Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Billy R Anders, Jr

Amer A Hassan

Andrew Thomas Baron

Danny Allen Reed

Shai Guday

Mitesh K Desai

Dmitry A Anipko

Upshur Parks

Marco Piumatti

Pehkeong Teh

Paul William Garnett

Yatharth Gupta

Kurt M Hunter

Brian Larsen

Ravi Rao

Mahmoud S Elhaddad

Dennis Edward Flanagan

Henry M A Filgueiras

Anoop Gupta

Mukund Sankaranarayan

Henrique Filgueiras

Trideepraj Roychoudhury

Techniques for connection information for inter-device wireless data communication are described. In at least some embodiments, a broker device maintains wireless connection information for various wireless devices. The wireless connection information includes wireless channels at which particular wireless devices can be accessed. The broker device can provide the wireless connection information to various other devices to enable wireless communication with the wireless devices.

Connection information for inter-device wireless data communication

An indicator for a device may provide an indication that a threshold associated with a budget for a network resource has or will be reached. When a user requests a network operation that will consume the network resource, an amount of the network resource to be consumed by the operation is predicted, if possible. If the prior use of the network resource and the amount to be used to complete the network operation exceeds a threshold the user may be warned and given an opportunity to cancel the operation or adjust the way in which the operation will be performed. If the amount of network resource a network operation will consume is unknown, a rate of use of the network resource is determined and a time until the budget is reached is estimated.

Network resource management with prediction

A dock for interacting with a computing device. The computing device configures itself for operations based on its context, which may be determined form the dock by reading a value from a tag on the dock. The computing device may use low power transmissions such that receiving a value from the tag provides an indication of proximity to the dock. The value read provides an indication of a desired operation, and, in response to reading a value of the tag, the computing device may launch an application, pair with devices in the vicinity of the dock, or take other actions that configure the computing device. A universal dock, usable with computing devices of a plurality of form factors, may be implemented by providing an array of tags and, in some cases, a non-contact power supply.

Universal dock for context sensitive computing device

A wireless computer that pairs with a remote audio-video presentation device, such as a television. As a result of the pairing, a communication channel is established for the computer to transmit audio-video content for presentation through that device. Additionally, as part of the pairing, the computer and remote device select a side channel for communication of user commands. The wireless computer may display a user interface through which a user may input commands that control the manner in which the remote audio-video device presents the content. As a result, a user may use the wireless computer as a remote control for the audio-video device, controlling both the content presented and the manner in which it is presented. The side channel may use different frequencies than the channel used to communicate audio-video content, and may use very low power at frequencies in the digital TV spectrum.

Direct connection with side channel control

Techniques for sub-channel detection for wireless data communication are described. In at least some implementations, techniques can utilize subsets of available wireless channels for inter-device data communication. For instance, in at least some embodiments, a wireless connection between a client device and a wireless device can be established according to a pre-specified subset of sub-channels. Further, in at least some embodiments, a wireless device can be configured to transmit and/or receive data using a specific subset of sub-channels, while a client device can be configured to scan a larger set of sub-channels to search for data communication from the wireless device. The client device can detect transmitted signal from the wireless device at the subset of sub-channels, and can utilize the set of sub-channels for data communication between the wireless device and the client device.

Sub-channel detection for wireless data communication

A technique for a wireless device to obtain white space information from a component configured for cellular communication, such as a cellular phone. The wireless device and cellular phone may communicate using a short-range connection, such as a peer-to-peer connection, ensuring that the white space information, which is location based, generated by the cellular phone is also accurate for the location of the wireless device. With such white space information, the wireless device can comply with regulatory requirements for white space use by accessing a regulatory database identifying, by location, available white space channels. When the cellular phone is configured for accessing a wide area network, the cellular telephone may provide the white space information as a set of channels available for white space communication. Channels of the set may be prioritized based on one or more parameters, including frequency, permitted transmit power or detected noise.

Location determination for white space utilization

A mechanism for a wireless device to obtain access to network connectivity through a WAN-enabled device. The wireless device may use peer-to-peer communication to request the WAN-enabled device enter a mode in which it serves as an access point to its WAN. The wireless device may then associate with the WAN-enabled device in its role as an access point to access connectivity services. Such a capability may be used, for example, to allow a wireless computing device to gain access to the Internet through a smartphone or other device that has Internet access, and can also be configured to communicate in accordance with the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct standards.

Phone supporting mode conversion

Techniques for wireless access point mapping are described. In at least some embodiments, various characteristics of a wireless access point are detected. Examples of such characteristics include signal strength for wireless signal transmitted by the wireless access point, identifying information for the wireless access point, data error rates for data transmitted by the wireless access point, and so forth. Characteristics of a wireless access point can be detected at multiple different geographic locations to enable a reception range mapping to be generated for the wireless access point, e.g., for an area in which signal reception for the wireless access point is qualitatively acceptable.

Wireless access point mapping

A cellular communication system in which overload of a base station is averted by offering users the option to communicate using a spectrum outside of the spectrum allocated for cellular communication. Incentives are offered to connect to the base station using the alternative spectrum, which may not support communications at the same rate as could be supported using the spectrum allocated to the base station for cellular communications. Users may be selected to receive an offer to receive incentives based on range to the base station, with users closer to the base station being more likely to receive such an offer. The cellular communications system may be a 3G wireless system and the alternative spectrum may be white space in the digital TV spectrum.

Growing community of inventors

Bothell, WA, United States of America

Billy R Anders, Jr