Wifi queueing and connection management

A method of managing connections between mobile devices and wireless network access devices comprising:

• providing a plurality of mobile devices, said mobile devices having a unique identifier, being capable of detecting a wireless network signal over a range of area, said mobile device also comprising an application loaded on the mobile device;
• providing at least one emitting station which transmits at least one emitting station wireless network signal over a range of area identified with a network identifier, said network signal functionality being limited to transmitting an encoded network identifier and said network signal not allowing mobile devices to connect to the emitting station wireless network signal;
• providing at least one entry station which is capable of allowing event attendees to manually enter their mobile device network identifier into the entry station and relaying the mobile device network identifier to a controlling station;
• providing a wireless network access device that has a capacity to establish connections with a limited number of concurrent connections between mobile devices and a network;
• providing a controlling station that is capable of instructing the emitting station to transmit an encoded network identifier, is capable of receiving relayed mobile device network identifiers from data entry stations, and is capable of maintaining a list of mobile devices that want to connect to the wireless network access device;
• the controlling station maintaining a queue list of the relayed mobile device unique identifiers that wish to establish a connection with the wireless network access device;
• the controlling station instructing the emitting station to transmit encoded emitting station network identifiers encoded with a number of mobile device unique identifiers, instructing the mobile devices to connect to the wireless network access device, the number of mobile device unique identifiers being less than the capacity of the wireless network access device;
• said mobile devices detecting the encoded emitting station network identifier, but not establishing a connection to the emitting station network signal, when the mobile devices are located in the range of the emitting stations;
• said application loaded on the mobile devices recognizing the emitting station wireless network signal, decoding the instructions encoded in the emitting station network identifier and executing the instruction to connect to the wireless network access device, execute a data exchange with the wireless access device, and disconnect from the wireless network access device once the data exchange is complete.

A method of managing connections between mobile devices and wireless network access devices comprising:

• providing a plurality of mobile devices at the event, said mobile devices each being assigned a unique identifier and family identifier, being capable of detecting a wireless network signal over a range of area, said mobile device also comprising an application loaded on the mobile device;
• said family identifier being assigned to a number of the plurality of mobile devices at the event which is smaller than the overall number of mobile devices at the event;
• providing at least one emitting station which transmits at least one emitting station wireless network signal over a range of area identified with a network identifier, said network signal functionality being limited to transmitting an encoded network identifier and said network signal not allowing mobile devices to connect to the emitting station wireless network signal;
• providing a wireless network access device that has a capacity to establish connections with a limited number of concurrent connections between mobile devices and a network;
• providing a controlling station that is capable of instructing the emitting station to transmit an encoded network identifier;
• the controlling station instructing the emitting station to transmit encoded emitting station network identifiers encoded with the family identifier, instructing the mobile devices assigned to the family identifier to connect to the wireless network access device;
• the mobile devices assigned to the family identifier detecting the encoded emitting station network identifier, but not establishing a connection to the emitting station network signal, when the mobile devices are located in the range of the emitting stations;
• said application loaded on the mobile devices assigned to the family identifier recognizing the emitting station wireless network signal, decoding the instructions encoded in the emitting station network identifier and executing the instruction to connect to the wireless network access device, execute a data exchange with the wireless access device, and disconnect from the wireless network access device once the data exchange is complete.

A method of managing connections between an individual mobile device and wireless network access devices comprising:

• providing a software application to be uploaded to individual mobile devices of event attendees prior to the event, said software application assigned an identifier and configured to execute specific instructions when the device detects a wireless network with a specifically configured network identifier;
• erecting a plurality of emitting stations at the event venue and transmitting wireless network identifiers;
• erecting a plurality of wireless network access devices at the event venue;
• configuring the wireless network signals so that attendee mobile devices can only detect network identifiers transmitted from the emitting stations and cannot establish a connection to the emitting stations;
• using a controlling station to create unique network identifiers to be transmitted by the emitting stations that instruct mobile devices with a connection identifier to connect to a wireless network access device;
• during the event, the emitters transmitting a first network identifier from the emitting stations configured with a first connection identifier for the software application installed on the mobile devices to detect and compare with the identifier assigned to the application;
• mobile devices only executing the instruction to connect to a wireless network access device if the first connection identifier matches the identifier assigned to the application;
• during the event, using the controlling station to change the first network identifier to a second network identifier from the emitting stations, where the second network identifier is configured with a second connection identifier and only mobile devices configured with a matching identifier assigned to the application execute the instruction to connect to a wireless network access device.