System for MS-assisted location trigger, and service methods thereof

• US 7,254,388 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2004
• Issued: 08/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lee, Seong-Ho, Lee, Jae-Ho, Min, Kyoung-Wook, Lee, Jun-Wook, Nam, Kwang-Woo
• Primary Examiner(s): Ferguson; Keith
• Application Number:
  US11/027,160
• Publication Number:
  US 20060014531A1
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.1, 455/456.2, 455/456.3, 455/456.4, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 455/457, 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/445, 455/422.1, 455/403, 455/414.1, 455/414.2, 455/414.3, 455/414.4, 455/500, 455/517, 455/435.1, 455/435.2, 455/550.1, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/41.1, 455/41.2, 455/426.1, 455/426.2, 455/11.1, 455/432.1, 455/432.2, 455/406, 455/407, 455/408, 705/14, 379/114.01, 379/114.02, 379/114.12
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/14 with services dependent on location where the service is an information service H04M2242/15; services independent of location H04M3/42229
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42229 Personal communication services, i.e. services related to one subscriber independent of his terminal and/or location diverting calls from one subscriber to another subscriber, i.e. two different subscriptions H04M3/54; selecting arrangements in intelligent networks H04Q3/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Disclosed is a location trigger system for a location-based service comprising a mobile station in which a LAT detecting the location trigger is embedded; an LBS platform transmitting location trigger assisted information on a location trigger area to the MS, and handling the location trigger in accordance with events invoked on the basis of the location trigger assisted information; a location agent setting the location trigger to obtain location-based information of the MS; and an LBS application connected to the LP, and receiving a customized LBS based on the location information in accordance with the location trigger.

Claims

1. A location trigger system for a location-based service (LBS), comprising:

a mobile station (MS) embedding a location assistant (LAT) for detecting a location trigger event, the MS detecting the location trigger event by comparing a location identifier of the MS with a list of location identifiers of interest;

an LBS platform (LP) transmitting location trigger assisted information of a location trigger area to the MS, and processing the location trigger event received from the MS, the location trigger assisted information including the list of location identifiers of interest;

a location agent (LA) setting the location trigger to obtain location information of the MS; and

an LBS application (LBSA) connected to the LP, and receiving a customized LBS based on the location information of the MS in accordance with the location trigger,

wherein the location trigger is processed distributedly by the MS and the LP.

2. The location trigger system according to claim 1, further comprising an area database (DB) storing location trigger assisted information of the location trigger area.

3. The location trigger system according to claim 2, wherein the location trigger assisted information of the location trigger area is at least one selected from a group including a Cell-ID, a repeater ID, a service antenna ID, a MAC address of a wireless LAN, and a Bluetooth ID.

4. The location trigger system according to claim 1, wherein the location trigger assisted information of the location trigger area includes at least one element of a group, the group including a Cell-ID, a repeater ID, a service antenna ID, a MAC address of a wireless LAN, and a Bluetooth ID.

5. The location trigger system according to claim 1, wherein the LP comprises a plurality of networked communication apparatuses for access to the location information of the MS.

6. The location trigger system according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of communication apparatuses comprise a Mobile Positioning Center (MPC), a Home Location Resister (HLR)/Mobile Switching Center (MSC)/Visitor Location Resister (VLR), and a Position Determination Entity (PDE).

7. The location trigger system according to claim 1, wherein the LA and the LBSA co-exist with the MS on a network, or are separately provided thereon.

8. The location trigger system according to claim 1, further comprising a location server installed on the LP, the location server obtaining the location trigger and a simplified location of the MS.

9. The location trigger system according to claim 8, wherein the location server comprises:

a location trigger access application for accessing a location trigger inputted from a location agent or a trigger operator tool through the LP;

a location trigger analyzer analyzing the location trigger, and dividing a complex location trigger into a multi-level location trigger;

a trigger processor directly accessing a terminal to invoke a trigger, and detecting associated events;

a location trigger event processor monitoring the events provided from the trigger processor, comparing the events to a location trigger DB, and detecting an associated trigger; and

an executor executing the triggered events.

10. The location trigger system according to claim 9, wherein the trigger processor comprises a simple location trigger (LT) processor, a time trigger LT processor, an MS-Assisted LT processor, and an MS-Based LT processor.

