Transmission method for cellular telephony mobile equipment's location data

• US 7,110,776 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2002
• Issued: 09/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Inventors: Sambin, Marco
• Primary Examiner(s): D AGOSTA, STEPHEN M
• Application Number:
  US10/473,616
• Publication Number:
  US 20040106413A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,634 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.2, 455/414.3, 455/418, 4554561-457, 455/466, 701/207, 701/214, 701/216, 340/988, 342/357.1
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method of cellular telephony mobile equipment location based services data transmission utilizing an application which generates at least one message containing a set of data in a compressed format. The data set includes data from each particular message, specific data as to the message said, specific data as to measurements on Base Transceiver Stations or associated cells, and specific data on the cells monitored by the mobile equipment.

Claims

1. A method of cellular telephony mobile equipment location based services data transmission, in which an application carries out measurements on Base Transceiver Stations or associated cells by detecting, storing and transmitting respective information to a remote Service Center by means of messages, where a processing system applying calculation procedures and a Base Transceiver Stations geographic position database compute data associated to the location based services, the method comprising:

generating in the application at least one message containing a set of data in compressed format, the set of data being selected from a set comprising specific data on each single message, specific data on the message set, specific data on the measurements and specific data on the cells monitored by the mobile equipment, said data in compressed format comprising;

for each message;

a current message order number; and

a total number of messages dedicated to location based services data transmission;

in the message body;

data dedicated to specific services; and

/or

a number of said measurements;

for each measurement;

RXLEV-FULL-SERVING-CELL data representing an intensity of a signal of the serving cell associated with said mobile equipment;

a “

Changed Tag”

label indicating which of the data;

Cell ID serving cell identification, LAC Local Area Code, MCC Mobile Country Code and MNC Mobile Network Code, associated to the Changed Tag label and pertaining to the serving cell have changed with respect to a previous measurement;

MCC, if “

Changed Tag”

is higher than a first value;

MNC, if “

Changed Tag”

is higher than the first value;

LAC, if “

Changed Tag”

is higher than a second value;

Serving Cell ID, if “

Changed Tag”

is higher than a third value; and

a number of monitored neighboring cells associated with the mobile equipment;

for each neighboring cell;

a relative intensity of the signal computed on the basis of a previous measurement;

an “

ARFCN-BSIC cache index”

of the ARFCN-BSIC channel order number-identification code pair in a memory table;

an “

ARFCN channel order number, if “

ARFCN-BSIC cache index”

has a first binary value;

a BSIC identification code if “

ARFCN-BSIC cache index”

has the first binary value; and

an absolute intensity of the signal, if the neighboring cell relative signal intensity”

has a second binary value.

2. Method according to claim 1 wherein said data in compressed format have the following binary dimensions:

current message order number, 4 bits;

total number of messages, 4 bits;

data dedicated to a specific service, 1 or more bytes;

measurement order number, 1 byte;

RXLEV-FULL-SERVICE-CELL, 6 bits;

“

Changed Tag”

, 2 bits;

MCC, 2 bytes;

MNC, 1 byte;

LAC, 2 bytes;

serving Cell ID, 2 bytes;

number of monitored neighboring cells, 1 byte;

neighboring cell signal relative intensity, 5 bits;

“

ARFCN-BSIC cache index”

, 3 bits;

ARFCN, 10 bits;

BSIC, 6 bits; and

neighboring cell signal absolute intensity, 8 bits.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein whenever a new measurement is made, said application checks which of the data Cell ID, LAC, MCC and MNC associated to the Changed Tag label have changed with respect to the previous measurement and consequently sets the Changed Tag label, adding only the corresponding data which have changed to the body of the message.

4. The method according to claim 2 wherein in order to calculate said neighboring cell signal relative intensity, said application uses a 1-byte memory table for each monitored neighboring cell and, during message coding, initializes a third binary value for each item in the table and carries out the following operations after each neighboring cell signal intensity measurement:

if an intensity of the current neighboring cell is included in a first binary range with respect to the intensity of the previous measurement related to the neighboring cell in the same position, the application only transmits the difference between the intensities and updates the table with the current intensity absolute value; and

otherwise the second binary value is assigned to the relative intensity, the absolute current intensity value is sent in the subsequent byte and the table is updated with the same absolute value, a reversed procedure being carried out at the Service Center for decoding.

5. The method according to claim 2 wherein said application uses a table formed by pairs of ARFCN-BSIC values which are filled progressively as new ARFCN-BSIC pair values are encountered to obtain said “

ARFCN-BSIC cache index”

, and

if a value present in the table is encountered, the ARFCN-BSIC pair line order number or index containing the encountered value is used instead of the value itself; and

if an ARFCN-BSIC value which is not present in the table is encountered and the table is full, the new value will be written over the oldest, according to FIFO mode, while, if the table is not fill, “

ARFCN-BSIC cache index”

is set to the first binary value and the real value is added in the subsequent bytes, whereby adding the new value in the table,

a reversed procedure being carried out at the Service Center for decoding.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein said at least one message containing a set of data in compressed format is a SMS type message.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein said application is installed on the mobile equipment or on a SIM card contained in the mobile equipment.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein said processing system informs the mobile equipment of said geographical position.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein said data in compressed format comprise service specific data dedicated to a specific service.