Methods and apparatus for facilitating the determination of GPS location information for a mobile station without disrupting communications of a voice call

• US 7,912,483 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Issued: 03/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2004
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Radic, Slaven, Jin, Xin
• Primary Examiner(s): RAMPURIA, SHARAD K
• Application Number:
  US12/331,760
• Publication Number:
  US 20090124253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 832 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.2, 455/456.6, 455/404.2, 342/357.07
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/17 Emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for facilitating the determination of Global Positioning System (GPS) location information for a mobile station without disrupting communications of a voice call (e.g. a 911 emergency call). In one illustrative example, the mobile station causes GPS navigational-type data to be regularly or periodically received and stored in memory prior to the voice call. At some point in time, the mobile station receives a voice call request to initiate the voice call. In response, the mobile station derives GPS assistance data based on the GPS navigational-type data. The mobile station then causes a GPS fix to be performed using the GPS assistance data, to thereby obtain GPS measurement data. Thereafter, the mobile station causes the voice call to be established and maintained through the wireless network.

Claims

1. A method for use in a mobile station for facilitating the determination of Global Positioning System (GPS) location information, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving, via a wireless communication network through a wireless transceiver of the mobile station, GPS navigational-type data;

storing the GPS navigational-type data in memory of the mobile station;

receiving, through a user interface of the mobile station, a voice call request for establishing a voice call;

comparing a telephone number of the voice call request with predetermined telephone numbers of a prestored list in the memory;

in response to the receiving of the voice call request and determining that the telephone number of the voice call request is in the prestored list of predetermined telephone numbers from the act of comparing, performing a GPS procedure which includes the acts of;

deriving GPS assistance data based on the GPS navigational-type data that was received and stored prior to the voice call request;

tuning the wireless transceiver to a GPS frequency to receive signals from a GPS system through the wireless transceiver;

causing a GPS fix to be performed with the signals from the GPS system through the wireless transceiver using the GPS assistance data, for thereby obtaining GPS measurement data;

retuning the wireless transceiver to signals of the wireless communication network, and causing the voice call for the voice call request to be established and maintained for the mobile station through the same wireless communication network and with the same wireless transceiver used to receive the GPS navigational-type data; and

in response to the receiving of the voice call request and determining that the telephone number of the voice call request is not in the prestored list of predetermined telephone numbers from the act of comparing;

refraining from performing the GPS procedure prior to establishing the voice call.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

during the voice call, causing the GPS measurement data and a request for calculating a location of the mobile station to be transmitted to a location server in the wireless communication network for calculating the location of the mobile station based on the GPS measurement data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the predetermined telephone numbers in the prestored list is 911 for an emergency call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of causing the GPS navigational-type data to be received and stored in memory of the mobile station comprises the further acts of regularly causing the GPS navigational-type data to be received and stored in the memory during one or more time periods that the mobile station would have otherwise been in an idle mode of operation.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of causing the GPS navigational-type data to be received comprises the further act of causing the GPS navigational-type data to be received from the location server.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a trigger signal indicative of the voice call request at the mobile station; and

wherein the act of identifying the trigger signal includes at least one of the following;

identifying a detection of the mobile station being taken out of a holster, identifying a selection of a phone application of the mobile station, identifying a selection of one or more digits of a telephone number for the voice call, identifying a selection of entry of the telephone number for the voice call, and receiving the trigger signal from a personal computer (PC) or laptop.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the GPS navigational-type data comprises GPS ephemeris data, GPS almanac data, or both.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the GPS assistance data comprises at least one of:

GPS satellite PseudoRandom Noise (PRN) code identifying data, Doppler frequency data, time delay window data, and bit contents of the GPS navigational data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the GPS measurement data comprises GPS pseudorange data.

10. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving the location of the mobile station from the location server through the wireless communication network.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

refraining from causing a GPS fix to be performed during the voice communications of the voice call.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication network comprises a CDMA network and the wireless transceiver comprises a CDMA transceiver.

13. A mobile station, comprising:

a user interface;

a wireless receiver and transmitter;

one or more processors coupled to the wireless receiver and transmitter;

memory coupled to the one or more processors;

the one or more processors being operative to facilitate the determination of Global Positioning System (GPS) location information by being further operative to;

receive, through the wireless receiver, GPS navigational-type data via a wireless communication network;

store the GPS navigational-type data in the memory;

receive, through the user interface, a voice call request for establishing a voice call;

compare a telephone number of the voice call request with predetermined telephone numbers of a prestored list in the memory;

in response to the receiving of the voice call request and determining that the telephone number of the voice call request is in the prestored list of predetermined telephone numbers from the comparison, perform a GPS procedure which includes;

