Method and apparatus for managing personal cache in a wireless network

• US 20030194998A1
• Filed: 04/12/2002
• Published: 10/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Bhide, Sandhiprakash J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,321,769 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/433
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

A method and apparatus for determining whether cache memory is available on a wireless network to store at least one user-selected electronic file. The cache memory may be provided to a user of a wireless device for a fee. If a user has cache memory available on the wireless network the user may store in the cache memory one or more electronic files. The wireless network senses the location of the user and sends a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to the user'"'"'s wireless device. As the user moves from one switching center to another, a set of rules may be executed to retrieve location, time or context specific information as specified by the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining whether cache memory is available on a wireless network to store at least one user-selected electronic file;

storing on the wireless network the at least one user-selected electronic file if the cache memory is available; and

sending a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether cache memory is available on a wireless network to store at least one user-selected electronic file comprises determining whether the user subscribes to a wireless service that provides cache memory for storing the at least one user-selected electronic file.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one user-selected electronic file comprises at least one of an audio file, a video file, an audio-video file, an executable file, and a text file.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining whether cache memory is available to store the at least one user-selected electronic file comprises checking a user'"'"'s profile stored in at least one of a home location register (HLR) and a visitor location register (VLR) to determine whether the user subscribes to a wireless service that provides cache memory for storing the at least one user-selected electronic file.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein storing on the wireless network the at least one user-selected electronic file if the cache memory is available comprises storing in the cache memory the at least one user-selected electronic file defined by the users profile.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file is sent to the wireless device automatically using wireless control channels.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the at least one user-selected electronic file in the cache memory is copied automatically from a location serviced by one switching center to a location serviced by another switching center as the wireless device moves from a location serviced by one switching center to a location serviced by another switching center.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one user-selected electronic file is generated for a particular switching center serving area.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein generating at least one user-selected electronic file for a particular switching center comprises:

determining the location of the wireless device;

accessing at least one of a web site and a database;

searching the at least one of the web site and the database for location dependent information corresponding to the location of the wireless device; and

sending the location dependent information to the wireless device.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the set of rules, automatically sends files to the wireless device when the wireless device moves from one location to another.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a checker module to determine whether cache memory is available on a wireless network to store at least one user-selected electronic file;

a transaction module coupled with the checker module to store on the wireless network the at least one user-selected electronic file if the cache memory is available, and the transaction module to send a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the checker module to determine whether cache memory is available on a wireless network to store at least one user-selected electronic file comprises the checker module to determine whether the user subscribes to a wireless service that provides cache memory for storing the at least one user-selected electronic file.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the at least one user-selected electronic file comprises at least one of an audio file, a video file, a audio-video file, an executable file, and a text file.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the checker module to determine whether cache memory is available to store the at least one user-selected electronic file comprises the checker module to check the user'"'"'s profile stored in at least one of a home location register (HLR) and a visitor location register (VLR) to determine whether the user subscribes to a wireless service that provides cache memory for storing the at least one user-selected electronic file.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the transaction module coupled with the checker module to store on the wireless network the at least one user-selected electronic file if the cache memory is available comprises the transaction module to store in the cache memory the at least one user-selected electronic file defined by the users profile.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the transaction module to send a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device comprises the transaction module to send a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device automatically using a wireless control channel.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the transaction module to copy the at least one user-selected electronic file in the cache memory to a wireless device comprises the transaction module to automatically copy the at least one electronic file from a location serviced by one switching center to a location serviced by another switching center as the wireless device moves from a location serviced by one switching center to a location serviced by another switching center.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the transaction module generates the at least one user-selected electronic file for a particular switching center.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the transaction module to generate at least one user-selected electronic file for a particular switching center comprises the transaction module to determine the location of the wireless device, to access at least one of a web site and a database, to search the at least one of the web site and the database for location dependent information corresponding to the location of the wireless device, and to send the location dependent information to the wireless device.

20. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-accessible medium including instructions that, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform operations comprising

determining whether cache memory is available on a wireless network to store at least one user-selected electronic file;

storing on the wireless network the at least one user-selected electronic file if the cache memory is available; and

sending a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device.

21. The article of manufacture as in claim 20, wherein instructions for determining whether cache memory is available on a wireless network to store at least one user-selected electronic file comprises further instructions for determining whether the user subscribes to a wireless service that provides cache memory for storing the at least one user-selected electronic file.

22. The article of manufacture as in claim 20, wherein instructions for determining whether cache memory is available to store the at least one user-selected electronic file comprises further instructions for checking a user'"'"'s profile stored in at least one of a home location register (HLR) and a visitor location register (VLR) to determine whether the user subscribes to a wireless service that provides cache memory for storing the at least one user-selected electronic file.

23. The article of manufacture as in claim 20, wherein instructions for storing on the wireless network the at least one user-selected electronic file if the cache memory is available comprises further instructions for storing in the cache memory the at least one user-selected electronic file defined by the users profile.

24. The article of manufacture as in claim 20, wherein instructions for sending a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device comprises further instructions for sending a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to the wireless device automatically using wireless control channels.

25. The article of manufacture as in claim 20, wherein instructions for sending a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device comprises further instructions for automatically copying the at least one user-selected electronic file from a location serviced by one switching center to a location serviced by another switching center as the wireless device moves from a location serviced by one switching center to a location serviced by another switching center.

26. The article of manufacture as in claim 20, wherein instructions for sending a copy of the at least one user-selected electronic file to a wireless device comprises further instructions for generating the at least one electronic file.

27. The article of manufacture as in claim 26, wherein instructions for generating the at least one electronic file comprises further instructions for

determining the location of the wireless device;

accessing at least one of a web site and a database;

searching the at least one of the web site and the database for location dependent information corresponding to the location of the wireless device; and

sending the location dependent information to the wireless device.

28. An apparatus comprising:

a memory;

a network card; and

a processor coupled to said network card and said memory, said memory to receive from a wireless network at least one user-selected electronic file from a cache memory in the wireless network, said user-selected electronic file stored in the cache memory on the wireless network by a user, said cache memory provided to the user for a fee.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the at least one user-selected electronic file is location dependent.

30. The apparatus of claim 28 further comprising the processor sensing a change of location from a first switching center to a second switching center and the processor to automatically execute a set of rules to obtain information specific to the second switching center.