Abstract:
In some embodiments a network adapter comprises a first network access technology and a second network access technology and a controller comprising logic to locate an available network which utilizes the first network access technology and automatically connect to the available network using the first network access technology when a network identifier associated with the available network is stored in a memory module coupled to the network adapter. Other embodiments may be described.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    None. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    As wireless communication technology evolves, multiple different wireless communication technologies may coexist within a given device or platform. As different wireless communication technologies may have benefits and superior performance in a particular usage scenario, it may be advantageous to enable multiple wireless communication technologies to be used for a particular device. 
         [0003]    Electronic devices adapted to use multiple wireless communication technologies, (which may be referred to herein as “Wireless Multicomm” hosts) may include, or may be adapted to receive, a network adapter that combines more then one wireless technology. Each wireless technology may be referred to herein as a “comm.’ Further, different wireless communication technologies may share some hardware components, e.g., radio, antenna, and/or logic on the device. Sharing hardware components may limit the usage of the device in a way that at a given time only one of the wireless communication technologies can use the hardware to transmit or receive. Other platforms may include two or more separate comms (for example, but not limited to, networks conforming to the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineer&#39;s (IEEE)  802 . 16  (WiMAX) network and networks conforming to the IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) network), that do not share any HW components, but the ability of both comms to transmit and receive simultaneously might be limited due to mutual (RF) interference. 
         [0004]    Accordingly, systems and method to manage scanning and handover in wireless multicomm devices may find utility. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]    The detailed description is described with reference to the accompanying figures. 
           [0006]      FIG. 1  is a schematic illustration of an architecture for a network adapter which may implement autonomous scanning and handover, according to some embodiments. 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a handover environment, according to embodiments. 
           [0008]      FIG. 3  is a schematic illustration of an electronic device which may be adapted to implement autonomous scanning and handover, according to embodiments. 
           [0009]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating operations in a method to implement a handover from a WiMAX access network to a WiFI access network, according to some embodiments. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0010]    Described herein are exemplary methods and network nodes which provides for radio handover between heterogeneous networks, e.g., between a WiMAX access network and a WiFi access network. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the various embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been illustrated or described in detail so as not to obscure the particular embodiments. 
         [0011]    In the following description and/or claims, the terms coupled and/or connected, along with their derivatives, may be used. In particular embodiments, connected may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical and/or electrical contact with each other. Coupled may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical and/or electrical contact. However, coupled may also mean that two or more elements may not be in direct contact with each other, but yet may still cooperate and/or interact with each other. For example, “coupled” may mean that two or more elements do not contact each other but are indirectly joined together via another element or intermediate elements. Finally, the terms “on,” “overlying,” and “over” may be used in the following description and claims. “On,” “overlying,” and “over” may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical contact with each other. However, “over” may also mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other. For example, “over” may mean that one element is above another element but not contact each other and may have another element or elements in between the two elements. Furthermore, the term “and/or” may mean “and”, it may mean “or”, it may mean “exclusive-or”, it may mean “one”, it may mean “some, but not all”, it may mean “neither”, and/or it may mean “both”, although the scope of claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. In the following description and/or claims, the terms “comprise” and “include,” along with their derivatives, may be used and are intended as synonyms for each other. 
         [0012]      FIG. 1  is a schematic illustration of an architecture for a network adapter which may implement autonomous scanning and handover, according to some embodiments. Referring to  FIG. 1 , shown generally as  100 , is an example of a network adapter that provides both a WiFi network access comm.  140  and a WiMAX network access comm.  145  within an integrated network interface card (NIC)  110 . The WiFi comm  140  may be directly coupled to one or more antennas  170 . The WiMAX comm and the WiFi comm may be coupled to an antenna switch  160 , which may selectively couple the devices to one or more antennas  172 ,  174 . 
         [0013]    The NIC  110  may be coupled with a software stack  105  may be interfaced via a USB bus or PCI-E bus. Software stack  105  may include a WiFi connection utility application  115  in communication with WiFi driver  130  and WiMAX connection utility application  120  in communication with WiMAX driver  135  via an OS-network TCP/IP stack  125 . 
