# US 10,455,430 B2 · Predicting wireless access point availability > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,455,430 B2 - Document ID: US10455430B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/081,002 - Filed: 2016-03-10 - Published: 2019-01-31 - Granted: 2019-10-22 - Earliest claimed: 2016-03-10 - Assignees: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP - Applicants: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP; Shuai Wang; Jun Qing Xie; Xiaofeng Yu - Inventors: Shuai Wang; Jun Qing Xie; Xiaofeng Yu - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10455430B2 ## CPC - H04W 16/18: Network planning tools - H04W 24/10: Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} - H04W 48/16: Discovering, processing access restriction or access information - H04W 48/20: Selecting an access point - H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72) ## Abstract Examples relate to predicting wireless access point availability. In one example, a computing device may: generate, for a wireless access point, a mapping for predicting availability of the wireless access point, the mapping specifying: one or more in-range cellular towers to which at least one client device has been connected while the at least one client device was also connected to the wireless access point; one or more border cellular towers to which at least one client device has been connected to i) subsequent to being connected to one of the one or more in-range cellular towers, and ii) while not connected to the wireless access point; and one or more out-of-range cellular towers to which at least one client device has been connected to i) subsequent to being connected to one of the one or more border cellular lowers, and ii) while not connected to the wireless access point. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a hardware processor of a computing device for predicting wireless access point availability, the machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause the hardware processor to: generate, for a wireless access point, a mapping for predicting availability of the wireless access point, the mapping specifying: one or more in-range cellular towers to which at least one client device has been connected while the at least one client device was also connected to the wireless access point; one or more border cellular towers to which at least one client device has been connected to i) subsequent to being connected to one of the one or more in-range cellular towers, and ii) while not connected to the wireless access point; and one or more out-of-range cellular towers to which at least one client device has been connected to i) subsequent to being connected to one of the one or more border cellular towers, and ii) while not connected to the wireless access point. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the mapping further specifies: for each in-range cellular tower: at least one received signal strength indicator (RSSI) that was measured by a first client device while the first client device was also connected to the wireless access point; and for each border cellular tower: at least one RSSI that was measured by a second client device while the second client device was also not connected to the wireless access point. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the hardware processor to add to the mapping each in-range cellular tower, border cellular tower, and out-of-range cellular tower by: causing a wireless access point communications radio of the computing device to attempt to establish communications with the wireless access point; obtaining an identifier for a cellular tower to which the computing device is connected; and in response to determining that the cellular tower is not specified by the mapping: specifying, in the mapping, the cellular tower as one of an in-range, border, or out-of-range cellular tower based on results of the attempt to establish communications with the wireless access point. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein, in response to determining that the cellular tower is not specified by the mapping, the instructions further cause the hardware processor to: obtain an RSSI for the cellular tower and associate, in the mapping, the RSSI with the cellular tower; and store, in the mapping, an indicator for the obtained RSSI, the indicator specifying i) successful connection to the wireless access point, or ii) unsuccessful connection to the wireless access point. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the hardware processor to: obtain an identifier for a cellular tower to which the computing device is connected; and determine that the cellular tower is specified, by the mapping, as a border cellular tower and, in response: cause the computing device to enable a previously disabled wireless access point communications radio; cause the wireless access point communications radio to attempt to establish communications with the wireless access point; and specify, in the mapping, that the border cellular tower is an in-range tower in response to a successful attempt to connect to the wireless access point. ### Claim 6 A computing device for predicting wireless access point availability, the computing device comprising: a hardware processor; and a data storage device storing instructions that, when executed by the hardware processor, cause the hardware processor to: obtain a first received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for a first cellular tower to which the computing device is connected; determine a tower type for the first cellular tower, the tower type including one of: an in-range tower indicating that at least one client device connected to a wireless access point while connected to the in-range tower; a border tower indicating that i) at least one client device connected to the border tower subsequent to being connected to an in-range tower, and ii) no client device was previously connected to the border tower while also connected to the wireless access point; or an out-of-range tower indicating that i) at least one client device connected to the out-of-range tower subsequent to being connected to a border tower or another out-of-range tower, and ii) no client device was previously connected to the out-of-range tower while also connected to the wireless access point; determine an RSSI type for the first RSSI, the RSSI type including one of: a likely RSSI indicating that at least one client device previously connected to the wireless access point while connected to the first cellular tower with the likely RSSI; an unlikely RSSI indicating that at least one client device was previously unable to connect to the wireless access point while connected to the first cellular tower with the unlikely RSSI; or a new RSSI that has not been previously recorded by a client device while connected to the first cellular tower; and predict, based on at least one of the tower type or RSSI type, whether the computing device is likely to be able to connect to the wireless access point. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The computing device of claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to: in response to predicting that the computing device is likely to be able to connect to the wireless access point: cause the computing device to activate a previously deactivated wireless access point communications radio; and cause the wireless access point communications radio to attempt to establish communications with the wireless access point; or in response to predicting that the computing device is not likely to be able to connect to the wireless access point, leave a previously deactivated wireless access point communications radio deactivated. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The computing device of claim 6, wherein the computing device uses a mapping to: determine the tower type for the first cellular tower; and determine an RSSI type for the first RSSI. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The computing device of claim 8, wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to: determine, based on the tower type, to cause the computing device to attempt to establish communications with the wireless access point; and in response to determining that the first RSSI is a new RSSI: associate, in the mapping, the new RSSI with the first cellular tower; and specify, in the mapping and for the new RSSI, whether the attempt to establish communications with the wireless access point was successful. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The computing device of claim 8, wherein the instructions further cause the hardware processor to: in response to determining that the first cellular tower is a border cellular tower, cause the computing device to attempt to establish communications with the wireless access point; and in response to a successful connection to the wireless access point: specify, in the mapping, that the border cellular tower is an in-range tower. ### Claim 11 A method for predicting access point availability, implemented by a hardware processor, the method comprising: obtaining, for a wireless access point, a mapping for predicting availability of a wireless access point to a client device; obtaining, by the client device, a first received signal strength indicator (RSSI) from a first cellular tower; determining, by the client device and based on the mapping, the first RSSI, and the first cellular tower, to: turn on a wireless radio; and attempt to connect to the wireless access point; and updating, by the client device, the mapping in response to a successful attempt to connect to the wireless access point by specifying the first RSSI as a likely RSSI for the first cellular tower. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, further comprising: identifying, based on the mapping, the first cellular tower as an in-range tower, the identification indicating that the client device previously successfully connected to the wireless access point while connected to the first cellular tower. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The method of claim 11, further comprising: identifying, based on the mapping, the first cellular tower as a border tower, the identification indicating that i) the client device was connected to the border tower subsequent to being connected to an in-range tower, and ii) the client device was not previously connected to the border tower while also connected to the wireless access point. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The method of claim 13, wherein: the attempt to connect to the wireless access point is successful, and updating the mapping comprises: specifying the first cellular tower as an in-range cellular tower; and specifying the first RSSI as a likely RSSI for the first cellular tower.