Wi-fi network access and a mobile terminal configured for the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016135205-A1
Application number	US-201614997651-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 18, 2016
Priority date	Mar 8, 2011
Publication date	May 12, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for accessing a Wi-Fi network from user equipment (UE) using a preferred access point (AP) when more than one AP is available is provided. RSSI included in received responses to scanning from the US and past connectivity data associated with the APs are used to generate a preferred list of APs from which an AP for connecting or switching to is selected.

First claim

1 . A method for accessing a Wi-Fi network from user equipment (UE) using a preferred access point (AP) when more than one AP is available, the method comprising:
connecting to a Wi-Fi network having a plurality of APs via a first AP; while connected to the Wi-Fi network via the first AP,
scanning for APs of the Wi-Fi network,
receiving responses from multiple APs in the Wi-Fi network, each response including a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of the respective AP,
generating a preferred list of APs from the multiple APs in the Wi-Fi network based on the RSSI included in the received responses and past connectivity data associated with each of the APs in the preferred list, the past connectivity data including one or more quality measures of past connections between the UE and the respective AP,
when the RSSI of the first AP is determined to be below a threshold RSSI,
(i) selecting a second AP in the Wi-Fi network from the preferred list, and
(ii) attempting to connect to the second AP and re-associate with the Wi-Fi network using the second AP.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the APs in the preferred list meet both RSSI and past connectivity data thresholds.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the each of the APs in the preferred list are ordered in accordance with a priority ranking for connecting to the Wi-Fi network.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the highest priority ranking in the preferred list is selected as the second AP.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second AP is selected based on a least time taken to acquire network connectivity.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein only APs of the Wi-Fi network having past connectivity data are scanned.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the preferred list of APs from the multiple APs in the Wi-Fi network comprises:
generating a list of the multiple APs in the Wi-Fi network from which responses were received; sorting the list of the multiple APs in the Wi-Fi network from which responses were received in descending order of the RSSI of the respective APs; filtering the sorted list of the multiple APs in the Wi-Fi network from in accordance with the RSSI of the respective APs to include only APs within a delta quality threshold of the AP having the highest RSSI value; and sorting the filtered list in accordance with a past connectivity parameter so that each of the APs in the preferred list are ordered in accordance with a priority ranking for connecting to the Wi-Fi network.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein generating the preferred list of APs from the multiple APs in the particular Wi-Fi network further comprises:
filtering the sorted list to remove APs without past connectivity data.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the sorted list of the multiple APs in the Wi-Fi network is filtered to remove any APs having a RSSI below an RSSI quality threshold.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the past connectivity parameter for which the filtered list is sorted is one of a number of handovers performed over a period of time, a handover success ratio, a time required to acquire network connectivity or a session duration.

11 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the past connectivity parameter for which the filtered list is sorted is one of a measure of an amount of data downloaded to the UE, a measure of an amount of data streamed to the UE or a measure of an amount of data uploaded from the UE.

12 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the past connectivity parameter for which the filtered list is sorted is a time to acquire session or network connectivity.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the past connectivity data is based on a session or connectivity type.

14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
when the RSSI of the first AP is determined to be below the threshold RSSI, storing past connectivity data associated with the connection between the UE and the first AP in a persistent memory of the UE in association with a basic service set identifier (BSSID) of the first AP.

15 . The method of claim 1 , when the attempt to connect to the second AP and associate with Wi-Fi network using the second AP fails,
(i) selecting subsequent APs in the particular Wi-Fi network from the preferred list in descending order of the priority ranking, and (ii) attempting to connect to the subsequent APs and associate with the particular Wi-Fi network using the subsequent APs, until a connection with the particular Wi-Fi network has been made or all APs in the particular Wi-Fi network have been attempted.

16 . A method for accessing a Wi-Fi network from user equipment (UE) using a preferred access point (AP) when more than one AP is available, the method comprising:
scanning for APs of a Wi-Fi network; receiving responses including response from multiple APs in a particular Wi-Fi network, each response including a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of the respective AP; before connecting to the particular Wi-Fi network,
generating a list of the multiple APs in the particular Wi-Fi network from which responses were received,
sorting the list of the multiple APs in the particular Wi-Fi network from which responses were received in descending order of the RSSI of the respective APs,
filtering the sorted list of the multiple APs in the particular Wi-Fi network from in accordance with the RSSI of the respective APs to include only APs within a delta quality threshold of the AP having the highest RSSI value, and
sorting the filtered list in accordance with a past connectivity parameter so that each of the APs in the preferred list are ordered in accordance with a priority ranking for connecting to the particular Wi-Fi network,
selecting a first AP in the particular Wi-Fi network from the preferred list, and
attempting to connect to the first AP and associate with the particular Wi-Fi network using the first AP.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the highest priority ranking in the preferred list is selected as the first AP.

18 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
when the attempt to connect to the first AP and associate with particular Wi-Fi network using the first AP fails, (i) selecting subsequent APs in the particular Wi-Fi network from the preferred list in descending order of the priority ranking, and (ii) attempting to connect to the subsequent APs and associate with the particular Wi-Fi network using the subsequent APs, until a connection with the particular Wi-Fi network has been made or all APs in the particular Wi-Fi network have been attempted.

19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the APs in the preferred list meet both RSSI and past connectivity data thresholds.

20 . A method for accessing a Wi-Fi network from user equipment (UE) using a preferred access point (AP) when more than one AP is available, the method comprising:
scanning for APs of a Wi-Fi network; receiving responses including response from multiple APs in a particular Wi-Fi network, each response including a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) of the respective AP; before connecting to the particular Wi-Fi network,
generating a preferred list of APs from the multiple APs in the particular Wi-Fi network based on the RSSI included in the received responses and past connectivity data associated with each of the APs in the preferred list, the past connectivity data including one or more quality measures of past connections between the UE and the respective AP,
selecting an AP in

Assignees

• Blackberry Ltd

Inventors

• Barbu Ion
• Bakthavathsalu Krishna Kumar
• Kholaif Ahmad Mohammad Mohammad
• Mendahawi Nayef Fawaz

Classifications

• H04W72/542 Primary

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W76/02

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W72/085 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W48/20 Primary

  Selecting an access point · CPC title