         [0014]    In some embodiments a multicomm controller (MCC)  150  is included in at lest one of the NIC  110  or the software stack  105 . The MCC  150  may comprise, or be coupled to a location base service database (LBS-DB)  152 . In some embodiments the LSB-DB  152  may be used to store a list of network identifiers for available networks discovered during a scanning process, as described in greater detail below. The LBS DB  152  may be implemented as computer readable memory module in, or coupled to, the MCC  150 . 
         [0015]    The multicomm entities, e.g., the WiFi network access comm  140  and the WiMAX network access comm, may be loosely or tightly coupled, with different levels of device autonomous. In some embodiments the multicomm device can be controlled using a centralized management technique in which a single connection utility (also known as Connection Manager) is aware of the multicomm device unique design. This utility is aware of the connectivity status of all comms, which may own shared resources, and it can make connectivity decisions based on that knowledge. Alternatively, the multicomm device may be controlled using a distribute management technique, in which each of the comms has its own Connection Utility (CU). All CUs may be aware of the multicomm device unique design. In this configuration, when one comm needs to gain the shared resources it might ask for the user permission to disassociate the other comm. Each CU may be aware of the connectivity status of the other comms. In some embodiments the connection utilities (CU) may not be aware of the multicomm device limitation. 
         [0016]      FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a handover environment, according to embodiments. Referring now to  FIG. 2 , wireless network  200  may comprise a WiMAX access network coverage area  212  disposed proximate to a WiFi access network coverage area  214 . WiMAX access network coverage area  212  may be serviced by one or more WiMAX Base Station(s) (WiMAX BS)  216 , and likewise WiFi access network coverage area  214  may be serviced by a WiFi access point  218 , although the scope of the claimed subject matter is not limited in this respect. 
         [0017]    In one or more embodiments, a user equipment/mobile station (UE/MS)  210  may be in a geographic position to be serviced by both a WiMAX access network coverage area  212  and WiFi access network coverage area  214 . If mobile station  210  moves from WiMAX coverage area  112  to WiFi access network coverage area  214 , or if mobile station  210  moves from WiFi access network coverage area  214  to WiMAX coverage area  212 , a handover operation  220  may occur between the WiMAX access network to the WiFi access network, or from the WiFi access network to the WiMAX access network, respectively. In one or more embodiments, handover operation  220  may implement a handover method between WiMAX and WiFi services where the mobile station  210  may have at least one radio active at any given time. 
         [0018]      FIG. 3  is a schematic illustration of an electronic device  300  which may be include a network adapter adapted to implement autonomous scanning and handover, according to embodiments. By way of example, and not limitation, electronic device  300  may be one embodiment of the UE/MS  210  depicted in  FIG. 2  and may utilize a network interface card  110  to provide access to at least one of the WiMAX network  212  or WiFi network  214  depicted in  FIG. 2 . In one embodiment, electronic device  300  may be implemented as a computer-based system that may be coupled to one or more networks. 
         [0019]    Referring to  FIG. 3 , system  300  includes system hardware  320  and memory  330 , which may be implemented as random access memory and/or read-only memory. System hardware  320  may include one or more processors  322 , input/output ports  324 , network interfaces  326 , and bus structures  328 . In one embodiment, processor  322  may be embodied as an Intel® Core2 Duo® processor available from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif., USA. As used herein, the term “processor” means any type of computational element, such as but not limited to, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instruction set (RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor, or any other type of processor or processing circuit. 
         [0020]    In one embodiment, network interface  326  may comprise the NIC and software stack  105  depicted in  FIG. 1 . Thus, the network interface  326  may provide a wired interface such as a wireless interface would be a general packet radio service (GPRS) interface, a WiMAX interface, a 3G interface, a WiFi interface, or the like. In other embodiments, the network interface may be an Ethernet interface (see, e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/IEEE 802.3-2002) or a wireless interface such as an IEEE 802.11a, b, g, or n-compliant interface (see, e.g., IEEE Standard for IT-Telecommunications and information exchange between systems LAN/MAN—Part II: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) specifications Amendment 4: Further Higher Data Rate Extension in the 2.4 GHz Band, 802.11G-2003). Bus structures  328  connect various components of system hardware  320 . In one embodiment, bus structures  328  may be one or more of several types of bus structure(s) including a memory bus, a peripheral bus or external bus, and/or a local bus using any variety of available bus architectures including, but not limited to, 11-bit bus, Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA), Micro-Channel Architecture (MSA), Extended ISA (EISA), Intelligent Drive Electronics (IDE), VESA Local Bus (VLB), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Universal Serial Bus (USB), Advanced Graphics Port (AGP), Personal Computer Memory Card International Association bus (PCMCIA), and Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI). 
