Method, apparatus, and system for determining a location of a terminal

• US 10,278,005 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2016
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced New Technologies Company Limited (Ant Group Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Li, Xiaojian
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Mong-Thuy T
• Application Number:
  US15/374,672
• Publication Number:
  US 20170127228A1
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566, 455457
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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

Embodiments of the present application relate to a method, apparatus, and system for determining a location of a terminal. The method includes acquiring a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network equipment used by a terminal to access a network, determining whether a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, and in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, determining that a current location of the terminal corresponds to a location associated with the acquired MAC address that is stored in the database, and outputting the current location of the terminal.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

configuring a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein the configuring the database includes;

collecting MAC addresses and corresponding location information, wherein the location information comprises a latitude and a longitude of one of one or more devices while the one of the one or more devices connects to one or more networks using a network equipment corresponding to a particular MAC address, and the collecting the addresses and corresponding location information comprises obtaining a plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data; and

using the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine latitudes and longitudes corresponding to respective MAC addresses, and to generate a mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein the using of the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine the latitudes and the longitudes corresponding to the MAC addresses and to generate the mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses comprises;

processing the location information corresponding to a collected MAC address to obtain one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address; and

using the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address to determine a latitude and a longitude corresponding to the collected MAC address, wherein the using of the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address to determine the latitude and longitude corresponding to the collected MAC address comprises;

determining whether a distance between locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address exceeds a threshold distance; and

in response to determining that none of the distances between the locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address exceeds the threshold distance, determining that the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the MAC address corresponds to an average of the latitudes and the longitudes of the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data for the collected MAC address;

acquiring one or more Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of corresponding one or more devices associated with a network;

determining whether the database the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes at least one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses;

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses, determining that a current location of at least one of the one or more devices corresponds to a location associated with one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses that is stored in the database, wherein in response to determining that the database includes a plurality of pieces of location information corresponding to the one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses, using the plurality of pieces of location information to determine the current location of the at least one of the one or more devices; and

providing a service to the at least one of the one or more devices based at least in part on the current location.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices associated with the network is a wireless signal transceiver equipment that communicates with a terminal using wireless signals.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses does not include the acquired one or more MAC addresses, acquiring an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the at least one of the one or more devices;

determining whether a database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes a location relating to the IP address of at least one of the one or more devices;

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the location relating to the IP address of the at least one of the one or more devices, determining that the current location of a terminal corresponds to the location relating to the IP address of the at least one of the one or more devices that is stored in the database; and

outputting the current location of the terminal.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the distance between the locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data exceeds the threshold distance, determining that the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the MAC address corresponds to a latitude and a longitude associated with a predetermined quantity of MAC address latitude and longitude data with a greatest number of occurrence days among the plurality of MAC address latitude and longitude data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a confidence level of each latitude and longitude corresponding to each MAC address stored in the database.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the database indicating locations associated with one or more Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, including:

collecting IP addresses and location information respectively corresponding to the one or more IP addresses, wherein the location information corresponding to an IP address of the collected IP addresses comprises;

geographic coordinates of a location at which Internet was accessed through the IP address of the collected IP addresses;

determining latitudes and longitudes corresponding respectively to the one or more IP addresses based at least in part on the location information; and

configuring the database indicating locations associated with one or more IP addresses based at least in part on one of the determined latitudes and longitudes corresponding to the one or more IP addresses and a previously acquired IP address base database.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining of the latitudes and the longitudes corresponding to the one or more IP addresses based at least in part on the location information comprises:

processing a collected IP address and a piece of IP address location information to obtain one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address; and

using the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address to determine the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the collected IP address.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the using of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address to determine the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the collected IP address comprises:

determining, for the collected IP address, a weight of each piece of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address; and

determining that geographic coordinates associated with the collected IP address correspond to geographic coordinates in the IP address geographic coordinate data having a greatest weight among the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining, for the collected IP address, the weight of each piece of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address comprises:

acquiring one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data that occur within a threshold range of locations corresponding to each piece of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address; and

determining a weight of each piece of IP address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the IP address according to a number of occurrence days of each piece of IP address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected IP address within a threshold time period and a number of occurrence days of one or more pieces of IP address latitude and longitude data occurring within a threshold range of a corresponding location.

10. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

updating the database indicating locations associated with the one or more IP addresses at predetermined intervals, wherein the updating of the database comprises;

collecting IP addresses that have occurred in a current day and location information of each collected IP address;

determining a latitude and a longitude associated with the location information of each collected IP address having an occurrence time that is closest to a current time to correspond to a latitude and a longitude currently corresponding to a particular IP address;

determining whether the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the particular IP address; and

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses does not include the particular IP address, adding the particular IP address and corresponding latitude and longitude to the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with the one or more IP addresses includes the particular IP address, determining whether a distance between a location corresponding to the particular IP address in the database indicating locations associated with IP addresses and the latitude and the longitude currently corresponding to the particular IP address exceeds a threshold distance; and

in response to determining that the distance between the location corresponding to the particular IP address in the database indicating locations associated with the one or more IP addresses and the latitude and the longitude currently corresponding to the particular IP address exceeds the threshold distance, substituting latitude and longitude corresponding to the particular IP address in the database indicating locations associated with the one or more IP addresses with the latitude and the longitude currently corresponding to the particular IP address.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more devices corresponds to a terminal accessing a network using a network equipment, and the one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses with which the location is associated corresponds to the network equipment.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the using the plurality of pieces of location information to determine the current location of the at least one of the one or more devices comprises determining the current location of the at least one of the one or more devices based on an average of at least two of the plurality of pieces of location information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the using the plurality of pieces of location information to determine the current location of the at least one of the one or more devices comprises weighting at least two of the plurality of pieces of location information to obtain weighted location information, and determining the current location based at least in part on the weighted location information.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses does not include at least one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses,

obtaining one or more Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with the at least one of the one or more devices, and

determining the current location of the at least one of the one or more devices based at least in part on the one or more Internet Protocol (IP) addresses associated with the at least one of the one or more devices.

16. A device, comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

configure a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein to configure the database includes;

collecting MAC addresses and corresponding location information, wherein the location information comprises a latitude and a longitude of one of one or more devices while the one of the one or more devices connects to one or more networks using a network equipment corresponding to a particular MAC address, and the collecting the addresses and corresponding location information comprises obtaining a plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data; and

using the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine latitudes and longitudes corresponding to respective MAC addresses, and to generate a mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein the using of the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine the latitudes and the longitudes corresponding to the MAC addresses and to generate the mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses comprises;

processing the location information corresponding to a collected MAC address to obtain one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address; and

using the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address to determine a latitude and a longitude corresponding to the collected MAC address, wherein the using of the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address to determine the latitude and longitude corresponding to the collected MAC address comprises;

determining whether a distance between locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address exceeds a threshold distance; and

in response to determining that none of the distances between the locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address exceeds the threshold distance, determining that the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the MAC address corresponds to an average of the latitudes and the longitudes of the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data for the collected MAC address;

acquire one or more Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of a corresponding one or more devices associated with a network;

determine whether the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes at least one of the acquired MAC addresses;

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses, determine that a current location of at least one of the one or more devices corresponds to a location associated with one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses that is stored in the database, wherein in response to determining that the database includes a plurality of pieces of location information corresponding to the one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses, using the plurality of pieces of location information to determine the current location of the at least one of the one or more devices; and

providing a service to the at least one of the one or more devices based at least in part on the current location; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor and configured to provide the at least one processor with instructions.

17. A computer program product embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

configuring a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein the configuring the database includes;

collecting MAC addresses and corresponding location information, wherein the location information comprises a latitude and a longitude of one of one or more devices while the one of the one or more devices connects to one or more networks using a network equipment corresponding to a particular MAC address, and the collecting the addresses and corresponding location information comprises obtaining a plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data; and

using the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine latitudes and longitudes corresponding to respective MAC addresses, and to generate a mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein the using of the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine the latitudes and the longitudes corresponding to the MAC addresses and to generate the mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses comprises;

processing the location information corresponding to a collected MAC address to obtain one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address; and

using the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address to determine a latitude and a longitude corresponding to the collected MAC address, wherein the using of the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address to determine the latitude and longitude corresponding to the collected MAC address comprises;

determining whether a distance between locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address exceeds a threshold distance; and

in response to determining that none of the distances between the locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address exceeds the threshold distance, determining that the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the MAC address corresponds to an average of the latitudes and the longitudes of the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data for the collected MAC address;

acquiring one or more Media Access Control (MAC) addresses of a corresponding one or more devices associated with a network;

determining whether the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes at least one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses;

in response to determining that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes one of the acquired MAC addresses, determining that a current location of at least one of the one or more devices corresponds to a location associated with one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses that is stored in the database, wherein in response to determining that the database includes a plurality of pieces of location information corresponding to the one of the acquired one or more MAC addresses, using the plurality of pieces of location information to determine the current location of the at least one of the one or more devices; and

providing a service to the at least one of the one or more devices based at least in part on the current location.