Dynamic Network Connection System and Method

• US 20120196644A1
• Filed: 01/31/2012
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WEFI Incorporated
• Original Assignee: WeFi, Inc.
• Inventors: Scherzer, Shimon, Scherzer, Tamir, Naveh, Eran, Smilansky, Nadav
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,766 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/524
• 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 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A method and system for selecting a network to establish a connection to from a set of available network includes a network database providing historical information about each of the networks and sends the database information to end user terminals. The end user terminals monitor real-time performance information about each of the available networks and can send this information to the network database. The end user terminals also include network connection policy information which can be used to make the selection decision. The end user terminal determines a network quality score for each available network as a function of the historical information from the network database, the real-time performance information about each available network and the network connection policy information. The end user terminal can select the available network as a function of the network quality score, for example, selecting the available network with the highest network quality score.

Claims

1. A method for selecting a network from a plurality of available networks to establish a connection to, the method comprising:

storing historical network performance information about at least one of the available networks in a network server;

receiving historical network performance information about at least one of the available networks from the network server;

measuring and storing in memory, real time network performance information, the network performance information including one or more network performance parameters;

determining a real-time network score as a function of at least one network performance parameter and one or more weighting factor;

determining a network quality score as a function of the historical network performance information and the real-time network score;

selecting one network as a function of a comparison between the network quality score of at least two available networks; and

establishing a connection with the selected one network.

2. A system for selecting a network from a plurality of available networks to establish a connection to, the system comprising:

at least one end user terminal, the end user terminal including at least one wireless network receiver and being adapted to measure real-time network performance information about at least one wireless network and send the network performance information to a network server;

a network server including a network database for storing historical network performance information, the network server being adapted to store network performance information from the at least one end user terminal in the network database and being adapted to generate a historical network quality score from network performance information received from the at least one end user terminal;

wherein, the at least one end user terminal detects at least two available wireless networks and is adapted and configured to select one of the at least two available wireless networks as a function of the measured real-time network performance data and the historical network performance data.