Method and equipment for accessing a telecommunication network

• US 20010023446A1
• Filed: 02/20/2001
• Published: 09/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Balogh, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 7,430,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service

Abstract

A method for accessing a network in a telecommunication system which comprises at least one terminal and a plurality of networks. Information sets describing settings needed to access networks and their resources are stored in the terminal. The terminal scans for information about available networks. Available information sets are determined by comparing the information about available networks to the stored information sets. At least one network is accessed based on the settings defined in the available information sets.

Claims

1. A method for accessing a network in a telecommunication system comprising at least one terminal and a plurality of networks, characterized by

storing information sets describing settings needed to access networks and their resources,

scanning for information about the available networks by the terminal,

determining available information sets by comparing the information about the available networks to said stored information sets, and

accessing at least one network based on the settings described in the available information sets.

2. A method according to

claim 1

, characterized by

informing a user of the terminal about the available information sets,

letting the user select one of the available information sets, and

accessing at least one network based on the settings described in the information set the user has accepted.

3. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that

said stored information sets are stored separately for each network on a smart card.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by

storing network names of the networks belonging to said stored information sets,

performing the scanning by sending network identity requests and searching for network identity responses, and

determining the available information sets by comparing the stored network names to the scanned information identifying the network names of the available networks.

5. A method according to

claim 4

, characterized by

storing network identifiers representing a group of network names using wildcard characters in said stored information sets, and

determining the available information sets by comparing the stored network identifiers to the scanned information identifying the network names of the available networks.

6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that

the terminal is a mobile terminal and at least one of the networks is a wireless local area (WLAN) network.

7. A method according to

claim 6

, characterized in that said stored information sets comprise also channel settings defining whether the used radio channel is automatically or manually selected and/or said stored information sets comprise operation mode settings defining whether the used operation mode is an ad-hoc or an infrastructure mode.

8. A terminal comprising a transceiver (Tx/Rx) for communicating with a telecommunication network (NW1, NW2, ON), characterized in that the terminal further comprises

memory means (CPU, MEM, SCMEM) for storing information sets describing settings needed to access networks and their resources,

scanning means (CPU) for scanning for information about the available networks,

determination means (CPU) for determining available information sets by comparing the information about the available networks to said stored information sets, and

access means (CPU) for accessing at least one network based on the settings described in the available information sets.

9. A terminal according to

claim 8

, characterized in that

the terminal comprises user interface means (UI) for informing a user of the terminal about the available information sets and letting the user select one of the available information sets, and

the access means (CPU) are arranged to access at least one network (NW1, NW2) based on the settings described in the information set the user has accepted.

10. A terminal according to

claim 8

or

9

, characterized in that

said stored information sets are stored as network-specific profiles on a smart card (SC) that may be accessed by the terminal.

11. A terminal according to any one of the claims 8-10, characterized in that

the memory means (CPU, MEM, SCMEM) are arranged to store network names of the networks belonging to said stored information sets,

the scanning means (CPU) are arranged to perform the scanning by sending network identity requests and searching for network identity responses, and

the determination means (CPU) are arranged to determine the available information sets by comparing the stored network names to the scanned information identifying the network names of the available networks.

12. A terminal according to any one of the claims 8-11, characterized in that

the terminal is a mobile terminal and comprises functionality to access wireless local area networks.

13. A terminal according to

claim 12

, characterized in that

said stored information sets comprise channel settings defining whether the used radio channel is automatically or manually selected and/or said stored information sets comprise operation mode settings defining whether the used operation mode is an ad-hoc or an infrastructure mode, and

the terminal is arranged to select the used radio channel based on the channel settings of the available information sets and/or the terminal is arranged to select an ad-hoc or an infrastructure mode based on the operation mode settings of the available information sets.