Mobile WLAN gateway
Contents
1. 9 A non transitory computer readable medium having embodied thereon a program the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for operating a mobile station the method comprising activating a second mode of WLAN means having a first mode of usage acting as a WLAN client of usage acting as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network creating a network identifier for the WLAN base station assigning an internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal resolving domain name service DNS queries in cooperation with an external DNS service system assigning at least one port number for each protocol supported by the gateway application tunneling internet traf fic between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband connection and deactivating the second mode of the WLAN means in response to a detected absence of WLAN terminal activity for a predetermined period of time 10 The non transitory computer readable medium accord ing to claim 9 wherein the program is executable by the processor periodically or in response to a detected activity of the at least one WLAN terminal a a ee ee2. Ima ge u US 8 625 461 B2 1 MOBILE WLAN GATEWAY RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a continuation of U S patent application Ser No 12 264 726 filed Nov 4 2008 published as US20090180449 on Jul 16 2009 which application claims priority from Finnish patent application 20080032 filed 16 Jan 2008 the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to methods apparatuses and software products for providing a wireless broadband Internet connec tion via a mobile communication network In the context of the present invention a broadband connection means a con nection capable of transmitting traffic in good network con ditions faster than a V 90 modem can or faster than 64 kilobits per second BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Wireless broadband modems can be used to couple per sonal computers or client terminals to the internet in places where wired Internet connections or local area networks are not available Prior art wireless broadband modems exhibit certain problems For instance sharing a single wireless broadband connection among several users client terminals is awkward at best Normally this requires setting up one of several client terminals as a master terminal that provides the Internet connection to the remaining client terminals This process consumes resources of the master terminal and the client terminals c
3. provide one or more additional services to the WLAN termi nal based on the determined location 6 The mobile station according to claim 1 wherein the gateway application is further executed by the processor to collect traffic statistics for the tunnelled traffic and for trans mitting at least a portion of the collected traffic statistics to a supplementary server 7 A mobile station according to claim 1 wherein the gateway application is further executed by the processor periodically or in response to a detected activ ity of the at least one WLAN terminal 8 A method for operating a mobile station the method comprising activating a second mode of WLAN means having a first mode of usage acting as a WLAN client of usage acting asa WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network creating a network identifier for the WLAN base station 0 10 assigning an internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal resolving domain name service DNS queries in coopera tion with an external DNS service system assigning at least one port number for each protocol sup ported by the gateway application tunneling internet traffic between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband con nection and deactivating the second mode of the WLAN means in response to a detected absence of WLAN terminal activ ity for a predetermined period of time
4. 418 B2 11 2011 Maki 8 073 446 B2 12 2011 Ishii etal 8 116 778 B2 2 2012 Lee essers 455 450 8 130 701 B2 3 2012 Fong ecssseesereres 370 328 8 208 449 B2 6 2012 Karaoguz etal 370 338 2002 0069278 Al 2003 0035397 Al 2003 0165128 Al 2004 0077374 Al 2004 0125762 Al 2004 0203836 Al 2004 0221046 Al 2005 0036468 Al 2005 0043035 Al 6 2002 Forsloew 2 2003 Haller et al 9 2003 Sisodi et al 4 2004 Terry 7 2004 Haller et al 10 2004 Gorday et al 11 2004 Heinonen et al 2 2005 Miyabayashi et al 2 2005 Diesen et al 2005 0186906 A1 8 2005 Hussmann 004 455 41 2 2005 0286476 Al 12 2005 Crosswy et al 2006 0068799 A1 3 2006 Mortonet al 455 450 2006 0123470 Al 2006 0126565 Al 2006 0126584 Al 2007 0002833 Al 2007 0008937 Al 2007 0160023 Al 2007 0211714 Al 2008 0014934 Al 2008 0267152 Al 2009 0040954 Al 2009 0067395 Al 2009 0290561 Al 2011 0177805 Al 2012 0008612 Al 2012 0010521 Al 2012 0257610 Al 6 2006 Chen 6 2006 Shaheen 6 2006 Zhang et al 370 338 1 2007 Bajic 1 2007 Mody et al 7 2007 Wittmann 9 2007 Metke et al 1 2008 Balasubramanian et al 10 2008 Alnas et al 2 2009 Usuba 3 2009 Curtis et al 11 2009 Kleindl 7 2011 Maki et al 1 2012 Maki 1 2012 Maki 10 2012 Maki et al FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS CN 1954554 A 4 2007 DE 10 2005 05129 5 2007 EP 1914 954 4 2008 GB 2369003 9 2004 GB 2 407 003 4 2005 JP 2005189154 7 2005 JP 2005348397 A 12 2
