Forced state-change to facilitate blacklist evaluation

• US 8,533,809 B1
• Filed: 05/29/2009
• Issued: 09/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Zang, Hui, Ye, Tao
• Primary Examiner(s): McNally, Michael S
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TRONG H
• Application Number:
  US12/475,043
• Time in Patent Office: 1,565 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 726/13
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0236 Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/663 Preventing unauthorised calls to a telephone set
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/125 Protection against power exhaustion attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0238 where the received signal is an unwanted signal, e.g. interference or idle signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/005 Transmission of information for alerting of incoming communication
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Methods for evaluating data packets addressed to a wireless communication device are disclosed herein. When in a dormant state, a wireless communication device receives page messages indicating a source of data packets addressed to the wireless communication device and determines whether the data packets represent unwanted traffic. When in an active state, the wireless communication device examines data packets to determine if the received packets represent unwanted traffic, and in response to determining that the traffic is unwanted, the wireless communication device transitions into a dormant state or enters an idle state from which the wireless communication can transition into the dormant state.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

configuring a wireless communication device to be in a dormant mode;

while in the dormant mode, the wireless communication device (i) receiving, from a wireless communication system component, a page message indicating that a data packet has been addressed to the wireless communication device, wherein the page message includes an identifier of a source of the data packet, (ii) determining whether the source of the data packet is included in a list of data packet sources, and (iii) in response to determining that the source of the data packet is included in the list of data packet sources, transmitting a message from the wireless communication device to the wireless communication system component, the message indicating to the wireless communication system component that the data packet should not be sent to the wireless communication device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier of the source of the data packet comprises an IP address.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifier further comprises a destination port identifier.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the source of the data packet is included in the list of data packet sources comprises extracting the identifier from the page message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of data packet sources comprises IP addresses associated with sources of unwanted data packets.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the list of data packet sources is modifiable by a user of the wireless communication device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the message indicating that the data packet should not be sent to the wireless communication device comprises transmitting a response to the page message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the list of data packet sources is stored by the wireless communication device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the list of data packet sources is stored by the wireless communication system component.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to determining that the source of the data packet is not included in the list of data packet sources, configuring the wireless communication device to receive the data packet.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising transmitting a response to the page message from the wireless communication device indicating that the data packet should be transmitted.

12. A method comprising:

configuring a wireless communication device to be in a dormant mode;

while in the dormant mode, the wireless communication device (i) receiving, from a wireless communication system component a page message indicating that a data packet has been addressed to the wireless communication device, wherein the page message includes a source of the data packet, and (ii) determining whether the source of the data packet is included in a list of data packet sources;

in response to determining that the source of the data packet is included in the list of data packet sources, transmitting a message from the wireless communication device to the wireless communication system component, the message indicating to the wireless communication system component that the data packet should not be sent to the wireless communication device; and

in response to determining that the source of the data packet is not included in the list of data packet sources, (i) configuring the wireless device to be in an active mode, (ii) receiving the data packet at the wireless communication device, (iii) determining whether the data packet is unwanted, and (iv) in response to determining that the data packet is unwanted, configuring the wireless communication device to be in the dormant mode.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the list of data packet sources is modifiable by a user of the wireless communication device.