Optimizing location services performance by combining user plane and control plane architectures

• US 20070293239A1
• Filed: 05/16/2007
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Andrew Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dawson, Martin, Burdett, Greg
• Granted Patent: US 8,000,702 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• 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 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/085 involving different upper layer protocol versions, e.g. LCS - SUPL or WSN-SOA-WSDP

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed that determines the position of a mobile device using information obtained by employing a first location determination protocol (or modality) to control the efficient or advantageous invocation of a second location determination protocol (or modality). The system utilizes information readily available from the Control plane along with request parameters and device capabilities to determine whether to invoke a CoPL or SUPL session.

Claims

1. A method for position determination in a wireless communications network having a dual plane capable GMLC and including a user device, comprising steps of:

(a) receiving a request for location information;

(b) invoking one of at least a control plane and a user plane based on at least one of the group consisting of requesting application, known user device capabilities and network capabilities.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising

(c) querying the HLR for information;

(d) receiving information regarding network capabilities; and

,

(e) invoking a location determination session based on at least the received information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of invoking a location determination session further comprises comparing the network capabilities against a request parameter received with the request for location information and invoking a location determination session based at least on the comparison.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

establishing a control plane location session;

extracting network-based measurements from the control plane data;

comparing the network-based measurements with the request parameter; and

,

selectively invoking a user plane location determination session based on the comparison.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the request parameter is location accuracy.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the request parameter of the request is requested speed for the location.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the network based measurement is timing advance (TA).

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein the network based measurement is network measurement report (NMR) data.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of invoking a location determination session is based at least upon the duration of a control plane location session and a user plane location session.

10. The method according to claim 4, comprising the step of determining the location based on based on the network based measurements.

11. The method according to claim 3, wherein the parameter of the request is estimated speed for the location.

12. A method for selectively invoking a position determination session in a wireless communications network including a user device, comprising steps of:

(a) receiving a request for location information;

(b) accessing control plane position data;

(c) extracting network-based measurements from the control plane position data;

(d) determining a user plane invocation parameter based on network access or device information associated with a user plane; and

(e) invoking a user plane position determination session, based on the user plane invocation parameter and the network-based measurements.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the network-based measurements are a function of the QoP of the CoPL.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the network based measurement is timing advance (TA).

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the network based measurement is network measurement report (NMR) data.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein network access indicates whether control plane GPS is supported.

17. The method according to claim 13, comprising the step of receiving device information from the control plane.

18. The method according to claim 17 wherein device information is a function of control plane GPS and LCS capabilities of the device.

19. The method according claim 13 wherein network access is a function of LCS requester.

20. The method according to claim 13 wherein network access is predetermine by serving area.

21. A method for multi-plane position determination in a wireless communications network including a user device, comprising steps of:

(a) receiving a request for location information;

(b) accessing control plane position data;

(c) extracting network-based measurements from the control plane position data;

(d) accessing user plane position data;

(e) extracting device-based measurements from the user plane position data;

(f) returning a multi-plane position measurement based on at least the network-based measurements and the device-based measurements.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the device-based measurements are GPS measurements.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the network based measurements are AoA, TDOA or TOA measurements from a plurality of Location measurement unit.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the device-based measurements are of the network.

25. A method for selectively invoking a position determination session in a visiting communications network, comprising steps of:

(a) receiving a request for location information;

(b) sending a request message to a HLR;

(c) receiving information regarding the visiting network; and

,

(d) invoking a location determination session based on the information.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the information is a serving area identifier.

27. The method of claim 26, further including using the serving area identifier in conjunction with a database to invoke the location determination session.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the location determination session is one of a control plane and a user plane location determination session.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the serving area identifier is determined by the network operator.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the information is routing information.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the routing information indicated support for CoPL

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the location determination session is one of a control plane and a user plane location determination session.