Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W8/00—Network data management
  • H04W8/005—Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W76/00—Connection management
  • H04W76/40—Connection management for selective distribution or broadcast
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W8/00—Network data management
  • H04W8/18—Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W8/00—Network data management
  • H04W8/18—Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
  • H04W8/20—Transfer of user or subscriber data

Definitions

• the invention relates to detecting terminals.
• the invention relates to detecting terminals by using wireless short-range communication.
• positioning technology is used in many fields of industry. During the past few years, positioning technologies have more and more commonly been applied especially to wireless terminals, such as cellular phones and portable computers, as terminals have become more common and advanced. As positioning technologies further advance, increased offering of services and security applications enabled by them will grow significantly.
• Positioning technologies such as GPS technology, can be used for example for determining the position of a wireless terminal with a certain precision.
• the most common ways of determining terminal's location are satellite positioning systems, wireless cellular network base station coverage area triangulation and location determination by using base stations' known proximity data.
• Communication and data transfer between terminals is commonly implemented by using wireless data transfer technologies.
• Bluetooth is a relatively recent data transfer technology based on short-range radio, whose target platforms include for example terminals and portable computers.
• Other technologies for wireless data transfer are among others HomeRF and WLAN 802.11.
• State of the art technologies based on positioning and wireless short-range communication have enabled service models wherein geographical, i.e. absolute, positioning information is utilized for enabling services, or as part of actual service content.
• State of the art service models based on absolute positioning information are co-operation of an individual user and a service provider, with no participation from other users.
• relative proximity of terminals refers to terminals being located in essential proximity of each other so that their distance is at most a few times the range of a wireless short-range connection.
• services requiring relative proximity of involved terminals are called proximity services.
• Producing proximity services based on absolute positioning information is very complicated, because detecting a second terminal in essential proximity of a first terminal in practice generally requires determining the positions of all terminals within a given area. This is a computationally complex and therefore slow operation, if the system, such as a mobile communication system, has many users.
• An object of the invention is thus to provide a method and a system so that the drawbacks of the above mentioned problems can be decreased and thus services according to the proximity service model that incur only small expenses to users can be enabled.
• Objectives of the invention are obtained preferably with a method and a system characterized by what is stated in the independent claims.
• Preferred embodiments of the invention are subject of the dependent claims.
• the invention is based on the fact that the system according to the invention comprises at least two wireless terminals, which are arranged to establish a wireless short-range connection to each other, and a server, with which at least one of the terminals is adapted to form a connection.
• the server includes proximity service functionality used to handle and transmit proximity data to service provider units.
• a terminal is part of the proximity service system when the terminal is equipped with proximity service functionality pertaining to terminal and is thus assigned a unique proximity service identifier, ID.
• At least one terminal which is part of the proximity service system, detects another terminal by using a wireless short-range connection. If also the detected terminal has the unique proximity service ID, one of the terminals sends its own ID to the other terminal by using wireless short-range connection.
• a terminal that has received the ID of another terminal sends both its own and the received ID or data for determining the IDs to the server, which stores the information that the said terminals are located within the range of the same wireless short-range connection, i.e. so called proximity data in its memory.
• the proximity service system comprises a service server, which receives proximity data of the terminals directly from the server or from the interest unit, which is arranged to filter proximity data of the server based on the parameters it has been given.
• a service server checks profiles of the terminals, which are created beforehand based on information supplied by the users. If the parameters encompassed in the users' profiles match each other, the terminals in each other's essential proximity are sent information about mutual proximity.
• Terminals A and B are considered to situate in each other's immediate proximity if at least one of the terminals A or B detects the other terminal A or B to be within the range of the same wireless short-range connection.
• the terminals A and B are considered to situate in each other's essential proximity if the terminals A and B are either in immediate proximity of each other or they are linked to each other by an unbroken chain of immediate connection links.
• a server is arranged to interpret proximity data transitively so that in spite of neither of the terminals A and B detecting one another, they are in each other's essential proximity if there is one or more terminals C, such that at least one terminal, e.g., C-i, is in immediate proximity to terminal A and at least one terminal, e.g., C n , is in immediate proximity to terminal B, so that there is an unbroken chain of immediate connection links from terminal A to terminal B.
• a method and a system according to the invention achieves considerable benefits.
• a method and a system according to the invention allow for conveniently and swiftly determining and maintaining of proximity data regarding two terminals situated in each other's proximity, because proximity data needs not be determined based on the absolute position data of all users of a system, e.g. a mobile phone system, as in proximity service methods based on positioning systems.
