Signature based connectivity prediction for portable electronic devices

• US 8,948,809 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2012
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Oka, Anand Ravindra, Snow, Christopher Harris, Shirazi, Ghasem Naddafzadeh, Simmons, Sean Bartholomew, Klassen, Gerhard Dietrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hai V
• Application Number:
  US13/416,639
• Publication Number:
  US 20130237278A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 455/67.11, 455/524
• US Class Current: 455/524
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/322 by location data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/20 Selecting an access point

Abstract

Methods of predicting future connectivity of a portable electronic device is described along with systems and devices for implementing the methods. The method includes receiving an indication of a plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device at different reference times. Each of the plurality of radio scenes identifies transmitters and associated signal strength of signals received by the portable electronic device at the respective reference time. One or more connectivity predictions can be retrieved from a corpus of pairs of a composite signature vector and associated connectivity information. Each of the one or more connectivity predictions can be retrieved based on a similarity between the associated respective composite signature vector and a query composite signature vector. A future connectivity prediction of the portable electronic device can be provided based on the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions.

Claims

1. A method of predicting future connectivity of a portable electronic device comprising:

accessing a query composite signature vector providing an indication of a plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device at a plurality of respective predetermined reference times, each radio scene identifying transmitters and associated signal strength of signals received by the portable electronic device at a respective predetermined reference time of the plurality of respective predetermined reference times;

retrieving one or more connectivity predictions from a corpus of pairs of;

a composite signature vector, providing an indication of a plurality of radio scenes detected at one or more different portable electronic device at the plurality of respective predetermined reference times, and associated connectivity information, each of the one or more connectivity predictions retrieved based on a similarity between the composite signature vector and the query composite signature vector, wherein each of the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions comprises a composite signature vector and associated connectivity information from the corpus of pairs; and

providing a prediction of future connectivity of the portable electronic device based on the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device at the respective predetermined reference time comprises a plurality of key-value pairs, each associated with the respective predetermined reference time the radio scene was detected at, wherein the method further comprises:

accessing a plurality of key-value pairs, each comprising a respective key, corresponding to a unique transmitter identifier, and a value associated with a signal strength from the respective transmitter received at the portable electronic device at one of the plurality of respective predetermined reference times; and

calculating each vector element based on a summation of a plurality of terms, each term calculated from a respective key-value pair by;

generating a seed based on (i) the key of the respective key-value pair, (ii) an element identifier associated with the vector element being calculated and (iii) a reference time identifier of the respective predetermined reference time associated with the respective key-value pair.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the keys of the plurality of key-value pairs is associated with one or more synonymous unique identifiers of transmitters located in close proximity to each other, wherein when the key of the respective key-value pair is associated with one or more synonymous unique identifiers, the term in the summation calculated by further adding one or more sub-terms, each calculated from a respective synonymous unique identifier of the one or more synonymous unique identifiers associated with the key of the respective key-value pair by:

generating a synonym seed based on (i) the respective synonymous unique identifier (ii) the element identifier associated with the vector element being calculated and (iii) the reference time identifier of the respective predetermined reference time associated with the respective key-value pair;

generating a synonym pseudo-random number from the generated synonym seed; and

multiplying the synonym pseudo-random number by the value of the respective key-value pair.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the received indication of the plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device comprises a composite signature generated at the portable electronic device.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the received indication of the plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device comprises the plurality of key-value pairs each associated with the respective predetermined reference time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a prediction of future connectivity further comprises generating a histogram of the associated connectivity information of the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions and normalizing the histogram.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein providing future connectivity prediction further comprises determining an entropy error probability of the histogram, and a weakened Fano inequality.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising culling older connectivity predictors from the corpus at periodic intervals.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising disabling one or more resources of the portable electronic device in response to the future connectivity prediction.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the resource is a global positioning receiver (GPS).

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the resource is a wireless interface.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising requesting a radio frequency resource in response to the future connectivity prediction.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitters are identified in the composite radio scene signature by a unique radio frequency (RF) transmitter address comprising a media access control (MAC) address or cellular transmitter identifier.

