Wireless network connectivity enhancements

• US 9,204,378 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2012
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Vallabhu, Venkata, Barathalwar, Raguraman
• Primary Examiner(s): Abelson, Ronald B
• Application Number:
  US13/992,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20140286190A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,383 Days
• Field of Search: 370/254, 370/328, 370/329
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0241 where no transmission is received, e.g. out of range of the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0274 by switching on or off the equipment or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/19 Connection re-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Devices and configurations to implement wireless network connectivity enhancements that improve wireless network connection time and operations are generally disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a reduced wireless network scan is performed to only scan wireless network channels associated with a preferred or previously profiled wireless network. If a preferred or profiled network is identified from the result of the reduced wireless network scan, then an automatic connection may be established immediately with the preferred or profiled wireless network. Performance of the reduced wireless network scan may be performed instead of a full wireless network scan, thereby saving the amount of time required to scan channels that do not have a preferred or profiled wireless network.

Claims

1. A computing device, comprising:

processing circuitry to maintain channel information for wireless channels used by one or more preferred wireless networks;

a wireless network adapter to perform a reduced wireless network scan, wherein the reduced wireless network scan uses the channel information to scan the wireless channels used by the preferred wireless networks and to refrain from scanning other wireless channels used by non-preferred wireless networks; and

wherein the reduced wireless network scan disregards channel information from a subset of the preferred wireless networks based on at least one of location, computing device usage, or network characteristics, to scan the wireless channels used by preferred wireless networks not in the subset and to refrain from scanning other wireless channels used by preferred wireless networks in the subset.

2. The computing device of claim 1, further comprising processing circuitry to:

identify an available preferred wireless network from a listing of the preferred wireless networks, using results of the reduced wireless network scan; and

establish a connection to the identified preferred wireless network.

3. The computing device of claim 2, wherein operations to establish the connection to the identified preferred wireless network include:

associating with the identified preferred wireless network;

authenticating with the identified preferred wireless network; and

receiving network connectivity information including an Internet Protocol (IP) address from the identified preferred wireless network.

4. The computing device of claim 1, further comprising processing circuitry to:

perform a scan of additional wireless channels, using the wireless network adapter, in response to none of the preferred wireless networks being identified from the reduced wireless network scan; and

identify available wireless networks from results of the reduced wireless network scan and results of the scan of additional wireless channels.

5. The computing device of claim 1, further comprising processing circuitry to:

determine the channel information for the wireless channels used by the preferred wireless networks from one or more wireless network scans; and

store the channel information for the wireless channels used by the preferred wireless networks in a data store.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to facilitate operations of the reduced wireless network scan through execution of one or more software modules provided by one or more of:

an operating system, a wireless network adapter management component, or a wireless network adapter driver.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the wireless network adapter is configured to provide communications with wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks operating according to a standard from the IEEE 802.11 standards family, and wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device configured for operation as:

a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, a netbook computer, or a tablet.

8. A computing device of comprising:

processing circuitry to maintain channel information for wireless channels used by one or more preferred wireless networks;

a wireless network adapter to perform a reduced wireless network scan, wherein the reduced wireless network scan uses the channel information to scan the wireless channels used by the preferred wireless networks and to refrain from scanning other wireless channels used by non-preferred wireless networks; and

a power management component, the power management component configured to provide a command to perform the reduced wireless network scan in response to the computing device or the wireless network adapter resuming from a standby or powered-off state.

9. A method performed in a computing device for identifying wireless networks, the method comprising:

accessing wireless channel information maintained for one or more preferred wireless networks;

identifying, from the wireless channel information, one or more wireless channels providing the preferred wireless networks;

performing a reduced wireless network scan to identify available wireless networks of the preferred wireless networks, by scanning the identified wireless channels providing the preferred wireless networks and refraining from scanning other wireless channels used by non- preferred wireless networks; and

disregarding wireless channel information from a subset of the preferred wireless networks based on at least one of location, wireless network usage, or network characteristics, in connection with determining the wireless channels, to result in scanning of wireless channels used by preferred wireless networks not in the subset and to refrain from scanning other wireless channels used by preferred wireless networks in the subset.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

identifying a most preferred wireless network from among multiple of the available wireless networks of the preferred wireless networks, using results of the reduced wireless network scan; and

establishing a connection to the identified most preferred wireless network.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

establishing a connection with an identified available wireless network provided on the wireless channels, including associating with the identified available wireless network, and authenticating with the identified available wireless network.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

performing a scan of additional wireless channels in response to none of the preferred wireless networks being identified from the reduced wireless network scan; and

identifying available wireless networks from results of the reduced wireless network scan and results of the scan of the additional wireless channels.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein performing a reduced wireless network scan to identify available wireless networks includes refraining from scanning wireless channels that are not providing the preferred wireless networks, and wherein the method is performed in response to determining a previously connected wireless network is not available for reconnection.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

establishing a profile for each of the preferred wireless networks, the profile providing the wireless channel information for a respective preferred wireless network; and

storing profiles and the wireless channel information for the preferred wireless networks in a data store.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

accessing location information for the preferred wireless networks;

wherein performance of the reduced wireless network scan on the wireless channels factors the location information and a location of the reduced wireless network scan to disregard or update wireless channel information from certain of the preferred wireless networks.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the wireless network is a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) network operating according to a standard from the IEEE 802.11 standards family, and wherein the computing device is a mobile computing device configured for operation as:

a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, a netbook computer, or a tablet.

17. A method performed in a computing device for identifying wireless networks, the method comprising:

accessing wireless channel information maintained for one or more preferred wireless networks;

identifying, from the wireless channel information, one or more wireless channels providing the preferred wireless networks; and

performing a reduced wireless network scan to identify available wireless networks of the preferred wireless networks, by scanning only the identified wireless channels providing the preferred wireless networks;

wherein the method is performed in response to the computing device resuming from a low-power or powered-off state.

18. At least one machine readable storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions that, in response to being executed on a computing device resuming from a low-power or powered-off state, cause the computing device to:

access wireless channel information maintained for one or more preferred wireless networks;

identify, from the wireless channel information, one or more wireless channels providing the preferred wireless networks; and

perform a reduced wireless network scan to identify available wireless networks of the preferred wireless networks, by scanning the identified wireless channels providing the preferred wireless networks and refraining from scanning wireless channels that are not providing the preferred wireless networks.

19. The machine readable storage medium of claim 18, the instructions further causing the computing device to:

identify multiple preferred wireless networks from the available wireless networks;

select a most preferred wireless network from among the identified multiple preferred wireless networks; and

establish a connection to the most preferred wireless network;

wherein the most preferred wireless network is selected based on one or more predefined criterion.

20. The machine readable storage medium of claim 18, the instructions further causing the computing device to:

establish a connection in the computing device with an identified wireless network located on the one or more channels, by associating with the identified wireless network, authenticating with the identified wireless network, receiving an Internet Protocol (IP) address from the identified wireless network, and identifying the connection for use in the computing device.

21. The machine readable storage medium of claim 18, the instructions further causing the computing device to:

perform a scan of additional wireless channels in response to none of the preferred wireless networks being detected from the reduced wireless network scan; and

identify available wireless networks detected from each of the reduced wireless network scan or the scan of the additional wireless channels.

22. The machine readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the instructions are executed in the computing device in connection with execution of one or more of an operating system, a wireless network adapter management component, or a wireless network adapter driver.