Wi-Fi intelligent selection engine

• US 8,570,993 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2010
• Issued: 10/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Austin, Mark, Huber, Kurt, Meredith, Sheldon, Salmon, Michael A., Tipton, Rick
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Chirag
• Assistant Examiner(s): PANCHOLI, RINA C
• Application Number:
  US12/883,145
• Publication Number:
  US 20110286437A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,140 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/8271 Based on the number of used services, e.g. call forwarding or call barring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42017 Customized ring-back tones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/32 by location or mobility data, e.g. speed data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/322 by location data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/16 Involving different core network technologies, e.g. a packet-switched [PS] bearer in combination with a circuit-switched [CS] bearer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed to offload the usage of a cellular network by intelligent selection of broadband network connections such as Wi-Fi access points. A Wi-Fi transceiver on a mobile device is activated when certain conditions are met, such as a time, location, recognition of a radiofrequency (RF) environment, etc. The conditions are correlated with a database of known locations in which a one or more Wi-Fi access points are determined to exist. The Wi-Fi transceiver on the mobile device is activated and commanded to connect to a particular Wi-Fi access point. Dynamic intelligence ensures that the appropriate connection method is used, and minimizes handovers to networks or access points that are unreliable or that are predicted to become inaccessible to the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device comprising a processor, a time and date;

determining, by the mobile device, a location of the mobile device;

determining, by the mobile device, an availability of a subset of a set of Wi-Fi access point devices comprising comparing the location of the mobile device with a set of known locations associated with the set of Wi-Fi access point devices;

determining, by the mobile device, a Wi-Fi access point device of the subset of Wi-Fi access point devices based on the availability of the Wi-Fi access point device, the time, the date, and a Wi-Fi preference schedule based on a configurable schedule of events;

activating a Wi-Fi transceiver in the mobile device in response to the Wi-Fi access point device being determined; and

initiating an instruction for the mobile device to connect to the Wi-Fi access point device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the Wi-Fi access point device of the subset of Wi-Fi access point devices comprises determining whether the time is within a selectable time block.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the location comprises receiving location information from a global positioning system satellite.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the location further comprises determining a radio frequency fingerprint of a cell tower device of a network, correlating the radio frequency fingerprint with a candidate location, and comparing the candidate location with the set of known locations.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the radio frequency fingerprint comprises measurements of signal strength of the radio frequency, timing delay associated with the radio frequency, and noise interfering with the radio frequency.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating the Wi-Fi transceiver is further in response to determining a condition has been satisfied related to a bandwidth threshold for a connection between the mobile device and the Wi-Fi access point device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating comprises activating the Wi-Fi transceiver for a subset of mobile device types selected from a set of mobile device types.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating comprises activating the Wi-Fi transceiver in response to a determination that a cellular broadcast signal has been received by the mobile device from a network device of a wireless network, wherein the content of the cellular broadcast signal depends in part on the location of the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the location comprises determining a set of reference frames correlated to respective pairs of cell site devices, and correlating the set of reference frames to a set of geographical bin grid framework frame locations having a predetermined granularity.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the mobile device, a performance profile of the Wi-Fi access point device and directing, by the mobile device, a transmission of the performance profile to a data store of a wireless network, wherein the performance profile comprises a throughput and a latency for a communicative connection between the mobile device and the Wi-Fi access point device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising facilitating, by the mobile device, displaying of a prompt for information relating to the performance profile, by way of a user interface of the mobile device, to facilitate the determining the performance profile.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving, by the mobile device, a plurality of performance profiles, comprising the performance profile, determined by a plurality mobile devices for the set of Wi-Fi access point devices, and ranking, by the mobile device, Wi-Fi access point devices of the set of Wi-Fi access point devices based in part on the plurality of performance profiles, wherein the initiating comprises initiating the instruction to connect to a ranked Wi-Fi access point device of the set of Wi-Fi access point devices based on a rank associated with the ranked Wi-Fi access point device.

13. A mobile device comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to perform operations, comprising;

determining a location of the mobile device;

comparing the location of the mobile device with a set of known locations, the set of known locations being associated with respective Wi-Fi access point devices of a set of Wi-Fi access point devices;

determining a proximity of the mobile device to a subset of the set of Wi-Fi access point devices;

activating a Wi-Fi transceiver of the mobile device in response to the proximity being determined to satisfy a defined proximity condition, a time and a date being determined to satisfy a temporal condition, a schedule condition being determined to be satisfied related to a Wi-Fi preference schedule determined from a configurable schedule of events, and the Wi-Fi access point device of the subset of Wi-Fi access point devices being determined to be available for use, and

directing the Wi-Fi transceiver to connect to a Wi-Fi access point device of the subset of Wi-Fi access point devices.

14. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise accessing the set of known locations and accessing a configuration setting related to the directing the Wi-Fi transceiver to connect, from a wireless network provider server.

15. The mobile device of claim 14, wherein the accessing the set of known locations comprises accessing a plurality of reports generated by a plurality of mobile devices, wherein the plurality of reports comprises performance grades of Wi-Fi access point devices of the set of Wi-Fi access point devices, and wherein the set of Wi-Fi access point devices is ranked based in part on the performance grades from the plurality of reports.

16. The mobile device of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise determining a radio frequency fingerprint of the location, and correlating the radio frequency fingerprint with the set of known locations to facilitate determining the proximity of the mobile device to the Wi-Fi access point device.

17. A mobile device comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor, communicatively coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to perform operations, comprising;

receiving location information representing a location of the mobile device, the location information further comprising time stamp information;

determining a time and a date based on time stamp information;

receiving a Wi-Fi preference schedule based on a schedule of events that is updatable based on input received by the mobile device;

selecting a subset of a set of Wi-Fi access point devices based on the location information being determined to satisfy a condition related to the Wi-Fi preference schedule; and

selecting a Wi-Fi access point device from the subset of Wi-Fi access point devices based on comparing the time with the Wi-Fi preference schedule, comparing the date with the Wi-Fi preference schedule, and a Wi-Fi access point device of the subset of Wi-Fi access point devices being available;

activating a Wi-Fi transceiver in response to selecting a Wi-Fi access point device; and

initiating a connection to the Wi-Fi access point device.

18. The mobile device of claim 17, wherein the activating the Wi-Fi transceiver is further based on initiating an application associated with a defined level of bandwidth consumption.

19. The mobile device of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

facilitating access to an interface that receives review metric information relating to a connection between the mobile device and the Wi-Fi access point device, wherein the review metric information comprises a throughput measurement and a latency measurement related to the connection; and

transmitting the review metric information to a server of a wireless network provider device.

20. The mobile device of claim 19, wherein the facilitating the access further comprises receiving, from the server via a cellular transceiver, access point data representative of the set of Wi-Fi access point devices, the access point data comprising the set of Wi-Fi access point devices ranked according to corresponding review metric information.