Facilitation of timed fingerprint mobile device locating

• US 10,225,816 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Meredith, Sheldon Kent, Fix, Jeremy, Kosseifi, Mario
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Quoc Thai N
• Application Number:
  US15/191,877
• Publication Number:
  US 20160309441A1
• Time in Patent Office: 984 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/06 using intensity measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Downlink signal strength measurements from base stations (BSs) are reported by mobile devices to facilitate mobile device locating. A system receives the signal strength information and determines whether the mobile device is within a selected distance from any of the BSs in response to detecting that signal strength information for one of the BSs is greater than a predefined value. The system determines an area over which to search for the mobile device if the system fails to detect that the signal strength information for any of the BSs is greater than the predefined value. The area over which the search is performed is an intersection of all regions determined by the signal strengths of the BSs.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

reducing, by a device comprising a processor, an initial search area associated with base station devices to a search area associated with a base station device of the base station devices determined to be associated with signal strength information that satisfies a condition, wherein the signal strength information is obtained from a mobile device measuring a signal strength of signals generated by the base station device;

determining, by the device, a distance from an approximate location of the base station device associated with the signal strength information that satisfies the condition, wherein the distance is based on the signal strength information for the base station device, and wherein the condition being satisfied comprises the signal strength information being determined to represent the signal strength that is greater than a defined threshold signal strength;

determining, by the device, that the device is within a defined distance to the base station device; and

forgoing, by the device, performing scanning of bin regions representing a search area based on the determining that the device is within the defined distance.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing, by the device, the scanning of the bin regions representing the search area based on a determination that the device fails to be within the defined distance.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the search area is a polygonal region.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the device, an intersection region composed of an area over which respective regions around the base station devices overlap.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising searching, by the device, for the mobile device, wherein the searching is limited to the intersection region.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining, by the device, respective expected downlink signal power information measured at the mobile device according to respective parameters.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining the intersection region comprises approximating a single rectangular region substantially covering the intersection region.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining the intersection region comprises determining an irregular polygonal region.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

based on a mobile device measuring signal strength information for a base station device of base station devices and determining the signal strength information for the base station device satisfies a condition, decreasing an initial search area associated with a group of the base station devices to a search area associated with the base station device having the signal strength information that satisfies the condition;

determining a distance from an approximate location of the base station device associated with the signal strength information that satisfies the condition, wherein the distance is based on the signal strength information for the base station device, and wherein the condition being satisfied comprises the signal strength information being greater than a defined threshold signal strength;

measuring signal strength information for the base station device of base station devices; and

based on determining that the signal strength for the base station device is higher than a defined value, searching at least a defined distance from only the base station device for which the signal strength for the base station device is higher than the defined value.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining respective regions around the base station devices based on the respective signal strength information for the base station devices.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the determining respective regions is also based on respective locations of the base station devices.

12. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

reducing an initial search area associated with a base station device of base station devices to a search area associated with the base station device having signal strength information that satisfies a defined condition; and

determining a distance from an approximate location of the base station device associated with the signal strength information that satisfies the condition, wherein the distance is based on the signal strength information for the base station device and a defined a path loss model, wherein the condition is that the signal strength information is greater than a defined threshold signal strength, wherein the defined path loss model migrates from a line of sight model to a Hata-Okumura radio propagation model with increasing distance between the base station device and the system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein, at a defined distance between the base station device and the system, the path loss model assumes a first percentage line of sight path loss and a second percentage Hata-Okumura path loss, and the operations further comprise:

receiving downlink signal strengths measured at a mobile device, and wherein the downlink signal strengths are employed to determine the signal strength information.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise searching the area for a mobile device.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

performing a first determination, for the base station devices, of respective expected downlink signal powers measured at the mobile device according to parameters; and

utilizing the respective signal strength information for the base station devices, measured by the mobile device, as a proxy for respective distances between the mobile device and the base station devices.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

performing a second determination of respective regions associated with the base station devices based on the respective signal strength information for the base station devices and respective locations of the base station devices.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

performing a third determination of an intersection of the respective regions.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the performing the third determination of the intersection of the respective regions comprises generating an approximation of a rectangular region at least substantially covering the intersection of the respective regions.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the performing the third determination of the intersection of the respective regions comprises generating a definition of an irregular polygonal region having a perimeter defined by the intersection of the respective regions.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the performing the first determination of the respective expected downlink signal powers is made with respect to respective antenna heights of the base station devices and an antenna height of the mobile device.