Method and apparatus for classifying user morphology for efficient use of cell phone system resources

• US 8,099,106 B2
• Filed: 08/24/2005
• Issued: 01/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Soliman, Samir S., Gaal, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Nimesh
• Application Number:
  US11/212,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20070049295A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,337 Days
• Field of Search: 455/455, 455/453, 455/440, 455/441, 455/456, 455/456.3, 375/224, 375/142, 342/114
• US Class Current: 455/456.3
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/25 involving aiding data received from a cooperating element, e.g. assisted GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for classifying the user'"'"'s morphology, and using that classification to control the UE in order to provide more efficient operation of the UE. The classification may be used to assist the user in determining its location more efficiently, without needless interruption or unnecessary use of system resources. The morphology classifier may classify the user'"'"'s morphology into at least one of the following classifications: indoor, outdoor, local coverage, no local coverage, proximate to a base station, stationary, moving, urban, suburban, rural, deep indoor, mid indoor, and indoor near window. The classification may be used by the UE or by a remote server that utilizes the classification to develop assistance data that is sent to the UE.

Claims

1. A method of classifying morphology at a location of a UE (user equipment), in order to assist the UE in efficiently performing position location operations, the method comprising:

a) receiving a first set of data measurements from the UE, wherein the first set of data measurements are obtained by measuring a first set of signals received in said UE from RF (radio frequency) signal sources within range of said UE, to provide the first set of data measurements;

b) responsive to said first set of data measurements, classifying a user'"'"'s first morphology to form a user'"'"'s first morphology classification;

c) determining a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

d) responsive to said user'"'"'s first morphology classification and said level of confidence, transmitting position assistance information to the UE, wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on the user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said RF signal sources include a plurality of base stations, and said first set of data measurements include the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of each of the RF signal sources, and the RSSI (receive signal strength indicator).

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said RF signal sources include a plurality of base stations, and said first set of data measurements include AFLT (advanced forward link trilateration) measurements.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said RF signal sources include a plurality of positioning satellites, and said first set of data measurements include GPS (global positioning system) measurements.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said RF signal sources comprise a plurality of base stations in a CDMA (code division multiple access) network, and said first set of data measurements include at least two of Ec/No (carrier-to-noise ratio), RSSI (receive signal strength indicator), RTD (round trip delay), a number of pilots in a found set, and the dynamic variation of energy profiles among found pilots.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said user'"'"'s first morphology classification and second different morphology classification each include at least one of indoor, outdoor, local coverage, no local coverage, proximate to a base station, stationary, moving, urban, suburban, rural, deep indoor, mid indoor, or indoor near window.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said user'"'"'s first morphology classification and second different morphology classification each include at least one of indoor with local coverage, outdoor near cell, outdoor dense urban moving, high rise building close to window, outdoor dense urban stationary, outdoor suburban moving, outdoor suburban stationary, deep indoor no local coverage close to a cell site, rural area moving, rural area stationary, outdoor suburban area edge of coverage mobile, outdoor suburban area edge of coverage stationary, or indoor mid building no local coverage.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining if the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of at least one of the first set of signals exceeds a minimum threshold before classifying the user'"'"'s first morphology, and if it does not exceed the minimum threshold, then repeating said measuring the first set of signals to provide a second set of data measurements before classifying the user'"'"'s first morphology, otherwise continuing with classifying a user'"'"'s first morphology.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a previously known location of the UE; and

wherein said classifying the user'"'"'s first morphology is further responsive to said previously known location.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said position assistance information includes position location control information.

11. A method of efficiently utilizing system resources of a UE (user equipment), the method comprising:

a) measuring a first set of signals received in said UE from RF (radio frequency) signal sources within range of said UE, to provide a first set of data measurements;

b) accessing position assistance and/or position control information associated with a particular user morphology, wherein the particular user morphology is determined using the first set of data measurements, and wherein the position assistance information is transmitted to the UE based on said particular user morphology and a determined level of confidence of said particular user morphology, wherein said position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on the particular user morphology, and wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on a particular user morphology classification; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information; and

c) performing positioning operations, using said position assistance and/or position control information, at the UE comprising processing a second set of signals, and wherein the position control information selectively enables search of a type of positioning signals.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said RF signal sources include a plurality of base stations, and said data measurements include an SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of each of the RF signal sources, and an RSSI (receive signal strength indicator).