5. camera attempt s to attach to the WLAN network If not the process proceeds to step 48 in which the WLAN network and circuitry are deactivated and the process begins anew at step 41 On the other hand if any client terminal attaches to the WLAN network the mobile station starts a watchdog timer in step 44 and maintains the WLAN network as indicated in step 45 Step 46 includes a test to detect client terminal activity If client terminal activity is detected the process returns to step 44 in which the watchdog timer is restarted Naturally any client related requests are served as well as part of the basic functionality of the WLAN gateway application On the other hand if no client terminal activity is detected the process proceeds to step 47 which is a test as to whether the watchdog timer has expired If not the process returns to step 45 in which the WLAN network is maintained without restarting the watchdog timer Eventually a moment occurs when no client activity has been detected and the watchdog timer expires and this is detected in step 47 Then in step 48 the WLAN network and circuitry are deactivated and the process begins anew at step 41 By virtue of the embodiment described in connection with FIG 4 the WLAN gateway application may terminate its own execution and power off the mobile station s WLAN an 0 a 5 40 45 8 circuitry The automatic execution of the gateway application and the accompanyin
6. in the mobile station is activated automatically in response to detection of a nearby WLAN client terminal and FIG 5 shows an embodiment in which the mobile station s location determination functionality is used to enhance image uploading to an image hosting server DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS FIG 1 is a schematic block diagram of a representative mobile station MS The mobile station MS comprises a cen tral processing unit CP 105 and memory 110 In addition the mobile station MS comprises or utilizes external input output circuitry 115 which constitutes the multimode terminal s user interface and comprises an input circuitry 120 and an output circuitry 125 The input circuitry 120 comprises the mobile station s microphone and user input device such as a keypad and or touch screen The output circuitry 125 comprises the mobile station s display and earphone or loudspeaker The mobile station MS further comprises reception transmission circuitry 130 which comprises a transmission circuitry 135 reception circuitry 140 and antenna 145 A subscriber identity module SIM 150 is used by an authentication function 160 to authenticate the mobile station user and to identify the user s subscription to the access network The mobile station also comprises WLAN Wireless Local Area Network circuitry 155 whose normal mode of usage is acting as a WLAN client to a WLAN base station not shown In order to support install
7. 005 JP 2006005824 A 1 2006 JP 2008041086 A 2 2008 KR 20060019707 3 2006 KR 10 0638439 10 2006 WO WO 2004 075583 9 2004 WO WO 2005011183 A2 2 2005 WO 2005011183 10 2005 WO WO 2006 088135 8 2006 WO WO 2006 094256 9 2006 WO WO 2009 090295 7 2009 WO WO 2009 135986 11 2009 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Wei et al WWAN WLAN Two Hop Relay Architecture for Capac ity Enhancement IEEE Communications Society Wireless Com munications and Networking Conference WCNC 2004 225 230 Globesurfer II Brochure www option com products globesurfer gt II shtml 2007 Search Report for PCT FI2008 050717 dated Apr 7 2009 Search Report for PCT FI2008 050617 dated Jan 21 2009 MDA Pro User Manual Aug 10 2005 pp 1 204 XP55040238 retrieved from http www skytel co cr microsoft research acrobat 050810 pdf European patent application No 08870831 8 1249 European Communication completed Oct 15 2012 U S Appl No 13 240 468 Office Action mailed Oct 2 2012 2 Office Action in corresponding Australian Patent Application No 2008347702 Nov 14 2012 PCT Search Report National Board of Patent and Registration of Finland PCT FI2009 050770 May 26 2010 European patent application No 09841657 1 1249 European Search Report mailed Jun 13 2012 European patent application No 0887083 1 8 1249 European Search Report completed Jun 13 2012 U S Appl No 12 264 726 Office Action mailed Mar 30 2011 U S Appl No
