System and method for providing location information to applications

• US 7,254,405 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2005
• Issued: 08/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Maurer, Patrick M., Lin, Peter A., Venkitaraman, Narayanan, Smith, Patrick D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild; Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KHAI MINH
• Application Number:
  US11/073,532
• Publication Number:
  US 20060121913A1
• Time in Patent Office: 883 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 455/422.1
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 8/08 Mobility data transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/14 between corresponding nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

First location information related to a location-aware device (514) is gathered. Second location information for a location-unaware device (520) is determined from the first location information. A data structure is created comprising a binding of the second location information and an identifying parameter of the location-unaware device (520). The data structure is provided in a form usable by an application.

Claims

1. A method of determining location information about entities comprising:

operating a location-unaware entity in a location-unaware network at a first geographic position, the location-unaware entity having no direct awareness of operating at the first geographic position;

operating a location-aware entity in a location-aware network at a second geographic position, the location-aware entity being directly aware of operating at the second geographic position;

transmitting information indicating the second geographic position from the location-aware entity operating in the location-aware network to the location-unaware entity operating in the location-unaware network; and

at the location-unaware entity, receiving the transmitted information and determining the first geographic position from the transmitted information.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising using the first geographic position to determine the location of a third location-unaware entity.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining adjacency information concerning at least two entities selected from the group comprising:

the location-aware entity, the location-unaware entity, and a third entity using at least in part the first geographic position.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the location-unaware entity is in an administrative domain substantially different from an administrative domain of the location-aware network.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the location-aware entity is a multi-mode device, which is capable of communication with multiple networks.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first geographic position comprises determining the first geographic position as an estimate of an access point location.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the first geographic position comprises determining the first geographic position from at least one device selected from a group comprising the location-aware entity and a network server that has location information concerning the location-aware entity.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising updating the first geographic position.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the location-unaware entity is selected from a group comprising a mobile device, a network access point, a mobile router, a subnet prefix, an ad-hoc network, a stationary network, and a moving network.