13. The method of claim 11 wherein said RF signal sources include a plurality of base stations, and said data measurements include AFLT (advanced forward link trilateration) measurements.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein said RF signal sources include a plurality of positioning satellites, and said data measurements include GPS (global positioning system) measurements.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein said RF signal sources comprise a plurality of base stations in a CDMA (code division multiple access) network, and said first set of data measurements include at least two of Ec/No (carrier-to-noise ratio), RSSI (receive signal strength indicator), RTD (round trip delay), a number of pilots in a found set, and a dynamic variation of energy profiles among found pilots.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein said particular user morphology classifications include at least one of indoor, outdoor, local coverage, no local coverage, proximate to a base station, stationary, moving, urban, suburban, rural, deep indoor, mid indoor, or indoor near window.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein said particular user morphology classifications include at least one of indoor with local coverage, outdoor near cell, outdoor dense urban moving, high rise building close to window, outdoor dense urban stationary, outdoor suburban moving, outdoor suburban stationary, deep indoor no local coverage close to a cell site, rural area moving, rural area stationary, outdoor suburban area edge of coverage mobile, outdoor suburban area edge of coverage stationary, or indoor mid building no local coverage.

18. The method of claim 11 further comprising determining if an SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) exceeds a minimum threshold before classifying said particular user morphology, and if the SNR does not exceed the minimum threshold, then repeating said measuring the first set of signals to provide a second set of data measurements before classifying said particular user morphology, otherwise continuing with said classifying said particular user morphology.

19. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

determining a previously known location of the UE; and

wherein said classifying said particular user morphology is further responsive to said previously known location.

20. The method of claim 11 wherein said position assistance information includes:

unsolicited position location sensitivity assistance data received from a network resource remote from the UE;

control information indicating the UE should adjust a number of signal sources to be searched;

control information indicating the UE should adjust a search window size; and

information indicating an expected signal strength of a positioning signal received by the UE.

21. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

determining a level of confidence in said particular user morphology classification; and

wherein performing position operations is responsive to said level of confidence and said particular user morphology classification.

22. A wireless apparatus for efficiently performing position location operations to enable system resources to be conserved, the wireless apparatus comprising:

a receiver including a system configured to measure a first set of signals received in said wireless apparatus from RF (radio frequency) signal sources within range of said wireless apparatus, to provide a first set of data measurements based on the first set of signals, and to receive position assistance information, wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on a user'"'"'s morphology classification of a user'"'"'s morphology; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification of a different morphology, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information;

a morphology classifier configured to classify the user'"'"'s morphology using said first set of data measurements and to determine a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s morphology classification; and

a control system configured to use the position assistance information to control a positioning operation of the wireless apparatus based on the user'"'"'s morphology and said level of confidence, wherein the control system selectively enables search of a particular type of positioning signal based on the user'"'"'s morphology.

23. The wireless apparatus of claim 22 wherein said RF signal sources comprise a plurality of base stations in a CDMA (code division multiple access) network, and said first set of data measurements includes at least two of Ec/No (carrier-to-noise ratio), RSSI (receive signal strength indicator), RTD (round trip delay), a number of pilots in a found set, and a dynamic variation of energy profiles among pilots in the found set.

24. The wireless apparatus of claim 22 wherein said morphology classifier includes means for classifying the user'"'"'s morphology into at least one of indoor, outdoor, local coverage, no local coverage, proximate to a base station, stationary, moving, urban, suburban, rural, deep indoor, mid indoor, and indoor near window.

