Wireless location using multiple mobile station location techniques

• US 7,764,231 B1
• Filed: 09/08/1997
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TracBeam LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Original Assignee: TracBeam LLC (Dennis J. Dupray)
• Inventors: Dupray, Dennis J., Karr, Charles L.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, DAO LINDA
• Application Number:
  US09/194,367
• Time in Patent Office: 4,705 Days
• Field of Search: 342/450, 342/453, 342/457, 342/357.06, 342/357.02, 342/357.09, 342/357.14, 701/213, 701/215, 4554561-4563, 4554565-4566
• US Class Current: 342/457
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/026 of associated receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/028 Simulation means, e.g. of beacon signals therefor for teaching or training purposes G09B9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/006 for emergency situations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/008 using a mobile telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0018 Transmission from mobile station to base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0244 Accuracy or reliability of position solution or of measurements contributing thereto
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0257 Hybrid positioning by coordinating position lines of different shape G01S5/12
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0278 involving statistical or probabilistic considerations G01S5/0252, G01S5/0294 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/06 Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements G01S5/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

A hybrid wireless location system and method is disclosed for locating mobile stations (MSs). Multiple wireless location techniques (FOMs) are provided for MS location. One or more FOMs can be activated in various combinations (serially or parallelly) for outputting one or more MS location estimates with signal protocols, e.g., CDMA, TDMA, or GSM. Resulting location estimates may be for, e.g.: 911 emergency calls, tracking, navigation, people and animal location, andJor applications for confinement to andlor exclusion from geographical areas. System components may be distributed on a network (e.g., the Internet). FOMs may be based on one or more of: TOA, TDOA, AOA, signal pattern recognitionlfingerprinting, statistical analysis, base station coverage, GPS signals received at the MS, andlor input from mobile stations. Location estimates are enhanced by adjusting MS estimates (and/or confidences therefor) according to: a past performance of the FOM providing such estimates, and/or MS geolocation or velocity constraints.

Claims

1. A method for locating each terrestrial mobile station of a plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, M, wherein said method uses wireless signal measurements obtained from one or more transmissions between said terrestrial mobile station M and one or more of a plurality of terrestrial communication stations, each terrestrial communication capable of at least one of:

wirelessly detecting said terrestrial mobile station M, and wirelessly being detected by said terrestrial mobile stations M, comprising;

for each of the mobile stations M perform the following steps by computational machinery;

receiving first and second location related information, respectively, from computational machinery performing first and second mobile station location estimation determiners, wherein said location estimation determiners provide different geographical indications of an unknown location of said mobile station M when said location estimation determiners are supplied with corresponding input data obtained using wireless signal measurements obtained by transmissions between said mobile station M and the communication stations;

wherein, when available, the first location related information includes at least a first geographical indication for a location of the mobile station M;

wherein, when available, the second location related information includes at least a second geographical indication for the location of the mobile station M;

wherein for locating the mobile station M in at least one location, said second geographical indication for M is obtained and is dependent upon a delay time of a signal from at least one non-terrestrial wireless transmitter, not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, to M for determining a spatial range for M; and

outputting a resulting location estimate of the mobile station M, a determination of said resulting location estimate is dependent upon at least one of (a) and (b) following;

(a) a first value obtained from said first location related information, and (b) a second value obtained from said second location related information.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including a step of receiving a transmission, through a telecommunications network, of said first location estimation determiner from a source site to an activation site for generating said first geographical indication;

wherein said step of receiving the transmission includes receiving an encoding of said first location estimation determiner via the Internet.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, a step of obtaining at least one of (i) and (ii) following, for a location estimation determiner (LE) being one of at least one of the first and second location estimation determiners,

(i) a selected set of geographical locations from an archive of geographical locations for a collection of one or more actual mobile station locations, said geographical locations of said archive generated by a location estimation determiner LE₁ wherein LE₁ and LE are identical or substantially effectively equivalent when generating said geographical locations using first data obtained from wireless signal measurements of transmissions between:

(1) one or more of a plurality of mobile stations, at said actual locations, and (2) said plurality of communication stations;

wherein at least one of said archived geographical locations is selected for being included in said selected set by determining that a predetermined condition is satisfied by a value related to a distance between;

(a) said corresponding one of said first and second geographical indications for the location of the mobile station M received from LE, and (b) said at least one archived geographical location; and

(ii) data for more accurately identifying said corresponding one of said first and second geographical indications using said selected set.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further including, for at least one geographical indication, GI, of said first and second geographical indications, and for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, a step of obtaining a likelihood value that the at least one geographical indication GI includes said mobile station M, wherein said likelihood value is obtained using previous likely geographical indications for one or more mobile station locations generated by a location estimation determiner LE, wherein LE and the location estimation determiner that generated said at least one geographical indication GI are identical or substantially effectively equivalent when generating geographical indications of mobile stations.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, further including performing a first simulation for predicting a likelihood of said mobile station M being in said first geographical indication, wherein said simulation uses pairs of location representations, wherein for each pair (P), a first member of the pair P includes a geographical indication (GR_P) obtained from a location estimation determiner LE, wherein LE and said first location estimation determiner are identical or substantially effectively equivalent for generating said geographical indication GR_P for locating some mobile station, and a second member of the pair P includes a representation of an independently determined location of the some mobile station.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for at least some occurrences of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, including the occurrence of locating the some one mobile station, at least one of said first and second location estimation determiners utilizes

a pattern recognition location technique for estimating a location of said mobile station M by recognizing a pattern of characteristics of said corresponding input data obtained from at least first and second transmission paths of multiple transmission paths of the transmissions between said mobile station M and at least one of the communication stations.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, one of the first and second location estimation determiners is activated and performs a pattern matching technique, wherein said pattern matching technique uses an association wherein said association is determined from a plurality of data pairs, each said data pair including:

first information identifying a location of some mobile station, and second information from wireless signal measurements communicated between said some mobile station and one or more of the communication stations when said some mobile station is at the location.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, said first and second location estimation determiners determine, respectively, said first and second geographical indications independently of one another.

41. The method of claim 1, wherein, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, at least one of the communication stations transmits a first wireless signal to the mobile station M and receives in response to said first wireless signal, a responsive signal from the mobile station M, and any intermediary devices for transmitting signals between said mobile station M and the communication stations are terrestrial.

42. The method of claim 1, further including for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, providing a wireless transmission to a second of the mobile stations, wherein said second mobile station is capable of moving toward the mobile station M by using said wireless transmission for locating M.

43. The method of claim 1, wherein, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, at least one of the first and second location estimation determiners performs a technique for determining, for at least one of the communication stations, CS,

a distance between the communication station CS and the mobile station M, said distance dependent upon signal time delay derived information, wherein for determining the distance, two way communication between the mobile station M and the communication station CS is used

wherein said at least one communication station CS is stationary.

52. The method of claim 1, further including for each of a plurality of instances of the mobile station M, a step of

activating, by computational machinery, at least one common predetermined mobile station location related component for determining said resulting location estimate for each of the instances of the mobile station M, wherein the location related component is not activated when determining said resulting location estimate for the instance of M until after at least said corresponding step of receiving is performed.

106. The method of claim 1, wherein, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, at least one of said first and second location related information is determined, and is determined using a location technique for determining a geographical indication (L) for a location of the mobile station M, wherein the location technique determines the location L by receiving data pairings obtained from geographical location information indicative of the location of the mobile station M, wherein the geographical location information includes one or more geographically dependent wireless signal characteristics of a wireless communication between the mobile station M, and the communication stations;

wherein the location technique performs an interpolation dependent on the data pairings, wherein each data pairing includes;

(i) an identification of a transmitter location from which there is a wireless communication between the mobile station M, and one of the communication stations, and (ii) wireless related information indicative of the transmitter'"'"'s location, wherein the wireless related information is obtained from the geographically dependent wireless signal characteristics corresponding to the wireless communication.

211. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, at least one of said first and second location estimation determiners utilizes a mobile base station location estimation determiner for estimating a location of said mobile station M from location information received from a mobile base station detecting wireless transmissions of said mobile station M.

212. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, said first location estimation determiner is provided by computational machinery performing a coverage area location technique for estimating a location of said mobile station M at a location L, wherein the estimated location is associated with an area of a wireless coverage area for one of said communication stations, wherein the estimated location is included in the resulting location estimate of the mobile station M when the first location related information is unavailable or unsatisfactory for the location L.

213. The method of claim 1, wherein, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, at least one of the first and second location estimation determiners performs a technique for determining, for at least one of the communication stations, CS, an angular orientation about the communication station CS of a direction of the mobile station M determined using a measurement of a wireless signal direction of arrival of wireless signals transmitted between the mobile station M and the communication station CS;

wherein said at least one communication station CS is stationary.

214. The method of claim 1, further including a step of providing information for activating at least one the first and second location estimation determiners, wherein said information for activating is output by a common activation requesting component.

215. The method of claim 1, further including, for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, a step of obtaining one or more:

(i) data indicative of an error for a geographical extent for locating the mobile station M, (ii) data indicative of an accuracy in a geographical extent for locating the mobile station M, and (iii) data indicative of a likelihood of the mobile station M being in a geographical extent for locating the mobile station M.

216. The method of claim 215, wherein the at least one occurrence includes a plurality of occurrences of locating a plurality of the mobile stations for being M, wherein for each of the plurality of occurrences, a corresponding instance of the resulting location estimate includes the data indicative of the likelihood of the mobile station M being in the corresponding geographical extent for locating the mobile station M.

217. The method of claim 1, wherein for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations for being M, the first geographical indication is not obtained, or is determined to not be effective for use in determining the corresponding instance of the resulting location estimate.

218. The method of claim 215, wherein the at least one occurrence includes a plurality of occurrences of locating a plurality of the mobile stations for being M, wherein for each of the plurality of occurrences, a corresponding instance of the resulting location estimate includes the data indicative of the error or accuracy for the corresponding geographical extent for locating the mobile station M.

219. The method of claim 1, wherein, for the occurrence of locating the one mobile station, the second geographical indication determines the spatial range for the one mobile station, wherein the spatial range is enhanced by communication between the one mobile station and at least one of the terrestrial communication stations.

220. The method of claim 52, wherein the location related component is activated for the occurrence of locating the some one mobile station, and for the another occurrence of locating the one mobile station.

8. A method for estimating, for each mobile station M of a plurality of mobile stations, one or more corresponding unknown terrestrial locations for M using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile station M and a plurality of fixed location terrestrial communication stations, wherein each of said communications stations is substantially co-located with one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said mobile station M, comprising performing the following steps by computational machinery:

(1) initiating one or more requests for locating the mobile station M, wherein the requests are for activating one or more mobile station location evaluators provided by computational machinery for locating the mobile station M, at least one of said one or more location evaluators performs at least the first technique following, and at least one of said one or more location evaluators performs at least one of the second and third techniques following;

(i) a first technique for obtaining first geographic location information for said mobile station M using signal time delay values for signals received at the mobile station M from each of a plurality of satellites;

(ii) a second technique for recognizing a pattern in wireless signal characteristics, wherein said second technique includes the steps of (a) and (b) following;

(a) associating, for each location L_a of a plurality of geographical locations, (a1) and (a2) following;

(a1) a representation of the geographical location L_a, and

(a2) for the geographical location L_a, corresponding information indicative of one or more characteristics of wireless signals previously transmitted between some corresponding mobile station (M_La) and the communication stations, when the some corresponding mobile station M_La-transmitted from approximately the geographical location L_a, the corresponding mobile station M_La different from M; and

(b) determining second geographic location information for M by identifying a similarity in a pattern between (b1) and (b2) following;

(b1) one or more wireless signal characteristics determined from wireless signals communicated between the mobile station M and the communication stations, and (b2) the information of (a2) for a collection of one or more of the plurality of geographical locations; and

(iii) a third technique, wherein said third technique uses a statistical correlation for correlating (c) and (d) following;

(c) values that are a function of at least one of;

a signal strength and a signal time delay of wireless signals between said mobile station M and the communication stations, and

(d) information indicative of;

a plurality of collections of wireless signal measurements, wherein for each said collection, there is a known location S for obtaining said collection from transmissions between said communication stations and some mobile station (M_S) at the location S, M_S different from M;

wherein said statistical correlation is used for determining corresponding third geographic location information for the mobile station M;

(2) obtaining a first collection of one or more geographic estimations for said mobile station M, wherein the one or more geographic estimations are obtained from one or more of said first, second and third geographic location information of the one or more location evaluators;

wherein there is two way communication between the mobile station M and at least one of the communication stations for obtaining at least one of the geographic estimations;

(transmitting, to a predetermined destination via a communications network, resulting information for locating the mobile station M, wherein said resulting information is dependent on at least said first collection;

wherein for locating at least one location of the mobile station M, a preference is given to using a corresponding instance of one of the geographic estimations obtained form the first technique.

