Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at separate stations – Short range rf communication
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-19
2004-09-21
Maung, Nay (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at separate stations
Short range rf communication
C455S041100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06795688
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications networks. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for configuring a personal area network (PAN) based on the degree of mobility of the elements of the network.
2. Background Art
Personal Area Networks (PANs) are proliferating rapidly and widely with the advancement of network technologies and the growth of network-utilizing, and even network-dependent applications. In general, a personal area network is a network comprised of devices (“member devices”) that are personal to a particular user, such as the user's personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop computer system, and cell phone. Other devices may be members of a PAN under certain circumstances, such as desktop computers, other computers and information processing and storage systems, document centers, other telephone and communication systems, and portals and other interface devices. Such other devices may or may not be specifically personal to that user on all occasions, but under the circumstances, they may be a part of that user's PAN.
The personal area network can also include services supporting the interaction, collaboration and cooperation among the member devices. The member devices are communicatively coupled in the personal area network using a wireless technology such as Bluetooth, infrared, wireless Local Area Network (wireless LAN), etc., or combinations of these technologies. However, a personal area network can also include other devices, as well as local area network (LAN) devices and wide area network (WAN) devices that communicate by way of WAN/LAN-to-PAN bridges or proxies.
Typically, some member devices in a particular personal area network may travel together with the user, as from the business office to the home and/or home office, through airports and other public places, and to points in between. Other member devices may “reside” at a particular location, such as the home or office, yet are possibly present in different rooms therein. Others still may be fixed at a specific location therein. Yet others may occasionally travel with the user, and occasionally “reside” at a particular location.
The various member devices constituting a PAN have their own characteristics. These characteristics are unique to each device. One such characteristic is degree of mobility. Given the portability and mobility of certain of the member devices, such as cell phones, laptop computers, and PDAs, they are more likely to be mobile than certain other of the member devices, such as desktop computers and document centers. However, it is appreciated that even the more stationary devices may move from time to time. For example, a desktop computer may be transferred to another office, or a document center may be wheeled to another room or a different floor. Certain member devices, such as fixedly mounted Bluetooth to LAN portals, are completely static. Such static devices seldom, if ever, move; they are used as static member devices.
Another such characteristic is location. Some of the member devices are more likely to be at certain locations and less likely to be at other locations than certain of the other member devices. Mobile member devices will most likely be present and used in a wider variety of locations than more stationary member devices. For example, the locations of cell phones, laptop computers, and PDAs may change almost constantly. Further, such mobile member devices may be used in any of these locations, and/or in-transit. Desktop computers, document centers, facsimile systems, and other such less mobile member devices, may be used only in a certain office, or on a certain floor in a certain building. However, they may, perhaps occasionally be moved from office to office, or to a different floor in the building, etc. Static member devices have fixed locations, which seldom, if ever change. Another such characteristic is degree of utilization of a member device while mobile. It is appreciated that other such characteristics may be described.
Further, the characteristics for certain of the devices may change. For certain of the member devices, change in characteristics, such as change in degree of mobility and change in location may be more or less frequent, and the member devices may be used differently as their degree of mobility changes. For example, a cell phone or a PDA may have a high degree of mobility, frequently taken for use while the user is actually traveling. However, when the user reaches a destination, such as an office, the cell phone and PDA degree of mobility changes; it is reduced, for at least as long as the user remains in the office. Perhaps in the office, the cell phone is turned off as a line telephone there is used, and the PDA is placed in a docking cradle and synchronism with the desktop computer. In another example, a laptop computer may be used equally in the office, in the home, and while mobile, and it may be mobile a significant portion of the time it is in use. However, when it is used in the office or at home, it has a different degree of mobility than when it is used while traveling. For the time it is in the office, a laptop computer may be used much like a desktop computer; normally a device less mobile than the laptop. Further, travel may be sporadic, with periods of time where the laptop does not often leave the office. Thus, it is apparent that one characteristic, such as degree of mobility, may be related to other characteristic, such as location.
Device characteristics are significant because certain configuration parameters, including operational protocols and operating enablements, and restrictions may be associated with them. One such associated configuration parameter is polling. Member devices in a personal area network poll to determine their location vis-à-vis the personal area network, and other devices with which they can communicate. Depending on their relative degrees of mobility, the frequency of such polling by member devices may be correspondingly more or less frequent. For example, member devices with high degrees of mobility, such as a particular cell phone or PDA, may poll quite frequently. Other member devices, perhaps a desktop computer and a document center, move much less frequently, and correspondingly have relatively low degrees of mobility. Hence, they poll commensurably less frequently than the high degree of mobility member devices do.
Another member device, a laptop computer for instance, may have as high a degree of mobility as the aforementioned PDA and cell phone. However, perhaps under certain circumstances, the laptop computer has not quite as high a degree of mobility, as when it is used in an office in the same way that a desktop computer is used. In the first situation, where the laptop computer has a high degree of mobility, it polls quite frequently, as do other devices with commensurate degrees of mobility. In the second circumstance, the laptop computer, used in the same way as a desktop computer, has a lower degree of mobility, commensurate with that of a desktop computer. In that circumstance, the laptop computer polls commensurably less frequently.
In the case of fixed position member devices, such as a Bluetooth to LAN portal fixedly mounted on a structural surface such as a ceiling, the member device is static; its corresponding degree of mobility is effectively zero. In as much as this device “knows where it is at all times,” its polling rate can be exceedingly infrequent; perhaps it does not poll at all.
Another such associated configuration parameter is security. Configuring security settings based on the propensity of a member device to move about, and/or to find itself in a location of unknown or greater risk is desirable to reduce threats to the security of data, and the integrity of the network. Such threats include unauthorized contact by “outside,” i.e., non-member communicative devices. Such unauthorized contact may compromise sensitive data stored within t
Badami Vinay S.
Plasson Ned D.
Rigstad Peter
Smith Ronald D.
Wood Jonathan
3Com Corporation
Maung Nay
Perez Angelica M.
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