Methods and systems for proximity communication

• US 20060068703A1
• Filed: 09/29/2004
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Sankisa, Arun, Ng, Amy L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,647,022 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/021 adapted for Wireless Local Loop operation

Abstract

Methods and systems to provide proximity based communication between users of proximity communication devices (“PCD”). A localized communication network is established by peer-to-peer communication between PCDs. Each PCD communicates with other PCDs in a localized, peer-to-peer network structure. Each PCD is identified to other PCDs in its own localized area by its geographical position (i.e., its relative proximity to each other PCD). A user may therefore establish communications with another user based upon the other user'"'"'s proximity or location relative to the first user'"'"'s PCD rather than a fixed ID code such as a phone number or address. No centralized server or telephony network system is required for each PCD to communicate with another PCD. Well known protocols for call connection may be adapted for use in establishing, operating, and terminating connections between PCDs.

Claims

1. A system for proximity communication comprising:

a plurality of proximity communication devices (“

PCD”

) wherein each PCD comprises;

a locator to determine the geographic location of said each PCD; and

a wireless transceiver for exchanging information between said each PCD with other PCDs wherein the information exchanged includes location of each of said plurality of PCDs and wherein the information exchanged further includes user data,

wherein said each PCD is adapted to establish a connection with an identified PCD of said other PCDs based on the location of said identified PCD.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the locator is a GPS locator.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the location is an absolute location including longitude and latitude.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the location is a relative location locating said each PCD relative to a reference point.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the location is dynamic and wherein the current location of each PCD is periodically exchanged among all the PCDs

6. The System of claim 1 wherein the location is used by said each PCD to determine the relative proximity of each PCD to each other PCD of the plurality of PCDs and wherein said each PCD is further adapted to establish a connection with one or more identified PCDs based on the relative proximity of said each PCD to said each other PCD.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the exchanged information includes attributes of each of said other PCDs and wherein said each PCD is further adapted to establish a connection with said identified PCD based on the attributes of said identified PCD.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the user data includes voice data and non-voice data.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one PCD of the plurality of PCDs further includes:

a wireless telephonic transceiver to provide connectivity to a telephone network in addition to connectivity among said plurality of PCDs.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the telephone network is a cellular telephone network.

11. A method for proximity based communication comprising:

synchronizing wireless communication among a plurality of proximity communication devices (“

PCD”

);

generating a first unique code associated with each of the plurality of PCDs;

determining the initial location associated with each of the plurality of PCDs;

broadcasting the first unique code and the initial location associated with each of the plurality of PCDs from each PCD to all other PCDs; and

establishing at least one call connection between a first PCD and a second PCD based upon the initial location information exchanged between the first PCD and the second PCD.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

periodically resynchronizing the wireless communication among the plurality of PCDs.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

periodically determining a current location associated with each of the plurality of PCDs; and

broadcasting the current location associated with each PCD from each PCD to all other PCDs.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the step of establishing further comprises:

establishing at least one call connection from the first PCD to the second PCD based upon the initial location information or based upon the current location information exchanged between the first PCD and the second PCD.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the step of establishing further comprises:

selecting the second PCD within the first PCD based upon the initial location information or based upon the current location information;

sending a connection request from the first PCD to the second PCD wherein the connection request is encoded using the first unique code associated with the second PCD and wherein the connection request includes parameters of the desired connection;

receiving the connection request within the second PCD; and

establishing the requested connection in accordance with the parameters included in the received connection request.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

responsive to establishment of the requested connection, exchanging scrambled information between the first PCD and the second PCD where the scrambled information is encoded using scrambling key information exchanged between the first PCD and the second PCD in establishing the requested connection.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

generating a PCD ID for each PCD; and

generating said scrambling key information,

wherein the step of broadcasting further comprises;

broadcasting the PCD ID and scrambling key information for each PCD from said each PCD to all other PCDs.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

verifying the uniqueness of each PCD ID received in each PCD in response to the broadcasting; and

responsive to detecting a non-unique PCD ID by operation of the step of verifying, performing the steps of;

regenerating an alternate PCD ID associated with the particular PCD that detected the non-unique PCD ID; and

re-broadcasting the alternate PCD ID for the particular PCD from the particular PCD to all other PCDs.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of establishing further comprises:

establishing multiple call connections between a first PCD and multiple other PCDs,

wherein the method further comprises;

responsive to establishment of the multiple call connections, duplicating the exchange of information between the first PCD and any one of the multiple other PCDs to exchange the same information between the first PCD and each of the multiple PCDs,

wherein each of the multiple call connections is encoded using a distinct scrambling code.

20. In a proximity communication device (“

PCD”

) having a GPS locator device and having a wireless transceiver and having a user interface element to interact with a user, a method comprising;

receiving location information from other PCDs using the wireless transceiver;

presenting the received location information to a user on the user interface element;

receiving user input from the user input element indicate one or more other PCDs selected by the user based upon the presented location information;

establishing a call connection with each of the one or more other PCDs using the wireless transceiver; and

exchanging substantially the same information with each of the one or more other PCDs using the wireless transceiver.