Collection of crowd-sourced access point data for 5G or other next generation network

• US 10,271,236 B1
• Filed: 09/29/2017
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.), AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Brisebois, Arthur Richard, Mikan, Jeffrey, Huber, Kurt
• Primary Examiner(s): Dean, Jr., Joseph E
• Application Number:
  US15/721,326
• Publication Number:
  US 20190104429A1
• Time in Patent Office: 571 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/364 Delay profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Abstract

Collection of crowd-sourced access point quality and selection data for intelligent network selection can be utilized by mobile devices to self-learn and optimize access point device selection. A cloud-based application can be utilized in conjunction with the mobile device to build a database of access point quality and thresholds suitable for real-time and other jitter-sensitive services. The mobile device jitter measurements and selection thresholds can be collected and sent to a cloud platform, which creates an access point performance and selection threshold profile.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device comprising a processor, a first signal from an access point device of a wireless network;

based on the first signal, determining, by the mobile device, that the access point device has not previously sent a second signal to the mobile device, the second signal being different than the first signal;

in response to the determining, generating, by the mobile device, threshold data associated with a threshold of signal strength quality of the first signal, wherein the threshold is associated with a packet flow jitter of a current control protocol;

in response to the first signal being terminated, refreshing, by the mobile device, expired access point data associated with the access point and the packet flow jitter of the current control protocol;

based on a condition associated with the threshold of the signal strength quality being determined to have been satisfied, setting, by the mobile device, a time associated with the threshold data to an initial time, resulting in initial time data;

based on the generating, updating, by the mobile device, a data structure of the mobile device with the threshold data and the initial time data; and

in response to the updating, sending, by the mobile device, the threshold data and the initial time data to a network device of the wireless network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the mobile device, time data related to the threshold of the signal strength quality of the first signal from the network device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the time data is first time data, wherein the condition is a first condition, and further comprising:

in response to a second condition associated with the first time data being determined to have been satisfied, updating, by the mobile device, the data structure of the mobile device with second time data associated with the signal strength quality.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

sending, by the mobile device, the second time data to the network device of the wireless network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition is a first condition, and further comprising:

based on a second condition associated with the threshold of the signal strength quality being determined to have been satisfied, labeling, by the mobile device, the threshold data as expired.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the labeling, sending, by the mobile device, expiration data associated with the threshold data being expired to the network device of the wireless network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating the data structure comprises updating the data structure with identification data associated with an identification of the access point device.

8. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

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

determining that an access point device has not previously sent a first signal to a mobile device of a wireless network;

in response to the determining, generating threshold data associated with a threshold of signal strength quality of a second signal sent from the access point device to the mobile device, wherein the threshold is associated with a packet flow jitter associated with a current control protocol;

based on a condition associated with the threshold of the signal strength quality being determined to have been satisfied, setting a time associated with the threshold data to a first time, resulting in first time data;

in response to the second signal being terminated, refreshing expired access point data associated with the access point device and the packet flow jitter associated with the current control protocol;

sending the threshold data to a network device of the wireless network; and

in response to the sending the threshold data, updating time data with the first time data associated with the threshold of the signal strength quality of the second signal.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending the time data associated with the threshold of the signal strength quality of the second signal to the network device from the mobile device, and wherein the time data comprises an expiration value associated with an expiration of the signal strength quality.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the condition is a first condition, and wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to a second condition associated with the expiration value being determined to have been satisfied, generating an updated expiration value, which updates the expiration value, to be sent to the network device.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the threshold of signal strength quality being determined not to have been satisfied, generating an indication that the threshold of the signal strength quality is expired.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

based on the indication that the threshold of the signal strength quality is expired, sending updated access point data to the network device to update a data structure of the network device.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the expired access point data comprises a media access control address associated with the access point device.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the signal strength quality is based on a jitter associated with the second signal between the mobile device and the access point device.

15. A machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

facilitating a signal quality reduction, between a mobile device and an access point device, from a first signal quality to a second signal quality, wherein the second signal quality is lower than a determined signal quality threshold;

receiving, from the mobile device, status data associated with a status of the access point device;

receiving, from the mobile device, signal quality data associated with a third signal quality, wherein the third signal quality is higher than the determined signal quality threshold;

based on a condition associated with a threshold of the third signal quality being determined to have been satisfied, setting a time associated with threshold data to an initial time, resulting in initial time data, wherein the threshold data is associated with a packet flow jitter of a current control protocol;

based on a signal of the mobile device being terminated, facilitating refreshing expired access point data associated with the access point device and the packet flow jitter of the current control protocol; and

based on the signal quality data, facilitating an update of time data, wherein the time data comprises an expiration value of the signal quality data and the initial time data, to occur at a network device.

16. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the status data comprises expiration data indicative of a time value associated with the first signal quality being determined to have expired.

17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the update is a first update, and wherein the operations further comprise:

facilitating a second update of a data structure of the network device with the expiration data.

18. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

facilitating a second update of a data structure of the mobile device with identification data related to the access point device.

19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

during a communication with the access point device, receiving a measurement of a jitter value associated with a jitter experienced by the mobile device.

20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the facilitating the signal quality reduction is performed in response to detection that the jitter value changed to an updated jitter value greater than the jitter value.