Patent ID: 8897778
Filing Date: 2014-11-25
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: displaying, at a display screen, a floor map of a building in which a first wireless network comprising a plurality of wireless access points is deployed; receiving, via a user interface associated with the display screen, indications of the locations of the plurality of access points with respect to the floor map to enable display of graphical elements representing locations of the access points on the floor map; receiving, via the user interface, indications of user selected locations for a plurality of handover regions with respect to the floor map where service is to be handed-out from the first wireless network to a second wireless network, wherein the indications enable display of graphical elements representing locations of the handover regions on the floor map; generating data to draw logical hand-in threshold boundaries around each access point such that the hand-in threshold boundaries for one or more of the access points extend to the nearest edge of the building or an adjacent handover region as depicted on the floor map; computing hand-in Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) values at each of the hand-in threshold boundaries for a signal transmitted by the corresponding access point, wherein the hand-in RSSI values for an access point comprise hand-in threshold data for the access point that are computed based on estimated radio propagation characteristics in the building and the location, Radio-Frequency (RF) band, transmit power, and antenna properties of the access point; generating data to draw first and second logical hand-out threshold boundaries around each access point such that the first hand-out threshold boundary for one or more of the access points extends to the nearest edge of an adjacent handover region and such that the second hand-out threshold boundary for the one or more access points extends to the furthest edge of the adjacent handover region; computing hand-out RSSI values at each of the first and second hand-out threshold boundaries for a signal transmitted by the corresponding access point, wherein the first and second hand-out RSSI values for an access point comprise first and second hand-out threshold data for the access point that are computed based on estimated radio propagation characteristics in the building and the location, RF band, transmit power, and antenna properties of the access point; receiving a registration request from a multi-mode wireless communication device; and in response to receiving the registration request, sending the hand-in threshold data and the first and second hand-out threshold data computed for each access point to the multi-mode wireless communication device to assist the multi-mode wireless communication device in determining when to hand-in to the first wireless network and when to hand-out from the first wireless network to the second wireless network is to occur when the multi-mode wireless communication device is located in a first handover region.