Client assisted location data acquisition scheme

• US 9,046,595 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2006
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Four Batons Wireless LLC
• Original Assignee: Telcordia Technologies Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson), Toshiba Corporation
• Inventors: Anjum, Farooq, Kim, Byungsuk, Pandey, Santosh
• Primary Examiner(s): Kasraian, Allahyar
• Application Number:
  US11/514,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20070087761A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,196 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.2, 455/115.3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 system and method for locating a wireless client using trusted wireless detectors is described. Sniffers may sense signal strength information and transmit the information to a database. The database may store signal strength-based location information. Information from the database may then be used to determine the location of a wireless client based on new signal strength information from one or more sniffers.

Claims

1. A system for building location vectors using a client-assisted data collection scheme, comprising:

a first wireless client having client agent software;

an access point providing a first wireless subnet in which the first wireless client is connected to said access point;

at least two additional wireless clients, each of the at least two additional wireless clients acting as sniffers that receive data packets from the first wireless client and detect a signal strength associated with said data packets, wherein the at least two additional wireless clients are further configured to monitor a surrounding wireless environment and passively record a signal strength of one or more packets originating from one or more wireless clients in the vicinity of the at least two wireless clients;

a database that receives and stores signal strength information from the at least two additional wireless clients and corresponding location information associated with the signal strength; and

a global monitor that is configured to determine locations of other wireless clients in the first wireless subnet based on the signal strength information stored in the database,

wherein the global monitor maintains the database that receives and stores the signal strength information,

wherein the global monitor is configured to initiate a client-assisted data collection process to build at least one location vector for the database by querying the first wireless client for its location,

wherein the client agent software on the first wireless client is configured to request a user of the first wireless client to enter a current location of the first wireless client when queried by the global monitor, and is further configured to notify the global monitor of the current location of the first wireless client based on input received from the user of the first wireless client,

wherein the global monitor is configured to request the at least two additional wireless clients to monitor signal strength of the first wireless client after receiving the current location of the first wireless client from the client agent software on the first wireless client,

wherein the at least two additional wireless clients are configured to monitor the signal strength of the first wireless client when requested by the global monitor and provide a reading of the signal strength of the first wireless client to the global monitor, and

wherein the global monitor is configured to update the database after receiving the reading from the at least two additional wireless clients.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the location of each of the at least two additional wireless clients is known based on input information.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the location of each of the at least two additional wireless clients is known through use of GPS.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the location of each of the at least two additional wireless clients is known through use of other wireless clients.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the database receives the signal strength information from the at least two additional wireless clients on a periodic basis.