8. 12 336 279 Office Action mailed May 25 2011 USS Appl No 12 933 855 Office Action mailed Jun 12 2012 Search Report in corresponding Chinese Patent Application No 200880 124512 1 Sep 21 2012 Notice of Allowance in corresponding U S Appl No 13 711 602 Jun 25 2013 1 Office Action in corresponding Japanese Patent Application No 2012 014356 Jul 2 2013 1 Office Action in corresponding U S Appl No 13 711 602 Mar 27 2013 Notice of Allowance in corresponding U S Appl No 12 264 726 Sep 1 2011 1 Office Action in corresponding U S Appl No 12 264 726 Mar 30 2011 Office Action in corresponding U S Appl No 12 336 279 May 25 2011 Office Action in corresponding U S Appl No 12 933 855 Jun 12 2012 1 Office Action in corresponding U S Appl No 13 240 468 Oct 2 2012 1 Office Action in corresponding U S Appl No 13 240 419 Jan 8 2013 Search Report in corresponding European Patent Application No 08870831 8 Jun 13 2012 Search Report in corresponding European Patent Application No 09841657 1 Jun 13 2012 Office Action in corresponding European Patent Application No 08870831 8 Oct 15 2012 Notification of Reason for Rejection in corresponding Japanese Patent Application No 2010542654 Nov 25 2011 http www skytel co cr microsoft research acrobat 0508 10 MDA Pro User Manual Aug 10 2005 Hung Yu Wei et al WWAN WLAN Two Hop Rel
9. 80 denotes an area of the memory 110 used to store parameters and variables The foregoing description of FIG 1 describes an appli cable mobile station in technical terms Such mobile stations are commercially available For instance at the priority date of the present invention mobile stations based on Symbian 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 S60 or S80 platforms can be used provided that they support WLAN and broadband communications A departure from prior art mobile stations can be seen in the fact that the mobile station comprises the inventive gateway application 170 either as a factory installed software application or as a down loadable application The reference sign PC which denotes the personal computer being used as the client terminal is derived from personal computer but those skilled in the art will realize that the mobile station MS provided with the inventive gateway application 170 supports virtually any cli ent terminal capable of acting as a WLAN client such as laptop computers smart telephones personal digital assis tants home entertainment devices digital cameras etc to name just a representative sample of applicable device types FIG 2 shows some preparatory acts some of which may not be necessary in all embodiments of the present invention In step 2 2 the mobile station MS is authenticated This step which is well known to those skilled in the art involves recept
10. able program modules the mobile station s memory MEM 110 may comprise routines for downloading installable program modules and for storing the installable program modules in the memory MEM for execution by the central processing unit CP FIG 1 shows an arrangement in which the mobile station is configured to download installable program modules from a repository RP via a data network DN an access network AN the antenna 145 and reception circuitry 140 although other arrangements are equally possible such as downloading the installable program modules via the data network DN to a personal computer PC from which the installable program modules are transferred to the mobile station the WLAN circuitry 155 or via some other short range connection such as Bluetooth or Universal Serial Bus USB not shown separately The reference sign PC CT means that the personal computer PC serves as an example of a client terminal CT The access network AN is typically a broadband capable mobile com munication network while the data network DN is typically the Internet or some closed subnetwork implementing Inter net protocol IP commonly called intranets or extranets At this level of generalization all previously discussed elements of FIG 1 can be conventional as used in the relevant art One or more external hosts 190 are accessible via the access net work AN and data network DN as will be described in more detail below Finally reference numeral 1
11. alled Host This means that in step 3 24 the gate way application forces the client terminal s first HTTP page request to a forced home page at the IP address of Host For example the operator of the site Host may display advertise ments in exchange of sponsoring communication costs over the access network AN In step 3 28 the web site Host returns the requested web page which the gateway application relays to the client terminal PC in step 3 28 In step 3 30 the client terminal PC again requests the web page from the host s IP address Since this the second or further page request from the client terminal the gateway application no longer redirects the HTTP request but relays it to the Host in step 3 32 In steps 3 34 and 3 36 the requested web page from the Host is transmitted to the client terminal As shown by arrow 30 the process can return from step 3 36 to step 3 20 when future web pages are requested The loops 3 30 through 3 36 can be repeated until the gateway applica tion is terminated in step 3 40 Ifthe forced home page feature step 3 22 is not implemented the first HTTP request step 3 20 is processed similarly to the subsequent HTTP requests step 3 30 In subsequent executions of step 3 30 if the HTTP page request relates to a web page for which the gate way application does not have an IP address a DSN query will be performed cf steps 3 14 and 3 16 FIG 3 also shown an additional client terminal denote
