Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture provide for fault-tolerant timers, such as in an online gaming environment. Fault-tolerant timers may, for example, be provided by implementing specific methods for expiring a timer, such as by utilizing broadcast notices and distributed locks.

An apparatus for conducting an interaction through established connections using ultra-wideband comprises a processor associated with a server. The processor is configured to receive a request to initiate an interaction between a grouping and an entity device associated with an entity. The processor is further configured to receive user device information for each user device in the grouping based on universal device identifiers. The processor is further configured to determine an account associated with a user based on comparing the received user device information to the stored user device information. The processor is further configured to transmit the interaction to each user device within the grouping. In response to receiving a request from one of the user devices in the grouping to split the interaction, the processor is further configured to conduct at least a first part of a split interaction with the determined account associated with the user.

A connection method and apparatus are provided for smart home devices. A method for connecting a user equipment to smart home devices includes identifying, when a connection request for a smart home device is detected, reception of a first broadcast message transmitted by the smart home device according to a first communication mode; determining whether the smart home device permits communication mode negotiation based on information included in the first broadcast message; and establishing a connection to the smart home device according to the first communication mode or a second communication mode based on a result of the determining.

Techniques for performing network-assisted peer discovery to enable peer-to-peer (P2P) communication are described. In one design, a device registers with a network entity (e.g., a directory agent) so that the presence of the device and possibly other information about the device can be made known to the network entity. The network entity collects similar information from other devices. The device sends a request to the network entity, e.g., during or after registration. The request includes information used to match the device with other devices, e.g., information about service(s) provided by the device and/or service(s) requested by the device. The directory agent matches requests received from all devices, determines a match between the device and at least one other device, and sends a notification to perform peer discovery. The device performs peer discovery in response to receiving the notification from the network entity.

Apparatuses and methods for distributing and/or receiving buffer content advertisements continuously to and/or from a plurality of neighboring peer apparatuses joined in a network are described. The buffer content advertisements identify the stored packets of data in a packet buffer. The continuously distributed and/or received buffer content advertisements may include incremental updates of content of the packet buffer piggybacked to every outgoing and/or incoming packet of data. The apparatus may determine packets of data advertised by a plurality of neighboring peers that the apparatus does not have in its packet buffer, and may request packets of data, of the advertised packets, from at least one of the plurality of neighboring peers. The apparatus may include a communication module to communicate buffer content advertisements continuously to the plurality of neighboring peers.

A system and method in various embodiments implements a virtual spectrum band stacking technique facilitating spectrum sharing by converting and combining spectrum bands consisting of several different RF channels, common air interfaces, and radio channel protocols in the radio frequency channel domain to form IP Virtual Radio Channels (IP-VRCs) in the packet data domain. This virtual spectrum stacking technique combines the transmissions of contiguous and non-contiguous RF channels with differing physical layers into IP-VRCs. This technique enables simultaneous parallel high-speed wireless transmission; virtual radio channel hopping for enhanced security; and customized security schemes for different IP-VRC Groups. The deployment of the combination of IP-VRC Groups; Universal “Small Cell” Base Stations; and Universal Wireless End-Point Devices allows the aggregation of all available spectrum bands for use within a building environment. Some benefits of this deployment include expansion of spectrum utilization, service quality, security, applications and transmission throughput for wireless end-point devices.

A method for operating a system hosted on a mobile entity is disclosed, wherein the system is operable to connect to a communication network. The method, performed by a controller of the system, comprises seeking to establish a trust relationship with a cooperating system hosted on a mobile entity, and, if a trust relationship with the cooperating system is established, performing at least one of: initiating use of a resource provided by the cooperating system, or initiating provision of a resource for use by the cooperating system. Also disclosed is a method for operating a function comprising a digital representative of a system hosted on a mobile entity, wherein the system is operable to connect to a communication network. The method, performed by the function, comprises negotiating, with a digital representative of a cooperating system hosted on a mobile entity, at least one of provision of a resource to the system by the cooperating system, or provision of a resource to the cooperating system by the system.

Disclosed is a sharding block chain generation method based on a tree structure. Method comprises: dividing a server system into at least one group, and respectively selecting a leader of each group; packaging to generate at least one block by leader according to an own local database state, and broadcasting at least one block to all members of group in which leader is located; verifying consistency of at least one block, executing block according to a verification result of consistency, and synchronizing block to other groups. According to method, by means of tree grouping architecture, efficiency of generating block by a block chain framework is improved, block is generated according to own local database state of the leader, a resource waste phenomenon when block is generated in system is reduced, and delay when the block is generated is reduced.

A system and method are provided for measuring the performance of a synthetic peer-managed content distribution network. Each node peers with one or more other nodes to share the content and facilitate its presentation to associated users. Each node collects session metadata for identifying the node's environment, presentation events regarding presentation of the content to users, and transfer events regarding the sharing of the content among peers. The nodes report their data toward a central entity that feeds the different types of data through different ETL pipelines to obtain the performance measurements. For example, the session metadata may allow the reach of a content item to be determined, the presentation events may be used to determine the quality of experience with the content item for users, and the transfer events may be used to determine how much external bandwidth the network conserved and/or how efficiently the nodes shared the content.

This application relates to apparatus and methods for communication with and management of datacenters, such as cloud datacenters employing multiple servers. A control server may identify one or more networks to be searched in a plurality of datacenters. The control server may identify a user request to execute the search for the networks in the plurality of datacenters. Based on the user request, the control server may generate a plurality of requests that request network data from the plurality of datacenters. The control server may transmit the plurality of requests to the plurality of datacenters. The control server may determine if a response to the requests is received. The response may include network data identifying one or more networks a datacenter supports. The control server may determine if the supported networks match the identified networks, and may provide status for display based on the determination.