2631 results about "Wide area" patented technology

The present invention discloses a system and a method to locate moving objects, such as people, pets and vehicles, over a wide area, by attaching small wireless devices, such as Bluetooth transceivers, to said objects and determining the location of said devices. The location of said wireless devices is determined by achieving ad-hoc short range wireless connectivity between said devices and communication devices such as Bluetooth enabled mobile phones that pass by, where said latter communication devices can be located by other means, such as GPS or network-based techniques.

A portable device (100) communicates with a short range wireless local area network (114) and a wide area communication system (116). The portable device (100) receives a location data from the short range wireless local area network (114). The portable device (100) generates a location sensitive information request to the wide area communication system (116) including the location data received from the short range wireless local area network (114).

Wide-area data communications utilize regional networks transporting IP-over-Ethernet on fiber. For certain Layer 2 services, a regional implementation of the network makes limited use of spanning tree protocol on a backbone ring. Learning bridge operations in switches on associated access rings involve a short default for an aging timer. For use of Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), the connection of each access ring to the backbone ring uses a pair of routers with dual links therebetween. One of these links is bonded to the backbone (OSPF Area 0), whereas the other link is bonded to the Area of the respective access ring. Also, certain routers within each regional network form a mini-autonomous system, for boundary gateway protocol (BGP). The mini-autonomous systems of the regional networks form a confederation. The network utilizes route reflectors in the mini-autonomous systems. The Internet carries confederation commands to and from a designated hub.

A system and method for the establishment and maintenance of wireless network, such as wireless network enabling access to the World Wide Web. The network can be created by its users as part of social network activity. The users are using automated resources discovery, verification and mapping as a comprehensive wireless resources search engine. Once few locations are mapped as wireless service “hot spots,” the service area can be expanded as users keep discovering and mapping more resources. These existing wireless Internet access resources could be mined by users to create spontaneous wireless network providing wide area high-speed data service.

Traditional networked file systems like NFS do not extend to wide-area due to network latency and dynamics introduced in the WAN environment. To address that problem, a wide-area networked file system is based on a traditional networked file system (NFS / CIFS) and extends to the WAN environment by introducing a file redirector infrastructure residing between the central file server and clients. The file redirector infrastructure is invisible to both the central server and clients so that the change to NFS is minimal. That minimizes the interruption to the existing file service when deploying WireFS on top of NFS. The system includes an architecture for an enterprise-wide read / write wide area network file system, protocols and data structures for metadata and data management in this system, algorithms for history based prefetching for access latency minimization in metadata operations, and a distributed randomized algorithm for the implementation of global LRU cache replacement scheme.

Methods and apparatus are described for distributing gaming applications to a plurality of gaming sites located in a plurality of regulatory regions via a wide area network. Each regulatory region has a regulatory scheme associated therewith. A plurality of gaming applications are stored on at least one central server. A subset of the gaming applications are distributed from the at least one central server to at least one of the gaming sites located in one of regulatory regions via the wide area network, the subset of gaming applications being determined according to the associated regulatory scheme.

The present invention describes the use of a space-based Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) magnetic field detector in conjunction with ground-based network of ELF magnetic field detectors. In particular, a space based ELF detection system can be used to perform a wide area search and find precursor earthquake signals in both known and unknown earthquake zones, and a ground-based network of ELF detectors can be used to verify that the signals are indeed earthquake generated signals. The use of this invention will minimize cost and manpower necessary to effectuate an accurate and reliable earthquake detection system.

The present invention contributes to advancements in the art of inventory management and distribution by providing a system and method for processing, distributing, and tracking reusable inventory items. Reusable articles, such as surgical garments and accessories, are adapted with radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tags having unique identification numbers. A “reader” is used to retrieve stored information from the tags without requiring direct contact or clear line-of-sight. The reusable articles are processed and distributed using an inventory management system wherein lifecycle data is obtained for each reusable article. The reusable articles are distributed to the end users from central processing facilities, used, returned, cleaned, inspected, folded, sterilized, and returned to inventory for re-distribution. Periodic quality control inspections are conducted in response to predetermined usage parameters. The use of RFID tags and a corresponding computer network allows for the acquisition of data corresponding to each reusable article within a distribution system having multiple remote distribution and processing facilities. The acquired data is transmitted to a central computer processing system via a secured wide area computer network for use and analysis. Data processing computer servers at each remote distribution and processing facility electronically linked to a central data processing server provide a fail-safe network for acquired data.

A method, system and a badge utilized therein utilize both the radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to locate subjects (i.e. objects and persons) within a tracking environment. The system includes a battery-operated, microprocessor-based badge for each subject to be located. Each badge automatically transmits: (1) shorter interval, digitized, infrared light signals to identify a delimited area zone of its subject's location; (2) shorter interval, digitized, lower power RF signals to provide a local area zone of its subject's location; and (3) longer interval, digitized, higher power RF signals to provide a wide area zone of its subject's location. Each badge transmits uniquely identifiable IR and higher power RF signals upon actuation of one or more push button switches integrated on the badge or a change of state of one or more external switch connections. Each higher power, longer interval, RF signal is a “supervisory” pulse. This pulse informs a host computer that the badge is in range of an RF receiver and is functional.