System for searching for the location of each personal handy phone in the personal handy phone system

• US 6,622,020 B1
• Filed: 06/12/1995
• Issued: 09/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Seki, Syuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): LEGREE, TRACY MICHELLE
• Application Number:
  US08/489,330
• Time in Patent Office: 3,018 Days
• Field of Search: 455/403, 455/422, 455/432, 455/433, 455/435, 455/456, 455/457, 455/550, 455/561, 455/434
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/04 using triggered events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/08 Mobility data transfer

Abstract

A location searching service system in the personal handy phone system (or PHS) is capable of searching for the location of each PHS mobile phone (such as the cordless phones used in homes) and providing the information of where the requested user of the mobile phone is located. A service system specifies the current location of the PHS mobile phone within an extremely small area denoted as a lot number in the address format of the administrative system. In the case of the mobile communication service system of the PHS, each calling area (which is about 1-2 square kms) is a gathering of a plurality of location register areas, each corresponding to the radio propagation range of a base station, being a small area having a radius of about 100 m. The location data of each mobile phone can also be registered in a common database through a PHS exchanger and this can be done for every small area having a radius of about 100 m. Every time it moves from one base station area into another, therefore, its location register information indicating the location of the base station area in which it is located, is updated and registered in the common database.

Claims

1. A method for a wireless communications system having a plurality of base station areas wherein a wireless communications terminal may move between the plurality of base station areas, comprising:

receiving, by the wireless communications terminal, a signal from at least one base station out of said plurality of base stations, the signal having a frequency characteristic identifying the base station area;

determining, by the wireless communications terminal, a base station area out of the plurality of base station areas which the wireless communication terminal is located according to the received signal,

comparing, by the wireless communications terminal, the received signal and a signal previously received stored in a memory to determine if the wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area;

generating, by the wireless communications terminal, an area register information designating the determined base station area as a position of the wireless communications terminal if the result of the comparison yields that the wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area,

transmitting, by the wireless communications terminal, the generated area register information to the base station,

transferring, by the base station, the area register information received from the wireless communications terminal to a register unit,

storing, by the register unit, the area register information at the register unit,

recognizing the wireless communications terminal upon receiving a request for providing position information of the wireless communications terminal,

selecting the area register information which is related to the recognized wireless communications terminal from said stored area register information and

converting said selected area register information related to the recognized wireless communications terminal into the position information and outputting the position information for said recognized wireless communications terminal, wherein

the area register information of a plurality of wireless communications terminals is stored with identification information of each wireless communications terminal by the register unit, and

the selection of the area register information which is related to the recognized wireless communications terminal is performed by retrieving the area register information from the register unit using the identification information of the wireless communications terminal as a search key.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

updating said area register information for each wireless communications terminal of a plurality of wireless communications terminals by performing a predetermined communication between said wireless communications terminal and a base station provided in a base station area.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the predetermined communication comprises:

allocating, by the base station whose base station area the wireless communications terminal is located in, a radio link channel to the wireless communications terminal;

establishing synchronization between the wireless communications terminal and the base station; and

setting a layer 2-link between the wireless communications terminal and the base station.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing geographical name information corresponding to an base station area of the plurality of base station areas, and

outputting the geographical name information corresponding to the position of said wireless communications terminal.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein step further comprises:

storing information designating a calling area of said wireless communications terminal in storing area register information.

6. The method according to claim 5 wherein

the plurality of base station areas composes the calling area, and further comprising:

determining whether or not the calling area to which the base station area designated by the area register information belongs to is the same calling area designated by the stored information when the area register information is updated; and

updating the information designating the calling area according to the determination.

7. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:

transmitting, by the base station, the area register information and the identification information to an exchanger corresponding to a calling area which the base station belongs to;

confirming the identity, by the exchanger, of the wireless communications terminal using the identification information;

transmitting, by the exchanger, the area register information to the register unit;

determining, by the register unit, whether or not the calling area which the wireless communications terminal is previously registered in is the same calling area which the base station belongs to when the area register information is updated; and

updating, by the register unit, the calling area which the wireless communications terminal is registered in according to the determination.

8. A method for a wireless communications system having a plurality of base station areas, wherein a wireless communications terminal may move between the plurality of base station areas, comprising:

receiving, by the wireless communications terminal, a signal from at least one base station out of said plurality of base stations, the signal having a frequency characteristic identifying the base station area;

determining, by the wireless communications terminal, a base station area out of the plurality of base station areas which the wireless is located according to the received signal,

comparing, by the wireless communications terminal, the received signal and a signal previously received stored in a memory to determine if the wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area;

generating, by the wireless communications terminal, a location information designating the determined base station area as a position of the wireless communications terminal if the result of the comparison yields that the wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area,

transmitting, by the wireless communications terminal, the generated location information to the base station,

transferring, by the base station, the location information received from the wireless communications terminal to a register unit,

storing, by the register unit, the location information at the register unit,

recognizing said wireless communications terminal upon receiving a request for providing position information of said wireless communications terminal,

determining position information of said wireless communications terminal by associating said position information with said location information, and

storing said position information of said wireless communications terminal and outputting the position information for said wireless communications terminal, wherein

the area register information of a plurality of wireless communications terminals is stored with identification information of each wireless communications terminal by the register unit, and

the area register information which is related to the recognized wireless communications terminal is retrieved from the register unit using the identification information of the wireless communications terminal as a search key.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

updating said position information for said wireless communication terminal by performing a predetermined communication between said wireless communications terminal and a base station provided in the base station area, and

outputting the updated position information as current position information for said wireless communications terminal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein

said wireless communications terminal provides new information as it moves from one base station area to another.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

allocating a base station to a calling area from a plurality of calling areas,

storing an allocation table showing which base station belongs to which calling area, and

determining which calling area said wireless communications terminal is located in by relating said allocation information to said positioning information.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein:

said position information further includes routine information including subscriber phone numbers and subscriber service information.

13. A system for providing a location of an apparatus in which said apparatus moves from one calling area into another, said calling area comprising a plurality of base station areas, each of which is provided within a radio propagation range from a base station, said base station being arranged in said radio propagation range, the system comprising:

said apparatus including;

a signal receiving unit receiving a signal from at least one base station out of said plurality of base stations, the signal having a frequency characteristic identifying the base station area;

a memory to store a signal previously received;

a comparing unit comparing the received signal and the signal stored in the memory to determine if the wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area;

a location register information generating unit generating a location register information representing that said apparatus is in an area of the base station whose signal is received if the result of the comparison by the comparing unit yields that the wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area; and

a location register information transmitting unit transmitting the location register information to a base station which transmits the signal with the highest intensity;

each of said base stations including;

a signal generating unit generating the signal, which represents the location of the base station, and transmitting the signal; and

a location register information receiving unit receiving the location register information, registering said apparatus to the base station and transferring the location register information to a registering unit;

wherein said registering unit comprises a common database; and

a unit registering the location register information from each of the base stations in the common database,

said common database stores the location register information of the plurality of the wireless communications terminals with identification information of the plurality of the wireless communications terminals, and

when a request for providing position information of a wireless communications terminal in the plurality of the communications terminals is received, the registering unit retrieves the location register information which is related to the wireless communications terminal whose position information is requested from said common database using the identification information of the wireless communications terminal as a search key, converts the retrieved location register information to the position information and outputs the position information to a source which sent the request.

14. An apparatus for use in a system for providing a location of said apparatus in which said apparatus moves from one calling area into another, said calling area comprising a plurality of base station areas, each of which is provided within a radio propagation range from a base station, said base station being arranged in said radio propagation range, comprising:

a signal receiving unit receiving at least one signal transmitted from each base station, the signal having a frequency characteristic identifying the base station area;

a memory to store a signal previously received;

a comparing unit comparing the received signal and the signal stored in the memory to determine if a wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area;

a location register information generating unit generating location register information representing that said apparatus is in the area of the base station if the result of the comparison by the comparing unit yields that the wireless communication terminal has moved to a new base station area; and

a location register information transmitting unit transmitting the location register information.