Location Determination of Mobile Device

• US 20100056185A1
• Filed: 08/29/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Lamba, Gaurav
• Granted Patent: US 8,781,505 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.600
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0205 Details
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access 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 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to determining a location fix of a mobile station based on identification information of a cellular base station included in a pilot signal

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining identification information associated with a cellular base station included in a pilot signal received from a cellular base station; and

obtaining a location fix of a mobile station based on said identification information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transitioning from determining location fixes based, at least in part, on satellite positioning system (SPS) signals to determining location fixes based on said identification information included in said pilot signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

downloading machine-readable instructions which, if executed, are adapted to perform the determination of said location fix.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said pilot signal includes a system parameters message.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining location sensitive content that includes at least one of a cellular base station location, a geographical map, a business location, an advertisement, and/or points of interest.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subscribing to a service provided by said cellular base station; and

downloading an application to process said service.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising executing a binary runtime environment for wireless (BREW) software application platform to download and run said application to determine said location fix.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said service includes location services.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining identification information includes using a look-up table that includes an identification code of a cell tower and geographical information of said cell tower.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein said identification information is obtained via short message service (SMS) communications protocol from an application content server (ACS).

11. A mobile station, comprising:

a receiver to receive a pilot signal from a cellular base station,

wherein

said mobile station is adapted to obtain a location fix of said mobile station based on identification information included in said pilot signal.

12. The mobile station of claim 11, further comprising:

an application module to identifying said identification information of said cellular base station.

13. The mobile station of claim 12, wherein said application module comprises a look-up data table including identification information of one or more cellular base stations and their corresponding geographical information.

14. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein said mobile station does not include a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver.

15. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein said mobile station is adapted to obtain said location fix by transmitting said identification information of said pilot signal to an application content server and is capable of receiving said location fix from said application content server.

16. The mobile station of claim 15, wherein said application content server comprises a look-up data table including identification information of one or more cellular base stations and their corresponding geographical information.

17. The mobile station of claim 11, further comprising:

machine-readable instructions stored in a memory with said mobile station which, if executed, are adapted to perform the obtaining of said location fix, wherein said instructions are downloaded as part of a subscription service.

18. The mobile station of claim 11, wherein said, cellular base station comprises a code division multiple access (CDMA) radio access network.

19. The mobile station of claim 11, further comprising:

a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver disposed with said mobile station, said SPS receiver enabled to receive SPS signals, wherein said mobile station is enabled to transition from obtaining location fixes based, at least in part, on said SPS signals to obtaining location fixes based on said identification information included in said pilot signal.

20. An article comprising a storage medium comprising machine-readable instructions stored thereon which, if executed by a computing platform, are adapted to enable said computing platform to:

identify identification information of said cellular base station included in a pilot signal received from a cellular base station; and

obtain a location fix of a mobile station based, at least in part, on said identification information without information obtained from reception of satellite positioning system (SPS) signals.

21. The article of claim 20, wherein said machine-readable instructions, if executed by a computing platform, are further adapted to enable said computing platform to:

transition from obtaining location fixes based, at least in part, on satellite positioning system (SPS) signals to obtaining location fixes based on said identification information included in said pilot signal.

22. The article of claim 20, wherein said cellular base station is part of a code division multiple access (CDMA) radio access network.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

means for identifying identification information associated with a cellular base station included in a pilot signal received from said cellular base station; and

means for obtaining a location fix of a mobile station based on said identification information.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising:

means for transitioning from obtaining location fixes based, at least in part, on satellite positioning system (SPS) signals to obtaining location fixes based on said identification information included in said pilot signal.

25. The apparatus of claim 23, further comprising:

means for downloading machine-readable instructions which, if executed, are adapted to perform the obtaining of said location fix.

26. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein said cellular base station comprises a CDMA radio access network.