METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MOBILE DEVICE ROAMING

• US 20180041890A1
• Filed: 08/02/2017
• Published: 02/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: ONNO, Stephane, GUEGANT, Jean, LEGUILLON, Valerie
• Application Number:
  US15/666,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20180041890A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0055 Transmission or use of information for re-establishing the radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/22 using selective relaying for reaching a BTS [Base Transceiver Station] or an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/06 Registration at serving network Location Register, VLR or user mobility server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for mobile device roaming are provided. The apparatus includes an information obtaining unit for obtaining information about the network capability at a given location of at least two mobile devices having a first mobile device and a second mobile device, a predicting unit for obtaining a network score of each of the at least two mobile devices at the given location according to the obtained information about the network capabilities, and a roaming unit for switching the traffic of the first mobile device to the second mobile device according to respective obtained network scores of the at least two mobile devices, when the first mobile device reaches the given location.

Claims

1. An apparatus for mobile device roaming, comprising a memory and one or more processors configure to:

obtain information about network capability at a given location of at least two mobile devices including a first mobile device and a second mobile device;

obtain a network score of each of the at least two mobile devices at the given location according to the obtained information about the network capabilities; and

switch the traffic of the first mobile device to the second mobile device according to respective calculated network scores of the at least two mobile devices, when the first mobile device reaches said given location.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information about the network capability of a mobile device comprises mobile information which is the dynamic information that each mobile device receives or collects from the network in term of the network capacity and path coverage information which relates to the network capacity of the mobile devices by respective network providers at a geographical route that the mobile devices are travelling.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the path coverage information is obtained from the selected roaming path in GPS (Global Positioning System).

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the one or more processors obtain the network score as a function of one coverage parameter of the obtained information about the network capability.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the network capacity is the available bandwidth of a mobile device.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the switching of the traffic is implemented by a virtual gateway based on the OpenFlow protocol.

7. A method for mobile device roaming, comprising:

obtaining information about network capability at a given location of at least two mobile devices including a first mobile device and a second mobile device;

obtaining a network score of each of the at least two mobile devices at the given location according to the obtained information about the network capabilities; and

switching the traffic of a first mobile device to the second mobile device according to respective obtained network scores of the at least two mobile devices, when the first mobile device reaches said given location.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the information about the network capability of a mobile device comprises a mobile information which is the dynamic information that each mobile device receives or collects from the network in term of the network capacity and a path coverage information which relates to the network capacity of the mobile devices by respective network providers at a geographical route that the mobile devices are travelling.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the path coverage information is obtained from the selected roaming path in GPS.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the network score is obtained as a function of one coverage parameter of the obtained information about the network capability.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein the network capacity is the available bandwidth of a mobile device.

12. The method according to claim 7, wherein the switching of the traffic is implemented by a virtual gateway based on the OpenFlow protocol.

13. Computer program product downloadable from a communication network and/or recorded on a medium readable by computer and/or executable by a processor, comprising program code instructions for implementing the steps of a method according to claim 7.

14. Non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising a computer program product recorded thereon and capable of being run by a processor, including program code instructions for implementing the steps of a method according to claim 7.