The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 14, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 22, 1996
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing a three-way connection between a mobile computing device, a stationary computing device and a computer network. When there is an established connection between a mobile computing device (e.g. a notebook computer) and the stationary computing device (e.g. desktop PC) over the wireless communication channel (e.g. infrared link), the system operates in BRIDGE mode. In BRIDGE mode the system redirects information packets in the OSI layer 2 (data link layer). When a notebook computer is not attached, the system operates in PASSTHROUGH mode and all non-broadcast message traffic from the Ethernet LAN is filtered by the Ethernet adapter based on the network address or group address of the desktop PC.