Discovery of services by mobile communication devices using a service registry indexed by wireless beacons

• US 9,485,721 B1
• Filed: 02/11/2015
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Dani, Anurag S., Khogolo, Lucy, Luna, Melanie, Parab, Ameya Madhusudan, Pinninti, Ashish, Pulipaka, Mohana Saketh, Vijayan, Vivek, Wine, Alexander, Bertz, Lyle T., Teixeira, Joao Tex
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Barry
• Application Number:
  US14/619,667
• Time in Patent Office: 629 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method of wirelessly accessing services of a server computer by a mobile communication device. The method comprises receiving a short-range radio beacon signal associated with a server computer, sending a request for information about services provided by the server computer associated with the beacon to a service registry via a long-range wireless communication link. The method further comprises, in response to receiving information about the services provided by the server computer, connecting to the server computer, accessing a service provided by the server computer. The method further comprises receiving a second beacon signal, determining that the second beacon'"'"'s identity is not identified in the white list, and, in response to determining that the second beacon identity is not white listed, not attempting to access a second server computer associated with the second beacon.

Claims

1. A method of wirelessly accessing services of a server computer, comprising:

wirelessly receiving, by a mobile communication device, a universal beacon that is universally known to a set of devices to which the mobile communication device belongs, wherein beacons are short-range radio frequency signals that have a maximum effective range of less than 20 meters;

determining a universal beacon identity based on the universal beacon;

responsive to determining the universal beacon identity wirelessly sending a request from the mobile communication device to a spatial server for a locating beacon list comprising at least one locating beacon identity corresponding to at least one locating beacon proximate to the mobile communication device, wherein the request comprises the universal beacon identity;

wirelessly receiving, by the mobile communication device, the locating beacon list from the spatial server;

determining the one or more locating beacons identified by the locating beacon list which the mobile communication device is capable of receiving;

determining a signal strength of the one or more locating beacons identified by the locating beacon list which the mobile communication device is capable of receiving;

responsive to determining the signal strength, wirelessly sending a request comprising the signal strength from the mobile communication device to the spatial server for an approved beacon list comprising approved beacon identities of approved beacons determined to be proximate to the mobile communication device according to the signal strength;

wirelessly receiving, by the mobile communication device, the approved beacon list from the spatial server;

adding the approved beacon identities included in the approved beacon list to a white list comprising approved beacon identities and stored in the mobile communication device;

receiving, by the mobile communication device, an approved beacon having an approved beacon identity on the white list;

responsive to receiving the approved beacon identified on the white list, wirelessly sending, by the mobile communication device, a request comprising the approved beacon identity of the received approved beacon identified on the white list to a service registry, wherein the approved beacon identity is indexed into the service registry to determine services provided by the server computer that is associated with the received approved beacon identified on the white list;

based on indexing the approved beacon identity into the service registry, receiving wirelessly, by the mobile communication device from the service registry, information about the services provided by the server computer associated with the received approved beacon identified on the white list;

responsive to receiving the information from the service registry about the services provided by the server computer, installing at least one of a widget or an icon to a screen of the mobile communication device, wherein the at least one widget or icon corresponds to one or more of the services provided by the server computer;

establishing, by the mobile communication device, a communication link with the server computer based on a selection of the at least one widget or icon; and

requesting, by the mobile communication device from the server computer, a service corresponding to the at least one widget or icon.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the beacons are Bluetooth signals.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device communicates with the spatial server over a long-range radio frequency communication link provided by one of a code division multiple access (CDMA), a global system for mobile communication (GSM), a long-term evolution (LTE), or a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) telecommunications protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about services provided by the server computer associated with the approved beacon identified on the white list comprises information about how to establish the communication link with the server computer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the information about services provided by the server computer comprises an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the server computer and security tokens for connecting to the server computer.