derive GPS assistance data based on the GPS navigational-type data that was received and stored prior to the voice call request;

tune the wireless receiver to a GPS frequency to receive signals from a GPS system through the wireless receiver;

cause, with use of the wireless receiver, a GPS fix to be performed with the signals from the GPS system using the GPS assistance data to thereby obtain GPS measurement data based on signals from the GPS system;

retune the wireless receiver to signals of the wireless communication network and cause, with use of the wireless receiver and transmitter, the voice call for the voice call request to be established and maintained for the mobile station through the same wireless communication network and with the same wireless receiver used to receive the GPS navigational-type data; and

in response to the receiving of the voice call request and determining that the telephone number of the voice call request is not in the prestored list of predetermined telephone numbers from the comparison, refrain from performing the GPS procedure prior to establishing the voice call.

14. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further operative to:

cause, during the voice call with use of the wireless transmitter, the GPS measurement data and a request for calculating a location of the mobile station to be transmitted to a location server in the wireless communication network for calculating the location of the mobile station based on the GPS measurement data.

15. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein one of the predetermined telephone numbers in the prestored list is 911 for an emergency call.

16. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the causing of the GPS navigational-type data to be received and stored in the memory is performed on a regular basis during one or more time periods that the mobile station would have otherwise been in an idle mode of operation.

17. The mobile station of claim 14, wherein the causing of the GPS navigational-type data to be received comprises causing the GPS navigational-type data to be received from the location server through the wireless communication network.

18. The mobile station of claim 13, wherein the one or more processors are further operative to:

identify a trigger signal indicative of the voice call request at the mobile station; and

wherein the identifying of the trigger signal includes at least one of the following;

identifying a detection of the mobile station being taken out of the holster, identifying a selection of a phone application of the mobile station, identifying a selection of one or more digits of a telephone number for the voice call, identifying a selection of entry of the telephone number for the voice call, and receiving the trigger signal from a personal computer (PC) or laptop.

19. A communication system, comprising:

a wireless communication network;

a mobile station which is configured to operate in the wireless communication network;

the mobile station being further configured to assist in the determination of Global Positioning System (GPS) location information by being operative to;

receive, via the wireless communication network through a wireless transceiver of the mobile station, GPS navigational-type data;

store the GPS navigational-type data in memory of the mobile station;

receive, through a user interface of the mobile station, a voice call request for establishing a voice call;

compare a telephone number of the voice call request with predetermined telephone numbers of a prestored list in the memory;

in response to the receiving of the voice call request and determining that the telephone number of the voice call request is in the prestored list of predetermined telephone numbers from the comparison, perform a GPS procedure which includes;

derive GPS assistance data based on the GPS navigational-type data that was received and stored prior to the voice call request;

tune the wireless transceiver to a GPS frequency to receive signals from a GPS system through the wireless transceiver;

cause a GPS fix to be performed with the signals from the GPS system through the wireless transceiver using the GPS assistance data, for thereby obtaining GPS measurement data;

retune the wireless transceiver to signals of the wireless communication network, and cause the voice call for the voice call request to be established and maintained for the mobile station through the same wireless communication network and with the same wireless transceiver used to receive the GPS navigational-type data; and

in response to the receiving of the voice call request and determining that the telephone number of the voice call request is not in the prestored list of predetermined telephone numbers from the comparison;

refrain from performing the GPS procedure prior to establishing the voice call.

20. The communication system of claim 19 wherein the mobile station is further configured to, during the voice call, cause the GPS measurement data and a request for calculating a location of the mobile station to be transmitted to a location server in the wireless communication network for calculating the location of the mobile station based on the GPS measurement data.

21. The communication system of claim 19, wherein one of the predetermined telephone numbers in the prestored list is 911 for an emergency call.

22. The communication system of claim 19, wherein the mobile station is configured to cause the GPS navigational-type data to be received and stored in the memory by being further configured to regularly cause the GPS navigational-type data to be received and stored in the memory during one or more time periods that the mobile station would have otherwise been in an idle mode of operation.

23. The communication system of claim 19, wherein the mobile station is further configured to identify a trigger signal indicative of the voice call request at the mobile station, which includes at least one of the following:

identifying a detection of the mobile station being taken out of a holster, identifying a selection of a phone application of the mobile station, identifying a selection of one or more digits of a telephone number for the voice call, identifying a selection of entry of the telephone number for the voice call, and receiving the trigger signal from a personal computer (PC) or laptop.

24. The communication system of claim 19, wherein the mobile station is further configured to refrain from causing a GPS fix to be performed during the voice communications of the voice call.

25. The communication system of claim 19, wherein the wireless communication network comprises a CDMA network and the wireless transceiver comprises a CDMA transceiver.