Method and apparatus for transmitting location data within a communication system

• US 20060203762A1
• Filed: 03/10/2005
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kyperountas, Spyros, Taubenheim, David B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,369,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

To enable wireless applications which require the use of location information, a method and apparatus for transmitting location data within an ad-hoc communication system is provided herein. During operation, a portion of a packet payload is used to transmit location coordinate information along with an identifier of location estimation technique utilized for a node, as well as other parameters that may be needed for location estimation. Nodes in the communication system calculate their location coordinates using the said portion of packets received from other nodes in the communication system.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting location data, the method comprising the steps of:

performing a location estimate;

determining a technique utilized for performing the location estimate; and

transmitting the location estimate and information related to the technique utilized for performing the location estimate to nodes within a communication system.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

transmitting the location estimate and information related to the technique within a packet.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of transmitting the location estimate and the information related to the technique utilized for performing the location estimate within the packet comprises the step of transmitting the location estimate and the information related to the location estimation technique within an ad-hoc network packet.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the step of transmitting the location estimate and the information related to the technique within the ad-hoc network packet comprises the step of transmitting the location estimate and the information related to the technique within an IEEE 802.15.3 or an IEEE 802.15.4 ad-hoc network packet.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining the technique utilized for performing the location estimate comprises the step of determining the technique from the group consisting of a manually measured technique, a weighted-average location technique, a path loss technique, a GPS technique, a Time-of Arrival (TOA) or Time-Difference of Arrival (TDOA) technique, a maximum-likelihood (ML) based technique, a closest neighbor technique, an Angle of Arrival Technique, a signal environment fingerprinting technique, and a multi-lateration technique.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of performing the location comprises the steps of:

determining locations of a plurality of nodes;

determining a location estimate technique utilized for at least one node within the plurality of nodes; and

utilizing a location for a particular node from the plurality of nodes in performing the location only when an appropriate location technique was utilized by the particular node.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of utilizing the location estimate for the particular node comprises the step of utilizing the location estimate for the particular node only when a maximum likelihood based technique was utilized by the particular node.

8. A method comprising the steps of:

determining a location of a node within an ad-hoc communication system;

determining a technique utilized for performing the location of the node; and

utilizing the location of the node to calculate a location based on the fact that the technique utilized for performing the location is from a set of predetermined techniques.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of utilizing the location of the first node comprises the step of utilizing the location of the node only when the technique utilized for performing location comprises a maximum likelihood based location technique.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of determining the location of the node comprises the step of determining the location from contents of a received packet.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of determining the location estimate technique utilized for performing the location comprises the step of determining the technique from contents of the received packet.

12. An apparatus comprising:

location-finding equipment for performing a location estimate;

logic circuitry for determining a technique utilized for performing the location; and

transmitting circuitry for transmitting the location estimate and information related to the technique utilized for performing the location.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the transmitting circuitry transmits the location estimate and the information related to the technique utilized for performing the location estimate within a packet.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the packet is an ad-hoc network packet.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the packet is an IEEE 802.15.3 or an IEEE 802.15.4 ad-hoc network packet.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the technique utilized for performing the location estimate is taken from the group consisting of a manually measured technique, a weighted-average location technique, a path loss technique, a GPS technique, a Time-of Arrival (TOA) or Time-Difference of Arrival (TDOA) technique, a maximum-likelihood (ML) based technique, a closest neighbor technique, an Angle of Arrival Technique, a signal environment fingerprinting technique, and a multi-lateration technique.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the location-finding equipment performs the location estimate by receiving location estimates from other nodes and utilizing the other nodes'"'"' location estimate in performing the location estimate.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the location-finding equipment performs the location estimate based at least on received location estimate technique identifiers and utilizing the techniques in performing the location estimate.