Femtocell access provisioning based on social network, presence, and user preferences

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10575243-B2
Application number	US-201414505473-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2014
Priority date	Jul 28, 2010
Publication date	Feb 25, 2020
Grant date	Feb 25, 2020

Abstract

Femtocell access is provisioned based on social network, presence and/or user preference information. In particular, the disclosed system can include a femto access manager that can identify a list of ‘close friends’, to which the femtocell owner is likely to grant femtocell access, based on an analysis of access data (e.g., data from social networks, communication logs, calendars, address books, websites and/or blogs, transaction related data, and the like). Further, an access priority associated with each of the close friends can be determined based in part on location data, availability data, and/or predefined policies. Furthermore, the femto access control list, within the femto access point (FAP), can be populated, dynamically and/or automatically, with the highest priority friends from the close friends list.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
analyzing social relationship information, from a social networking platform which an authorized user associated with a femto access point device is a member, to identify social relationships between the authorized user and other users that are members of the social networking platform;
based on the analyzing, defining respective categories representing subsets of users of the social networking platform that have common memberships to types of social groups;
generating access priority data comprising respective priorities assigned to the categories;
based on the access priority data, populating entries of an access control data structure, associated with the femto access point device, with identifier data associated with a first group of user equipment associated with a first subset of the users that are determined to have a higher access priority for access to the femto access point device than a second group of user equipment associated with a second subset of the users;
in response to determining that the entries do not comprise an unpopulated entry and that status data indicative of an availability of a first user equipment of the first group of user equipment to communicate via the femto access point device represents a busy status, replacing first identifier data, of the identifier data, that represents the first user equipment, with second identifier data that represents a second user equipment of the second group of user equipment to generate an updated access control data structure, wherein the replacing results in prohibiting the first user equipment, which has been assigned a first access priority associated with accessing the femto access point device that is higher than a second access priority associated with accessing the femto access point device that has been assigned to the second user equipment, from accessing the femto access point device; and
facilitating a transmission of data signals to the femto access point device, wherein the data signals represent the updated access control data structure, and wherein the updated access control data structure enables the femto access point device access control to the femto access point device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the social relationship information is quantified based on a social utility grid.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the social utility grid is employable to determine respective strengths of social relationships that facilitate determination of the access priority data.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining that the user equipment that are authorized to access the femto access point device based on communication log data associated with a subscriber identity.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: determining that the user equipment that are authorized to access the femto access point device based on address book data associated with a subscriber identity.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise: determining that the user equipment that are authorized to access the femto access point device based on preference data associated with a subscriber identity.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the replacing comprises replacing the first identifier data with the second identifier data further in response to determining that location data indicative of a geographical location of the first user equipment satisfies a location criterion.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the replacing comprises replacing the first identifier data with the second identifier data further based on timing data.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first access priority is assigned to the first user equipment based on historical data associated with the first user equipment.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first access priority is assigned to the first user equipment based on policy data received from a network device.

11. A method, comprising:
analyzing, by a system comprising a processor, social relationship information from a social networking platform which an authorized user associated with a femto access point device is a member, to identify social relationships between the authorized user and other users that are members of the social networking platform;
based on the analyzing, defining, by the system, respective categories representing subsets of users of the social networking platform that have common memberships to types of social groups;
generating, by the system, access priority data comprising respective priorities assigned to the categories;
based on the access priority data, storing, by the system, identifier data indicative of a first group of user equipment associated with a first subset of the users in slots of an access control data structure associated with the femto access point device, wherein the first group of the user equipment are selected based on determining that the first group of the user equipment have been assigned a higher access priority for access to the femto access point device than a second group of user equipment associated with a second subset of the users;
monitoring, by the system, status data that represents an availability of a first user equipment of the first group of the user equipment to communicate via the femto access point device;
in response to determining that the status data represents a busy status and that the access control data structure does not comprise an unoccupied slot, replacing, by the system, first identifier data, of the identifier data within the access control data structure that represents the first user equipment, with second identifier data indicative of a second user equipment of the second group of user equipment to prohibit access to the femto access point device by the first user equipment, which has been assigned a first access priority associated with accessing the femto access point device, and to grant access to the femto access point device by the second user equipment, which has been assigned a second access priority associated with accessing the femto access point device, wherein the first access priority is higher than the second access priority and wherein the replacing results in an updated access control data structure; and
facilitating, by the system, a transmission of data signals representing the updated access control data structure to the femto access point device, wherein the updated access control data structure enables the femto access point device access control to the femto access point device.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
employing, by the system, social utility information to quantify the social relationship information.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the storing comprises storing the identifier data based on communication log data associated with a subscriber device related to the femto access point device.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the storing comprises storing the identifier data based on preference data associated with a subscriber device related to the femto access point device.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the storing comprises storing the identifier data based on address book data associated with a subscriber device related to the femto access point device.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the replacing comprises replacing the first identifier data with the second identifier data furt

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Wohlert Randolph

Classifications

• H04L63/101 Primary

  Access control lists [ACL] · CPC title

• H04W48/16 Primary

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W84/045

  using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B · CPC title

• H04W60/00

  Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration · CPC title

• Y04S40/20

  Information technology specific aspects, e.g. CAD, simulation, modelling, system security · CPC title