12. and an internet host over the broadband con nection Another aspect of the invention is gateway application implemented as a software product which comprises a code portion for instructing the mobile station s processor to con trol the mobile station to perform each of the six above defined operations Yet another aspect of the invention is a mobile station which comprises the inventive gateway appli cation either as a factory installed application or as a down loadable application In one specific embodiment the mobile station further com prises means for receiving installing and executing down loadable programs and the inventive gateway application is a downloadable application Implementing the inventive gate way application as a downloadable application provides the added benefit that the inventive technique is applicable to mobile stations which are physically capable of performing the inventive method but do not contain the necessary soft ware In another specific embodiment the gateway application further comprises a code portion to redirect a first HTTP page request from each mobile station during an Internet session to a predetermined Internet address Redirecting the mobile sta tion s first HTTP page request during an Internet session provides the owner of the predetermined Internet address with the benefit that the mobile station user must begin an Internet session via the predetermined internet address That address ma
13. annot operate without the master The diffi culty of sharing a single wireless broadband connection among several users is understandable in view of the fact that most wireless broadband modems are given or sold at a nomi nal cost by mobile network operators in connection with a network subscription The network operators obvious desire is to sell a subscription to each user instead of sharing a single connection among several users Another problem of prior art wireless broadband modems is the fact that most of them are wireless only towards the mobile network and the connection to the client terminal takes place via a USB cable The wired connection is actually a benefit in connection with fixed client terminals such as home computers because the wired connection can also sup ply power to the wireless broadband modem but in connec tion with mobile client terminals the wired nature of the USB connection is a definite handicap BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to develop a method an apparatus and software products so as to alleviate one or more of the problems identified above The object is achieved by methods apparatuses and software products as defined in the attached independent claims The dependent claims and the drawings with their associated descriptions relate to spe cific embodiments Anaspect of the invention is a method for operating mobile station as wireless local area ne
14. ay Architecture for Capacity Enhancement IEE Communications Society Wireless Communications and Networking Conference WCNC 2004 Globesurfer Il Brochure www opition com products globesurfer gt Il shtml 2007 International Search Report in corresponding PCT Patent Applica tion No PCT FI2009 050770 Mar 9 2010 cited by examiner U S Patent Jan 7 2014 Sheet 1 of 3 US 8 625 461 B2 Gateway application WLAN activation Beacon ID generation IP addr assignment DNS service Multi protocol support Traffic tunneling 180 MS Store application U S Patent Jan 7 2014 Sheet 2 of 3 US 8 625 461 B2 Fig 3 PCICT MS DNS Host Host D Activation of WLAN gateway app 3 4 o 3 2 Ad hoc network preparation Beacon ID broadcast 3 6 Network selection 3 8 quiry over DHCP 3 10 IP addr response D o DNS inquiry Hos 3 18 DNS response Host 3 16 3 20 5 14 DNS response Host HTTP page request gt ween Redirecting to Host 2 HTTP page request TAN ee OO HTTP page iis fe La ie ane E gt a D Deactivation of WLAN gateway app U S Patent Jan 7 2014 Sheet 3 of 3 US 8 625 461 B2 Fig 4 Activate WLAN circultry establish ad hoc network Fig 5 CAMICT 5 0 MS DNS Imaga host SS Detection of location aware application Determination of location ee ee ee a a aie loadffocation
15. az United States Patent US008625461B2 10 Patent No US 8 625 461 B2 Maki 45 Date of Patent Jan 7 2014 54 MOBILE WLAN GATEWAY 56 References Cited 75 Inventor Lasse Maki Helsinki FI U S PATENT DOCUMENTS A 7 408 910 B2 8 2008 Kimata etal 0 370 338 73 Assignee TAE Technologies Co Ltd 7441043 BI 10 2008 Henry et al Shenzhen CN 7 450 554 B2 11 2008 Zhang Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this Continued tent is extended djusted under 35 DSE abbr ode FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS This patent is subject to a terminal dis CN 1627842 A 6 2005 claimer CN 1732640 A 2 2006 Continued 21 Appl No 13 240 419 OTHER PUBLICATIONS 22 Filed Sep 22 2011 ete OEA Notification of Reason for Rejection issued Nov 25 2011 for 65 Prior Publication Data JP2010 542654 US 2012 0008612 Al Jan 12 2012 Continued Related U S Application Data Primary Examiner Candal Elpenord 63 Continuation of application No 12 264 726 filed on 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Leydig Voit amp Mayer Ltd Nov 4 2008 now Pat No 8 064 417 57 ABSTRACT 30 Foreign Application Priority Data 30 BEEP y A technique for operating a mobile station as wireless local Jan 16 2008 FI eee eee 20080032 area network WLAN gateway The mobile station is pro vided with a gateway application to control the following 51 Int Cl operations activating the WLAN means as a WLAN base HOAW 84 02 2009 01 statio
