Method and apparatus for locating a wireless local area network in a wide area network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9060380-B2
Application number	US-201414316136-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2014
Priority date	Jul 25, 2005
Publication date	Jun 16, 2015
Grant date	Jun 16, 2015

Abstract

The disclosure is directed to a mobile communication device that measures characteristics or attributes of a first communications network that vary according to physical location within that first communications network to create a fingerprint, or signature, of a location within the first communications network. When the fingerprint of the current location of the mobile device is created it can be compared to a known fingerprint associated with a second communication network to determine the mobile device's proximity to the second communications network. For example, the first communications network may be a CDMA wide area wireless communication network and the second communications network may be a 802.11 wireless LAN.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of wireless communications, comprising:
capturing a value of at least one attribute of at least one reference signal transmitted by a wide area network when a wireless communications device is in the vicinity of a wireless local area network of a plurality of wireless local area networks;
creating a signal attribute pattern for at least one wireless local area network of the plurality of wireless local area networks based on the captured value of the at least one attribute; and
determining whether the wireless communications device is currently in the vicinity of one of the wireless local area networks by comparing a current value of the at least one attribute from one or more reference signals received from the wide area network to the value of the at least one attribute in the signal attribute pattern stored in a memory, wherein the at least one attribute comprises a signal measurement.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises a plurality of signal measurements corresponding to a plurality of base stations.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises one or more of signal strength, pilot signal phase, spreading code and number of pilot signals.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the value of the at least one attribute in the signal attribute pattern stored in the memory comprises a combination of multiple measurements.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein creating the signal attribute pattern is based on a received user input.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first signal attribute pattern corresponding to a first wireless local area network has a different number of attributes than a second signal attribute pattern corresponding to a second wireless local area network.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first access point of a first wireless local area network is associated with multiple wide area networks.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising comparing a sum of differences of the current value and the value stored in memory to a threshold.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising recording a number of times the at least one attribute has been updated.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising refining the at least one attribute by adding a new attribute.

11. A wireless communication device, comprising:
a processor;
memory in electronic communication with the processor;
instructions stored in memory, the instructions being executable to:
capture a value of at least one attribute of at least one reference signal transmitted by a wide area network when the wireless communications device is in the vicinity of a wireless local area network of a plurality of wireless local area networks;
create a signal attribute pattern for at least one wireless local area network of the plurality of wireless local area networks based on the captured value of the at least one attribute; and
determine whether the wireless communications device is currently in the vicinity of one of the wireless local area networks by comparing a current value of the at least one attribute from one or more reference signals received from the wide area network to the value of the at least one attribute in the signal attribute pattern stored in the memory, wherein the at least one attribute comprises a signal measurement.

12. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises a plurality of signal measurements corresponding to a plurality of base stations.

13. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises one or more of signal strength, pilot signal phase, spreading code and number of pilot signals.

14. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein the value of the at least one attribute in the signal attribute pattern stored in the memory comprises a combination of multiple measurements.

15. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein creating the signal attribute pattern is based on a received user input.

16. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein a first signal attribute pattern corresponding to a first wireless local area network has a different number of attributes than a second signal attribute pattern corresponding to a second wireless local area network.

17. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein a first access point of a first wireless local area network is associated with multiple wide area networks.

18. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions are further executable to compare a sum of differences of the current value and the value stored in memory to a threshold.

19. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions are further executable to record a number of times the at least one attribute has been updated.

20. The wireless communication device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions are further executable to refine the at least one attribute by adding a new attribute.

21. An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:
means for capturing a value of at least one attribute of at least one reference signal transmitted by a wide area network when the apparatus is in the vicinity of a wireless local area network of a plurality of wireless local area networks;
means for creating a signal attribute pattern for at least one wireless local area network of the plurality of wireless local area networks based on the captured value of the at least one attribute; and
means for determining whether the apparatus is currently in the vicinity of one of the wireless local area networks by comparing a current value of the at least one attribute from one or more reference signals received from the wide area network to the value of the at least one attribute in the signal attribute pattern stored in a memory, wherein the at least one attribute comprises a signal measurement.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises a plurality of signal measurements corresponding to a plurality of base stations.

23. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the at least one attribute comprises one or more of signal strength, pilot signal phase, spreading code and number of pilot signals.

24. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein creating the signal attribute pattern is based on a received user input.

25. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein a first signal attribute pattern corresponding to a first wireless local area network has a different number of attributes than a second signal attribute pattern corresponding to a second wireless local area network.

26. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium having instructions thereon, the instructions comprising:
code for causing a wireless communication device to capture a value of at least one attribute of at least one reference signal transmitted by a wide area network when the wireless communication device is in the vicinity of a wireless local area network of a plurality of wireless local area networks;
code for causing the wireless communication device to create a signal attribute pattern for at least one wireless local area network of the plurality of wireless local area networks based on the captured value of the at least one attribute; and
code for causing the wireless communication device to determine whether the wireless communication device is curr

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Nanda Sanjiv
• Gogic Aleksandar
• Deshpande Manoj M
• Jain Nikhil

Classifications

• H04W48/16 Primary

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W88/06 Primary

  adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals · CPC title

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04B7/2628

  using code-division multiple access [CDMA] or spread spectrum multiple access [SSMA] (H04B7/2618 takes precedence) · CPC title