SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING A LOCATION FOR A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20120009948A1
• Filed: 07/08/2010
• Published: 01/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Global Business Software Development Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Global Business Software Development Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Holt, Shad L., Walter, John W., Powers, Michael W., Frisbie, Stephen P., Behnke, Adam V., Sheeter, Mark T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,238,941 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.5
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02213 Receivers arranged in a network for determining the position of a transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A system for determining a location for a mobile communication device includes a plurality of taps, a multiplexer, and a link aggregator. Each tap includes a pair of connectors that couple to a communication link of a radio access network inline and pass between them a signal received over the communication link. Each tap also includes a multiplexer connector that couples to a multiplexer and a cable connecting the multiplexer connector to the inline connectors. The tap replicates signals passing between the inline connectors and propagates the replicated signals to the multiplexer connector. The multiplexer receives, from each tap, signals replicated by that tap, extracts location data from the received signals, and transmits the location data to a link aggregator. The link aggregator receives the location data from the multiplexer and determines a location for one of the mobile devices based on the received location data.

Claims

1. A system for determining a location for a mobile communication device, comprising:

a plurality of taps, each tap comprising;

a pair of inline connectors operable to couple inline to a communication link of a radio access network and to pass between the inline connectors a signal received over the communication link;

a multiplexer connector operable to couple the tap to a multiplexer; and

a cable connecting the multiplexer connector to the pair of inline connectors, wherein the corresponding tap is operable to replicate signals passing between the pair of inline connectors and to propagate the replicated signals along the cable to the multiplexer connector;

the multiplexer, comprising;

a plurality of tap interfaces, each tap interface operable to couple the multiplexer to one of the taps;

a network interface operable to couple the multiplexer to a data network; and

a processor operable to;

receive, from each tap, signals replicated by the tap;

extract location data from the replicated signals, wherein the location data is associated with one or more mobile devices operating in a geographic area served by the radio access network; and

transmit the location data, in accordance with an interne protocol (IP), over the data network to a link aggregator; and

the link aggregator, operable to;

receive the location data from the multiplexer; and

determine a location for one of the mobile devices based on the received location data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of taps comprise a first group of taps, the location data comprises a first set of location data, and the multiplexer comprises a first multiplexer coupled to the first group of taps, and further comprising:

a second group of taps; and

a second multiplexer operable to;

receive, from each of the second group of taps, signals replicated by that tap;

extract a second set of location data from the signals replicated by the second group of taps; and

transmit the second set of location data, in accordance with an internet protocol (IP), over the data network to the link aggregator; and

wherein the link aggregator is further operable to determine a location for one of the mobile devices by determining the location based on the first set of location data and the second set of location data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the inline connectors of each tap are operable to couple inline to a communication link of the radio access network by coupling inline to an Abis interface of the radio access network

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the inline connectors of each tap are operable to couple inline to a communication link of the radio access network by coupling inline to an Iub interface of the radio access network

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the inline connectors of each tap are further operable to pass a signal received over the communication link between the inline connectors without substantially reducing a signal level of the received signal.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the taps is operable to replicate signals by passively replicating signals passing between a corresponding pair of inline connectors.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is operable to extract location data from the received signals by extracting a cell global identify (CGI) from the received signals, and wherein the link aggregator is operable to determine a location of one of the mobile devices based on the extracted CGI.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the multiplexer further comprises one or more rack-mountable chassis, and wherein the processor, the plurality of tap interfaces, and the network interface are attached to the one or more rack-mountable chassis.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more rack-mountable chassis are less than four rack units (4U) in total size.

10. A method for determining a location for mobile communication devices, comprising:

receiving, at each of a plurality of taps, a signal transmitted over a corresponding communication link of a radio access network, wherein each of the taps comprises a pair of connectors coupled inline to the corresponding communication link;

passing the signal received at each tap between the corresponding pair of connectors;

replicating the signal received at each tap on a multiplexer connector of the tap;

receiving the signal replicated by each of the taps at a multiplexer coupled to the plurality of multiplexer connectors;

extracting location data from the received signals, wherein the location data is associated with one or more mobile devices operating in a geographic area served by the radio access network;

transmitting the location data, in accordance with an internet protocol (IP), over a data network to a link aggregator; and

determining, at the link aggregator, a location for one of the mobile devices based on location data received from the multiplexer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of taps comprise a first group of taps, the location data comprises a first set of location data, and the multiplexer comprises a first multiplexer coupled to the first group of taps, and further comprising:

receiving, at each of a second group of taps, a signal transmitted over a corresponding communication link of the radio access network, wherein each of the second group of taps comprises a pair of connectors coupled inline to the corresponding communication link;

passing the signal received at each of the second group of taps between the corresponding pair of connectors;

replicating the signal received at each of the second group of taps on a corresponding multiplexer connector of that tap;

receiving the signals replicated by each of the second group of taps at a second multiplexer;

extracting a second set of location data from the signals replicated by the second group of taps; and

transmitting the second set of location data, in accordance with an interne protocol (IP), over a data network to a link aggregator; and

wherein determining the location for one of the mobile devices comprises determining the location based on the first set of location data and the second set of location data.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving, at each of the taps, a signal transmitted over a corresponding communication link of the radio access network comprises receiving, at each of the taps, a signal transmitted over an Abis interface of the radio access.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving, at each of the taps, a signal transmitted over a corresponding communication link of the radio access network comprises receiving, at each of the taps, a signal transmitted over an Iub interface of the radio access.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein passing the signal received at each tap between the corresponding pair of connectors comprises passing the signal received at each tap between the corresponding pair of connectors without substantially reducing a signal level of the received signal.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein replicating the signal received at each tap on a multiplexer connector of the tap comprises passively replicating the signal received at each tap.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein:

extracting location data from the received signals comprises extracting a cell global identify (CGI) from the received signals; and

determining a location of one of the mobile devices comprises determining a location of one of the mobile devices based on the extracted CGI.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the multiplexer comprises one or more rack-mountable chassis, and further comprising mounting the rack-mountable chassis in a standard telecommunications rack.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more rack-mountable chassis are less than four rack units (4U) in total size.