METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTING A COMMUNICATIONS BAND BASED ON LOCATION INFORMATION

• US 20090017838A1
• Filed: 07/10/2007
• Published: 01/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Laroia, Rajiv, Li, Junyi
• Application Number:
  US11/775,815
• Publication Number:
  US 20090017838A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for supporting peer to peer communications are described. A plurality of wide area network communications bands in a wireless communications system are also available for use to communicate peer to peer signals. At different locations it may be advantageous for a mobile peer to peer communications device to use a different communications band to promote efficient use of air link resources. A peer to peer communications device stores information associating location information with different communication band usage designation information. The peer to peer communications device determines its location from a received signal, e.g., a received GPS signal, and looks up in its stored information to identify a band to use for peer to peer signaling at that location. A communications band is designated to be used at a location for one of the following: WAN usage, peer to peer usage, and concurrent WAN usage/peer to peer usage.

Claims

1. A method of operating a communications device, the method comprising:

receiving a signal;

determining from the received signal a current location of the communications device; and

using the determined location information to determine a communications band to be used for device communications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the determined location information includes performing a lookup operation in which the current location of the communications device is used to identify a communications band associated with the current location in a stored set of information.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

transmitting a peer to peer signal in the determined communications band.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said communications device supports peer to peer communications and wherein said stored set of information includes information indicating communications bands to be used for peer to peer communications at a plurality of different locations.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said communications device further supports wide area network communications and wherein said set of stored information further includes information indicating communications bands to be used for wide area network communications at a plurality of different locations.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said stored information indicates different frequency bands to be used for peer to peer and wide area network communications at one location.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein said stored information indicates that the same frequency bands are to be used for peer to peer and wide area network communications at one location.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein said stored set of information is stored in said communications device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein using the determined location information includes:

sending a query to a network device, said query including said current location; and

receiving from said network device an indication of the communications band associated with the current location.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein said communications device supports peer to peer communications and wherein said received indication of the communications band indicates a communications band identified by information included in a stored set of information accessed by said network device, said stored set of information including information indicating communications bands to be used for peer to peer communications at a plurality of different locations.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said communications device further supports wide area network communications and wherein said set of stored information further includes information indicating communications bands to be used for wide area network communications at a plurality of different locations.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said stored information indicates different frequency bands to be used for peer to peer and wide area network communications at one location.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said stored information indicates that the same frequency bands are to be used for peer to peer and wide area network communications at one location.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said received signal is a GPS signal.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said received signal is a user input signal received from a user input device included in said communications device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said signal is a cellular network signal.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined communications band is a peer to peer communications band.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein different communications bands are determined for peer to peer and WAN communications at the determined current location.

19. A wireless terminal, comprising:

a receiver module for receiving a signal;

a location determination module for determining from the received signal a current location of the communications device; and

a communications band determination module for determining based on the determined location information, a communications band to be used for device communications.

20. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

memory including a stored set of information including information associating locations with communications bands;

at least some of said locations being associated with different communications bands; and

a look-up module for performing a lookup operation using the current location of the communications device to identify a communications band in said stored information associated with the current location.

21. The wireless terminal of claim 20, further comprising:

a peer to peer signal generation module for generating a peer to peer signal; and

a transmitter module for transmitting a generated peer to peer signal in the determined communications band.

22. The wireless terminal of claim 20,

wherein said wireless terminal supports peer to peer communications and wherein said stored set of information includes information indicating communications bands to be used for peer to peer communications at a plurality of different locations.

23. The wireless terminal of claim 22,

wherein said communications device further supports wide area network communications;

and

wherein said set of stored information further includes information indicating communications bands to be used for wide area network communications at a plurality of different locations.

24. The wireless terminal of claim 23, wherein said stored information indicates different frequency bands to be used for peer to peer and wide area network communications at one location.

25. The wireless terminal of claim 23, wherein said stored information indicates that the same frequency band is to be used for peer to peer and wide area network communications at one location.

26. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

a communications information query generation module for generating a communications information query to a network device, said query including said current location;

a transmitter for transmitting said information query over a wireless communications link; and

a communications query response processing module for recovering information from a received response from said network device, and wherein the communications band determination module determines a communications band associated with the current location based on the recovered information.

27. The wireless terminal of claim 26, wherein the recovered information identifies a band to be used for peer to peer signaling.

28. The wireless terminal of claim 26, wherein the recovered information identifies a band to be used for both peer to peer and WAN signaling concurrently.

29. The wireless terminal of claim 26, further comprising:

memory including a stored set of information including information associating locations with communications bands;

at least some of said locations being associated with different communications bands; and

an information updating module for updating the stored set of information to include information indicating the current location and the communications band associated with the current location determined from the query response.

30. The wireless terminal of claim 19, wherein said receiver module is a GPS receiver module and wherein the received signal is a GPS signal.

31. The wireless terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

a user input module and wherein said received signal is a user input signal received from the user input module.

32. The wireless terminal of claim 19, wherein said receiver module is a cellular network receiver module and wherein said received signal is a cellular network signal.

33. The wireless terminal of claim 19, wherein the determined communications band is a peer to peer communications band.

34. The wireless terminal of claim 33,

wherein said communications band determination module includes a peer to peer communications band determination module and a WAN communications band determination module;

and

wherein different communications bands are determined for peer to peer and WAN communications at the determined current location.

35. A wireless terminal, comprising:

receiver means for receiving a signal;

means for determining from the received signal a current location of the communications device; and

communications band determination means for determining based on the determined location information, a communications band to be used for device communications.

36. The wireless terminal of claim 35, further comprising:

memory means including a stored set of information including information associating locations with communications bands;

at least some of said locations being associated with different communications bands; and

means for performing a lookup operation using the current location of the communications device to identify a communications band in said stored information associated with the current location.

37. The wireless terminal of claim 36, further comprising:

means for generating a peer to peer signal; and

means for transmitting a generated peer to peer signal in the determined communications band.

38. The wireless terminal of claim 36,

wherein said wireless terminal supports peer to peer communications and wherein said stored set of information includes information indicating communications bands to be used for peer to peer communications at a plurality of different locations.

39. The wireless terminal of claim 35, further comprising:

means for generating a communications information query to a network device, said query including said current location;

means for transmitting said information query over a wireless communications link; and

means for recovering information from a received response from said network device, and wherein the communications band determination means determines a communications band associated with the current location based on the recovered information.

40. A computer readable medium embodying machine executable instructions for controlling a communications device to implement a method of communicating with another device, the method comprising:

receiving a signal;

determining from the received signal a current location of the communications device; and

using the determined location information to determine a communications band to be used for device communications.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 40, further embodying machine executable instructions for, in using the determined location information, performing a lookup operation in which the current location of the communications device is used to identify a communications band associated with the current location in a stored set of information.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 41, further embodying machine executable instructions for:

transmitting a peer to peer signal in the determined communications band.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 41, wherein said communications device supports peer to peer communications and wherein said stored set of information includes information indicating communications bands to be used for peer to peer communications at a plurality of different locations.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 40, further embodying machine executable instructions for, in using the determined location information:

sending a query to a network device, said query including said current location; and

receiving from said network device an indication of the communications band associated with the current location.

45. An apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive a signal;

determine from the received signal a current location of the communications device; and

use the determined location information to determine a communications band to be used for device communications.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the processor is further configured to, in using the determined location information, perform a lookup operation in which the current location of the communications device is used to identify a communications band associated with the current location in a stored set of information.

47. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein the processor is further configured to:

transmit a peer to peer signal in the determined communications band.

48. The apparatus of claim 46, wherein said communications device supports peer to peer communications and wherein said stored set of information includes information indicating communications bands to be used for peer to peer communications at a plurality of different locations.

49. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the processor is further configured to, in using the determined location information:

send a query to a network device, said query including said current location; and

receive from said network device an indication of the communications band associated with the current location.