LOCATION-BASED PROFILE

• US 20120046040A1
• Filed: 08/18/2010
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chatterjee, Shuvo
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A location determination subsystem of a mobile device can determine a location of the mobile device. A monitoring subsystem of the mobile device can be configured, using a profile, to monitor states of a wireless connection between the mobile device and a communications network. When the monitoring subsystem detects an interruption of the wireless connection, a virtual geofence can be constructed around the location of the mobile device when the interruption occurred. The geofence can indicate a boundary of an enclosed geographic area. The geofence can be associated with a diagnostics profile stored on the mobile device or dynamically retrieved from a server upon occurrence of the interruption. When the mobile device enters the area enclosed by the geofence, the monitoring subsystem can be configured using the diagnostics profile in anticipation of interruptions of connections. Information relating to the interruptions can be anonymously sent to a server for analysis.

Claims

1. A method executed by a mobile device, comprising:

receiving a communication event;

determining a geofence based on a location of the mobile device when the communication event occurred;

selecting a profile for the mobile device, the profile including a parameter to configure an application program monitoring the communication event; and

configuring the application program using the selected profile upon detecting that the mobile device enters an area enclosed by the geofence.

2. The method of claim 1, where receiving the communication event includes receiving at least one of a telephony event or a data transfer event.

3. The method of claim 2, where:

receiving a telephony event includes receiving a call drop; and

receiving a data transfer event includes receiving at least one of a message service error or an activation failure.

4. The method of claim 1, where the geofence defines a closed geographic area.

5. The method of claim 1, where determining the geofence based on the location of the mobile device includes:

determining a current location of the mobile device, the current location corresponding to a location of the mobile device when the communication event occurred; and

selecting a geofence from a geofence data store based on the current location.

6. The method of claim 5, where:

determining the current location of the mobile device includes determining a current cell identifier in a cellular communication network; and

selecting the geofence includes selecting a geofence associated with the current cell identifier.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving one or more geofences from a server, the one or more geofences determined according to locations of a plurality of monitored communication events; and

storing the received geofences in the geofence data store.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring one or more occurrences of the communication event using the application program according to the selected profile, where monitoring the one or more occurrences of the communication event includes monitoring one or more of a cell snapshot of a cellular network, a call start, an on-call failure, a call end, radio frequency data, a location granularity, and a profile data store update frequency.

9. The method of claim 8, where the location granularity includes a global positioning system granularity, a wireless access point granularity, or a cell identifier granularity.

10. The method of claim 8, where the profile data store update frequency specifies a frequency that the mobile device seeks updating of the profile data store.

11. The method of claim 1, where selecting a profile for the mobile device includes requesting the profile from a server based on the location of the mobile device and the communication event.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating an event history of the geofence, the event history recording one or more occurrences of the communication event and one or more entries of the mobile device into the geofence;

calculating an event frequency based on the event history; and

configuring the application program using another profile when the event frequency satisfies a threshold.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring the application program using another profile when the mobile device exits the area enclosed by the geofence.

14. A method executed by a computer, comprising:

receiving event notifications from mobile devices, each of the event notifications including information describing a communication event occurred on a mobile device, the information including a location indicator indicating a location where the communication event occurred;

determining that a category of communication events occur at a frequency that satisfies a threshold, the category of communication events occurring within a statistically identified geofence;

creating an event-monitoring profile to configure an event-monitoring subsystem that executes on one of the mobile devices to monitor the category of communication events, the event-monitoring profile being associated with the identified geofence; and

providing the event-monitoring profile and the associating geofence to the mobile devices to configure the event-monitoring program.

15. The method of claim 14, where the geofence defines a closed geographic area.

16. A computer program product stored on a storage device, operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a communication event relating to wireless communication of a mobile device;

determining a geofence based on a location of the mobile device when the communication event occurred;

selecting a profile for the mobile device, the profile including a parameter to configure an application program monitoring the communication event; and

configuring the application program using the selected profile upon detecting that the mobile device enters an area enclosed by the geofence.

17. The product of claim 16, where receiving the communication event includes receiving at least one of a telephony event or a data transfer event.

18. The product of claim 17, where:

receiving a telephony event includes receiving a call drop; and

receiving a data transfer event includes receiving at least one of a message service error or an activation failure.

19. The product of claim 16, the operations further comprising associating the profile with the geofence.

20. The product of claim 16, the operations further comprising configuring the application program using another profile upon detecting that the mobile device exits the area enclosed by the geofence.

21. A system comprising:

one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving a communication event relating to wireless communication of a mobile device;

determining a geofence based on a location of the mobile device when the communication event occurred;

selecting a profile for the mobile device, the profile including a parameter to configure an subsystem monitoring the communication event; and

configuring the subsystem using the selected profile upon detecting that the mobile device enters an area enclosed by the geofence.

22. The system of claim 21, where configuring the subsystem using the selected profile includes configuring the subsystem to monitor one or more aspects of the communication event upon detecting that the mobile device enters the area enclosed by the geofence.

23. The system of claim 21, where the subsystem includes a monitoring application program.

24. The system of claim 21, where determining the geofence includes designating as the geofence a circle centered at the location and having a specified radius.