Use of position data to select wireless access point

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9288751-B2
Application number	US-89724007-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2007
Priority date	Aug 29, 2007
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

A mobile computing device comprises a radio frequency transceiver, a memory, and processing circuit. The radio frequency transceiver is configured to communicate with wireless access points. The memory is configured to store position data representative of a position of the mobile computing device and wireless access point data for a plurality of wireless access points. The processing circuit is configured to select one of the plurality of wireless access points based on the position data and to initiate wireless communication with the selected wireless access point.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A mobile computing device, comprising:
a radio frequency transceiver configured to communicate with wireless access points of a wireless wide-area network (WWAN) system;
a memory configured to store position data representative of a position of the mobile computing device and wireless access point data for a plurality of wireless access points of the WWAN system, wherein the wireless access point data includes position data associated with a wireless access point of the WWAN system; and
a processing circuit configured to select one of the plurality of wireless access points within a vicinity of the mobile computing device based on the position data representative of the position of the mobile computing device and the position data associated with the wireless access point of the WWAN system, and based on a trusted list of wireless access points that report statistics and usage to a service provider, the processing circuit being further configured to initiate wireless communication with the selected wireless access point.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to initiate the wireless communication with the selected wireless access point and is further configured to scan for available wireless access points if the selected wireless access point is unavailable.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to operate a calendar application to receive the position data.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 1 , further comprising a position determination circuit configured to generate the position data.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1 , further comprising a cellular transceiver coupled to the processing circuit, wherein the processing circuit is configured to generate the position data based on wireless communication via the cellular transceiver with a cellular base station to receive a base station identifier.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to display a plurality of wireless access point identifiers, to receive a user selection of one of the plurality of wireless access point identifiers, to retrieve current position data for the mobile computing device, and to store data in memory associating the user-selected wireless access point identifier with the current position data.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 6 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to store a database comprising a plurality of preferred wireless access point identifiers, each with different associated position data.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 7 , wherein in response to the user enabling the radio frequency transceiver, the processing circuit is configured to retrieve the position data from memory, select the one of the plurality of wireless access points based on the position data, and initiate the wireless communication with the selected wireless access point, all without requiring further user input.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to display a plurality of wireless access point identifiers for nearby wireless access points only if the processing circuit fails to identify a preferred wireless access point identifier in the database based on the retrieved position data.

10. The mobile computing device of claim 7 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to create the database of preferred wireless access point identifiers based on a user manually selecting each wireless access point and initiating communication with each wireless access point and retrieving the associated position data based on the current position of the mobile computing device.

11. The mobile computing device of claim 7 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to create the database of preferred wireless access points based at least in part on the wireless access points meeting a security or reliability criterion.

12. The mobile computing device of claim 11 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine whether a wireless access point meets the security or reliability criterion by determining whether the wireless access point is a member of a remote database of approved wireless access points.

13. A mobile computing device, comprising:
a radio frequency transceiver configured to communicate with wireless access points of a wireless wide-area network (WWAN) system;
a memory;
a user input device;
a display; and
a processing circuit configured to use a trusted list of wireless access points that report statistics and usage to a service provider for selection of a wireless access point identifier corresponding to the wireless access point, to display a plurality of wireless access point identifiers of wireless access points within a vicinity of the mobile computing device on the display, to receive a user selection of one of the wireless access point identifiers via the user input device, to initiate communication with a wireless access point of the WWAN system corresponding to the wireless access point identifier in response to receiving the user selection, to retrieve position data representative of a position of the mobile computing device, and to associate the wireless access point identifier of the wireless access point of the WWAN system with the position data in the memory.

14. The mobile computing device of claim 13 , wherein the mobile computing device comprises a housing configured to be carried by a user while in use, a telephony communication circuit, and a plurality of personal information management applications configured to synchronize personal data with a remote computer.

15. A method operable on a mobile computing device for using position data to select a wireless access point within a vicinity of the mobile computing device, comprising:
storing wireless access point data and associated position data for a plurality of wireless access points of a wireless wide-area network (WWAN) system, wherein the wireless access point data includes position data associated with a wireless access point of the WWAN system;
storing, associated with said access point data, a trusted list of wireless access points that report statistics and usage to a service provider;
retrieving a current position of the mobile computing device;
using the current position, the trusted list of wireless access points, and the position data associated with a wireless access point of the WWAN system to select wireless access point data from memory; and
attempting to initiate communication with a wireless access point based on the selected wireless access point data.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein attempting to initiate communication with the wireless access point based on the selected wireless access point data occurs without requiring input from a user.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the position data comprises a cellular base station identifier.

18. A method of identifying a subset of wireless access points within a vicinity of a mobile computing device to assist a user in communicating with a wireless access point of a wireless wide-area network (WWAN) system, comprising:
generating position data representing a position of the mobile computing device;
accessing a database of wireless access point data representing a trusted list of wireless access points that report statistics and usage to a service provider, wherein the wireless access point data includes position data associated with a wireless access point of the WWAN system, and accessin

Assignees

• Finkelstein Jeffrey
• Tse Edmund
• Williams David
• Maes Stephane
• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Finkelstein Jeffrey
• Tse Edmund
• Williams David
• Maes Stephane

Classifications

• H04W48/20 Primary

  Selecting an access point · CPC title

• H04W88/02

  Terminal devices · CPC title