Location determination in a wireless communication network

• US 7,996,021 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Brauel, Eric S., Ganthier, James J., Burke, Sean, Crosswy, William Caldwell
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah, Charles N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Daniel, Jr., Willie J
• Application Number:
  US10/186,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20040002343A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,329 Days
• Field of Search: 4554141-4143, 4554561-4563, 4554565-4566, 342/450, 342/457, 340/825.28
• US Class Current: 455/456.6
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A wireless network permits wireless devices to determine their own location and receive location-based services. The network includes a communication server coupled to a plurality of access points and at least one mobile wireless device that wirelessly communicates through the access points. Each wireless device includes a location table through which the wireless device can determine its physical location. The location table includes the physical location of the various access points indexed by their network addresses. When the wireless device communicates with an access point, the access point provides the wireless device its address. The wireless device uses the address of the access point as an index into the location table to determine its own location based on the location of the access point. Once the wireless device has determined its own physical location, it requests location-based services from or through the communication server.

Claims

1. A mobile wireless communication device which wirelessly communicates with one of a plurality of access points, each of said access points coupled to a communication server, comprising:

a CPU;

a transceiver coupled to said CPU;

a memory device coupled to said CPU;

a location table stored in said memory, said location table providing the physical location and addresses of the plurality of access points; and

said CPU determines the physical location of the mobile wireless communication device based on the physical location of the access point to which the mobile wireless communication device is currently communicating by receiving the address of the access point to which the mobile wireless communication device is currently communicating with and using the address as an index for the location table in order to retrieve the corresponding physical location of the access point from the location table; and

wherein said wireless communication device'"'"'s CPU requests services from the communication server based on the mobile wireless communication device'"'"'s physical location as determined by said CPU; and

wherein said communication server remains unaware of the location of the wireless communication device.

2. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein said location table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

3. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein during initialization of the mobile wireless communication device said location table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

4. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 wherein at predefined time intervals said location table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

5. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 further including a location services table stored in said memory and containing a service corresponding to each of a plurality of locations, said CPU uses said location services table to request services from the communication server.

6. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 5 wherein said location services table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

7. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 further including preferences stored in said memory by a user of said mobile wireless communication device and said CPU requests services from the communication server based on the mobile wireless communication device'"'"'s physical location as determined by said CPU and based on said preferences.

8. The mobile wireless communication device of claim 1 further including preferences stored in said memory of said mobile wireless communication device, and said CPU requests restricts access to various websites based on the mobile wireless communication device'"'"'s physical location as determined by said CPU and based on said preferences.

9. A wireless communication network, comprising:

a communication server;

a plurality of access points coupled to said communication server;

a wireless communication device that wirelessly couples to an access point;

a location table stored in said wireless communication device, said location table providing the physical location and address of the access points; and

wherein the wireless communication device determines its physical location by receiving the address of the access point and using the address as a pointer for the location table in order to determine the physical address of the access point to which the mobile wireless communication device is currently communicating; and

wherein said wireless communication device requests services from the communication server based on the mobile wireless communication device'"'"'s physical location as determined by said wireless communication device; and

wherein said communication server remains unaware of the location of the wireless communication device.

10. The wireless communication network of claim 9 wherein said location table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

11. The wireless communication network of claim 9 wherein during initialization said location table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

12. The wireless communication network of claim 9 wherein at predefined time intervals said location table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

13. The wireless communication network of claim 9 wherein said mobile wireless communication device receives the address of the access point to which the wireless communication device communicates and uses the address to look up the location in the location table corresponding to the address received from the access point.

14. The wireless communication network of claim 9 wherein said wireless communication device requests services from the communication server based on the mobile wireless communication device'"'"'s physical location as determined by said CPU.

15. The wireless communication network of claim 14 further including a location services table stored in said wireless communication device and containing a service corresponding to each of a plurality of locations, said wireless communication device uses said location services table to request services from the communication server.

16. The wireless communication network of claim 15 wherein said location services table is downloaded to the mobile wireless communication device by the communication server.

17. The wireless communication network of claim 14 further including preferences stored in said wireless communication device by a user of said mobile wireless communication device and said wireless communication device requests services from the communication server based on the mobile wireless communication device'"'"'s physical location and based on said preferences.

18. The wireless communication network of claim 9 wherein said wireless communication device comprises a CPU, a transceiver coupled to said CPU and a memory device coupled to said CPU, said location table stored in said memory device.

19. The mobile wireless network of claim 9 further including preferences stored in said wireless communication device, and said wireless communication device requests restricts access to various websites based on the wireless communication device'"'"'s physical location as determined by said wireless device and based on said preferences.

20. A method of determining the location of a wireless device that wirelessly communicates with a plurality of access points included as part of a wireless network, said access points couple to a communication server, comprising:

(a) the wireless device receiving an address from the access point to which the wireless device is currently communicating;

(b) the wireless device using the address as an index into a look up table prestored in the wireless device to find the physical location of the access point;

(c) the wireless device determining the physical location of the wireless device based on the physical location of the access point while a communication server associated with the wireless network remains unaware of the determined physical location; and

(d) the wireless device requesting services from the wireless network based on the determined physical location.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein (c) includes determining the physical location of the wireless device to be the physical location of the access point.

22. The method of claim 20 further including requesting services from the communication server based on the physical location of the wireless device and preferences associated with the user of the wireless device.