9. The method of claim 8, further including:

obtaining a location estimate for the resulting information using an output of the second geographic location information from an activation of the second technique.

44. The method of claim 8, wherein for at least one occurrence of locating one of the mobile stations represented by the mobile station M, the corresponding instance of the resulting information is dependent upon at least one of the geographic estimations for the one mobile station according to a determination of an effectiveness of the at least one geographic estimation.

45. The method of claim 8, wherein the first collection includes second geographic location information determined using an activation of an instance of said second technique.

49. The method of claim 8, wherein the first collection includes the third geographic location information determined using an activation of an instance of said third technique, wherein the activation includes performing one of:

a least squares process, partial least squares process, and a principle decomposition process.

53. The method of claim 8, further including, following said step of obtaining, a step of selecting, by computational machinery, at least one of the one or more geographic estimations that is likely to be indicative of one of the unknown locations.

118. The method of claim 8, wherein the resulting information includes a location estimate for M that is obtained that is a result of a combination of at least two of the geographic estimations of the first collection, the at least two location estimates obtained from different ones of the first, second and third techniques.

209. The method of claim 8, wherein the first collection includes a first location estimation for a first location of the mobile station M obtained using the first technique, and a second location estimation for a second location of the mobile station M using the second technique.

210. The method of claim 8, wherein a location estimate for M is obtained that is a result of a comparison, by computational machinery, of at least a portion of at least two of the first, second and third geographic location information.

221. The method of claim 8, wherein for determining a location L of an instance, M₁, of the mobile station M, the preference for determining the resulting information includes determining the resulting information without one of:

(i) using corresponding instances of the second and third geographical location information for the location L, and (ii) obtaining corresponding instances of the second and third geographical location information for the location L;

wherein for determining a location L₂ of an instance, M₂, of the mobile station M, the resulting information is determined using one of using a corresponding instance of one of the second and third geographical location information for the location L₂.

222. The method of claim 8, wherein for determining a location L of an instance, M, of the mobile station M₁, the substep (B3) of selecting for determining the resulting location estimate is performed and includes determining the resulting location estimate by discarding or filtering one of the first information for the location L;

wherein for determining a location L₂ of an instance, M₂, of the mobile station M₁, the substep (B3) of selecting for determining the resulting location estimate is performed and includes determining the resulting location estimate by discarding or filtering one of the second information for the location L.

10. A method for locating mobile stations at one or more unknown terrestrial locations using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile stations and a plurality of fixed location terrestrial communication stations, wherein each of said communications stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said mobile stations, comprising performing the following steps by computational machinery:

receiving, from a plurality of location requesting sources, a plurality of input requests for locations of the mobile stations;

for each of the input requests, providing to one or more mobile station location determining sources, one or more location requests for location information related to a location of one of said mobile stations;

wherein said one or more location determining sources perform the following techniques (i), and (ii);

(i) a first technique for determining geographical location information of each of at least some of said mobile stations, wherein for at least some geographical location of some mobile station M1 of the at least some mobile stations, the first technique outputs the geographical location information for locating M1 using a signal time delay value dependent upon a first input obtained from a signal, S₁, received at the mobile station M1 from a satellite, wherein said first technique uses said signal time delay value for determining the geographical location information, the signal time delay related to at least one distance between said mobile station M1 and the satellite;

(ii) a second technique for determining second geographical location information for each of a plurality of said mobile stations, wherein for some mobile station M2 of the plurality of mobile stations, the second technique outputs the second geographical information for locating M2, the second geographical information obtained by determining for a wireless signal communicated between the mobile station M2 and at least one of the communication stations, one of;

(ii-1) a geographical extent corresponding to a detection of the wireless signal, and

(ii-2) a geographical extent obtained using a signal time delay measurement or signal strength measurement of the wireless signal;

wherein a two way communication between M2 and the communication stations occurs for obtaining the wireless signal;

first obtaining, in response to a first of the location requests received from a first of the requesting sources, first output location data for locating a first of the mobile stations, wherein the first output location data is obtained from said geographical location information output by an instance of said first technique performed by a corresponding one of the location determining sources, wherein the first mobile station corresponds to M1;

wherein the first output location data is obtained according to a first output criteria for the first request, said first output location data including a representation identifying a first geographical indication of the first mobile station;

second obtaining, in response to a second of the location requests received from a second of the requesting sources, second output location data for locating a second of the mobile stations, wherein the second output location data is obtained from said second geographical information output by an instance of the second technique performed by a corresponding one of the location determining sources, wherein the second mobile station corresponds to M2;

wherein the second output location data is obtained according to a second output criteria for the second request, said second output location data including a representation identifying a second geographical indication of the second mobile station;

wherein for at least one of said first and second output criteria there is an output criteria for another of the location requests that is different from said at least one output criteria;

wherein one or more of the first and second output criteria includes data for location accuracy, or data for location determining repetition;

first transmitting said first output location data to a corresponding destination via a communications network; and

second transmitting said second output location data to a corresponding destination via a communications network.

46. The method of claim 10, wherein said instance of the second technique uses a time difference of arrival of wireless signals transmitted between the second mobile station and one of the communication stations CS for determining a locus of points having a hyperbolic shape.

47. The method of claim 10, wherein for said instance of the second technique, one of the communication stations CS transmits a first wireless signal to the second mobile station and receives in response to said first wireless signal, a responsive signal from the second mobile station, and any intermediary devices for transmitting signals between the second mobile station and the communication stations are terrestrial.

48. The method of claim 10, wherein said step of first transmitting includes responding to an Internet request to locate the first mobile station.

58. The method of claim 10, wherein:

for at least one of first and second geographical indications, the corresponding first or second output location data includes information indicative of a likelihood of the at least one geographical indication including the corresponding one of the first or second mobile stations.

59. The method of claim 10, further including the computational machinery performing steps of first and second determining, using at least one common predetermined mobile station location related component for determining, respectively, said first output location data and said second output location data, wherein said common predetermined component accesses the first and second output criteria for determining, respectively, said first and second output location data.

60. The method of claim 10, wherein said steps of first and second transmitting includes outputting said first and second output location data via a common predetermined network interface.

61. The method of claim 10, further including the computational machinery performing a step of accessing mobile station location output frequency information of said first output criteria.

62. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of (a) and (b) following hold:

(a) said first transmitting step includes determining a particular protocol for outputting said first output location data on the corresponding communication network for transmission to the corresponding destination for the first request, and (b) said second transmitting step includes determining a particular protocol for outputting said second output location data on the corresponding communication network for transmission to the corresponding destination for the second request.

63. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of(1) and (2) following hold:

(1) said first output criteria includes information for determining said representation of said first geographical indication using a location of a known first geographical feature different from the communication stations, and (2) said second output criteria includes information for determining said representation of said second geographical indication using a location of a known second geographical feature different from the communication stations.

64. The method of claim 10, wherein said first output criteria includes information for determining a first location granularity at which a location estimate of the first mobile station is transmitted, and said second output criteria includes information for determining a second location granularity at which a location estimate of the second mobile station is transmitted, wherein said first and second granularity is different.

65. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of said steps of receiving, first obtaining, second obtaining, first transmitting, and second transmitting receives or transmits wireless location related information on a TCP/IP network.

66. The method of claim 10, wherein said step of first obtaining includes receiving a first location estimate from a first of said location determining sources which performs an instance, I₁, of said first technique for estimating a location of the first mobile station, wherein said instance I₁ uses wireless signals, S, between the first mobile station and at least one of the communication stations to improve at least one performance characteristic of said instance I₁ over a performance of I₁ without use of the wireless signals between the first mobile station and the at least one communication station.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the instance I₁ uses first information for locating the first mobile station, wherein the first information is dependent upon signal timing measurements from the wireless signals S.

68. The method of claim 66, wherein the instance I₁ uses first information from the wireless signals S, wherein the first information is dependent upon a wireless coverage area of the at least one communication station.

69. The method of claim 10, further including the computational machinery performing a step of providing display information for displaying a representation of a location estimate L of the first mobile station, wherein said display information is for displaying a map of an area having the location estimate L, and for concurrently displaying information indicating an accuracy of the location estimate L.

70. The method of claim 69, wherein said display information is displayed at a mobile station M that has requested a location of the first mobile station.

11. A location system for locating mobile stations using wireless signal data obtained from transmissions between said mobile stations and a network of fixed location communication stations, wherein said communication stations are cooperatively linked for use in locating said mobile stations, comprising computational equipment for mobile station location, the equipment including:

a data storage archive for storing a plurality of data collections, wherein for each of a plurality geographical locations, there is one of said data collections having (a1) and (a2) following;

(a1) a representation of the geographical location, and

(a2) a set of said wireless signal data obtained using transmissions between one of said mobile stations and the network, wherein the one mobile station transmits from approximately the geographical location of (a1);

a computational component having at least one module of machine instructions for communicating with computational equipment providing one or more location estimation determiners, at least one of which is included in the category (b1) following, and at least one of said location estimation determiners is included in the category (b2) following;

(b1) a first category of adaptable location estimation determiners, wherein each said adaptable location estimation determiner generates a geographical location estimate for each mobile station (M_b1) of a plurality of said mobile stations when said adaptable location estimation determiner receives first corresponding input values obtained from transmissions between said mobile station M_b1 and a plurality of the communication stations, and wherein each said adaptable location estimation determiner adapts its generated geographical location estimates according to changes in said data collections of said archive;

(b2) said second category of location estimation determiners, wherein each said location estimation determiner of said second category determines a location for each mobile station (M_b2) of a plurality of said mobile stations by using second corresponding input values obtained from wireless signals, S, received by M_b2, or another of said mobile stations, from a plurality of non-terrestrial transmitting stations above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, wherein said wireless signals S provide time values for determining a spatial range between;

(i) M_b2 or the another mobile station, and (ii) each of at least two of the non-terrestrial stations, wherein the spatial ranges are determined from transmission times for each of the wireless signals transmitted by the at least two of the non-terrestrial transmitting stations;

wherein for one of the mobile stations M, a location estimation determiner selector of the at least one module selects one or more of;

one of said adaptable location estimation determiners, and one of said location estimation determiners of said second category according to whether said first corresponding input values are available for the mobile station M being an instance of M_b1, or said second corresponding input values are available for the mobile station M being an instance of M_b2.

12. The location system of claim 11, further including a combiner location estimation determiner for determining a resulting location estimate of said mobile station M by combining a plurality of location estimates from the selected one or more location estimation determiners;

wherein the combiner is provided by the computational equipment.

50. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of said adaptable location estimation determiners adapts by one of:

learning an association for associating, for each data collection of at least some of said data collections, said geographical location representation (a1) of the data collection with said set of said wireless signal data (a2) of the data collection; and

determining a statistical similarity between (1) and (2) following;

(1) wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile station M and the network, and (2) said wireless signal measurements (a2) of the data collections in said archive.

54. The location system of claim 11, wherein said interface includes a network interface for receiving a request for locating, at one or more locations, the mobile station M via the Internet;

and further including an output gateway for transmitting, via the Internet to a particular Internet destination, a resulting location estimate for the mobile station M, wherein said resulting location estimate is dependent upon one or more location estimates determined using a selected one of said plurality of location estimation determiners, and wherein said resulting location estimate is determined according to a predefined data organization for the particular Internet destination, said resulting location estimate including one or more of;

a representation of an accuracy of a location estimate provided by said resulting location estimate, and a confidence in a location estimate of said resulting location estimates.

