Location positioning method and device using wireless LAN signals

• US 8,666,433 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2011
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Planet Co., Ltd. (SK Telecom Co., Ltd.), SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: SK Planet Co., Ltd. (SK Telecom Co., Ltd.), SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Cho, Chae Hwan, Kang, Suk Yon, Lee, Chang Seok, Park, Jin Hyo, Ihm, Jong Tae
• Primary Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Assistant Examiner(s): Iqbal, Khawar
• Application Number:
  US13/696,485
• Publication Number:
  US 20130059602A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,035 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/457, 4554561-4566, 455/458
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

A location positioning methoded device using a wireless LAN signal, comprising: a database that includes a first DB, which matches grid cells distinguished by pCell ID with partial wireless LAN-related information related to a wireless LAN signal and stores the matched information, and a second DB, which stores overall wireless LAN-related information related to the wireless LAN signal; an information reception unit that receives terminal wireless LAN-related information from a terminal, which performs communication by using the WLAN signal; a record determination unit; and a location positioning unit.

Claims

1. A location positioning device using WLAN signals, the device comprising:

a database including a first database (DB) for matching grid cells distinguished by pattern cell identification (pCell ID) with partial wireless local area network (WLAN)-related information related to a WLAN signal and stores the matched information and a second DB which stores overall WLAN-related information related to the WLAN signal;

an information reception unit for receiving terminal wireless local area (WLAN)-related information from a terminal which performs communication by using the WLAN signal;

a record determination unit for determining whether the same record information as the received terminal WLAN-related information is prestored in the database;

a location positioning unit for determining a location of the terminal by using a parameter included in the received terminal WLAN-related information and the result of determining whether the same record information is prestored; and

a first positioning target selection unit for selecting grid cells having a media access control (MAC) address included in the terminal WLAN-related information, calculating information on the distance between access points (APs) that repeat the WLAN signal by comparing partial WLAN-related information matched to the selected grid cells with the terminal WLAN-related information using the overall WLAN-related information stored in the second DB, and excluding the grid cells having a corresponding MAC address from a positioning target when the calculated distance exceeds a predetermined distance.

2. The location positioning device of claim 1, wherein the first DB is configured to match the grid cells with wireless propagation environment information and the partial WLAN-related information and stores the matched information, and the partial WLAN-related information includes at least one of a MAC address about an AP, RSS (Received Signal Strength) with respect to the MAC address, AP channel information, AP frequency information or RTD (Round Trip Delay) measured by the terminal.

3. The location positioning device of claim 1, wherein the location positioning unit is configured to determine the location of the terminal using the first DB upon determining that a MAC address included in the terminal WLAN-related information is identical to a MAC address included in the partial WLAN-related information prestored in the first DB on the basis of the determination result of the record determination unit.

4. The location positioning device of claim 3, wherein, when determining the location of the terminal using the first DB, the location positioning unit is configured to determine the location of the terminal by using at least one of information on a distance between APs that repeat the WLAN signal using the overall WLAN-related information stored in the second DB, received signal strength information of the WLAN signal, deviation information, level information, or a score according to the deviation information.

5. The location positioning device of claim 1, wherein the location positioning unit is configured to assign scores classified according to received signal strength to the terminal WLAN-related information included in the selected grid cells and determines the location of the terminal by using the sum of the assigned scores.

6. The location positioning device of claim 5, further comprising:

a first scoring unit for selecting candidate cells from the first DB on the basis of the terminal WLAN-related information, calculating a first deviation value with respect to received signal strength included in the terminal WLAN-related information from received signal strengths stored in the first DB, and assigning a first score corresponding to the first deviation value to each grid cell,

wherein the first scoring unit is configured to designate a MAC address of a signal with highest received signal strength in the terminal WLAN-related information as a reference MAC address, and select grid cells including the reference MAC address from the first DB as the candidate cells, select grid cells including MAC addresses corresponding to received signal strengths higher than a predetermined threshold value in the terminal WLAN-related information as the candidate cells, select grid cells including all MAC addresses included in the terminal WLAN-related information as the candidate cells, or select the candidate cells on the basis of wireless propagation environment information received from the terminal.

7. The location positioning device of claim 6, further comprising:

a second positioning target selection unit for excluding, from the positioning target, MAC addresses corresponding to received signal strengths lower than a specific level from among MAC addresses other than the MAC address corresponding to the highest received signal strength of the terminal WLAN-related information;

a second scoring unit for calculating a second deviation value with respect to received signal strength corresponding to the other MAC addresses from received signal strengths stored in the first DB and assigns a second score corresponding to the second deviation value to each grid cell; and

a score aggregating unit for summing up the first and second scores assigned to each grid cell,

wherein the location positioning unit configured to determine the location of the terminal using the score sum.

8. The location positioning device of claim 7, wherein the location positioning unit is configured to select only cells having score sums greater than a minimum value,

wherein when the cells having score sums greater than the minimum value includes a single cell that has a maximum score sum, the location positioning unit is configured to determine the center value of the cell having the maximum score sum as a location value of the terminal, and

wherein when the cells having score sums greater than the minimum value includes a plurality of cells that have a maximum score sum, the location positioning unit is configured to calculate a weighted average of the plurality of cells, and determines the weighted average as a location value of the terminal.

9. The location positioning device of claim 1, wherein the second DB includes at least one of MAC address information of an AP which repeats the WLAN signal, SSID information, latitude information, longitude information, altitude information, address information, information on the number of floors of a building, collection method information, collection date information, information on the number or pieces of raw data, reliability information, identification information of a base station that communicates with the terminal, or base station update date information.

