Hybrid location

• US 9,628,521 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2015
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Inventors: Ocondi, Judy Tran, Zhu, Yinjun, Hines, Gordon
• Primary Examiner(s): Levitan, Dmitry H
• Application Number:
  US14/638,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20160044065A1
• Time in Patent Office: 776 Days
• Field of Search: 370310, 370328, 370338, 455404, 455414, 455421, 455422
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 5/12 Calling substations, e.g. by ringing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 5/18 Arrangements for signalling the class or number of called or calling line from one exchange to another
• 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 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A location application can be configured to detect a call to a particular telephone number. The location application can also be configured to receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals provided through a plurality of different RF interfaces. Each of the RF interfaces can be configured to receive RF signals of different protocols. The location application can also be configured to determine an identifier (ID) for a source of each of the RF signals. At least two of the RF signals can be of different protocols. The location application can also be configured to insert the ID for the sources of each of the RF signals into call signaling for the call.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable medium having machine executable instructions comprising an application being configured to:

detect, at an end-user device, a call to a particular telephone number based on user-input at the end-user device;

receive, at the end-user device, a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals provided by a plurality of RF sources via a plurality of different RF interfaces of the end-user device in response to detecting the call at the end-user device, wherein each of the RF interfaces is configured to receive RF signals of different protocols;

determine, at the end-user device, an identifier (ID) for a source of each of the RF signals, wherein at least two of the RF signals are of different protocols; and

insert, at the end-user device, the ID for the sources of each of the RF signals into call signaling for the call.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the call is a short code call.

3. The medium of claim 2, wherein a given one of the plurality of RF sources is a WiFi source and another one of the plurality of RF sources is a Bluetooth source.

4. The medium of claim 3, wherein one of the plurality of RF signals received is provided from a satellite source.

5. The medium of claim 4, wherein one of the plurality of RF signals received is provided from a cellular source.

6. The medium of claim 1, wherein the location application is further configured to provide the signaling for the call to a centralized call server.

7. The medium of claim 1, wherein the call signaling includes RF information characterizing a subset of the plurality of RF signals received.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein the RF information characterizes a signal strength for the subset of the plurality of RF signals received.

9. The medium of claim 7, wherein the RF information characterizes a time of arrival for the subset of the plurality of RF signals received.

10. The medium of claim 1, wherein the ID for the source of each of the RF signals is inserted into a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) message.

11. A server comprising one or more computing devices, the server being configured to:

receive call signaling for a short code call initiated by an end-user device that includes a plurality of radio source hardware identifiers (IDs) inserted, at the end-user device, based on data extracted from a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals having different protocols, wherein at least two of the radio source hardware IDs characterize radio frequency (RF) sources that provide RF signals;

query a database to determine a location associated with the plurality of radio source hardware IDs;

determine a location of the end-user device based on the location associated with the plurality of radio source hardware IDs; and

select an endpoint for the short code call based on the determined location of the end-user device and a telephone number dialed to initiate short code call.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to facilitate routing of the short code call to the selected endpoint to establish a bi-directional communication channel between the end-user device and the selected endpoint.

13. The server of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to provide the determined location for the end-user device to the selected endpoint.

14. The server of claim 12, wherein the server is further configured to generate instructions for a network node to complete the routing of the short code call to the selected endpoint.

15. The server of claim 11, wherein the server is further configured to determine a cell-ID for the end-user device based on the determined location of the end-user device.

16. The server of claim 11, wherein the server is configured to write a location for a given radio source hardware ID of the plurality of radio source hardware IOs into the database based on the location associated with another radio source hardware ID.

17. The server of claim 11, wherein the determination of the location of the end-user device is also based on RF signal information provided from the end-user device.

18. The server of claim 11, wherein the RF signal information characterizes at least one of an RF signal strength and a time of arrival of an RF signal.

19. A method comprising:

detecting, at an end-user device, a short code call based on user-input at the end-user device;

scanning, at the end-user device, for radio frequency (RF) signals at a plurality of different interfaces of the end-user device in response to the detecting, wherein each of the plurality of different interfaces is configured to receive RF signals with different protocols;

extracting, at the end-user device, a radio source hardware identifier (ID) from each of a plurality of RF signals detected by the scanning; and

inserting, at the end-user device, data characterizing each radio source hardware ID from at least two RF sources of different protocols into signaling for the short code call.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising establishing, at the end-user device, a bi-directional communication channel between an endpoint and the end-user device.