LTE FINGERPRINTING POSITIONING REFERENCES FOR OTHER CELLULAR SYSTEMS

• US 20110077030A1
• Filed: 09/28/2010
• Published: 03/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Tidestav, Claes, Wigren, Torbjorn, Jading, Ylva
• Granted Patent: US 8,401,570 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.5
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02524 Creating or updating the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0088 Scheduling hand-off measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

High precision UE position estimates derived by OTDOA positioning in an LTE network are provided to other networks (e.g., WCDMA and/or GSM), along with inter-RAT measurements performed on the other networks, to support fingerprinted positioning databases in the other networks. Signaling is provided enabling LTE UE position estimates to be used as reference points in the fingerprinting database in each of GSM control plane AECID positioning, GSM user plane AECID positioning, WCDMA control plane AECID positioning, and WCDMA user plane AECID positioning. In support thereof, inter-RAT measurement supporting the population of databases in WCDMA and GSM, using fingerprints and reference measurements in LTE; the use of OTDOA positioning to generate the LTE UE position estimates, and the required signaling are disclosed. The AECID databases in WCDMA and GSM networks do not have own-network serving cells at the top hierarchical level, since the inter-RAT measurements are performed in LTE.

Claims

1. A method of providing fingerprinted position estimates by a UE in an LTE wireless communication network to one or more other wireless communication networks, comprising:

receiving signals from a plurality of transmitters in the LTE network;

performing OTDOA positioning measurements from the received signals;

obtaining an estimate of the UE position based on the OTDOA measurements;

performing inter-RAT measurements on at least one of a WCDMA network and GSM network;

transmitting the UE position estimate based on the OTDOA measurements, and one or more associated inter-RAT measurements, to the WCDMA/GSM network(s) on which the inter-RAT measurements were performed.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining an estimate of the UE position based on the OTDOA measurements comprises computing a position based on the OTDOA measurements.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining an estimate of the UE position based on the OTDOA measurements comprises:

transmitting the OTDOA measurements to positioning node of the LTE network; and

receiving from the positioning node an estimate of the UE position based on the OTDOA measurements.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein performing inter-RAT measurements on a WCDMA network comprises determining at least one of cell ID of one or more WCDMA base stations and determining signal strength with respect to said one or more WCDMA base stations.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein performing inter-RAT measurements on a GSM network comprises determining at least one of CGI of one or more GSM base stations and determining signal strength with respect to said one or more GSM base stations.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the UE position estimate based on the OTDOA measurements, and one or more associated inter-RAT measurements, to the relevant WCDMA/GSM network comprises transmitting the position estimate and inter-RAT measurements to a positioning node in the LTE network.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising transmitting the UE position estimate based on the OTDOA measurements and the inter-RAT measurements to the LTE network.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein transmitting the position estimate and the inter-RAT measurements to the LTE network comprises transmitting the position estimate and inter-RAT measurements to a positioning node in the LTE network.

9. A method of populating an Adaptive Enhanced Cell ID (AECID) database in one of a WCDMA or GSM wireless communication network, comprising:

obtaining from a UE connected to an LTE wireless network, a UE position estimate based on OTDOA measurements in the LTE network and one or more inter-RAT measurements performed on the WCDMA or GSM wireless communication network; and

entering the UE position estimate, fingerprinted by the inter-RAT measurement(s), into an AECID database.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein obtaining the UE position estimate and inter-RAT measurements from the LTE UE comprises obtaining the UE position estimate and inter-RAT measurements from a positioning node in the LTE network.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the AECID database includes GSM control plane AECID positioning.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the AECID database includes GSM user plane AECID positioning.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the AECID database includes WCDMA control plane AECID positioning.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the AECID database includes WCDMA user plane AECID positioning.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein entering the UE position estimate, fingerprinted by the inter-RAT measurement(s), into an AECID database comprises entering the information into the AECID database without an own-network serving cell at the top hierarchical layer of the database.

16. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

a first transceiver rendering the UE operative in an LTE network;

at least one of a second transceiver rendering the UE operative in a WCDMA network and a third transceiver rendering the UE operative in a GSM network; and

a controller operative to cause the UE to perform OTDOA measurements in the LTE network and inter-RAT measurements in at least one of the WCDMA network and GSM network.

17. The UE of claim 16 wherein the controller is operative to cause the UE to perform OTDOA measurements in the LTE network by:

receiving signals from a plurality of transmitters in the LTE network; and

performing OTDOA positioning measurements on the received signals.

18. The UE of claim 17 wherein the controller is further operative to combine the OTDOA positioning measurements to formulate an estimate of the UE position.

19. The UE of claim 17 wherein the controller is further operative to transmit the OTDOA positioning measurements to a positioning node in the LTE network.

20. The UE of claim 16 wherein the inter-RAT measurements include signal strength with respect to a plurality of base stations in the WCDMA network or GSM network.

21. The UE of claim 16 wherein the inter-RAT measurements include the cell IDs of a plurality of base stations in the WCDMA network.

22. The UE of claim 16 wherein the inter-RAT measurements include the CGIs of a plurality of base stations in the GSM network.

23. The UE of claim 16 wherein the controller is further operative to transmit the OTDOA measurements and inter-RAT measurements to at least one of the WCDMA network and GSM network.

24. The UE of claim 23 wherein the controller is further operative to transmit the OTDOA measurements and inter-RAT measurements to at least one of a WCDMA AECID database in the WCDMA network and a GSM AECID database in GSM network.