APPARATUS AND METHOD OF MANAGING PERIPHERAL WIRELESS LAN RADIO SIGNAL FOR POSITIONING SERVICE

• US 20130235863A1
• Filed: 04/22/2013
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: CHO, Chae Hwan, KANG, Suk Yon, LEE, Song Man, KIM, Chun Young, KIM, Ji Min
• Granted Patent: US 9,173,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02524 Creating or updating the radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to providing a positioning service by managing a plurality of peripheral wireless LAN signals. The positioning service system collects peripheral wireless LAN radio signals by scanning peripheral access points (APs), stores AP information of each of peripheral wireless LAN radio signals in each lattice cell of a database. When a positioning request signal is received from a terminal, a positioning server of the positioning service extracts AP identification information from included in the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal received from the terminal. By using the extracted AP identification information, the positioning server selects from the database the corresponding lattice cell matching to the stored AP identification information of each of the peripheral wireless LAN radio signals pre-stored. And the positioning server estimates location information of the selected corresponding lattice cell as location information for the terminal.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing an access point (AP), comprising:

a database for storing lattice cells identified by a cell ID, wherein a wireless LAN radio signal is stored for each of the lattice cells;

an information receiver for receiving a peripheral wireless LAN radio signal from a service provider AP; and

an additional storage unit for storing a parameter of the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal for each of the lattice cells including AP identification information corresponding to a parameter of the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal as reference location information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an information request unit for transmitting a scanning request signal to the service provider AP and receiving the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal corresponding to the scanning request signal through the information receiver.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the information request unit transmits the scanning request signal to the service provider AP on a preset regular cycle.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the additional storage unit immediately stores a parameter included in the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal once receiving the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal in the database or stores the parameter included in the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal in the database according to a preset regular cycle.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal is information including one or more of a basic service set identifier (BBSI) corresponding to a MAC address of a corresponding AP, a service set identifier (SSID), and AP channel information.

6. An access point (AP) comprising:

an antenna for emitting a radio signal in a particular direction and receiving a radio signal in a particular direction;

an AP scan unit for scanning a peripheral AP on a regular cycle;

a communication processor for transmitting a peripheral wireless LAN radio signal received from the scanned peripheral AP to an AP managing device; and

a power supplier for supplying power.

7. The AP of claim 6, wherein the AP scan unit scans the peripheral AP when a scan request signal is received from the AP managing device.

8. A method for managing a peripheral wireless LAN signal, comprising:

scanning access points (AP) on a regular cycle and transmitting a peripheral wireless LAN radio signal received from the scanned peripheral AP, by a service provider AP;

storing a parameter of the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal for each of lattice cells including AP identification information corresponding to the parameter of the received peripheral wireless LAN radio signal as reference location (or position) information, by an AP managing device;

when a positioning request signal is received, extracting AP identification information from a parameter included in a wireless LAN radio signal received from the terminal, by a wireless LAN based positioning server; and

selecting the lattice cell in which the AP identification information is matchingly stored as the reference location information and estimating location information of the corresponding lattice cell as location information of the terminal, by the wireless LAN based positioning server.

10. A method for managing a peripheral wireless LAN signal, comprising:

receiving information by receiving a peripheral wireless LAN radio signal from a service provider access point (AP);

selecting lattice cells including AP identification information corresponding to a parameter of the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal; and

performing an additional storage by storing the parameter of the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal for each of selected lattice cells as reference location information (or a reference position).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving of the information comprises transmitting a scanning request signal to the service provider AP and receiving the peripheral wireless LAN radio signal corresponding to the scanning request signal from the service provider AP.