Location Assisted Service Capability Monitoring

• US 20140200038A1
• Filed: 01/16/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Rao, Bharath Narasimha, Jazra, Cherif, Soto Matamala, Leonardo A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,596,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/457
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/309 Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/022 with dynamic range variability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

A digitally stored map can indicate the signal quality for each of the map'"'"'s regions. A device can determine its location, speed, and direction using global positioning system (GPS) and other sensors. Based on this information, the mobile device can predict a field of locations within which the device will probably be located within a specified future time frame. Based on both the information indicating signal quality and the probable future field of locations, the device can estimate a moment at which the device will probably begin to suffer from low-quality or absent signal. Using this prediction, the device can proactively perform a variety of anticipatory remedial actions. For example, the device can begin allocating a greater portion of currently available wireless network communication bandwidth to the reception of data packets that represent content that is being streamed to the device, so that the device can proactively buffer those packets.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining relevant wireless network communication signal quality map data, the method comprising:

detecting, at a mobile device, that the mobile device is traveling along a particular path;

in response to detecting that the mobile device is traveling along the particular path, determining one or more regions, of a plurality of regions of a map, that are intersected by the particular path; and

wirelessly downloading to the mobile device, from a server, a set of one or more map tiles that correspond to the one or more regions that are intersected by the particular path;

wherein the set of one or more map tiles excludes all map tiles that do not correspond to the one or more regions that are intersected by the particular path;

wherein at least one particular map tile of the one or more map tiles specifies a quality of a network communication signal within a region to which the particular map tile corresponds.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting that the mobile device is traveling along the particular path comprises:

determining a current location of the mobile device using sensors of the mobile device;

determining a current direction of travel of the mobile device using sensors of the mobile device;

determining a current speed of travel of the mobile device using sensors of the mobile device; and

detecting that the mobile device is traveling along the particular path based at least in part on the current location, the current direction of travel, and the current speed of travel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting that the mobile device is traveling along the particular path comprises:

automatically determining a route along one or more map-specified paths from a specified origin to a specified destination; and

detecting that the mobile device is traveling along the particular path based at least in part on the automatically-determined route.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting that the mobile device is traveling along the particular path comprises:

determining whether any data stored on the mobile device indicates a route that the mobile device will follow in the future; and

in response to determining that no data stored on the mobile device indicates a route that the mobile device will follow in the future, detecting that the mobile device is traveling along the particular path based at least in part on a location, a speed, and a direction automatically detected using one or more sensors of the mobile device.

5. A computer-readable memory storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving, at a server, from two or more mobile devices of a plurality of mobile devices, measurements that indicate qualities of network communication signals within one or more regions of a plurality of regions; and

based on the measurements, updating, at the server, stored map data that specifies, for each particular region of the plurality of regions, a quality of a network communication signal within that particular region.

6. The computer-readable memory of claim 5, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:

sending, from the server, to a mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, at least a portion of the stored map data that was updated as a result of said updating.

7. The computer-readable memory of claim 5, wherein receiving said measurements comprises:

receiving, at the server, from a first mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, a first measurement pertaining to a first region of the plurality of regions; and

receiving, at the server, from a second mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, a second measurement pertaining to the first region;

wherein the first mobile device is separate from the second mobile device.

8. The computer-readable memory of claim 5, wherein receiving said measurements comprises:

receiving, at the server, from a first mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, a first measurement pertaining to a first region of the plurality of regions; and

receiving, at the server, from a second mobile device of the plurality of mobile devices, a second measurement pertaining to a second region of the plurality of regions;

wherein the first region is separate from the second region.

9. The computer-readable memory of claim 5, wherein receiving said measurements comprises (a) receiving a first measurement from a first mobile device that subscribes to a wireless network of a first wireless carrier and (b) receiving a second measurement from a second mobile device that subscribes to a wireless network of a second wireless carrier that differs from the first wireless carrier;

and wherein updating the stored map data comprises (1) using the first measurement to update first map data that pertains to the wireless network of the first wireless carrier but not to update second map data that pertains to the wireless network of the second wireless carrier, and (2) using the second measurement to update the second map data that pertains to the wireless network of the second wireless carrier but not to update the first map data that pertains to the wireless network of the first wireless carrier.

10. The computer-readable memory of claim 5, wherein receiving said measurements comprises (a) receiving a first measurement from a first mobile device that used a 3G network when making the first measurement and (b) receiving a second measurement from a second mobile device that used a 4G network when making the second measurement;

and wherein updating the stored map data comprises (1) using the first measurement to update first map data that pertains to a 3G network but not to update second map data that pertains to a 4G network, and (2) using the second measurement to update the second map data that pertains to the 4G network but not to update the first map data that pertains to the 3G network.

11. The computer-readable memory of claim 5, wherein receiving said measurements comprises (a) receiving a first measurement from a first mobile device during a first time-of-day and a first day-of-week and (b) receiving a second measurement from a second mobile device during a second time-of-day that differs from the first time-of day and during a second day-of-week that differs from the first day-of-week;

and wherein updating the stored map data comprises (1) using the first measurement to update first map data that pertains to the first time-of-day and first day-of-week but not to update second map data that pertains to the second time-of-day and second day-of-week, and (2) using the second measurement to update the second map data that pertains to the second time-of-day and second day-of-week but not to update the first map data that pertains to the first time-of-day and first day-of-week.

12. A system comprising:

a server that is configured to store map data that specifies qualities of wireless network communication services in a plurality of regions;

a first mobile device that is configured to measure a first quality of a wireless network communication service in a first region of the plurality of regions and to transmit an indication of the first quality to the server; and

a second mobile device that is configured to measure a second quality of the wireless communication service in a second region of the plurality of regions and to transmit an indication of the second quality to the server.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is configured to update the stored map data based on the indication of the first quality and the indication of the second quality.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is configured to send, to the first mobile device, updated map data that the server generates based on the indication of the second quality;

and wherein the server is configured to send, to the second mobile device, updated map data that the server generates based on the indication of the first quality.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the server is configured to update stored map data pertaining to a wireless network of a particular wireless carrier based on initial map data that the server initially receives from the particular wireless carrier.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first mobile device is configured to obtain updated map data that the server updates based on measurements sent by a plurality of mobile devices;

and wherein the first mobile device is configured to use the updated map data to determine that the first mobile device will enter a region in which a measured signal quality is less than a specified threshold.

17. A computer-readable memory storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:

estimating a set of regions, within a plurality of regions on a map, into which a particular device is going to travel; and

in response to said estimating, downloading, from a server, to said particular device, information that two or more other devices measured while within regions within the set of regions.

18. The computer-readable memory of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:

after downloading said information from said server, downloading, from said server, to said particular device, information that two or more other devices measured while within regions excluded from the set of regions.

19. The computer-readable memory of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:

based at least in part on a quality of service specified within said information, sending one or more notifications to one or more applications that have registered with an operating system of said particular device to receive said one or more notifications.

20. The computer-readable memory of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:

based at least in part on a quality of service specified within said information, instructing one or more applications executing on said particular device to pre-cache content prior to entry of said particular device into a particular region within the set of regions.