25. The wireless apparatus of claim 22 further comprising:

means for determining a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s morphology classification; and

wherein said control system controls position operation of the wireless apparatus based on said level of confidence and said user'"'"'s morphology classification.

26. A method of efficiently utilizing system resources of a UE (user equipment), the method comprising:

classifying a user'"'"'s morphology as one of indoor or outdoor based in part on a first set of data measurements determined from a first set of signals received in said UE from RF (radio frequency) signal sources to form a user'"'"'s first morphology classification;

determining a confidence level of the user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

responsive to said user'"'"'s first morphology classification and said confidence level, controlling a position location operation within said UE

receiving position assistance information at the UE, wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on the user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein controlling the position location operation comprises at least one of:

enabling/disabling position location determinations,

adjusting a number of position location signal sources to be searched,

adjusting a type of position location signal sources to be searched, and

adjusting a search window size.

28. A mobile device comprising:

one or more antennas configured to receive a plurality of signals including a first signal set and a second signal set;

processor circuitry configured to process the first signal set to determine a first set of data measurements indicative of properties of the first signal set and to process the second signal set to determine a second set of data measurements indicative of properties of the second signal set;

classification circuitry configured to determine a user'"'"'s RF (radio frequency) environment classification using the first set of data measurements and to determine a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s RF environment classification;

receiving circuitry to receive position assistance information, wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on a user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information; and

control circuitry configured to generate position location control information based on the RF environment classification and said level of confidence, including

first position location control information based on a first RF environment classification and

second different position location control information based on a second different RF environment classification; and

positioning circuitry configured to process the second signal set using the position location control information according to a position location technique selectively enabled by the control circuitry and to generate position information for the mobile device based thereon.

29. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the first signal set comprises a plurality of signals transmitted by terrestrial signal sources, wherein the first set of data measurements comprises measurements indicative of signal strength from the plurality of terrestrial signal sources, and wherein the second signal set comprises a plurality of satellite signals.

30. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first search window size associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second different position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different search window size associated with the second different RF environment classification.

31. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the positioning circuitry comprises satellite processing circuitry, and wherein the first position location control information comprises control information to control the satellite processing circuitry to disable further satellite searches for a particular time interval.

32. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the classification circuitry configured to determine the RF environment classification using the first set of data measurements is configured to determine the RF environment classification using at least one received signal strength of the first set of data measurements and a number of detected signals of at least one signal type.

33. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first number of sources to be searched associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different number of sources to be searched associated with the second different RF environment classification.

34. The mobile device of claim 28, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first number of sources to be searched associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different number of sources to be searched associated with the second different RF environment classification.

35. A mobile device comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of signals including a first signal set and a second signal set;

means for processing the first signal set to determine a first set of data measurements indicative of properties of the first signal set and the second signal set to determine a second set of data measurements indicative of properties of the second signal set;

means for determining a user'"'"'s RF (radio frequency) environment classification using the first set of data measurements;

means for determining a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s first morphology classification;

means for generating position location control information based on the RF environment classification and said level of confidence, including;

first position location control information based on a first RF environment classification and

second different position location control information based on a second different RF environment classification;

means for selectively enabling a search of position location signals in a second signal set based on the position location control information;

means for receiving position assistance information, wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on a user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information; and

means for processing the second signal set using the position location control information and for generating position information for the mobile device based thereon.

36. The mobile device of claim 35, wherein the first signal set comprises a plurality of signals transmitted by terrestrial signal sources, wherein the first set of data measurements comprises measurements indicative of signal strength from the plurality of terrestrial signal sources, and wherein the second signal set comprises a plurality of satellite signals.

37. The mobile device of claim 35, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first search window size associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different search window size associated with the second different RF environment classification.

38. The mobile device of claim 35, wherein the means for processing the second signal comprises satellite processing circuitry, and wherein the first position location control information comprises control information to control the satellite processing circuitry to disable further satellite searches for a particular time interval.

