Procedure to increase position location availabilty

• US 20060052115A1
• Filed: 09/07/2004
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Khushu, Sanjeev
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.300
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/01 Satellite radio beacon positioning systems transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/14 Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction aerial arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern H01Q3/00; combinations of different interacting aerial units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q21/29; aerials or aerial systems providing at least two radiation patterns H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/10 Position of receiver fixed by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements , e.g. omega or decca systemsG01S5/12 takes precedence ; beacons and receivers cooperating therewith G01S1/306, G01S1/308
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A device, method and system are provide which permits the methodology used to make the position determination to change dynamically in connection with achieving a position fix of a desired accuracy.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining the position of a mobile station comprising:

(a) determining the position of the mobile station using a first scheme of position determination; and

(b) if the determining does not yield an acceptable position result, repeating said determining using at least one further scheme of position determination different from said first scheme in at least some repetitions until (i) a repetition returns an acceptable position result or (ii) all available position-determining schemes have been used.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said mobile station is a mobile communications device selected from the group consisting of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant with wireless communications capability, a portable computer with wireless communications capability, a pager, and other personal communications devices.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said position-determining schemes are selected from the group consisting of GPS, trilateration, server assisted GPS, enhanced signal strength, angle of arrival, time difference of arrival, forward link trilateration, advanced forward link trilateration, fingerprinting, and combinations thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said position-determining schemes is a mobile station-based stand-alone scheme.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein at least one of said position-determining schemes is a mobile assisted-based scheme.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said position-determining schemes is a mobile assisted-based scheme.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising deciding if each said determination has yielded an acceptable position result.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising deriving an estimate of error associated with each position result, wherein said deciding whether if each determination has yielded an acceptable position result includes comparing an estimate of error associated with such position result to a predetermined tolerance.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said predetermined tolerance is ±

50 feet.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein at least one said scheme includes monitoring a characteristic of signals transmitted between said mobile station and a plurality of base stations, and said deriving an estimate of error includes determining a number of base stations included in said monitoring.

11. A method of determining the position of a mobile station comprising:

determining a position for said mobile station according to a plurality of different position determination schemes, and determining an estimate of error for each position determination scheme; and

choosing one said position determination scheme having a smallest estimate of error, and selecting as the position of the mobile station a position result provided by the chosen position determination scheme.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said mobile station is a mobile communications device selected from the group consisting of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant with wireless communications capability, a portable computer with wireless communications capability, a pager, and other personal communications devices.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein said schemes are selected from the group consisting of GPS trilateration, server assisted GPS, enhanced signal strength, angle of arrival, time difference of arrival, forward link trilateration, advanced forward link trilateration, fingerprinting, and combinations thereof.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of said schemes is a mobile station-based stand-alone scheme.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein at least one of said schemes is a mobile assisted-based scheme.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of said schemes is a mobile assisted-based scheme.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprising deciding whether each said determination has yielded an acceptable position result, said choosing including choosing between only the acceptable position results.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein at least one of said position determination schemes includes monitoring a characteristic of signals transmitted between said mobile station and a plurality of base stations, and said choosing includes determining a number of base stations included in said monitoring.

19. A method of determining the position of a mobile station comprising:

determining a position for said mobile station according to n different schemes, n being an integer, so as to provide a plurality of different position results; and

calculating the position of said mobile station by combining a plurality of said position results.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising deriving an estimate of the error for each said position result, said calculating includes combining said plurality of position results based at least in part on said estimates of error.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said combining involves computing a weighted average of the position results using weighting factors based on said estimates of error.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein said weighting factors are the reciprocals of the estimates of errors.

23. A method of claim 22 where said weighting factors are the squares of the reciprocals of the estimates of errors.

24. A system for determining the position of a mobile station comprising:

a mobile station;

a network adapted to communicate with said mobile station by radio signals;

a position determination entity in communication with one or both of said network and said mobile station said mobile station, network and position determining entity being operable to derive a position result representing the position of said mobile station by plurality of available position-determining schemes; and

a controller in communication with said position determining entity, said controller being operable to actuate said position determining entity, network and mobile station to derive a position result according to a first scheme representing the position of the mobile station, determine if the position result according to the first scheme is acceptable and, if not, to actuate said position determining entity, network and mobile station to derive a position result according to at least one further scheme different from said first scheme until either all available position-determining schemes have been used or an acceptable position result has been obtained.

25. A system for determining the position of a mobile station comprising:

a mobile station;

a network adapted to communicate with said mobile station by radio signals;

a position determination entity in communication with one or both of said network and said mobile station said mobile station, network and position determining entity being operable to derive a position result representing the position of said mobile station by plurality of available position-determining schemes; and

a controller in communication with said position determining entity, said controller being operable to actuate said position determining entity, network and mobile station to derive position results representing the position of the mobile station according to more than one of said schemes and select one of said position results.

26. The system for determining the position of a mobile station comprising:

a mobile station;

a network adapted to communicate with said mobile station by radio signals;

a position determination entity in communication with one or both of said network and said mobile station said mobile station, network and position determining entity being operable to derive a position result representing the position of said mobile station by plurality of available position-determining schemes; and

a controller in communication with said position determining entity, said controller being operable to actuate said position determining entity, network and mobile station to derive position results representing the position of the mobile station according to a more than one of said schemes and compute the position of said mobile station by combining said results.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein said network is adapted to communicate with said mobile station through a technique selected from a group of radio-channel access schemes consisting of CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, SDMA, and a combination thereof.

28. The system of claim 26 wherein said schemes are selected from a group consisting of GPS trilateration, server assisted GPS, enhanced signal strength, angle of arrival, time difference of arrival, forward link trilateration, advanced forward link trilateration, fingerprinting, and combinations thereof.

29. The system of claim 26 wherein said mobile station is a mobile communications device selected from the group consisting of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant with wireless communications capability, a portable computer with wireless communications capability, a pager, and other personal communications devices.

30. A mobile station comprising:

a position determination mode multiplexer for choosing a position determination methodology for determining the position of said mobile station, said position determination mode multiplexer being operable to choose between mobile station stand-alone and mobile station-network assisted position determination methods;

a transmitter and a receiver for providing communications via radio channel access with said network; and

a processor for directing said multiplexer.

31. The mobile station of claim 30 wherein said radio channel access is provided through a technique selected from the group of radio channel access schemes consisting of CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, SDMA, and a combination thereof.

32. The mobile station of claim 30 wherein said methods are selected from the group of methods consisting of GPS trilateration, server assisted GPS, enhanced signal strength, angle of arrival, time difference of arrival, forward link trilateration, advanced forward link trilateration, fingerprinting, and combinations thereof.

33. The mobile station of claim 30 wherein said mobile station is a mobile communications device selected from the group consisting of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant with wireless communications capability, a portable computer with wireless communications capability, a pager, and other personal communications devices.