Patent ID: 7200112

Claim:
A method of selecting an air interface protocol for a mobile station to use, wherein the mobile station includes (a) logic to communicate according to an 802.xx wireless local area network air interface protocol (WLAN logic), (b) logic to communicate according to a wireless wide area network air interface protocol (WWAN logic), and (c) logic to select one of the WLAN logic and the WWAN logic to communicate on an air interface, the method comprising: the mobile station detecting RF energy in a WLAN 802.xx spectrum; in response to the energy detection step, identifying a 802.xx WLAN that can service the mobile station by performing a passive scanning operation in which the mobile station searches for a beacon frame broadcast by the 802.xx WLAN; and subsequent to identifying the 802.xx WLAN that can service the mobile station, the mobile station selecting the WLAN logic; wherein the WWAN has information identifying the areas in which WLANs operate and wherein the WWAN provisions the mobile station with at least a subset of such information, and wherein the mobile station uses such area-identifying information to determine whether to perform the RF energy detection operation.