EXTENDING OUTDOOR LOCATION BASED SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS INTO ENCLOSED AREAS

• US 20100291949A1
• Filed: 12/21/2008
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Optical Communications Wireless Ltd. (Corning Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mobileaccess Networks Limited (Corning Incorporated)
• Inventors: Zatloukal, Catherine, Shapira, Yair, Shapira, Isaac
• Granted Patent: US 8,644,844 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/015 between indoor and outdoor environments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• 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 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Methods and systems for indoor mobile unit positioning, for seamlessly toggling a mobile unit positioning between outdoor positioning and indoor positioning and for providing location based services or application generated by an external location server to the mobile unit while the mobile unit is indoors. The indoor mobile unit positioning includes mobile unit-based positioning which makes use of reception of access point signals by the mobile unit

Claims

1. A method for supplying a location based service or location based application generated in an outdoor environment to a mobile unit positioned in an indoor environment, comprising the steps of:

a) determining the mobile unit location;

b) relaying data related to the mobile unit location through a distributed antenna system (DAS) to an external location server (ELS); and

c) providing the location based service or location based application generated in the outdoor environment from the ELS to the mobile unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining includes determining the mobile unit location by access point (AP)-based positioning.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the AP-based positioning includes mobile unit-based positioning using AP signals.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the AP-based positioning includes AP network-based positioning.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of relaying includes transmitting the data related to the mobile unit location from the DAS to the ELS through a cellular network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of relaying includes transmitting the mobile unit location data from the DAS to the ELS through a cellular network and a public network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing includes providing the location based service or location based application through a cellular communication link.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the cellular communication link includes a cellular network coupled to the DAS through a base server and a repeater.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing includes providing the location based service or location based application through a cellular network coupled to a public network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data related to the mobile unit location includes a description of an indoor entity of the indoor environment.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the indoor entity is selected from the group consisting of an area, a floor, a hall and a room.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of distributing an overlay AP signal through the DAS to the mobile unit.

13. The method of claim 2, further including the steps of toggling the determining of the mobile unit location from AP-based positioning to GPS or AGPS-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the indoor environment to an outdoor environment and toggling the determining of the mobile unit location from GPS or AGPS-based positioning to AP-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the outdoor environment to the indoor environment.

14. The method of claim 2, further including the steps of toggling the determining the mobile unit location from AP-based positioning to external network-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the indoor environment to an outdoor environment and toggling the determining of the mobile unit location from external network-based positioning to AP-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the outdoor environment to the indoor environment.

15. A system for supplying a location based service (LBS) or a location based application (LBA) generated by an external location server (ELS) in an outdoor environment to a mobile unit positioned in an indoor environment which includes an access point (AP) network and a distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:

a) location data acquisition and processing means in the mobile unit for acquiring and processing data related to the mobile unit location in the indoor environment; and

b) a cellular link for transmitting at least some of the data related to the mobile unit location to the ELS and for transmitting the LBS or LBA from the ELS to the mobile unit.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the location data acquisition and processing means for acquiring include a location support module.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the location support module performs toggling between GPS or AGPS-based positioning and AP-based positioning.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the location support module performs toggling between external network-based positioning and AP-based positioning.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising an overlay access point for providing an overlay AP signal to the mobile unit.