Location-determining system and method

• US 8,594,700 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2010
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TomTom Traffic B.V. (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: TomTom International BV (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: Nabbefeld, Jan
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Ajit
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHAM, TIMOTHY X
• Application Number:
  US13/577,264
• Publication Number:
  US 20120309421A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,307 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/36 Input/output arrangements for on-board computers
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3667 Display of a road map G01C21/3614 takes precedence; guidance using 3D or perspective road maps G01C21/3635
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3867 Geometry of map features, e.g. shape points, polygons or for simplified maps
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/52 Determining velocity
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method of determining the location of a mobile device (101) comprising receiving at least one mobile communication operating parameter from the mobile device (101), referring to a database (110) of stored navigation device-derived mobile communication operating parameter data and associated location data, wherein the navigation device-derived mobile communication operating parameter data comprises TA zone data or BTS data, and determining the location of the mobile device from the determined mobile communication operating parameter and the data from the database (110).

Claims

1. A method of determining the location of a mobile device, comprising:

receiving at least one mobile communication operating parameter from the mobile device, the at least one communication operating parameter comprising Timing Advance (TA) zone data;

referring to a database of stored TA zone data and associated location data, the database further comprising TA zone form data representative of the shape and size of each TA zone, each TA zone having a polygonal shape having greater than 4 vertices, the TA zone form data being derived by processing TA zone data and associated location data received from a plurality of navigation devices; and

determining the location of the mobile device from the received at least one mobile communication operating parameter and data retrieved from the database, wherein determining the location of the mobile device from the determined mobile communication operating parameter and the data from the database comprises pattern matching a variation of the received mobile communication operating parameter to the stored data.

2. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of claim 1.

3. A location determining system for determining the location of a mobile device comprising:

a communications module arranged to receive at least one mobile communication operating parameter from the mobile device, the at least one communication operating parameter comprising Timing Advance (TA) zone data;

a database of stored TA zone data and associated location data, the database further comprising TA zone form data representative of the shape and size of each TA zone, each TA zone having a polygonal shape having greater than 4 vertices, the TA zone form data being derived by processing TA zone data and associated location data received from a plurality of navigation devices; and

a processing resource configured to refer to the database and to determine the location of the mobile device from the received at least one mobile communication operating parameter and data retrieved from the database, wherein determining the location of the mobile device from the determined mobile communication operating parameter and the data from the database comprises pattern matching a variation of the received mobile communication operating parameter to the stored data.

4. The location determining system according to claim 3, wherein the communications module is further arranged to receive location data and associated at least one mobile operating parameter from each of a plurality of navigation devices, the at least one mobile communication operating parameter comprising TA zone data, and wherein the processing resource is further arranged to process the received TA zone data and associated location to determine the TA zone form data.