Access Point List Management in Wireless Communications
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless communication systems face inefficiencies in managing access points, particularly in selecting and reselecting suitable access points for mobile devices, as they often rely on full scans of available base stations, leading to increased acquisition time and resource usage.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method to maintain operator-controlled and user-controlled lists of access points, including blacklists and whitelists, to prioritize or exclude certain access points based on their suitability, allowing mobile devices to selectively request access to the wireless network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mobile devices perform full scans of available base stations to select access points, then comprehensive access point selection is achieved, but acquisition time and resource usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining pre-provisioned lists of suitable and unsuitable access points before the mobile device needs to connect. These lists are prepared in advance by the network operator and stored in the device, allowing the device to skip the time-consuming full scan process and directly evaluate pre-screened candidates, thus reducing acquisition time while maintaining selection quality
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts only the necessary subset of access points from the complete network by creating filtered lists of suitable and unsuitable access points. Instead of evaluating all available base stations, the system extracts and presents only those access points that match predefined criteria, significantly reducing the search space and acquisition time while preserving the reliability of selection
2Reliability
If mobile devices perform full scans of available base stations to select access points, then comprehensive access point selection is achieved, but resource usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and processes only the essential subset of access point information by maintaining filtered lists of suitable and unsuitable access points. This extraction approach eliminates the need to continuously monitor and evaluate all available base stations, thereby reducing the energy and computational resources required while preserving selection quality
Solution Approach 2:
By performing the resource-intensive filtering and evaluation work in advance (pre-provisioning lists), the system avoids repeating these operations during actual connection attempts. The preliminary preparation of access point lists reduces real-time resource consumption when mobile devices need to connect to the network
3Productivity
If operator-controlled and user-controlled lists are maintained to prioritize access points, then network access efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The access point selection system is segmented into distinct functional components: operator-controlled lists managed by the network, user-controlled lists managed by the device, and automated blacklist/whitelist mechanisms. This segmentation allows each component to operate independently with clear responsibilities, reducing overall system complexity while improving access efficiency through specialized handling of different access point categories
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methodologies are described that facilitate device-side access point list management. Blacklists of access points unsuitable for providing network access to a related mobile device can be maintained as well as whitelists of suitable access points. The lists can be managed using an interface provided at the mobile device. In addition, lists can be modified according to provisioned network updates. Also, the lists can be of maximum size such that older entries can be purged upon insertion of newer entries based on a number of factors; timed entry deletion is provided as well. Access points in the lists can be stored and presented according to various identifiers related to the access points.