Extending outdoor location based services and applications into enclosed areas

• US 9,609,070 B2
• Filed: 01/17/2014
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Optical Communications LLC (Corning Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Corning Optical Communications Wireless Ltd. (Corning Incorporated)
• Inventors: Shapira, Isaac, Shapira, Yair Zeev, Zatloukal, Catherine
• Primary Examiner(s): Torres, Marcos
• Application Number:
  US14/157,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20140135038A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/48 by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/015 between indoor and outdoor environments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Methods and systems for indoor mobile unit positioning, for seamlessly toggling a mobile unit positioning between outdoor positioning and indoor positioning and for providing location based services or application generated by and external location server to the mobile unit while the mobile unit is indoors. The indoor mobile unit positioning includes mobile unit-based positioning with makes use of reception of access point signals by the mobile unit.

Claims

1. A system for supplying at least one of a location based service (LBS) and a location based application (LBA) generated by an external location server (ELS) in an outdoor environment to a mobile unit positioned in the indoor environment, comprising:

an access point (AP) network at least partially located in the indoor environment;

a distributed antenna system (DAS) at least partially located in the indoor environment and communicatively coupled to at least one of a base station and a repeater;

a location support module for acquiring and processing data related to the mobile unit location in the indoor environment; and

a cellular link for transmitting at least some of the data related to the mobile unit location to the ELS and for transmitting at least one of the LBS and the LBA from the ELS to the mobile unit, wherein

the location support module performs toggling between AP-based positioning and at least one of GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning,

when the mobile unit moves from the outdoor environment to the indoor environment, the location support module toy ales from at least one of the GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning to AP-based positioning,

when the mobile unit moves from the indoor environment to the outdoor environment, the location support module toggles to at least one of the GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning, and

the data related to the mobile unit location includes a description of an indoor entity of the indoor environment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the indoor entity is selected from the group consisting of an area, a floor a hall and a room.

3. A system for supplying at least one of a location based service (LBS) and a location based application (LBA) generated by an external location server (ELS) in an outdoor environment to a mobile unit positioned in the indoor environment, comprising:

an access point (AP) network at least partially located in the indoor environment;

a distributed antenna system (DAS) at least partially located in the indoor environment and communicatively coupled to at least one of a base station and a repeater;

a location support module for acquiring and processing data related to the mobile unit location in the indoor environment; and

a cellular link for transmitting at least some of the data related to the mobile unit location to the ELS and for transmitting at least one of the LBS and the LBA from the ELS to the mobile unit, wherein

the location support module performs toggling between AP-based positioning and at least one of GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning,

when the mobile unit moves from the outdoor environment to the indoor environment, the location support module toggles from at least one of the GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning to AP-based positioning,

when the mobile unit moves from the indoor environment to the outdoor environment, the location support module toggles to at least one of the GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning, and

the system further comprises an overlay AP configured to provide a control channel to be broadcast through the DAS inside the indoor environment.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the control channel is configured to transmit an offer to a mobile unit to join a LBS.

5. A system for supplying at least one of a location based service (LBS) and a location based application (LBA) generated by an external location server (ELS) in an outdoor environment to a mobile unit positioned in the indoor environment, comprising:

an access point (AP) network at least partially located in the indoor environment;

a distributed antenna system (DAS) at least partially located in the indoor environment and communicatively coupled to at least one of a base station and a repeater;

a location support module for acquiring and processing data related to the mobile unit location in the indoor environment; and

a cellular link for transmitting at least some of the data related to the mobile unit location to the ELS and for transmitting at least one of the LBS and the LBA from the ELS to the mobile unit, wherein

the location support module performs toggling between AP-based positioning and at least one of GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning,

when the mobile unit moves from the outdoor environment to the indoor environment, the location su ort module toggles from at least one of the GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning to AP-based positioning,

when the mobile unit moves from the indoor environment to the outdoor environment, the location support module toggles to at least one of the GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning, and

the AP-based positioning includes mobile unit-based positioning using AP signals.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the location support module is located in the mobile unit.

7. A system for supplying at least one of a location based service (LBS) and a location basted application (LBA) generated by an external location server (ELS) to a mobile unit positions in an indoor environment, comprising:

an access point (AP) network at least partially located in the indoor environment;

a location support module for acquiring and processing data related to the mobile unit location in the indoor environment; and

a cellular link for transmitting at least some of the data related to the mobile unit location to the ELS and for transmitting at least one of the LBS and the LBA from the ELS to the mobile unit, wherein

the location support module performs toggling from AP-based positioning to at least one of GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the indoor environment to an outdoor environment, and

the location support module performs toggling from at least one of GPS-based positioning and AGPS-based positioning to AP-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the outdoor environment to an indoor environment, and

wherein the system further comprises on overlay AP configured to provide a control channel inside the indoor environment, the control channel being configured to transmit an offer to a mobile unit to join a LBS.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the data related to the mobile unit location includes a description of an indoor entity of the indoor environment, wherein the indoor entity is selected from the group consisting of an area, a floor, a hall and a room.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the location support module is located in the mobile unit.

10. A system for supplying at least one of a location based service (LBS) and a location based application (LBA) generated by an external location server (ELS) to a mobile unit positioned in an indoor environment, comprising:

an access point (AP) network at least partially located in the indoor environment;

a distributed antenna system (DAS) at least partially located in the indoor environment and communicatively coupled to at least one of a base station and a repeater;

a location support module for acquiring and processing data related to the mobile unit location in the indoor environment; and

a cellular link for transmitting at least some of the data related to the mobile unit location to the ELS and for transmitting at least one of the LBS and the LBA from the ELS to the mobile unit wherein

the location support module performs toggling from AP-based positioning to external network-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the indoor environment to and outdoor environment, and

the location support module performs togging from external network-based positioning to the AP-based positioning when the mobile unit moves from the outdoor environment to an indoor environment,

wherein the system further comprises an overlay AP configured to provide a control channel to be broadcast through the DAS inside the indoor environment, the control channel being configured to transmit an offer to a mobile unit to join a LBS.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the data related to the mobile unit location includes a description of an indoor entity of the indoor environment, wherein the indoor entity is selected from the group consisting of an area, a floor, a hall and a room.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the location support module is located in the mobile unit.