Radio frequency identification (RF-ID) based discovery for short range radio communication

• US 6,892,052 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2002
• Issued: 05/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Kotola, Sakari, Hussmann, Holger
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): West, Lewis
• Application Number:
  US10/105,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20050079817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,141 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2, 455/41.3, 455/550.1, 455/41.1, 455/66.1, 340/10.1, 340/10.5, 340/10.42, 705/16, 705/17, 705/18
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/32 using wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3278 RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4097 using mutual authentication between devices and transaction partners
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/20 Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

A RF-ID based wireless terminal has shortened session set-up and user identification time for conducting transactions with interactive service applications. The wireless terminal includes a terminal identification number and a user identification as a RF-ID tag. A RF-ID reader transmits a RF field for detecting the RF-ID tag in the terminal and provides an output signal when the terminal is within the reader field. The output signal establishes a connectionless communication to an access point or other terminal which initiates a wireless paging operation, in lieu of conducting a terminal discovery process, based upon the content of the RF-ID tag. The terminal initiates a wireless session between the terminal and the access point or terminal for conducting transactions with a service application linked to the access point or terminal.

Claims

1. A wireless terminal with shortened session set-up and identification time, comprising:

a. a processing unit coupled with a short range transceiver for controlling communication via a first short range radio link having a first link range; and

b. an RF-ID tag operating within a second short range radio link for receiving an interrogation signal and instantly transmitting terminal identification information via the second short range radio link having a second link range for immediate connection purposes, wherein the transmitted terminal identification information includes clock information and a unique identification number of the wireless terminal and is used for instantly establishing a wireless short range communication connection having a shortened session set-up time with a remote transceiver communicating on the first short range radio link by skipping a device discovery process during said wireless short range communication connection establishment.

2. The wireless terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

c. a network transceiver having a third link range coupled with the processing unit for interacting with a mobile communication network.

3. The wireless terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

c. an input/output apparatus for displaying information transmitted/received to/from the remote transceiver via the first short-range radio link.

4. The wireless terminal of claim 1, wherein the short-range transceiver conforms the principles of the Bluetooth technology without an inquiry process and the first short-range radio link is a Bluetooth link.

5. The wireless terminal of claim 4, wherein the terminal identification information comprises a Bluetooth serial number of the wireless terminal.

6. A wireless terminal with shortened session set-up and identification time, comprising:

a. a processing unit coupled with a short range transceiver for controlling communication via a first short range radio link having a first link range;

b. an RF-ID tag operating within a second short range radio link for receiving an interrogation signal and instantly transmitting terminal identification information via the second short range radio link having a second link range for immediate connection purposes, wherein (1) the transmitted terminal identification information is used for instantly establishing a wireless short range communication connection having a shortened session set-up time with a remote transceiver communicating on the first short range radio link by skipping a device discovery process during said wireless short range communication connection establishment, and wherein the RF-ID tag comprises;

a. an ID transponder for transmitting the terminal identification information and clock information via the second short range radio link; and

b. a connection to a tag memory coupled with the ID transponder for storing and providing the terminal identification information and the clock information to the ID transponder.

7. The wireless terminal of claim 6, wherein the ID transponder further comprises:

a. an interrogation module for receiving energy from the interrogation signal; and

b. a responder module for generating and transmitting the terminal identification information and the clock information via the second short range radio link.

8. The wireless terminal of claim 7, wherein the ID transponder is a radio frequency ID transponder and conforms the principles of the RF-ID technology.

9. The wireless terminal of claim 6, wherein the RF-ID tag is a passive tag.

10. The wireless terminal of claim 6, wherein the RF-ID tag further comprises a data bus between the RF-ID tag and the processing unit for periodically updating terminal identification and clock information.

11. A wireless terminal with shortened session set-up and identification time, comprising:

a. a processing unit coupled with a short range transceiver for controlling communication via a first short range radio link having a first link range; and

b. an RF-ID tag operating within a second short range radio link for receiving an interrogation signal and instantly transmitting terminal identification information via the second short range radio link having a second link range for immediate connection purposes, wherein (1) the transmitted terminal identification information is used for instantly establishing a wireless short range communication connection having a shortened session set-up time with a remote transceiver communicating on the first short range radio link by skipping a device discovery process during said wireless short range communication connection establishment, and (2) the RF-ID tag is a semi-passive tag for writing into and reading from.

12. The wireless of claim 11 wherein the semi-passive RF-ID tag activates a second transceiver module in the wireless terminal in response to receiving the interrogation signal.

13. The wireless terminal of claim 11, wherein the terminal identification information includes a Bluetooth serial number of the wireless device, and Bluetooth Clock Offset information of the wireless terminal.

14. The wireless terminal of claim 11, wherein the wireless connection enables the wireless terminal to conduct transactions with a service application linked with the remote transceiver communicating on the first short-range radio link.

