Using a bluetooth capable mobile phone to access a remote network

• US 8,036,600 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2010
• Issued: 10/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Karma Automotive LLC (Wanxiang Group Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Airbiquity Incorporated
• Inventors: Garrett, Darrin, Hong, Leon L.
• Primary Examiner(s): West, Lewis
• Application Number:
  US12/752,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20100273422A1
• Time in Patent Office: 558 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.2, 455/41.3, 455/39, 370/328
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/52 using AGC [Automatic Gain Control] circuits or amplifiers

Abstract

In one example, a Bluetooth enabled mobile device discovers the Bluetooth profile capability of a plurality of mobile phones and stores the profile information in a database. Thereafter, when access to a remote network such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network is necessitated by an event, the Bluetooth enabled mobile device can establish a Bluetooth connection with an available mobile phone according to a comparison of the event to the stored profile information for that mobile phone. The Bluetooth enabled mobile device can then establish a transport layer connection that extends over the established Bluetooth connection and a wireless telecommunications network associated with the available phone and exchange data with a remote network using the established transport layer connection.

Claims

1. A processor readable medium encoded with instructions that, if executed, result in:

pairing a navigation device with a mobile phone and discovering which Bluetooth profiles are supported by the mobile phone;

mapping an identifier for the mobile phone to the supported Bluetooth profiles in a memory of the navigation device;

filtering the Bluetooth profiles that are mapped in the memory according to a trigger event;

establishing a Bluetooth connection between the navigation device and the mobile phone utilizing one of the filtered Bluetooth profiles;

establishing a voice channel type transport layer connection over the established Bluetooth connection and a wireless telecommunications network associated with the mobile phone; and

modulating a received digital bitstream into an upload continuous audio signal that has different frequency tones for different bit values or demodulating a received download continuous audio signal that has the different frequency tones, wherein the frequency tones are selected to pass through a wireless voice channel of the wireless telecommunications network unobstructed by vocoders operating within the wireless telecommunications network, and wherein the upload or download continuous audio signal is to be communicated to or from a remote server over the established transport layer connection.

2. The processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the mapping is stored in an entry in the navigation device memory, and the instructions, if executed, result in:

whenever the navigation device is paired with a new mobile phone, discovering which Bluetooth profiles are supported by the new mobile phone; and

adding a new entry in the navigation device memory for the new mobile phone, the new entry mapping an identifier for the new mobile phone with the discovered Bluetooth profiles associated with the new mobile phone.

3. The processor readable medium of claim 2, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

establishing a Bluetooth connection with a currently available one of the mobile phones, the Bluetooth connection established by selecting from Bluetooth profiles associated with the currently available mobile phone in the navigation device memory;

establishing the Bluetooth connection according to the selected Bluetooth profile; and

uploading or downloading information to or from the remote server using the established Bluetooth connection.

4. The processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the established Bluetooth connection comprises one of a plurality of lower layer connections enabling the transport layer connection between the navigation device and the remote server.

5. The processor readable medium of claim 4, wherein another one of the lower layer connections include a lower layer connection extending from the mobile phone and through the wireless telecommunications network.

6. The processor readable medium of claim 1, wherein the navigation device memory stores a table mapping trigger event types to Bluetooth profiles, and the instructions, if executed, result in:

comparing the trigger event to the trigger event types in the table to identify a Bluetooth profile ranking; and

filtering the discovered Bluetooth profiles using the identified Bluetooth profile ranking.

7. The processor readable medium of claim 6, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

if an attempt to establish the Bluetooth connection using the highest ranked filtered Bluetooth profile fails, attempting to establish the Bluetooth connection using the next highest ranked filtered Bluetooth profile.

