Detecting mobile device usage within wireless networks

• US 8,442,556 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2010
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.), Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Rawat, Vikram K., Bao, Derek Hongwei H., Chang, Patricia Ruey-Jane, Chiang, David
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEDRICK, CHARLES TERRELL
• Application Number:
  US12/966,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20120149387A1
• Time in Patent Office: 883 Days
• Field of Search: 455/67.11, 455/67.13, 4554561-4566
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

A device sends, to a mobile device, instructions to collect location-based data associated with calls conducted by the mobile device over a wireless access network and receives, from the mobile device, the location-based data, where the location-based data includes a three-dimensional location and a time associated with each of multiple calls conducted by the mobile device over the wireless access network. The device combines the location-based data with other location-based data from other mobile devices and identifies, based on the combined location-based data and other location-based data, a localized area of congestion for the wireless access network.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

sending, by one of the computing devices and to a mobile device, instructions to collect location-based data associated with calls conducted by the mobile device over a wireless access network;

receiving, by one of the computing devices and from the mobile device, the location-based data, where the location-based data includes a three-dimensional location and a time associated with each of multiple calls conducted by the mobile device over the wireless access network;

combining, by one of the computing devices, the location-based data with other location-based data from other mobile devices;

identifying a particular congested time associated with a particular cell of the wireless access network;

plotting location and elevation data, from the combined location-based data and other location-based data, for calls during the particular congested time to determine a localized area of congestion at a particular elevation within the particular cell; and

adjusting, by one of the computing devices, one or more parameters of the wireless access network in order to minimize or eliminate the localized area of congestion.

2. The method of claim 1, where the localized area of congestion is defined by an upper elevation and a lower elevation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the upper elevation and the lower elevation correspond to floors of a high-rise building.

4. The method of claim 1, where the location-based data includes one or more of:

global positioning system (GPS) location coordinates,

latitude and longitude coordinates,

elevation coordinates,

a service set identifier (SSID) associated with a physical location, or

a physical address of a building where the mobile device is located.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

converting the location-based data into a common format.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a location registration station, a device count of a number of mobile devices within a building associated with the location registration station; and

combining the device count from the location registration station with the location-based data and other location-based data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the location registration station includes one of:

a femtocell,

a picocell,

a microcell, or

a radio frequency identification (RFID) scanner.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein, when adjusting one or more parameters of the wireless access network, the processor is further to:

use the same frequencies on two vertically separate lobes from antennas of a base station for the particular cell.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the mobile device, authorization to collect the location-based data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the location-based data includes:

location and elevation coordinates based on a physical location associated with a wireless local area network that is detected by the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 10, where the location and elevation coordinates based on a physical location associated with a wireless local area network includes triangulation data from multiple service set identifiers (SSIDs) detected by the mobile device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the location-based data includes one or more of:

receiving the location-based data based on a configurable periodic setting;

receiving the location-based data in response to a request from one of the computing devices;

or

receiving the location-based data when a memory capacity threshold of the mobile device is reached.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device includes one or more of:

a radiotelephone,

a personal communications system (PCS) terminal,

a personal digital assistant (PDA),

a wireless device,

a smart phone,

a laptop computer, or

a global positioning system (GPS) device.

14. A computing device, comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of instructions; and

a processor to execute instructions in the memory to;

send, to a mobile device, instructions to collect location-based data associated with calls conducted by the mobile device over a wireless access network;

receive, from the mobile device, the location-based data, where the location-based data includes a three-dimensional location and a time associated with each of multiple calls conducted by the mobile device over the wireless access network;

combine the location-based data with other location-based data from other mobile devices;

identify a particular congested time associated with a particular cell of the wireless access network;

plot location and elevation data, from the combined location-based data and other location-based data, for calls during the particular congested time to determine a localized area of congestion at a particular elevation within the particular cell; and

adjust one or more parameters of the wireless access network in order to mitigate the localized area of congestion.

15. The computing device of claim 14, where the location-based data includes one or more of:

global positioning system (GPS) location coordinates,

latitude and longitude coordinates,

elevation coordinates,

a service set identifier (SSID) associated with a physical location, or

a physical address of a building where the mobile device is located.

16. The computing device of claim 14, where the instructions to collect location-based data include instructions to send the location-based data to the computing device based on or more of:

a configurable periodic setting,

a request from the data server, or

a memory capacity threshold of the mobile device.

17. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the processor is further to:

receive, from a location registration station, a device count of a number of mobile devices within a building associated with the location registration station; and

combine the device count from the location registration station with the location-based data and other location-based data.

18. The computing device of claim 14, when wherein adjusting one or more parameters of the wireless access network in order to minimize or eliminate the localized area of congestion, the processor is further to:

use the same frequencies on two vertically separate lobes from antennas of a base station for the particular cell.

19. The computing device of claim 14, wherein, when receiving the location-based data, the processor is further to execute instructions in the memory to one or more of:

receive the location-based data based on a configurable periodic setting;

receive the location-based data in response to a request from the computing device;

or

receive the location-based data when a memory capacity threshold of the mobile device is reached.