MOBILE DEVICE AUTHORIZATION, AUTHENTICATION AND DATA USAGE ACCOUNTING FOR MOBILE DATA OFFLOAD IN A NETWORK OF SHARED PROTECTED/LOCKED WIFI ACCESS POINTS

• US 20140073288A1
• Filed: 09/11/2012
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: WaveMAX Corp.
• Original Assignee: WaveMAX Corp.
• Inventors: Velasco, Eduardo
• Application Number:
  US13/610,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20140073288A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

In some implementations, a Wi-Fi access point that is secured using WEP, WPA or WPA2 or other protection method(s) is further mapped, located and seamlessly accessed through a key that is preshared (PSK) by the Wi-Fi access point through a cloud based application over the Internet, thus a mobile device can access the Internet via the Wi-Fi access point using the PSK without the operator of the mobile device entering the PSK. The PSK is transmitted in encrypted form to the mobile device via a 3G/4G network.

Claims

1. A method of communication a mobile device between a 3G/4G network, a NGN and a shared Wi-Fi access point, the method comprising:

displaying a downloaded map of the shared Wi-Fi access points that are within proximity of the mobile device based on a GPS location of a device identification of the shared Wi-Fi access point that is within proximity of the mobile device based on a GPS location of the mobile device;

scanning SSID beacons of the shared Wi-Fi access points to read signal strength and protection method of the SSID beacons, yielding a scanned list of shared SSIDs;

transmitting via the 3G/4G network a request that includes current GPS coordinates of the GPS location of the mobile device and a user ID and a password to confirm the scanned list of shared SSIDs;

receiving from the NGN a denial of authentication via the 3G/4G network;

receiving from the NGN a denial of authorization via the 3G/4G network;

receiving from the NGN an authentication and authorization message and the list of shared SSIDs and corresponding preshared secret keys (PSK) via the 3G/4G network;

receiving from the NGN via the 3G/4G network a location based service communication on the mobile device;

displaying the list of shared SSIDs in response to the receiving;

receiving from the user a selected shared Wi-Fi access point SSID being a selection of a single SSID in the list of shared SSIDs;

activating a Wi-Fi transceiver of the mobile device when the Wi-Fi transceiver is not activated;

establishing a 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point;

communicating with the shared Wi-Fi access point through the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point, wherein data is transferred between the mobile device and the shared Wi-Fi access point;

transmitting a Radius start-accounting message to the NGN via HTTPS and XML and via the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point;

displaying the location based service communication on the mobile device from the NGN;

transmitting at least one usage interim accounting message while the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point is active and while data is being transferred between the mobile device and the shared Wi-Fi access point;

transmitting a usage stop accounting message when a user instruction to log out is received or when a Wi-Fi signal of the shared Wi-Fi access point is lost;

turning off the Wi-Fi transceiver in the mobile device; and

turning on a 3G data connection to enable a wireless data session to the 3G/4G network.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

the downloaded map is downloaded via the 3G/4G network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user ID further comprises:

an identification number of a SIM card of the mobile device or a MAC address of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the location based service communication further comprises:

an advertisement that is related to the GPS of the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprises:

selecting between the 3G/4G network and the shared Wi-Fi access point for wireless data transmission.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprises:

displaying access cost and signal strength of each SSID.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point further comprises:

associating and automatically logging-in with the corresponding shared PSK of the selected shared Wi-Fi access point SSID.

8. A method of communication of a mobile device between a 3G/4G network, a NGN and a shared Wi-Fi access point, the method comprising:

displaying a downloaded map of shared Wi-Fi access points that are within proximity of the mobile device based on a GPS location of a device identification of the shared Wi-Fi access point within proximity of the mobile device based on the GPS location of the mobile device;

scanning SSID beacons of the shared Wi-Fi access points to read signal strength and protection method of the SSID beacons, yielding a scanned list of shared SSIDs;

transmitting via the 3G/4G network a request that includes current GPS coordinates of the GPS location of the mobile device, a user ID and a password to confirm the scanned list of shared SSIDs; and

receiving from the NGN a message selected from a group of message including a denial of authentication via the 3G/4G network and a denial of authorization via the 3G/4G network.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

displaying the message indicating the denial of authentication.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

the map is downloaded via the 3G/4G network.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the user ID further comprises:

an identification number of a SIM card of the mobile device or a MAC address of the mobile device.

12. A method of communication of a mobile device between a 3G/4G network, a NGN and a shared Wi-Fi access point, the method comprising:

displaying a downloaded map of shared Wi-Fi access points that are within proximity of the mobile device based on a GPS location of a device identification of the shared Wi-Fi access point that is within proximity of the mobile device based on the GPS location of the mobile device;

scanning SSID beacons of the shared Wi-Fi access points to read signal strength and protection method of the SSID beacons, yielding a scanned list of shared SSIDs;

transmitting via the 3G/4G network a request that includes current GPS coordinates of the GPS location of the mobile device and a user ID and a password to confirm the scanned list of shared SSIDs; and

receiving from the NGN an authentication and authorization message and the list of shared SSIDs and corresponding preshared secret keys (PSK) via the 3G/4G network.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

displaying the list of shared SSIDs in response to the receiving;

receiving from the user a selected shared Wi-Fi access point SSID being a selection of a single SSID in the list of shared SSIDs;

activating a Wi-Fi transceiver of the mobile device when the Wi-Fi transceiver is not activated;

establishing a 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point;

turning off a 3G data connection, which in some implementations includes disabling the 802.11 wireless data session to the 3G/4G network.

communicating with the shared Wi-Fi access point through the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point, wherein data is transferred between the mobile device and the shared Wi-Fi access point.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein establishing the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point further comprises:

associating and automatically logging-in with the corresponding shared PSK of the selected shared Wi-Fi access point SSID.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

turning off the Wi-Fi transceiver in the mobile device; and

turning on the 3G data connection to enable the 802.11 wireless data session to the 3G/4G network.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

transmitting a Radius start-accounting message to the NGN via HTTPS and XML and via the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point;

transmitting at least one usage interim accounting message while the 802.11 wireless session with the shared Wi-Fi access point is active and while data is being transferred between the mobile device and the shared Wi-Fi access point; and

transmitting a usage stop accounting message when a user instruction to log out is received or when a Wi-Fi signal of the shared Wi-Fi access point is lost.

17. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

the map is downloaded via the 3G/4G network.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the user ID further comprises:

an identification number of a SIM card of the mobile device or a MAC address of the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprises:

selecting between the 3G/4G network and the shared Wi-Fi access point for wireless data transmission.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

displaying access cost and signal strength of each SSID.