WIRELESS COMMUNICATION DEVICES IN WHICH OPERATING CONTEXT IS USED TO REDUCE OPERATING COST AND METHODS FOR OPERATING SAME

• US 20120252425A1
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Moeglein, Mark Leo, Garin, Lionel Jacques
• Granted Patent: US 8,731,537 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A mobile device has operating resources available to it. A measurement generator provides measurements of the operating resources and a context awareness engine identifies which of the operating resources may be efficiently utilized by a service application in view of context conditions in which the mobile device is operating. A selection controller selects, based on the measurements, at least one of the identified operating resources for use by the service application to improve or optimize a cost of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A mobile device configured to access a plurality of operating resources, the mobile device comprising:

a measurement generator to provide at least freely available measurement information of the plurality of operating resources;

an inference engine to generate inferred context information from the freely available measurement information; and

a context awareness engine to access at least one of the freely available measurement information and the inferred context information to determine context conditions of the mobile device and to identify at least one of the plurality of operating resources as one or more candidate resources for a service application based on the determined context conditions, the context awareness engine being configured to evaluate the one or more candidate resources using evaluation metrics to measure at least one of cost and effectiveness of the one or more candidate resources and to select at least one of the one or more candidate resources for use by the service application based on the evaluation metrics.

2. The mobile device of claim 1 in which the plurality of operating resources comprise a navigation engine configured to generate navigation information.

3. The mobile device of claim 2 in which the navigation information comprises at least one of position information, velocity information, and time information.

4. The mobile device of claim 1 in which the plurality of operating resources comprise a battery, and the freely available measurement information comprises power capacity information of the battery.

5. The mobile device of claim 1 in which the plurality of operating resources includes a memory, and in which the freely available measurement information comprises an available data storage capacity associated with the memory.

6. The mobile device of claim 1 in which the plurality of operating resources includes communication resources available to the mobile device.

7. The mobile device of claim 1 in which the freely available measurement information includes at least one of:

a data accuracy measurement;

an identification of a transmitter associated with the mobile device;

received signal strength information; and

received signal phase information.

8. The mobile device of claim 1 in which the mobile device includes a memory storing at least one of:

type information associated with the mobile device;

information associated with mobile device capabilities;

at least one power usage model of the mobile device;

at lease one fix history of the mobile device;

location type information;

terrain elevation data information; and

at least a portion of a base station almanac.

9. The mobile device of claim 8 in which the base station almanac is at least partially self-learned by the mobile device.

10. The mobile device of claim 8 in which the base station almanac is provided by a wireless network server.

11. The mobile device of claim 8 in which the location type information includes at least one location type selected from a group consisting of indoors, outdoors, in a vehicle, and in a multipath signal environment.

12. A method of operating a mobile device configured to access a plurality of operating resources, the method comprising:

determining at least one context condition of the mobile device using at least one of freely available measurement information of the plurality of operating resources and inferred context information obtained from the freely available measurement information;

upon initiation of a service application, determining at least one candidate operating resource for the service application based on the context conditions;

measuring at least one of cost and efficiency of the at least one candidate operating resource based on the context conditions; and

selecting at least one of the candidate operating resources based on the measuring.

13. A mobile device configured to access a plurality of operating resources, the mobile device comprising:

means for determining at least one context condition of the mobile device using at least one of freely available measurement information of a plurality of operating resources and inferred context information obtained from the freely available measurement information;

means for determining at least one candidate operating resource for the service application based on the context conditions, upon initiation of a service application;

means for measuring at least one of cost and efficiency of the at least one candidate operating resource based on the context conditions; and

means for selecting at least one of the candidate operating resources based on the measuring.

14. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having program code recorded thereon, the program code comprising;

program code to determine at least one context condition of a mobile device using at least one of freely available measurement information of a plurality of operating resources and inferred context information obtained from the freely available measurement information;

program code to determine at least one candidate operating resource for the service application based on the context conditions, upon initiation of a service application;

program code to measure at least one of cost and efficiency of the at least one candidate operating resource based on the context conditions; and

program code to select at least one of the candidate operating resources based on the measuring.

15. A mobile device configured for wireless communication, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor,

the at least one processor being configured;

to determine at least one context condition of the mobile device using at least one of freely available measurement information of a plurality of operating resources and inferred context information obtained from the freely available measurement information;

to determine at least one candidate operating resource for the service application based on the context conditions, upon initiation of a service application;

to measure at least one of cost and efficiency of the at least one candidate operating resource based on the context conditions; and

to select at least one of the candidate operating resources based on the measuring.

16. The mobile device of claim 15 in which the plurality of operating resources comprise a navigation engine configured to generate navigation information.

17. The mobile device of claim 15 in which the plurality of operating resources comprise a battery, and the freely available measurement information comprises power capacity information of the battery.

18. The mobile device of claim 15 in which the plurality of operating resources includes communication resources available to the mobile device.

19. The mobile device of claim 15 in which the freely available measurement information includes at least one of:

a data accuracy measurement;

an identification of a transmitter associated with the mobile device;

received signal strength information; and

received signal phase information.

20. The mobile device of claim 15 in which the memory stores at least one of:

type information associated with the mobile device;

information associated with mobile device capabilities;

at least one power usage model of the mobile device;

at lease one fix history of the mobile device;

location type information;

terrain elevation data information; and

at least a portion of a base station almanac.