System and method for location based policy management

• US 20060014547A1
• Filed: 07/13/2004
• Published: 01/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Inventors: Walter, Edward
• Granted Patent: US 7,286,834 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/64 using geofenced areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

The disclosure is directed to a system including a set of short-range wireless access points and a policy server. The set of short-range wireless access points are configured to provide a short-range wireless network having a coverage area and are configured to communicate with a wireless enabled device within the coverage area. The policy server is communicatively coupled with the set of short-range wireless access points and is configured to determine whether the wireless enabled device is located within a designated region within the coverage area based on data received from the set of short-range wireless access points.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a set of short-range wireless access points configured to provide a short-range wireless network having a coverage area and configured to communicate with a wireless enabled device within the coverage area; and

a policy server communicatively coupled with the set of short-range wireless access points and configured to determine whether the wireless enabled device is located within a designated region within the coverage area based on data received from the set of short-range wireless access points.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the designated region is smaller than the coverage area.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy server includes boundary data configured to define the designated region.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy server is configured to control network traffic associated with the wireless enabled device based on whether the wireless enabled device is within the designated region.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy server is configured to control feature functionality of the wireless enabled device based on whether the wireless enabled device is within the designated region.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy server determines whether the wireless enabled device is within the designated region by performing a triangulation operation based on data received from at least three access points.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the short-range wireless network uses protocols selected from the group consisting of IEEE 802.11, 802.15, and 802.16.

8. A method of controlling network traffic, the method comprising:

providing boundary data defining a boundary zone within a short-range wireless network coverage area;

determining whether a wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone; and

controlling network traffic received from the wireless enabled device when the wireless enabled device is located outside the boundary zone.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the short-range wireless network coverage area is provided by at least three wireless access points.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein determining whether a wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone includes performing a triangulating operation based on data received from at least three access points.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising comparing the location of the wireless enabled device to the boundary data.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising communicating network traffic to an external network when the wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the boundary data is a set of boundary locations.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining the set of boundary locations based on a location of a boundary calibration device.

15. A policy server comprising:

a processor;

communication circuitry accessible to the processor and configured to connect to a set of wireless network access points, the set of wireless access points providing a short-range wireless network coverage area; and

memory accessible to the processor, the memory including;

boundary data; and

computer-implemented instructions operable by the processor to determine whether a wireless enabled device is located within a boundary zone within the coverage area based on data received from the set of wireless network access points, the boundary zone defined by the boundary data.

16. The policy server of claim 15, wherein the memory includes location based network logic including computer-implemented instructions operable by the processor to control network traffic in response to data that indicates whether a wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone.

17. The policy server of claim 15, wherein the memory includes computer-implemented instructions operable by the processor to selectively apply a feature policy based on determining whether a wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone.

18. The policy server of claim 15, wherein the memory includes location determining logic.

19. A communications device comprising:

long-range wireless communication circuitry configured to access a long-range wireless network;

short-range wireless communication circuitry configured to access a short-range wireless network;

configurable feature circuitry; and

a feature policy driver programmed to receive a feature policy via the short-range wireless communication circuitry and to configure the feature circuitry based on the feature policy.

20. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the feature policy is provided by a policy server based on a determined location of the communication device relative to a boundary zone within the coverage area of the short-range wireless network.

21. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the short-range wireless communication circuitry is configured to communicate using a protocol selected from the group consisting of IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, and IEEE 802.16.

22. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes a camera feature.

23. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes an application environment.

24. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes ringer volume.

25. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes a ringer state.

26. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) feature.

27. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes an outbound calling feature.

28. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes an inbound calling feature.

29. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes a text alert feature.

30. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes a voice alert feature.

31. The communications device of claim 19, wherein the configurable feature circuitry includes a text messaging feature.

32. A method for managing feature functionality of a wireless enabled device, the method comprising:

providing boundary data defining a boundary zone within a short-range wireless network coverage area;

determining whether a wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone; and

determining a feature policy to be applied to the wireless enabled device based on determining whether the wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising providing the feature policy to the wireless enabled device.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the feature policy is provided via the short-range wireless network.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein determining whether a wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone includes determining a location of the wireless enabled device based on data received from a set of wireless access points.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein determining whether a wireless enabled device is located within the boundary zone further includes comparing the device location to the boundary data.