Access Point Database

• US 20110093443A1
• Filed: 10/19/2010
• Published: 04/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Inventors: Jones, Russel K., Shean, Michael G., Morgan, Edward J., Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Farshid
• Granted Patent: US 8,630,664 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/13 Receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0205 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0226 Transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02526 using non-dedicated equipment, e.g. user equipment or crowd-sourcing
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 : Pattern matching access

Abstract

A location beacon database and server, method of building location beacon database, and location based service using same. Wi-Fi access points are located in a target geographical area to build a reference database of locations of Wi-Fi access points. At least one vehicle is deployed including at least one scanning device having a GPS device and a Wi-Fi radio device and including a Wi-Fi antenna system. The target area is traversed in a programmatic route to avoid arterial bias. The programmatic route includes substantially all drivable streets in the target geographical area and solves an Eulerian cycle problem of a graph represented by said drivable streets. While traversing the target area, periodically receive the GPS coordinates of the GPS device. While traversing the target area, detecting Wi-Fi signals from Wi-Fi access points in range of the Wi-Fi device and recording identity information of the detected Wi-Fi access point in conjunction with GPS location information of the vehicle when the detection of the Wi-Fi access point was made. The location information is used to reverse triangulate the position of the detected Wi-Fi access point; and the position of the detected access point is recorded in a reference database.

Claims

1-28. -28. (canceled)

29. A database of identified 802.11 access points in at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database comprising:

a plurality of database records recorded in a computer-readable medium for substantially all of the identified access points in the target area,

each database record including for one of the identified access points,

identification information, and

access point position information for the one of the identified access points calculated from readings of the one of the access points from a plurality of reference locations distributed around more than one side of the one of the access points to reduce negative effects of arterial bias in the position information calculated therefrom.

30. The database of claim 29 wherein the 802.11 access points are Wi-Fi access points.

31. The database of claim 29 wherein the plurality of reference locations distributed around the access point provide reference symmetry of the reference locations with regard to the one of the access points.

32. The database of claim 29 wherein the plurality of reference locations distributed around the access point provide readings scanned from at least three reference points at different angles around the one of the access points.

33. The database of claim 29 wherein the plurality of reference locations distributed around the one of the access points provide readings therefrom from substantially all drivable streets in the target area.

34. The database of claim 33 wherein the distribution of the plurality of reference locations provides reference symmetry of the access points for a user of the database determining user position therefrom.

35. The database of claim 29 wherein the readings of the one of the access points have been taken from one or more predetermined routes on drivable streets in the target area to distribute the reference locations around the one of the access points.

36. The database of claim 29 wherein the readings of the one of the access points have been taken from one or more non-random routes on drivable streets in the target area to distribute the reference locations around the one of the access points to provide reference symmetry of the readings.

37. The database of claim 29 wherein the readings of the one of the access points have been taken from one or more routes determined by a routing algorithm used to distribute the reference locations to provide reference symmetry of the readings around the one of the access points.

38. The database of claim 37 wherein the routing algorithm is a solution to a Eulerian cycle problem.

39. The database of claim 38 wherein the routing algorithm is an instance of a Chinese Postman routing algorithm.

40. The database of claim 29 wherein access point position information for the one of the identified access points is calculated from readings of the one of the access points from a plurality of reference locations distributed at many angles to the one of the access points to reduce negative effects of arterial bias in the position information calculated therefrom.

41. The database of claim 40 wherein access point position information for the one of the identified access points is calculated from readings the plurality of reference locations distributed at as many angles to the one of the access points as possible by scanning readings from substantially all drivable streets in the target area.

42. The database of claim 29 wherein the readings have been reviewed to verify uniform coverage around the one of the access points to avoid arterial bias in the access point position information.

43. A database of identified 802.11 access points, such as Wi-Fi access points, in at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database comprising:

a plurality of database records recorded in a computer-readable medium for substantially all of the identified access points in the target area,

each database record including for one of the identified 802.11 access points,

identification information, and

calculated position information based on readings from a plurality of locations providing reference symmetry in the readings to reduce negative effects of arterial bias in the calculated position information.

44. A database of 802.11 access points for at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database being recorded in a computer-readable medium, said database comprising:

a plurality of database records including data base records for substantially all of the identified 802.11 access points in the target area,

wherein each said record includes

identification information, and

position information calculated from readings of that 802.11 access point from a plurality of locations within the target area with sufficient reference symmetry to avoid arterial bias.

45. The database of claim 44 wherein the plurality of locations further comprises:

a plurality of non-random locations.

46. The database of claim 44 wherein the plurality of locations further comprises:

a plurality of locations having different angles to the location of that 802.11 access point.

47. The database of claim 44 wherein the plurality of locations further comprises:

at least three locations having different angles to the location of that 802.11 access point.

48. The database of claim 44 wherein the plurality of locations further comprises:

a plurality of locations having at least three different angles to the location of that 802.11 access point.

49. The database of claim 44 wherein the plurality of locations further comprises:

a plurality of locations selected by an algorithm to include all roads in the target area.

50. A database of 802.11 access points for at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database being recorded in a computer-readable medium and comprising:

database records for substantially all of the identified 802.11 access points in the target area, each database record including

identification information for a corresponding 802.11 access point, and

calculated position information and readings from a plurality of locations within the target area for the corresponding 802.11 access point,

wherein said calculated position information is obtained from calculations based on readings of the corresponding 802.11 access point from a plurality of locations within the target area to provide reference symmetry when calculating the position of the 802.11 access point in order to avoid arterial bias in the calculated position information.

51. A database of 802.11 access points for at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database being recorded in a computer-readable medium and database records for substantially all of the identified 802.11 access points in the target area, each database record comprising:

identification information for a corresponding 802.11 access point; and

recorded readings from a plurality of locations within the target area for the corresponding 802.11 access point,

wherein said calculated position information is obtained from calculations based on readings of the corresponding 802.11 access point from a plurality of locations within the target area to provide reference symmetry when calculating the position of the 802.11 access point in order to avoid arterial bias in the calculated position information.

52. A database of 802.11 access points for at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database being recorded in a computer-readable medium and comprising database records for a sufficient number of 802.11 access points in the target area to calculate position information, each database record comprising:

identification information for a corresponding 802.11 access point; and

calculated position information for the corresponding 802.11 access point,

wherein said calculated position information was obtained from calculations based on readings of the corresponding 802.11 access point from a plurality of locations within the target area to provide reference symmetry when calculating the position of the 802.11 access point in order to avoid arterial bias in the calculated position information.

53. A database of 802.11 access points for at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database being recorded in a computer-readable medium and including database records for substantially all of the identified 802.11 access points in the target area, each record comprising:

identification information for a corresponding 802.11 access point; and

calculated position information for the corresponding 802.11 access point,

wherein said calculated position information is obtained from recording multiple readings of the 802.11 access point from a plurality of locations when calculating the position of the 802.11 access point in order to reduce arterial bias in the calculated position information.

54. The database of claim 53 wherein the multiple readings of a 802.11 access point are collected by traversing publicly accessible areas through any manner of conveyance, such as driving, walking, biking or other such mode of physical movement.

55. A database of 802.11 access points for at least one target area having a radius on the order of at least miles, said database being recorded in a computer-readable medium and comprising:

database records for a sufficient number of access points in the target area to calculate position information, each database record including,

identification information for a corresponding access point and

calculated position information for the corresponding access point,

wherein said calculated position information is obtained from calculations based on readings of the corresponding access point from a plurality of locations within the target area to provide reference symmetry when calculating the position of the 802.11 access point in order to avoid arterial bias in the calculated position information.