16. cation stored in the memory and executed by the processor to activate the second mode of the WLAN means create a network identifier for the WLAN base station assign an internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal resolve domain name service DNS queries in cooperation with an external DNS service system assign at least one port number for each protocol supported by the gateway application US 8 625 461 B2 9 tunnel internet traffic between the at least one WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband con nection and deactivate the second mode of the WLAN means in response to a detected absence of WLAN terminal activ ity for a predetermined period of time 2 The mobile station according to claim 1 further com prising means for downloading and executing the gateway application 3 The mobile station according to claim 1 wherein the gateway application is further executed by the processor to redirect a first HTTP page request from each mobile station during an internet session to a predetermined internet address 4 The mobile station according to claim 1 wherein the mobile station comprises means for determining a location of the mobile station and the gateway application further com prises a code portion for associating the determined location to the tunnelled internet traffic 5 The mobile station according to claim 4 wherein the gateway application is further executed by the processor to
17. charging the client terminal s subscriber Yet further the advertising server and the billing server may cooperate in such a manner that the advertising server s operator sells advertisement space or time and the advertising server credits the client terminal s subscriber for any adver US 8 625 461 B2 7 tisements received The credits are then relayed to and used by the billing server in order to reduce the client terminal s subscriber s invoice generate additional services extend pre paid subscription time to name just a few examples Finally the gateway application may be configured to con vey the mobile station s location or some derivative it to the advertising server for targeted or tailored advertising on the basis of the mobile station s location For instance targeted advertising for some goods or service may include sending an advertisement to a client terminal only if the mobile station s location indicates that the client terminal is reasonably close to the outlet of the goods or service On the other hand tailored advertising may be implemented such that the adver tisement indicates the address or location of the closest outlet FIGS 4 and 5 illustrate some exemplary embodiments in which the present invention benefits from the functionality of modern mobile stations such that the resulting WLAN gate way is functionally superior to dedicated WLAN base sta tions FIG 4 shows an embodiment in which th
18. d PC Steps 3 6 through 3 36 will be repeated for each addi tional client terminal This means that by virtue of the inven tive gateway application which instructs the mobile station MS to act as a WLAN base station as opposed to a WLAN client the mobile station MS can support an arbitrary num ber of client terminals which act as WLAN client terminals and which by virtue of the authentication performed by the mobile station can share a single subscription to the access network FIG 3 and the foregoing description of it illustrate use of HTTP protocol The inventive gateway application supports other protocols in an analogous manner and assigns a specific port number to each supported protocol For instance the 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 gateway application can instruct the mobile station to convey encrypted HTTPS traffic by utilizing the Proxy Configuration field of HTTPS protocol In addition to merely conveying Internet traffic between the client terminal PC and the Internet host the inventive gateway application can in some specific embodiments provide addi tional or supplementary services which utilize some of the functionality of modem mobile stations In some implemen tations such supplementary services are provided by an arrangement in which a supplementary server enhances the service s provided by a primary server Such a supplemen tary server can be part of the functionality of the inv
