POSITIONING DEVICE OF MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL, METHOD FOR CONSTRUCTING WIRELESS LAN INFORMATION OF DEVICE, POSITIONING SERVER OF MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL, AND METHOD FOR DRIVING SERVER

• US 20130188508A1
• Filed: 06/28/2011
• Published: 07/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Cho, Chae Hwan, Lee, Chang Seok, Kang, Suk Yon, Lee, Hye Min, Baek, Seung Yoon
• Granted Patent: US 9,432,853 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/04 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosure concern a mobile terminal positioning apparatus, method for establishing wireless LAN information of the apparatus, mobile terminal positioning server, and method for operating the server wherein mobility of access point is determined by using positioning information provided at the request of mobile terminal positioning, updating wireless LAN information in wireless LAN server based on stationary access point to make it available to providing mobile terminal positioning service. Exemplary positioning apparatus includes access point for performing local wireless communications; node information-based server for managing wireless environment information of a node in charge of the mobile terminal communications; wireless LAN server; positioning server for calculating distance between the access point and node or between access point and mobile terminal, and if a certain distance is exceeded, determining the access point to be transportable and deletable, and providing the positioning result on stationary access point basis.

Claims

1. An apparatus for positioning a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

an access point for performing local wireless communications with a mobile communication terminal;

a node information-based server for managing wireless environment information of a node in charge of communications of the mobile communication terminal;

a wireless LAN server including a database storing wireless LAN information of the access point; and

a positioning server for calculating a distance between the access point and the node or between the access point and the mobile communication terminal by using positioning information received when the positioning is requested to the mobile communication terminal, the wireless LAN information, and the wireless environment information, and if a calculated distance is greater than or equal to a predetermined distance, determining the access point to be transportable, clearing the access point from the database, and providing the result of positioning based on one or more stationary access points stored in the database when a positioning service is provided.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the node information-based server includes an Integrated LBS Indoor Solution (ILIS) server and/or a device management server,

the positioning information and the wireless environment information include base station information,

the positioning server calculates the distance between the access point and the node by using latitude and longitude coordinates of the node provided by the ILIS server, when the positioning information includes n or more pieces of base station information, and

the positioning server calculates the distance between the access point and the node by using latitude and longitude coordinates of the node provided from the device management server, when the positioning information includes less than n pieces of base station information.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the value of n is 3, and the n or more pieces of the base station information include neighboring base station information.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the predetermined distance represents a maximum possible communication range of the node in charge of the communications of the mobile communication terminal.

5. A positioning server of a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

a memory unit for storing wireless LAN information of an access point performing local wireless communications with a mobile communication terminal, wireless environment information of a node in charge of communications of the mobile communication terminal, and positioning information received at the request of positioning the mobile communication terminal, and storing a comparative value for comparing a distance between the mobile communication terminal and the access point or between the access point and the node;

a calculation unit for calculating the distance between the mobile communication terminal and the access point by using the positioning information and the wireless LAN information, and calculating the distance between the access point and the node by using the wireless LAN information and the wireless environment information; and

a mobility determination unit for determining whether or not pieces of information of the access point respectively included in the positioning information and the wireless LAN information are matched with each other, comparing the distance with the comparative value if match is made, and deleting the information of the access point included in the positioning information from the wireless LAN information when the distance is greater than or equal to the comparative value.

6. The positioning server of claim 5, wherein the comparative value represents a maximum possible communication range of the node in charge of the communications of the mobile communication terminal.

7. The mobile communication terminal of claim 5, wherein the calculation unit calculates latitude and longitude coordinates of the mobile communication terminal under positioning request by using the positioning information, and calculates the distance between the mobile communication terminal and the access point by using the latitude and longitude coordinates of the mobile communication terminal and latitude and longitude coordinates of the access point included in the wireless LAN information.

8. The positioning server of claim 5, wherein the calculation unit calculates the distance between the node and the access point by using latitude and longitude coordinates of the node included in the wireless environment information, and latitude and longitude coordinates of the access point included in the wireless LAN information.

9. The positioning server of claim 5, wherein the memory unit interworks with a wireless LAN server for storing the wireless LAN information, and the mobility determination unit deletes the wireless LAN information stored in the wireless LAN server.

10. A method for establishing wireless LAN information of a positioning apparatus of a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

collecting wireless LAN information of access points for performing local wireless communications with a mobile communication terminal, and storing collected wireless LAN information in a database;

requesting the mobile communication terminal to perform positioning and receiving positioning information;

requesting for wireless environment information of a node in charge of communications of the mobile communication terminal and receiving the wireless environment information;

determining possible matches through comparison between pieces of information of the access points included respectively in the wireless LAN information and the positioning information;

calculating a distance between the mobile communication terminal and an access point or between the mobile communication terminal and the access point by using the positioning information, the wireless LAN information, and the wireless environment information, when the pieces of the information of the access points are matched with each other;

determining whether or not the distance is greater than or equal to a comparative value prestored in a memory by comparing the distance with the comparative value; and

deleting the information of the access point included in the positioning information from the wireless LAN information stored in the database, when the distance is determined to be greater than or equal to the comparative value.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the process of determining possible matches through comparison between the pieces of the information of the access points comprises determining whether or not MAC addresses of the access points included in the wireless LAN information and the positioning information are matched with each other.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the process of calculating the distance between the mobile communication terminal and the access point comprises:

calculating latitude and longitude coordinates of the mobile communication terminal by using GPS information included in the positioning information; and

calculating the distance by using the latitude and longitude coordinates of the mobile communication terminal and latitude and longitude coordinates of the access point included in the wireless LAN information.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the process of calculating the distance between the node and the access point comprises calculating the distance by using latitude and longitude coordinates of the node included in the wireless environment information and latitude and longitude coordinates of the access point included in the wireless LAN information.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the comparative value is a maximum possible communication range of the node for performing communication with the mobile communication terminal.

15. A method for operating a positioning server of a mobile communication terminal, comprising:

storing wireless LAN information of an access point for performing local wireless communications with a mobile communication terminal, wireless environment information of a node in charge of communications of the mobile communication terminal, and positioning information received at the request of positioning the mobile communication terminal, and storing a comparative value for comparing a distance between the mobile communication terminal and the access point or between the access point and the node;

calculating the distance between the mobile communication terminal and the access point by using the positioning information and the wireless LAN information, and calculating the distance between the access point and the node by using the wireless LAN information and the wireless environment information; and

controlling to determine whether or not pieces of information of the access point respectively included in the positioning information and the wireless LAN information are matched with each other, compare the distance with the comparative value if match is made, and thereby delete the information of the access point included in the positioning information from the wireless LAN information when the distance is greater than or equal to the comparative value.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the process of deleting from the wireless LAN information comprises requesting a wireless LAN server, which stores the wireless LAN information, to delete the information of the access point.