System and method for enabling a viewable PAN ID over a wireless personal area network

• US 9,237,511 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2012
• Issued: 01/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc. DBA GE Appliances (Haier Group Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Drake, Jeff Donald, Brian, Joseph Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Steven H
• Assistant Examiner(s): RIVAS, RAUL
• Application Number:
  US13/551,223
• Publication Number:
  US 20140022935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information

Abstract

A system for enabling a viewable personal area network (PAN) identification (ID) over an wireless network. The system includes a coordinator configured to assign a PAN ID to an available PAN, a device configured to transmit and/or receive data using 802.15.4 protocol or equivalent, and at least one processor. The at least one processor is programmed to receive a request from the device to scan for an available wireless network, receive the assigned PAN ID based on the request, determine whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID, and provide the PAN ID based on the determination.

Claims

1. A system for enabling a viewable personal area network (PAN) identification (ID) over an 802.15.4 network, the system comprising:

a coordinator component configured to initiate the formation of and assign a PAN ID to a PAN;

a device configured to transmit or receive data using a wireless protocol and comprising at least one processor programmed to;

request the PAN;

receive the assigned PAN ID based on the request;

determine whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID or a non-viewable PAN ID by performing a checksum on one or more characters in a character string of the PAN ID;

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID, present the PAN ID to the user; and

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a non-viewable PAN ID, redefine the non-viewable PAN ID to be a viewable PAN ID and present the redefined PAN ID to the user,

wherein a viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a human-readable format, the human readable format comprising one of an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format and a Universal Character Set Transformation Format (UTF), and

wherein a non-viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a machine-readable format, the machine-readable format comprising a hexadecimal format.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a display configured to present the viewable PAN ID to a user.

3. An apparatus configured to enable a viewable personal area network (PAN) identification (ID) over a wireless network, the apparatus comprising

at least one processor and memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to:

receive a request to assign a PAN ID to the wireless network;

determine whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID or a non-viewable PAN ID by performing a checksum on one or more characters in a character string of the PAN ID;

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID, assign the viewable PAN ID to the wireless network;

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a non-viewable PAN ID, redefine the non-viewable PAN ID to be a viewable PAN ID and assign the redefined PAN ID to the wireless network; and

provide the assigned PAN ID,

wherein a viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a human readable format, the human readable format comprising one of an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format and a Universal Character Set Transformation Format (UTF), and

wherein a non-viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a machine-readable format, the machine-readable format comprising a hexadecimal format.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein redefining the non-viewable PAN ID comprises applying a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to the non-viewable PAN ID, wherein the CRC enables the PAN ID to be identified as viewable.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, further comprising receiving text to be assigned as the viewable PAN ID, wherein the CRC is calculated from the received text.

6. A method for enabling a viewable personal area network (PAN) identification (ID) over a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a device to scan for an available wireless network;

receiving a PAN ID based on the request;

determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID or a non-viewable PAN ID by performing a checksum on one or more characters in a character string of the PAN ID; and

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID, presenting the PAN ID

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a non-viewable PAN ID, redefining the non-viewable PAN ID to be a viewable PAN ID and presenting the redefined PAN ID to the user,

wherein a viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a human-readable format, the human readable format comprising one of an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format and a Universal Character Set Transformation Format (UTF), and

wherein a non-viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a machine-readable format, the machine-readable format comprising a hexadecimal format.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein presenting the PAN ID comprises presenting the viewable PAN ID with eight characters or less.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID comprises determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID based on an outcome of the checksum.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID comprises appending the computed checksum on one or more characters at an end of the character string in the PAN ID.