19. e WLAN circuitry and optionally the WLAN gateway application in the mobile station MS is activated periodically to detect pos sible WLAN client terminals CT nearby In one representa tive scenario a WLAN capable digital camera acts as a WLAN client terminal In the embodiment shown in FIG 4 the mobile station MS employs two timers which may be realized by means of software implemented tick counters as is well known to those skilled in the art One of the timers is called a sleep timer while the other is called a watchdog timer The sleep timer s function is to periodically wake up the mobile station s WLAN circuitry and optionally the WLAN gateway application The watchdog timer is used to detect non activity periods of predetermined length in the WLAN network so that the WLAN circuitry can be powered off in order to optimise battery resources In step 41 the WLAN circuitry of the mobile station MS is powered off and the execution of the WLAN gateway appli cation may be suspended or terminated Step 41 terminates when the sleep timer expires For instance the sleep timer may generate a processor interrupt which directs the mobile station s processor to perform program routines for activating the WLAN circuitry and starting or resuming execution of the WLAN gateway application After step 42 the mobile station has established a WLAN network In step 43 the mobile station checks if any client terminal s such as the exemplary digital
20. e station s user interface In a typical implementation the mobile station receives user interface navigation instructions to Applica tions from which the inventive gateway application is selected for execution One of the acts performed by the mobile station s processor under control of the inventive gateway application is to ensure that the WLAN circuitry of the mobile station is operational The significance of step 3 0 and of the corresponding deactivation step 3 40 is that the mobile station is only reserved for wireless broadband gate way applications for a user specified time and at other times the mobile station can perform whatever tasks required by its user In step 3 2 the gateway application instructs the mobile station s processor to prepare an ad hoc WLAN network around the mobile station by acting as a WLAN base station as opposed to the mobile station s more conventional usage as a WLAN client In step 3 4 the gateway application instructs the mobile station to initiate broadcasting of a bea con ID message which typically is an IBSSID message as defined in standard IEEE 802 11x Step 3 4 is depicted as an arrow but in practice the broadcasting of the beacon ID message should be repeated until step 3 40 in which the execution of the gateway application is terminated US 8 625 461 B2 5 In step 3 6 the client terminal PC searches for available WLAN networks and detects the broadcasted beacon ID and se
21. entive WLAN gateway application or it can be implemented as a network element distinct from the primary server One exemplary implementation of such additional services involves utilization of GPS Global Positioning System devices incorporated into some mobile stations The inventive gateway application may be enhanced to associate OPS pro vided geographical coordinates to the PC to host traffic or some of that traffic For instance the gateway application can tag still or video image data with geographical coordinates and or use some additional service not shown separately that maps the with geographical coordinates to a plaintext name of the relevant location In another implementation the gateway application associates GPS provided coordinates to the traffic or some of it while the actual tagging of the images with the coordinates is provided by some additional server such as an image sharing server not shown separately Actu ally what matters is the location of the client terminal and not the location of the mobile station acting as a WLAN gateway But considering the short range of the mobile station s WLAN transmission the mobile station s location can be used as the client terminal s location for virtually all practical purposes Ina more ambitious implementation the gateway applica tion can provide additional services on the basis of the geo graphical coordinates For instance the gateway application can recognize
22. g automatic activation of the mobile station s WLAN circuitry provides certain benefits For instance both digital cameras and mobile stations are handi capped by small user interfaces and relatively short battery life particularly when their liquid crystal displays LCD are illuminated The automation described in connection with the present embodiment alleviates such handicaps FIG 5 shows an embodiment in which the mobile station s location determination functionality is used to enhance image uploading to an image hosting server In step 5 0 a WLAN connection is established between the gateway appli cation being executed in the mobile station MS and the WLAN equipped digital camera CAM acting as a client ter minal CT For details of the WLAN connection establishment a reference is made to FIGS 3 and 4 In step 5 2 the camera CAM CT initiates a DNS inquiry to obtain the internet address of the image hosting server In step 5 4 an embodi ment of the gateway application being executed in the mobile station MS detects that the camera client terminal CAM CT executes a location aware application Accordingly the gate way application uses the mobile station s location determi nation functionality to determine the mobile station s loca tion For instance the mobile station s location may be determined on the basis of the mobile station s built in satel lite positioning device GPS or on the basis of cell ID deter mination in t
