Patent ID: 8831660

Claim:
A method for dynamic wireless network discovery comprising: connecting a mobile device through an available wireless network to a remote connection test server; updating wireless network configuration information stored in a configuration database local to the mobile device with information obtained from the connection to the connection test server; transmitting the updated local wireless network configuration information to a centralized server database that aggregates wireless network configuration information received from a plurality of mobile devices; generating modified wireless network configuration information at the centralized server for one or more wireless networks based on the aggregated wireless network configuration information; transmitting the modified wireless network configuration information from the centralized server to one or more mobile devices; updating the wireless network configuration information stored locally in the one or more mobile devices using the modified wireless network configuration information received from the centralized server; wherein for each wireless network the step of generating modified wireless network configuration information at the centralized server further comprises: limiting the updated local wireless network configuration information received from each mobile device for each wireless network to a desired geographic region; determining whether wireless network configuration information has been previously stored at the centralized server for the wireless network and, if previously stored, updating the wireless network information with the local wireless network configuration information received from each mobile device; applying one or more business rules to the wireless network configuration information for the wireless network in order to characterize the wireless network and generate the modified wireless network configuration information; and if the characterized wireless network meets predetermined configuration requirements, storing the generated modified wireless network configuration information for the wireless network at the centralized server for distribution to the one or more mobile devices.