DYNAMIC NETWORK SELECTION

• US 20140003254A1
• Filed: 06/29/2012
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Andreoli-Fang, Jennifer, McKibben, Bernard, Sarawat, Vikas
• Granted Patent: US 9,749,933 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

Wireless access network selection is contemplated. The selection process may include arbitrating use of a plurality of wireless networks according to their performance capabilities. The performance capabilities or parameters may be identified from information broadcasted from the wireless networks. Mobile devices capable of wirelessly connecting to the networks may identify the performance capabilities prior to connecting to the wireless networks, thereby enabling the mobile devices to more efficiently identify suitable networks.

Claims

1. A wireless networking system comprising:

a plurality of access points configured to facilitate wireless signaling with mobile devices, the access points being configured to simultaneously support multiple service flows with the mobile devices; and

wherein the access points are configured to broadcast system performance parameters for use by the mobile devices to assess capabilities of the access points to support service flows required by services operating on the mobile devices.

2. The wireless networking system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of access points are configured to encode the system performance parameters within at least one of a master information block (MIB) and a system information blocks (SIBs), the MIB and SIBs being repeatedly broadcasted by each access point.

3. The wireless networking system of claim 2 wherein the MIB comprises 14 bits and the performance parameters less than 40 bits.

4. The wireless networking system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of access points are configured to broadcast the system performance parameters with synchronization messages repeated to the mobile devices.

5. The wireless networking system of claim 4 wherein the synchronization messages include system bandwidth and system frame number parameters used by the mobile devices to connect to the corresponding access point.

6. The wireless networking system of claim 1 wherein a MAC layer 802.11 beacon and query response claims for network advertisement and synchronization messages include a service set identifier (SSID) and other information such as available bands, authentication and other parameters per IEEE 802.11-2012, Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications, needed to connect to the corresponding access point in addition to the system performance parameters.

7. The wireless networking system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of access points are configured to transmit the system performance parameters as part of 802.11 beacon frames.

8. The wireless networking system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of access points are configured to facilitate preemption, the preemption including capabilities sufficient to facilitate preempting an existing service flow with a new service flow wherein the existing service flow occurs with a first mobile device connected to the access point and the new service flow occurs with a second mobile device connected to the same access point after the first mobile device is connected.

9. A mobile device configured to:

simultaneously support multiple wireless service flows for multiple services;

determine performance requirements for each service flow;

determine performance capabilities for multiple wireless networks;

determine wireless networks having performance capabilities equal to or greater than the performance requirements to be a qualified wireless network for the corresponding service flow; and

facilitate wireless service flows for each service over a corresponding one of the qualified wireless networks.

10. The mobile device of claim 9 further configured to determine the performance capabilities from system performance parameters broadcasted from the wireless networks.

11. The mobile device of claim 10 further configured to determine the system performance parameters from information included within a master information block (MIB) broadcasted from the wireless networks.

12. The mobile device of claim 10 further configured to determine the system parameters from information included within system information blocks (SIBs) broadcasted from the wireless networks.

13. The mobile device of claim 10 further configured to maintain synchronization with at least a plurality of the wireless networks while simultaneously facilitating wireless service flows over two or more of the qualified wireless networks.

14. The mobile device of claim 10 further configured to receive the system performance parameters without connecting to the corresponding wireless networks.

15. The mobile device of claim 10 wherein the system performance parameters include at least current free capacity on air interface, additional number of flows available can be supported by the wireless network, current scheduling delay of the wireless network, number of active flows for each QoS class, current free capacity on backhaul and max, current number of simultaneous transmissions on network, available bandwidth to individual content provider or content, and list of available private networks.

16. The mobile device of claim 9 further configured to:

facilitate use of a first wireless network of the qualified networks to support a first wireless service flow for a first service; and

change support of the first wireless service flow from the first wireless network to a second wireless network of the qualified networks if the performance capabilities of the first wireless network fails to meet the performance requirements of the first service.

17. The mobile device of claim 16 further configured to preempt an existing service flow of the second wireless network with the first service flow with issuance of a preemption message to the second network, the preemption message being communicated from the mobile device to the second wireless network.

18. The mobile device of claim 17 wherein the preemption message identifies a subscription priority associated with the first service, the second wireless network identifying the existing signaling flow to be preempted from one of a plurality of active service flows having a lower priority than the subscription priority.

19. The mobile device of claim 9 wherein the services include a phone call, a web browsing, and a video access and wherein the mobile device further comprises an antenna having multiple radio access technologies (RATs), the antenna being configured to facilitate the multiple wireless service flows.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable code embodied therein for controlling a computing device to electronically facilitate selection of a wireless network, the computing device being associated with a mobile device configured to facilitate wireless signaling, the computer-readable code comprising instructions for:

receiving synchronization information from a plurality of wireless networks;

determining connection parameters from the synchronization information, the connection parameters defining requirements for connecting to the corresponding wireless network;

determining performance capabilities from the synchronization information, the performance capabilities defining performance capabilities of the corresponding wireless network;

determining a service desired of the mobile device, the service defining performance requirements for a wireless service flow needed to support the service; and

connecting the mobile device to one of the wireless networks having performance capabilities sufficient to meet the performance requirements of the service, the mobile device connecting to the wireless network based at least in part on the connection parameters.