107. The location system of claim 11, wherein said mobile station M is different from at least one of the one or more mobile stations used for obtaining said wireless signal data of (a2).

13. A location system for locating wireless mobile stations, each capable of using wireless signals in communicating with a plurality of networked stationary communication stations, comprising:

a transceiver;

(a) for detecting a direction of at least a portion of the wireless signals transmitted from a corresponding one of the mobile stations, and (b) for communicating with said networked communication stations information related to a location of said wireless mobile stations;

a signal analyzer for determining whether a detected wireless signal from said mobile stations has been one of;

reflected and deflected;

one or more location estimation determiners for providing one or more location estimates of said mobile stations, wherein at least one of said location estimation determiners utilizes the wireless signals from said mobile stations; and

a vehicular transport for moving at least said transceiver when locating said wireless mobile stations;

wherein;

(a) for locating at least one of the mobile stations, the direction of the transmitted signals from the at least one mobile station is used,

(b) for locating at least one of the mobile stations, the transceiver communications with the communication stations is used,

(c) for locating at least one of the mobile stations, an output from the signal analyzer is used, and

(d) for locating at least one of the mobile stations, of the one or more location estimates therefor is used.

14. The location system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said signal analyzer includes a comparator for comparing:

(a) a distance of one of said mobile stations from said transceiver using a signal strength of said wireless signals from said one mobile station, with (b) a distance of said one mobile station from said transceiver using a signal time delay measurement of wireless signal from said one mobile station.

15. The location system as claimed in claim 13, further including one or more transceiver location estimation determiners for estimating a location of said transceiver, wherein at least one of said transceiver location estimation determiners uses data from wireless signals communicated between:

(i) said transport, and (ii) one of;

said networked communication stations and a global positioning satellite.

16. The location system as claimed in claim 15, further including a deadreckoning component operatively movable with movements of said transport for estimating a change in a location of said transceiver, wherein said deadreckoning component determines incremental updates to at least one location estimate of said transport output by at least one of said transceiver location estimation determiners.

17. A method for locating a wireless mobile station, comprising performing the following steps by computational equipment:

(A1) receiving location information for the mobile station by the steps (a) and (b) following;

(a) first obtaining a first instance of the location information when supplied with signal time delay data obtained from wireless signal data received by the mobile station from a satellite, wherein a geographic range corresponding to the signal time delay data is used to determine the first instance;

wherein communication between the mobile station and at least one terrestrial transceiver is used to improve said first instance; and

(b) second obtaining a second instance of the location information of the mobile station when supplied with second data indicative of time delays of wireless signals transmitted between the mobile station and a plurality of terrestrial transceivers cooperatively linked together for use in two way communication with the mobile station, wherein at least one of (i) and (ii) following are used for obtaining the second instance;

(i) a representation of a locus of locations having substantially a same time difference of arrival for wireless signals communicated between;

the mobile station, and each of at least two of the transceivers, and (ii) an area obtained by a correspondence between surveyed wireless signaling characteristics of the area, and wireless signals communicated between the mobile station and the transceivers;

wherein the second instance does not depend on a geographical location of the mobile station obtained from information indicative of a distance between the mobile station and at least one of the one or more satellites;

(A2) determining resulting location information, for each of one or more locations of said mobile station, using at least one of;

a first value obtained from the first instance, and a second value obtained from the second instance;

(A3) outputting said resulting location information for each of the one or more locations;

wherein;

the first value is used to obtain the resulting information for one of the locations, and the second value is used to obtain the resulting information for one of the locations.

71. The method of claim 17, wherein said outputting step includes providing accuracy information indicating an accuracy of said resulting location information, wherein said accuracy information is displayed with at least one of the one or more locations of the mobile station.

72. The method of claim 17, wherein for at least one of the one or more locations of the mobile station said step of determining uses both said first and second values.

73. The method of claim 17, wherein said first obtaining includes using information dependent upon a wireless coverage area of the at least one transceiver for improving said first instance.

74. The method of claim 73, wherein the at least one transceiver is co-located with a base station for providing two way communication with the mobile station.

18. A method for locating a plurality of wireless mobile stations, wherein for each of the wireless mobile stations, measurements of wireless signals are used such that at least one of:

(i) said measurements, and

(ii) said wireless signals,

is transmitted between said mobile station and at least one of a plurality of fixed location communication stations, each communication station capable of at least one of receiving wireless signals from, and transmitting wireless signals to said mobile station, comprising performing the following steps by computational equipment;

(1) receiving, from a first mobile station location estimation determiner corresponding first information, and from a second mobile station location estimation determiner corresponding second information, wherein each of the corresponding first and second information relates to geographical approximations for a location of a mobile station (M₁) of the mobile stations, wherein (a) and (b) following hold;

(a) for determining a geographical approximation, GA_A, for a location, L_A, of a second of the mobile stations (M₂) at a time T_A, said first location estimation determiner generates GA_A without requiring a prior geographical location approximation generated by said second location estimation determiner for locating M₂ at substantially the location L_A at substantially the time T_A, and,

(b) for estimating a geographical approximation, GA_B, for a location, L_B, of a third one of the mobile stations (M₃) at a time T_B, said second location estimation determiner generates GA_B without requiring a prior geographical location approximation generated by said first location estimator for locating M₃ at the location L_B at substantially the time T_B;

wherein the first and second mobile station location estimation determiners are provided by computational machinery;

wherein for determining the first information, said first mobile station location estimation determiner activates or receives an output from a signal processing technique for estimating a location of the mobile station M₁ when supplied with data obtained from wireless signals received by M₁ from one or more transmitting stations above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, wherein said wireless signals provide time values, and said signal processing technique uses at least one differential between a time of transmission and a time of arrival for the wireless signals transmitted by a plurality of the transmitting stations;

(2) determining a resulting location estimate of said mobile station M₁;

wherein said step of determining (2 includes one of the substeps (B1) through (B3) following;

(B1) when said first and second information include, respectively, first and second geographical approximations of said mobile station M₁, combining said first and second geographical approximations so that said resulting location estimate is dependent on each of said first and second location geographical approximations;

(B2) changing one or more rating values for rating at least one of said first and second information, wherein said rating values are indicative of expected performances of said first and second location information in locating the mobile station M₁; and

(B3) selecting one of said first and second information for receiving preference in determining said resulting location estimate.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said mobile station M₁ is part of a mobile base station.

55. The method of claim 18, further including a step of outputting by the computational equipment, said resulting location estimate to a predetermined destination via a communications network, and an accuracy of the resulting location estimate.

75. The method of claim 18, wherein:

(a) said first location estimation determiner performs said signal processing technique for obtaining said first information for M₁; and

(b) said first information is selected over said second information received from said second mobile station location estimation determiner unless there is information indicating a likelihood of said first information providing reduced performance in locating said mobile station M₁.

76. The method of claim 18, wherein:

at least one of said first and second location estimation determiners performs a locus computing technique, wherein the locus computing technique utilizes measurements (S) of wireless signals for determining at least one locus of locations for the mobile station M₁, the locus of locations being relative to at least one of the communication stations;

wherein at least one of said measurements S is obtained using a signal time delay between the mobile station M₁, and the at least one communication station;

wherein there is two way wireless communication between mobile station M₁ and the at least one communication station.

77. The method of claim 18, further including the computational equipment performing a step of providing display information for:

(a) displaying a representation of said resulting location estimate, wherein said display information is for displaying with a map of an area having the resulting location estimate, and (b) concurrently displaying information indicative of an accuracy of the resulting location estimate.

151. The method of claim 18, wherein for locating the mobile station M₁ at a location L, the second mobile station location estimation determiner outputs the second information from computational machinery performing a coverage area analysis technique for locating the mobile station M₁ when supplied with data obtained from wireless signal measurements communicated between the mobile station M₁ and one or more of said plurality of the communication stations, and the second information is given a preference for use in determining the resulting location estimate when an instance of the first information for L is not available or is unsatisfactory.

152. The method of claim 18, wherein the second mobile station location estimation determiner activates or receives an output from a technique for locating the mobile station M₁, when supplied with second data obtained from wireless signal measurements communicated between the mobile station M₁, and one or more of said plurality of communication stations, said second technique determines a correspondence between (1) and (2) following:

(1) at least one first value derived from said second data, and (2) wireless survey data (D) wherein D is obtained using second values, wherein each second value is derived from mobile station wireless signal measurements at a known geographical location.

153. The method of claim 18, wherein the second mobile station location estimation determiner activates or receives an output from a locus computing technique for locating the mobile station M₁, when supplied with second data obtained from wireless signal measurements communicated between the mobile station M₁, and two or more of said plurality of communication stations, wherein the locus computing technique utilizes measurements (S) of wireless signals from the second data for determining at least one locus of locations for the mobile station M₁,

wherein at least one of said measurements S is obtained using a signal time delay between the mobile station M₁, and at least one of the two or more communication stations;

wherein there is two way wireless communication between mobile station M₁ and at least one of the communication stations.

154. The method of claim 18, wherein the second mobile station location estimation determiner activates or receives an output from a direction of arrival technique for locating the mobile station M₁, when supplied with second data obtained from wireless signal measurements communicated between the mobile station M₁ and one of said communication stations (CS), wherein the direction of arrival technique determines a location estimate of the mobile station M₁ using, from the second data, a direction from which wireless signals arrive at CS from the mobile station M₁.

20. A method for locating a terrestrial wireless mobile station capable of wireless two way communication with a plurality of fixed location terrestrial stations, comprising performing the following steps by computational machinery:

receiving, from computational machinery performing a plurality of mobile station location techniques, a plurality of instances of location information having one or more location estimates of the mobile station, wherein said location techniques generate the instances of location information when said location techniques are supplied with corresponding input information upon which their location information is dependent, and wherein the corresponding input information is at least partially derived from measurements of wireless signals transmitted from or received at the mobile station;

wherein said step of receiving includes steps (a) and (b) following;

(a) first receiving, from a first of said location techniques, first location information for the mobile station, wherein said corresponding input information for said first location technique includes timing data from wireless signals transmitted from one or more global positioning satellites, and received by the mobile station, wherein said first location technique also uses information dependent upon a location of a terrestrial receiver, TS, that receives a wireless transmission from the mobile station, and resulting in the first location information being dependent on the location of TS and the timing data, wherein TS is remote from the mobile station;

(b) second receiving, from a second of said location techniques, second location information for the mobile station, wherein said corresponding input information for said second location technique includes data that is a function of a signal time delay of wireless signals transmitted between the wireless mobile station and one of said plurality of fixed location terrestrial stations during a plurality of transmissions between the mobile station and the one terrestrial station;

wherein for obtaining the corresponding input information for the second location technique, there is at least one transmission from the mobile station to the one terrestrial station, and at least one transmission from the one terrestrial station to the mobiles station, and wherein said second location information is determined by said second location technique at a site whose location is spaced apart from the mobile station;

determining, a plurality of resulting location estimates for the mobile station, wherein said step of determining includes steps (c) and (d) following;

(c) obtaining at least one of said resulting location estimates using an instance (I₁) of said first location information for locating the mobile station; and

(d) obtaining at least one of said resulting location estimates using an instance (I₂) of said second location information for locating the mobile station.

21. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein said step of determining includes:

establishing a priority between a location estimate of said instance I₁ of the first location information, and a location estimate of said instance I₂ of the second location information.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21, wherein said step of establishing a priority includes obtaining a confidence value for one or more of:

(a) a first location estimate for said instance I₁ of the first location information; and

(b) a second location estimate for said instance I₂ of the second location information;

wherein each said confidence value is indicative of a likelihood of the mobile station having a location represented by a corresponding one of the first and second location estimates for the confidence value.

23. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein said step of determining includes preferring a location estimate of said instance I₁ of the first location information over a location estimate of said instance I₂ of the second location information when both are available for substantially a same location of the mobile station.

24. The method as claimed in claim 20, wherein said step of determining includes, for at least one of said resulting location estimates, determining one or more of:

(a) a velocity of the mobile station, (b) an acceleration of the mobile station, and (c) one or more geographical features determined using said at least one resulting location estimate.

56. The method of claim 20, further including the steps of:

requesting, by computational machinery, one or more of the resulting location estimates via signals transmitted by a commercial mobile radio service provider, wherein the commercial radio service provider wirelessly communicates with the mobile station; and

transmitting, via a communication network, at least one location of the mobile station to a predetermined destination.

78. The method of claim 20, wherein said determining step includes determining at least one of said resulting location estimates as a function of a position of a known stationary geographical feature that is sufficiently close to a geographic location represented by one of the instances I₁ or I₂ so that the location of the geographical feature is used in providing said at least one resulting location estimate.

79. The method of claim 20, wherein TS is included in one of:

a mobile base station, and a fixed location base station.

108. The method of claim 20, including a further step of receiving by computational machinery, the instances I₁ and I₂ in a common predetermined data structural format.

109. The method of claim 20, further including performing at least some of the following steps performed by computational machinery:

(i) activating at least one common predetermined mobile station location related component of a computational machine for determining each of said resulting location estimates, wherein the location related component is not activated for locating the mobile station until after at least one of said instances I₁ and I₂ is obtained;

(ii) said step of determining includes, for the instances I₁ and I₂, accessing respective portions provided in predetermined common data structural format that specifies a data format for location related attributes of said instances I₁ and I₂, wherein at least some of the location related attributes do not identify a geographical location of the mobile station; and

(iii) said step of determining includes, for at least one of said resulting location estimates, obtaining an attribute indicative of one or more of;

an error in a geographical extent for locating the mobile station, an accuracy in a geographical extent for locating the mobile station, and a likelihood of the mobile station being located in the at least one resulting estimate.

110. The method of claim 20, wherein said step of receiving includes receiving descriptor information providing information related to the processing performed for determining one or more of said instances I₁ and I₂.

120. The method of claim 109, further including at least said step (ii).

150. The method of claim 20 further including one or more of (a) and (b) following performed by the computational machinery:

(a) a step of modifying a confidence for the at least said resulting location estimate obtained from using the instance I₂, wherein a modified confidence is obtained that depends upon a consistency with a previous location estimate along a known route; and

(b) a step of comparing data of said at least one resulting location estimate obtained from using the instance I₂,with a second data of a different location estimate; and

a step of modifying a confidence of said resulting location estimate obtained from using the instance I₂, depending upon a consistency between the data of said resulting location estimate obtained from using the instance I₂, and the second data.

25. A method for providing a location estimate of a wireless mobile station dependent upon measurements of wireless signals,

wherein for receiving a first collection of measurements related to signal time delay of wireless signals, the wireless signals received by said mobile station and transmitted from one or more satellites, there is a predetermined corresponding location technique for determining first location information of the mobile station;

wherein when provided with the first collection, the predetermined corresponding location technique uses the first collection to determine a location for the mobile station;

wherein for receiving a second collection of measurements obtained from wireless signals transmitted between said mobile station and one or more fixed location terrestrial stations, at least when said first collection is not available, there is a predetermined corresponding location technique for determining second location information of the mobile station;

wherein said second collection includes signal time delay data of wireless signals transmitted between the mobile station and the fixed location terrestrial stations, there being at least one wireless transmission from the mobile station to the one or more fixed location terrestrial stations in order to provide the predetermined corresponding location technique for receiving the second collection with the second collection;

wherein said second collection of measurements is used by the corresponding location technique for receiving the second collection to determine a location estimate of the mobile station by determining a locus of locations from at least one of the fixed location terrestrial stations, wherein for locations identified by said locus of locations, a signal time delay dependent condition is satisfied using the signal time delay data, comprising performing the following steps by computational equipment;

first obtaining the first location information of said mobile station, the first location information determined by computational machinery when said corresponding location technique for using the first collection is supplied with an instance of said first collection;

second obtaining the second location information of said mobile station, the second location information determined by computational machinery when said corresponding location technique for receiving the second collection is supplied with an instance of said second collection; and

outputting, to a source for accessing location data for said mobile station, resulting location information that is dependent upon;

at least one of said first and second location information, and also dependent upon data for indicating a likelihood of the mobile station being in a geographical extent represented by of at least one of said first location information and said second location information.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25, wherein the data for indicating a likelihood includes first data indicative of a likelihood of the mobile station being in a geographical extent represented by the said first location information, and includes second data indicative of a likelihood of the mobile station being in a geographical extent represented by the second location information.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein said step of outputting includes at least one of:

(a) preferring one of said first and second location information over the other when both are available for locating the mobile station; and

(b) combining said first and second location information when both are available for locating the mobile station.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein said signal time delay dependent condition is dependent upon one of a time of arrival and a time difference of arrival related to wireless signals transmitted between the mobile station and the at least one of the fixed location terrestrial stations.

29. The method of claim 25, further includes a step of transmitting one of said first and second collections on at least a portion of the Internet.

57. The method of claim 25, wherein the resulting location is dependent upon at least the first location information.

80. The method of claim 25, wherein for each of the location techniques, activation information is provided to the location technique via a predetermined common data distribution component.

81. The method of claim 25, further including a step of determining, by computational equipment, said resulting location information according to output criteria corresponding to the source, the output criteria indicative of one of:

a preciseness of the resulting location information, or a frequency by which additional instances of the resulting location information is determined.

82. The method of claim 25, wherein the outputting step includes a step of providing said resulting location information for one of:

performing a routing function for routing the mobile station, responding to a user of said mobile station request for location, locating a child, locating a stolen vehicle, and keeping entities apart.

83. The method of claim 25, wherein said resulting location information includes one or more of:

(a) a value indicative of a likelihood of the mobile station being at a location estimate represented by the resulting location information;

(b) data identifying one or more known geographical extents, wherein each of the geographical extents is determined using an associated location estimate (L) of the mobile station determined using at least one of the first and second location information, wherein one of the geographical extents provides additional location information not provided by their associated location estimate L; and

(c) at least one of;

a speed of the mobile station, a direction of the mobile station, a change in speed of the mobile station, and a change in direction of the mobile station.

84. The method of claim 25, wherein said first location information is determined using wireless signals, S, between the mobile station and a terrestrial wireless transceiver to improve at least one performance characteristic of said corresponding location technique (T) for receiving the instance of the first collection over a performance of said location technique T without use of the wireless signals S.

85. The method of claim 25, further including performing by computational equipment the steps of:

providing mapping data of an area having a location estimate (L) of said mobile station wherein L is included in said resulting location information, and

providing for concurrent display, with said mapping data, information indicating an accuracy of the location estimate L.

116. The method of claim 27, wherein said step of outputting includes preferring one of said first and second location information over the other;

wherein when both of the first and second location information are available, the step of preferring includes one of;

(i) filtering or discarding a non-preferred one of the first and second location information, and (ii) reducing an importance of the non-preferred one of the first and second location information.

117. The method of claim 27, wherein said step of outputting includes combining said first and second location information when both are available for locating the mobile station at substantially a same time.

30. A method for locating a mobile station M wherein said method uses wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile station M and a plurality of fixed location communication stations, wherein each of said communication stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said mobile station M;

wherein first and second mobile station location evaluators are available, wherein each of said location evaluators determine location related information for locating said mobile station M as a result of said location evaluator being supplied with data having values obtained from wireless signal measurements, wherein (A) and (B) following hold;

(A) said first location evaluator performs one or more of the following techniques (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv) as a result of said techniques being supplied with a corresponding instance of said data;

(i) a first technique for determining a first resulting data related to a location of the mobile station M from a first corresponding instance of said data, the first corresponding instance of said data dependent upon a two way communication between the mobile station M and at least one of the communication stations CS,

wherein one of;

a wireless signal angle of arrival, and a time difference of arrival between the mobile station M and the at least one of the communication stations CS from the first corresponding instance of said data is used for determining said first resulting data;

(ii) a second technique for determining a second resulting data related to a location of the mobile station M, using timing values from a second corresponding instance of said data obtained from signals received at the mobile station M from a plurality of satellites wherein the second technique uses wireless signals between the mobile station M and at least one of the communication stations to improve a performance for obtaining the second resulting data;

(iii) a third technique for determining a third resulting data related to a location of the mobile station M by recognizing signal characteristics from a third corresponding instance of said data, wherein said third technique includes the steps of (a) and (b) following;

(a) accessing information obtained from an association that associates, for each geographical location (L) of a plurality of geographical locations, (a1) and (a2) following;

(a1) a representation of the geographical location L, and

(a2) for the geographical location L, corresponding signal information indicative of at least one characteristic of a signal S previously transmitted between some mobile station, M_L, and one or more of the communication stations, when the some mobile station M_L transmitted S from approximately the geographical location L;

wherein for at least most of said geographical locations L, M_L is different from the mobile station M;

(b) determining one or more likely location estimates for the mobile station M from a similarity between (b1) and (b2) following;

(b1) the third corresponding instance of said data, the third corresponding instance including values for one or more signal characteristics determined from wireless signals communicated between the mobile station M and the communication stations, wherein said signal characteristics include at least a first measurement of a non-line of sight signal transmission between the mobile station M and one of the communication stations, and

(b2) a portion of the accessed information that is indicative of the signal information of (a2); and

(iv) a fourth technique for determining a fourth resulting data related to a location of the mobile station M, wherein said fourth technique statistically determines an expected location of the mobile station M by correlating (c) and (d) following;

(c) wireless signal related values obtained from a fourth corresponding instance of said data, and

(d) data, D, wherein for each location L_D of a plurality of locations, said data D includes one or more wireless signal measurements related to a wireless communication between some mobile station different from the mobile station M when the different mobile station is substantially at L_D,

wherein said correlation is used for determining a likely geographical indication, GR, for a location for the mobile station M; and

(B) for said one or more of said techniques performed by said first location evaluator, said second location evaluator performs a different combination of one or more of said first, second, third and fourth techniques when supplied with corresponding instances of said data for the one or more techniques of said different combination of techniques;

comprising the following steps performed by computational equipment;

first obtaining, from said first location evaluator, first location related information, for at least one location of M, as a result of one or more of the first, second, third and fourth corresponding instances of data being used by their respective one or more of the techniques performed by computational machinery configured to perform the first location evaluator;

second obtaining, from said second location evaluator, second location related information, for at least one location of M, as a result of one or more of the first, second, third and fourth corresponding instances being used by their respective said one or more of the techniques performed by computational machinery configured to perform second location evaluator;

wherein for locating the mobile station M, at least one of said first and second location evaluators determines a corresponding one of said first and second location related information using said second resulting data; and

third obtaining a resulting location estimate of the mobile station M dependent upon at least one of;

(a) said first location related information, and (b) said second location related information.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein one or more of:

(a) said third technique includes changing the third resulting data with a change to the association; and

(b) said fourth technique includes performing one of;

a principle decomposition analysis, a least squares analysis, and a partial least squares analysis;

wherein at least one of the third and fourth techniques is activated for obtaining the resulting location estimate.

51. The method of claim 30, further including the steps of:

performing the first obtaining step at a first time, and performing the second obtaining step at second time, wherein the first and second location related information are for different locations of the mobile station M.

86. The method of claim 30, wherein at least a portion of the first location related information is used in determining said resulting location estimate without using the second location related information when the second location related information is unavailable or unsatisfactory to use.

