Location based services quality assessment

• US 8,509,761 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2008
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Krinsky, Jeffrey A., Leonard, Leslie Paul, Nguyen, Linh, Sarkar, Falguni
• Primary Examiner(s): CAI, WAYNE HUU
• Application Number:
  US12/142,629
• Publication Number:
  US 20090111462A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,881 Days
• Field of Search: 455/421, 4554141-4142, 455/422.1, 455/423
• US Class Current: 455/421
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A technique to gather and assess the quality of a location based services provided to a mobile wireless device via a wireless network includes providing location-based service information by referring to a target location of a requested item of interest within a proximity of the present location of the mobile wireless device. Subjective quality or accuracy information can be submitted to the wireless network from the from the wireless device. The subjective quality or accuracy information is correlated with event and condition information affecting the wireless network. Reports can be generated which indicate the quality and accuracy information of the target location information. The reports are useful for troubleshooting location-based service inaccuracy.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

establishing a communication between a wireless network and a mobile device, the communication comprising target location data with respect to a present location of the mobile device;

receiving in the network, from the mobile device, subjective user feedback corresponding to an accuracy of the target location data, the subjective user feedback generated by a user of the mobile device;

correlating the subjective user feedback with event and condition information affecting the wireless network; and

reporting a quality of a service provided via the wireless network, the service involving location information, in association with a relevant subset of the event and condition information, the quality of the service related to the accuracy of the target location data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of requesting, by the mobile device, information concerning a target location associated with the target location data, before the establishing step.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing a communication between the wireless network and the mobile device comprises transmitting the target location data of a target location to the mobile device in response to a request for the target location issued from the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving in the network, from the mobile device, subjective user feedback corresponding to an accuracy of the target location data comprises:

receiving data from the mobile device indicative of a subjective quality rating input by the user of the mobile device, the subjective quality rating input provided after the user evaluated the target location data.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the subjective quality rating input is time-stamped by the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving multiple instances of subjective quality ratings by the user, each rating time-stamped by the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein correlating the subjective user feedback with event and condition information affecting the wireless network comprises associating the subjective user feedback with at least one of a group consisting of user call data records, road traffic records, weather records, location data, network performance data, or video server performance data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the present location of the mobile device comprises location information determined by one of a group consisting of global positioning system data, time differential of arrival data, angle of arrival data, or user input data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein reporting the quality of the service provided via the wireless network, the service involving location information, in association with the relevant subset of the event and condition information comprises reporting the quality of the service in association with data specifically related to network performance data during a time of the received subjective user feedback.

10. A system comprising:

a data correlator configured to receive a subjective user input rating from a mobile device, connected to a wireless telephone network, wherein the subjective user input rating corresponds to an accuracy of a target location information provided by a service via the wireless telephone network, the data correlator being further configured to associate the subjective user input rating with a call data record of the user and at least one network event, the association producing a target location information quality assessment record; and

a report generator, the report generator configured to provide a plurality of quality assessment records for examination, the records indicating the subjective user input rating providing an assessment of a quality of the service provided via the wireless telephone network, the service involving the target location information.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a network database connected to the data correlator, the network database configured to provide network data link routing and switching element performance data for association with the subjective user input rating.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising a target location information server connected to the data correlator, the location server configured to provide location server performance and capacity data for association with the subjective user input rating.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the data correlator is further configured to receive road traffic or weather data for association with the subjective user input rating.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the data correlator is further configured to associate a time of the subjective user input rating and a present location of the mobile device with a time of the network event.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the time of the subjective user input rating is determined from a time stamp provided by the mobile device.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the present location of the mobile device is determined by one of a group consisting of global positioning system data, time difference of arrival data, angle of arrival data, or a user input indicative of user location.

17. A tangible computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions which, when executed, perform a method, the instructions causing execution of steps comprising:

establishing a communication between a wireless network and a mobile device, the communication comprising target location data with respect to a present location of the mobile device;

receiving in the network, from the mobile device, subjective user feedback, corresponding to an accuracy of the target location data, the subjective user feedback generated by a user of the mobile device;

correlating the subjective user feedback with event and condition information affecting the wireless telephone network; and

reporting a quality of a service provided via the wireless network, the service involving location information, in association with a relevant subset of the event and condition information.

18. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein correlating the subjective user feedback with event and condition information affecting the wireless telephone network comprises correlating the subjective user feedback with a time the subjective user feedback was generated by the user, the present location of the mobile device, and network switching performance data.