POTENTIAL CALL DROP INDICATOR

• US 20120220290A1
• Filed: 04/20/2012
• Published: 08/30/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Awad, Mina
• Granted Patent: US 9,473,620 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2227 Quality of service monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• 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 52/0245 according to signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/04 multi-step notification using statistical or historical mobility data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Mobile device user notifications of highly likely call drops or service losses are provided. A wireless network can determine from the location history of a mobile device if that mobile device is likely to lose connectivity to the wireless network or to a particular wireless service and issue an alert to the user. The form of the alert can be through one of various types of mobile device messages, or through an application on the mobile device. The mobile device'"'"'s location can be determined using the global positioning system. Alternative directions can be provided to the user so that the user can travel without losing connectivity. The user may provide a destination before beginning travel, and receive a suggested course of travel that keeps the user within a higher quality coverage area.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

predicting a course of a mobile device;

obtaining course network statistics for a service type on network coverage areas surrounding the course;

predicting that the course will traverse an area with an unacceptable rate of loss of the service type by determining that a rate of loss of the service type in the network coverage areas surrounding the course exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

in response to predicting that the course will traverse the area with the unacceptable rate of loss of the service type, providing, to the mobile device, an indication of a predicted loss of the service type.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein predicting the course comprises:

accessing a history of global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the mobile device;

obtaining current GPS coordinates of the mobile device; and

predicting the course of the mobile device in accordance with the accessed and obtained GPS coordinates.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein predicting the course comprises:

maintaining a history of the mobile device'"'"'s location, determined based on network measurements, over a period of time;

obtaining a current location of the mobile device, determined based on network measurements, and

predicting the course based on the history and the current location.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining at least one alternate course, the at least one alternate course predicted to traverse an area not having the unacceptable rate of loss of the service type; and

providing the at least one alternate course to the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one alternate course is provided to the mobile device as turn-by-turn driving directions.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one alternate course is provided to the mobile device in the form of at least one of a cardinal or an ordinal direction.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing to the mobile device a time estimate of an occurrence of the predicted loss of network connectivity.

8. A tangible computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions for performing operations comprising:

predicting a course of a mobile device;

obtaining course network statistics for a service type on network coverage areas surrounding the course;

predicting that the course will traverse an area with an unacceptable rate of loss of the service type by determining that a rate of loss of the service type in the network coverage areas surrounding the course exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

in response to predicting that the course will traverse an area with the unacceptable rate of loss of the service type, providing, to the mobile device, an indication of a predicted loss of the service type.

9. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the service type is one of a voice service, a data service, and a paging service.

10. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise providing at least one alternate course to the mobile device.

11. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

obtaining current location network statistics on a current location network coverage area;

determining a current probability of loss of the service type based on the current location network statistics; and

providing to the mobile device the current probability of loss of the service type.

12. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise providing to the mobile device near real-time status on a probability of loss of the service type by repeatedly performing the steps of claim 11 at predetermined increments of time.

13. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

obtaining potential course network statistics on network coverage areas surrounding a plurality of potential courses; and

determine if the potential course network statistics indicate the unacceptable rate of loss of the service type for each of the plurality of potential courses; and

select the at least one potential course from among the plurality of potential courses that does not correspond to potential course network statistics that indicate the unacceptable rate of loss of the service type.

14. A mobile communications device comprising:

an antenna;

a transceiver coupled to said antenna for transmitting to, and receiving transmissions from, a wireless network; and

a processor configured for;

predicting a course of a mobile communications device;

obtaining course network statistics for a service type on network coverage areas surrounding the course;

predicting that the course will traverse an area with an unacceptable rate of loss of the service type by determining that a rate of loss of the service type in the network coverage areas surrounding the course exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

in response to predicting that the course will traverse an area with the unacceptable rate of loss of the service type, instructing a display to display an indication of a predicted loss of the service type.

15. The mobile communications device of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured for instructing the display to display alternate course directions.

16. The mobile communications device of claim 14, further comprising global positioning system (GPS) components, the GPS components configured for determining a location of the mobile communications device.

17. The mobile communications device of claim 16, wherein the transceiver is configured transmitting the location of the mobile communications device to the wireless network.

18. The mobile communications device of claim 14, further comprising an input for receiving a destination location.

19. The mobile communications device of claim 14, wherein the service type is one of a voice service, a data service, and a paging service.

20. The mobile communications device of claim 14, wherein the processor is further configured for reducing power consumption of the mobile communications device responsive to predicting that the course will traverse an area with the unacceptable rate of loss of the service type.