SBIR Phase I: NETUP: Boosting Mobile Internet by Combining WiFi and Cellular

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the area of wireless access and can be significant given the unprecedented growth in mobile devices and services and the scarcity of wireless spectrum. The technology developed in this project can improve the mobile user experience in terms of speed, reliability and security. It can also optimize the use of cellular and WiFi infrastructure, it can disrupt pricing of cellular data and better utilize wireless bandwidth, which is ultimately a societal resource. We have identified two main customer segments, namely mobile users and telecom providers, which lend themselves to B2C and B2B business models, respectively, and which correspond to large markets. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops a novel solution that exploits the opportunity of having multiple network interfaces on mobile devices, primarily cellular and WiFi, in order to improve mobile Internet. The technology will intelligently and seamlessly combine all available networks on a device so as to offer higher speed and higher reliability, compared to each individual network, at potentially lower cost and with enhanced security. The solution is software-only and consists of a client and a cloud component. The main objective of the project is to design, develop, deploy and evaluate an android prototype, which will run as a service in the background and will seamlessly boost the speed of all applications on the mobile device. The key innovations lie both in the system design and implementation and in the algorithms for utilizing multiple paths depending on network conditions and user/operator preferences. If successful, this will be the first bonding solution on mobile devices that combines all aforementioned features.