Method and apparatus for maintaining a fingerprint for a wireless network

• US 20070021126A1
• Filed: 02/15/2006
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Nanda, Sanjiv, Gogic, Aleksandar, Jain, Nikhil, Deshpande, Manoj
• Granted Patent: US 8,483,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment

Abstract

The disclosure is directed to a mobile communication device that measures characteristics or attributes of a first communications network that vary according to physical location within that first communications network to create a fingerprint, or signature, of a location within the first communications network. When the fingerprint of the current location of the mobile device is created it can be compared to a known fingerprint associated with a second communication network to determine the mobile device'"'"'s proximity to the second communications network. Furthermore, the second and subsequent fingerprint that are generated for a particular communications network can be used to modify the stored fingerprint so as to refine it to improve detecting the proximity to the communications network.

Claims

1. A wireless communications device, comprising:

a memory configured to store information relating to a location of a first communications network; and

a processor configured to modify the information stored in the memory based on one or more reference signals from a second communications network.

2. The wireless communications device of claim 1, wherein the information includes a fingerprint of the first communications network.

3. The wireless communications device of claim 2, wherein the fingerprint includes a deviation information related to the virtual size of the coverage region for an access point in the first communications network.

4. The wireless communications device of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to modify the fingerprint by adjusting the deviation information based on the one or more reference signals.

5. The wireless communications device of claim 2, wherein the fingerprint comprises phase information for the one or more reference signals.

6. The wireless communications device of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to modify the fingerprint by adjusting the phase information based on the current phase information for the one or more reference signals.

7. The wireless communications device of claim 2, wherein the fingerprint comprises signal strength information for the one or more reference signals.

8. The wireless communications device of claim 7, wherein the processor is further configured to modify the fingerprint by adjusting the signal strength information based on the current signal strength information for the one or more reference signals.

9. A wireless communications device:

a memory configured to store a first fingerprint of a first communications network based on one or more reference signals from a second communications network; and

a processor configured to

a) determine a second fingerprint of the wireless communications device based on the one or more current reference signals, and

b) modify the first fingerprint based on the second fingerprint.

10. The wireless communications device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to establish a connection between the wireless communications device and the first communications network and determine the second fingerprint after establishing the connection.

11. The wireless communications device of claim 9, wherein the first fingerprint includes deviation information related to the virtual size of the coverage region for an access point in the first communications network.

12. The wireless communications device of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to modify the first fingerprint by adjusting the deviation information based on deviation information for the second fingerprint.

13. The wireless communications device of claim 9, wherein the first fingerprint comprises phase information for the one or more reference signals.

14. The wireless communications device of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to modify the first fingerprint by adjusting the phase information based on phase information for the second fingerprint.

15. The wireless communications device of claim 9, wherein the first fingerprint comprises signal strength information for the one or more reference signals.

16. The wireless communications device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to modify the first fingerprint by adjusting the signal strength information based on signal strength information for the second fingerprint.

17. A method of communications comprising:

storing information relating to the location of a first communications network; and

modifying the stored information based on one or more reference signals from a second communications network.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the information includes a fingerprint of the first communications network.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the fingerprint includes a deviation information related to the virtual size of the coverage region for an access point in the first communications network.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the fingerprint is modified by adjusting the deviation information based on the one or more reference signals.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the fingerprint comprises phase information for the one or more reference signals.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the fingerprint is modified by adjusting the phase information based on the current phase information for the one or more reference signals.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the fingerprint comprises signal strength information for the one or more reference signals.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the fingerprint is modified by adjusting the signal strength information based on the current signal strength information for the one or more reference signals.