Patent ID: 8817809

Claim:
A method operational on a first device, comprising: receiving heartbeat signals over a plurality of communication links from a second device, wherein each of the plurality of communication links spans different networks; wherein the plurality of communication links comprises two or more different communication links selected from a set comprising: at least one satellite communication link, at least one cellular communication link, and at least one private communication network; obtaining one or more communication link characteristics for the plurality of communication links from the received heartbeat signals; removing one or more communication links from the plurality of communication links based on one or more communication link characteristics; selecting a first communication link from the plurality of communication links, the selecting based on the one or more communication link characteristics of the plurality of communication links; wherein the first device is in communication with a third device via a second communication link; wherein the second communication link is a particular communication link from the plurality of communication links after that particular communication link has been dropped as a communication link between the first device and the second device; informing the second device to use the first communication link to send data; and receiving data from the second device over the first communication link.