32. A method for locating a mobile station dependent upon wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile station and at least one of a plurality of terrestrial transceivers capable of wirelessly detecting said mobile station, comprising the following steps performed by computational machinery:

providing access to at least two of the location techniques (a) through (c) following;

(a) a first location technique for triangulating or trilaterating a location of the mobile station, wherein for each transceiver T of three or more of the terrestrial transceivers, one of;

a signal time of arrival, and a signal time difference of arrival between the mobile station and the transceiver T is determined using a first input obtained from the wireless signal measurements,

wherein for at least one of the three or more transceivers T₀, the signals for obtaining the wireless signal measurements are received at the transceiver T₀ during a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station and the transceiver T₀, with at least one of the transmissions being from the mobile station to the transceiver T₀, and at least one of the transmissions being from the transceiver T₀ to the mobile station;

(b) a second location technique using a second input obtained from one or more transmissions between the mobile station and the transceivers, said second input further including time delay measurements of signals received at the mobile station from one or more satellites;

(c) a third location technique that determines a location of the mobile station by using a plurality of pairs of (i) and (ii) following;

(i) characteristics of wireless signals communicated between some mobile station and one or more of the transceivers, and

(ii) a location of said some mobile station during the communication,

wherein when said third technique is supplied with a third input of characteristics of wireless signals communicated between said mobile station and one or more of the transceivers, data indicative of a location of the mobile station is obtained from a similarity between the third input and the characteristics of wireless signals of (c)(i);

determining whether at least said second location technique has its corresponding input available for determining a first location estimate of said mobile station;

determining a second location estimate of said mobile station by activating an accessible one of said location techniques different from said second location technique when the corresponding input for said different location technique is available;

obtaining at least one of said first and second location estimates;

obtaining resulting location information for transmitting on a communications network, wherein said resulting location information is obtained using at least one of said first location estimate and said second location estimate;

wherein when said mobile station is at a first location, an instance of at least said first location estimate is used in said obtaining step for obtaining a first corresponding instance of said resulting location information, and when said mobile station is at a second location, an instance of at least said second location estimate is used in said obtaining step for obtaining a second corresponding instance of said resulting location information; and

wherein for at least one of the first and the second locations, said obtaining step includes one of;

(1) a step of improving upon said instance of at least said first location estimate, and (2) a step of providing information indicative of an accuracy of said first corresponding instance of said resulting location information.

33. The method as claimed in claim 32, wherein at least two of said location techniques generate location estimates of said mobile station wherein neither of said at least two location techniques depend upon the other one for their corresponding input to be available.

87. The method of claim 32, further including the computational machinery performing a step of improving upon said instance of at least said first location estimate so that said resulting location information is expected to be more accurate than said first location estimate.

88. The method of claim 32, further including the computational machinery performing a step of providing information indicative of an accuracy of said first corresponding instance.

149. The method of claim 32, further including the computational machinery performing a step of preferring information for the first location estimate over information for the second location estimate.

34. A method for locating a mobile station, M, of a plurality of mobile stations using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile station M and at least one of a plurality of communication stations, wherein each of said communication stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with each of the mobile stations, comprising performing the following steps by computational machinery:

providing access to computational equipment that is configured to perform at least first and second location estimation determiners for estimating a location of the mobile station M, wherein for said first location estimation determiner to estimate a location of the mobile station M, said first location estimation determiner is dependent upon a location representation from one or more of the location techniques of the following (a) through (e) location technique categories, and for said second location estimation determiner to estimate a location of the mobile station M, said second location estimation determiner is dependent upon a location representation from one of the following (a) through (e) location technique categories, wherein the corresponding input for at least one of the first and second location estimation determiners includes wireless location indicative data that is different from the wireless location indicative data included in the corresponding input of the other of the first and second location estimation determiners;

the above cited location technique categories include;

(a) trilateration and triangulation techniques for determining a location estimate of each mobile station (M_a) of at least some of the mobile stations at a site not co-located with the mobile station M_a, wherein for some e of the communication stations in communication with the mobile station M_a, one of;

a wireless signal time of arrival, and a wireless signal time difference of arrival between the mobile station M_a and the some communication stations is obtained using a first input obtained from timing measurements of wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile station M_a and the communication stations;

wherein for at least one of the some communication stations, CS, the timing measurements are obtained from signals communicated during a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station M_a and CS, with at least one of the transmissions being from the mobile station M_a to CS;

(b) a stochastic technique for determining a location estimate of each mobile station (M_b) of at least some of the mobile stations, wherein said stochastic technique uses a statistical correlation for correlating (i) and (ii) following;

(i) a second input obtained from wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile station M_b and the communication stations, and

(ii) data, D, wherein for each location (L_B) of a plurality of locations, said data D includes one or more wireless signal measurements related to a wireless communication between some mobile station that is substantially at L_B;

wherein for at least most of said geographical locations L_B, said some mobile station is different from the mobile station M_b; and

wherein said correlation is used for determining a likely geographical range, GR, for a location for the mobile station M_b and data indicative of a probability that the mobile station M_b is within the likely geographical range GR;

(c) a learning technique for determining a location estimate of each mobile station (M_c) of more than one of the mobile stations, by learning an association, wherein said association is determined by a training process using a plurality of data pairs, each said pair including;

first information indicative of a location L_C of some mobile station (M_i), and second information from wireless signal measurements between said some mobile station M_i and one or more of the communication stations when said some mobile station M_i is at the location L_C,

wherein when said learning technique is supplied with a third input obtained from the wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile station M_c and at least one of a plurality of the communication stations, data indicative of a location for the mobile station M_c is determined;

(d) a pattern recognition location technique for estimating a location of each mobile station (M_d) of more than one of the mobile stations, wherein said pattern recognition location technique estimates a location of the mobile station M_d at a location (L_D) by recognizing a pattern of characteristics of a fourth input obtained from the wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile station M_d and the communication stations, wherein said pattern of characteristics includes signal characteristic data indicative of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station M_d and one or more of the communication stations; and

(e) a fifth location technique for determining a location estimate of each mobile station (M_e) of more than one of the mobile stations, wherein said fifth location technique uses a fifth input obtained from time delay measurements from signals received at the mobile station M_e from one or more non-terrestrial communication stations above and not supported on the earth'"'"'s surface;

determining whether said first location estimation determiner has its corresponding input available for determining a first location estimate of the mobile station M;

determining a second location estimate of said mobile station M by activating said second location estimation determiner with its corresponding input when the corresponding input for said second location estimation determiner is available, and said corresponding input to said first location estimation determiner is unavailable;

wherein for locating the mobile station M, at least one of said first and second location estimation determiners uses said fifth technique for determining a geographical location indication for M;

transmitting resulting location information on a communications network, wherein said resulting location information is obtained using at least one of said first location estimate and said second location estimate;

wherein when said mobile station M is at a location (L₁), an instance of at least said first location estimate is used for obtaining a first corresponding instance of said resulting location information, and when said mobile station M is at a location (L₂), an instance of at least said second location estimate is used for obtaining a second corresponding instance of said resulting location information; and

wherein prior to the step of transmitting the resulting location information for the location L₁, one of the following steps is performed;

(1) a step of improving upon said instance of at least said first location estimate, and (2) a step of providing information indicative of an accuracy of said first corresponding instance of said resulting location information.

35. The method as claimed in claim 34, wherein

said first, second, third, and fourth inputs include data related to one or more of:

a wireless signal time delay, and a wireless signal strength; and

said fifth input includes data related to GPS satellite signals.

89. The method of claim 34, wherein said step of improving upon said instance of at least said first location estimate is performed so that said first corresponding instance of said resulting location information is more accurate than said first location instance.

90. The method of claim 34, wherein said step of providing information indicative of an accuracy of said first corresponding instance of said resulting location information is performed.

91. The method of claim 34, wherein said first location estimation determiner is dependent upon a result from at least two of said location technique categories, wherein one of said at least two location categories is one of said location technique categories (a) and (e).

36. A method for locating at least one mobile station, M, of a plurality of mobile stations, using wireless signal data obtained from transmissions between said mobile station M and at least one of a plurality of communication stations, each of the communication stations capable of at least one of:

wirelessly detecting said mobile station M, and wirelessly being detected by said mobile station M, wherein at least some of said communication stations are able to provide voice communication with some of the mobile stations, including the mobile station M, comprising performing the following steps by computational machinery;

receiving, for each mobile station (M_i) of;

the mobile station M, and one or more additional ones of the mobile stations, wireless signal data obtained from transmissions between;

(i) said communication stations, and (ii) said mobile station M_i at an unknown location, wherein said wireless signal data includes at least two of (A1) through (A3) following;

(A1) data obtained using signal timing measurements of wireless signal transmissions between said mobile station M_i and a set S₁ of one or more of said at least some communication stations at terrestrial locations, wherein for at least one of the communication stations, CS, of the set S₁, there is a corresponding portion of the signal timing measurements that are obtained as a result of a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station M_i and CS, with at least one of the transmissions being from the mobile station M_i to CS;

(A2) data obtained using time delay measurements from wireless signal transmissions between one or more non-terrestrial communication stations above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, and said mobile station M_i;

(A3) signal characteristic data, D, of wireless signal transmissions between said mobile station M_i and a set S₃ of one or more of said communication stations, wherein (i) there is a data store including corresponding signal characteristic data for each of a plurality of terrestrial locations in a wireless coverage area provided by S₃, (ii) said signal characteristic data D includes information for determining one of a correspondence and a similarity with the corresponding signal characteristic data in the data store for one or more locations L of the plurality of locations, and (iii) for at least one of the locations L, said corresponding signal characteristic data for L is obtained from signal transmissions from a mobile station different from M;

generating a location estimate for the unknown location of said mobile station M, said location estimate dependent upon a geographical extent output from a corresponding computational machinery implemented instance of each of at least the location technique (B2) following, and one other of the following location techniques (B1) and (B3);

(B1) a first technique that determines location information indicative of a range between at least one of the communication stations and a mobile station being located;

wherein for locating the mobile station M, said corresponding instance of said first technique uses the data obtained in (A1) for M being M_i, and an instance of the set S including one of the terrestrial communication stations (CS_M) for determining a range between the mobile station M and the communication station CS_M using signal timing measurements obtained as a result of a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station M and CS_M;

(B2) a second technique that determines location information indicative of a range between a non-terrestrial communication station above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, and a mobile station being located;

wherein for locating the mobile station M, said corresponding instance of said second technique uses;

(i) the data obtained in (A2) for M being M_i, and (ii) one of the one or more non-terrestrial communication stations (S) to determine a range between the mobile station M and the non-terrestrial communication station S; and

(B3) a third technique that determines location information indicative of a wireless signal similarity or correspondence for transmissions between the communication stations and a mobile station being located;

wherein for locating the mobile station M, said corresponding instance of said third technique uses;

(i) the signal characteristics D from (A3) for M being M_i, and (ii) the data store of (A3).

37. The method as claimed in claim 36, wherein said step of generating includes performing a stochastic technique for generating said location estimate of said mobile station M, wherein said stochastic technique uses a statistical correlation for correlating (1) and (2) following:

(1) information obtained from at least one of signal strength and signal time delay measurements of wireless signals between the mobile station M and the communication stations, and

(2) data, U, wherein for each location (LOC) of a plurality of locations, said data U includes one or more wireless signal measurements related to a wireless communication between some mobile station different from the mobile station M when the different mobile station is substantially at LOC, and;

wherein said correlation is used for determining;

(i) a likely geographical indication, GR, for a location for the mobile station M, and (ii) data indicative of a probability that the mobile station M is within the likely geographical indication GR.

38. The method as claimed in claim 36, wherein said step of generating includes providing at least one instance of said signal characteristic data D of (A3) for M being M_i, to a pattern recognizer included in said third technique instance, said pattern recognizer being trainable when repeatedly provided with previously obtained wireless signal data indicative of a plurality of known mobile station locations.

92. The method of claim 36, further including, performing by computational machinery, a second step of generating a second location estimate for an unknown location of one of the additional mobile stations, wherein said second location estimate is dependent upon a different collection of one or more instances, of said first, second and third techniques than used to generate the location estimate for the mobile station M.

93. The method of claim 36, further including, performing by computational machinery, a step of outputting output location information for display, wherein a location accuracy of said location estimate is included in said output location information, said location accuracy identified with one or more geographical areas on a map displayed at a destination for the output location information.

