High capacity network communication link using multiple cellular devices

An apparatus for managing multipath communications between a first network and a second network, wherein the first network and the second network are wirelessly coupled therebetween by links through a plurality of wireless cellular devices, the apparatus comprising:

• a network interface operatively coupled to said first network;
• a network router for forwarding packets between the network interface, a packet receiver, and a packet transmitter;
• a packet receiver operatively coupled to the network router for receiving packets originating from the second network;
• and
• a link status monitor operatively coupled to the packet receiver for maintaining a list of wireless cellular devices with bridging capability available for multipath communications between said first and second networks, wherein said list includes information representative of a current quality of each link corresponding to a wireless cellular device;
• and
• wherein the packet scheduler is operatively coupled to the packet transmitter and the link status monitor for performing the steps of:
• (a) receiving said list of wireless cellular devices from the link status monitor;
• (b) identifying segments of packets that are received at the packet transmitter;
• and
• (c) assigning one or more wireless cellular devices selected from said list received in said step (a) to said segments identified in said step (b);
• and
• a packet transmitter operatively coupled to the network router and the packet scheduler for encapsulating said segments of packets identified by said packet scheduler and addressing the encapsulated segments to said assigned wireless cellular devices.