39. The mobile device of claim 35, wherein the means for determining RF environment classification comprises means for determining the RF environment classification using at least one received signal strength of the first set of data measurements and a number of detected signals of at least one signal type.

40. An apparatus comprising:

non-transitory computer-readable memory storing software instructions comprising software instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause one more machines to perform operations comprising;

accessing information indicative of a first set of data measurements indicative of properties of a first signal set received at a UE (user equipment);

determining a user'"'"'s RF (radio frequency) environment classification using the first set of data measurements;

determining a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s RF environment classification;

receiving position assistance information, wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on a user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information; and

generating position location control information based on the RF environment classification and said level of confidence, including;

first position location control information based on a first RF environment classification and

second different position location control information based on a second different RF environment classification,

wherein the position location control information selectively enables search of a type of positioning signals as part of a positioning technique.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the operations further comprise:

using the position location control information to process a second signal set; and

generating position information for the mobile device based thereon.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein the first signal set comprises a plurality of signals transmitted by terrestrial signal sources, wherein the first set of data measurements comprises measurements indicative of signal strength from the plurality of terrestrial signal sources, and wherein the second signal set comprises a plurality of satellite signals.

43. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first search window size associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second different position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different search window size associated with the second different RF environment classification.

44. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information to control the satellite processing circuitry to disable further satellite searches for a particular time interval.

45. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first number of sources to be searched associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different number of sources to be searched associated with the second different RF environment classification.

46. A method of performing positioning in a mobile device, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of signals including a first signal set and a second signal set;

processing the first signal set to determine a first set of data measurements indicative of properties of the first signal set and the second signal set to determine a second set of data measurements indicative of properties of the second signal set;

determining a user'"'"'s RF (radio frequency) environment classification using the first set of data measurements;

determining a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s RF environment classification;

receiving position assistance information, wherein the position assistance information includes;

first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals based on a user'"'"'s first morphology classification; and

second different position assistance information based on a second different morphology classification, wherein the second different position assistance information is different from the first position assistance information; and

generating position location control information to selectively enable a search of a particular type of positioning signal based on the RF environment classification and said level of confidence, including;

first position location control information based on a first RF environment classification and

second different position location control information based on a second different RF environment classification; and

processing the second signal set using the position location control information to;

perform the search of the particular type of positioning signal, and

generate position information for the mobile device based thereon.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the first signal set comprises a plurality of signals transmitted by terrestrial signal sources, wherein the first set of data measurements comprises measurements indicative of signal strength from the plurality of terrestrial signal sources, and wherein the second signal set comprises a plurality of satellite signals.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first search window size associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second different position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different search window size associated with the second different RF environment classification.

49. The method of claim 46, wherein processing the second signal set and generating position information comprises:

processing the second signal set using satellite processing circuitry, and

wherein the first position location control information comprises control information to control the satellite processing circuitry to disable further satellite searches for a particular time interval.

50. The method of claim 46, wherein determining RF environment classification comprises determining the RF environment classification using at least one received signal strength of the first set of data measurements and a number of detected signals of at least one signal type.

51. The method of claim 46, wherein the first position location control information comprises control information indicative of a first number of sources to be searched associated with the first RF environment classification, and wherein the second position location control information comprises control information indicative of a second different number of sources to be searched associated with the second different RF environment classification.

52. A wireless apparatus for efficiently performing position location operations to enable system resources to be conserved, the wireless apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive RF (radio frequency) signals, to measure a first set of the RF signals received, and to provide a first set of data measurements based on the first set of the RF signals;

a classifier configured to use the first set of data measurements to classify a user'"'"'s RF environment of a user and provide a classification indication, and configured to determining a level of confidence in said user'"'"'s RF environment classification; and

a transmitter configured to produce first position assistance information including one or more parameters for a search of SPS (satellite positioning system) signals in response to the classification indication indicating a first RF environment class and said level of confidence, and to produce second position assistance information, different from the first position assistance information, in response to the classification indication indicating a second RF environment class different from the first RF environment class.