Site location determination using crowd sourced propagation delay and location data

• US 10,477,347 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2017
• Issued: 11/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fix, Jeremy, Fix, Larry, Meredith, Sheldon Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): Manoharan, Muthuswamy G
• Application Number:
  US15/629,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20170289763A1
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02213 Receivers arranged in a network for determining the position of a transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• 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

Site location determination using crowd sourced propagation delay and location data is provided. A propagation delay component receives a set of propagation delay measurements for communications between a mobile device and an access point. A user equipment location component receives a location of the mobile device, and a combination component combines the set of propagation delay measurements and the location into a set of location data. An access point location component determines a set of intersecting locations between the set of location data and additional sets of location data, and determines a location of the access point based on the set of intersecting locations.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

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

crowd sourcing, using mobile devices, a group of groups of location data for an access point device;

determining, based on intersecting locations in the groups of location data, a first estimated location of an access point device;

comparing the first estimated location of the access point device to geographical data related to a topology of the first estimated location of the access point device and a previously recorded location of the access point device;

based on the comparing, determining that the previously recorded location of the access point device is different from the first estimated location of the access point device, and determining that the topology of the first estimated location is an improbable location of the access point device;

generating rank data associated with a ranking of the first estimated location as an improbable location of the access point device, wherein the rank data has a lower value than a value associate with a third estimated location of the access point device determined to be a probable location of the access point device, and wherein the lower value is a non-zero value;

determining vendor information for the access point device;

determining whether the propagation delay measurements comprise a compensation factor based on the vendor information comprising determining that a propagation delay measurement of propagation delay measurements does not comprise the compensation factor for a length of a connection between an antenna of the access point device and base station equipment for the access point device; and

modifying the propagation delay measurements based on a determination that the propagation delay measurements fail to comprise the compensation factor, the modifying comprising, based on the determining that the propagation delay measurement of the propagation delay measurements does not comprise the compensation factor for the length of the connection between the antenna of the access point device and the base station equipment for the access point device, correcting the propagation delay measurements based on the compensation factor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining the first estimated location of the access point device is the improbable location further comprises:

determining that the first estimated location satisfies an error threshold, wherein the error threshold is a difference between a first propagation delay and a second propagation delay associated with signals between at least one of the mobile devices and the access point device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first propagation delay is less than the second propagation delay.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise:

reducing a number of the mobile devices for the crowd sourcing based on the determining that the first estimated location satisfies the error threshold.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the rank data being generated, instructing a cell site device to increase a sample size associated with the first estimated location.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

sending, to a network device of a wireless network, improbable location data, representative of the improbable location, to facilitate modeling of network devices of the wireless network comprising the access point device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining the first estimated location of the access point device is the improbable location further comprises determining that the first estimated location satisfies an error threshold, and wherein the error threshold comprises a size of the first estimated location of the access point device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that a location of the access point device has been moved to a new location during a network upgrade.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise indicating that a previously determined access point device for the access point device is inaccurate based on the determining that the location of the access point device has been moved.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first estimated location of the access point device and the previously recorded location of the access point device are represented as two circle areas, and wherein the two circle areas comprise minimum radii corresponding to minimum propagation delay measurements.

11. The system of claim 10, and wherein the two circle areas further comprise maximum radii corresponding to maximum propagation delay measurements for the mobile device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the comparing is performed at defined intervals.

13. A method, comprising:

generating, by a device comprising a processor, a first estimated location of an access point device;

comparing, by the device, the first estimated location of the access point device to geographical data related to a topology of the first estimated location of the access point device and a previously recorded location of the access point device;

based on the comparing, determining, by the device, that the first estimated location is an improbable location of the access point device;

biasing the estimated location by generating, by the device, weight data for the first estimated location, wherein the weight data is associated with a weighting of the first estimated location as an improbable location of the access point device, and wherein the weight data has a lower value than a value associated with a second estimated location determined to be a probable location of the access point device, and wherein the lower value is a non-zero value;

determining, by the device, vendor information for the access point device;

determining, by the device, whether propagation delay measurements comprise a compensation factor based on the vendor information comprising determining that a propagation delay measurement of propagation delay measurements does not comprise the compensation factor for a length of a connection between an antenna of the access point device and base station equipment for the access point device; and

modifying, by the device, the propagation delay measurements based on a determination that the propagation delay measurements fail to comprise the compensation factor, the modifying comprising, based on the determining that the propagation delay measurement of the propagation delay measurements does not comprise the compensation factor for the length of the connection between the antenna of the access point device and the base station equipment for the access point device, correcting the propagation delay measurements based on the compensation factor.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, by the device, the first estimated location of the access point device is the improbable location also based on a result of a first location data of the mobile device of mobile devices.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining the first estimated location of the access point device is the improbable location according to the improbability criterion comprises determining intersecting locations related to the mobile devices.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining the first estimated location of the access point device is the improbable location according to the improbability criterion comprises determining that the first estimated location satisfies an error threshold.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the error threshold is a difference between a minimum propagation delay and a maximum propagation delay of signals between the mobile device and the access point device.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining the first estimated location of the access point device is the improbable location according to the improbability criterion comprises determining that the first estimated location does not satisfy an error threshold.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

in response to the weight data being generated, instructing, by the device, a cell site device to increase a sample size associated with the first estimated location.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

generating first weight data associated with a first weighting of a first estimated location of an access point device as not corresponding to an actual location of the access point device;

comparing the first estimated location of the access point device to geographical data related to a topology of the first estimated location of the access point device;

based on a result of the comparing, determining that the first estimated location is an improbable location of the access point device;

generating second weight data associated with a second weighting of a second estimated location as satisfying a defined criterion, wherein the first weight data is non-zero and less than the second weight data;

determining vendor information for the access point device;

determining whether propagation delay measurements comprise a compensation factor based on the vendor information comprising determining that a propagation delay measurement of propagation delay measurements does not comprise the compensation factor for a length of a connection between an antenna of the access point device and base station equipment for the access point device; and

modifying the propagation delay measurements based on a determination that the propagation delay measurements fail to comprise the compensation factor, the modifying comprising, based on the determining that the propagation delay measurement of the propagation delay measurements does not comprise the compensation factor for the length of the connection between the antenna of the access point device and the base station equipment for the access point device, correcting the propagation delay measurements based on the compensation factor.