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EP-4221455-B1 - ATTACHING VISIBLE NETWORKS FOR SYNCHRONOUS LOCAL SEARCH RESULTS

EP4221455B1EP 4221455 B1EP4221455 B1EP 4221455B1EP-4221455-B1

Inventors

  • JANE, Luis, Barguno
  • FIARD, Quentin
  • GUPTA, ANKIT

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20171024

Claims (5)

  1. A method comprising: receiving (502), by an interfacing web server, an integrated request from a client device, the integrated request including network location scan information and a query; parsing (504), by the interfacing web server, the received network location scan information from the integrated request, wherein parsing the received network location scan information from the integrated request includes concurrently passing the network location scan information to a location service and the query to an application service; initiating, by the application service, a first search stage using only the query to identify a set of possible search results; resolving (506), by the location service, a location of the client device by comparing the network location scan information against a set of stored geolocation data to provide a resolved location; providing, by the location service, the resolved location of the client device to the application service; applying (508), by the application service, the resolved location to the query to obtain a set of search results responsive to the query, wherein applying the resolved location to the query includes using the resolved location in a second stage refinement search to obtain the set of search results from the set of possible search results; and transmitting (510), by the application service, the set of search results to the client device for presentation to a user of the client device.
  2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network location scan information includes at least one of WiFi or cell scan information.
  3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the location service performs resolving of the location of the client device by matching selected signal information of the network location scan information to corresponding information in a geolocation database maintaining the set of stored geolocation data.
  4. A communication system, comprising: a location database configured to store a set of geolocation data; and one or more processors comprised in each one of an interfacing web server, an application service and a location service, the one or more processors being operatively coupled to the location database, the one or more processors being configured to respectively perform the method of any preceding claim.
  5. A computer-readable recording medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by one or more processors comprised in each one of an interfacing web server, an application service and a location service, the one or more processors being operatively coupled to a location database configured to store a set of geolocation data, causing the one or more processors to respectively perform the method of any of claims 1 to 3.

Description

BACKGROUND In order to provide meaningful search results and other information to a user of a mobile wireless device, the location - or at least an approximate location - of that device needs to be identified. One can baseline the location estimate using GPS coordinates, but this may be problematic when there are not enough visible GPS satellites or the device is indoors. In addition, this approach may have a high latency while a GPS receiver acquires satellite signals, and may also suffer from a power drain due to high battery usage. Information about cellular networks and wireless access points may also be employed to obtain the location estimate. Here, resolving the location of a device may include accessing network-side databases that store geolocalized wireless network information including cellular tower and WiFi access point information. Such databases can be used to geocode scans of visible networks. US 2009/138439 A1 discloses a method of conducting a search on a mobile device, the mobile device capable of communicating with a content server. The method includes the steps of: initiating a search query using a browser on the mobile device, the search query having a search string; automatically obtaining location information of the mobile device; simultaneously transmitting the location information and the search query to the content server; and receiving a search result from the content server in response to the search query, wherein the step of automatically obtaining location information is in response to the step of initiating the search query. BRIEF SUMMARY The invention is defined in the claims. Independent method claim 1 corresponds to the process depicted in Figure 5, while apparatus claims 4 and 5 refer back to any one of method claims 1 to 3. The embodiment corresponding to Figures 1B, 2 and 4 is retained in the specification as being useful for understanding the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Accompanying this specification is a set of drawings illustrating various features and aspects of the technology. In the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like elements. A brief discussion of each drawing is provided below. Fig. 1A illustrates a location request and query process.Fig. 1B illustrates an example integrated request and response process according to aspects of the disclosure.Fig. 2 is an example client communication device configured to implement the integrated request and response process in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.Fig. 3 illustrates an example network in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.Fig. 4 illustrates a process incorporating visible network information with a query in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.Fig. 5 illustrates a process for resolving a location and responding to a query in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.The following description is based on embodiments of the claims and should not be taken as limiting the claims with regard to alternative embodiments that are not explicitly described herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW The integrated approach discussed herein includes attaching network scan information to a query that is sent to a web server or other entity. In one instance, the server provides both a location identification service and a search service, and can split the received information accordingly among these elements of the server in an efficient manner that minimizes data transfers and latency. However, from the client device's perspective, only one query is transmitted. Relevant results based on the location are received quickly by the client device. Not only does this reduce system latency and power consumption, but it also minimizes network overhead by eliminating unnecessary packet transmissions. This approach is in contrast to a conventional query process illustrated in Fig. 1A. Here, location information is sent from a client device to the network, where it is routed from an interfacing web server to a location service. The location service computes the location and returns the result to the client device via the interfacing web server. Based on this information, the client device is able to send a resolved location to a network application service along with a query. This information again passes through the interfacing web server before being received at the application service, which generates search results based on the resolved location. The results are then provided back to the client device via the web server. Latency may be an issue with this approach for different reasons. As noted above, there may be latency on the client side while an on-board GPS receiver acquires satellite signals. And there may also be latency with transmissions between the client device and the network, as well as possible back end delays between different elements of the network. An example of the integrated approach is illustrated in FIG. 1B. Here, as discussed in more detail below, obtained visible netwo