Method, apparatus, and system for determining a location of a terminal

• US 9,560,621 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2015
• Issued: 01/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Advanced New Technologies Company Limited (Ant Group Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
• Inventors: Li, Xiaojian
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, MONG-THUY THI
• Application Number:
  US14/708,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20150327007A1
• Time in Patent Office: 631 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4564, 455/457
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application relate to a method, apparatus, and system for determining a location of a terminal. The method includes acquiring a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network equipment used by a terminal to access a network, determining whether a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, and in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, determining that a current location of the terminal corresponds to a location associated with the acquired MAC address that is stored in the database, and outputting the current location of the terminal.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

acquiring a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network equipment used by a terminal to access a network;

determining whether a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, determining that a current location of the terminal corresponds to a location associated with the acquired MAC address that is stored in the database;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses does not include the acquired MAC address, acquiring an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the terminal;

determining whether a database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes a location relating to the IP address of the terminal;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the location relating to the IP address of the terminal, determining that the current location of the terminal corresponds to the location relating to the IP address of the terminal that is stored in the database; and

outputting the current location of the terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network equipment is a wireless signal transceiver equipment that communicates with the terminal using wireless signals.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein the configuring the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes;

collecting MAC addresses and corresponding location information, wherein the location information comprises a latitude and a longitude of a device while the device connects to one or more networks using a network equipment corresponding to a particular MAC address; and

using the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine latitudes and longitudes corresponding to each MAC address, and to generate a mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the using of the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine the latitudes and the longitudes corresponding to the MAC addresses and to generate the mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses comprises:

processing the location information corresponding to a collected MAC address to obtain one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address; and

using the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to each MAC address to determine a latitude and a longitude corresponding to the particular MAC address.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

a plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data are obtained; and

the using of the one or more pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the MAC address to determine the latitude and longitude corresponding to the MAC address comprises;

determining whether a distance between locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to each MAC address exceeds a threshold distance; and

in the event that none of the distances between the locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to each MAC address exceeds the threshold distance, determining that the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the MAC address corresponds to an average of the latitudes and the longitudes of the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in the event that a distance between the locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data exceeds the threshold distance, determining that the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the MAC address corresponds to a latitude and a longitude associated with a predetermined quantity of MAC address latitude and longitude data with a greatest number of occurrence days among the plurality of MAC address latitude and longitude data.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a confidence level of each latitude and longitude corresponding to each MAC address stored in the database.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses, including:

collecting IP addresses and location information respectively corresponding to the IP addresses, wherein the location information corresponding to an IP address of the collected IP addresses comprises;

geographic coordinates of a location at which the Internet was accessed through the respective IP address;

determining latitudes and longitudes corresponding respectively to the IP addresses based at least in part on the location information; and

configuring the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses based at least in part on one of the determined latitudes and longitudes corresponding to the IP addresses and a previously acquired IP address base database.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining of the latitudes and the longitudes corresponding to the IP addresses based at least in part on the location information comprises:

processing a collected IP address and a piece of IP address location information to obtain one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address; and

using the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address to determine the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the IP address.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the using of the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the collected IP address to determine the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the IP address comprises:

determining, for the IP address, a weight of each piece of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the IP address; and

determining that geographic coordinates associated with the IP address correspond to geographic coordinates in the IP address geographic coordinate data having a greatest weight among the one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the IP address.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining, for the IP address, the weight of each piece of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the IP address comprises:

acquiring one or more pieces of IP address geographic coordinate data that occur within a threshold range of locations corresponding to each piece of IP address geographic coordinate data corresponding to the IP address; and

determining a weight of each piece of IP address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the IP address according to a number of occurrence days of each piece of IP address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the IP address within a threshold time period and a number of occurrence days of one or more pieces of IP address latitude and longitude data occurring within a threshold range of a corresponding location.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

updating the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses at predetermined intervals, wherein the updating of the database comprises;

collecting IP addresses that have occurred in a current day and location information of each collected IP address;

determining a latitude and a longitude associated with the location information of each collected IP address having an occurrence time that is closest to a current time to correspond to a latitude and a longitude currently corresponding to a particular IP address;

determining whether the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the particular IP address; and

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses does not include the particular IP address, then adding the particular IP address and corresponding latitude and longitude to the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the particular IP address, determining whether a distance between a location corresponding to the particular IP address in the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses and the latitude and the longitude currently corresponding to the particular IP address exceeds a threshold distance; and

in the event that the distance between the location corresponding to the particular IP address in the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses and the latitude and the longitude currently corresponding to the particular IP address exceeds the threshold distance, substituting latitude and longitude corresponding to the particular IP address in the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses with the latitude and the longitude currently corresponding to the particular IP address.

14. A device, comprising:

at least one processor configured to;

acquire a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network equipment used by a terminal to access a network;

determine whether a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, determine that a current location of the terminal corresponds to a location associated with the acquired MAC address that is stored in the database;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses does not include the acquired MAC address, acquiring an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the terminal;

determine whether a database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes a location relating to the IP address of the terminal;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the location relating to the IP address of the terminal, determine that the current location of the terminal corresponds to the location relating to the IP address of the terminal that is stored in the database; and

output the current location of the terminal; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor and configured to provide the at least one processor with instructions.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the network equipment is a wireless signal transceiver equipment that communicates with the terminal using wireless signals.

16. A computer program product embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

acquiring a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a network equipment used by a terminal to access a network;

determining whether a database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, determining that a current location of the terminal corresponds to a location associated with the acquired MAC address that is stored in the database;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses does not include the acquired MAC address, acquiring an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the terminal;

determining whether a database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the location relating to the IP address of the terminal;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective IP addresses includes the location relating to the IP address of the terminal, determining that the current location of the terminal corresponds to the location relating to the IP address of the terminal that is stored in the database; and

outputting the current location of the terminal.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the network equipment is a wireless signal transceiver equipment that communicates with the terminal using wireless signals.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising computer instructions for:

configuring the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses, wherein the configuring the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes;

collecting MAC addresses and corresponding location information, wherein the location information comprises a latitude and a longitude of a device while the device connects to one or more networks using a network equipment corresponding to a particular MAC address; and

using the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine latitudes and longitudes corresponding to each MAC address, and to generate a mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses.

19. A method, comprising:

configuring a database indicating locations associated with respective Media Access Control (MAC) addresses, including;

collecting MAC addresses and corresponding location information, wherein the location information comprises a latitude and a longitude of a device while the device connects to one or more networks using a network equipment corresponding to a particular MAC address; and

using the collected MAC addresses and corresponding location information to determine latitudes and longitudes corresponding to each MAC address, and to generate a mapping of locations associated with respective MAC addresses, including;

processing the location information corresponding to a collected MAC address to obtain a plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to the collected MAC address; and

using the plurality pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to each MAC address to determine a latitude and a longitude corresponding to the particular MAC address, including;

determining whether a distance between locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to each MAC address exceeds a threshold distance; and

in the event that none of the distances between the locations respectively corresponding to any two pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data among the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data corresponding to each MAC address exceeds the threshold distance, determining that the latitude and the longitude corresponding to the MAC address corresponds to an average of the latitudes and the longitudes of the plurality of pieces of MAC address latitude and longitude data;

acquiring a MAC address of a network equipment used by a terminal to access a network;

determining whether the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address;

in the event that the database indicating locations associated with respective MAC addresses includes the acquired MAC address, determining that a current location of the terminal corresponds to a location associated with the acquired MAC address that is stored in the database; and

outputting the current location of the terminal.