Position-Dependent Connectivity Management

• US 20110039579A1
• Filed: 08/28/2008
• Published: 02/17/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elektrobit Wireless Communications OY (Bittium Oyj)
• Original Assignee: Elektrobit Wireless Communications OY (Bittium Oyj)
• Inventors: Karjalainen, Antti
• Granted Patent: US 8,315,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• 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

A method for communication to/from a multimode terminal operable to communicate via multiple alternative communication technologies. Each region definition indicates a region name and one or more of the communication technologies and/or operating modes plus an activation range and a deactivation range for the communication technologies and/or operating modes. The multimode terminal determines its position and retrieves a stored region definition relating to the region closest to the multimode terminal'"'"'s determined position. It then compares its determined position with the activation range and a deactivation range of the retrieved region definition. Based on said comparison, the multimode terminal activates and deactivates the multiple alternative communication technologies and/or operating modes indicated by the retrieved region definition.

Claims

1. A method for communication to/from a multimode terminal operable to receive or determine position estimates for the multimode terminal and to communicate via multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes;

the method comprising;

defining one or more region definitions (110, 150, 281), wherein each region definition indicates a name (251) of the region and one or more of the multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes plus an activation range (121-122, 161-163, 261-263, 301, 312-313, 322-323, 331-339) and a deactivation range (131-132, 171-173, 271-273, 302, 314-315, 324-325, 341-349) for the at least one of the multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes;

determining (4-2) the multimode terminal'"'"'s position;

retrieving (4-10) a stored region definition relating to the region closest to the multimode terminal'"'"'s determined position (4-8);

comparing (4-14, 4-30) the multimode terminal'"'"'s determined position with the activation range and a deactivation range of the retrieved region definition; and

activating (4-16) and deactivating (4-38) each of the one or more multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes indicated by the retrieved region definition based on said comparison.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the region definitions indicates a set of applications for the one or more of the multiple alternative communication technologies and/or operating modes indicated by the region definition, and the method further comprises automatically starting (4-20) the indicated set of applications.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the region definitions indicates a set of application tasks for at least one application in the indicated set of applications, and the method further comprises automatically starting (4-24) the indicated set of application tasks.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the act of deactivating (4-38) each of the one or more multiple alternative communication technologies and/or operating modes is preceded by checking (4-32) if any active application uses the communication technology and/or operating mode to be deactivated, and preparing (4-34) such applications for smooth deactivation.

5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising the multimode terminal producing a user interface for defining the one or more region definitions.

6. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein, for any of multiple alternative communication technologies and/or operating modes, the deactivation range is larger than the activation range.

7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising implementing a time hysteresis wherein said activation and deactivation of any of the multiple alternative communication technologies and/or operating modes takes place only after the multimode terminal has been inside or outside, respectively, of the activation/deactivation radius for a predetermined period of time.

8. A multimode communication device (MCD), comprising:

a memory (202) for storing applications and data;

a processor (200) for executing the stored applications;

an input/output section (204) for providing a user interface;

reception/transmission circuitry (210) for providing a communication interface to one or more communication networks;

wherein;

the reception/transmission circuitry (210) comprises means for communicating via multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes;

the multimode communication device (MCD) further comprises positioning means (POS) for receiving or determining position estimates for the multimode communication device (MCD);

the memory (202) contains a user interface application whose execution by the processor generates a user interface for creating and storing one or more region definitions (110, 150, 281), wherein each region definition indicates a name (251) of the region and one or more of the multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes plus an activation range (121-122, 161-163, 261-263, 301, 312-313, 322-323, 331-339) and a deactivation range (131-132, 171-173, 271-273, 302, 314-315, 324-325, 341-349) for the at least one of the multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes;

the memory (202) further contains an activation/deactivation application whose execution directs the processor to perform the following operations;

determination (4-2) of the multimode communication device'"'"'s position;

retrieval (4-10) of a stored region definition relating to the region closest to the multimode communication device'"'"'s determined position (4-8);

comparison (4-14, 4-30) of the multimode communication device'"'"'s determined position with the activation range and a deactivation range of the retrieved region definition; and

activation (4-16) and deactivation (4-38) of each of the one or more multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes indicated by the retrieved region definition based on said comparison.

9. A software program product for a multimode communication device (MCD), which multimode communication device comprises:

a memory (202) for storing applications and data;

a processor (200) for executing the stored applications;

an input/output section (204) for providing a user interface;

reception/transmission circuitry (210) for providing a communication interface to one or more communication networks;

wherein;

the reception/transmission circuitry (210) comprises means for communicating via multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes;

the multimode communication device (MCD) further comprises positioning means (POS) for receiving or determining position estimates for the multimode communication device (MCD);

wherein the memory (202) contains one or more region definitions (110, 150, 281), wherein each region definition indicates a name (251) of the region and one or more of the multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes plus an activation range (121-122, 161-163, 261-263, 301, 312-313, 322-323, 331-339) and a deactivation range (131-132, 171-173, 271-273, 302, 314-315, 324-325, 341-349) for the at least one of the multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes;

wherein the software program contains an activation/deactivation application whose execution directs the multimode communication device'"'"'s processor to perform the following operations;

determination (4-2) of the multimode communication device'"'"'s position;

retrieval (4-10) of a stored region definition relating to the region closest to the multimode communication device'"'"'s determined position (4-8);

comparison (4-14, 4-30) of the multimode communication device'"'"'s determined position with the activation range and a deactivation range of the retrieved region definition; and

activation (4-16) and deactivation (4-38) of each of the one or more multiple alternative communication technologies (CTn, CT1-CT3) and/or operating modes indicated by the retrieved region definition based on said comparison.