Patent ID: 8675535

Claim:
A method of reducing power consumption in a mobile communication device that includes a transceiver module and that is proximate to a wireless local area network (WLAN) having a multitude of wireless access points, the method comprising: passively receiving first and second WLAN beacon signals from each of a plurality of selected access points; determining, from the first beacon signals, a first received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value for each of the selected access points; determining, from the second beacon signals, a second RSSI value for each of the selected access points; calculating, for each of the selected access points, a variation between the first and second RSSI values for the selected access point; comparing each variation in RSSI values with a predetermined value to detect motion of the device; ascertaining whether the number of variations in RSSI values that exceeds the predetermined number is greater than a trigger number, wherein the trigger number indicates a minimum number of the selected access points from which motion of the device is detected; and selectively enabling the transceiver module in response to the ascertaining.