SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MODIFYING POLICY SETTINGS IN AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20110059725A1
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: PEARCE, Graham
• Granted Patent: US 9,596,601 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• 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 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/205 Transfer to or from user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method of modifying policy settings in an electronic device. An embodiment includes a plurality of access stations, each capable of wirelessly transmitting across a geographic region. A mobile electronic device, capable of roaming between regions is operable to establish a wireless link with the access stations. The device is owned by an office which sets communication policies determining through which access stations mobile device can place voice calls. This policy is stored on an office server as a database and periodically transmitted to the device as the device makes contact with the office server over the internet. Hence, the device maintains a copy of this policy database. When placing a voice call, the device first determines which access station is serving the region it is located in and then determines whether it is allowed to place a call through that access station using its policy database.

Claims

1. A mobile communication device for controlling communication in a communication network comprising:

an interface adapted to communicate between said mobile communication device and at least one base station in each of a plurality of geographic regions, said at least one base station having an identifier; and

,

a microcomputer connected to said interface and adapted to maintain a policy associated with each said region;

said policy comprising data representative of a plurality of base station identifiers and said microcomputer adapted to determine whether the identifier for said communication in any one of said regions is included in said data;

said microcomputer adapted to permit said interface to communicate in accordance with said policy based on said base station identifier.

2. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein said microcomputer is arranged to enable said interface to conduct communications comprising a plurality of different services.

3. The mobile communication device of claim 2 wherein said services comprise any of voice, emails, interne browsing and/or text messaging.

4. The mobile communication device of claim 2 wherein said microcomputer is arranged to maintain a policy permitting one of said services in a specific region and disallowing another one of said services in said specific region.

5. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein said communication may occur in at least one of a plurality of formats, said formats having different susceptibility to interception;

and wherein said microcomputer is arranged to maintain a policy which disallows said communications in a region based on the said format.

6. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein said microcomputer is arranged to maintain a policy which disallows said communications in at least one of said regions if a cost for conducting said communications exceeds a predefined threshold.

7. The mobile communication device of claim 5 wherein said formats comprise one or more of CDMA, OFDM, AMPS, GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth(TM), infra-red and 802.11.

8. The mobile communication device of claim 1 wherein said communication occurs over at least one of Ethernet;

USB;

Firewire and RS-232.

9. A communication system comprising at least one mobile communication device of claim 1 and a server.

10. A method of controlling communications with a mobile communication device comprising:

communicating between the mobile device and at least one base station in each of a plurality of geographic regions;

maintaining a policy associated with each said region;

said policy comprising data representative of a plurality of base station identifiers;

said policy adapted to determine whether said communication is permitted for each said region based on whether an identifier for said at least one base station is included in said data; and

permitting said communication in accordance with said policy.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said communicating step is conducted by an interface controlled by a microcomputer.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said communication comprises a plurality of different services.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said services comprise any of voice, emails, internet browsing and/or text messaging.

14. The method of anyone of claim 12 wherein said policy maintaining step further comprises maintaining a policy permitting one of said services in a specific region and disallowing another one of said services in said specific region.

15. The method of anyone of claim 10 wherein said communication occurs in at least one of plurality of formats, each format having a different susceptibility to interception;

and wherein said policy maintaining step further comprises maintaining a policy which disallows said communications in a region based on said format.

16. The method of anyone of claim 10 wherein said policy maintaining step further comprises maintaining a policy which disallows said communications in at least one of said regions if a cost for conducting said communications exceeds a predefined threshold.

17. The method of anyone of claim 10 wherein said formats comprise one or more of CDMA, OFDM, AMPS, GSM, GPRS, Bluetooth(TM), infra-red and 802.11.

18. The method of anyone of claim 10 wherein said communication occurs in at least one of Ethernet;

USB;

Firewire and RS-232.

19. A computer program product for a mobile communication device having a processor, the computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer-readable program code adapted to be executable on said processor to implement a method of controlling communications with said mobile communication device, the method comprising:

communicating between the mobile device and at least one base station in each of a plurality of geographic regions;

maintaining a policy associated with each said region;

said policy comprising data representative of plurality of base station identifiers;

said policy adapted to determine whether said communication is permitted for each said region based on whether an identifier for said at least one base station is included in said data; and

permitting said communication in accordance with said policy.