8. A method, comprising:

storing an identifier for a mobile phone in a memory of a Bluetooth capable device;

using the Bluetooth capable device, pairing with the mobile phone and discovering which Bluetooth profiles are supported by the mobile phone;

storing an indication for each of the supported Bluetooth profiles in the memory of the Bluetooth capable device, wherein the stored indications for the supported Bluetooth profiles are correlated to the stored identifier for the mobile phone in the memory of the Bluetooth capable device;

in response to a trigger event, identifying an available mobile phone and comparing an identifier for the available mobile phone to the memory of the Bluetooth capable device;

filtering Bluetooth profiles that are identified by the comparison according to the trigger event;

establishing a Bluetooth connection between the Bluetooth capable device and the mobile phone utilizing one of the filtered Bluetooth profiles;

establishing a transport layer connection that extends over the established Bluetooth connection and a wireless telecommunications network corresponding to the mobile phone; and

exchanging communications between the Bluetooth capable device and a remote network over the established transport layer connection.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining whether the mobile phone is capable of conducting a packet data service connection over the wireless telecommunications network;

if the packet data service connection is not enabled, modulating a received digital bitstream into an upload continuous audio signal that has different frequency tones for different bit values or demodulating a received download continuous audio signal that has the different frequency tones using an in-band signaling modem, wherein the frequency tones are selected to pass through a wireless voice channel of the wireless telecommunications network unobstructed by vocoders operating within the wireless telecommunications network, and wherein the upload or download continuous audio signal is to be communicated to or from a remote server over the established Bluetooth connection; and

if the packet data service connection is enabled, exchanging information with the remote server independently of the in-band signaling modem.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

comparing the trigger event to a table mapping trigger event types to Bluetooth profiles; and

filtering the Bluetooth profiles that are mapped in the memory according to a result of the comparison.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the filtering identifies a primary Bluetooth profile and a secondary Bluetooth profile.

12. A Bluetooth capable device encoded with instructions that, if executed, result in:

pairing with a mobile phone and discovering which Bluetooth profiles are supported by the mobile phone;

mapping an identifier for the mobile phone to the supported Bluetooth profiles in a memory of the Bluetooth capable device;

filtering the Bluetooth profiles that are mapped in the Bluetooth capable device memory according to a trigger event;

establishing a Bluetooth connection with the mobile phone utilizing one of the filtered Bluetooth profiles;

establishing a transport layer connection that extends over the Bluetooth connection and a wireless transport network corresponding to the mobile phone; and

receiving or transmitting communications from the Bluetooth capable device to a remote network over the established transport layer connection.

13. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 12, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

establishing the Bluetooth connection using a Bluetooth profile for voice data according to whether the mobile phone is capable of establishing a packet data type transport connection over the network.

14. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 12, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

whenever the Bluetooth capable device is paired with a new mobile phone, discovering which Bluetooth profiles are supported by the new mobile phone; and

adding a new entry in the Bluetooth capable device memory for the new mobile phone, the new entry mapping an identifier for the new mobile phone with the discovered Bluetooth profiles associated with the new mobile phone.

15. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 14, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

establishing a Bluetooth connection with a currently available one of the mobile phones, the Bluetooth connection established by selecting from Bluetooth profiles associated with the currently available mobile phone in the Bluetooth capable device memory;

establishing the Bluetooth connection according to the selected Bluetooth profile; and

uploading or downloading the information to or from a remote server using the established Bluetooth connection.

16. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 12, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

determining whether the mobile phone supports a packet data service connection over the network; and

filtering the Bluetooth profiles that are mapped in the Bluetooth capable device memory according to the determination.

17. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 12, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

comparing the trigger event to a table that maps trigger events to Bluetooth profiles;

identifying a subset of the Bluetooth profiles according to the comparison; and

filtering the Bluetooth profiles indicated in the Bluetooth capable device memory as being supported by the mobile phone using the identified subset.

18. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 17, wherein the instructions, if executed, result in:

identifying a ranked subset of the Bluetooth profiles according to the comparison; and

filtering the Bluetooth profiles indicated in the Bluetooth capable device memory as being supported by the mobile phone using the identified ranked subset.

19. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 12, wherein the trigger event corresponds to an input received over a user interface of the Bluetooth capable device.

20. The Bluetooth capable device of claim 12, wherein the trigger event is generated independently of any input received over a user interface of the Bluetooth capable device.