Sharing timed fingerprint location information

• US 9,681,300 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Issued: 06/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tipton, Rick, Austin, Mark, Meredith, Sheldon
• Primary Examiner(s): Sabouri, Mazda
• Application Number:
  US14/864,833
• Publication Number:
  US 20160014608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 628 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/105 Multiple levels of security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Sharing timed fingerprint location information is disclosed. In an aspect, timed fingerprint location information can be associated with a location of a user equipment. This timed fingerprint location information can be shared with other devices. As such, with proper analysis, these other devices can employ the shared timed fingerprint location information to determine their location. In an aspect, the other devices can determine that they are located at the same location as the user equipment. However, a level of error can be inherent in the location determined from shared timed fingerprint location information. In some embodiments, this error can be compensated for.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

receiving timed fingerprint location information comprising a first differential time value for a first base station pair and a second differential time value for a second base station pair, to enable determining a location of the mobile device via a comparison of the first differential time value to a first index time value and the second differential time value to another index time value, wherein index time values comprising the first index time value and second index time value have been correlated to geographic location information prior to the timed fingerprint location information being received by the mobile device;

determining an access value relating to allowing access to the timed fingerprint location information by another device; and

enabling access to the first and second differential time values of the timed fingerprint location information, based on the access value, to facilitate determination of a second location by the other device based on the first and second differential time values and the index time values.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the determining the access value is based on determining a type of the other device.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the determining the access value is based on determining a presence of a location determining functionality of the other device.

4. The mobile device of claim 3, wherein the location determining functionality of the other device is based on global positioning system information.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the determining the access value is based on determining that the enabling the access to the timed fingerprint location information for the other device to determine the second location will consume fewer resources of the other device than another function of the other device to determine the second location.

6. The mobile device of claim 5, wherein the determining that the enabling the access to the timed fingerprint location information for the other device to determine the second location will consume fewer resources of the other device than the other function of the other device to determine the second location comprises determining that less power will be consumed.

7. The mobile device of claim 6, wherein the determining that less power will be consumed comprises determining that less battery charge will be consumed.

8. The mobile device of claim 5, wherein the determining that the enabling the access to the timed fingerprint location information for the other device to determine the second location will consume fewer resources of the other device than the other function of the other device to determine the second location comprises determining that fewer computation operations will be performed.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the determining the access value is based on a level of error related to a communication technology associated with the enabling the access.

10. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the determining the access value is based on automatically sharing timed fingerprint location information with determined devices comprising the other device.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, wherein the determined devices comprise a device of a user identity associated with the mobile device.

12. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, timed fingerprint location information comprising a first differential time value for a first NodeB site pair and a second differential time value for second NodeB site pair, to enable determining a location of a mobile device via a comparison of the first differential time value to a first index time value and the second differential time value to another index time value, wherein the first and second index time values have been correlated to geographic location information prior to the timed fingerprint location information being received by the mobile device;

receiving, by the system, a request to share with another device the timed fingerprint location information to the other device;

determining, by the system, a level of timed fingerprint location information to share with the other device based on the request; and

enabling, by the system, sharing of the timed fingerprint location information to the other device, based on the level, to facilitate a determination of a second location by the other device based on the timed fingerprint location information and the first and the second index time values.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiving the request comprises receiving an identity indicator associated with identifying a user identity associated with the other device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiving the request comprises receiving a type indicator associated with indicating a type of the other device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiving the request comprises receiving an enablement indicator associated with indicating a location determining functionality of the other device.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the receiving the request comprises receiving a error indicator associated with indicating a level of error associated with a communication modality to be used to share the timed fingerprint location information with the other device.

17. A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

generating a request for another device to share timed fingerprint location information with the device, wherein the request comprises information to enable the other device to determine an access value associated with allowing access to the timed fingerprint location information with the device;

receiving, from another device, timed fingerprint location information associated with the other device, wherein the timed fingerprint location information comprises a first differential time value for a first radio access network device pair and a second differential time value for a second radio access network device pair, to enable determining a location of the other device via a comparison of the first differential time value to a first index time value and the second differential time value to another index time value, and index time values comprising the first and second index time value have been correlated to geographic location information prior to the timed fingerprint location information being received by the other device; and

determining a second location ascribed to the device based on the timed fingerprint location information and the index time values.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the generating the request comprises identity information associated with identifying a user identifier of the device.

19. The device of claim 17, wherein the generating the request comprises device information associated with identifying a type of the device.

20. The device of claim 17, wherein the generating the request comprises resource savings information associated with indicating a predicted resource savings, for the device, associated with the determining the second location based on the timed fingerprint location information received from another device in comparison to determining the second location based on another location determining technology.