Method and apparatus for location based wireless roaming between communication networks

• US 20030112178A1
• Filed: 12/19/2001
• Published: 06/19/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Bajikar, Sundeep M.
• Granted Patent: US 6,897,805 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• 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 74/00 Wireless channel access

Abstract

According to one embodiment of the invention an apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a positioning mechanism to determine a position of said apparatus; a baseband module comprising a plurality of network interfaces each supporting a network communications protocol; a determining mechanism to determine which communications network are operative at said position; a selection mechanism to select one of said operative communications network; and a connection mechanism to seamlessly connect said apparatus to said selected communications network using one of said network interfaces.

Claims

1. Apparatus comprising:

a positioning mechanism to determine a position of said apparatus;

a baseband module including a plurality of network interfaces each supporting a network communications protocol;

a determining mechanism to determine which communications networks are operative at said position;

a selection mechanism to select one of said operative communications networks; and

a connection mechanism to seamlessly connect said apparatus to said selected communications network using one of said network interfaces.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the positioning mechanism comprises a positioning sensor.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the positioning sensor comprises a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) sensor.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the positioning mechanism transmits a triangulation signal which is triangulated by a network operator, the apparatus then operating to receive a result of said triangulation.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the determining mechanism determines the operative communications networks using an area coverage map indicating the communications networks operative at said position.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said area coverage map comprises operational information about said operative communications networks.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein said area coverage map is stored locally in a memory device included in said apparatus.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said selection mechanism selects said operative communications network based on user-defined criteria.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the user-defined criteria is selected from a group comprising of a network bandwidth, network services and network billing rates.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a mechanism to manage a power consumption of the network interfaces not selected.

11. A method comprising:

determining a position of a user device;

determining which communications networks are operative at said position using a digital map indicating a coverage area for each communications network;

selecting one of said operative networks; and

connecting said user device seamlessly to said selected network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein determining said position is performed by transmitting a triangulation signal from said user device, which signal is triangulated by a network operator;

and receiving a result of said triangulation.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein determining said position is achieved using a positioning sensor which forms part of said user device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said digital map is stored in a memory device forming a part of said user device.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting one of said operative networks is based on user-defined criteria.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said user-defined criteria is selected from a group comprising of a network bandwidth, network services and network billing rates.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising managing a power consumption of network interfaces not selected.

18. A computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a sequence of instructions which when executed by a processor cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

determining a position of a user device;

determining which communications networks are operative at said position;

selecting one of said operative communications networks; and

connecting said device seamlessly to the selected network.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein determining said position is performed by transmitting a triangulation signal from said device, which signal is triangulated by a network carrier;

and receiving a result of said triangulation.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein determining said position is achieved using a positioning sensor which forms a part of said user device.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein determining which communications networks are operative at said position comprises using a digital map indicating coverage area for the communications networks.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein said digital, map is stored in a memory device forming a part of said user device.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein selecting one of said operative networks is based on user defined criteria.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein said user defined criteria is selected from a group comprising of a network bandwidth, network services and network billing rates.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein said operations further comprise managing a power consumption of network interfaces which are not selected.

26. Apparatus comprising:

positioning means for determining a position of said apparatus;

communication means including a plurality of network interfaces each supporting a network communications protocol;

determining means for determining which communications networks are operative at said position;

selection means for selecting one of said operative communications networks; and

connection means for seamlessly connecting said apparatus to said selected communications network using one of said network interfaces.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the positioning means comprises a positioning sensor.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein said positioning sensor comprises a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) sensor.