• a benefit of the invention is thus that ready-to- use information produced by detection based on wireless short-range connections of terminals decreases the amount of computation necessary in the system.
• a benefit of the invention is also that the mutual proximity of terminals can be interpreted transitively.
• a further benefit of the invention are small data communication costs and other costs induced by the use of an information system according to the invention, which enable a service provider to keep users' expenses very low so that services can be marketed as everyday bulk services.
• Another benefit of the invention is that services may operate unnoticeably in a background process of a terminal communicating with the user according to his interests and desires.
• absolute position can be determined by using base stations in locations essential for services or by applying traditional positioning systems, if they bring some added value in comparison to the positioning procedure of a system according to the invention.
• Figure 1 illustrates a Bluetooth network according to prior art
• Figure 2 illustrates, by way of simplification, a method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention
• Figure 3a illustrates, by way of example, a message sequence chart of a method according to a preferred embodiment of the invention
• Figure 3b illustrates a proximity graph
• Figure 3c illustrates physical world.
• the invention is explained in the following in an exemplary fashion based on Bluetooth technology, but the invention is not limited to just this technology.
• the invention can be used in addition to Bluetooth in any systems which employ wireless short-range radio frequency connections to link various types of electronic devices to each other.
• wireless short-range radio frequency connections to link various types of electronic devices to each other.
• such technologies are among others HomeRF and WLAN 802.11.
• the invention can be applied especially, but not limited to, in the context of mobile communication devices.
• the mobile communication devices utilized in the invention may be based on any known mobile communication technology, as long as they comprise means for establishing a data connection between the terminal and a server comprising proximity service.
• the data connection may be, for example, GPRS, HSCSD, SMS, USSD or other circuit switched or packet switched data connection.
• Bluetooth is a wireless ad hoc network system, by which electronic devices can be dynamically connected to each other and distinguished from each other.
• a connection is formed by using a short-range radio transmitter, which by default has a range of 10 meters with transmission power of 1 mW, but the range can be extended up to 100 meters by increasing transmission power.
• Data transmission capacity of a Bluetooth system in an asynchronous mode is at most 723.5 kb/s.
• a Bluetooth-enabled device can discover the device identifiers of other Bluetooth-enabled devices in its proximity by using the Inquiry procedure described in the standard. After having discovered a group of identifiers the Bluetooth-enabled device may connect to another Bluetooth-enabled device by using the Page procedure described in the standard.
• the Bluetooth-enabled device Before connecting to another Bluetooth-enabled device, the Bluetooth-enabled device is in Standby mode, and once it is connected, the mode of the Bluetooth-enabled device is in Connection mode. After Bluetooth-enabled devices have been connected with each other, they may discover services and service identifiers i.e. attributes supported by the other Bluetooth-enabled device by using the Service Discovery protocol (SDP). Service attributes include among other things the type and class of a service and the necessary mechanism or protocol for using a service.
• SDP Service Discovery protocol
• a Bluetooth network operates at the free 2.4 GHz Industrial- Medical-Scientific band (IMS). Width of the IMS band in Europe is 83.5 MHz, and it reaches from 2400 MHz to 2483.5 MHz. Interleaved frequency shift technology i.e. frequency hopping based on spread-spectrum technology is used in Bluetooth transmission.
• the transmission band is typically divided into 79 sub-bands, which typically have a distance of 1 MHz. During a radio connection each sub-band is used for a very brief moment at a time, thus the carrier wave is frequency shifted very fast. Because the signals are spread over a wide frequency band, disturbances on single narrow sub-bands have a diminished effect.
• Interleaving in this context means that packets to be sent have a part of the previous packet and a part of the next packet.
• the protocol employed by Bluetooth is a combination of the circuit switched and the packet switched frequency hopping based transmission methods.
• TDD Time Division duplexed
• a single data packet is transmitted.
• another sub-band is switched to and the next data packet is sent.
• the frequency is shifted 1600 times per second.
• Each message begins in general with an Access Code (AC) of 72 bits, which comes from the device identifier of the master.
• a receiver in a Piconet compares the incoming signal and the Access Code, and if they are not congruent the received packet is discarded. In addition to identifying a packet the Access Code is used for synchronization and for compensating offset voltage.
• the Access Code is followed in general by a header (H) of 54 bits, which carries everything required to identify the receiver of the message and the message type (e.g. synchronous/asynchronous).
