Location based wireless tower caching

• US 8,843,160 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2010
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Burckart, Erik J., Cuomo, Gennaro, Ivory, Andrew J., Moore, Victor S., Shook, Aaron K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kasraian, Allahyar
• Application Number:
  US12/977,980
• Publication Number:
  US 20120165036A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,370 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.3, 455/456.2, 455/456.1, 340/995.1, 701/409
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for wireless tower caching. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for wireless tower caching in a radio access network (RAN) can include receiving a response to a request from an end user device wirelessly coupled to a base station of the RAN, determining geographic positioning data for the response and identifying a most geographically wireless tower coupled to the RAN relative to the determined geographic positioning data (such as the closest wireless tower to the determined geographic positioning data). Thereafter, the response can be cached at a cache in a base station of the identified wireless tower. In this way, the cached content can remain relevant for a significant period of time in as much as the correlation between a likely position of the end user device and the content cached at the base station of the wireless tower at the time of use of the cached content is strong.

Claims

1. A radio access network (RAN) based data processing system configured for location based wireless tower caching, the system comprising:

a plurality of different base stations each coupled to a respective wireless tower and each of the plurality of different base stations comprising an antenna held by the respective wireless tower, a receiver, a transmitter, a processor, a local cache, and a network interface to a data communications network;

a radio network controller (RNC) coupled to each of the plurality of different base stations over the data communications network;

a caching module disposed in each of the plurality of base stations and coupled to the local cache; and

,

a location based wireless tower caching module executing in the RNC, the location based wireless tower caching module comprising program code enabled to receive a response to a data request from one of the plurality of different base stations on behalf of an end user device, the response comprises at least one of a map generated from an address supplied by the end user device or a point of interest of a map generated from an address supplied by the end user device, to determine geographic positioning data for the response, to compare the determined geographic positioning data for the response to a list of locations of wireless towers in the RAN to identify a most geographically relevant wireless tower coupled to the RAN relative to the determined geographic positioning data, the most geographically relevant wireless tower being geographically closest to the received response to the data request, and to direct caching of the response at the local cache in a particular one of the plurality of different base stations of the identified most geographically relevant wireless tower.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographic positioning data comprises geographic positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographic positioning data comprises at least a portion of the address supplied by the end user device.

4. A computer program product for wireless tower caching in a radio access network (RAN), the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage memory having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code for receiving a response to a request from an end user device wirelessly coupled to a base station of the RAN, the base station comprising an antenna supported by a separate wireless tower, the response comprises at least one of a map generated from an address supplied by the end user device or a point of interest of a map generated from an address supplied by the end user device;

computer readable program code for determining geographic positioning data for the response;

computer readable program code for comparing the determined geographic positioning data for the response to a list of locations of wireless towers in the RAN to identify a most geographically relevant wireless tower coupled to the RAN relative to the determined geographic positioning data, the most geographically relevant wireless tower being geographically closest to the received response to the content request; and

,

computer readable program code for caching the response at a cache in the base station of the identified most geographically relevant wireless tower.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the computer readable program code for receiving a response to a request from an end user device wirelessly coupled to a base station of the RAN, comprises computer readable program code for receiving the response in a radio network controller (RNC) to the request from the end user device wirelessly coupled to the base station of the RAN.

6. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the geographic positioning data comprises geographic positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

7. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the geographic positioning data comprises at least a portion of the address supplied by the end user device.