System and method for adaptively modifying base station transceiver resources for time of arrival measurements

• US 6,185,428 B1
• Filed: 10/07/1998
• Issued: 02/06/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unwired Planet LLC (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Ericsson, Inc. (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Holmring, Andres Thomas, Kingdon, Christopher H., Zadeh, Bagher Rouhollah
• Primary Examiner(s): Hunter, Daniel S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Thuan T.
• Application Number:
  US09/167,901
• Time in Patent Office: 853 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456, 455/457, 455/450, 455/452, 455/453, 455/561
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A system and method that makes more efficient utilization of BTS resources when BTSs are employed in time of arrival (TOA) measurements as is common in mobile positioning operations. A maximum signaling delay is assumed for which BTS resource assignment is delayed by a default time span in the event of an impending TOA measurement thereby allowing the BTS availment of the resources which would otherwise be idle yet assigned and therefore unavailable for other BTS functions during the period of signaling delay. The period of resource assignment delay may be increased or decreased, the actual adaption of the delay dependent on the true signaling delay.

Claims

1. A mobile station positioning method for locating a mobile station within a telecommunications system, said method comprising the steps of:

transmitting, from a said base station controller within said telecommunications system, a mobile positioning request message to a plurality of base transceiver stations, one of said plurality of base transceiver stations being a serving base transceiver station in communication with said mobile station, said mobile positioning request message including a resource allocation delay message;

receiving, by the respective base transceiver stations, said mobile positioning request message; and

delaying, within the respective base transceiver stations, allocation of base transceiver station resources a given time period pursuant to said resource allocation delay message.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

starting, within said base station controller, a digital timer substantially simultaneous to the transmitting of said mobile positioning request message.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:

starting, upon receipt of said mobile positioning request message by said plurality of base transceiver stations, a corresponding plurality of timers therein.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of:

transmitting, by each of said respective base transceiver stations, a mobile positioning request acknowledgment message to said base station controller substantially simultaneous to the respective starting of the respective timers within each of said plurality of base transceiver stations.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of:

transmitting from said base station controller, a channel activation message to said serving base transceiver station upon reception by said base station controller of said mobile positioning request acknowledgment from said serving base transceiver station.

6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the step of:

transmitting from said serving base transceiver station, a channel activation acknowledgment to said base station controller upon reception by said serving base transceiver station of said channel activation message.

7. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of:

allocating, within the respective base transceiver stations, respective base transceiver station resources for the positioning of said mobile station after the expiration of said given time period.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprises the step of:

adjusting, within said base station controller, a timer store for storing a value for said given time period, said timer store value being inserted into said resource allocation delay message.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising, after receipt of respective mobile positioning request acknowledgments from said respective base transceiver stations by said base station controller, the steps of:

comparing, a wait time corresponding to the amount of time from transmission of said mobile positioning request message to the receipt of all of said mobile positioning request acknowledgments with said given time period;

adjusting said given time period; and

storing said adjusted given time period within said timer store.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein said step of comparing comprises:

transmitting, from said base station controller to said serving base transceiver station, a handover access burst message if said wait time exceeds said given time period.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein said step of adjusting comprises:

stopping said timer store within said base station controller; and

calculating a difference between said wait time and said given time period pursuant to a subtraction operation function.

12. A telecommunications system for locating a mobile station, said system comprising:

a plurality of base transceiver stations, one of said base transceiver stations being a serving base transceiver station in communication with said mobile station;

a base station controller for controlling said plurality of base transceiver stations, said base station controller transmitting a mobile positioning request message to said plurality of base transceiver stations; and

delay means, within the respective base transceiver stations, for delaying allocation of base transceiver station resources therein for a given time period pursuant to said mobile positioning request message.

13. The telecommunications system according to claim 12, further comprising:

a timer store, within said base station controller, for storing therein a value for said given time period, said base station controller inserting said timer store value into said mobile positioning request message.

14. The telecommunications system according to claim 12, further comprising:

respective timers within each of said plurality of base transceiver stations, said respective timers being started upon receipt of said mobile positioning request message and running for the duration of said given time period value.