15. The wireless terminal of claim 11, wherein the wireless terminal is a handheld mobile terminal.

16. The wireless terminal of claim 15, wherein the handheld mobile terminal is a mobile phone.

17. A wireless terminal with shortened session set-up and identification time, comprising:

a. a processing unit coupled with a short range transceiver for controlling communication via a first short range radio link having a first link range;

b. an RF-ID tag operating within a second short range radio link for receiving an interrogation signal and instantly transmitting terminal identification information via the second short range radio link having a second link range for immediate connection purposes, wherein the transmitted terminal identification information is used for instantly establishing a wireless short range communication connection having a shortened session set-up time with a remote transceiver communicating on the first short range radio link by skipping a device discovery process during said wireless short range communication connection establishment; and

a RF-ID reader coupled with the processing unit for communicating with remote RF-ID tags and updating tag information.

18. The wireless terminal of claim 17, wherein the RF-ID reader communicates with the remote RF-ID tags by transmitting an interrogation signal via the second short range radio link and receiving a response signal including remote terminal identification information.

19. The wireless terminal of claim 18, wherein the received remote terminal identification information is used for establishing a wireless connection having a shortened session set-up time by the short range transceiver communicating via the first short range radio link with a remote transceiver linked with the remote terminal identification information communicating on said first short range radio link.

20. The wireless terminal of claim 19, wherein the short-range transceiver conforms the principles of the Bluetooth technology and the first short-range radio link is a Bluetooth link.

21. The wireless terminal of claim 17 wherein the R F-ID reader conforms the principles of the RF-ID technology.

22. A system for shortening session set-up and identification time in wireless short range communication, comprising:

a. a first terminal equipped with a first short range transceiver operating on a first short range radio link having a first link range, and an RF-ID tag operating on a second short range radio link having a second link range, and adapted to transmit at least terminal identification information of the first terminal;

b. a RF-ID reader for transmitting an interrogation signal via the second short range radio link for rapidly detecting the RF-ID tag in the first terminal and receiving the at least terminal identification information transmitted by the RF-ID tag of the first terminal in response to said interrogation signal, and

c. a second terminal coupled with the RF-ID reader equipped with a second short range radio transceiver module operating on the first short range radio link for establishing a wireless short range connection with the first terminal in a shortened session set-up time using the at least terminal identification information transmitted by the RF-ID tag of the first terminal by skipping a device discovery process during said wireless short range communication connection establishment, wherein the terminal identification and clock information of the first terminal further includes a unique identification number of the first terminal.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the first and the second transceiver modules conform the principles of the Bluetooth technology and the first short range radio link is a Bluetooth link.

24. A system for shortening session set-up and identification time in wireless short range communication, comprising:

a. a first terminal equipped with a first short range transceiver operating on a first short range radio link having a first link range, and an RF-ID tag operating on a second short range radio link having a second link range, and adapted to transmit at least terminal identification information of the first terminal;

b. a RF-ID reader for transmitting an interrogation signal via the second short range radio link for rapidly detecting the RF-ID tag in the first terminal and receiving the at least terminal identification information transmitted by the RF-ID tag of the first terminal in response to said interrogation signal; and

c. a second terminal coupled with the RF-ID reader equipped with a second short range radio transceiver module operating on the first short range radio link for establishing a wireless short range connection with the first terminal in a shortened session set-up time using the at least terminal identification information transmitted by the RF-ID tag of the first terminal by skipping a device discovery process during said wireless short range communication connection establishment, wherein (1) the terminal identification and clock information of the first terminal further includes a unique identification number of the first terminal, and (2) the terminal identification and clock information of the first terminal further comprises a Bluetooth serial number of the first terminal.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the RF-ID tag comprises:

a. an ID transponder for transmitting the terminal identification and clock information via the second short range radio link; and

b. a connection to a tag memory coupled with the ID transponder for storing the terminal identification and clock information and for providing said terminal identification and clock information to the ID transponder.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the ID transponder is a radio frequency ID transponder and conforms the principles of the RF-ID technology.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the ID transponder further comprises:

a. an interrogation module for receiving energy from the interrogation signal; and

b. a responder module for generating and transmitting the terminal identification information and clock information via the second short range radio link.

28. The system of claim 24 wherein the RF-ID tag is a passive tag.

29. A wireless terminal with shortened session set-up and identification time, comprising:

a. a processing unit coupled with a short range transceiver for controlling communication via a first short range radio link having a first link range;

b. an RF-ID tag operating within a second short range radio link for receiving an interrogation signal and instantly transmitting terminal identification information via the second short range radio link having a second link range for immediate connection purposes, wherein the transmitted terminal identification information is used for instantly establishing a wireless short range communication connection having a shortened session set-up time with a remote transceiver communicating on the first short range radio link by skipping a device discovery process during said wireless short range communication connection establishment; and

c. a data bus between the RF-ID tag and the processing unit for periodically updating terminal identification and clock information.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the RF-ID tag is a semi-passive tag.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the semi-passive RF-ID tag activates the second transceiver module in the first terminal in response to receiving the interrogation signal.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein the terminal identification information includes a Bluetooth serial number of the wireless device, and Bluetooth Clock Offset information of the wireless terminal.

33. The system of claim 29, wherein the first terminal is a handheld mobile terminal.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the handheld mobile terminal is a mobile phone.