23. he access networks In an optional step 5 8 the gateway application sends the mobile station s location to an embodiment of the supplementary server SS which in this scenario receives the mobile station s location and returns a plaintext formatted location description For instance the geographical coordinates or cell ID of Piccadilly Circus might be converted to a plaintext description of Piccadilly Circus London In step 5 10 the camera client terminal CAM CT begins uploading of image data to the image host ing server In step 5 12 the gateway application complements the image data with the mobile station s location In one particular implementation the location data is placed in a metadata field of the image s Itis readily apparent to a person skilled in the art that as the technology advances the inventive concept can be imple mented in various ways The invention and its embodiments are not limited to the examples described above but may vary within the scope of the claims The invention claimed is 1 A mobile station comprising a memory a processor a radio transceiver configured to establish and maintain a broadband connection with a mobile communication network wireless local area network WLAN means having a first mode of usage acting as a WLAN client and a second mode of usage acting as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN terminal over a WLAN network a gateway appli
24. ion of a PIN code via the mobile station s user inter face and using the mobile stations SIM card in a registration process to the access network AN In step 2 4 the mobile station s WLAN circuitry is activated according to a setting from the mobile station s user interface In steps 2 6 through 2 8 the inventive gateway application is downloaded via a personal computer PC from the repository RP In cases wherein the gateway application is downloaded without the personal computer the download request and application download would take place directly between the mobile sta tion MS and the repository RP In step 2 10 the downloaded gateway application is stored in the mobile station s memory for later execution as will be further dews scribed in connec tion with FIG 3 The WLAN activation step may not be necessary if the mobile station s WLAN circuitry is permanently enabled The downloading and storing acts may be omitted in embodi ments having the gateway application permanently stored or pre installed in the mobile station s memory FIG 3 depicts an illustrative scenario involving a client terminal represented in FIG 3 by a personal computer PC and a mobile station which supports a gateway application according to the present invention In step 3 0 the inventive gateway application is executed in the mobile station The execution of the gateway application is typically started in response to a user instruction via the mobil
25. lects the WLAN network created by the mobile station MS In step 3 8 the client terminal PC as part of a conventional WLAN attach procedure requests an IP address from the mobile station s WLAN base station which returns the requested IP address in step 3 10 Dynamic Host Configura tion Protocol DHCP is typically used for steps 3 8 and 3 10 Let us assume that the client terminal PC tries to retrieve a web page from the Internet host item 190 in FIG 1 In step 3 12 the client terminal PC sends a domain name service DNS query for the IP address of the host s web page to the DNS server of the mobile station s gateway application In step 3 14 the mobile station s gateway application forwards the DNS query to internet s domain name service and obtains the host s IP address in step 3 16 In step 3 18 the mobile station s gateway application returns the host s IP address to the client terminal PC In step 3 20 the client terminal PC requests a web page from the host s IP address Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTP is typically used for this purpose This request like any communication between the client terminal PC and any Internet hosts takes place via the inventive gateway applica tion being executed in the mobile station Step 3 22 is an optional step which may be omitted in some embodiments When performed step 3 22 comprises redirecting the first HTTP page request from client terminal PC to another Inter net host c
