Location of wireless nodes using signal strength weighting metric
First Claim
1. A method for estimating the location of a wireless node relative to a plurality of radio receivers operative to detect the strength of RF signals, wherein a RF coverage map, corresponding to each of the radio receivers, characterizes the signal strength values for locations in a physical region, comprising collecting signal strength values, detected at a plurality of radio receivers, corresponding to signals transmitted by a wireless node;
- computing the estimated location of the wireless node based on the collected signal strength values and the RF coverage maps corresponding to the plurality of radio receivers, wherein the contribution of each detected signal strength value to the estimated location is weighted according to a weighting function that varies with the signal strength values detected by the radio receivers.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Methods, apparatuses, and systems directed to a wireless node location mechanism that uses a signal strength weighting metric to improve the accuracy of estimating the location of a wireless node based on signals detected among a plurality of radio transceivers. In certain implementations, the wireless node location mechanism further incorporates a differential signal strength metric to reduce the errors caused by variations in wireless node transmit power, errors in signal strength detection, and/or direction-dependent path loss. As opposed to using the absolute signal strength or power of an RF signal transmitted by a wireless node, implementations of the present invention compare the differences between signal strength values detected at various pairs of radio receivers to corresponding differences characterized in a model of the RF environment. One implementation of the invention searches for the locations in the model between each pair of radio receivers where their signal strength is different by an observed amount.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for estimating the location of a wireless node relative to a plurality of radio receivers operative to detect the strength of RF signals, wherein a RF coverage map, corresponding to each of the radio receivers, characterizes the signal strength values for locations in a physical region, comprising
collecting signal strength values, detected at a plurality of radio receivers, corresponding to signals transmitted by a wireless node; computing the estimated location of the wireless node based on the collected signal strength values and the RF coverage maps corresponding to the plurality of radio receivers, wherein the contribution of each detected signal strength value to the estimated location is weighted according to a weighting function that varies with the signal strength values detected by the radio receivers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An apparatus facilitating the location of a wireless node in a RF environment, comprising
a plurality of radio receivers comprising at least one antenna, the plurality of radio receivers operative to detect the strength of signals transmitted by wireless nodes and provide the detected signal strengths to a wireless node location model; - wherein a RF coverage map, corresponding to each of the radio receivers, characterizes the signal strength values for locations in a physical region, and
a wireless node location module operative to compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the collected signal strength values and the RF coverage maps corresponding to the plurality of radio receivers, wherein the contribution of each detected signal strength value to the estimated location is weighted according to a weighting function that varies with the signal strength values detected by the radio receivers. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
- wherein a RF coverage map, corresponding to each of the radio receivers, characterizes the signal strength values for locations in a physical region, and
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27. A method for estimating the location of a wireless node relative to a plurality of radio receivers operative to detect the strength of RF signals, wherein a RF coverage map, corresponding to each of the radio receivers, characterizes the signal strength values for locations in a physical region, comprising
collecting signal strength values, detected at a plurality of radio receivers, corresponding to signals transmitted by a wireless node; - and
computing the estimated location of the wireless node by comparing, for all unique pairs of radio receivers, the differences in the signal strength values detected by the plurality of radio receivers to corresponding differences in the signal strength values in the RF coverage maps associated with the plurality of radio receivers, wherein the comparison is weighted as a function of at least one of the signal strength values detected by each unique pair of radio receivers. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A wireless node location mechanism operating in association with a wireless network environment comprising a plurality of radio receivers operative to detect the signal strength of signals transmitted by wireless nodes, wherein a RF coverage map, corresponding to each of the radio receivers, includes signal strength values for locations in a physical region, comprising:
a wireless node location module operative to receive, from at least some of the plurality of radio receivers, the detected signal strength of RF signals transmitted by a wireless node; and
compute the estimated location of the wireless node based on the received signal strength values and the RF coverage maps corresponding to the plurality of radio receivers, wherein the contribution of each detected signal strength value to the estimated location is weighted according to a weighting function that varies with the signal strength values detected by the radio receivers. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
Specification