         [0021]    Memory  330  may include an operating system  340  for managing operations of electronic device  300 . In one embodiment, operating system  340  includes a hardware interface module  354  that provides an interface to system hardware  320 . In addition, operating system  340  may include a file system  350  that manages files used in the operation of electronic device  300  and a process control subsystem  352  that manages processes executing on electronic device  300 . 
         [0022]    Operating system  340  may include (or manage) one or more communication interfaces  344  that may operate in conjunction with system hardware  320  to transceive data packets and/or data streams from a remote source. Operating system  340  may further include a system call interface module  342  that provides an interface between the operating system  340  and one or more application modules resident in memory  330 . Operating system  340  may be embodied as a UNIX operating system or any derivative thereof (e.g., Linux, Solaris, etc.) or as a Windows® brand operating system, or other operating systems. 
         [0023]    In various embodiments, the electronic device  300  may be coupled to a computing device  308 , e.g., a personal computer, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a mobile telephone, an entertainment device, or another computing device. Electronic device  300  may also be coupled to one or more accompanying input/output devices including a display  302  having a screen  304 , one or more speakers  306 , a keyboard  310 , one or more other I/O device(s)  312 , and a mouse  314 . The other I/O device(s)  312  may include a touch screen, a voice-activated input device, a track ball, and any other device that allows the computing device  308  to receive input from a user. 
         [0024]    A file store  380  may be communicatively coupled to one or more of the electronic device  300  or computing device  308 . File store  380  may be an internal device such as, e.g., one or more hard drives, CD-ROM drives, DVD-ROM drives, or other types of storage devices. File store  380  may also be external to computer  308  such as, e.g., one or more external hard drives, network attached storage, or a separate storage network. 
         [0025]    In some embodiments a network adapter such as the adapter depicted in  FIG. 1  may be used to implement autonomous scanning and handover between different network access technologies in an electronic device, such as the electronic device depicted in  FIG. 3 .  FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating operations in a method to implement a handover from a WiMAX access network to a WiFI access network, according to some embodiments.  FIG. 4  depicts the interaction between the WiMAX connection utility  120 , the WiMAX module  145 , the multicomm controller  150 , the WiFI module  140  and the WiFi connection utility  115 . In the embodiment depicted in  FIG. 4  it is presumed that the NIC  110  begins with a connection to the WiMAX access network  212 . 
         [0026]    At operation  405  the WiFi connection utility  115  (or another userspace application) sends a list of network identifiers to which the device may connect to the muilticomm controller  150 . By way of example, the WiFi connection utility  115  may maintain a list of service set identifiers (SSIDs) associated with one or more wireless networks that have an autoconnect profile registered with the WiFi connection utility. One skilled in the art will recognize that alternate network identifiers may be used. At operation  410  the multicomm controller  150  updates the location base service database  152  with the network identifiers provided by the WiFi connection utility  115 . 
         [0027]    At operation  415  the multicomm controller  150  passes an enable scanning message to the WiFi module  140 . At operation  420  the WiFi module initiates a scanning procedure to scan for available WiFi networks. In some embodiments the scanning operation may be performed only when the WiMAX radio is on and the WiFi radio is off. In alternate embodiments the scanning procedure may be implemented without regard to the state of the radio. 
         [0028]    At operation  425  the WiFi module  140  determines whether any networks were located in the scanning operation implemented at operation  420 . If, at operation  425 , no networks were located then control passes back to operation  420  and the scan is continued. In some embodiments the scan may be triggered periodically, as a function of a time parameter. By contrast, if at operation  425  the WiFi module  140  locates one or more new networks during the scan operation implemented at operation  420 , then the network identifiers associated with the located networks are forwarded to the multicomm controller  150 . 
