Systems and methods for mobile terminal location determination using radio signal parameter measurements

• US 8,700,069 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2006
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smith Micro Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Wavemarket Incorporated (Gen Digital Inc.)
• Inventors: MacNaughtan, Malcolm, Drane, Christopher Ridgway, Brown, Stephen, Scott, Craig Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Bost, Dwayne
• Assistant Examiner(s): Johnson, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/887,949
• Publication Number:
  US 20090011779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,927 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/456, 455/5, 455/456.6
• US Class Current: 455/456.6
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02525 Gathering the radio frequency fingerprints
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A method and system for calculating the location of a mobile radio terminal in a radio communications network. The method provides for the collection of measurements of radio signal parameters at the mobile radio terminal which are then processed and transmitted to a network processor for calculating the location of the mobile radio terminal. The collected measurements may be filtered and subsets of the measurements may also be selected according to their suitability for particular applications.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining a subset of radio signal parameters for transmission to a processor for use in a location calculation, the method comprising:

obtaining a first set of radio signal parameter measurements at a first time in a first measurement cycle;

storing the first set of radio parameter measurements and the first time in an accumulator;

obtaining a second set of radio signal parameter measurements at a second time in a second measurement cycle, wherein the difference between the first time and the second time is based on a configurable rate;

storing the second set of radio signal parameter measurements and the second time in the accumulator;

calculating a value associated with each radio parameter measurement stored in the accumulator, wherein each value indicates the relative value for performing a location calculation, and wherein each value for a radio signal parameter measurement from the first or second measurement cycle is based on the relative age of the respective measurement;

selecting one or more radio signal parameter measurements stored in the accumulator based on the one or more associated values to obtain a subset of radio signal parameter measurements, wherein at least one radio signal parameter measurement from the first set and at least one radio signal parameter measurement from the second set are selected; and

storing the subset of radio signal parameter measurements for subsequent transmission to a processor for use in the location calculation.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first set of radio signal parameter measurements and the second set of radio signal parameter measurements are obtained by a mobile radio communications terminal.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein further sets of measurements of radio signal parameters are obtained in subsequent measurement cycles, until a buffer of the mobile radio terminal is full.

4. A method according to claim 2 further comprising sending assistance information to the mobile radio terminal.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein a location estimation is calculated at the mobile radio terminal using the assistance information.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the subset is transmitted to the processor intermittently.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the subset is transmitted to the processor at regular time intervals.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the subset is transmitted to the processor upon request of the processor.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the subset is transmitted to the processor upon request of a user of the mobile radio terminal.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the subset is transmitted upon a change in location of the mobile radio terminal.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the subset is transmitted to the processor upon request.

12. A method according to claim 1 wherein selecting at least one radio signal parameter measurement stored in the accumulator is based on minimizing an amount of radio signal parameter measurements to be transmitted to the processor for a specific application having a lesser accuracy requirement.

13. A method according to claim 1 further comprising storing a plurality of subsets.

14. A method according to claim 1 wherein selecting at least one radio signal parameter measurement stored in the accumulator is based on maximizing a diversity of information in the subset for a specific application having a higher accuracy requirement.

15. A method according to claim 1 wherein the subset is transmitted in a variable length data message.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the length of the data message is determined according to a specific application.

17. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising periodically removing from the accumulator at least one stored radio signal parameter measurement.

18. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein the step of periodically removing from the accumulator the at least one stored radio signal parameter measurement is done according to relevance.

19. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein selecting the one or more radio signal parameter measurements stored in the accumulator is according to a relevance of each radio signal parameter to performing the location calculation.

20. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein selecting the one or more radio signal parameter measurements stored in the accumulator is according to a size of the subset.

21. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the first set or the second set of radio signal parameter measurements include at least one unambiguous radio signal parameter and at least one ambiguous radio signal parameter.

22. A method according to claim 21 wherein the ambiguous radio signal parameter is resolved before selecting one or more radio signal parameter measurements stored in the accumulator.

23. A method according to claim 22 wherein the step of resolving the ambiguous radio signal parameter is deferred for as long as possible prior to selecting one or more radio signal parameter measurements stored in the accumulator.

24. A system for performing the steps of claim 1.

25. A mobile radio terminal for performing the steps of claim 1.

26. A method for calculating a location of a mobile radio terminal in a radio communications network the method comprising:

receiving a subset of radio signal parameter measurements obtained at a mobile radio terminal, the radio signal parameter measurements comprising respective indications of ambiguity, the subset including at least a first particular radio signal measurement corresponding to a first indication of ambiguity and a second particular radio signal measurement corresponding to a second indication of ambiguity, the second indication of ambiguity being indicative of a greater level of ambiguity than the first indication of ambiguity;

processing with a processor the subset to calculate a first estimated location of the mobile radio terminal based on a first particular radio signal parameter measurement corresponding to a first indication of ambiguity;

resolving an ambiguity of the second particular radio signal parameter measurement corresponding to the second indication of ambiguity based on the first estimated location; and

processing with the processor the subset to calculate a second estimated location of the mobile radio terminal based on the first particular radio signal parameter measurement and the second particular radio signal parameter measurement.

27. A method as claimed in claim 26 wherein the step of processing comprises minimising a cost function.

28. A method as claimed in claim 27 wherein the cost function is given by:

C(x)=C_r(x)+C₁(x)+C_u(x)

where;

C_r is the cost associated with signal strength observations;

C_t is the cost associated with timing advance observations; and

C_u is the cost associated with unreported cell observations.

29. A method as claimed in claim 28 wherein C_r, C_t and C_u are calculated as follows:

30. A method of obtaining a subset of radio signal parameters for transmission to a processor for use in a location calculation, the method comprising:

obtaining a first set of radio signal parameter measurements at a first time in a first measurement cycle;

storing the first set of radio parameter measurements and the first time in an accumulator;

obtaining a second set of radio signal parameter measurements at a second time in a second measurement cycle;

storing the second set of radio signal parameter measurements and the second time in the accumulator;

assigning a plurality of representations of ambiguity to the radio parameter measurements stored in the accumulator;

calculating a value associated with each radio parameter measurement stored in the accumulator, wherein each value is relative to performing a location calculation, and wherein each value for a radio signal parameter measurement from the first or second measurement cycle is based in part on the first or second time;

selecting one or more radio signal parameter measurements stored in the accumulator based on the one or more associated values to obtain a subset of radio signal parameter measurements, wherein at least one radio signal parameter measurement from the first set and at least one radio signal parameter measurement from the second set are selected; and

storing the subset of radio signal parameter measurements;

transmitting the subset to a processor for use in the location calculation, wherein the processor is configured to estimate a location based on at least a first measurement corresponding to a first representation of ambiguity and resolving an ambiguity of at least a second measurement corresponding to a second representation of ambiguity more ambiguous than the first representation of ambiguity based on the estimated location and to update the estimated location based on the at least the second measurement as resolved.