Method and system for managing location polling intervals

• US 7,149,504 B1
• Filed: 09/25/2003
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Jethwa, Piyush, Wilson, Scott, Weaver, Farni, Grindeland, Jesse
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Duc
• Assistant Examiner(s): Phuong, Dai
• Application Number:
  US10/670,872
• Time in Patent Office: 1,174 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/457, 455/466, 455/9, 4554141-4143, 455/432.3, 455/412.1, 455/422.1
• US Class Current: 455/414.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method and system for managing location polling intervals is provided. A location determining element will determine a mobile station'"'"'s current location and will compare the current location to a designated location. Based on the comparison between the current location and the designated location, the location determining element will compute a next time to determine the mobile station'"'"'s current location. This process will repeat until the mobile station is located at or within a range of the designated location. Once the mobile station is located at or within the range of the designated location, the location determining element will notify a content server, which will provide specific content to the mobile station.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a current location of a mobile station;

making a comparison of the current location to a designated location;

based on the comparison, computing a next time to determine an updated location of the mobile station; and

sending content associated with the designated location to the mobile station once the mobile station is located within a range of the designated location,

wherein making the comparison comprises estimating a distance between the current location and the designated location,

wherein computing the next time to determine the updated location of the mobile station comprises estimating a time interval to travel the distance between the current location and the designated location,

wherein estimating the time interval to travel the distance between the current location and the designated location comprises using a predefined travel time that corresponds to traveling the distance between the current location and the designated location, and

wherein computing the next time to determine the updated location of the mobile station comprises calculating a percentage of the predefined travel time, wherein the next time to determine the updated location of the mobile station is at least about 50% of the predefined travel time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, making and computing functions are carried out by a network server, and wherein determining the current location of the mobile station comprises receiving from a location determination system an indication of the current location of the mobile station.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, making and computing functions are carried out by the mobile station, and wherein determining the current location of the mobile station comprises:

sending a position determination request into a network; and

receiving from the network an indication of the current location of the mobile station.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the steps of claim 1 until the mobile station is located within the range of the designated location.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the range is a distance.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the range is an amount of time to travel from the current location to the designated location.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising repeating the steps of claim 1 until the mobile station is located at the designated location.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising once the next time is less than a threshold, stop repeating the steps of claim 1.

9. A system comprising:

a content serving element that stores content associated with a designated location and sends the content to a mobile station when the mobile station is located within a range of the designated location; and

a location determining element arranged to;

(a) determine when the mobile station is located within the range; and

(b) responsively inform the content serving element when the mobile station is located within the range, wherein the location determining element determines when the mobile station is located within the range by performing a process comprising;

(i) determining a current location of the mobile station, and

(ii) if the current location is not within the range, computing a next time to determine an updated location of the mobile station by estimating a travel time required for the mobile station to travel from the current location to the designated location using at least about 50% of a predefined travel time and at the next time, repeating from step (i).

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the location determining element estimates the travel time by:

requesting the travel time from a geoserver; and

receiving the travel time from the geoserver.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein requesting the travel time from the geoserver comprises sending information indicative of the current location and the designated location to the geoserver.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the content serving element includes a plurality of content, where each content is associated with a respective designated location, and wherein given content is sent to the mobile station once the mobile station is approximately located at the respective designated location of the given content.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the content is selected from the group consisting of advertisements, solicitations, and coupons.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the content is sent to the mobile station through short message service (SMS) messaging.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the content is sent to the mobile station through wireless application protocol (WAP) push messaging.