ADVERTISING FRAMEWORK FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20120022948A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 01/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jones, David, Kuehnel, Thomas W., Wu, Deyun, Hassan, Amer A., Baron, Andrew T., Lu, Yi, Shen, Hui, Archer, John W., Subramani, Sundar P., Swamy, Winod K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,681,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information

Abstract

Discovery of services between devices is provided prior to establishing a connection between devices, including wireless-enabled devices or devices that are communicatively coupled to wireless access points or other wireless communication devices. Discovering services prior to establishing a connection may facilitate finding a desired service. The services that may be discovered may be, for example, print services, camera services, PDA services or any other suitable services. Services may be discovered using 802.11, Bluetooth, UWB or any other suitable wireless technology. A graphical user interface is provided that enables a user to select a desired service.

Claims

1. In a wireless access point associated with a commercial entity in proximity to the wireless access point offering at least one commercial service, a method comprising:

encoding in the wireless access point an advertisement for the at least one commercial service;

transmitting, from the wireless access point, at least one announcement transmission comprising the advertisement for the at least one commercial service; and

upon receiving a request from a client device that has formed a connection to the wireless access point, transmitting additional information the at least one commercial service to the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one announcement transmission is at least one control message transmitted by a wireless access point comprising network characteristics enabling a client device receiving the at least one announcement transmission to open a connection to the wireless access point.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one control message is at least one beacon transmission periodically transmitted by the wireless access point, and the advertisement data is transmitted in the at least one beacon transmission as one or more information elements of the at least one beacon transmission.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising an act of dividing the advertisement into a plurality of portions of the advertisement, and

wherein each announcement transmission of the at least one announcement transmission comprises a portion of the plurality of portions of the advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement data comprises at least one of text data, image data, audio data, and/or video data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding in the wireless access point the advertisement for the at least one commercial service comprises encoding in the wireless access point an advertisement for a dining service.

7. A client device operating in a network environment comprising a plurality of wireless access points, at least a portion of the wireless access points being within range of the client device, the client device comprising:

a wireless network interface adapted to receive at least one announcement transmission from each wireless access point in the portion;

a processor adapted to receive from the wireless network interface advertisement data from each announcement transmission of the at least one announcement transmission from each wireless access point in the portion, the advertising data describing a commercial service offered by a commercial entity associated with a wireless access point in the portion;

a user interface adapted to present the advertisement data to a user of the client device and to detect an indication from the user that the user desires more information on the commercial service described by the advertisement data,

wherein the network adapter is further adapted to establish a connection to at least one wireless access point in the portion in response to the indication from the user and to request information on the commercial service.

8. The client device of claim 7, wherein the at least one announcement transmission is at least one control message transmitted by a wireless access point comprising network characteristics enabling a client device receiving the at least one announcement transmission to open a connection to the wireless access point.

9. The client device of claim 7, wherein the at least one announcement transmission is at least one beacon periodically transmitted by each wireless access point in the portion.

10. The client device of claim 9, wherein the advertisement data is transmitted in the at least one beacon transmission as one or more information elements of the at least one beacon transmission.

11. The client device of claim 7, wherein each wireless access point in the portion is associated with a commercial entity, and wherein the advertisement data contained in the at least one announcement transmission describes an advertisement for at least one commercial service provided by the commercial entity.

12. The client device of claim 7, wherein the at least one announcement transmission received in the act of receiving is received from at least one wireless access point to which the client device is not connected.

13. The client device of claim 7, wherein the processor is adapted to receive from the wireless network interface advertisement data comprising an advertisement for a dining service.

14. A method of operating a client device in a network environment comprising a plurality of wireless access points, at least a portion of the wireless access points being within range of the client device, the method comprising:

receiving at least one control message from each wireless access point in the portion;

reading advertisement data from each control message of the at least one control message from each wireless access point in the portion, the advertising data describing at least one commercial service offered by a commercial entity associated with a wireless access point in the portion;

presenting via a user interface advertisements described by the advertisement data;

detecting an indication from a user that the user desires more information on at least one commercial service described by the advertisement data;

establishing a connection to at least one wireless access point in the portion; and

receiving from the at least one wireless access point to which a connection is established information regarding the at least one commercial service.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the at least one control message is at least one announcement transmission transmitted by a wireless access point comprising network characteristics enabling a client device receiving the at least one announcement transmission to open a connection to the wireless access point.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one announcement transmission is at least one beacon transmission periodically transmitted by the wireless access point.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the advertisement data is transmitted in the at least one beacon transmission as one or more information elements of the at least one beacon transmission.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one control message is received from a wireless access point to which the client device does not have an open connection.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein reading the advertisement data from a control message comprises reading an advertisement for a dining service from a control message.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising an act of joining together into a single object the advertisement data contained in a plurality of control messages prior to presenting an advertisement to a user via a user interface.