Patent ID: 8903444

Claim:
A method for communicating network information, the method comprising: transmitting a request message from a mobile device to an access point; receiving, at the mobile device, a reply message transmitted from the access point in response to receiving the request message, the reply message including data representative of a transmitted signal power level at the access point of the reply message; and determining, based, at least in part, on the received reply message including the data representative of the transmitted signal power level at the access point, a received signal power level at the mobile device of the reply message, a round trip time derived from measured timing signals corresponding to a first time instance when the request message was transmitted from the mobile device and a second time instance when the reply message including the data representative of the transmitted signal power level at the access point was received at the mobile device, and at least one of a path loss associated with the reply message and a distance between the mobile device and the access point, the at least one of the path loss and the distance computed based on the received signal power determined from the reply message and the data representative of the access point transmitted signal power level included in the reply message.