26. n capable of communicating with at least one WLAN HOAW 74 06 2009 01 terminal over a WLAN network creating a network identifier HOAW 4 00 2009 01 for the WLAN base station assigning an internet protocol HOAL 12 28 2006 01 address for the at least one WLAN terminal resolving 52 U S CL domain name service DNS queries in cooperation with an USPE erie 370 254 370 338 370 328 370 401 external DNS service system assigning at least one port 370 465 466 422 1 466 434 number for each protocol supported by the gateway applica 58 Field of Classification Search tion and tunneling internet traffic between the at least one USPC anaes 370 328 338 390 254 352 392 401 370 449 331 332 455 41 2 422 1 435 2 455 552 1 See application file for complete search history WLAN terminal and an internet host over the broadband connection 10 Claims 3 Drawing Sheets US 8 625 461 B2 Page 2 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 7 577 142 B2 8 2009 Kloth 7 650 148 B2 1 2010 Kim et al 7 743 094 B2 6 2010 Metke 7 773 987 B2 7 801 100 B2 8 2010 Jain etal wo 455 435 1 9 2010 Agardh etal 370 338 7 831 236 B2 11 2010 Robertson et al 7 849 177 B2 12 2010 Uhlik 7 916 663 B2 3 2011 Yee 7 944 867 B2 5 2011 Usuba oo eee 370 311 8 032 174 B2 10 2011 Kezys et al 8 036 191 B2 10 2011 Kroeselberg et al 8 050 192 B2 11 2011 Park 8 064 402 B2 11 2011 Junetal 8 064 417 B2 11 2011 Maki 8 064
27. twork WLAN gateway The mobile station comprises a memory for storing applica tions and data a processor for executing the stored applica tions a user interface comprising an input section and an output section reception transmission circuitry for providing a communication interface to one or more access networks 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 authentication means operable to authenticate a user of the mobile station a radio transceiver operable to establish and maintain a broadband connection with a mobile communica tion network in response to a successful authentication of the user of the mobile station and wireless WLAN means responsive to an activation or deactivation command accord ing to a setting received via the input section of the user interface The inventive method comprises instructing the processor by a gateway application to control the following operations activating the WLAN means as a WLAN base station capable of communicating with at least one WLAN ter minal over a WLAN network creating a network identifier for the WLAN base station assigning an Internet protocol address for the at least one WLAN terminal resolving domain name service DNS queries in coop eration with an external DNS service system assigning at least one port number for each protocol sup ported by the gateway application and tunneling Internet traffic between the at least one WLAN terminal
28. various queries initiated by the client terminal and or responses to those queries by Internet servers and enhance the query responses by relevant map or photography information For instance the gateway application can detect a query to post and provide the query response with a map and or photograph of the post office closest to the mobile station s GPS provided geographical coordinates In order to obtain the map and or photograph the gateway application may query a supplementary server which provides the requested functionality Another example of such additional services relates to traffic statistics which the gateway application collects and transmits to some internet based supplementary server not shown separately For example such a supplementary server may use the traffic statistics to monitor Quality of Service QoS parameters which can be used to maintain the QoS at a specified level and or to optimize resource usage in the access network In some embodiments the supplementary server is an advertising server The advertising server may utilize the traffic statistics for targeted or tailored advertising to the client terminal PC Such traffic statistics may include for example user identification usage amount of traffic usage times internet addresses visited query parameters or the like Alternatively or additionally the gateway applica tion can transmit traffic statistics to a billing server which participates in
29. y contain useful information or advertisements for example Yet another specific embodiment is a gateway application for a mobile station wherein the mobile station comprises a GPS receiver or other means for determining the mobile station s location and the gateway application comprises a code portion for associating the determined location to the tunnelled internet traffic The gateway application and or some Internet based supplementary server s may use the determined location to produce one or more additional or supplementary services to the WLAN terminal The gateway application may further comprise a code por tion for collecting traffic statistics in respect of the tunnelled traffic and for transmitting at least some of the collected traffic statistics to an advertising server and or billing server so as to use the traffic statistics for advertising and or billing BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the following the invention will be described in greater detail by means of specific embodiments with reference to the attached drawings in which US 8 625 461 B2 3 FIG 1 is a schematic block diagram of a representative mobile station FIG 2 shows some preparatory acts some ofwhich may be optional FIG 3 shows an illustrative scenario involving a client terminal and a mobile station which supports a gateway appli cation according to the present invention FIG 4 shows an embodiment in which the gateway appli cation
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