94. The method of claim 36, wherein said step of generating includes giving preference to the geographical extent from said instance of one of said first, second and third techniques over the geographical extent from said instance of a different one of said first, second and third techniques.

95. The method of claim 36, wherein said step of generating includes preferring a common area of said geographical extents upon which the location estimate is dependent.

119. The method of claim 36, wherein for locating said mobile station M, said step of generating is dependent upon an output from the corresponding instance of the first technique (B1), and the range between the mobile station M and the communication station CS_M is determined at a site different from the unknown location of the mobile station M.

39. A method for locating a wireless mobile station, comprising:

performing by computational machinery the following steps (A1) through (A3) for locating the mobile station;

(A1) obtaining location related information for locating the mobile station, said location related information obtained from using at least one of (a) and (b) following;

(a) wireless timing signals received by the mobile station from one or more satellites, wherein said timing signals from each of the one or more satellites identify a location of the mobile station; and

(b) time delays of wireless signals transmitted between the mobile station and one or more transceivers of a plurality of terrestrial transceivers cooperatively linked together for use in locating the mobile station, wherein said time delays identify a locus of locations of the mobile station from at least one of the transceivers, and wherein for one of the one or more transceivers, a corresponding one of the time delays is obtained from signals transmitted during a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station and the at least one transceiver, with at least one of the transmissions being from the mobile station to the at least one transceiver;

wherein an instance of the location related information obtained from each of (a) and (b) is used at some time for determining a respective location of the mobile station;

(A2) determining data for a graphical presentation of a likely location of the mobile station from at least one of the instances of the location related information by determining a likely roadway upon which the mobile station is located; and

(A3) providing said data for a graphical presentation for displaying on a display device;

wherein for at least one performance (P) of the steps (A1) through (A3), the location related information from the wireless timing signals of(a) fee is preferred for determining the corresponding graphical presentation for P over location related information from time delays of timing signals of (b), unless there is a reduced or no effectiveness for locating the mobile station by wireless timing signals according to (a).

144. The method of claim 39, wherein for at least one location (L) of the mobile station, a corresponding location estimate is received, wherein the corresponding location estimate is dependent upon an instance of the wireless timing signals of (a), and is dependent upon an instance of time delays of wireless signals of (b).

145. The method of claim 39, wherein the data for the graphical presentation includes information for displaying an indication related to an accuracy of one or more locations of the mobile station.

146. The method of claim 39, wherein the step of obtaining includes receiving from a location estimation determiner an instance (I₁) of the location related information, wherein the location estimation determiner uses the wireless timing signals for determining a spatial relationship between the mobile station and each of the satellites.

147. The method of claim 146, wherein the instance I₁ is determined using additional data for improving on location information of the wireless timing signals of (a), wherein said additional data is received by the mobile station in a wireless communication between:

the mobile station, and one of terrestrial transceivers.

148. The method of claim 146, wherein the step of obtaining includes receiving from a location estimation determiner an instance (I₂) of the location related information, wherein the instance I₂ is obtained from the time delays of the wireless signals of (b), wherein a time difference of arrival of the wireless signals between the mobile station and some of the transceivers is determined.

96. A method for locating mobile stations, comprising performing the following steps performed by computational machinery:

providing access to each of a plurality of mobile station location determining computational machine resources for determining corresponding instances of location information for locating mobile stations using corresponding data obtained from measurements of wireless signals transmitted between;

(i) the mobile stations, and

(ii) one or more of;

(1) one or more of a plurality of communication stations capable of at least wirelessly detecting the mobile stations, and (2) one or more non-terrestrial wireless signal transmitting stations above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface;

for each mobile station M of some of said mobile stations, perform steps (A) through (E) following;

(A) first providing data to a first of said resources for obtaining a first instance of said corresponding location information for the mobile station M at a location L₁, wherein in determining said first instance, said first resource uses a result from a first location technique, performed by computational machinery, the first location technique included in at least one of the location determining categories (b1) through (b5) following said step of second providing below;

(B) second providing data to a second of said resources for obtaining a second instance of said corresponding location information for the mobile station M at a location L₂, wherein said second resource uses a result from a second location technique, performed by computational machinery, the second location technique included in at least one of the location determining categories (b1) through (b5) following;

wherein for locating an instance (I) of at least some location of the mobile station M by the first resource, the first location technique is activated, and a location estimate from the second location technique is not used for determining the location estimate, and for locating an instance (I_k) of at least some location of the mobile station M by the second resource, the second location technique is activated, and a location estimate from the first location technique is not used for determining a resulting location estimate from the second location technique;

the location determining categories being (b1) through (b5) following;

(b1) a first category of one or more location determining techniques, wherein each said technique (T₁) of said first category determines a geographical extent G_a for a location of a mobile station (M_a) by identifying a pattern of signal characteristics for wireless signals communicated between M_a and the communication stations as likely to have been a result of M_a being in G_a, wherein said T₁ performs the identification by determining a similarity between (b1-1) and (b1-2) following;

(b1-1) one or more of said signal characteristics of communication with M_a, and

(b1-2) data obtained from a survey of wireless signal characteristics in an area including said geographical extent G_a;

(b2) a second category of one or more location determining techniques, wherein each said technique of said second category determines a geographical extent G_b for a location of a mobile station (M_b) as a result of (I) and (II) following;

(I) generating an association for associating;

(i) each location L of a plurality of geographical locations with (ii) data indicative of corresponding measurements of wireless signals transmitted between some one of said mobile stations, different from M_b, and the communication stations, wherein said some mobile station is approximately at the location L, and

(II) using said association together with characteristics of signals communicated between M_b and the communication stations for determining the geographical extent G_b for the location of M_b;

(b3) a third category of one or more offset determining techniques, wherein each said offset determining technique determines a geographical extent G_c for a location of a mobile station (M_c);

wherein said offset determining technique utilizes one or more timing measurements of wireless signals between the mobile station M_c and a plurality of the communication stations for determining the geographical extent G_c;

wherein said timing measurements are a function of a signal time delay between the mobile station M_c and at least one communication station CS of the plurality of communication stations, and said timing measurements are for determining G_c as a function of at least;

a location of CS, and a predetermined formula representative of a geometric curve for determining a horizontal position of M_c;

wherein there is a corresponding portion of the signal timing measurements that are obtained during a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station M_c and CS, with at least one of the transmissions being from the mobile station M_c to CS;

wherein said communication station CS is supported on the Earth; and

wherein each of said offset determining techniques determines a geographical extent for a location of each of a plurality of different mobile stations;

(b4) a fourth category of one or more direction of arrival location determining techniques wherein each said direction of arrival technique determines a geographical extent for a location of a mobile station (M_d) by determining an angular orientation about a communication station CS_d of a direction of the mobile station M_d using a measurement of a wireless signal angle of arrival of wireless signals transmitted between the mobile station M_d and the communication station CS_d;

(b5) a fifth category of one or more wireless location techniques wherein each said technique (T₅) of said fifth category determines a geographical extent for a location of a mobile station (M_e) using wireless signals received at the mobile station M_e from the non-terrestrial transmitting stations, wherein said wireless signals provide time values, and said technique T₅ determines at least one elapsed time for signal transmissions to M_e for the wireless signals transmitted by one or more of the non-terrestrial transmitting stations;

(C) first obtaining first structured location data using said first instance;

(D) second obtaining second structured location data using said second instance, wherein said second location technique is included in at least said fifth category;

wherein each of said first and second structured location data includes a common data representation for a plurality of location attributes, said representation including (d1) through (d2) following;

(d1) a collection of one or more attributes, A₁, for representing a geographical extent within which a mobile station being located is expected to be;

(d2) a collection of one or more attributes related to at least one of;

an error in data for A₁, and a likelihood of the mobile station being located being in the geographical extent represented by data for A₁; and

(E) outputting, to a predetermined destination on a communications network, resulting location information of a location L_M of the mobile station M, said resulting location information being dependent upon data for said attributes (d1) and (d2) obtained from at least one of said first and second structured location data.

97. The method of claim 96, wherein said plurality of location attributes further includes an attribute for a timestamp.

98. The method of claim 96, wherein said plurality of location attributes further includes an attribute for descriptor information indicative of a reason that another one of said plurality of location attributes has its corresponding value.

99. The method of claim 96, wherein said plurality of location attributes includes the attribute related to an error in data for A₁.

100. The method of claim 96, wherein said plurality of location attributes includes the attribute related to a likelihood of the mobile station being located being in the geographical extent represented by A₁.

101. The method of claim 96, wherein said step of providing and at least one of said steps (A) through (F) are performed at one of:

a mobile base station, and a stationary site.

102. The method of claim 96, wherein said first location technique is performed at a site remote from the mobile station M.

103. The method of claim 96, further including performing said outputting step according to a frequency of output desired by the destination.

104. The method of claim 96, further including a step of receiving a request via the Interet, for locating the mobile station M.

105. The method of claim 96, wherein said step of first providing includes a step of requesting activation of said first resource via a communication on the Internet.

111. The method of claim 96, wherein said location L₁ and said location L₂ are substantially identical.

112. The method of claim 96, wherein said location L₁ and said location L₂ are effectively different locations of the mobile station M.

113. The method of claim 96, wherein said location L_M is effectively one of said location L₁, and said location L₂.

114. The method of claim 113, wherein said location L_M is effectively identical to each of said location L₁ and said location L₂.

115. The method of claim 96, wherein said location L_M is a location of the mobile station M for a time subsequent to a time for the mobile station M being at one or more of said location L₁ and said location L₂.

121. A method for locating a plurality of wireless mobile stations using wireless signals, wherein each of a plurality of terrestrial stations is available for at least wirelessly detecting wireless transmissions from the mobile stations;

wherein there are first and second mobile station location techniques, wherein each of said location techniques is capable of providing a location estimate for each mobile station of at least some of said mobile stations when the location technique is supplied with corresponding data obtained from wireless signal measurements indicative of the mobile station'"'"'s location;

wherein (a) and (b) following;

(a) the first location technique determines first location related information for each mobile station (M_a) of some of the plurality of mobile stations, using values that are indicative of a signal time delay between the mobile station M_a and one or more of the terrestrial stations, wherein two way signal communication between M_a and at least one of the one or more of the terrestrial stations is established for obtaining the signal time delay,

wherein the first location technique determines the first location related information by determining a geographical extent, or location, common to a plurality of loci of locations, each locus determined using locations satisfying one or more predetermined location equations, each of the equations dependent upon the values for offsetting a corresponding one of the loci from at least one of the terrestrial stations, and

(b) the second location technique determines second location related information, for each mobile station (M_b) of some of the plurality of mobile stations, using a geographical extent obtained from a conversion of data indicative of transmission times for wireless signals;

transmitted from a plurality of non-terrestrial transmitting stations above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, and received by M_b, or another of the plurality of mobile stations,

comprising the following steps performed by computational machinery;

first obtaining at a node of a network, an instance (I₁) of the first location related information as an output by an implementation of the first location technique by computational machinery, the instance I₁ including a first estimate of a location for a first of the mobile stations at a time (T₁) and at an actual location (L₁), wherein the first mobile station is an instance of M_a;

wherein the first estimate is not dependent upon a geographical extent obtained from any conversion of data indicative of transmission times for wireless signals transmitted from a plurality of non-terrestrial transmitting stations above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface;

second obtaining at the node, an instance (I₂) of the second location related information as an output by an implementation of the second location technique by computational machinery, the instance I₂ including a second estimate of a location for a second of the mobile stations at a time (T₂) and at an actual location (L₂), wherein the second mobile station is an instance of M_b;

wherein the implementation of the second location technique also uses data indicative of a range of the second mobile station relative to one of the terrestrial stations for determining the second estimate;

performing after receipt by the node of the instance I₁ and after receipt by the node of the instance I₂, at least one corresponding computation, by computational machinery, that is dependent on a geographical location of a corresponding one of the first and second mobile stations;

first transmitting, to a first predetermined destination of the network, first resulting information for locating the first mobile station, wherein the first resulting information is obtained using the instance I₁ of said first location related information; and

second transmitting, to a second predetermined destination of the network, second resulting information for locating the second mobile station, wherein the second resulting information is obtained using the instance I₂ of said second location related information.

