Method and system for providing location information for emergency services

• US 20060105776A1
• Filed: 11/17/2004
• Published: 05/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cingular Wireless II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Burke, Scott B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,277,712 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.100
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/04 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/06 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Emergency Services architecture for determining the location of a wireless caller. The architecture leverages a synchronization feature of GSM networks of the Base Station Subsystem (BSS) to enable employment of sparse networks by removing WLS (Wireless Location Sensor) equipment from selected cell sites. Thus, the location of a wireless caller within a sparse site can be determined. Sparse network location services can be provided further utilizing Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) technology, and other network-based location technologies such as Enhanced Observed Time Difference (EOTD) and Angle of Arrival (AOA). Hybrid network-based/handset-based location technologies may also be used with the disclosed invention.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates determination of a location of a mobile station, comprising:

a cellular communications network that is sparsed to include at least one sparse transceiver station from which the mobile station communicates radio signals;

a synchronization component that facilitates synchronization of the at least one sparse transceiver station with a non-sparse transceiver station; and

a timing component that determines timing information of the non-sparse transceiver station and facilitates calculation of the location of the mobile station based on the timing information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the cellular communications network is at least one of a code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), and ultra-wideband (UWB) technology.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the timing component includes a wireless location sensor (WLS) that facilitates determination of the timing information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization component facilitates synchronization of the at least one transceiver station via a base station controller (BSC).

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the timing information is utilized to determine at least one of latitude data and longitude data associated with the location of the mobile station.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the location is determined using a GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization component uses GPS technology as a timing reference for at least one of the synchronization component and the timing component.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-sparse transceiver station utilizes GPS to determine the location of the mobile station.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the sparsed transceiver station lacks a wireless location sensor.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the timing information is transmitted to a remote GCS for determination of the location information of the mobile station.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the GCS communicates with a GPS system to compute latitude/longitude data that represents the location of the mobile station.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the timing information is based upon time difference of arrival (TDOA) technology.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the timing information is based upon enhanced observed time difference (EOTD) technology.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the timing information is based upon angle of arrival (AOA) technology.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the timing information is based upon a hybrid network-based/handset-based location technology.

16. A system that facilitates determination of a location of a mobile station, comprising:

a sparse site from which the mobile station transmits radio signal information; and

a synchronization component that facilitates synchronization of the sparse site with a geolocation system, which geolocation system processes the radio signal information and determines the location of the mobile station.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the location is determined according to longitude and latitude data.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the geolocation system communicates with a GPS system to obtain longitude and latitude data that defines the location of the mobile station.

19. The system of claim 16, further comprising a non-sparse site that includes a timing system which provides timing information related to the sparse site, which non-sparse site is synchronized with the sparse site such that the timing information is transmitted to the geolocation system to determine the location of the mobile station.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the geolocation system communicates with a GPS system to obtain longitude and latitude data that defines the location of the mobile station.

21. The system of claim 16, further comprising a non-sparse site that includes a timing system which provides timing information related to the sparse site, which non-sparse site is synchronized with the sparse site such that the timing information is utilized at the non-sparse site to determine longitude and latitude data that defines the location of the mobile station.

22. The system of claim 16, further comprising a non-sparse site that includes a timing system which provides timing information related to the sparse site, which timing information is associated with at least one of TDOA, AOA, and EOTD technology.

23. A method of determining a location of a mobile station, comprising:

sparsing a network of transceiver stations to create at least one sparse transceiver station and at least one non-sparse transceiver station;

synchronizing the at least one sparse transceiver station using a synchronization technology;

determining timing information associated with the mobile station; and

calculating the location of the mobile station based in part upon the timing information.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the timing information is based upon at least one of TDOA and AOA technology.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the timing information is based upon EOTD technology.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the timing information is based upon a hybrid network-based/handset-based location technology.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising transmitting the timing information to a remote system to determine latitude/longitude information of the mobile station.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the remote system is a GCS.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the GCS accesses an offset table of timing information which relates to each transceiver station.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising synchronizing the at least one sparse transceiver station to the at least one non-sparse transceiver station.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein the act of determining is performed at the at least one non-sparse transceiver station.

32. The method of claim 23, further comprising accessing an offset table that includes timing offsets of the transceiver stations of the network.

33. A method of determining a location of a mobile station, comprising:

sparsing a cellular network of cell site to create at least one sparse cell site and at least one non-sparse cell site;

synchronizing the at least one sparse cell site with a non-sparse cell site;

determining timing information associated with the mobile station at the non-sparse cell site; and

calculating the location of the mobile station based in part upon the timing information.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising accessing a GPS system from the non-sparse cell site to compute longitude/latitude data associated with the mobile station location.

35. A method of determining a location of a mobile station, comprising:

sparsing a group of transceiver sites to create at least one sparse transceiver site and at least one non-sparse transceiver site;

synchronizing the at least one sparse transceiver site with one of the non-sparse transceiver stations to determine timing information;

transmitting a call from the at least one sparse transceiver site; and

calculating latitude/longitude information of the mobile station in the sparse site at a GCS based in part upon the timing information.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising accessing a GPS system at the GCS to determine the latitude/longitude information of the mobile station.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising referencing the at least one sparse transceiver site and one of the non-sparse transceiver stations using GPS technology.