# US 8,787,228 B2 · Method apparatus and system for reducing power consumption of a wireless device

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- Number: US 8,787,228 B2
- Document ID: US8787228B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 12/710,600
- Filed: 2010-02-23
- Published: 2011-08-25
- Granted: 2014-07-22
- Earliest claimed: 2010-02-23
- Assignees: Intel Corporation
- Applicants: Shlomo Avital; Miri Ratner; Ofer Markovits; Giora Rayzman; Eran Sudak
- Inventors: Shlomo Avital; Miri Ratner; Ofer Markovits; Giora Rayzman; Eran Sudak
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8787228B2

## CPC

- H04W 48/16: Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
- H04W 36/165: {for reducing network power consumption (H04W36/18 - H04W36/22 take precedence)}
- H04W 52/0254: {detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device}
- H04W 84/12: WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
- Y02D 30/70: in wireless communication networks
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)
- Y02D: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE

## Abstract

A method, apparatus and a wireless communication system to reduce power consumption of a wireless Multicomm device by using a location-aware scanning for detecting WLAN networks. The location awareness is obtained from a base station identifier of a wireless wide area network (WWAN) and is based on a preconfigured database that associates WWAN BS IDs with potential WLAN networks.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of location-aware scanning by a wireless Multicomm device, the method comprising:
scanning a wireless wide area network (WWAN) to detect a WWAN base station (BS) having a detected BS identifier;
searching for the detected BS identifier in a preconfigured database that associates one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) base station (BS) identifiers (IDs) of one or more WWAN base stations with one or more Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) of one or more WLANs in a vicinity of the WWAN base stations;
if a WLAN Service Set Identifier (SSID) of at least one WLAN in a vicinity of the WWAN BS is found, based on said searching, scanning for the at least one WLAN; and
if no WLAN SSID of at least one WLAN in the vicinity of the WWAN BS is found, based on said searching, selecting not to perform WLAN scanning.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, comprising:
scanning for a particular WLAN, which is associated in the database with the detected BS identifier.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 comprising:
associating to a particular WLAN based on a match of the detected base station identifier to a stored base station identifier, and based on a stored local area identifier which is associated with the stored base station identifier.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 comprising:
storing in the database a plurality of base station identifiers of a plurality of WWAN base stations; and
storing in association with an identifier of a WWAN base station, one or more WLAN identifiers, of one or more local area networks, which are in a vicinity of the base station.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 comprising:
comparing a particular WLAN SSID to a stored WLAN SSID, and based on a matching between the particular WLAN SSID and the stored WLAN SSID associating with the particular WLAN and disassociating from the WWAN.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 comprising:
avoiding WLAN scanning if there is no WLAN SSID stored in the database in association with the detected WWAN base station identifier.

### Claim 7

A wireless communication device comprising:
a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) communication system;
a first baseband and medium access controller (MAC) to associate with a wide area wireless network (WWAN) base station;
a second baseband and MAC to associate with a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP);
a database to store one or more WWAN base station (BS) identifiers (IDs) of one or more WWAN base stations in association with one or more WLAN Service Set IDs (SSIDs) of one or more WLANs in a vicinity of the WWAN base stations; and
a controller to perform a location-aware scan by disabling periodic WLAN scanning, scanning the WWAN to receive a detected base station identifier of a detected BS, searching for the detected BS identifier in the database, and scanning for a particular WLAN which is associated in the database with the detected BS identifier, wherein the controller is to avoid WLAN scanning if there is no WLAN identifier stored in the database in association with the detected base station identifier.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The wireless communication device of claim 7, wherein the database comprises:
a location base service database (LBS DB) to store a plurality of base station identifiers and one or more WLAN identifiers associated with one or more of the plurality of base station identifiers.

### Claim 9

A wireless communication system comprising:
a host system comprising:
a location-based service data base (LBS DB) to store a plurality of base station identifiers in association with one or more wireless local area network (WLAN) identifiers, if any; and
a Multicomm unit comprising:
a first baseband and medium access controller (MAC) to associate with a wide area wireless network (WWAN) base station;
a second baseband and MAC to associate with a WLAN access point; and
a controller to disable periodic WLAN scanning, to scan the WWAN, to receive a detected base station identifier, to search for the detected BS identifier in the database, and to scan for a particular WLAN which is associated in the database with the detected BS identifier, wherein the controller is to avoid WLAN scanning if there is no WLAN identifier stored in the database in association with the detected base station identifier.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The wireless communication device of claim 9, wherein the controller is able to command the second baseband and MAC to scan for a particular WLAN, which is associated in the database with the detected BS identifier.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The wireless communication system of claim 9, wherein the host system comprises:
a central processing unit operably coupled to a location manager module to determine a location of the wireless communication system and based on the location, to search the LBS DB for a WLAN identifier in a near vicinity of the location.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The wireless communication system of claim 11, wherein the host system comprises:
a connection manager to manage an establishment of a network connection via the WLAN based on the location.

### Claim 13 (depends on 9)

The wireless communication system of claim 9 comprising a laptop computer.

### Claim 14 (depends on 9)

The wireless communication system of claim 9 comprising a netbook computer.