122. The method of claim 121, wherein for the second mobile station, the implementation of the second location technique is improved by the data indicative of a range of the second mobile station from the one terrestrial station, and the one terrestrial station is stationary.

123. The method of claim 121, wherein the first and second obtaining steps receive each of the instances I₁ and I₂ in a common predetermined location related data format, wherein for a mobile station (M) being located, the format includes the following fields:

(a) a geographical location estimate of M;

(b) a timestamp; and

(c) a measurement indicative of the likelihood of M being in the geographical location estimate.

124. The method of claim 123, wherein the common predetermined location related data format includes a descriptor from a source of the geographical location estimate, wherein the descriptor includes information descriptive of a reason or process performed at the source.

125. The method of claim 121, wherein for the implementation of the first technique, at least one of the loci is determined at a location different from that of the first mobile station, and

wherein for the implementation of the second technique, the range of the second mobile station is determined using a wireless signal time difference of arrival from the plurality of non-terrestrial transmitting stations.

126. The method of claim 121, wherein said first and second mobile stations are different.

127. The method of claim 126, further including a step of obtaining another location estimate of one of the first and second mobile stations, and further including a step of determining, by computational machinery, a corresponding one of the first resulting information and the second resulting information using a preference for one of (i) and (ii) following:

(i) a corresponding one of the first estimate and the second estimate, and (ii) the another location estimate for the corresponding one of the first and second mobile stations.

128. The method of claim 121, wherein said locations L₁ and L₂ are different, and the first and second mobile stations are a same one of the mobile stations.

129. The method of claim 121, wherein said first and second mobile stations are the same.

130. The method of claim 129, wherein each of the first and second estimates is substantially unaffected by the other.

131. The method of claim 121, wherein said times T₁ and T₂ are different.

132. The method of claim 121, further including a step of requesting at least one of the instances I₁ and I₂ via a transmission on the network.

133. The method of claim 121, wherein the first and second transmitting steps are from the node.

134. The method of claim 121, wherein the performing step includes determining the first or second predetermined destination as a destination (DST) on the network, the destination DST being dependent on a geographical location of a corresponding one of the first and second mobile stations.

135. The method of claim 121, further including a step of:

third receiving at the node, additional location related information for locating an additional one of the mobile stations, the additional location related information not dependent upon a signal time delay.

136. The method of claim 121, wherein at least one of said first and second resulting information includes a timestamp indicative of when said at least one resulting location information is applicable to a corresponding one of the locations L₁ and L₂, and a confidence value indicative of a probability that the corresponding one of the locations L₁ and L₂ is represented by the at least one resulting location information.

137. The method of claim 121 further including a step of providing for at least one of said first and second resulting information, a presentation for presenting on a visual display, wherein said presentation includes information related to a corresponding mobile station location accuracy or reliability of one of said first and second mobile stations, the step of providing performed by computational machinery.

138. The method of claim 121 further including the steps of:

determining, by computational machinery, a location estimate of one of the first and second mobile stations, said location estimate obtained as a function of a position of a known geographical feature different from the terrestrial stations; and

providing the location estimate as part of a corresponding one of the first and second resulting information for the one mobile station.

139. The method of claim 121 further including for the second resulting information, presentation information, wherein said presentation information is determined according to an expected accuracy of said second resulting information.

140. The method of claim 121, further including the steps of:

obtaining an additional location estimate of the first mobile station after receiving the instance I₁, wherein the additional location estimate is determined by computational machinery performing a different location technique from the first technique.

141. The method of claim 121, further including a step of obtaining, by computational machinery, a resulting location for at least one mobile station (M), different from the first and second mobile stations, wherein the resulting location is obtained from a performance of an implementation of a third location technique for determining resulting location, wherein (1) through (3) following hold:

(1) the implementation of the third technique is performed by computational machinery, and is dependent upon signal data, wherein the signal data is obtained from wireless signals communicated between the mobile station M and the plurality of terrestrial stations;

(2) the implementation of the third technique is dependent upon (2-i) and (2-ii) following;

(2-i) a representation of each of a plurality of geographical locations, and (2-ii) for each of the geographical locations, L, corresponding wireless signal information previously obtained using transmissions between some mobile station, different from M, and the plurality of terrestrial stations, when the some mobile station transmits from approximately the geographical location L and

(3) the implementation of the third technique uses the signal data for determining one or more likely location estimates for M by identifying a similarity in a pattern between (3-i) and (3-ii) following;

(3-i) one or more wireless signal characteristics of the signal data, and (3-ii) the information of (2-ii) for a collection of one or more of the plurality of geographical locations.

142. The method of claim 121, further including a step of providing a network transmission for modifying at least one installed implementation of the first location technique at a remote site.

143. The method of claim 121, further including at least some of the following steps performed by computational machinery:

(i) activating at least one common predetermined mobile station location related component for determining each of the first and second resulting information, wherein the location related component is not activated for locating a corresponding one of the first and second mobile stations until after at least one of said instances I₁ and I₂ is obtained;

(ii) providing information for activating the implementations of the first and second location techniques, wherein said information for activating is output by a predetermined common activation component that routes said information for activating to the implementations of the first and second location techniques;

(iii) for the instances I₁ and I₂, a step of accessing at least a portion of a predetermined common data structure that specifies at least most location related attributes of said instances I₁ and I₂, wherein the location related attributes do not identify a geographical location; and

(iv) for at least one of said first and second resulting information, a step of obtaining an attribute indicative of each of;

(a) an error or accuracy in a geographical extent for locating a corresponding one of the first and second mobile stations, and (b) data indicative of a likelihood of the corresponding one of the first and second mobile stations being located by a location estimate of the at least one of the first and second resulting information.

155. A method for locating each mobile station (M) of a plurality of terrestrial mobile stations, wherein there are wireless signal transmissions between each of the mobile stations M and a plurality of fixed location communication stations supported on the Earth, wherein each of the communications stations is operable for two way wireless communication with each of the mobile stations M, comprising the following steps performed by computational machinery:

(1) providing access to first and second mobile station location processing techniques implemented on computational machinery, wherein said location processing techniques are able to determine information related to one or more location estimates of the mobile station M when the location processing techniques are supplied with data obtained from wireless signal measurements indicative of a location of M;

wherein (A) and (B) following hold;

(A) said first location processing technique determines first geographical location related information for M using first data indicative of a delay time of a signal from at least one satellite to M for determining a spatial range between M and the at least one satellite;

(B) said second location processing technique determines second geographical location related information by performing one or more of the techniques (i) and (ii) following when the second location processing technique is supplied with a corresponding instance of said data for performing the one or more techniques;

the techniques are;

(i) a first technique for determining a location of the mobile station M, wherein a corresponding one of the instances includes a collection of measurements of wireless signals between the mobile station M and at least one of the communication stations, wherein the one instance is used by the first technique to determine a geographic estimation for the mobile station M relative to the at least one communication station, wherein two way communication between the mobile station M and one of the communication stations is established for obtaining the collection of measurements; and

(ii) a second technique for determining a location, L, of the mobile station M by determining a correspondence between;

 

(a) wireless signal characteristics for wireless signals communicated between the mobile station M and a multiplicity of the communication stations, and

 

(b) a geographic location estimate for the location, L, wherein the geographic location estimate is dependent upon a similarity between the wireless signal characteristics, and previously obtained wireless signal characteristics for wireless communication between each of a plurality of mobile station locations, and the communication stations;

(2) first obtaining an instance of the first geographical location related information when provided by the first location processing technique;

(3) second obtaining an instance of the second geographical location related information when provided by the second location processing technique; and

(4) determining resulting location information of the mobile station M dependent upon at least one of;

(a) a first value obtained from the instance of the first geographical location related information, and (b) a second value obtained from the instance of the second geographical location related information, wherein data indicative of a likelihood of the mobile station M being at a location represented by said resulting location information is determined.

156. The method of claim 155, wherein for determining the resulting location information of one of the mobile stations for M at a location L, a corresponding instance of the first geographical location related information for the one mobile station is given preference over a corresponding instance of the second geographical location related information for the one mobile station.

157. The method of claim 155, wherein for determining the resulting location information, one of the mobile stations for M at a location L, a corresponding instance of the second geographical location related information for the one mobile station is given preference over a corresponding instance of the first geographical location related information for the one mobile station.

158. The method of claim 155, wherein the first geographical location related information for M, and the second geographical location related information for M from the second processing technique are used in determining the resulting location information.

159. The method of claim 155, wherein the step of determining includes:

substantially discarding the instance of the first geographical location related information for M; and

subsequently determining a geographical location for M for inclusion in the resulting location information using the second value.

160. The method of claim 155, wherein the second location processing technique performs the second technique.

161. The method of claim 155, wherein the second location processing technique performs a pattern matching operation between the wireless signal characteristics, and the previously obtained wireless signal characteristics for wireless communication between each of a plurality of mobile station locations, and the communication stations.

223. The method as claimed in claim 155, wherein said mobile station M is one of:

(1) co-located with a process that activates at least one of said location evaluators; and

(2) includes a process that activates at least one of said location evaluators.

224. The method of claim 155, wherein the step of determining includes using output criteria corresponding to an application identified for receiving the resulting location information, wherein an accuracy of the resulting location information is dependent upon the output criteria.

225. The method of claim 224, wherein said output criteria includes at least some of:

(a) a granularity in which a location estimate of the mobile station M represented by said resulting location information is to be provided;

(b) a frequency with which repeated location estimates of the mobile station M are to be output to the application; and

(c) an indication as to whether a location estimate of the mobile station is to be adjusted according to a known geographical feature different from the communication stations.

162. A method for locating a terrestrial mobile station, wherein said method uses wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile station and a network having a plurality of communication stations supported on the Earth, wherein each of said communication stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said mobile station,

wherein there are first and second mobile station location techniques for outputting mobile station location related response information when said location techniques are supplied with corresponding wireless signal related data;

wherein said first location technique estimates a location of the mobile station using values obtained from wireless signals received at the mobile station from one or more satellites, wherein the values are indicative of signal time delay from the satellites to the mobile station; and

wherein said second location technique estimates a location of the mobile station by using one or more measurements for a wireless signal between the mobile station and at least one of the communication stations, CS, for determining a geographical extent for the mobile station, the one or more measurements dependent upon a location of the at least one communication station CS;

wherein there is two way wireless communication between the mobile station and the network in order to obtain the one or more measurements for the second location technique;

comprising performing the following steps by computational machinery;

first obtaining, from said first location technique, first location related response information for a location of the mobile station;

second obtaining, from said second location technique, second location related response information for a location of the mobile station; and

determining resulting location information of the mobile station using at least one of;

a first value obtained from said first location related response information, and a second value obtained from said second location related response information, wherein data indicative of a likelihood of the mobile station being at a location represented by said resulting location information is obtained using one of the first location related response information and the second location related response information.

163. The method of claim 162, wherein the second obtaining step includes obtaining the second location related response information from an instance of the second technique wherein the measurements are indicative of an angle of arrival of a wireless signal at the communication station, CS, and from the mobile station.

164. The method of claim 162, wherein the second obtaining step includes obtaining the second location related response information from an instance of the second technique that determines a location of said mobile station by using a statistical correlation for correlating (a) and (b) following:

(a) the one or more measurements; and

(b) data, D, wherein for each location L of a plurality of locations, said data D includes one or more wireless signal measurements related to a wireless communication between some mobile station that is substantially at L, and at least one of the communication stations;

wherein said correlation is used for determining a likely geographical estimate, GR, for a location for the mobile station and data indicative of a probability that the mobile station is within the likely geographical estimate GR.

165. The method of claim 162, wherein for at least one location of the mobile station:

the step of first obtaining includes obtaining the first location related response information for a first location of the mobile station;

the step of second obtaining includes obtaining the second location related response information for a second location of the mobile station different from the first location;

the step of determining includes preferring a less recent one of the first location related response information and the second location related response information when the other of the first location related response information and the second location related response information indicates an unsatisfactory result for location determination.