10. The location positioning device of claim 1, wherein the location positioning unit is configured to determine the location of the terminal using the second DB upon determining that a MAC address included in the partial WLAN-related information prestored in the first DB is not identical to a MAC address included in the terminal WLAN-related information on the basis of the determination result of the record determination unit.

11. The location positioning device of claim 10, further comprising:

a triangulation based positioning unit which, when the number of MAC addresses corresponding to the MAC address included in the overall WLAN-related information prestored in the second DB, from among MAC addresses included in the received terminal WLAN-related information, is greater than a first number, is configured to determine the location of the terminal by performing triangulation on the basis of locations of APs corresponding to the MAC addresses.

12. The location positioning device of claim 11, wherein the triangulation based positioning unit is configured to determine the location of the terminal by performing triangulation on the basis of RTD measured by the terminal, perform triangulation only using a MAC address with high reliability information from among the MAC addresses corresponding to the MAC address included in the overall WLAN-related information prestored in the second DB, from among the MAC addresses included in the received terminal WLAN-related information, or perform triangulation on the basis of AP location information provided by a service provider and AP location information received from the outside when a plurality of MAC addresses with high reliability information is present.

13. The location positioning device of claim 10, further comprising at least one of:

a weighted average based positioning unit which, when the number of MAC addresses corresponding to the MAC address included in the overall WLAN-related information prestored in the second DB, from among the MAC addresses included in the received terminal WLAN-related information, is smaller than the first number and equal to or greater than a second number, is configured to determine the location of the terminal by calculating a weighted average on the basis of locations of APs corresponding to the MAC addresses;

a WLAN signal based positioning unit which, when the number of MAC addresses corresponding to the MAC address included in the overall WLAN-related information prestored in the second DB, from among the MAC addresses included in the received terminal WLAN-related information, is smaller than the second number and equal to or greater than a third number, is configured to determine the location of an AP corresponding to the MAC address as the location of the terminal;

or

a base station signal based positioning unit for determining the location of the terminal using a base station signal when any one of the MAC addresses included in the received terminal WLAN-related information is not identical to the MAC address included in the overall WLAN-related information prestored in the second DB.

14. The location positioning device of claim 10, wherein the selection method information is classified as first type information (own) corresponding to AP location information provided by the service provider, second type information (other) corresponding to AP location information received from the outside, third type information corresponding to AP location information received through field survey, and fourth type information corresponding to information on an AP which collects log data of the terminal, and

wherein the first type information and the second type information are recognized as actual AP location information and the third type information and the fourth type information are recognized as estimated AP location information.

15. The location positioning device of claim 14, further comprising:

a reliability classifying unit for classifying the reliability information on the basis of the first type information, the second type information, the third type information and the fourth type information.

16. The location positioning device of claim 15, wherein the location positioning unit is configured to determine the location of the terminal only using overall WLAN-related information set to high reliability on the basis of the classified reliability information.

17. The location positioning device of claim 15, wherein when first additional information corresponding to overall WLAN-related information including the third type information or the fourth type information is additionally provided to the second DB while first stored information corresponding to overall WLAN-related information including the first type information or the second type information is previously stored in the second DB, the reliability classifying unit is configured to set reliability information of the first additional information to high reliability if a MAC address of the first additional information is not identical to a MAC address of the first stored information, and calculate a distance difference using AP location information corresponding to the first stored information and AP location information corresponding to the first additional information if the MAC address of the first additional information is identical to the MAC address of the first stored information, and

wherein the reliability classifying unit is configured to set the reliability information of the first stored information to high reliability and set the reliability information of the first additional information to low reliability when the calculated distance difference is within a predetermined distance, and set the reliability information of the first stored information to low reliability and sets the reliability information of the first additional information to high reliability when the calculated distance difference exceeds a predetermined distance.

18. The location positioning device of claim 15, wherein when second additional information corresponding to overall WLAN-related information including the first type information or the second type information is additionally provided to the second DB while second stored information corresponding to overall WLAN-related information including the third type information or the fourth type information is previously stored in the second DB, the reliability classifying unit is configured to set reliability information of the second additional information to high reliability if a MAC address of the second additional information is not identical to a MAC address of the second stored information, and calculate a distance difference using AP location information corresponding to the second stored information and AP location information corresponding to the second additional information if the MAC address of the second additional information is identical to the MAC address of the second stored information, and

wherein the reliability classifying unit is configured to set the reliability information of the second additional information to high reliability and sets the reliability information of the second stored information to low reliability when the calculated distance difference is within a predetermined distance, and set the reliability information of the second additional information to high reliability and sets the reliability information of the second stored information to low reliability when the calculated distance difference exceeds a predetermined distance.

19. A location positioning method using WLAN signals, the method comprising:

receiving terminal WLAN-related information from a terminal which performs communication by using a WLAN signal;

determining whether the same record information as the received terminal WLAN-related information is prestored in the database;

determining a location of the terminal by using a parameter included in the received terminal WLAN-related information and the result of positioning on whether the same record information is prestored;

selecting grid cells having a media access control (MAC) address included in the terminal WLAN-related information;

calculating information on the distance between access points (APs) that repeat the WLAN signal by comparing partial WLAN-related information matched to the selected grid cells with the terminal WLAN-related information using the overall WLAN-related information stored in the second DB; and

excluding the grid cells having a corresponding MAC address from a positioning target when the calculated distance exceeds a predetermined distance.