FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wireless devices, and more particularly to a system and method for a wireless device to extend use of its cellular communication capabilities to additional devices.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Wireless communication systems are rapidly growing in usage. Further, wireless communication technology has evolved from voice-only communications to also include the transmission of data, such as Internet and multimedia content. As use of wireless communication technology has proliferated, an ever increasing number of devices are being provided with wireless communication capability, such that it is common for a user (or group of users, such as a family) to possess multiple wireless devices.

Additionally, there exist numerous different wireless communication technologies and standards. Some examples of wireless communication standards include GSM, UMTS (WCDMA), LTE, LTE Advanced (LTE-A), 3GPP2 CDMA2000 (e.g., 1×RTT, 1×EV-DO, HRPD, eHRPD), IEEE 802.11 (WLAN or Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), Bluetooth, and others. Some of these standards may serve complementary functions while others may typically be considered competitors attempting to fulfill similar needs amongst consumers. Accordingly, it is common for at least some wireless devices to communicate using multiple wireless technologies or standards. For example, some wireless devices (such as some smart phones, etc.), may be capable of cellular communication as well as Wi-Fi communication. Other wireless devices (such as some tablets, portable media players, etc.) may be capable of Wi-Fi communication but not cellular communication.

Thus, it is possible that a user (or group of users) might have a number of wireless devices, among which at least one functions as a cellular telephone, while at least one does not have cellular communication capability. In this case, it is currently not possible for the wireless device without cellular communication capability to utilize the cellular communication capability of the cellular telephone, e.g., to receive and place phone calls. However, at least on some occasions, a user may have a wireless device without cellular communication capability readily available (e.g., if the user is reading on a tablet or watching content on a media player, among various possibilities) but not a cellular telephone (e.g., if the cellular telephone is charging on a docking station, among various possibilities). If the user wants to place or receive a call on such occasions, the user is not able to do so using the readily accessible wireless device without cellular communication capability, but must instead use the less convenient cellular telephone or forego placing or receiving the call altogether. Accordingly, improvements in wireless devices and wireless communications would be desirable.

SUMMARY

In light of the foregoing and other concerns, it would be desirable to provide a way for a wireless user equipment (UE) device with cellular communication capability to extend the use of that cellular communication capability to other devices. Accordingly, embodiments are presented herein of a method for a UE to extend use of its cellular communication capability to additional devices, and a UE configured to implement the method. The UE may include one or more radios (e.g., including at least a cellular radio), including one or more antennas, for performing wireless communications with base stations (BSs), and/or for performing peer-to-peer wireless communications. The UE device may also include a processing element configured to implement part or all of the method (e.g., by executing program instructions). In addition, the UE device may include a non-transitory computer accessible memory medium, which may store program instructions executable by the UE.

For example, if a user is in the vicinity of their cellular device but another wireless device is more readily available, it would be desirable to provide the user with the ability to place and receive calls from the more convenient wireless device, e.g., by extending the cellular communication capability of the cellular device to the more convenient wireless device via a wireless link (e.g., via a Wi-Fi connection through an access point, or via a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi link).

Alternatively, the user might not be in the immediate vicinity of their cellular device, but may have available a device which is capable of communicating with the cellular device via a wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet. It would similarly be desirable to provide the user with the ability to place and receive calls from the more convenient device e.g., by extending the cellular communication capability of the cellular device to the more convenient device via the WAN. Such communication could be performed via a server (e.g., a cloud service providing the connection between the associated devices) and/or via a direct IP link.

Providing the capability to extend cellular telecommunication service obtained by a UE to additional devices via a local wireless connection or a WAN may further open up additional possibilities which may be desirable to users. For example, it is possible that incoming calls could be selectively forwarded by the UE to certain devices registered to use the UE's cellular telecommunication capabilities. This might be desirable, for example, if the cellular account were being shared by multiple users, such as a family. Thus, based on address book contact information (or another basis), incoming calls from certain contacts might be forwarded to devices associated with those contacts but not to devices which are not associated with those contacts. As another possibility, it might be preferable to forward incoming calls only to registered devices which are being actively used, e.g., in order to avoid draining battery power of devices which are not actively being used (e.g., since it may be that no user is nearby such a device). Alternatively, incoming calls could be forwarded to all registered devices, enabling any such devices to answer those incoming calls.

