Patent ID: 8050243
Filing Date: 2011-11-01
Classification: H04W

Abstract:
1. A method of initiating a probe for a WLAN by a generic access network enabled electronic device, comprising: generating a current location metric for the electronic device, the current location metric being a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that have a relationship to a current position of the electronic device and are ordered in accordance with respective signal strength values that are ascertained at the current position; scoring the current location metric against a reference location metric for the WLAN, the reference location metric being a list of cellular communication base station identifiers that have a relationship to a former position of the electronic device where the electronic device was connected to the WLAN and the base station identifiers for the reference location metric are ordered in accordance with respective signal strength values that were ascertained at the former position, the scoring accomplished by generating a matching score having a value to quantify a correlation between the order of the base station identifiers in the current location metric and the order of the base station identifiers in the reference location metric; and if the electronic device is connected to the WLAN: else, if the current location metric has greater than a second predetermined threshold geographical correlation to the reference location metric, initiating the probe; and wherein if the electronic device is not connected to the WLAN, establishing a delay duration until a next current location metric for the electronic device is generated, the delay duration based on a geographical correspondence between the current location metric and the reference location metric as indicated by the matching score.