Method and system for network discovery and management and associated e-commerce

• US 10,327,118 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2016
• Issued: 06/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Charter Communications Operating LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Charter Communications Operating LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Briancon, Alain C., Thomas, Edward R., Thompson, David P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hsu, Alpus
• Application Number:
  US15/339,435
• Publication Number:
  US 20170272924A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

The subject matter described herein relates to wireless network discovery, management, the enabling of services, and economic exchanges in a cooperative manner by one or more federated sets of consumers, one or more access point providers, and one or more wireless service providers. Described herein are methods and apparatus for the discovery, classification, and management of wireless networks. The methods and apparatuses described herein may leverage two complementary elements impacting the performance of wireless LANs: (1) organization and management of the wireless access points (hot spots) from an ontology perspective, and (2) organization of mobile devices as a federation.

Claims

1. A first management server configured for creating and managing a federation of wireless receive/transmit units (WRTUs), the first management server comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive a request from at least one WRTU from a plurality of WRTUs to create a federation of WRTUs;

the transceiver further configured to transmit a request for a Federated Community Identification (FCI) to a second management server;

the transceiver further configured to receive from the second management server the FCI;

a storage device in which the received FCI is stored;

the transceiver further configured to transmit a request for a management policy object (MPO) to the second management server;

the transceiver further configured to receive from the second management server the MPO, said MPO being stored in the storage device; and

a processor configured to manage the federation of WRTUs based on the received FCI and the received MPO.

2. The first management server of claim 1, wherein the MPO is encoded in one or more digital objects (DO) and transmitted to the at least one WRTU from the plurality of WRTUs.

3. The first management server of claim 2, wherein the DO is taken from a virtual private network (VPN) profile, economic incentive, or transaction incentive.

4. The first management server of claim 2, wherein said manage the federation of WRTUs based on the received FCI and received MPO includes the management of WRTUs in the federation of WRTUs to share information about hot spots and commerce supported by the hot spots.

5. The first management server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to manage a federation of wireless access points (WAPs) based on the received FCI and the received MPO.

6. The first management server of claim 5, further comprising:

the transceiver further configured to receive a request from at least one wireless access point (WAP) from a plurality of WAPs to create the federation of WAPs;

the processor further configured to create a record for the at least one WAP;

the storage device having stored therein descriptions associated with the at least one WAP;

the processor being further configured to identify operations supported by the at least one WAP based on the descriptions associated with the at least one WAP, said processor identified operations also being stored in said storage device.

7. The first management server of claim 6, wherein the descriptions are associated with device specifications of the at least one WAP.

8. The first management server of claim 6, wherein the descriptions are associated with operation and performance parameters of the at least one WAP.

9. The first management server of claim 6, further comprising:

the transceiver being further configured to receive at least one business model attribute (BMA) from a plurality of BMAs associated with the at least one WAP;

the processor being further configured to match the at least one BMA with ontological concepts stored in the storage device of the first management server based on geography; and

the processor further configured to assign transaction terms to the at least one WAP based on the matched at least one BMA.

10. The first management server of claim 9, wherein the at least one BMA is permanent free access, free access for loyal customers, rental access, trade access, credit for access, or relay access.

11. The first management server of claim 9 wherein the MPO enables transactions based on the assigned transaction terms.

12. The first management server of claim 11 wherein said ontological concepts are part of an ontology library used to provide collective information for an access point ontology.

13. The first management server of claim 6, wherein said descriptions associated with the at least one WAP are stored as concepts of a device ontology.

14. The first management server of claim 13, wherein said concepts include mobile and mobile in common commercial area.

15. The first management server of claim 5 wherein said configured to manage a federation of wireless access points (WAPs) based on the received FCI and received MPO includes being configured to manage the federation of wireless access points (WAPs) based on the received FCI and the received MPO to integrate wireless connectivity management and business applications.

16. The first management server of claim 1, wherein said federation of WRTUs is organized based on a set of locations, activities or commerce.

17. The first management server of claim 1,

wherein said processor is further configured to detect whether a WRTU of said federation of WRTUs is using a hot spot controlled by a first wireless access point;

and

when said processor determines that the WRTU of said federation of WRTUs is using the hot spot controlled by the first WAP determining what sensing algorithm to send to said WRTU determined to be using said hot spot for implementation.

18. The first management server of claim 17,

wherein said sensing algorithm is an algorithm for monitoring performance of said hot spot.

19. The first management server of claim 18,

wherein said transceiver receives throughput measurement reports from said WRTU using said hot spot at a predetermined frequency.