Wireless Node Location Mechanism Using Antenna Pattern Diversity to Enhance Accuracy of Location Estimates
First Claim
1. In a wireless node location mechanism comprising a plurality of radio transceivers operative to detect the signal strength of signals transmitted by wireless nodes, a method comprising detecting, at one or more of the plurality of radio transceivers, the signal strength of RF signals transmitted by a wireless node wherein at least one of the radio transceivers of the plurality of radio transceivers comprises a plurality of directional antennas;
- as to the infrastructure radio transceiver comprising a plurality of directional antennas, detecting the strength of the RF signals transduced by at least one of the plurality of directional antennas; and
computing the estimated location of the wireless node using at least some of the signal strengths of the RF signals detected by the infrastructure radios, and knowledge of the antennas used to detect the signal strengths of the RF signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A wireless node RF Fingerprinting location mechanism that uses multiple antenna patterns to enhance the accuracy of wireless node location in an RF environment. In one implementation, substantially non-overlapping antenna pattern diversity is used to provide a degree of sectorization in computing the estimated location of a wireless node.
107 Citations
35 Claims
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1. In a wireless node location mechanism comprising a plurality of radio transceivers operative to detect the signal strength of signals transmitted by wireless nodes, a method comprising
detecting, at one or more of the plurality of radio transceivers, the signal strength of RF signals transmitted by a wireless node wherein at least one of the radio transceivers of the plurality of radio transceivers comprises a plurality of directional antennas; -
as to the infrastructure radio transceiver comprising a plurality of directional antennas, detecting the strength of the RF signals transduced by at least one of the plurality of directional antennas; and
computing the estimated location of the wireless node using at least some of the signal strengths of the RF signals detected by the infrastructure radios, and knowledge of the antennas used to detect the signal strengths of the RF signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. An apparatus facilitating the location of a wireless node in an RF environment, comprising
a plurality of radio transceivers comprising at least one antenna, the plurality of radio transceivers operative to detect the strength of signals transmitted by wireless nodes and provide the detected signal strengths to a wireless node location model; -
wherein at least one of the radio transceivers comprises at least two directional antennas, and is operative to identify the directional antenna associated with the detected signal strength for a given signal;
a wireless node location model operative to compute the estimated location of a wireless node based on the antennas identified by one or more of the radio transceivers, and the strength of signals transmitted by the wireless node as detected by a plurality of radio transceivers. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9-23. -23. (canceled)
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24. In a wireless network system comprising a plurality of radio transceivers, wherein the peak gains of the antennas are offset relative to each other, a method comprising
detecting, at one of the radio transceivers, a signal transduced by one of the directional antennas, wherein the signal transmits a wireless frame, the wireless frame including a preamble, and wherein at least some of the plurality of radio transceivers comprise a plurality of direcitonal antennas; -
during receipt of the preamble of the frame, selecting one from the plurality of the antennas based on at least one attribute of the respective signals transduced by the antennas;
switching to the selected antenna for receipt of the remainder of the frame;
appending the detected signal strength and an identifier for the selected antenna to the frame; and
transmitting the frame to a wireless node location module. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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26. A wireless network system facilitating the location of a wireless node, comprising
a plurality of radio transceivers for communication with a wireless node location module; -
wherein the radio transceivers are each operative to detect the strength of received signals encoding frames transmitted by wireless nodes;
append a signal strength value to frames received from the wireless nodes; and
transmit received frames to a wireless node location module;
wherein at least one of the radio transceivers comprises a plurality of directional antennas, and is further operative to;
select one from the plurality of the directional antennas to receive the frames in received signals;
append an identifier corresponding to the selected antenna to the frames received from the wireless nodes;
a wireless node location module operative to store signal strength data appended to frames transmitted by the plurality of radio transceivers in association with wireless node identifiers; and
compute the estimated location of a wireless node based on the antennas identified by at least one of the radio transceivers, and the signal strength values appended to the frames transmitted by the wireless node as detected by the access elements. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
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29. In a wireless node location mechanism comprising a plurality of radio transceivers operative to detect the signal strength of signals transmitted by wireless nodes, a method comprising
receiving, from one or more of the plurality of radio transceivers, the detected signal strength of RF signals transmitted by a wireless node wherein at least one of the radio transceivers of the plurality of radio transceivers comprises a plurality of directional antennas; -
as to the infrastructure radio transceivers comprising a plurality of directional antennas, receiving the strength of the RF signals transduced by at least one of the plurality of directional antennas; and
computing the estimated location of the wireless node using at least some of the signal strengths of the RF signals detected by the infrastructure radios, and knowledge of the antennas used to detect the signal strengths of the RF signals. - View Dependent Claims (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 transceivers operative to detect the signal strength of signals transmitted by wireless nodes, comprising:
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a wireless node location module operative to receive, from one or more of the plurality of radio transceivers, the detected signal strength of RF signals transmitted by a wireless node wherein at least one of the radio transceivers of the plurality of radio transceivers comprises a plurality of directional antennas;
as to the infrastructure radio transceivers comprising a plurality of directional antennas, receive the strength of the RF signals transduced by at least one of the plurality of directional antennas; and
compute the estimated location of the wireless node using at least some of the signal strengths of the RF signals detected by the infrastructure radios, and knowledge of the antennas used to detect the signal strengths of the RF signals.
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Specification