35. The system of claim 29, wherein the second terminal is a handheld mobile terminal.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the handheld mobile terminal is a mobile phone.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein the second terminal is a stationary access point connected to a communication network enabling the first terminal to conduct transactions with service applications within the communication network via the access point through the established short range wireless connection in a shortened session set-up time.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the communication network is Internet.

39. A method for shortening session set-up and identification time in wireless short range communication, comprising the steps of:

a. incorporating within an RF-ID tag operating on a first short range radio link having a first link range physically proximate to a first terminal at least a portion of a terminal identification information of the first terminal;

b. maintaining the at least portion of the terminal identification information of the first terminal within the RF-ID tag;

c. moving the first terminal and the RF-ID tag physically proximate to said first terminal into a coverage area of an RF-ID reader operating on the first short range radio link;

d. transmitting instantly the at least portion of the terminal identification information of the first terminal by the RF-ID tag via the first short range radio link in response to an interrogation signal transmitted by the RF-ID reader;

e. forwarding the received at least portion of the terminal identification information of the first terminal to a second terminal connected to the RF-ID reader; and

f. establishing a wireless short range connection having shortened session set-up time without conducting a device discovery process between the first terminal and the second terminal through a second short range radio link having a second link range using the at least portion of the terminal identification information of the first terminal, wherein step (b) further comprises periodically updating the at least portion of the terminal identification information of the first terminal.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the second short-range radio link is a Bluetooth link conforming the principles of Bluetooth technology.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the first radio link conforms the principles of the RF-ID technology.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein the RF-ID tag is a passive tag.

43. The method of claim 39, wherein the RF-ID tag is a semi-passive tag.

44. The method of claim 39, wherein the terminal identification information of the first terminal includes a Bluetooth serial number of the first terminal and Bluetooth Clock Offset information of the first terminal.

45. The method of claim 39, wherein the first terminal is a handheld mobile terminal.

46. The method of claim 39, wherein the handheld mobile terminal is a mobile phone.

47. The method of claim 39, wherein the second terminal is a handheld mobile terminal.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein the handheld mobile terminal is a mobile phone.

49. The method of claim 39, wherein the second terminal is a stationary access point connected to an infrastructure network enabling the first terminal to conduct transactions with service applications within the communication network via the access point through the established wireless short range connection in a the shortened session set-up time.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the infrastructure network is the Internet.

51. The method of claim 39, wherein the RF-ID tag is incorporated in the first terminal.

52. The method of claim 39, wherein the RF-ID reader is incorporated in the second terminal.

53. A method for providing interactive services with shortened session set-up and identification time in short range radio communication, comprising

a. transmitting at least identification information of a mobile communications terminal via an RF-ID radio link in response to an interrogation signal sent by an RF-ID reader;

b. forwarding by the RF-ID reader, the at least identification information of the terminal to an access point; and

c. receiving by the mobile communications terminal a service notification message from the access point via a short range radio link, wherein the short range radio link is a Bluetooth radio link and the at least identification information of the mobile communications terminal comprises a unique Bluetooth serial number of the terminal and a Bluetooth clock offset information of the terminal.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein step (f) further comprises:

a. transmitting by the second terminal a paging message via the second short range radio link to the first terminal including the at least portion of the identification information of the first terminal;

b. transmitting a page response message to the second terminal by the first terminal; and

c. establishing the wireless connection for communication purposes between the first terminal and the second terminal.

55. The method of claim 53, wherein the at least portion of the terminal identification information of the first terminal includes a unique identification number of the first terminal.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein the at least portion of the terminal identification information of the first terminal comprises a Bluetooth serial number of the first terminal.

57. A medium, executable in a computer system for 80 for providing interactive services with shortened session set-up and identification time in short range radio communication, the medium comprising

a. program code for transmitting at least identification information of a mobile communications terminal via an RF-ID radio link in response to an interrogation signal sent by an RF-ID reader;

b. program code for forwarding by the RF-ID reader, the at least identification information of the terminal to an access point; and

c. program code for receiving by the mobile communications terminal a service notification message from the access point via a short range radio link, wherein the short range radio link is a Bluetooth radio link and the at least identification information of the mobile communications terminal comprises a unique Bluetooth serial number of the terminal and a Bluetooth clock offset information of the terminal.

58. A method for providing interactive services with shortened session set-up and identification time in Bluetooth communication, comprising:

a. installing at least a Bluetooth serial number and credit card information in a Bluetooth terminal;

b. transferring at least the Bluetooth serial number and credit card information to a RF-ID/Bluetooth access point using RF-ID technology;

c. establishing a Bluetooth session by;

(i) conducting Bluetooth paging by the access point using at least the Bluetooth serial number to open a Bluetooth connection;

(ii) responding to the paging by the terminal to establish the Bluetooth session;

d. transmitting a PIN number request to the terminal by the access point wherein the request contains information about a transaction with a service application;

e. transmitting the PIN number to the access point; and

f. transferring the PIN number to the service application for completion of a transaction.

59. The method of claim 58, further comprising

g. providing a user with information and operating equipment by the service application in response to the PIN number enabling the user to achieve the services available from the service application.