• the header also includes data related to flow control, acknowledgement and the order number.
• the header is followed in general by the payload, which comprises the actual content. The payload may vary in size in general in separate messages from zero to 2745 bits.
• Piconet refers to a network entity formed by two or more Bluetooth-enabled devices within the range of a Bluetooth radio transmitter. All Bluetooth-enabled devices within the network are equal, but the device which is the first to transmit data in the network assumes the role of the Master, and other devices in the network operate as Slaves in the network.
• the system is referred as a Master-Slave Architecture. A Master and a Slave may, however, switch roles, but only one device may be the Master at any one time. Clock frequencies of the Slaves are synchronized to the clock frequency of the Master. Because the Master controls the Slaves, fewer disruptions occur between the devices.
• a first Piconet comprises a first mobile communication device (MS1 ), a wireless headset (HS) and an access point (AP) for providing data communication access via, for example, a local area network (LAN) further to other data communication networks, such as the Internet and various fixed and mobile telecommunication networks. That is how, for example, mobile phone connections can be arranged to be deviced within the range of a Bluetooth network by having the mobile communication device (MS1 ) form a Bluetooth connection to the access point (AP), via which a connection is further established to, for example, a fixed network.
• MS1 mobile communication device
• AP access point
• the mobile communication device (MS1 ) can thus be left immobile for example in a tabletop battery recharger and the call can be forwarded to the headset (HS) carried along the user also over a Bluetooth connection.
• the mobile communication device (MS1 ) thus acts as the Master in Piconet (P1 ), the Slaves of which are the access point (AP) and the headset (HS). If the headset (HS) comprises means to initiate forming a call, the roles can be switched in the network so that the headset becomes the new Master when a call is formed. In similar fashion in the case of an incoming call also the access point (AP) can function as the Master. This allows the user of the mobile communication device to, for example, walk about the office with only the headset (HS), and still to form a connection to a mobile telecommunication network.
• a second Piconet (P2) according to Figure 1 also comprises an access point (AP) and two mobile communication devices (MS2 and MS3).
• a device can thus belong to multiple Piconets simultaneously, as the access point (AP) in this case.
• Each device is in a Piconet only with necessary devices, which allows the transmission speed to be increased in each Piconet.
• Such a Bluetooth network consisting of multiple Piconets is referred as a Scattemet.
• Server (S) comprises a proximity service to which terminals (A and B) are pre-registered, and therefore each terminal incorporates a unique ID recognized by the proximity service.
• Terminals (A and B) are in Standby mode before a Bluetooth connection is established. Then both terminal (A and B) search other Bluetooth-enabled devices by using the Inquiry procedure in accordance with the Bluetooth standard. For each terminal found a connection is formed and a service inquiry is performed according to the Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) to determine whether the found terminal supports proximity service. If this is the case the terminal that made the detection (A) discovers the proximity service ID of the detected terminal (B) with an ID request (ObtainlD(B)) by using the Bluetooth connection. Terminal B sends as a response its ID (ID(B)) to terminal A.
• SDP Service Discovery Protocol
• At least one of the terminals (A or B) establishes a connection, e.g. a wireless GPRS based Internet connection, to server (S) and sends server (S) an indication that terminals (A and B) are located in the same range of wireless short-range connection.
• server (S) updates proximity data stored in its memory.
• Proximity data regarding the terminals can be filtered in a so called interest unit (I).
• Interest unit (I) is arranged to filter proximity data encompassed by server (S) in a manner to form so called proximity groups, according to parameters given to interest unit (I). Determining a proximity group is explained later in detail.
• proximity group information formed by interest unit (I) are forwarded to service server (SS), which checks profiles of the users (UA and UB) of terminals encompassed by the proximity group, which profiles are created beforehand based on users' personal data by using for example WWW or WAP user interfaces.
• SS service server
• Forming a profile can be implemented in various ways, for example by answering a set of multiple choice questions, by supplying numerical data for some properties, such as age, height or weight, by including free form text or photographs in the profile or by expressing desires regarding the sought opposite.
• the profiles of users, such as U A and UB, of terminals encompassed by the proximity group match to each other, the terminals are sent information about a user matching given criteria being in proximity. This information can be sent by using, for example, a wireless GPRS based Internet connection.
• the absolute position of a terminal can also be determined by using base stations in locations essential to services or by exploiting traditional positioning technologies. In some situations the determination of the absolute position may bring some added value in comparison to the system's capabilities, such as when locating the user of a particular terminal in a large group of people.
