Method and apparatus for managing use of location determination

• US 9,326,096 B1
• Filed: 12/18/2013
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Spectrum LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Gatmir-Motahari, Sara, Jintaseranee, Kosol, Evans, Mark, Soo Hoo, Kevin John
• Primary Examiner(s): Kasraian, Allahyar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hannan, B. M. M
• Application Number:
  US14/132,941
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-457, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

A method and apparatus to help detect that a particular location determination process is unreliable and to help exclude location fixes established with that location determination process from being used as a basis to provide a location-based service. In accordance with the disclosure, a server may receive at least three location fixes for a mobile station, all corresponding with each other in time and each established with a different location determination process, and the server may determine that one of the location fixes is relatively far away from the other location fixes and therefore that the location determination process used to establish that location fix is unreliable. In response to determining that the location determination process is unreliable, the server or another entity may then exclude location fixes established with that location determination process from being used as a basis to provide a location-based service.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving into a network server a plurality of location fixes each defining a location of a mobile station, the plurality of location fixes defining multiple groups of three or more location fixes, wherein the three or more location fixes in each group are established for the same mobile station as each other, and wherein the three or more location fixes in each group correspond with each other in time but are established by different respective location determination processes than each other, wherein each group includes one location fix established by a particular location determination process;

determining by the network server that, in each group of three or more location fixes, the one location fix in the group that was established by the particular location determination process is an outlier compared with the other location fixes in the group; and

responsive to at least the determining, excluding, from use as a basis to provide a location-based service, location determined by the particular location determination process.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein receiving the plurality of location fixes comprises receiving the plurality of location fixes from a plurality of other network servers, and

wherein the method further comprises identifying from among the received plurality of location fixes the multiple groups of three or more location fixes, wherein the identifying the multiple groups is based at least in part on the three or more location fixes in each group being for the same mobile station as each other and corresponding with each other in time.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each received location fix has an associated mobile station identifier and an associated timestamp, and wherein identifying the multiple groups of three or more received location fixes based at least in part on the three or more location fixes in each group being for the same mobile station as each other and corresponding with each other in time comprises selecting the multiple groups of three or more location fixes based at least in part on the three or more location fixes in each group having a common mobile station identifier and corresponding timestamps.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the one-location fix in the group that was established by the particular location determination process is the outlier comprises:

determining distances between pairs of the location fixes in the group; and

based at least in part on the determined distances, identifying the one location fix as being relatively far away from each other one of the location fixes in the group, and determining that the identified location fix is the outlier.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the one location fix in the group that was established by the particular location determination process is the outlier comprises applying hierarchical clustering of the received location fixes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein excluding from use as a basis to provide a location-based service location determined by the particular location determination process comprise excluding from use as a basis to provide a location-based service the particular location determination process.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein providing the location-based service comprises ascertaining mobile station location and using the ascertained mobile station location as a basis to provide location-based information, and wherein excluding the particular location determination process from use as a basis to provide the location-based service comprises excluding the particular location determination process from use as a basis to ascertain mobile station location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple groups of three or more location fixes are in a particular location area, and wherein the excluding, from use as a basis to provide the location-based service, location determined by the particular location determination process is specific to the location area.

9. A method comprising:

receiving into a network server a plurality of location fixes each defining a location of a mobile station, the plurality of location fixes being established for a plurality of mobile stations, each location fix having a respective mobile station identifier and a respective timestamp;

based at least in part on the mobile station identifiers and timestamps of the received location fixes, identifying by the network server multiple groups of three or more of the received location fixes, each group having a common mobile station identifier and having corresponding timestamps, wherein the three or more location fixes in each group were established by different location determination processes than each other;

determining, by the network server, that a particular location determination process is unreliable by at least, for each group of the multiple groups, determining that one of the location fixes of the group is an outlier compared with the other location fixes of the group and determining that the one determined location fix was established by the particular location determination process; and

responsive to at least the determining that the particular location determination process is unreliable, excluding, from use as a basis to provide a location-based service, location determined by the particular location determination process.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein determining that the one location fix of the group is the outlier comprises:

determining distances between pairs of the location fixes of the group; and

based at least in part on the determined distances, identifying the one location fix as being relatively far away from each other one of the location fixes of the group, and determining that the one location fix is the outlier.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein determining that the one location fix is the outlier comprises applying hierarchical clustering of the received location fixes.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein excluding from use as a basis to provide a location-based service location determined by the particular location determination process comprise excluding from use as a basis to provide a location-based service the particular location determination process.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein excluding, from use as a basis to provide a location-based service, the particular location determination process comprises flagging the location determination process to not be used.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein providing the location-based service comprises ascertaining mobile station location and using the ascertained mobile station location as a basis to provide location-based information, and wherein excluding the particular location determination process from use as a basis to provide the location-based service comprises excluding the particular location determination process from use as a basis to ascertain mobile station location.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of location fixes are in a particular location area, and wherein the excluding, from use as a basis to provide the location-based service, location determined by the particular location determination process is specific to the location area.

16. A network server comprising:

a network communication interface;

a processing unit;

data storage; and

program instructions stored in the data storage and executable by the processing unit to carry out functions comprising;

receiving via the network communication interface from at least one other server a plurality of location fixes each defining a location of a mobile station, the plurality of location fixes being established for one or more mobile stations in a particular location area, each location fix having an associated mobile station identifier and timestamp,

grouping the received location fixes into multiple groups of three or more location fixes each, based at least on commonality of mobile station identifiers and correspondence of timestamps, wherein the three or more location fixes of each group were each established using different location determination processes than each other, and wherein one of the location fixes in each group was established using a particular location determination process,

determining that, for each group of the multiple groups of location fixes, the particular location determination process provides unreliable location determination in the particular location area, and

responsive to the determining, excluding the particular location determination process from use as a basis to provide a location-based service for one or more mobile stations in the particular location area.

17. The network server of claim 16, wherein determining that the particular location determination process provides unreliable location determination in the particular location area comprises:

conducting an analysis comprising, for each group of the multiple groups, determining, based at least in part on distances between pairs of location fixes of the group, that the one location fix in the group that was established by the particular location determination process is an outlier compared with each other location fix in the group; and

based at least in part on the analysis, deeming the particular location determination process to provide unreliable location determination in the particular location area.

18. The network server of claim 17, wherein the analysis comprises, for each group, applying hierarchical clustering.

19. The network server of claim 16, wherein providing the location-based service comprises ascertaining mobile station location and using the ascertained mobile station location as a basis to provide location-based information, and wherein excluding the particular location determination process from use as a basis to provide a location-based service for one or more mobile stations in the particular location area comprises excluding, from the ascertaining of mobile station location, location determined by the particular location determination process.

20. The network server of claim 16, wherein excluding the particular location determination process from use as a basis to provide a location-based service for one or more mobile stations in the particular location area comprises flagging the particular location determination process to not be used.