         [0029]    At operation  430  the multicomm controller  150  receives the scan results from the WiFi module  140 . At operation  435  the multicomm controller  150  determines whether the network identifier(s) received with the scan results are in the location base service database  152 . By way of example, the multicomm controller  150  may compare the received network identifier(s) with those stored in the list of identifiers in the location base service database  152 . If, at operation  435  the received identifier(s) are not in the location base service database  152 , then control passes back to operation  430  and the multicomm controller  150  waits to receive scan results from another scan. 
         [0030]    By contrast, if at operation  435  the network identifier is in the location base service database  152  then control passes to operation  440  and the multicomm controller  150  instructs the WiMAX module  145  to switch off the RF transceiver for the WiMAX module. The WiMAX module  145  may pass this instruction to the WiMAX connection utility  120  (operation  445 ). Further, at operation  450  the multicomm controller  150  instructs the WiFi module  140  to switch on the RF transceiver for the WiFi module. The WiFi module  140  may pass this instruction to the WiFi connection utility  115  (operation  455 ). 
         [0031]    At operation  460  the WiFi connection utility  115  transmits a scan message to the WiFi module  140 , and at operation  465  the WiFi connection utility  115  transmits a connect massage to the WiFi module  140 , whereupon the WiFi module  140  establishes a connection with the WiFi network  214 . Thus, the operations of  FIG. 4  enable a UE/MS  210  to autonomously switch from a WiMAX access network to a WiFi access network. 
         [0032]    While particular terminology is used herein to describe various components and methods, one skilled in the art will recognize that such terminology is intended to be descriptive and not limiting. By way of example, the phrase “wireless device” is intended to refer to any type of device which can transmit or receive data on the network. It will be understood that these phrases are intended to apply to multiple different wireless networking standards and to networking standards and configurations not yet described or implemented. 
         [0033]    The terms “logic instructions” as referred to herein relates to expressions which may be understood by one or more machines for performing one or more logical operations. For example, logic instructions may comprise instructions which are interpretable by a processor compiler for executing one or more operations on one or more data objects. However, this is merely an example of machine-readable instructions and embodiments are not limited in this respect. 
         [0034]    The terms “computer readable medium” as referred to herein relates to media capable of maintaining expressions which are perceivable by one or more machines. For example, a computer readable medium may comprise one or more storage devices for storing computer readable instructions or data. Such storage devices may comprise storage media such as, for example, optical, magnetic or semiconductor storage media. However, this is merely an example of a computer readable medium and embodiments are not limited in this respect. 
         [0035]    The term “logic” as referred to herein relates to structure for performing one or more logical operations. For example, logic may comprise circuitry which provides one or more output signals based upon one or more input signals. Such circuitry may comprise a finite state machine which receives a digital input and provides a digital output, or circuitry which provides one or more analog output signals in response to one or more analog input signals. Such circuitry may be provided in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or field programmable gate array (FPGA). Also, logic may comprise machine-readable instructions stored in a memory in combination with processing circuitry to execute such machine-readable instructions. However, these are merely examples of structures which may provide logic and embodiments are not limited in this respect. 
         [0036]    Some of the methods described herein may be embodied as logic instructions on a computer-readable medium. When executed on a processor, the logic instructions cause a processor to be programmed as a special-purpose machine that implements the described methods. The processor, when configured by the logic instructions to execute the methods described herein, constitutes structure for performing the described methods. Alternatively, the methods described herein may be reduced to logic on, e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or the like. 
         [0037]    In the description and claims, the terms coupled and connected, along with their derivatives, may be used. In particular embodiments, connected may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other. Coupled may mean that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact. However, coupled may also mean that two or more elements may not be in direct contact with each other, but yet may still cooperate or interact with each other. 
         [0038]    Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least an implementation. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification may or may not be all referring to the same embodiment. 
         [0039]    Although embodiments have been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that claimed subject matter may not be limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as sample forms of implementing the claimed subject matter.