POTENTIAL CALL DROP INDICATOR

• US 20090247137A1
• Filed: 03/31/2008
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Awad, Mina
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,375 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2227 Quality of service monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0245 according to signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/04 multi-step notification using statistical or historical mobility data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Mobile device user notifications of highly likely call drops or service losses are provided. A wireless network can determine from the location history of a mobile device if that mobile device is likely to lose connectivity to the wireless network or to a particular wireless service and issue an alert to the user. The form of the alert can be through one of various types of mobile device messages, or through an application on the mobile device. The mobile device'"'"'s location can be determined using the global positioning system. Alternative directions can be provided to the user so that the user can travel without losing connectivity. The user may provide a destination before beginning travel, and receive a suggested course of travel that keeps the user within a higher quality coverage area.

Claims

1. A method of providing an indication that mobile device will traverse an area having a predetermined characteristic, the method comprising:

predicting a course of the mobile device;

predicting if the course will traverse an area having the predetermined characteristic; and

if it is predicted that the course will traverse an area having the predetermined characteristic, providing, to the mobile device, an indication of the predetermined characteristic.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein predicting a course comprises:

accessing a history of global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of the mobile device;

obtaining current GPS coordinates of the device; and

predicting the course of the mobile device in accordance with the accessed and obtained GPS coordinates.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein predicting the course comprises:

maintaining a history of the mobile device'"'"'s location, determined based on network measurements, over a period of time;

obtaining a current location of the mobile device, determined based on network measurements, and

predicting the course based on the history and the current location.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if it is predicted that the course will traverse an area having a predetermined characteristic, determining at least one alternate course, the at least one alternate course predicted to traverse an area not having the predetermined characteristic; and

providing the at least one alternate course to the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one alternate course is provided to the mobile device as turn-by-turn driving directions.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one alternate course is provided to the mobile device in the form of at least one of a cardinal and an ordinal direction.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing to the mobile device a time estimate of an occurrence of the predetermined characteristic.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined characteristic is an unacceptable rate of dropped calls.

9. A system for providing an indication of a predicted loss of network connectivity for a mobile device, the system comprising:

means for predicting a course of the mobile device;

means for predicting if the course will traverse an area with an unacceptable rate of dropped calls; and

if it is determined that the course will traverse an area with an unacceptable rate of dropped calls;

means for providing, to the mobile device, an indication of a predicted loss of network connectivity.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein means for predicting if the course will traverse an area with an unacceptable rate of dropped calls further comprise:

means for collecting course network statistics on network coverage areas surrounding the course; and

means for determining if the rate of dropped calls in the network coverage areas surrounding the course indicate an unacceptable rate of dropped calls.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the course network statistics comprise a ratio of dropped calls to total calls.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein means for determining if the rate of dropped calls in the network coverage areas surrounding the course indicate an unacceptable rate of dropped calls further comprise means for determining if the course network statistics exceed a predetermined threshold.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

means for determining at least one alternate course, the at least one alternate course predicted to traverse an area without an unacceptable rate of dropped calls; and

means for providing the at least one alternate course to the mobile device.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein means for determining the at least one alternate course further comprises:

means for collecting potential course network statistics on network coverage areas surrounding a plurality of potential courses; and

means for determining if the potential course network statistics indicate an unacceptable rate of dropped calls for each of the plurality of potential courses; and

means for selecting the at least one potential course from among the plurality of potential courses that does not correspond to potential course network statistics that indicate an unacceptable rate of dropped calls.

15. The system if claim 13, wherein the means for providing the at least one alternate course to the mobile device comprises means for displaying on the mobile device an option to request at least one alternate course.

16. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

receiving a destination on a mobile device;

determining a current location of the mobile device;

collecting network statistics on network coverage areas between the current location and the destination;

determining the probability of a loss of network connectivity based on the network statistics for each of the network coverage areas;

selecting contiguous network coverage areas between the current location and the destination with acceptable rates of dropped calls; and

providing to the mobile device at least one course between the current location and the destination, the at least one course traversing the selected contiguous network coverage areas.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the computer-executable instructions are executed on a navigation system.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the at least one course between the current location and the destination is provided to the user as turn-by-turn directions.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions for performing the steps of:

collecting current location network statistics on a current location network coverage area;

determining a current probability of a dropped call based on the current location network statistics; and

providing to the mobile device the current probability of a dropped call.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising providing to the mobile device near real-time status on the probability of a dropped call by repeatedly performing the steps of claim 19 at predetermined increments of time.

21. A mobile communications device, comprising:

an antenna;

a transceiver coupled to said antenna for transmitting to, and receiving transmissions from, a wireless network;

a display for displaying notifications, the notifications indicating a probability of connectivity to the wireless network being lost; and

an input for receiving a user request for an alternate course.

22. The mobile communications device of claim 21, wherein the display further displays alternate course directions;

wherein following the alternate course directions are displayed upon selections of the input.

23. The mobile communications device of claim 21, further comprising global positioning system (GPS) components, the GPS components capable of determining a location of the mobile communications device.

24. The mobile communications device of claim 23, wherein the location of the mobile communications device is transmitted to the wireless network.

25. The mobile communications device of claim 21, wherein the notifications further comprise a request for a destination location.