saved. The next IP connection from an application  250  is check for the failed Source IP Address and replaces it with the next available Source IP Address from the NextSIP function  253 . 
     The current invention provides at least the following: 
     A networked capable device capable of simultaneous sending and receiving data packets to and from multiple wired and/or wireless network hubs. 
     A networked capable device capable of selectively and/or dynamically determine which NIC to send data packets in the case of network failure from one or multiple NICs and/or Network Hub. 
     The system and method in Claim  1  where the network connections are one or more of the following: infrared, Bluetooth, radio, LAN, WAN, or any other IP enabled access to the Internet.