Location assisted communications mode switching

• US 20040242240A1
• Filed: 05/27/2003
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lin, Jyh-Han
• Application Number:
  US10/445,694
• Publication Number:
  US 20040242240A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

Methods and devices are provided for automatically setting the communications mode of a wireless device based upon stored data defining the geographic coverage regions of a number or communications systems. In one method, there is received from a coverage server data describing a plurality of geographic regions and any communications modes available in each of the geographic regions. A present geographic location of the wireless communications device is determined, and the geographic region that contains the present geographic location is determined as a current region. The communications mode of the wireless communications device is set based upon the data describing the current region that is stored in the wireless communications device. Thus, the data can be centrally managed and updated at the coverage server. In preferred embodiments, the data includes many communications modes, including cellular and Wireless LAN modes.

Claims

1. A method for setting a communications mode of a wireless communications device, the method comprising:

receiving from a coverage server data describing a plurality of geographic regions and any communications modes available in each of the geographic regions;

storing in a wireless communications device the data received form the coverage server;

determining a present geographic location of the wireless communications device;

determining as a current region the geographic region that contains the present geographic location of the wireless communications device; and

setting the communications mode of the wireless communications device based upon the data describing the current region that is stored in the wireless communications device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data received from the coverage server includes relative priority information for the communications modes available in each of the geographic regions.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the communications modes include at least one cellular voice communications mode and at least one wireless LAN communications mode.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

if the data stored in the wireless communications device does not include data describing the current region, requesting data describing at least the current region from the coverage server.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the coverage server a data update including data describing at least one geographic region and any communications modes available in the at least one geographic region.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the data update is automatically received by the wireless communications device when the wireless communications device enters a different geographic region.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the data update is automatically received by the wireless communications device when the wireless communications device powers on.

8. A wireless communications device comprising:

a coverage storage table for storing data describing a plurality of geographic regions and any communications modes available in each of the geographic regions;

a geographic locator for determining a present geographic location of the wireless communications device;

a geographic region comparator for determining as a current region the geographic region that contains the present geographic location of the wireless communications device; and

a communications mode controller for setting a communications mode of the wireless communications device based upon the data describing the current region stored in the coverage storage table.

9. The wireless communications device according to claim 8, wherein the data stored in the coverage storage table includes relative priority information for the communications modes available in each of the geographic regions.

10. The wireless communications device according to claim 8, wherein the communications modes include at least one cellular voice communications mode and at least one wireless LAN communications mode.

11. The method according to claim 8,

wherein the coverage storage table stores a subset of the data for all geographic regions, and

if the data stored in the coverage storage table does not include the data describing the current region, the geographic region comparator requests at least the data describing the current region from a coverage server.

12. The wireless communications device according to claim 8,

wherein the coverage storage table stores a subset of the data for all geographic regions, and

the wireless communication device further includes a receiver for receiving from a coverage server a data update including the data describing at least one geographic region and any communications modes available in the at least one geographic region.

13. A computer program product for setting a communications mode of a wireless communications device, the computer program product comprising instructions for performing the steps of:

receiving from a coverage server data describing a plurality of geographic regions and any communications modes available in each of the geographic regions;

storing in a wireless communications device the data received form the coverage server;

determining a present geographic location of the wireless communications device;

determining as a current region the geographic region that contains the present geographic location of the wireless communications device; and

setting the communications mode of the wireless communications device based upon the data describing the current region that is stored in the wireless communications device.

14. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the data received from the coverage server includes relative priority information for the communications modes available in each of the geographic regions.

15. The computer program product according to claim 13, wherein the communications modes include at least one cellular voice communications mode and at least one wireless LAN communications mode.

16. The computer program product according to claim 13, further comprising instructions for performing the step of:

if the data stored in the wireless communications device does not include data describing the current region, requesting data describing at least the current region from the coverage server.

17. The computer program product according to claim 13, further comprising instructions for performing the step of:

receiving from the coverage server a data update including data describing at least one geographic region and any communications modes available in the at least one geographic region.

18. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the data update is automatically received by the wireless communications device when the wireless communications device enters a different geographic region.

19. The computer program product according to claim 17, wherein the data update is automatically received by the wireless communications device when the wireless communications device powers on.

20. A wireless communications system comprising:

a coverage server for storing data describing a plurality of geographic regions and any communications modes available in each of the geographic regions; and

a transmitter for transmitting to a plurality of wireless communications devices subsets of the data stored on the coverage server.

21. The wireless communications system according to claim 20, further comprising a receiver for receiving from the wireless communications devices requests for subsets of the data stored on the coverage server.