METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMICALLY UTILIZING A PEER NETWORK TO EXTEND BATTERY LIFE

• US 20080192666A1
• Filed: 02/12/2007
• Published: 08/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Swope, Charles B., Koskan, Patrick D.
• Application Number:
  US11/673,748
• Publication Number:
  US 20080192666A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/311
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A system (100) and method (300) for utilizing peer networks to extend a battery life of a mobile device in a wide area network (WAN) using a Wireless_Local Area Network (WLAN) is provided. The method can include monitoring (302) a power-level of the mobile device, determining (304) if the power-level is below a pre-determined threshold, identifying (306) peers to serve as transmit proxies in view of the power-level, and switching from a high-power transceiver (206) to a low-power transceiver (208) to reduce power consumption. The mobile device can communicate with the peers using a low-power transceiver in the WLAN to transmit communication data within the WAN.

Claims

1. A system for utilizing peers to extend battery life of a mobile device, comprising:

a wireless infrastructure that provides communication coverage to mobile devices over a wide area;

at least one mobile device within the wireless infrastructure that switches from a high-power transceiver for communicating in the wireless infrastructure to a low-power transceiver for communicating with a peer when a power-level of a battery of the at least one mobile device falls below a predetermined threshold, and

a peer network communicatively coupled to the mobile device having at least one peer for providing proxy services to the mobile device when the power-level falls below the predetermined threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the cellular infrastructure identifies a location of peers within the peer network_using a location system and reports the location of the peers to the mobile device to identify peers available for serving as a proxy using low-power communication.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein peers within the peer network communicate amongst one another using low-power and low-range communication.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one peer provides transmit wireless communication for the at least one mobile device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one peer provides receive wireless communication for the at least one mobile device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the low-power transceiver provides wireless communication up to one hundred (100) meters.

7. A mobile device having extended battery life capabilities, comprising:

a battery that provides power to the mobile device for transmitting and receiving communication signals;

a monitor operatively coupled to the battery that monitors a power level of the battery;

a first transceiver operatively coupled to the battery that provides long-range communication;

a second transceiver operatively coupled to the battery that provides short-range communication; and

a processor operatively coupled to the monitor, the first transceiver, and the second transceiver, that evaluates the power level and switches to the second transceiver to transmit communications to a peer device within short range communication if the power level is below a predetermined threshold.

8. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the first transceiver is a Wide Area Network (WAN) transceiver using high power consumption over a wide-area providing coverage within at least one 1 kilometer.

9. The mobile device of claim 7, wherein the second transceiver is a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) transceiver or Personal Area Network (PAN) transceiver using low power consumption over a short-area providing wireless communication coverage within at least one hundred (100) meters.

10. The mobile device of claim 7, further comprising a location unit to identify a location of the mobile device.

11. A method for utilizing peer networks to extend battery life of a mobile device, the method comprising:

monitoring a power-level of the mobile device;

determining if the power-level is below a pre-determined threshold;

identifying peers to serve as transmit proxies in view of the power-level; and

switching from a high-power transceiver to a low-power transceiver to reduce power consumption,

wherein the mobile device communicates with the peers using the low-power transceiver to transmit communication data.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

identifying peers to serve as receive proxies; and

receiving communication data from the peers.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of identifying peers further includes

determining available power levels of the peers to act as transmit_proxies;

ranking the peers by available power levels; and

selecting the peers in order of the ranking.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of identifying peers further includes

determining a location of a peer with respect to a location of the mobile device;

and

determining whether the location of the peer is within a wireless communication range of the low power_transceiver.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising

predicting a remaining power and usage rate from the power-level;

and

triggering a battery extension mode based on the remaining power and usage rate.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

requesting prioritization to seek and utilize peers to transmit or receive communication data by proxy; and

interrupting a peer if a priority communication is initiated.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing an visual or auditory cue to indicate that a peer is providing proxy services to the mobile device.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising prioritizing peers based on peer battery levels,

peer resource use, wide area network request, or wide area network rerouting.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising prioritizing peers based on peer security.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising dynamically selecting peers based on permissions of peers to serve as proxies for the mobile device.