Method and system for evaluating proximity to a WLAN for a UMA/GAN compatible electronic device

• US 8,050,243 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2007
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ostergren, Mattias
• Primary Examiner(s): Ryman; Daniel J
• Assistant Examiner(s): BLANTON, JOHN D
• Application Number:
  US11/960,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20090161639A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,412 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point
• 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 evaluating proximity of the electronic device to a wireless local area network (WLAN) involves generating a location where the location is defined by a list of cellular communication access points that is sorted based on signal strength for each access point. The list may be scored against one or more similarly defined reference locations to determine if the electronic device is at a geographic position that is favorable to probe for a WLAN that the electronic device was connected to at a prior time, but is presently not connected.

Claims

1. A method of initiating a probe for a WLAN by a generic access network enabled electronic device, comprising:

generating a current location metric for the electronic device, the current location metric being a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that have a relationship to a current position of the electronic device and are ordered in accordance with respective signal strength values that are ascertained at the current position;

scoring the current location metric against a reference location metric for the WLAN, the reference location metric being a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that have a relationship to a former position of the electronic device where the electronic device was connected to the WLAN and the base station identifiers for the reference location metric are ordered in accordance with respective signal strength values that were ascertained at the former position, the scoring accomplished by generating a matching score having a value to quantify a correlation between the order of the base station identifiers in the current location metric and the order of the base station identifiers in the reference location metric; and

if the electronic device is connected to the WLAN;

if the matching score has a value so that the current location metric has less than a first predetermined threshold geographic correlation with the reference location metric, associating the current location metric with the WLAN as an additional reference location metric to create a logical map of a coverage area of the connected WLAN;

else, if the current location metric has greater than a second predetermined threshold geographical correlation to the reference location metric, initiating the probe; and

wherein if the electronic device is not connected to the WLAN, establishing a delay duration until a next current location metric for the electronic device is generated, the delay duration based on a geographical correspondence between the current location metric and the reference location metric as indicated by the matching score.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching score is reduced if the current location metric contains a base station identifier that is not in the reference location metric.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein there are multiple WLANs and the WLANs are probed in an order determined by:

for each WLAN, comparing the current location metric to reference location metrics for the WLAN to generate a geographic matching score for each comparison and determining a maximum one of the matching scores; and

ordering the WLANs based on the maximum matching score for each WLAN.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference location metric has a highest geographical correspondence to the current location metric from a plurality of reference location metrics.

5. A method of evaluating proximity of an electronic device to a WLAN, comprising:

generating a current location metric for the electronic device, the current location metric defined by a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that is ordered based on signal strength values for each base station identifier;

scoring the current location metric for geographic correspondence to one or more reference location metrics, each reference location metric corresponding to a position at which the electronic device was connected to the WLAN and is defined by a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that are sorted based on signal strength values for each base station identifier at a time when the reference location metric was established, the scoring for each reference location metric accomplished by generating a matching score having a value to quantify a correlation between the order of the base station identifiers in the current location metric and the order of the base station identifiers in the reference location metric;

probing for the WLAN if the matching score is greater than a predetermined threshold; and

establishing a delay duration until a next current location metric for the electronic device is generated, the delay duration based on a geographical correspondence between the current location metric and the one or more reference location metrics as indicated by the matching score.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the matching score is reduced if the current location metric contains a base station identifier that is not in the reference location metric.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein there are multiple WLANs and the WLANs are probed in an order determined by:

for each WLAN, comparing the current location metric to reference location metrics for the WLAN to generate a geographic matching score for each comparison and determining a maximum one of the matching scores; and

ordering the WLANs based on the maximum matching score for each WLAN.

8. A generic access network enabled mobile electronic device, comprising:

a radio circuit that establishes communications with a core mobile communications network over a cellular communications base station or a WLAN depending on WLAN availability; and

a controller that evaluates proximity to the WLAN, wherein the controller is configured to;

generate a current location metric for the electronic device, the current location metric defined by a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that is ordered based on signal strength values for each base station identifier;

score the current location metric for geographic correspondence to one or more reference location metrics to generate a matching score for each reference location metric, each reference location metric corresponding to a position at which the electronic device was connected to the WLAN and is defined by a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that are sorted based on signal strength values for each base station identifier at a time when the reference location metric was established, the matching score having a value to quantify a correlation between the order of the base station identifiers in the current location metric and the order the base station identifiers in the reference location metric;

probe for the WLAN if the matching score is greater than a predetermined threshold; and

establish a delay duration until a next current location metric for the electronic device is generated, the delay duration based on a geographical correspondence between the current location metric and the one or more reference location metrics as indicated by the matching score.

9. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein the matching score is reduced if the current location metric contains a base station identifier that is not in the reference location metric.

10. The electronic device of claim 8, wherein there are multiple WLANs and the controller is further configured to:

for each WLAN, compare the current location metric to reference location metrics for the WLAN to generate a geographic matching score for each comparison and determine a maximum one of the matching scores;

establish an order for the WLANs based on the maximum matching score for each WLAN; and

control the electronic device to probe for the WLANs in the order of the WLANs.