Method and Arrangement for Position-Dependent Configuration of a Mobile Appliance

• US 20090024765A1
• Filed: 08/30/2006
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unify Patente GmbH & Co. KG (Atos Se)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Luers, Jurgen
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,655 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/177 Initialisation or configuration control processor initialisation G06F9/4405
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

A method and an arrangement for configuration of a mobile appliance in a communication arrangement, with a communication address that is linked to its location in each case being assigned to the mobile appliance are provided. For this purpose, the location of the mobile appliance is determined in a first step, a configuration which is linked to the determined location is checked in a second step from a database, and this determined configuration is assigned to the mobile appliance in a third step.

Claims

1-13. -13. (canceled)

14. A method for configuring a mobile appliance in a communication system, comprising:

determining a location of the mobile appliance;

requesting a configuration for the mobile appliance from a database, the configuration based on the determined location; and

assigning the configuration to the mobile appliance,

wherein the mobile appliance is assigned a communication address based on the location of the mobile appliance.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein assigning occurs after an assignment command from a user has been input.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

repeating the determining of the location and the requesting the configuration;

checking the configuration of the mobile appliance with the repeated configuration request; and

providing the user an option to reconfigure the mobile appliance with the repeated configuration request when the configuration does not match the repeated configuration request, the option provided via a user interface.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the repeating is done periodically after a time.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the repeating is done after the appliance is restarted.

19. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the mobile appliance is a wireless communication appliance.

20. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the mobile appliance is used to allocate a communication address.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20,

wherein the communication appliance is used in a building having a plurality of rooms,

wherein a plurality of the rooms have a respective associated room number, and

wherein the communication address associated with the respective location of the communication appliance includes at least a portion of the respective room number of the location.

22. The method as claimed in claim 14,

wherein the communication appliance is used in a building having a plurality of rooms,

wherein a plurality of the rooms have a respective associated room number, and

wherein the communication address associated with the respective location of the communication appliance includes at least a portion of the respective room number of the location.

23. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the mobile appliance is a computer peripheral.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23,

wherein the computer peripheral is selected from the group consisting of printer, a scanner, a fax machine and combinations thereof, and

wherein the location-based configuration assigned is in a form such that the mobile appliance associated with the same location has access to the computer peripheral using a descriptor allocated by the configuration.

25. The method as claimed in claim 23,

wherein the computer peripheral is selected from the group consisting of printer, a scanner, a fax machine and combinations thereof, and

wherein the location-based configuration assigned is in a form such that a nonmobile appliance associated with the same location has access to the computer peripheral using a descriptor allocated by the configuration.

26. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the configuration activates, deactivates or both activates and deactivates at least one function of the mobile appliance.

27. The method as claimed in claim 20,

wherein the database distinguishes mobile appliances according to a type or a functionality,

wherein for at least one location the database includes a plurality of communication addresses differentiated according to type or functionality, and

wherein the requesting the configuration further based on the type or the functionality of the mobile appliance.

28. The method as claimed in claim 20,

wherein the database distinguishes mobile appliances according to a type and a functionality,

wherein for at least one location the database includes a plurality of communication addresses differentiated according to type and functionality, and

wherein the requesting the configuration further based on the type and the functionality of the mobile appliance.

30. The communication system as claimed in claim 28, wherein the detection device is included in the mobile appliance.

31. The communication system as claimed in claim 28, further comprising:

a plurality of radio base stations, each base station providing radio test data to the detection device for detecting the location of the mobile appliance,

wherein the detection device accesses at least one of the plurality of radio base stations in order to detecting the location of the mobile appliance.

29. A communication system for configuring a mobile appliance, comprising:

a detection device that detects the location of the mobile appliance;

a database having a plurality of configurations for mobile appliances, each configuration linked to a respective location; and

an assignment device that retrieves at least one of the location-based configurations from the database and assigns the retrieved configuration to the mobile appliance.