Method and apparatus for facilitating handover utilizing a predefined attribute protocol

• US 9,294,903 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2013
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Palin, Arto Tapio, Reunamaki, Jukka Pekka
• Primary Examiner(s): PHUONG, DAI
• Application Number:
  US13/856,584
• Publication Number:
  US 20140302849A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,083 Days
• Field of Search: 455/411, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/556.1, 455/557, 455/92, 455/95
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to permit device discovery to be conducted utilizing a first radio technology, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technology, and to then handover to a second radio technology, e.g., a second radio technology having a greater bandwidth than the first radio technology. In the context of a method, device discovery is conducted utilizing a first radio technology. The method also causes communication of handover information in accordance with a predefined attribute protocol of the first radio technology. The method also performs handover to a second radio technology, such as Bluetooth technology or a wireless local area network technology, in accordance with the handover information communicated utilizing the first radio technology.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

conducting, at an apparatus utilizing at least one of a processor or a communication interface, device discovery utilizing a first radio technology to discover at least one wireless device;

causing communication, by the apparatus utilizing at least one of the processor or the communication interface, of handover information over the first radio technology in accordance with a generic attribute protocol of a Bluetooth communication protocol with the at least one discovered wireless device, wherein the generic attribute protocol of the Bluetooth communication protocol comprises one or more attributes for facilitating handover to the second radio technology including a handover request characteristic that is set to a predefined value to indicate a request to handover to the second radio technology and an address to be utilized in conjunction with the second radio technology; and

performing handover to a second radio technology for communicating with the at least one discovered wireless device over the second radio technology in accordance with the handover information communicated over the first radio technology in accordance with the generic attribute protocol of the Bluetooth communication protocol that specifies the handover.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the one or more attributes includes an attribute indicating a capability to handover to the second radio technology.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein the generic attribute profile (GATT) is built on top of an attribute protocol (ATT) with the handover information including an address of a communication device that provides GATT services.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the first radio technology is Bluetooth Low Energy technology and the second radio technology is at least one of Bluetooth technology or wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein performing handover to the second radio technology comprises at least one of causing page signals to be transmitted based upon the handover information that was communicated or receiving page signals based upon the handover information that was communicated.

6. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to at least;

conduct device discovery utilizing a first radio technology to discover at least one wireless device;

causing communication of handover information over the first radio technology in accordance with a generic attribute protocol of a Bluetooth communication protocol with the at least one discovered wireless device, wherein the generic attribute protocol of the Bluetooth communication protocol comprises one or more attributes for facilitating handover to the second radio technology including a handover request characteristic that is set to a predefined value to indicate a request to handover to the second radio technology and an address to be utilized in conjunction with the second radio technology; and

performing handover to a second radio technology for communicating with the at least one discovered wireless device over the second radio technology in accordance with the handover information communicated over the first radio technology in accordance with the generic attribute protocol of the Bluetooth communication protocol that specifies the handover.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the one or more attributes includes an attribute indicating a capability to handover to the second radio technology.

8. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the generic attribute profile (GATT) is built on top of an attribute protocol (ATT) with the handover information including an address of a communication device that provides GATT services.

9. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the first radio technology is Bluetooth Low Energy technology and the second radio technology is at least one of Bluetooth technology or wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.

10. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to perform handover to the second radio technology by at least one of causing page signals to be transmitted based upon the handover information that was communicated or receiving page signals based upon the handover information that was communicated.

11. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code portions stored therein, the computer-executable program code portions comprising program code instructions for:

conducting device discovery utilizing a first radio technology to discover at least one wireless device;

causing communication of handover information over the first radio technology in accordance with a generic attribute protocol of a Bluetooth communication protocol with the at least one discovered wireless device, wherein the generic attribute protocol of the Bluetooth communication protocol comprises one or more attributes for facilitating handover to the second radio technology including a handover request characteristic that is set to a predefined value to indicate a request to handover to the second radio technology and an address to be utilized in conjunction with the second radio technology; and

performing handover to a second radio technology for communicating with the at least one discovered wireless device over the second radio technology in accordance with the handover information communicated over the first radio technology in accordance with the generic attribute protocol of the Bluetooth communication protocol that specifies the handover.

12. A computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the one or more attributes includes an attribute indicating a capability to handover to the second radio technology.

13. A computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the generic attribute profile (GATT) is built on top of an attribute protocol (ATT) with the handover information including an address of a communication device that provides GATT services.

14. A computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the first radio technology is Bluetooth Low Energy technology and the second radio technology is at least one of Bluetooth technology or wireless local area network (WLAN) technology.

15. A computer program product according to claim 11 wherein the program code instructions for performing handover to the second radio technology comprise program code instructions for at least one of causing page signals to be transmitted based upon the handover information that was communicated or receiving page signals based upon the handover information that was communicated.