POSITIONING AND LOCATION SERVICES USING CIVIC ADDRESS INFORMATION

• US 20110250906A1
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Published: 10/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Anderson, Michael, Wigren, Torbjorn, Siomina, Iana
• Granted Patent: US 8,929,918 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• 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

Abstract

Positioning and location services are provided in a wireless communication network using civic address information. The civic address information may comprise a data structure including textual Information Elements such as apartment or office number, street number, street name, city, state, postal code, and the like. A positioning method is defined comprising performing a civic address lookup to obtain a location in civic address format for an identified node, based upon information about the identified node'"'"'s serving (or associated) node and neighbor nodes. Signaling is defined to request the civic address positioning method, to exchange capabilities, to communicate location information using a civic address format, report a positioning failure and optionally the failure cause, and the like. Location information may be translated between a civic address format and a 3GPP or 3GPP2 positioning format. The positioning method and associated signaling are particularly advantageous in indoor environments, where conventional positioning methods fare poorly or fail altogether.

Claims

1. A method of providing location services in a wireless communication network, comprising:

receiving a positioning request, requesting the geographic location of an identified network node;

obtaining location information associated with the identified node in a civic address format; and

transmitting a positioning response including the location information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the positioning response includes the location information in the civic address format.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the positioning response further includes uncertainty information in the location information.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the positioning response further includes confidence information in the location information.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising

translating the obtained location information from the civic address format to a different positioning format;

and

wherein transmitting the positioning response comprises transmitting the location information in at least the translated format.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the other positioning format is a format defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force for the routing of emergency calls.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the positioning request includes a civic address format indicator and wherein transmitting the positioning response comprises transmitting the location information in the civic address format.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the civic address format includes one or more Information Elements (IE), each of which includes an aspect of the civic address of the identified node.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein one or more IEs are selected from the group consisting of unit number, street number, street name, city name, county name, state name, postal code, road number, and identifying comment.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein at least some of the IEs have a hierarchical order corresponding to accuracy, and wherein receiving a positioning request from a requesting network node comprises receiving a positioning request specifying a requested accuracy by identifying a hierarchical level of IE.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the civic address format further includes one or more IEs, each of which includes an aspect of a location of the identified node in a 3GPP positioning format.

12. A method of providing location services in a wireless communication network, in at least a civic address format, comprising:

receiving a positioning request, requesting the geographic location of an identified network node;

obtaining location information associated with the identified node; and

transmitting a positioning response, the response including the location of the identified node in at least a civic address format.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified node comprises retrieving stored location information associated with the identified node, the stored location information in a civic address format.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified node comprises:

performing a positioning function to obtain location information; and

translating the location information to a civic address format.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified node comprises:

obtaining first location information in a civic address format;

obtaining second location information not in a civic address format; and

using the second location information to improve the accuracy of the first location information.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified node comprises:

obtaining identification of wireless network nodes considered neighbor nodes to the identified node to be positioned; and

performing an address lookup based on the received neighbor node information.

17. A method of translating a position estimate between a 3GPP positioning format and a civil address format, comprising:

receiving a position estimate in one of a 3GPP positioning format and a civil address format;

converting the position estimate to the other of the 3GPP positioning format and the civil address format; and

transmitting the position estimate at least in the translated format.

18. A method of estimating the position of an identified node in a wireless communication network, comprising:

receiving a positioning request for the geographic location of an identified network node;

receiving information regarding the serving node or an associated gateway node for the identified node to be positioned, and neighboring nodes;

analyzing the received information;

based on the received information, determining a position estimate for the identified node, the estimate expressed in civic address format; and

reporting the position estimate for the identified node.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the civic address format includes one or more Information Elements (IE), each of which includes an aspect of a civic address of the identified node.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein one or more IEs are selected from the group consisting of unit number, street number, street name, city name, county name, state name, postal code, road number, and identifying comment.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein the civic address format further includes one or more IEs, each of which includes an aspect of a location of the identified node in a 3GPP positioning format.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein reporting the position estimate for the identified node comprises reporting the position estimate in the civic address format.

23. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

performing a translation of the position estimate from the civic address format to a 3GPP positioning format; and

wherein reporting the position estimate for the identified node comprises reporting the position estimate in the 3GPP positioning format.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein the positioning request requests one of a particular Quality of Service (QoS) level and response time, and further comprising, based at least on the requested QoS or response time, determining a number of times to attempt positioning the identified node by other methods, prior to executing this method.

25. The method of claim 18 wherein the positioning request indicates an emergency call, and wherein this method is performed as the first choice of positioning methods, to position the identified node.

26. A hybrid method of providing location services in a wireless communication network, comprising:

receiving a positioning request, requesting the geographic location of an identified network node;

obtaining first location information associated with the identified network node in a civic address format;

obtaining second location information associated with the identified network node, not in a civic address format;

using the second location information to improve the accuracy of the first location information; and

transmitting the improved location information.

27. The hybrid method of claim 26 wherein obtaining second location information not in a civic address format comprises obtaining a position estimate of the identified network node in a 3GPP positioning format.

28. The hybrid method of claim 26 wherein obtaining second location information not in a civic address format comprises obtaining one or more wireless network communication measurements associated with the identified network node.

29. The hybrid method of claim 26 herein transmitting the improved location information comprises transmitting the improved location information in the civic address format.

30. The hybrid method of claim 26 further comprising:

translating the improved location information to a 3GPP positioning format; and

wherein transmitting the improved location information comprises transmitting the improved location information in the 3GPP positioning format.

31. The hybrid method of claim 26 wherein obtaining first location information associated with the identified network node in a civic address format comprises obtaining the first location information from the positioning request.

32. A node operative in a wireless communication network and having positioning functionality, comprising:

a communication interface operative to receive a positioning request, the positioning request requesting the position of an identified network node, and further operative to transmit a response including a position estimate of the identified node; and

a positioning function operative to estimate a position associated with the identified network node, the position being in a civic address format.

33. The network node of claim 32 wherein the received positioning request includes a civic address format indicator, and wherein the communication interface is further operative to transmit the location of the identified node in the civic address format.

34. The network node of claim 32 wherein the communication interface is further operative to access an external civic address information server.

35. A node operative in a wireless communication network and having position information translation functionality, comprising:

a communication interface operative to receive a position estimate in one of a 3GPP positioning format and a civil address format;

a translation function operative to convert the position estimate to the other of the 3GPP positioning format and the civil address format; and

wherein the communication interface is further operative to transmit the position estimate at least in the translated format.