Location information for a mobile station

• US 9,351,139 B2
• Filed: 03/26/2010
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Jang, Ke-Chi, Denman, Robert E., Wang, Chung-Ching
• Primary Examiner(s): Viana Di Prisco, German J
• Application Number:
  US12/732,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20100178935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,251 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

In a wireless communications network, a method of performing a location service with respect to a mobile station includes communicating a paging message containing an indication of whether the paging message is related to at least one of an emergency-related location service and a law enforcement-related location service. In another aspect, a mobile station in a wireless communications network communicates messaging to move the mobile station to a traffic channel in response to a callback by at least one of an emergency services entity and a law enforcement entity. The mobile station also receives a location request on the traffic channel, the location request containing an indication of whether the location request is related to at least one of an emergency-related location service and a law enforcement-related location service.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

communicating a first message to a mobile station to move to a traffic channel in response to a callback to the mobile station by at least one of an emergency services entity or a law enforcement entity;

communicating, to the mobile station and over the traffic channel, a second message containing;

an indicator having two or more available alternate states including a first state to indicate that the second message is related to at least one of an emergency-related location service or a law enforcement-related service, and a second state to indicate that the second message is related to a value-added service; and

an information element separate from the indicator and within the second message that indicates a location request for a location of the mobile station;

receiving an indication of an acceptance of the location request by the mobile station;

receiving information via the traffic channel regarding the location of the mobile station.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second message containing the indicator comprises one of a general page message (GPM) containing the indicator or a universal page message (UPM) containing the indicator.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the second message comprises sending the information element to identify service option 35 or service option 36, and a different information element that includes the indicator to indicate whether the page is related to the emergency-related location service or law enforcement-related location service.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising a base station setting a state of the indicator to one of the two or more available alternate states based on a state of a field in a paging request from a mobile switching center indicating whether the paging request is related to the emergency-related location service or the law enforcement-related service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second message comprises a position determination data message (PDDM) containing an indication of whether the PDDM is related to at least on of an emergency-related location service or a law enforcement-related location service.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein sending the PDDM message comprises sending an TIA/EIA/IS-801 PDDM message.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a position request containing a field indicating whether the position request is related to at least one of the emergency-related location service and the law enforcement-related location service; and

setting a state of the indication in the PDDM based on a state of the field in the position request.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said communicating comprises communicating the second message to a mobile station from a base station to initiate a call with the mobile station.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said communicating is performed by a base station in response to receipt by the base station of a paging request from a system controller, wherein the paging request contains an indication of whether the paging request is related to at least one of the emergency-related location service or the law enforcement-related location service.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving at a mobile station a first message instructing the mobile station to move to a traffic channel in response to a callback from at least one of an emergency services entity or a law enforcement entity;

causing the mobile station to move to the traffic channel;

receiving a second message by the mobile station and over the traffic channel, the second message containing;

an indicator having two or more available alternate states including a first state to indicate that the second message is related to at least one of the emergency-related location service or the law enforcement-related location service, and a second state to indicate that the second message is related to a value-added service; and

an information element within the second message that indicates that the message is location-related;

examining the second message to determine whether to accept the message based on association of the second message with either an emergency-related location service or a law enforcement-related location service;

responding to the second message by sending a response over the traffic channel indicating acceptance of a location service-related option specified in the second message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said examining comprises:

ascertaining that the indicator is set to the first state.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

the mobile station communicating position determination data messages (PDDMs) on the traffic channel with a position determination entity (PDE);

the mobile station determining whether one or more received PDDMs are related to the emergency-related location service or law enforcement-related location service; and

in response to determining that the one or more received PDDMs are related to the emergency-related location service or law enforcement-related location service, the mobile station accepting request elements in the one or more received PDDMs.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the second message comprises receiving a page from a base station to initiate a call with the mobile station, the page containing the indicator set to the first state to indicate that the page is related to at least one of the emergency-related location service or the law enforcement-related location service.

14. A mobile device comprising:

one or more processors;

at least one machine-readable storage memory storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the mobile device to perform operations comprising;

receiving messaging to cause the mobile device to move to a traffic channel of a wireless communications network in response to a callback by at least one of an emergency services entity or a law enforcement entity;

receiving a location request on the traffic channel containing an indication that the location request is related to at least one of an emergency-related location service or a law enforcement-related location service;

sending location information of the mobile device in response to the location request;

receiving a page containing an indication that the page is associated with at least one of an emergency-related location service or a law enforcement-related location service; and

responding to the page by accepting a service option of the page based on the indication.

15. A system comprising:

an interface to communicate messages to a mobile station;

a controller having a processor; and

one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by the processor to cause the system to perform operations including;

communicating a first message to the mobile station to move to a traffic channel in response to a callback to the mobile station by at least one of an emergency services entity or a law enforcement entity;

configuring a second message, including setting a first indicator in the second message to a state of two or more available alternate states of the indicator, the two or more states including a first state that indicates that the second message is related to at least one of an emergency-related location service and or a law enforcement-related location service, and a second state that indicates that the second message is related to a value-added service;

including within the second message a second indicator indicating a location request for a location of the mobile station;

communicating the second message over the traffic channel to the mobile station;

receiving an indication of an acceptance of the location request by the mobile station; and

receiving location information from the mobile station over the traffic channel.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller is configured to send one or more of the first message or the second message to the mobile station in response to an idle-mode query initiated by an emergency services entity to the mobile station.

17. The system of claim 15, comprising a base station including the interface and controller, wherein the second message comprises a page sent over a wireless link from the base station to the mobile station to initiate a call with the mobile station.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller is configured to send data over a traffic channel, the data comprising a position determination data message (PDDM) containing an indication of whether the PDDM is related to emergency services.

19. A mobile station comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable storage media storing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform operations including;

moving to a traffic channel in response to a callback to the mobile station by at least one of an emergency services entity or a law enforcement entity;

receiving a page over the traffic channel;

identifying within the page an information element that specifies that the page is related to a location request;

identifying within the page an indicator having two or more available alternate states including a first state to indicate that the page is related to at least one of an emergency-related location service or a law enforcement-related service, and a second state to indicate that the page is related to a value-added service; and

communicating over the traffic channel an indication of an acceptance of the location request, and location information for a location of the mobile station.

20. The mobile station of claim 19, wherein the operations include accepting the received page in response to the indicator indicating that the page is related to the emergency-related location service or law enforcement-related location service.

21. The mobile station of claim 19, comprising one of a mobile phone, a portable computer with a wireless modem, a wireless-enabled personal digital assistant (PDA), and a global positioning system (GPS) device.

22. The mobile station of claim 19, wherein the page received by the mobile station is sent by a base station to initiate a call with the mobile station.

23. The mobile station of claim 19, wherein the information element is separate from the indicator.