• the message sequence chart shows data going from one terminal to another.
• the proximity graph illustrates the server's (S) notion of the terminals' proximity to each other.
• S server's
• Terminals (A, B, C and D) incorporate software which in its active state tries to detect other terminals belonging to the proximity service in the terminal's proximity, as described earlier.
• Terminal A sends an ID request (ObtainlD(B)) to terminal B and receives as a return value the ID of terminal B, i.e. ID(B).
• terminal A sends server (S) both its own ID, i.e. ID(A), and the received ID(B) or data for determining ID(A) and ID(B).
• Server (S) stores in its memory this terminals' proximity data P(A, B), i.e. data about terminals A and B situating in the range of the same wireless short-range connection. This is illustrated in the proximity graph of Figure 3b by an arc (A,B) with a timestamp ti.
• the timestamp added to proximity data P(A, B) indicates the moment in time when serves (S) was last notified of the terminals to be in each other's immediate proximity. If the proximity graph has an arc corresponding to the proximity data, the timestamp of the arc is updated at server (S) to reflect the new detection according to data received from the terminals. When the timestamp of an arc is considered outdated, the arc is removed from the proximity graph.
• information is sent from a terminal to server (S) about a later detection following a detection only if the time passed since the previous detection exceeds a predefined limit.
• server (S) In a setting according to the invention it is thus sufficient to examine just one or more terminals in the range of the same wireless short-range connection. Because proximity data for all users of the mobile telecommunication system needs not be determined and because the server receives already determined proximity data from terminals, determining relative proximity of terminals and maintaining proximity data is convenient and fast.
• terminals C and D come together into the range of the same wireless short-range connection, wherein terminal D detects terminal C.
• Terminal D sends terminal C an ID request (ObtainlD(C)) and after receiving terminal C's ID, i.e. ID(C), terminal D sends proximity data P(D, C) to server S. Therefore Figure 2b has arc (D, C) with timestamp t 2 in.
• timestamp ti of arc (A, B) for terminals A and B has exceeded a certain predefined limit, i.e. timestamp ti has been outdated as it has not been updated.
• server (S) assumes that terminals A and B no longer situate in the range of the same wireless short-range connection, so the arc (A, B) is removed from the proximity graph (TimeOut(A, B)).
• terminal C establishes wireless short-range connection with terminal A and thus terminal D is assumed to situate in relative proximity to terminal A, because proximity data is interpreted transitively. Transitivity in this context means that if, for example, terminals A and C situate in each other's relative proximity, as terminals C and D with each other, then also terminals A and D are in each other's relative proximity.
• Terminal C sends terminal A an ID request (ObtainlD(A)), and as a response terminal C receives terminal A's ID, i.e. ID(A).
• Terminal C sends server (S) proximity data P(C, A), which is stored in the memory of server (S).
• the new arc (C, A) in the proximity graph gets timestamp t 3 .
• the software encompassed by server (S) is able make a transitive deduction that because terminals C and D are in each other's proximity (arc P(C, D)) as well as terminals A and C (arc P(C, A)), then also terminals A and D are essentially close to each other.
• wireless terminals such as mobile phones
• client applications of services in accordance with the proximity service model, with which service servers communicate when services require that.
• Client applications of services on terminals can also preferably establish a direct connection with client applications on other terminals while the terminals are in the same range of wireless short-range connection.
• Server (S) has been installed with software that comprises the software code to identify users of terminals within the proximity service.
• the software is arranged according to the invention to receive proximity service identifiers or data for determining proximity data sent by terminals belonging to the proximity system and to maintain in the server's (S) memory data about the mutual proximity of terminals.
• the server's software is also responsible for sending proximity data to service server (SS) or interest unit (I).
• the system may also comprise other servers, such as a server with an operational connection to server (S), wherein the establishment of a connection to send proximity data from terminals may happen with first server (S), from which the data is forwarded to the second server, which incorporates the actual proximity service.
• S operational connection to server
• S first server
• the system may further include one ore more interest units (I) that are arranged to transmit information based on proximity data maintained by server (S) to service servers (SS).
• Interest unit (I) interprets proximity data maintained by server (S) and forms thereof proximity groups according to parameters given to it.
• the parameters may comprise a set of users that are of interest, a timeout period that defines the maximum difference of present time or previous and latest timestamps.