11. A location trigger method for a Location-Based Service (LBS), comprising:

(a) a location agent (LA) setting a location trigger;

(b) an LBS platform (LP) transmitting initial information of the location trigger to a mobile station (MS);

(c) the MS in which the LA is embedded detecting a location trigger event, the MS detecting the location trigger event by comparing a location identifier of the MS with a list of location identifiers of interest;

(d) the MS transmitting information of the location trigger event to the LP, the location trigger event invoked based on the location trigger; and

(e) the LP processing the location trigger according to the information of the location trigger event.

12. The location trigger method according to claim 11, further comprising providing an LBS application with a location-based service in accordance with the location trigger processed by the LP.

13. The location trigger method according to claim 11, wherein in b), the LP searches through a Cell-ID Area DB and transmits an associated Cell-ID to the MS.

14. The location trigger method according to claim 11, further comprising obtaining a radio signal including the MS Cell-ID, the repeater ID, the service antenna ID, the MAC address of a wireless LAN, and a Bluetooth ID, and invoking the location trigger event using a device covering a relatively smaller area when another device covering a relatively bigger area satisfactorily processes a trigger event.

15. The location trigger method according to claim 14, further comprising:

setting the location trigger for a particular building or area within a particular cell;

detecting whether the MS enters the particular cell through a Cell-ID level location trigger using the LAT embedded in the MS; and

detecting a more precise location trigger by turning on an Assisted-GPS when the MS enters the particular cell.

16. The location trigger method according to claim 11, wherein the LAT and the LP use a plurality of messages to process the location trigger.

17. The location trigger method according to claim 16, wherein the plurality of messages comprise an LT setting message (LT-SET), an LT initialization message (LT_INIT), an LT event message (LT_EVENT), and an LT action message (LT_ACTION).

18. The location trigger method according to claim 11, wherein the LAT detects a simple event related to entering/exiting of the MS, and the LP performs a complex event, independently performing associated actions.

19. The location trigger method according to claim 11, wherein the MS is an MS-based terminal capable of independent performance of the complex event and the associated actions.

20. The location trigger method according to claim 11, wherein the LAT-embedded MS detects a Cell-ID level location trigger in c), and the location trigger method further comprises (f) an attending school and company alerting service, depending on a detection result.

21. The location trigger method according to claim 20, wherein (c) further comprises processing a more specific location trigger by turning on an A-GPS when the A-GPS embedded MS enters an area where a Cell-ID is pre-specified.

22. The location trigger method according to claim 11, wherein, in (b), the LP searches a particular area DB and transmits associated Cell-ID information to the MS, and the location trigger method further comprises (f) providing an alert message or an exiting alerting service performing a particular process when the MS leaves the particular area through the location trigger process.

23. A location-based service (LBS) service method using a location trigger, comprising:

(a) a location agent (LA) setting a location trigger;

(b) an LBS platform (LP) searching a particular area DB and transmitting a repeater ID or a service antenna ID to a mobile station (MS);

(c) a location assistant (LAT) embedded in the MS for detecting a location trigger event, the MS detecting the location trigger event by comparing a location identifier of the MS with a list of location identifiers of interest;

(d) the MS transmitting information of the repeater ID or the service antenna ID to the LP, the information obtained in consequence to the location trigger; and

(e) the LP processing the location trigger event using the transmitted information and transmitting an associated short message service (SMS) to the MS.

24. The LBS method according to claim 23, wherein the LBS in (e) is a regional information alerting service using the repeater ID or the service antenna ID.

25. An LBS service method using a location trigger, comprising:

(a) an LA registering a mobile-telephone charge discount area;

(b) a user registering a particular mobile-telephone charge discount area with the LA;

(c) an LP transmitting information on a Cell-ID in a particular trigger location to the LA;

(d) setting a mobile-telephone charge discount area flag when an LAT embedded MS enters the particular mobile-telephone charge discount area;

(e) the MS detecting a location trigger event and transmitting information of the location trigger event to the LP, the MS detecting the location trigger event by comparing a location identifier of the MS with a list of location identifiers of interest, the location trigger event invoked in accordance with the mobile-telephone charge discount area flag; and

(f) the LP transmitting an SMS associated with the location trigger event invoked based on the mobile-telephone charge discount area flag to the MS.

26. The LBS method according to claim 25, wherein the LBS is a location-sensitive mobile-telephone charge discount service using the LAT of the MS and the flag.

27. The LBS method according to claim 26, wherein the LBS is the location-sensitive mobile-telephone charge discount service for generating an SMS in response to the information of the location trigger event and billing the MS when the MS enters a mobile-telephone charge discount area.