DEVICE AND METHOD OF ESTIMATING LOCATION OF TERMINAL USING SEQUENCES TRANSMITTED FROM BASE STATIONS

• US 20110009129A1
• Filed: 03/02/2010
• Published: 01/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LIM, Jong Bu, Jang, Kyung Hun
• Granted Patent: US 8,543,136 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0205 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• 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 8/24 Transfer of terminal data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A terminal receives a unique sequence from each of at least two base stations, and transmits a mixture of quantized unique sequences to a serving base station. The serving base station extracts components respectively corresponding to base stations from the mixture of the quantized unique sequences, and estimates a location of a terminal based on the extracted components. The serving base station may calculate a received signal strength or a delay for each of the unique sequences received by the terminal, based on the extracted components, and estimate the location of the terminal based on the received signal strength or the delay. In addition, the terminal may estimate its own location by performing an algorithm used by the serving base station.

Claims

1. A location estimating method used in a serving base station, the method comprising:

receiving information related to a mixture of unique sequences received by a terminal, in response to the unique sequences being transmitted from adjacent base stations;

extracting components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations from the mixture of the unique sequences received by the terminal; and

estimating a location of the terminal based on the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating of the location of the terminal comprises:

estimating the location of the terminal based on the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations and locations of the adjacent base stations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the estimating of the location of the terminal comprises:

estimating the location of the terminal based on transmission power of each adjacent base station with respect to each of the unique sequences.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating of the location of the terminal comprises:

predicting distances between the terminal and the adjacent base stations based on the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations; and

estimating the location of the terminal based on the distances between the terminal and the adjacent base stations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating of the location of the terminal comprises:

calculating received signal strengths or delays with respect to the unique sequences received from the adjacent base stations based on the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations; and

estimating the location of the terminal based on the received signal strengths or the delays with respect to the unique sequences received from the adjacent base stations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracting of the components comprises:

extracting the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations by using a memory where the unique sequences of the adjacent base stations or cell identifications (IDs) of the adjacent base stations are stored in advance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information related to the mixture of the unique sequences received by the terminal includes information that is generated by quantizing the mixture of the unique sequences received by the terminal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the unique sequences is designed to be individually extracted from the mixture of the unique sequences.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the unique sequences is generated based on a cell ID of each of the adjacent base stations, and the unique sequences are transmitted respectively from the adjacent base stations at a same point in time via a synchronization channel.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a location estimation request to the terminal to estimate the location of the terminal.

11. A location estimating method used in a terminal, the method comprising:

receiving a location estimation request from a serving base station;

receiving unique sequences transmitted from adjacent base stations in response to the reception of the location estimation request; and

transmitting information related to a mixture of the received unique sequences to the serving base station.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

quantizing the mixture of the received unique sequences without decoding the received unique sequences, to generate information related to the mixture of the received unique sequences.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the receiving of the unique sequences simultaneously receives the unique sequences respectively from the adjacent base stations via a synchronization channel.

14. A location estimating method used in a terminal, the method comprising:

receiving unique sequences transmitted from at least two base stations;

extracting components respectively corresponding to the at least two base stations from a mixture of the unique sequences received by the terminal; and

estimating a location of the terminal based on the components respectively corresponding to the base stations.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

outputting information related to the estimated location of the terminal.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the estimating of the location of the terminal comprises:

calculating received signal strengths or delays with respect to the unique sequences received from the at least two base stations based on the components respectively corresponding to the at least two base stations; and

estimating the location of the terminal based on the received signal strengths or delays with respect to the unique sequences received from the at least two base stations.

17. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program to perform a location estimating method in a serving base station, comprising instructions to cause a computer to:

receive information related to a mixture of unique sequences received by a terminal, in response to the unique sequences being transmitted from adjacent base stations;

extract components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations from the mixture of the unique sequences received by the terminal; and

estimate a location of the terminal based on the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations.

18. A location estimating device used in a serving base station, the device comprising:

a receiving unit to receive information related to a mixture of unique sequences received by a terminal, in response to the unique sequences being transmitted from adjacent base stations;

an extracting unit to extract components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations from the mixture of the unique sequences received by the terminal; and

an estimating unit to estimate a location of the terminal based on the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations.

19. The device of claim 18, further comprising:

a calculating unit to calculate received signal strengths or delays with respect to the unique sequences received from the adjacent base stations, based on the components respectively corresponding to the adjacent base stations,

wherein the estimating unit estimates the location of the terminal based on at least one of the received signal strengths and delays with respect to the unique sequences received from the adjacent base stations and also based on at least one of locations of the adjacent base stations and transmission power of the adjacent base stations with respect to the unique sequences.

20. The device of claim 18, further comprising:

a requesting unit to transmit a location estimation request to the terminal to estimate the location of the terminal.

21. A location estimating device used in a terminal, the device comprising:

a request processing unit to process a location estimation request from a serving base station;

a sequence receiving unit to receive unique sequences transmitted from adjacent base stations in response to the reception of the location estimation request; and

a transmitting unit to transmit information related to a mixture of the received unique sequences to the serving base station.