Positioning systems and methods
First Claim
1. A method of providing a positioning service for plural terminals operating in a communication network, the terminals having receivers for receiving signals from transmission sources, and the method comprising the steps of a) making measurements of the signals received from one or more of the transmission sources by the receivers in a plurality of the terminals;
- b) transferring said measurements to at least one data node;
c) creating at said at least one data node one or more records of one or more of said measurements;
d) transferring at least some of the records to a computing node;
e) maintaining a table of the records transferred to the computing node; and
f) carrying out a computation, using at least part of the table, from which computation the positions or states of motion or relative positions or relative states of motion of said plural terminals and the transmission time offsets of the transmission sources are extractable.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
There is described a method of providing a positioning service for plural terminals operating in a communication network which may, for example be a GSM telephone network. The terminals have receivers for receiving signals from transmission sources. In the method measurements of the signals received from one or more of the transmission sources by the receivers are made and the measurements transferred to one or more data nodes. At the data node(s) one or more records of one or more of the measurements are created and at least some of the records are transferred to one or more computing nodes. At the computing node(s) a table of the records transferred to the computing node is maintained and a computation is carried out, using at least part of the table, from which the positions or states of motion or relative positions or relative states of motion of said plural terminals and the transmission time offsets of the transmission sources are extractable.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A method of providing a positioning service for plural terminals operating in a communication network, the terminals having receivers for receiving signals from transmission sources, and the method comprising the steps of
a) making measurements of the signals received from one or more of the transmission sources by the receivers in a plurality of the terminals; -
b) transferring said measurements to at least one data node;
c) creating at said at least one data node one or more records of one or more of said measurements;
d) transferring at least some of the records to a computing node;
e) maintaining a table of the records transferred to the computing node; and
f) carrying out a computation, using at least part of the table, from which computation the positions or states of motion or relative positions or relative states of motion of said plural terminals and the transmission time offsets of the transmission sources are extractable. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 37, 40, 41)
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2. A method of determining the position or state of motion or relative position or relative state of motion of a mobile terminal in a communication network, the mobile terminal having a receiver for receiving signals from transmission sources, the method comprising the steps of
a. acquiring at a data node, measurements of the signals received from one or more of the transmission sources by the receiver in the first mobile terminal whose position or state of motion or relative position or relative state of motion is to be determined; -
b. calculating a coarse position or relative position of the first mobile terminal;
c. receiving at said data node measurements made by the receiver in a second mobile terminal near to the coarse position or relative position of the first terminal, together with information about the position of the mobile unit if available; and
d. calculating at any one or more computing nodes the position or state of motion or relative position or relative state of motion of either or both of the said mobile terminals using at least some of the measurements made by the first and second mobile terminals. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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26. A communication network having
terminals whose positions or states of motion or relative positions or relative states of motion are to be determined, the terminals each having a receiver for receiving signals from transmission sources and means for making measurements of the signals received from one or more of the transmission sources; -
at least one data node having means for acquiring said measurements from said terminals and means for creating one or more records of one or more of said measurements; and
a computing node having means for receiving at least some of the records, means for maintaining a table of the records transferred to the computing node, and means for carrying out a computation, using at least part of the table, from which computation the positions or states of motion or relative positions or relative states of motion of said plural terminals and the transmission time offsets of the transmission sources are extractable.
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38. A method of maintaining, within a radio telephone communication network, a record which gives the calculated position of every terminal at its last communication with the network.
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39. A method of maintaining, within a radio telephone communication network, a record which gives the serving cell used by every terminal in its last communication with the network.
Specification