Apparatuses, systems, and methods for determining location of a mobile device(s) in a distributed antenna system(s)

• US 9,532,329 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2015
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Optical Communications LLC (Corning Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Corning Optical Communications LLC (Corning Incorporated)
• Inventors: Sauer, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): CHO, HONG SOL
• Application Number:
  US14/873,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20160029339A1
• Time in Patent Office: 452 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/25752 Optical arrangements for wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0015 one node acting as a reference for the others
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

Distributed antenna systems provide location information for client devices communicating with remote antenna units. The location information can be used to determine the location of the client devices relative to the remote antenna unit(s) with which the client devices are communicating. A location processing unit (LPU) includes a control system configured to receive uplink radio frequency (RF) signals communicated by client devices and determines the signal strengths of the uplink RF signals. The control system also determines which antenna unit is receiving uplink RF signals from the device having the greatest signal strength.

Claims

1. A distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:

a head-end unit comprising;

at least one downlink interface unit configured to;

receive downlink radio frequency (RF) signals from a base station; and

distribute the downlink RF signals over at least one downlink communications medium to a plurality of remote antenna units;

at least one uplink interface unit configured to;

receive uplink RF signals from the plurality of remote antenna units over at least one uplink communications medium; and

distribute the received uplink RF signals to the base station;

the plurality of remote antenna units each comprising at least two antennas configured in a diversity arrangement, the plurality of remote antenna units configured to use a multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) scheme and to be installed in known locations, the a plurality of remote antenna units configured to;

receive the downlink RF signals from the head-end unit;

transmit the downlink RF signals into a respective coverage area;

receive uplink RF signals from client devices located in respective coverage areas; and

distribute the received uplink RF signals to the head-end unit; and

a location processing unit (LPU), comprising;

a plurality of signal monitoring devices configured to receive each of the uplink RF signals distributed from the plurality of remote antenna units located in the known locations; and

a controller configured to;

determine signal strengths of the received uplink RF signals;

determine which remote antenna unit among the plurality of remote antenna units is receiving the uplink RF signals from at least one client device having the greater signal strength; and

determine location information for the at least one client device based on identification of the remote antenna unit receiving the uplink RF signals having the greater signal strength.

2. The DAS of claim 1, wherein:

the head-end unit further comprises;

at least one electrical to optical (E/O) converter configured to convert the received downlink RF signals into optical downlink RF signals; and

at least one optical to electrical (O/E) converter configured to convert the received uplink RF signals into electrical uplink RF signals;

each of the plurality of remote antenna units further comprises;

at least one optical to electrical (O/E) converter configured to convert the received optical downlink RF signals into electrical downlink RF signals to be distributed to the client devices; and

at least one electrical to optical (E/O) converter configured to convert the received electrical uplink RF signals into optical uplink RF signals to be distributed to the head-end unit.

3. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the plurality of remote antenna units are deployed at multiple floors of a building infrastructure.

4. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the downlink RF signals and the uplink RF signals are modulated according to the long term evolution (LTE) standard.

5. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the received uplink RF signals are received in channels separated into frequency blocks.

6. The DAS of claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to determine the signal strength of the uplink RF signals by measuring the signal strength of the frequency blocks in the uplink RF signals.

7. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the received uplink RF signals are received in channels separated into temporal blocks.

8. The DAS of claim 7, wherein the controller is configured to determine the signal strength of the uplink RF signals by measuring the signal strength of the temporal blocks in the uplink RF signals.

9. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to convert the received uplink RF signals into baseband uplink RF signals.

10. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to synchronize to a downlink RF signal received from a base station.

11. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the signal strengths of the uplink RF signals as a function of a fast Fourier transform (FFT) of a window of samples of the uplink RF signals.

12. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to average the signal strengths of the uplink RF signals.

13. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the received uplink RF signals are received into resource blocks (RB) separately identifiable to a particular user device.

14. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the control system is further configured to communicate the location information to at least one base station.

15. The DAS of claim 1, wherein the LPU is further configured to add location information for one or more of the client devices to the received uplink RF signals.