Patent ID: 8103441

Claim:
A system for a portable computing device providing navigation functionality, said system comprising: a memory area for storing routing data including a start point and an end point for a route, said routing data further including the route, said memory area further storing one or more map tiles associated with the route, each of said map tiles providing an image of at least a portion of the route; and a processor programmed to: access the start point and the end point stored in the memory area; receive, from a wireless network, the routing data based on the accessed start point and end point; identify one or more access points to the wireless network along the route based on the received routing data; determine expected signal strength for accessing the wireless network along the route based at least on the identified access points; compare the determined expected signal strength to a defined threshold to identify one or more portions of the route having the expected signal strength less than the defined threshold; and request the map tiles corresponding to at least one of the identified portions of the route prior to the portable computing device entering said at least one of the identified portions of the route.