Techniques for estimating a position of a user device using a WPS dedicated device and optimized scanning
First Claim
1. A method for estimating a position of a user device, comprising:
- maintaining one or more modules of a receive-only wireless local area network positioning system (WPS) dedicated device in a low-power consumption mode;
detecting, by a carrier sense module of the receive-only WPS dedicated device, activity on a wireless local area network (WLAN) channel supported by the WLAN protocol; and
activating one or more other modules of the receive-only WPS dedicated device in response to the detected activity;
receiving, by the receive-only WPS dedicated device, one or more WLAN packets transmitted within range of the user device;
extracting wireless local area network WLAN information indicating an identity of one or more WLAN APs from the one or more WLAN packets; and
providing the extracting WLAN information indicating the identity of the one or more WLAN APs to a WPS to obtain an estimate of a position of the receive-only WPS dedicated device.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In various embodiments, a WPS dedicated device is used to estimate the position of a user device. The WPS dedicated device is configured to be receive-only and lacks WLAN packet transmission capabilities, or is configured to provide limited-transmission and is capable of transmitting only a predefined subset of WLAN packets supported by a WLAN protocol. The WPS dedicated device may be used with optimized scanning procedures that include a plurality of phases that are progressed through until WLAN information sufficient to identify at least a threshold number of more WLAN APs is obtained, that simultaneously scan on multiple WLAN channels, or that provide other types of optimization.
11 Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method for estimating a position of a user device, comprising:
-
maintaining one or more modules of a receive-only wireless local area network positioning system (WPS) dedicated device in a low-power consumption mode; detecting, by a carrier sense module of the receive-only WPS dedicated device, activity on a wireless local area network (WLAN) channel supported by the WLAN protocol; and activating one or more other modules of the receive-only WPS dedicated device in response to the detected activity; receiving, by the receive-only WPS dedicated device, one or more WLAN packets transmitted within range of the user device; extracting wireless local area network WLAN information indicating an identity of one or more WLAN APs from the one or more WLAN packets; and providing the extracting WLAN information indicating the identity of the one or more WLAN APs to a WPS to obtain an estimate of a position of the receive-only WPS dedicated device.
-
-
2. A method for estimating a position of a user device, comprising:
-
receiving, by a wireless local area network positioning system (WPS) dedicated device, one or more wireless local area network (WLAN) packets transmitted within range of the user device, wherein the WPS dedicated device is a receive-only WPS dedicated device that lacks WLAN packet transmission capabilities or is a limited-transmission WPS dedicated device that is only capable of transmitting a predefined subset of WLAN packets supported by a WLAN protocol; extracting WLAN information indicating an identity of one or more WLAN APs from the one or more WLAN packets; and providing the extracting WLAN information indicating the identity of the one or more WLAN APs to a WLAN positioning system (WPS) to obtain an estimate of a position of the user device. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A system configured to estimate a position of a user device, comprising:
-
a receive-only wireless local area network positioning system (WPS) dedicated device that is included as part of the user device, the receive-only WPS dedicated device to include; one or more radio frequency (RF) modules configured to receive wireless local area network (WLAN) packets transmitted within range of the user device, and configured to not transmit any WLAN packets, and a packet processing module configured to process a header of each received WLAN packet and extract therefrom WLAN information indicating an identity of one or more WLAN APs; and a WPS executing at least in part on the user device or a server that is accessible to the user device, the WPS configured to take the identity of the one or more WLAN APs, compare the identity of the one or more WLAN APs to a reference database, and based on the comparison estimate a position of the user device. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A system configured to estimate a position of a user device, comprising:
-
a receive-only wireless local area network positioning system (WPS) dedicated device that is included as part of the user device, the receive-only WPS dedicated device to include; one or more radio frequency (RF) modules configured to receive wireless local area network (WLAN) packets transmitted within range of the user device, and configured to not transmit any WLAN packets, and a carrier sense module configured to detect activity on a WLAN channel, and activate one or more other modules of the receive-only WPS dedicated device in response to the detected activity; a packet processing module configured to be activated by the carrier sense module and process a header of each received WLAN packet and extract therefrom WLAN information indicating an identity of one or more WLAN APs; and a WPS executing at least in part on the user device or a server that is accessible to the user device, the WPS configured to take the identity of the one or more WLAN APs, compare the identity of the one or more WLAN APs to a reference database, and based on the comparison estimate a position of the user device. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
-
Specification