US 2012/0257633 A1 · MULTI-ACCESS COMMUNICATIONS GATEWAY

Abstract

A gateway which provides network connectivity via network service providers. A method and apparatus can integrate the various connectivity options provided by multiple service providers and present to the user a single point of connectivity. Having more than one way of network connectivity may provide the following additional services: Link Aggregation (to increase bandwidth), Redundancy and ancillary services like TOD (time-of-day) based smart usage (to reduce costs). The access medium may be wired technologies like Cable, DSL, Fiber to wireless 4G technologies. These options may offer various link speeds, latency, reliability and cost structures. The embodiments integrate the various connectivity options provided by multiple service providers and present to the user a single point of connectivity.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A communications gateway for managing plural computer network communications channels provided by different service providers, the gateway comprising:

plural access adapters, each access adapter corresponding to a network communications channels;
a multiplexer coupled to the access adapters and configured to multiplex and demultiplex data traffic on the communications channels;
a configuration protocol layer coupled the multiplexer;
and
at least one host access adapter coupled to the configuration protocol layer, each of said at least one host access adapters being configured to be coupled to a corresponding computer device for communication over a network.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Multi-access communications gateway

Life of this patent

Multi-access communications gateway

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21