14. A device for predicting future connectivity of a portable electronic device comprising:

a memory containing instructions; and

a processor for executing the instructions, the instructions when executed by the processor configuring the device to;

access a query composite signature vector providing an indication of a plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device at a plurality of respective predetermined reference times, each radio scene identifying transmitters and associated signal strength of signals received by the portable electronic device at a respective predetermined reference time of the plurality of respective predetermined reference times;

retrieve one or more connectivity predictions from a corpus of pairs of;

a composite signature vector, providing an indication of a plurality of radio scenes detected at one or more different portable electronic device at the plurality of respective predetermined reference times, and associated connectivity information, each of the one or more connectivity predictions retrieved based on a similarity between the composite signature vector and the query composite signature vector, wherein each of the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions comprises a composite signature vector and associated connectivity information from the corpus of pairs; and

provide a prediction of future connectivity of the portable electronic device based on the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein each of the radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device at the respective predetermined reference time comprises a plurality of key-value pairs, each associated with the respective predetermined reference time the radio scene was detected at, wherein the executed instructions configure the device to further:

access a plurality of key-value pairs, each comprising a respective key, corresponding to a unique transmitter identifier, and a value associated with a signal strength from the respective transmitter received at the portable electronic device at one of the plurality of respective predetermined reference times; and

calculate each vector element based on a summation of a plurality of terms, each term calculated from a respective key-value pair by;

generate a seed based on (i) the key of the respective key-value pair, (ii) an element identifier associated with the vector element being calculated and (iii) a reference time identifier of the respective predetermined reference time associated with the respective key-value pair.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein at least one of the keys of the plurality of key-value pairs is associated with one or more synonymous unique identifiers of transmitters located in close proximity to each other, wherein when the key of the respective key-value pair is associated with one or more synonymous unique identifiers, the term in the summation calculated by further adding one or more sub-terms, each calculated from a respective synonymous unique identifier of the one or more synonymous unique identifiers associated with the key of the respective key-value pair by:

generating a synonym seed based on (i) the respective synonymous unique identifier (ii) the element identifier associated with the vector element being calculated and (iii) the reference time identifier of the respective predetermined reference time associated with the respective key-value pair;

generating a synonym pseudo-random number from the generated synonym seed; and

multiplying the synonym pseudo-random number by the value of the respective key-value pair.

17. The device of claim 14, wherein the received indication of the plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device comprises a composite signature generated at the portable electronic device.

18. The device of claim 14, wherein the received indication of the plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device comprises the plurality of key-value pairs each associated with the respective predetermined reference time.

19. The device of claim 14, wherein providing a prediction of future connectivity further comprises determining an entropy error probability of the histogram, and a weakened Fano inequality.

20. The device of claim 14, wherein the instructions further configure the device to cull older connectivity predictors from the corpus at periodic intervals.

21. The device of claim 14, further comprising disabling one or more resources of the portable electronic device in response to the future connectivity prediction.

22. The device of claim 14, wherein the resource is a global positioning receiver (GPS).

23. The device of claim 14, wherein the resource is a wireless interface.

24. The device of claim 14, further comprising requesting a radio frequency resource in response to the future connectivity prediction.

25. The device of claim 14, wherein transmitters are identified in the composite radio scene signature by a unique radio frequency (RF) transmitter address comprising a media access control (MAC) address or cellular transmitter identifier.

26. The device of claim 14, wherein providing a prediction of future connectivity further comprises generating a histogram of the associated connectivity information of the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions and normalizing the histogram.

27. A non-transitory computer readable memory containing instructions for predicting future connectivity of a portable electronic device, the instructions which when executed by a processor perform the method of:

accessing a query composite signature vector providing an indication of a plurality of radio scenes detected at the portable electronic device at a plurality of respective predetermined reference times, each radio scene identifying transmitters and associated signal strength of signals received by the portable electronic device at a respective predetermined reference time of the plurality of respective predetermined reference times;

retrieving one or more connectivity predictions from a corpus of pairs of;

a composite signature vector, providing an indication of a plurality of radio scenes detected at one or more different portable electronic device at the plurality of the respective predetermined reference times, and associated connectivity information, each of the one or more connectivity predictions retrieved based on a similarity between the composite signature vector and the query composite signature vector, wherein each of the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions comprises a composite signature vector and associated connectivity information from the corpus of pairs; and

providing a prediction of future connectivity of the portable electronic device based on the one or more retrieved connectivity predictions.