METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING THE MOBILITY STATUS OF A USER OF A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20190313214A1
• Filed: 12/27/2016
• Published: 10/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Inventors: COLONNA, Massimo
• Granted Patent: US 10,887,728 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/022 with dynamic range variability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

A method for determining the mobility status of a user of a wireless communication network includes retrieving, from the wireless communication network, an indication about interactions between a user equipment associated with that user and the wireless communication network, and, for each interaction, determining a served area of the wireless communication network pertaining to that user equipment at the occurrence of that interaction, and determining the mobility status of that user at the occurrence of that interaction according to a comparison between a distance between the served area and a first further served area of the wireless communication network pertaining to that user equipment, and a first threshold distance; or a comparison between a distance between the served area and a second further served area of the wireless communication network pertaining to that user equipment, and a second threshold distance.

Claims

1. A method for determining the mobility status of a user of a wireless communication network, the mobility status taking a motion status wherein the user is in motion or a stay status wherein the user is not in motion, the method comprising:

retrieving, from the wireless communication network, an indication about interactions between a user equipment associated with that user and the wireless communication network, and, for each interaction,

determining a served area of the wireless communication network pertaining to that user equipment at the occurrence of that interaction, and

determining the mobility status of that user at the occurrence of that interaction according to at least one among;

a comparison between a distance between the served area and a first further served area of the wireless communication network pertaining to that user equipment at the occurrence of a first further interaction occurring before said interaction, and a first threshold distance depending on the served area and on the first further served area;

a comparison between a distance between the served area and a second further served area of the wireless communication network pertaining to that user equipment at the occurrence of a second further interaction occurring after said interaction, and a second threshold distance depending on the served area and on the second further served area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first threshold distance depends on a radius (Rc_i) of the served area and on a radius (Rc_i−

1) of the first further served area, and wherein the second threshold distance depends on the radius (Rc_i) of the served area and on a radius (Rc_i+1) of the second further served area.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining the mobility status of that user at the occurrence of that interaction comprises:

determining that the user is in the stay status if the distance between the served area and the first further served area is lower than the first threshold distance;

or

determining that the user is in the stay status if the distance between the served area and the first further served area is higher than the first threshold distance and the distance between the served area and the second further served area is lower than the second threshold distance, or

determining that the user is in the motion status if the distance between the served area and the first further served area is higher than the first threshold distance and the distance between the served area and the second further served area is higher than the second threshold distance.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining the mobility status of that user at the occurrence of that interaction comprises, if no first further interaction is provided with respect to said interaction,

determining that the user is in the stay status if the distance between the served area and the second further served area is lower than the second threshold distance, and

setting the mobility status of the user at the motion status otherwise.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining the mobility status of that user at the occurrence of that interaction comprises, if no second further interaction is provided with respect to said interaction:

determining that the user is in the stay status if the distance between the served area and the first further served area is lower than the first threshold distance, and

setting the mobility status of the user at the motion status otherwise.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the served area and the first further served area is based on the distance between a center (B_i) of the served area and a center (B_i−

1) of the first further served area and wherein the distance between the served area and the second further served area is based on the distance between the center (B_i) of the served area and a center (B_i+1) of the second further served area.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein said first threshold distance depends on a combination between the radius (Rc_i) of the served area and the radius (Rc_i−

1) of the first further served area, and wherein said second threshold distance depends on a combination between the radius (Rc_i) of the served area and on the radius (Rc_i+1) of the second further served area.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said combination is a linear combination.

9. The method according to claim 6, wherein the first further served area comprises at least two served areas associated with consecutive interactions for which the stay status of the user has been determined, the center (B_i−

1) of the first further served area being determined as centroid of the centers of said at least two served areas, and the radius (Rc<sub>i−

1</sub>) of the first further served area being determined as average radius of said at least two cells.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mobile communication network is a GSM network, said indication about interactions comprising at least one between “

Charging Data Records”

data and “

Visitor Location Records”

data from the GSM network.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mobile communication network is a LTE network, said indication about interactions comprising “

Mobility Management Entity”

data from the LTE network.