6. A method of wirelessly accessing services of a server computer, comprising:

receiving a universal beacon by a mobile communication device, wherein the universal beacon provides an indication of a location of the mobile communication device;

transmitting a request, based on the universal beacon, to a spatial server for one or more locating beacon identities corresponding to one or more locating beacons that are proximate to the location of the mobile communication device;

receiving a locating beacon list comprising the one or more locating beacon identities from the spatial server;

determining a signal strength of the one or more locating beacons identified by the locating beacon list which the mobile communication device is capable of receiving;

transmitting a request, based on the signal strength, to the spatial server for identities of one or more approved beacons determined to be proximate to the mobile communication device according to the signal strength for which the mobile communication device is permitted to receive a beacon signal, wherein the identities of the one or more approved beacons are stored on a white list by the mobile communication device;

receiving the identities of the one or more approved beacons for which the mobile communication device is permitted to receive a beacon signal;

receiving a beacon signal by the mobile communication device, where the beacon signal is associated with a server computer;

determining by the mobile communication device that a beacon identity of the beacon signal is identified in the white list stored by the mobile communication device;

in response to determining that the beacon identity is white listed, sending a request for information about services provided by the server computer associated with the beacon signal by the mobile communication device to a service registry, wherein the request comprises the beacon identity, and wherein the beacon identity is indexed into the service registry to determine the services provided by the server computer associated with the beacon signal;

in response to receiving the information about the services provided by the server computer from the service registry based on indexing the beacon signal into the service registry, installing at least one of a widget or an icon to a screen of the mobile communication device, wherein the at least one of the widget or the icon corresponds to at least one service provided by the server computer;

connecting to the server computer in response to a selection of the at least one of the widget or the icon only when the beacon identity is white listed; and

accessing the at least one service provided by the server computer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the beacon signal has a maximum effective range of less than 50 feet.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the beacon signal is a Bluetooth signal.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein an application executing on the mobile communication device is blocked at the application layer from attempting to receive beacon signals that are not white listed.

10. A method of wirelessly accessing services of a server computer, comprising:

receiving a universal beacon by a mobile communication device, wherein beacons are short-range radio frequency signals that have a maximum effective range of less than 20 meters;

in response to receiving the universal beacon, sending, by the mobile communication device, a request based on the universal beacon to a spatial server for a list of locating beacons proximate to the mobile communication device;

receiving the list of locating beacons by the mobile communication device;

determining, by the mobile communication device, a received signal strength of one or more of the locating beacons identified in the received list of locating beacons;

sending, by the mobile communication device, a request to the spatial server for a list of service beacons determined to be proximate to the mobile communication device according to the signal strength of the one or more of the locating beacons, wherein the request comprises information on the received signal strength of the one or more locating beacons;

receiving the list of service beacons by the mobile communication device from the spatial server, wherein the list of service beacons comprises service beacons that the mobile communication device is permitted to communicate with;

requesting information about a service provided by a server computer associated with one of the service beacons identified in the received list of service beacons from a service registry by the mobile communication device, wherein requesting the information about the service provided comprises transmitting a beacon identity of the one of the service beacons identified in the received list of service beacons to the service registry, and wherein the beacon identity is indexed into the service registry to determine the service provided by the server computer associated with the one of the service beacons identified in the received list of service beacons;

in response to receiving the information from the service registry about the service provided by the server computer based on indexing the beacon identity into the service registry, installing at least one of a widget or an icon to a screen of the mobile communication device, wherein the at least one of the widget or the icon corresponds to the service provided by the server computer;

communicatively coupling to the server computer by the mobile communication device in response to a selection of the at least one of the widget or the icon; and

accessing the service provided by the server computer by the mobile communication device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the mobile communication device communicates with the spatial server and with the service registry via a cellular communication link.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the mobile communication device is one of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, or a tablet computer.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the service beacon is a radio frequency emitting device that is not communicatively coupled to the server computer with which it is associated.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the beacons are Bluetooth beacons.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the mobile communication device communicatively couples to the server computer via a WiFi access point.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the mobile communication device communicatively couples to the server computer via a cellular communication link.