System and method for accurately computing the position of wireless devices inside high-rise buildings

• US 7,203,497 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2004
• Issued: 04/10/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MeshNetworks, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Belcea, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): Afshar, Kamran
• Application Number:
  US10/861,557
• Publication Number:
  US 20040258013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-457, 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/446, 455/426.2, 370/338, 370/401, 370/328, 370/254, 701/207, 701/208, 715/517
• US Class Current: 455/446
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0278 involving statistical or probabilistic considerations G01S5/0252, G01S5/0294 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/00 Communication routing or communication path finding
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/46 in multi hop networks, e.g. wireless relay networks
• 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 74/04 Scheduled access hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

A system and method for providing a network of wireless devices including Mobile Terminals, Wireless Routers and a Local Control within a high rise building or other three dimensional deployment structure, such that communication, identification and position calculations can be achieved regardless of environment nature. Mobile Terminals are deployed to assume any random positions within a three dimensional deployment structure. Communication and position calculations are provided at each level, or floor of the building, by Horizontal and Vertical Routers, where Vertical Routers are further used to successfully communicate between levels, or floors. The Vertical Routers provide communication links with the Local Controller via one or more Intelligent Access Points. The infrastructure of Vertical and Horizontal routers, the Intelligent Access Points and the Local Control are elements of an infrastructure deployed before a fire incident or other emergency happens. In emergency situations the infrastructure emerges with ad-hoc deployed elements creating a system that assures stable communication, identification and accurate computation of location for all participants to emergency action.

Claims

1. A system for deployment within a three-dimensional structure having multiple levels, the system comprising:

a plurality of wireless routers of a wireless ad-hoc multi-hopping and peer-to-peer communication network, the plurality of wireless routers comprising;

a plurality of vertical routers deployed for vertical communication among at least one set of vertical routers within the three-dimensional structure, and

a plurality of horizontal routers deployed for horizontal communication among at least one set of horizontal routers within the three-dimensional structure;

a plurality of mobile wireless terminals of the wireless ad-hoc multi-hopping and peer-to-peer communication network;

a controller;

at least one access point, communicatively coupled to the wireless routers and mobile wireless terminals for providing communication access to the controller;

each of the mobile wireless terminals comprising;

a receiving means, for receiving signals with any of the routers within its broadcast range,

a location calculation means, for determining its respective location in the structure based on the received signals, and

a transmitting means for providing location data to the controller via at least one said wireless router and said at least one access point; and

the controller comprising;

means to access a database including structure layout data pertaining to the structure, and

information generation means for generating information representing the respective locations of the mobile wireless terminals in the structure based on the received location data and structure layout data.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the controller further comprises a display for displaying the generated information illustrating the layout of the structure and the respective locations of the mobile wireless terminals on the layout display.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the controller further comprises a receiver to receive router location data from the wireless routers and access point location information from the at least one access point, wherein the generated information includes information representing respective locations of the wireless routers and said at least one access point.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of said access points; and

wherein the structure is a multi-floor building, wherein one or more of the vertical routers are in substantial vertical alignment at openings in the floors to provide communication between one or more horizontal routers on the floors and the access points.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the controller further comprises a receiver to access the database for updated structure layout data pertaining to the structure, and wherein the generated information is based on the received location data and the updated structure layout data.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the location calculation means of each of the mobile wireless terminals performs ranging calculations based on the exchange signals with any of the routers within its broadcast range and determine its respective location based on those ranging calculations.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

each of the mobile wireless terminals further comprises a transmitting means to communicate at least one of voice, video and data information for receipt by the controller via at least one wireless router and said at least one access point.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a mobile controller, communicatively coupled to the controller to receive the generated information from the controller.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the controller further comprises communication means to communicate with a network other than the wireless ad-hoc peer-to-peer communication network.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

some of the wireless routers are deployed outside of the structure.

11. A method for deployment within a three-dimensional structure having multiple levels, the method comprising:

deploying a plurality of wireless routers of a wireless ad-hoc peer-to-peer communication network including deploying a plurality of vertical routers for vertical communication among at least one set of vertical routers within the three-dimensional structure, and deploying a plurality of horizontal routers for horizontal communication among at least one set of horizontal routers within the three-dimensional structure;

deploying a plurality of mobile wireless terminals of the wireless ad-hoc multi-hopping and peer-to-peer communication network in the structure;

deploying at least one access point for providing the wireless routers and mobile wireless terminals communication access to a controller;

controlling each of the mobile wireless terminals to exchange signals with any of the routers within its broadcast range and, based on those signals, to determine its respective location in the structure and to provide location data to the controller via at least one said wireless router and said at least one access point; and

operating the controller to access a database including structure layout data pertaining to the structure and, based on the received location data and structure layout data, to generate information representing the respective locations of the mobile wireless terminals in the structure.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein:

the controller operating step generates the information as a display illustrating the layout of the structure and the respective locations of the mobile wireless terminals on the layout display.

13. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

providing to the controller router location data from the wireless routers and access point location information from the at least one access point, and operating the controller to include information representing respective locations of the wireless routers and said at least one access point in the generated information.

14. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein:

the access point deploying step deploys a plurality of said access points; and

wherein the structure is a multi-floor building, and the wireless routers are deployed during the wireless router deploying step with one or more of the vertical routers being in substantial vertical alignment at openings in the floors to provide communication between one or more horizontal routers on the floors and the access points.

15. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the step of:

operating the controller to access the database for updated structure layout data pertaining to the structure, and to generate the information based on the received location data and the updated structure layout data.

16. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the mobile wireless terminal controlling step includes controlling each of the mobile wireless terminals to perform ranging calculations based on the exchange signals with any of the routers within its broadcast range and determine its respective location based on those ranging calculations.

17. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the step of:

controlling each of the mobile wireless terminals to communicate at least one of voice, video and data information for receipt by the controller via at least one wireless router and said at least one access point.

18. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the step of:

coupling a mobile controller to the controller to receive the generated information from the controller.

19. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the step of:

operating the controller to communicate with a network other than the wireless ad-hoc peer-to-peer communication network.

20. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein:

the wireless router deploying step deploys some of the wireless routers outside of the structure.

21. A communication network for use within a multiple floor building, the communication network comprising:

a plurality of vertical routers vertically communicatively coupled to each other for providing communication between the multiple floors;

a plurality of horizontal routers comprising one or more sets of horizontal routers located on each floor of the multiple floor building, wherein each set of horizontal routers on each floor are horizontally communicatively coupled to each other for providing communication within the floor, wherein each set of horizontal routers on each floor includes at least one horizontal router communicatively coupled to at least one vertical router;

a local control for maintaining location and performance information about each of the plurality of vertical routers and each of the plurality of horizontal routers, wherein the local control communicates the location and performance information to a main control;

one or more mobile terminals, wherein each mobile terminal is communicatively coupled to at least one router of the plurality of vertical routers and the plurality of horizontal routers, wherein the at least one router provides a location reference for computing a location position of the mobile terminal, and further wherein the at least one router relays communication data to the main control; and

the main control for managing communication of the network.

22. A communication network as claimed in claim 21, comprising a pre-deployed system and a deployed system, wherein:

the pre-deployed network comprises the plurality of vertical routers, the plurality of horizontal routers, and the local control; and

the deployed network comprises the one or more mobile terminals and the main control.

23. A communication network as claimed in claim 22, wherein the pre-deployed system comprises a stationary system of fixed devices.

24. A communication network as claimed in claim 22, wherein the deployed system comprises an ad hoc system of mobile devices deployed in response to an event within the multiple floor building.

25. A communication network as claimed in claim 21, wherein the main control communication management comprises coordinating access to communication channels within the network and computing a location position of each mobile terminal and each router within the network.

26. A communication network as claimed in claim 21, wherein each of the routers includes one or more sensors, wherein each of the mobile terminals is operated by an emergency team member, and further wherein the main control communication management comprises one or more operations selected from a group of operations comprising identify one or more hot spots in the multiple floor building by querying one or more sensors, identifying a position of each emergency team member, providing one or more voice connections between the emergency team members, providing voice directions to one or more emergency team members, reading one or more vital signs of the emergency team members, distributing information to other devices about the emergency team members, and identifying safe evacuation routes for the emergency team members.

27. A communication network as claimed in claim 22, wherein the main control is communicatively coupled to the deployed system through one or more connections selected from a connection group comprising a wired Ethernet Backbone, a wireless connection to the plurality of horizontal routers, a wireless connection to the plurality of vertical routers, a router installed on an aircraft located above the multiple floor building, and a communication connection through a neighboring building.

28. A communication network as claimed in claim 27, wherein the main control selects one or more connections providing a highest throughput.

29. A process for deployment of a communication network within a multiple floor building, the process comprising:

a construction phase for installing stationary devices for establishing a fixed communication network within the multiple floor building;

an operation phase for installing one or more mobile terminals and a main control, each of the one or more mobile terminals and the main control communicatively coupled to the stationary devices, the operation phase comprising managing communication and tracking of the mobile terminals by the main control using data about the mobile terminals and about the stationary devices received from the stationary devices;

an installation phase for loading into the local control;

a routers database including the position of each of the horizontal routers and the vertical routers, and

one or more building maps including any communication confinements; and

a testing phase for checking the correctness of the database stored within the local control including conducting a test comprising;

moving a mobile terminal across each floor of the building,

observing the position of the mobile terminal on a portable computer with the floor map and recording position corrections of the mobile terminal,

the local control recording a log of mobile terminal computed locations and the horizontal routers used for computing these locations, and

conducting new tests in the location where any router has not been used in previous tests.

30. A process of deployment of a communication network within a multiple floor building as claimed in claim 29, wherein the construction phase comprises:

installing a plurality of vertical routers comprising one or more sets of vertical routers, wherein each set of vertical routers includes communicatively coupled vertical routers within a vertical shaft;

installing a plurality of horizontal routers comprising one or more sets of horizontal routers, wherein each set of horizontal routers includes communicatively coupled horizontal routers within a floor, wherein each set of horizontal routers on each floor includes at least one horizontal router communicatively coupled to at least one vertical router;

installing at least one intelligent access router at an end of each vertical shaft to provide communication through the floors; and

installing a local control communicatively coupled to the at least one intelligent access routers.

31. A process of deployment of a communication network within a multiple floor building as claimed in claim 30, wherein the operating phase further comprises:

the local control collecting one or more data selected from a group of data including range data, voice data, and direction data from each mobile terminal in and around the building and transmitting the collected data to the main control for processing.

32. A process of deployment of a communication network within a multiple floor building as claimed in claim 31, wherein the operating phase further comprises:

the main control displaying one or more views of the mobile terminals including one or more maps of the floors of the building in which the mobile terminals are operating.

33. A process of deployment of a communication network within a multiple floor building as claimed in claim 31, wherein the operating phase further comprises:

each mobile terminal calculating its respective location using one or more data selected from a group of data including time of flight data and received signal strength indicator data, and providing the calculated respective location to one or more of the horizontal routers and the vertical routers.

34. A process of deployment of a communication network within a multiple floor building as claimed in claim 30 further comprising;

a pre-operation phase for communicatively coupling the main control to the local control, and for downloading the building databases from the local control to the main control.