WLAN communication system and method with mobile base station
First Claim
1. A mobile wireless device comprising:
- a first transceiver that transmits and receives messages over a wireless local area network, the first transceiver being operatively coupled to receive a message transmitted by at least one sending device;
memory, operatively coupled to the first transceiver, that stores the message to produce a stored message;
a second transceiver, operatively coupled to the memory, that transmits and receives messages over a wireless wide area network;
processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the memory and the second transceiver, the processing circuitry being operative to instruct the second transceiver to transmit the stored message to a wide area network; and
a second memory operatively coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the second memory stores data representing at least one of;
service options data and/or message delivery characteristic data.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A WLAN communication system (10) and method employs mobile WLAN base stations (16) that include WLAN transceivers (26) and memory (30) for storing received messages from one or more mobile WLAN devices (12a-12n). The mobile WLAN base stations (16) serve as moving message carriers or message repeaters of messages for the mobile WLAN devices. In one embodiment, a mobile WLAN base station (16) receives messages transmitted by several mobile WLAN devices (12a-12n), temporarily stores the received messages, and delivers the stored messages to a fixed WLAN base station or another mobile WLAN base station when the mobile WLAN base station (16) moves to within communication range of the applicable fixed or other mobile WLAN base station.
72 Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A mobile wireless device comprising:
-
a first transceiver that transmits and receives messages over a wireless local area network, the first transceiver being operatively coupled to receive a message transmitted by at least one sending device; memory, operatively coupled to the first transceiver, that stores the message to produce a stored message; a second transceiver, operatively coupled to the memory, that transmits and receives messages over a wireless wide area network; processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the memory and the second transceiver, the processing circuitry being operative to instruct the second transceiver to transmit the stored message to a wide area network; and a second memory operatively coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the second memory stores data representing at least one of;
service options data and/or message delivery characteristic data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A mobile wireless device comprising:
-
a transceiver that transmits and receives messages over a wireless local area network, the transceiver being operative to receive a message transmitted by a sending device; memory operatively coupled to the transceiver, the memory storing the message to produce a stored message; and processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver, that includes interrogating a mobile WLAN device to determine if the mobile WLAN device is a mobile WLAN base station that includes multi-wireless device message collection memory that stores collected message received from a plurality of WLAN devices and that detects when the mobile wireless device is within communication range of at least one of;
a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network and has connectivity to a wide area network and a target mobile WLAN device with store and forward capability, when in range, instructs the transceiver to transmit the stored message to the target device. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9)
-
-
10. A WLAN device comprising:
processing circuitry operative to interrogate a mobile WLAN device to determine if the mobile WLAN device is a mobile WLAN base station that includes multi-wireless device message collection memory that stores collected message received from a plurality of WLAN devices and a capacity of the multi-wireless device message collection memory. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
-
13. A method for a mobile wireless device to communicate messages in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:
-
receiving a message from a sending device; storing the message to produce a stored message; interrogating a mobile WLAN device to determine if the mobile WLAN device is a mobile WLAN base station that includes multi-wireless device message collection memory that stores collected message received from a plurality of WLAN devices; determining whether the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network; and delivering the stored message to the target device subsequent to determining that the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of the target device. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A mobile wireless device comprising:
-
a transceiver that transmits and receives messages over a wireless local area network, the transceiver being operative to receive a message transmitted by a sending device; memory operatively coupled to the transceiver, the memory storing the message to produce a stored message; processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver, that detects when the mobile wireless device is within communication range of at least one of;
a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network and has connectivity to a wide area network and a target mobile WLAN device with store and forward capability, when in range, instructs the transceiver to transmit the stored message to the target device; andwherein the processing circuitry further provides data to the target device indicating whether the stored message requires further re-transmission by another mobile wireless device.
-
-
20. A mobile wireless device comprising:
-
a transceiver that transmits and receives messages over a wireless local area network, the transceiver being operative to receive a message transmitted by a sending device; memory operatively coupled to the transceiver, the memory storing the message to produce a stored message; processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver, that detects when the mobile wireless device is within communication range of at least one of;
a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network and has connectivity to a wide area network and a target mobile WLAN device with store and forward capability, when in range, instructs the transceiver to transmit the stored message to the target device; andwherein the processing circuitry is further operative to determine location data of a received message from another mobile WLAN device and associate the location data with the message for use by a network.
-
-
21. A method for a mobile wireless device to communicate messages in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:
-
receiving a message from a sending device; storing the message to produce a stored message; determining whether the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network; delivering the stored message to the target device subsequent to determining that the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of the target device; and providing data indicating whether the delivered message requires further re-transmission by another mobile WLAN base station.
-
-
22. A method for a mobile wireless device to communicate messages in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:
-
receiving a message from a sending device; storing the message to produce a stored message; determining whether the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network; delivering the stored message to the target device subsequent to determining that the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of the target device; and receiving, by an originating WLAN device, user control data and determining, based on the user control data, if a message can be sent to a plurality of different mobile WLAN base stations to provide diversity reception by a receiving unit.
-
-
23. A method for a mobile wireless device to communicate messages in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:
-
receiving a message from a sending device; storing the message to produce a stored message; determining whether the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network; delivering the stored message to the target device subsequent to determining that the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of the target device; and providing electronic payment data with stored message to allow at least one of a mobile WLAN base station, fixed WLAN base station and network element to assess payment for delivery of the stored message.
-
Specification