Public/private indicator based access point connection permission

• US 10,200,936 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2016
• Issued: 02/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tipton, Rick, Meredith, Sheldon Kent, Thomas, Christine
• Primary Examiner(s): Zaidi, Iqbal
• Application Number:
  US15/365,338
• Publication Number:
  US 20180152881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 797 Days
• Field of Search: 370241-339, 455423-425
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Determining a permission for a user equipment to connect to an access point based on the public/private status of the access point device is disclosed. The permission can be based on a historic user equipment density for an area comprising the location of the access point device. The permission can be further based on analysis of an access point device identifier. Analysis of the access point device identifier can be based on comparing a portion of the access point device identifier to a term associated with either a public status or a private status of the access point device. In an embodiment, the access point device identifier can be an SSID, such as for a Wi-Fi network, whereby the SSID can be parsed into keywords that can be compared to the term. Ranking and/or white/blacklisting can be performed based on the analysis of the access point device identifier.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

receiving an access point device identifier associated with an access point device;

receiving a historical density of user equipments for an area, wherein the access point device is located in the area, wherein the historical density for the area is derived from historical densities for areas comprising the area, and wherein the historical densities are based on a historical count of different user equipments in the areas is determined for a determined time period;

determining a status of the access point device based on the historical density; and

enabling access to the status for a user equipment to facilitate the user equipment initiating a connection to the access point device based on the status.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the access point device is a service set identifier.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the service set identifier is a service set identifier for a Wi-Fi network employing an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11 protocol.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

parsing a keyword from the access point device identifier; and

updating the status in response to comparing the keyword to a term associated with a first status.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the first status corresponds to an increased likelihood that the access point device is intended to be a publically available access point device.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the first status corresponds to a decreased likelihood that the access point device is a private access point device intended for non-public use.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the term is updated in response to an analysis of access point device identifiers in relation to a public/private access point status.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the area comprises a delineation of a grid pattern of grid squares, and wherein a grid square of the grid squares is about 100 meters by 100 meters.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the historical density represents a historical count of unique user equipments in the area of the areas for the determined time period.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the historical density is apportionable into grid squares of a grid pattern delineation of the area, and wherein a grid square of the grid squares is assigned the historical count of unique user equipments for the grid square of the area of the areas for the determined time period for a determined granularity of the grid pattern delineation.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein a first location of the access point device is determined by substitution of a second location of a user equipment determined to be within a service area of the access point device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving map data comprising business location information representative of locations of business entities, and

wherein the determining the status of the access point device is further based on the map data.

13. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

receiving an access point device identifier from an access point device;

generating a query related to a character of the access point device, wherein the query comprises the access point identifier, and wherein the character relates to whether the access point device has a public characteristic as opposed to a private characteristic;

receiving a response to the query, wherein the response comprises a permission score, wherein the permission score is based on a historical density of user equipments in an area comprising the location of the access point device and an analysis of the access point device identifier, and wherein the historical density of the user equipments in the area is based on a historical count of different user equipments in the area during a determined historical period; and

initiating a connection to the access point device based on the permission score.

14. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the access point device is a first access point device, and wherein the permission score represents a rank of the first access point device relative to a status of a second access point device as to whether the second access point device has the public characteristic or the private characteristic.

15. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the analysis of the access point device identifier comprises parsing the access point device identifier into a representation comprising a keyword and comparing the keyword of the representation to a term of a group of terms, and wherein the group of terms is associated with the character of the access point device.

16. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the access point device is determined to be within the area based on a location of the mobile device.

17. A method, comprising:

determining, by a network device comprising a processor, a status of an access point device based on a historical density of user equipments for an area and a correlation between a portion of an access point device identifier and a determined term, wherein the access point device is located in the area, and wherein the historical density of the user equipments for the area is based on a count of different user equipments in the area during a determined historical period; and

enabling, by the network device, access to the status for a user equipment to facilitate a user equipment determining an availability of the access point device based on the status.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the status relates to whether the access point device is a non-residential use access point device as opposed to a public use access point device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the status relates to whether the access point device is a residential use access point device as opposed to a private use access point device.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the access point device identifier is a service set identifier for a network employing a Wi-Fi protocol.