DETERMINING A LOCATION OF A MOBILE USER TERMINAL

• US 20140213283A1
• Filed: 02/27/2013
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gillett, Mark Alastair
• Granted Patent: US 8,948,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0072 Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Apparatus comprising a decision processing module arranged to determine whether a first mobile user terminal and a second mobile user terminal are within a relative geographic proximity of one another, in dependence on a property of intermediate network equipment of a packet-switched network to which the first and second mobile user terminals are operable to connect. The apparatus also comprises a location processing module arranged to obtain a geographic location of the second mobile user terminal and, on condition that the first and second user terminals are determined to be within the proximity determined by the decision module, to use the geographic location of the second mobile user terminal in estimating a geographic location of the first mobile user terminal.

Claims

1. Apparatus comprising:

a decision processing module arranged to determine whether a first, mobile user terminal and a second user terminal are within a relative geographic proximity of one another in dependence on a property of intermediate network equipment of a packet-switched network to which the first and second user terminals are operable to connect; and

a location processing module arranged to obtain a geographic location of the second user terminal and, on condition that the first and second user terminals are determined to be within said proximity, to use the geographic location of the second user terminal in estimating a geographic location of the first user terminal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said property comprises an indication of a sub network comprising said intermediate network equipment, the first and second user terminals being determined within said proximity on condition that the first and second user terminals are both connected to said sub network.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said property comprises an address space for terminals connecting to the packet-switched network via said intermediate network equipment, the address space being a subset of addresses of the packet-switched network, and the first and second user terminals being determined within said proximity on condition that the first and second user terminals share said address space.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said property comprises a number of hops between the first and second user terminals via the intermediate network equipment, the first and second user terminals being determined within said proximity on condition that the first and second user terminals are separated by no more than a threshold number of hops.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein said threshold is a single hop.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said property comprises a network interface address of the intermediate network equipment, the first and second user terminals being determined within said proximity on condition that the first and second user terminals both connect to said network interface address.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said property comprises a transmission time of a packet travelling between the first and second user terminals via said intermediate network equipment.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the transmission time is a round-trip time from one of the first and second user terminals and back again.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the decision processing module is arranged to remove from said transmission time a delaying effect of one or more switches and/or routers in the intermediate network equipment, the proximity of the first and second user terminals being determined in dependence on the transmission time after removal of said delaying effect.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the decision processing module is arranged to determine whether the first and second user terminals are within said proximity in dependence on a type of access technology currently available for communicating between the first and second user terminals.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the decision processing module is arranged to determine whether the first and second user terminals are within said proximity in further dependence on a shared authentication element of the first and second user terminals.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the authentication element comprises one or more of:

a user identity, a pass code, and a cryptographic key.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is implemented at the first user terminal and is arranged to obtain the geographic location of the second user terminal from the second user terminal.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the location processing module is arranged to estimate the geographic location of the first terminal using a first location technology, the geographic location of the second mobile user terminal being based on a second geographic location technology; and

the position processing module is configured to use the geographic location of the second mobile user terminal to supplement the estimation using the first geographic location technology.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first mobile terminal does not use the second geographic location technology.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the second geographic location technology uses a satellite based positioning system, whereas the first location technology does not use any satellite based positing system.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network equipment is at a fixed location.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second user terminal is a mobile user terminal.

19. A computer readable storage medium comprising code configured so as when executed on one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining whether a first mobile user terminal and a second mobile user terminal are within a relative geographic proximity of one another, in dependence on a property of intermediate network equipment of a packet-switched network to which the first and second mobile user terminals are operable to connect;

obtaining a geographic location of the second mobile user terminal; and

on condition that the first and second user terminals are determined to be within said proximity, using the geographic location of the second mobile user terminal in estimating a geographic location of the first mobile user terminal.

20. A computer readable storage medium comprising code configured so as when executed on one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

determining whether a first mobile user terminal and a second mobile user terminal are within a relative geographic proximity of one another, the first and second mobile user terminals being determined to be within said proximity on condition of being connected to a same wireless router or a same access point of a wireless local area network providing access to a packet-switched network;

obtaining a geographic location of the second mobile user terminal using a satellite positioning system, wherein the first mobile user terminal is not equipped with access to any satellite based positioning system; and

on condition that the first and second user terminals are determined to be within said proximity based on connection to said same wireless router or access point, using the geographic location of the second mobile user terminal in estimating a geographic location of the first mobile user terminal.