Amazon patents Wi-Fi backup that uses your phone when router dies
This patent describes a way for a home Wi-Fi mesh network to automatically switch to a backup internet connection if the main router loses power or connectivity. It allows a user to pre-set a mobile device, like a smartphone with cellular data, to act as a temporary Wi-Fi hotspot for the home network. When the main connection drops, the routers scan for this backup signal and connect to it to keep devices online.
In the filing’s own words
The disclosure describes techniques for configuring wireless routers of a wireless mesh network with one or more secondary wireless access points (WAPs) such that client devices connected to the mesh network may remain online in the event that a primary WAP goes offline or otherwise becomes unavailable. For instance, a user of the wireless mesh network may specify a device, such as a mobile electronic device connected to a cellular network, to operate as a secondary WAP in the event that a primary WAP becomes unavailable. Thereafter, upon a wireless router of the mesh network detecting that the primary WAP is unavailable, the wireless router may perform a network scan to identify SSID(s) that are available within the environment. The wireless router may also instruct the other routers of the mesh network to perform a network scan.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method implemented at least in part at a first wireless router of a wireless mesh network that includes at least the first wireless router and a second wireless router, the method comprising: establishing a network connection between the first wireless router and an Internet Service Provider (ISP); storing, at the first wireless router, credential data associated with establishing, at least partly in response to termination of the network connection, a wireless connection with a secondary wireless access point (WAP); determining, after the storing, that the network connection has terminated; sending, to the second wireless router and in response to the determining that the network connection has terminated, instruction data representing an instruction to scan for available wireless networks in the environment; scanning, by the first wireless router, for available wireless networks in the environment; determining, based on at least one of the sending or the scanning, that a secondary WAP is available; and establishing, using the credential data, the wireless connection between the first wireless router and the secondary WAP.
Facts
- Company
- Amazon (Amazon Technologies, Inc.)
- Official title
- Configuring backup wireless access points (WAPS)
- Patent number
- US12757259B2
- Application number
- 18373022
- Filed
- Sep 26, 2023
- Granted
- Oct 6, 2026
- Inventors
- 6
- Claims
- 21
Classified under
H04W 76/10 Electricity & electronicsH04W 48/16 Electricity & electronicsMore from Amazon in Networks & wireless
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.