EFFICIENT COLLECTION OF WIRELESS TRANSMITTER CHARACTERISTIC

• US 20110026506A1
• Filed: 04/07/2009
• Published: 02/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smith Micro Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Seeker Wireless Pty., Limited
• Inventors: Drane, Christopher Ridgway, Brown, Stephen Frank, Macnaughtan, Malcolm David, Scott, Craig Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,787,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• 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 64/003 locating network equipment

Abstract

Systems, methods, and processor-readable storage media are disclosed for collecting information pertaining to the configuration of one or more wireless networks and using this information in turn to estimate the location of mobile wireless devices associated with those networks. Certain embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to providing efficient systems and methods for collecting the information, which are responsive to the coverage or quality of the wireless network configuration information already stored in a network database.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of collecting one or more radio parameter measurements corresponding to wireless transmitters in a wireless network in order to update a database of wireless transmitter characteristics comprising:

retrieving from a database a list indicating a current state of information in the database regarding one or more wireless transmitters in the wireless network, wherein the list includes one or more transmitter identifiers, and zero or more parameters associated with each transmitter identifier;

communicating the list to at least one device having one or more wireless receivers; and

receiving a selected sequence of one or more radio measurements from a device having one or more wireless receivers, wherein the device selects the sequence by assigning a priority to sequences of one or more radio measurements based on the list of one or more transmitter identifiers and selecting at least one sequence of at least one of the one or more radio measurements based on the assigned priority.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the one or more transmitters are selected from the group consisting of GSM cells, UMTS cells, CDMA cells, LTE Cells and WiMAX cells.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the one or more transmitter identifiers comprise Cell ID values or Cell ID and LAC pairs.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein radio measurements in the selected sequence of measurements include a transmitter identifier and a received signal level.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the list is communicated via a bearer selected from the group consisting of SMS, GPRS, EDGE, HSPA, and EV-DO.

9. A method according to claim 1

wherein the selection process of the device reduces traffic on a wireless network, reduces processing for a given increment in a quality of information in the database, improves updating of the database by reducing an amount of data transmitted, reduces an amount of server processing, and/or improves coverage of the database.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein sending the selected subset of one or more radio measurements to the server from the device is initiated when an application on the device establishes a data connection.

11. A method according to claims 9 wherein the device having one or more wireless receivers includes a client application associated with the database, and wherein the client application establishes a connection to the server.

12. A method according to claims 1 wherein communicating the list to at least one device is requested by a client application on the device when a user of the device establishes a connection to the server.

13. A method according to claim 1 wherein the server associates a version number with each revision of the list and a client application on the device checks the version number of the list currently on the device against a latest version number at the server and only requests the list if a more recent version is available on the server.

15. A method according to claim 1 further comprising:

estimating or updating at the server a set of characteristics of at least one wireless transmitter based on the selected sequence of one or more radio measurements; and

if the server determines that substantial changes have occurred in the wireless network based on the set of characteristics, updating the list to accelerate reporting by mobile radio terminals in an affected region.

16. A method according to claim 1 wherein if the priority assigned by the device exceeds a threshold, then the device performs the steps of:

if the device includes a GPS receiver and the GPS receiver is not currently active, activating a GPS receiver;

attempting to obtain position information from the GPS receiver;

deactivating the GPS receiver if it was not active; and

if any position information is obtained, then including the position information with the selected sequence received by the server.

26. A method according to claim 1 comprising the further steps of:

estimating a set of characteristics for one or more wireless transmitters associated with transmitter identifiers included in the selected sequence of one or more radio measurements based on the one or more radio measurements;

updating the list to reflect the stored characteristics for the one or more wireless network transmitters; and

communicating the list to at least one device having one or more wireless receivers.

4-6. -6. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

17-18. -18. (canceled)

19. An article of manufacture comprising a processor-readable storage medium having computer program instructions adapted to cause a processing system to execute steps comprising:

obtaining in a device having one or more wireless receivers, one or more radio measurements corresponding to at least one wireless transmitter;

determining whether the one or more radio measurements are eligible for reporting based on a gating function; and

if the one or more radio measurements are eligible for reporting, then communicating the measurements to a server, wherein the one or more radio measurements are used to update a database of transmitter characteristics

wherein the gating function causes the one or more radio measurements to be eligible for reporting based on comparing a portion of the transmitter identifier of the wireless transmitter with a bitmask associated with the wireless transmitter.

20. The processor-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein one or more parameters of the gating function are received from a server.

21. The processor-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the gating function causes the one or more radio measurements to be eligible for reporting based on a current date and time.

22-25. -25. (canceled)

27. An article of manufacture comprising a processor-readable storage medium having computer program instructions adapted to cause a processing system to execute steps comprising:

receiving a list of tasking information at a mobile radio terminal, wherein the list of tasking information includes a quality of a set of characteristics of a first wireless network transmitter;

measuring at the mobile radio terminal at least one radio network parameter from the first wireless network transmitter;

if the quality of the set of characteristics for the first wireless network transmitter is below a threshold, generating a report having at least one measurement of at least one radio network parameter from the first wireless network transmitter; and

communicating the report to a server.

28. A processor-readable storage medium according to claim 27 wherein the quality of the set of characteristics of the first wireless network transmitter is represented by one bit or two bits.

29. A processor-readable storage medium according to claim 27 wherein communicating is via a bearer selected from the group consisting of GPRS, EDGE, HSPA, and EV-DO.

30. A processor-readable storage medium according to claims 27 comprising the further step of maintaining a recent report list of wireless network transmitter identifiers that have been communicated to the server.

31. (canceled)