Methods and apparatus for obtaining integrated content from multiple networks

• US 8,732,272 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2009
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Deshpande, Manoj M., Fan, Michael M., Martin, Roger W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fan, Hua
• Application Number:
  US12/569,748
• Publication Number:
  US 20110078376A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,694 Days
• Field of Search: 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• 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 apparatus for obtaining location content from multiple networks is disclosed. The method may comprises: obtaining coarse location content at a wireless communication device (WCD) from a first network using a first protocol, wherein the coarse location content includes information defining locations of geographic coverage regions for one or more second networks which use a second protocol, obtaining WCD location information, determining from the WCD location information and the coarse location content if the WCD is within the geographic coverage region of a second network, accessing the determined second network using the second protocol, receiving from the accessed second network fine location content, and generating an integrated location content item by combining the coarse location content with the fine location content.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining location content from multiple communication networks, the method comprising:

obtaining coarse location content from a first communication network using a first protocol, wherein the coarse location content includes information defining locations of geographic coverage regions for one or more second communication networks associated with a second protocol;

obtaining location information of a wireless communications device;

determining, by the wireless communications device, that the wireless communications device is within a geographic coverage region of the geographic coverage regions for the one or more second communication networks based on the obtained location information of the wireless communications device and the obtained coarse location content;

accessing at least one second communication network of the one or more second communication networks using the second protocol in response to the determining that the wireless communications device is located within the geographic coverage region;

receiving fine location content from the accessed second communication network; and

generating an integrated location content item that combines the obtained coarse location content with the received fine location content.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprises:

accessing the integrated location content item generated by the wireless communication device through a user interface.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

accessing an ad-hoc community network through the at least one accessed second communication network using the second protocol;

receiving ad-hoc community content using the second protocol; and

transmitting at least a portion of the ad-hoc community content to a third party using the first protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining coarse location content further comprises:

receiving the coarse location content at the wireless communication device periodically from the first communication network using the first protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining coarse location content further comprises

requesting the coarse location content from the first communication network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtained coarse location content further includes at least one of:

regional event information, regional map information, regional weather information, or regional traffic information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first protocol includes a WWAN protocol for a technology comprising at least one of:

CDMA, WCDMA, TDMA, TD-SCDMA, UMTS, IP, GSM, LTE, WiMax, UMB, or EV-DO.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second protocol includes a WLAN protocol for a technology comprising at least one of:

802.xx wireless LAN, or BLUETOOTH.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining the location information of the wireless communications device further comprises at least one of:

receiving the location information from a location sensor associated with the wireless communications device,

receiving the location information from a user input, or

requesting the location information from the first communication network and

receiving the requested location information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing of the at least one second communication network using the second protocol further comprises:

requesting access to the at least one second communication network, wherein the request includes an authentication identifying item; and

receiving access to the at least one second communication network by receiving an authentication for the authentication identifying item.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the received fine location content includes at least one of:

specific event information, local map information, specific weather event information, or specific traffic event information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving fine location content further comprises:

receiving the fine location content one of;

in real time, or at a predetermined time; and

caching the received fine location content for later access.

13. A computer program product, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising;

a first set of codes for causing a computer to obtain coarse location content from a first communication network using a first protocol, wherein the coarse location content includes information defining locations of geographic coverage regions for one or more second communication networks associated with a second protocol;

a second set of codes for causing the computer to obtain location information of a wireless communications device;

a third set of codes for causing the computer to determine, by the wireless communications device, that the wireless communications device is within a geographic coverage region of the geographic coverage regions for the one or more second communication networks based on the obtained location information of the wireless communications device and the obtained coarse location content;

a fourth set of codes for causing the computer to access at least one second communication network using the second protocol in response to the determining that wireless communications device is located within the geographic coverage region;

a fifth set of codes for causing the computer to receive fine location content from the at least one accessed second communication network; and

a sixth set of codes for causing the computer to generate an integrated location content item that combines the obtained coarse location content with the received fine location content.