WLAN communication system and method with mobile base station

• US 20040203836A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 10/14/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sibecas, Salvador, Gorday, Paul E., Gorday, Robert M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,593,718 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/454
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/005 Moving wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A WLAN communication system (10) and method employs mobile WLAN base stations (16) that include WLAN transceivers (26) and memory (30) for storing received messages from one or more mobile WLAN devices (12a-12n). The mobile WLAN base stations (16) serve as moving message carriers or message repeaters of messages for the mobile WLAN devices. In one embodiment, a mobile WLAN base station (16) receives messages transmitted by several mobile WLAN devices (12a-12n), temporarily stores the received messages, and delivers the stored messages to a fixed WLAN base station or another mobile WLAN base station when the mobile WLAN base station (16) moves to within communication range of the applicable fixed or other mobile WLAN base station.

Claims

1. A mobile wireless device comprising:

a first transceiver that transmits and receives messages over a wireless local area network, the first transceiver being operatively coupled to receive a message transmitted by at least one sending device;

memory, operatively coupled to the first transceiver, that stores the message to produce a stored message;

a second transceiver, operatively coupled to the memory, that transmits and receives messages over a wireless wide area network; and

processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the memory and the second transceiver, the processing circuitry being operative to instruct the second transceiver to transmit the stored message to a wide area network.

2. The mobile wireless device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry further tracks available capacity of the memory and provides capacity level data to the sending device via the first transceiver.

3. The mobile wireless device of claim 1, further comprising a second memory operatively coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the second memory stores data representing at least one of:

service options and message delivery characteristics.

4. The mobile wireless device of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry further:

receives a store and forward request from the sending device to store and forward the message; and

provides a response to the sending device, wherein the response includes a device identifier associated with the mobile wireless device and data representing at least one of;

service options and message delivery characteristics.

5. The mobile wireless device of claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry further analyzes a message tag associated with the message to determine a usage charge for the sending mobile wireless device.

6. The mobile wireless device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry further:

determines whether at least one of a fixed WLAN base station and another mobile wireless device, with store and forward capability, is within communication range; and

if in range, forwards the stored message using the first transceiver.

7. The mobile wireless device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further operative to negotiate an expiry period for the stored message and to delete the stored message when the expiry period lapses.

8. A mobile wireless device comprising:

a transceiver that transmits and receives messages over a wireless local area network, the transceiver being operative to receive a message transmitted by a sending device;

memory operatively coupled to the transceiver, the memory storing the message to produce a stored message; and

processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the memory and the transceiver, that detects when the mobile wireless device is within communication range of at least one of;

a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network and has connectivity to a wide area network and a target mobile WLAN device with store and forward capability, when in range, instructs the transceiver to transmit the stored message to the target device.

9. The mobile wireless device of claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry further provides data to the target device indicating whether the stored message requires further re-transmission by another mobile wireless device.

10. The mobile wireless device of claim 8, wherein the processing circuitry is further operative to determine location data of a received message from another mobile WLAN device and associate the location data with the message for use by a network.

11. A WLAN device comprising:

processing circuitry operative to interrogate a mobile WLAN device to determine if the mobile WLAN device is a mobile WLAN base station that includes multi-wireless device message collection memory that stores collected message received from a plurality of WLAN devices and a capacity of the multi-wireless device message collection memory.

12. The WLAN of claim 11 wherein the processing circuitry receives user control data and determines, based on the user control data, if message is to be sent to a plurality of different mobile base stations to provide diversity reception by a receiving unit.

13. The WLAN of claim 11 wherein the processing circuitry is operative to associate location identification data for a mobile WLAN base station to assist in routing collected messages among at least one of a fixed WLAN base station and a mobile WLAN base station.

14. A fixed WLAN device comprising:

a wireless local area transceiver (WLAN) operatively coupled to receive a plurality of messages transmitted by a plurality of mobile WLAN devices;

multi-wireless device message collection memory operatively coupled to the WLAN transceiver, that stores collected messages received from the plurality of mobile WLAN devices;

processing circuitry, operatively coupled to the multi-wireless device message collection memory, and operative to forward the stored collected messages received from the plurality of mobile WLAN devices, to a mobile WLAN base station in response to the mobile WLAN base station coming within communication range of the fixed WLAN device.

15. A wireless communication system comprising:

a plurality of mobile WLAN devices;

at least one fixed WLAN collector base station operative to receive and store messages received from the plurality of mobile WLAN devices; and

at least one mobile WLAN base station operative to upload the stored messages from the fixed WLAN device in response to coming within communication range of the at least one fixed WLAN collector base station.

16. The system of claim 15 including a fixed WLAN/WAN base station having at least a WLAN transceiver and a WAN transceiver operatively coupled to a network, the a fixed WLAN/WAN base station operative to receive stored messages from the at least one mobile WLAN base station.

17. A method for a mobile wireless device to communicate messages in a wireless local area network, the method comprising:

receiving a message from a sending device;

storing the message to produce a stored message;

determining whether the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of a target device that is coupled to the wireless local area network; and

delivering the stored message to the target device subsequent to determining that the mobile wireless device has traveled within communication range of the target device.

18. The WLAN communication method of claim 17 including providing data indicating whether the delivered message requires further re-transmission by another mobile WLAN base station.

19. The WLAN communication method of claim 17 including interrogating a mobile WLAN device to determine if the mobile WLAN device is a mobile WLAN base station that includes multi-wireless device message collection memory that stores collected message received from a plurality of WLAN devices, and determines a capacity of the multi-wireless device message collection memory.

20. The WLAN communication method of claim 17 including receiving, by an originating WLAN device, user control data and determining, based on the user control data, if a message can be sent to a plurality of different mobile WLAN base stations to provide diversity reception by a receiving unit.

21. The WLAN communication method of claim 17 including transferring stored messages of a plurality of WLAN devices from a first mobile WLAN base station to a second mobile WLAN base station if at least one of the following conditions occurs:

the first mobile WLAN base station is stationary for a predetermined period of time;

the first mobile WLAN base station does not have sufficient memory capacity to store additional message; and

the first mobile WLAN base station stores message whose destination is located along a determined route of the second mobile WLAN base station.

22. The WLAN communication method of claim 17 including providing electronic payment data with stored message to allow at least one of a mobile WLAN base station, fixed WLAN base station and network element to assess payment for delivery of the stored message.

23. The WLAN communication method of claim 17 including providing to a sending mobile WLAN device, an expected time of delivery of a message.