Mobile computing is becoming increasingly pervasive, and will approach ubiquity in wireless devices (e.g., notebook computers, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.) over the next decade. One consistent trend in this mobile computing space is the fact that such platforms increasingly communicate over a variety of wireless protocols. Common protocols in use today for wireless data transfer include EV-DO, IEEE 802.11a/b/g, ZigBeee® (registered trademark of ZIGBEE ALLIANCE in the United States, other countries, or both), Bluetooth® (registered trademark of BLUETOOTH SIG, INC. in the United States, other countries, or both), and many other related protocols. By their very nature, differentials do exist, and will continue to exist, between the speed, or bandwidth, with which mobile devices can communicate with each other, vis-á-vis communications speeds with the broader network where a device's target data may reside.
It is often the case that a wireless device will have a relatively fast wireless connection to other local devices and a relatively slow wireless connection to the broader network (e.g., the Internet). For example, local wireless connections, provided by protocols such as IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.15.1 (e.g., Bluetooth®), and 802.15.4 (e.g., Zigbee®) provide fast data transfer rates of about 3 to 54 megabits per second (Mbps). However, such transfer protocols often have a limited maximum transmission range of about 30 to 300 ft. On the other hand, wireless telephony protocols (e.g., EV-DO, CDMA, EDGE, GPRS, etc.) have relatively large maximum transmission ranges on the order of miles, but only provide data transfer rates of about 10 kilobits per second (kbps) to 1 Mbps. Thus, while a user of a mobile device may enjoy relatively fast data transfer amongst local devices, the user is often limited to a slow wireless connection to the outside world (e.g., the Internet).
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.