Positioning and location services using civic address information

• US 8,929,918 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2010
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Siomina, Iana, Anderson, Michael, Wigren, Torbjrn
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, TIMOTHY X
• Application Number:
  US12/871,984
• Publication Number:
  US 20110250906A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,589 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.2
• US Class Current: 455/456.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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

Positioning and location services are provided in a wireless communication network using civic address information. The civic address information may comprise a data structure including textual Information Elements such as apartment or office number, street number, street name, city, state, postal code, and the like. A positioning method is defined comprising performing a civic address lookup to obtain a location in civic address format for an identified node, based upon information about the identified node'"'"'s serving (or associated) node and neighbor nodes. Signaling is defined to request the civic address positioning method, to exchange capabilities, to communicate location information using a civic address format, report a positioning failure and optionally the failure cause, and the like. Location information may be translated between a civic address format and a 3GPP or 3GPP2 positioning format. The positioning method and associated signaling are particularly advantageous in indoor environments, where conventional positioning methods fare poorly or fail altogether.

Claims

1. A method of providing location services in a wireless communication network, comprising:

receiving, at a first network node, a positioning request, including a civic address format indicator, requesting the geographic location of an identified, second network node;

obtaining, via a positioning function in the first network node, location information associated with the identified, second node in a civic address format; and

transmitting a positioning response including the location information in at least the civic address format;

wherein the civic address format includes one or more Information Elements (IE) selected from the group consisting of unit number, street number, street name, city name, county name, state name, postal code, road number, and identifying comment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the positioning response includes uncertainty information in the location information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the positioning response includes confidence information in the location information.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising

translating the obtained location information from the civic address format to a different positioning format;

and

wherein transmitting the positioning response comprises transmitting the location information in at least the translated format.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the other positioning format is a format defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force for the routing of emergency calls.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the IEs have a hierarchical order corresponding to accuracy, and wherein receiving a positioning request comprises receiving a positioning request specifying a requested accuracy by identifying a hierarchical level of IE.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the civic address format further includes one or more IEs, each of which includes an aspect of a location of the identified node in a 3GPP positioning format.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified, second node comprises retrieving stored location information associated with the identified, second node, the stored location information in a civic address format.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified, second node comprises:

performing a positioning function to obtain location information; and

translating the location information to a civic address format.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified, second node comprises:

obtaining first location information in a civic address format;

obtaining second location information not in a civic address format; and

using the second location information to improve the accuracy of the first location information.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining location information associated with the identified, second node comprises:

obtaining identification of wireless network nodes considered neighbor nodes to the identified, second node to be positioned; and

performing an address lookup based on the received neighbor node information.

12. A method by a first node in a wireless communication network, of estimating the position of an identified, second node comprising:

receiving, at the first node, a positioning request for the geographic location of an identified, second network node;

receiving, at the first node, information regarding a serving node or an associated gateway node for the identified, second node to be positioned, and neighboring nodes;

analyzing, by a positioning function in the first node, the received information;

based on the received information, determining a position estimate for the identified, second node, the estimate expressed in civic address format; and

reporting the position estimate for the identified, second node;

wherein the civic address format includes one or more Information Elements (IE) selected from the group consisting of unit number, street number, street name, city name, county name, state name, postal code, road number, and identifying comment.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the civic address format further includes one or more IEs, each of which includes an aspect of a location of the identified, second node in a 3GPP positioning format.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein reporting the position estimate for the identified, second node comprises reporting the position estimate in the civic address format.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

performing a translation of the position estimate from the civic address format to a 3GPP positioning format; and

wherein reporting the position estimate for the identified, second node comprises reporting the position estimate in the 3GPP positioning format.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the positioning request requests one of a particular Quality of Service (QoS) level and response time, and further comprising, based at least on the requested QoS or response time, determining a number of times to attempt positioning the identified, second node by other methods, prior to executing this method.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the positioning request indicates an emergency call, and wherein this method is performed as the first choice of positioning methods, to position the identified, second node.

18. A hybrid method of providing location services in a wireless communication network, comprising:

receiving a positioning request, requesting the geographic location of an identified network node;

obtaining, via a positioning function, first location information associated with the identified network node in a civic address format;

obtaining, via a positioning function, second location information associated with the identified network node, not in a civic address format;

using the second location information to improve the accuracy of the first location information; and

transmitting the improved location information;

wherein the civic address format includes one or more Information Elements (IE) selected from the group consisting of unit number, street number, street name, city name, county name, state name, postal code, road number, and identifying comment.

19. The hybrid method of claim 18 wherein obtaining second location information not in a civic address format comprises obtaining a position estimate of the identified network node in a 3GPP positioning format.

20. The hybrid method of claim 18 wherein obtaining second location information not in a civic address format comprises obtaining one or more wireless network communication measurements associated with the identified network node.

21. The hybrid method of claim 18 herein transmitting the improved location information comprises transmitting the improved location information in the civic address format.

22. The hybrid method of claim 18 further comprising:

translating the improved location information to a 3GPP positioning format; and

wherein transmitting the improved location information comprises transmitting the improved location information in the 3GPP positioning format.

23. The hybrid method of claim 18 wherein obtaining first location information associated with the identified network node in a civic address format comprises obtaining the first location information from the positioning request.

24. A first node operative in a wireless communication network and having positioning functionality, comprising:

a communication interface operative to receive a positioning request, the positioning request requesting the position of an identified, second network node, and further operative to transmit a response including a position estimate of the identified, second node; and

a positioning function operative to estimate a position associated with the identified, second network node, the position being in a civic address format including one or more Information Elements (IE) selected from the group consisting of unit number, street number, street name, city name, county name, state name, postal code, road number, and identifying comment.

25. The network node of claim 24 wherein the received positioning request includes a civic address format indicator, and wherein the communication interface is further operative to transmit the location of the identified, second node in the civic address format.

26. The network node of claim 24 wherein the communication interface is further operative to access an external civic address information server.