One phenomenon with communicating data over a wireless network connection is numerous wireless communication devices, such as personal computers (PCs), notebooks, netbooks, tablet PC, servers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), televisions (TVs) or set top boxes, etc., may utilize more than one operating system (OS) to provide the best possible user experience and such a trend is growing. This phenomenon is driven, for example, by a long boot time of a main OS, such as Windows. The problem of the long boot time can be amplified if the number of applications installed in the main OS is large. In such a multi-OS environment, if a user wants a quick access to limited functionalities of her device, such as web-browsing, email checking, or media playing, and do not wish to wait for the long boot time required to boot her device in the main OS, the user may boot her device in a Fast Boot OS first and establish a wireless connection in the Fast Boot OS.
To establish the wireless connection, for example, the wireless communication device identifies available APs of one or more networks, or one or more other devices of a peer-to-peer networking group, that are available from a location where the device is currently located. The device selects one of the available APs as a target access point or one of the one or more other devices of the peer-to-peer networking group as a target device. Then, the device establishes a wireless connection with the target access point or target device, based on an input from the user. Accordingly, for these regular connection operations, the device needs to receive various user initiations, such as scanning through the available APs or peer-to-peer networking group devices identified by the device, choosing one of them as the target access point or target device, and issuing a request to connect to the target access point or target device. The device further needs to receive wireless connection credentials from the user, such as a network connection identification (e.g., service set identifier (SSID)) or security related information (e.g., WPS (Wireless Protected Setup) key), in order to generate a wireless connection profile for the wireless connection between the device and the target access point or target device.
Typically, the multi-OS environment allows the device that is booted in the Fast Boot OS to be rebooted into the main OS later when the user decides to access an entire set of applications installed in the main OS and vice versa. However, under the existing technology, upon the device being rebooted into a new OS, such as the main OS, different from a previously booted-in OS, such as the Fast Boot OS, the device cannot utilize the wireless connection credentials used for the wireless connection established in the previously booted-in OS. This forces the user to go through the same wireless connection process again to reconnect her device to the same access point or peer-to-peer networking group device(s) that her device was previously connected to before the switch into the new OS. These are cumbersome and time-consuming processes for the user and, in turn, degrades user experiences in using her device in the multi-OS environment. Thus, there are general needs for systems and methods that allow sharing wireless connection profiles between multiple operating systems.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds