Method and apparatus for selecting a location platform for a user equipment to roam and method for determining a location of a user equipment using the same

• US 20050255857A1
• Filed: 05/17/2005
• Published: 11/17/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Wuk, Sung, Sang-Kyung, Park, Joon-Goo, Kim, Joo-Young
• Granted Patent: US 8,208,948 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/10 between location register and external networks

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for selecting a location platform for a user equipment to roam and a method for determining the location of the user equipment using the same. The method for selecting a location platform includes: checking a visiting network of the UE in response to a location request message transmitted from the UE which is roaming; and selecting a location platform to calculate a location of the UE by comparing positioning capability information of the checked visiting network and positioning capability information of a home network of the UE. According to such a method, it is possible to efficiently perform the positioning of the UE, regardless of the location of the UE, thereby improving the quality of the positioning service.

Claims

1. A method for selecting a location platform for a user equipment (UE) that is roaming, the method comprising the steps of:

checking a visiting network of the UE in response to a location request message transmitted from the UE that is roaming; and

selecting a location platform to calculate a location of the UE by comparing positioning capability information of the checked visiting network and positioning capability information of a home network of the UE.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in the selecting step, the positioning capability information of the visiting network is requested from the visiting network, and the positioning capability information of the visiting network received in response to the request and the positioning capability information of the home network are compared with each other.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, in the selecting step, the positioning capability information of the visiting network is stored in advance, and the positioning capability information of the visiting network and the positioning capability information of the home network are compared with each other.

4. The method as claimed in claims 1, wherein the positioning capability information includes a type of network, information indicating if a roaming location service is supported, a supported positioning scheme, a degree of accuracy of the positioning scheme, and an assisted global positioning system (A-GPS) positioning scheme.

5. A location platform selection system for a user equipment (UE), comprising:

at least one location platform selection apparatus,

wherein the location platform selection apparatus compares positioning capabilities information of a home location platform of the UE and a visiting location platform in response to a location information request of the UE, which is roaming, and selects a location platform to calculate a location of the UE, the visiting location platform being included in a visiting network in which the UE is visiting.

6. The location platform selection system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the location platform selection apparatus is included in each location platform included in networks.

7. The location platform selection system as claimed in claim 6, wherein a location platform selection apparatus included in the home location platform of a home network of the UE receives the positioning capability information of the visiting network from a location platform selection apparatus included in the visiting location platform of the visiting network of the UE, and compares the positioning capability information of the visiting network with positioning capability information of the home network, which is stored in advance.

8. The location platform selection system as claimed in claim 6, wherein a location platform selection apparatus, which is included in the home location platform of the home network of the UE, stores a second positioning capability information of the visiting network of the UE and a first positioning capability information of the home network of the UE, and compares the stored positioning capability information with each other.

9. The location platform selection system as claimed in claims 5, wherein the positioning capability information includes a type of network, information indicating if a roaming location service is supported, a supported positioning scheme, a degree of accuracy of the positioning scheme, and an assisted global positioning system (A-GPS) positioning scheme.

10. A method for determining a location of a user equipment (UE), the method comprising the steps of:

checking a visiting network of the UE in response to a location request message transmitted from the UE, which is roaming;

selecting a location platform to calculate a location of the UE by comparing positioning capability information of the checked visiting network and positioning capability information of a home network of the UE;

acquiring auxiliary information for calculating the location of the UE in the selected location platform by exchanging auxiliary location information between the selected location platform and the UE; and

calculating the location of the UE using the acquired auxiliary information.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein, in the location platform selecting step, the positioning capability information of the visiting network is requested from the visiting network, and the positioning capability information of the visiting network received in response to the request and the positioning capability information of the home network are compared with each other.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein, in the location platform selecting step, the positioning capability information of the visiting network is stored in advance, and the positioning capability information of the visiting network and the positioning capability information of the home network are compared with each other.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the positioning capability information includes a type of network, information indicating if a roaming location service is supported, a supported positioning scheme, a degree of accuracy of the positioning scheme, and an assisted global positioning system (A-GPS) positioning scheme.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a step of notifying a visiting location platform that the visiting location platform is determined as a location platform to calculate the location of the UE, when the location platform selected in the location platform selecting step is located in the visiting network.

15. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein, in the auxiliary information acquiring step, the selected location platform exchanges the auxiliary location information with the UE via a home location platform, which is located in the home network of the UE, when the location platform selected in the location platform selecting step is located in the visiting network.