• the interest unit uses proximity data provided by server (S)
• terminals are considered to be in each other's proximity if there is an arc between the terminals in the proximity graph and the age of the arc determinated by the timestamp of the arc does not exceed the value given as a parameter to the interest unit.
• Interest unit (I) forms proximity groups so that all terminals that are either in immediate or essential proximity of each other belong to the same group. Proximity is therefore transitively defined, meaning that all terminals in each other's proximity belong to the same proximity group.
• the system may further comprise one or more service servers (SS) that have been adapted to receive from some interest unit (I) or directly from server (S) information about terminal users or user groups within the range of the same wireless short-range connection of each other
• SS service servers
• Service server may for example acquire notifications about certain kinds of changes in proximity data. Both for querying proximity data and receiving proximity data change notifications service server (SS) has been adapted to place a set of criteria for the required data. These criteria are sent to interest unit (I) or server (S) and used in forming the data. In a proximity data query the criteria are defined in terms of current proximity data whereas for proximity data change notifications the criteria are defined in terms of previous and current proximity data, enabling expression of changes.
• Query criteria may, for example, define all proximity sets, i.e. sets of terminals in proximity of each other, larger than a given size, or all proximity sets to which certain users of interest belong.
• Notification criteria may, for example, define all proximity sets which new users have joined, users that have joined some proximity group, merged proximity groups, changed proximity groups, proximity groups from which at least two users have departed, or which at least two users have joined.
• the potential interest of terminal users in each other may be computed on service server (SS) based on proximity data and user profiles.
• the profiles mentioned have been pre-created according to data provided by the users.
• a system based on the invention enables various preferred services, such as dating, co-operation, notification and auction services as well as games.
• service server may be a dating server, whose purpose is to match users that are potentially interested in each other. As a user registers himself in the dating service the dating server adds him to its user database. Potential interest is computed based on proximity data and profiles created for the users, the profiles in this case being dating profiles.
• Dating profiles include at least basic information about a user and his preferences regarding users to be met in a standard form (for example gender, age, physical properties).
• a dating profile may include one or more matching thresholds that define how well a dating profile of another user must match user preferences in order to consider him or her potentially interesting.
• a dating profile may further include free-form fields or pictures.
• the dating server has been adapted to register its users to interest unit (I) appointed to it or directly to server (S).
• the set of users given as a parameter to the interest unit (I) is thus typically the same as the set of users of the dating server.
• the dating server has been adapted to request notifications about formed proximity groups from interest unit (I) or server (S). Upon receiving such a notification the dating server has been adapted to try and match the dating profiles of new pairs of users found in the formed groups.
• information about a potentially interesting other user are sent to the users' terminals. This information may include for example certain standard fields from the other user's dating profile or information selected by one or both of the users from the dating profiles.
• the message may already at this time include contact or identification information, or this information may not be sent until both users indicate their interest to the dating server.
• a phone number, an option to call the other user anonymously, or an option to send the other user a text message, e-mail, etc. may be sent as contact information.
• a photograph may be sent as identification information.
• a dating service user currently in a nightclub may receive to his or her terminal notifications of nearby users who are compatible with him or her based on dating profiles.
• Service server may also be a co-operation server, whose purpose is to join together terminal users with potentially similar pursuits.
• a pursuit may for example be acquiring a shared taxi ride for users that are located in essential proximity of each other and whose travel destinations are located in the same direction.
• personal data city districts to where transport is required, time of required transport, preferences about travel companions, etc are stored in the profiles of users in need of transportation, which profiles in this case are called co-operation profiles.
• a method and system according to the invention enable everyday bulk services, because operation and use of the arrangement causes quite small telecommunication expenses, which allows service provider to keep users' expenses very low. Inexpensiveness makes use of services attractive. Users may, for example, let services operate as a background process of a terminal, enabling a user to activate a service according to his own interests and needs.
• terminals and server (S) may be preferably implemented in software, hardware or a combination of these two.
• Methods according to the invention are especially well suitable to be implemented as computer software comprising instructions in a format readable by a computer for executing the functional steps of the invention.
• the operation of terminal and server (S) may be preferably implemented as a program code stored in a storage device, the code being suitable for execution by a computer-like device, such as a mobile terminal, to cause detection by the device.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

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Cited By (14)

Citations (6)

• 2002
  • 2002-06-28 FI FI20021293A patent/FI115815B/fi not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2003
  • 2003-06-27 AU AU2003239646A patent/AU2003239646A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-06-27 WO PCT/FI2003/000526 patent/WO2004004395A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (6)

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