System and method for enabling a viewable PAN ID over a wireless personal area network

1. A system for enabling a viewable personal area network (PAN) identification (ID) over an 802.15.4 network, the system comprising:

a coordinator component configured to initiate the formation of and assign a PAN ID to a PAN;

a device configured to transmit or receive data using a wireless protocol and comprising at least one processor programmed to:

request the PAN;

receive the assigned PAN ID based on the request;

determine whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID or a non-viewable PAN ID by performing a checksum on one or more characters in a character string of the PAN ID;

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID, present the PAN ID to the user; and

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a non-viewable PAN ID, redefine the non-viewable PAN ID to be a viewable PAN ID and present the redefined PAN ID to the user,

wherein a viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a human-readable format, the human readable format comprising one of an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format and a Universal Character Set Transformation Format (UTF), and

wherein a non-viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a machine-readable format, the machine-readable format comprising a hexadecimal format.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a display configured to present the viewable PAN ID to a user.

3. An apparatus configured to enable a viewable personal area network (PAN) identification (ID) over a wireless network, the apparatus comprising

at least one processor and memory storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to:

receive a request to assign a PAN ID to the wireless network;

determine whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID or a non-viewable PAN ID by performing a checksum on one or more characters in a character string of the PAN ID;

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID, assign the viewable PAN ID to the wireless network;

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a non-viewable PAN ID, redefine the non-viewable PAN ID to be a viewable PAN ID and assign the redefined PAN ID to the wireless network; and

provide the assigned PAN ID,

wherein a viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a human readable format, the human readable format comprising one of an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format and a Universal Character Set Transformation Format (UTF), and

wherein a non-viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a machine-readable format, the machine-readable format comprising a hexadecimal format.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein redefining the non-viewable PAN ID comprises applying a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to the non-viewable PAN ID, wherein the CRC enables the PAN ID to be identified as viewable.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , further comprising receiving text to be assigned as the viewable PAN ID, wherein the CRC is calculated from the received text.

6. A method for enabling a viewable personal area network (PAN) identification (ID) over a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a device to scan for an available wireless network;

receiving a PAN ID based on the request;

determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID or a non-viewable PAN ID by performing a checksum on one or more characters in a character string of the PAN ID; and

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID, presenting the PAN ID

responsive to determining that the PAN ID is a non-viewable PAN ID, redefining the non-viewable PAN ID to be a viewable PAN ID and presenting the redefined PAN ID to the user,

wherein a viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a human-readable format, the human readable format comprising one of an American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format and a Universal Character Set Transformation Format (UTF), and

wherein a non-viewable PAN ID comprises a PAN ID in a machine-readable format, the machine-readable format comprising a hexadecimal format.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein presenting the PAN ID comprises presenting the viewable PAN ID with eight characters or less.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID comprises determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID based on an outcome of the checksum.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein determining whether the PAN ID is a viewable PAN ID comprises appending the computed checksum on one or more characters at an end of the character string in the PAN ID.