Method and arrangement for locating a mobile station in a packet-switched network and a mobile station utilizing said method

• US 7,450,951 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2002
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks US LLC (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Vimpari, Markku
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, David Q
• Application Number:
  US10/154,592
• Publication Number:
  US 20020176407A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,364 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456, 455/456.1, 455/432, 455/433, 455/466, 455/422.1, 455/516, 455/512, 455/414, 455/425, 455/435.1, 455/440, 455/457, 455/560, 455/452, 370/352, 370/351, 370/353, 370/328, 370/349, 370/229, 201/213
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and arrangement whereby the location of a mobile station (MS, 101) operated in a packet-switched (GPRS) connection can be defined. For the duration of the location measurements, the GPRS mobile station is switched to a circuit-switched connection in the cellular network (11). The invention also comprises the transmission of the accurate map data related to the mobile station as WAP pages to the mobile station for display.

Claims

1. A locating method of a mobile station of a packet-switched cellular network, where first the geographical location of the mobile station is defined by location measurements performed at the mobile station, during which measurements the mobile station that is operated in a packet-switched connection is made to operate in a circuit-switched connection, whereafter the map data related to the defined location is transmitted from a map server that is in connection with the cellular network to the mobile station.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the process of defining the location of the mobile station comprises:

a locating request is sent to a map server,

the map server sends a locating command to the mobile station,

the cellular network mobile station receives the locating command,

the mobile station shifts over to a circuit-switched data transmission connection,

the location measurements of the mobile station are performed,

the location measurement results are transmitted to the network, and

the mobile station resumes the packet-switched data transmission connection.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the request for locating the mobile station is sent by the mobile station in WAP form to a map server.

4. A method according to claim 2 wherein the request for locating the mobile station is sent by the authorities in WWW or WAP form to a map server.

5. A method according to claim 2 wherein in the mobile station, there are calculated, on the basis of the location measurement results, the coordinates of the mobile station, which coordinates are then sent to the map server.

6. A method according to claim 2 wherein the location of the mobile station is defined in the network on the basis of the location measurement results sent by the mobile station, and the calculated coordinates of the mobile station are transmitted to the map server.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein from the map server, there is transmitted to the mobile station a map page in WAP form, on which page the defined geographical location is situated.

8. A method according to claim 7 wherein the map page is transmitted in a packet-switched data transmission connection.

9. A method according to claim 7 wherein the employed packet-switched data transmission connection is a GPRS connection.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending a report including exact location data of the mobile station and directing the data to a map server to retrieve the map that corresponds to the defined geographical location.

11. The method according to claim 1 wherein the map data comprises a geographical location map that corresponds to a deferred geographic position.

12. A cellular radio system comprising a cellular network together with its parts, as well as wireless mobile stations, in which cellular radio system the mobile stations are arranged to operate either in packet-switched data transmission or in circuit-switched data transmission, and which mobile stations are also provided with a device for performing at the mobile station location measurements of the mobile station, which location measurements are arranged to be carried out in a circuit-switched data transmission connection, and a device for displaying the map related to the coordinates calculated in the location measurements.

13. A cellular radio system according to claim 12 wherein a mobile station that is in a packet-switched data transmission is arranged to shift over to a circuit-switched data transmission for the duration of the location measurements.

14. A cellular radio system according to claim 12 wherein the cellular network is arranged to establish a data transmission connection to a map server provided in the Internet in order to fetch the map data related to the coordinate point found out by means of the location measurements.

15. A cellular radio system according to claim 14 wherein the map data is arranged to be transmitted from the map server via the cellular network to the mobile station as WAP pages.

16. The system of claim 12 further comprising a map server for retrieving the map related to the coordinates calculated in the location measurements that is stored in a database by defined geographical location.

17. A cellular radio system mobile station that is provided a device for switching to both a packet-switched data transmission network and to a circuit-switched data transmission network, and with a device for performing at the mobile station location measurements in order to define the geographical location of the mobile station, and a device for changing the data transmission connection from a packet-switched connection to a circuit-switched connection for the duration of the location measurements forming part of the location definition.

18. A mobile station according to claim 17 wherein the device for defining the geographical location of the mobile station comprises:

a device for sending the locating request in WAP form to a map server,

a device for receiving the locating command from a GMLC server,

a device for performing the location measurements, and

a device for sending the results of the location measurements to the GMLC server.

19. A mobile station according to claim 18 wherein the mobile station also comprises a device for receiving the map page obtained from the map server in WAP form through a packet-switched data transmission connection, and a device for displaying the map page.

20. The system of claim 17 further comprising a map server for retrieving the map related to the coordinates calculated in the location measurement that is stored in a database by defined geographical location.

21. The mobile station according to claim 17 wherein the local definition comprises a geographical location map that corresponds to a defined geographical position.

22. A cellular radio system mobile station that is provided with a device for switching to both a packet-switched data transmission network and to a circuit-switched data transmission network, and with a device for performing at the mobile station location measurements in order to define the geographical location of the mobile station, and it is also provided with a device for changing the data transmission connection from a packet-switched connection to a circuit-switched connection for the duration of the location measurements forming part of the location definition, wherein the device for defining the geographical location of the mobile station comprises:

a device for sending the location request in WAP form to a map server,

a device for receiving the locating command from a GMLC server,

a device for performing the location measurements, and

a device for sending the results of the location measurements to the GMLC sever.