166. The method of claim 165, wherein for determining the resulting location information, the step of determining includes discarding the first location related response information;

and using the second location related response information.

167. The method of claim 162 herein for at least one location of the mobile station, the step of determining includes:

the step of first obtaining includes obtaining the first location related response information for a first location of the mobile station;

the step of second obtaining includes obtaining the second location related response information for a second location of the mobile station different from the first location; and

the step of determining includes using to a more recent one of the first location related response information and the second location related response information when the more recent one is determined to be more indicative of a current location of the mobile station than the other of the first location related response information and the second location related response information.

168. The method of claim 167 wherein for determining the resulting location information, the step of determining includes discarding the second location related response information;

and then using the first location related response information.

169. A method for locating a plurality of terrestrial mobile stations using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile stations and a network having a plurality of terrestrial communication stations, wherein each of said communication stations includes a transmitter and a receiver for wireless two way communications with the mobile stations;

and

wherein one or more mobile station location estimation determiners are accessible such that as a result of the location estimation determiners being supplied with corresponding input for locating any one of the mobile stations (M), each of the location estimation determiners performs at least one of the following techniques;

(i) a first technique for determining first location information for locating the mobile station M, the first location information including a location determined using signal time delay related data for a signal transmitted from at least one non-terrestrial wireless communication station that is above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, the signal received at the mobile station M; and

(ii) a second technique for determining second location information for locating the mobile station M, the second location information determined using input data obtained from time delay data for wireless signal communication between the mobile station M, and at least one of the terrestrial communication stations CS₁, and

wherein there is two way wireless communication between the mobile station M and the network for obtaining the input data;

comprising performing the following steps by computational machinery;

receiving location requests for locating the mobile stations;

issuing, in response to the location requests, corresponding requests for information related to locations of the mobile stations, the corresponding requests for requesting activation of at least one of the location estimation determiners;

obtaining, for a corresponding location of each mobile station (M_i) requested to be located, at least one of;

a corresponding instance of the first location information for M_i from computational machinery performing the first technique, and a corresponding instance of the second location information for M_i from computational machinery performing the second technique;

transmitting, to a site on a network, a location estimate of M_i dependent upon the at least one of the corresponding instance of the first location information for M_i, and a corresponding instance of the second location information, wherein the site accesses location estimate of M_i for a predetermined purpose;

wherein information related to a correctness of the location estimate of M_i is also obtained for transmission in the transmitting step;

wherein for each of some of the mobile stations requested to be located, the corresponding instance of the first location information therefor is given a preference in obtaining the corresponding location estimate for transmission in the transmitting step; and

wherein for each of some of the mobile stations, their corresponding information related to a correctness is dependent upon their corresponding instances of the second location information.

170. The method of claim 169, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations requested to be located, the information related to a correctness includes a value indicative of a likelihood of the at least one mobile station being identified by the location estimate for the at least one mobile station.

171. The method of claim 169, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations requested to be located, the information related to a correctness includes data indicative of an extent of the location estimate for the at least one mobile station.

172. The method of claim 169, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations requested to be located, the location estimate therefor is dependent upon the corresponding instance of the first location information, and the corresponding instance of the second location information.

173. The method of claim 169, further including, for at least one of the mobile stations requested to be located, providing the preference to the corresponding instance of the first location information over the corresponding instance of the second location information, when the corresponding instance of the second location information is also obtained for the at least one mobile station.

174. The method of claim 169, wherein the information related to a correctness includes an accuracy of the location estimate.

175. The method of claim 169, wherein the step of obtaining includes:

receiving, for at least first and second of the mobile stations, their corresponding instances of the first location information at a predetermined site;

wherein for the first mobile station, the received corresponding instance of the first location information is used in determining the corresponding location estimate of the first mobile station;

receiving for at least the second mobile station, a corresponding instance of the second location information; and

wherein for the second mobile station, the received corresponding instance of the second location information is used in determining the corresponding location estimate of the second mobile station, wherein the second mobile station is included in the some mobile stations having their information related to a correctness dependent upon their corresponding instances of the second location information.

176. The method of claim 169, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations requested to be located, a location L₁ of the at least one mobile is estimated using a location estimate obtained from the corresponding instance of the first location information for the at least one mobile station, and at a different location L₂ of the at least one mobile, L₂ is estimated using a location estimate obtained from the corresponding instance of the second location information for the at least one mobile station.

177. The method of claim 176, wherein for locating the at least one mobile station at the location, L₂, the corresponding instance of the second location information for the at least one mobile station is given a preference over a corresponding instance of the first location information for locating the at least mobile station at L₂.

178. The method of claim 169, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations requested to be located, the information related to a correctness includes data for a confidence that the one mobile station is located by the location estimate for the one mobile station.

179. The method of claim 169, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations, the information related to a correctness includes data for an error measurement related to the one mobile station being located by the location estimate for the one mobile station.

180. The method of claim 169, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations, the transmitting step transmits the information related to the correctness together with the location estimate for the at least one mobile station for graphically presenting each of the information related to the correctness and the location estimate on a common map.

181. The method of claim 169, further including, for at least one of the mobile stations, performing by computational machinery a step of combining the corresponding instance of the first location information and the corresponding instance of the second location information for obtaining the location estimate of the at least one mobile station.

182. The method of claim 169, wherein for a first of the mobile stations, a performance of the second technique by computational machinery includes a performance of one or more of:

(i) a third technique for determining, as a result, at least one location estimate or locus for said first mobile station by using an instance of said corresponding input having timing measurements indicative of one of;

a time of arrival of wireless signals, and a time difference of arrival of wireless signals between the first mobile station and at least one of the communication stations CS₁ for determining a range of the first mobile station from CS₁, said range varying with varying values of the timing measurements, wherein the signals for obtaining the timing measurements are communicated during wireless signal transmissions between the first mobile station and CS₁, wherein said third technique outputs the result from a site different from the location of the first mobile station;

(ii) a fourth technique for determining one or more candidate locations of the first mobile station, wherein each of said candidate locations is determined using, for at least some one of the communication stations CS₂, an instance of said corresponding input for a wireless signal direction of arrival that is an angular orientation about the communication station CS₂ of a direction of the first mobile station determined using a measurement of a wireless signal angle of arrival of wireless signals transmitted between the first mobile station and the communication station CS₂.

183. The method of claim 169, wherein for a first of the mobile stations, a performance of the first technique by computational machinery includes a performance of a technique for determining location information for said first mobile station, using timing values from an instance, I_S, of said corresponding input for the first technique obtained from satellite signals received at the first mobile station from a plurality of satellites, and wherein said instance I_S also includes additional data for use by the technique for improving on location information for the first mobile station obtained from said satellite signals, wherein said additional data is received by the first mobile station in a wireless communication between:

said first mobile station, and a communication station of a collection of one or more of the plurality of terrestrial communication stations;

wherein each communication station of said collection is one of;

(A) a fixed location base station of a commercial mobile radio service provider, and (B) operable for providing a wireless communication for responding to a telephony emergency call placed with the commercial mobile radio service provider.

184. The method of claim 169, wherein for a first of the mobile stations, a performance of the second technique by computational machinery includes a performance of a technique, wherein said technique determines a location estimate from a pattern of wireless signal characteristics between:

(a) one or more of the communication stations, and (b) said first mobile station;

wherein said technique performs (c) and (d) following;

(c) accessing information obtained via an association that associates, for each geographical location

(L) of a plurality of geographical locations, (c1) and (c2) following;

(c1) a representation of the geographical location L, and

(c2) for the geographical location L, corresponding signal information indicative of at least one characteristic of a signal S previously transmitted between some mobile station, M_L, and one or more of the communication stations, when the some mobile station M_L transmitted S from approximately the geographical location L;

wherein for at least most of said geographical locations L, M_L is different from the first mobile station;

(d) determining one or more likely location estimates for the first mobile station from a similarity between (d1) and (d2) following;

(d1) data for one or more signal characteristics determined from wireless signals communicated between the first mobile station and the communication stations, wherein said signal characteristics include at least a first measurement of a non-line of sight signal transmission between the first mobile station and one of the communication stations, and

(d2) a portion of the accessed information that is indicative of the signal information of (c2).

226. The method of claim 169, wherein the computational machinery for performing said first technique determines an instance of the first location information for a first of the mobile stations, using timing values from an instance Is of said corresponding input obtained from satellite signals received at the first mobile station from a plurality of satellites, and wherein said instance I_S also includes additional data for improving on location information for the first mobile station obtained from said satellite signals, wherein said additional data is received by the first mobile station in a wireless communication between:

said first mobile station, and a communication station of a collection of one or more of the plurality of terrestrial communication stations.

185. A mobile station location system for a network having plurality of terrestrially based stationary location communication stations for wirelessly communicating with a multiplicity of mobile stations, comprising:

a network node for receiving a plurality of network requests for location indicative data of a plurality of the mobile stations;

computational equipment including (1) and (2) following;

(1) a selection component, wherein in response to the requests received by the network node, and for each mobile station (M_n) of the plurality of mobile stations, the selection component selectively communicates with each of one or more computational machine location providing sources for providing location information for M_n to the network node;

(A) wherein for a corresponding location for each mobile station (M_i) of some of the plurality of mobile stations, (a-1) and (a-2) occur;

(a-1) the network node receives the location information for M_i provided by a first of the location providing sources, wherein the first location providing source determines the location information for M_i using a conversion of signal timing data to a geographical extent of M_i, wherein the signal timing data includes;

for each of a plurality of transmitting stations, located above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, an elapsed time of one or more wireless signals transmitted from the transmitting stations, and received by the mobile station M₁; and

(a-2) the corresponding location indicative data for the mobile station M_i is obtained using the location information for M_i;

(B) wherein for a corresponding location for each mobile station (M_k) of some of the plurality of mobile stations, (b-1) and (b-2) occur;

(b-1) the network node receives the location information for M_k provided by one of the location providing sources, the location information for M_k dependent upon information indicative of a location of at least one corresponding communication station (CS_k) of the communication stations in two way wireless communication with M_k; and

(b-2) the corresponding location indicative data for the mobile station M_k is obtained using the location information for M_k received by the network node;

(C) wherein for at least one mobile station (M_p) of the mobile stations M_k and the corresponding location for M_p according to (B) above, the location indicative data for M_n is not obtained using geographic data indicative of a spatial range between the mobile station M_p and one or more transmitting stations above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, wherein the geographic data would have to be determined using signals received at the mobile station M_p from the one or more transmitting stations;

(2) a destination determination component, wherein for each of the mobile stations M_n, the destination determination component selectively determines a corresponding network destination for the location indicative data for M_n to be output by the network node;

wherein the network destination accesses the location indicative data for M_n in performing a location based service related to a corresponding one of the requests for the location indicative data for M_n received by the network node.

186. The system of claim 185, wherein for at least one mobile station (M_j) of the mobile stations M_k, the corresponding location information for M_j corresponds to a wireless coverage extent for the corresponding communication station, wherein the corresponding communication station is in two way wireless communication with M_j.

187. The system of claim 185 wherein the network node activates the destination determination process for outputting, for at least some mobile stations (M_j) of the mobile stations M_n, wherein the corresponding location indicative data for M_j provides data in a common data format which is independent of the corresponding network destination, the common data format having a common predetermined semantics for interpretation thereof, the common data format including at least some of:

data representing a location for M_j, data indicative of a confidence in the data representing the location, data indicative of a timestamp, data indicative of a processing performed.

188. The mobile location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of some of the plurality of mobile stations, the selection component selectively communicates with the first location providing source, wherein the location information for M_j is also dependent upon a location of at least one of the communication stations.

189. The mobile location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of some of the mobile stations M_k, the selection component selectively communicates with one of the location providing sources that determines an instance of the location information for M_j using a locus of locations relative to at least one of the communication stations, wherein for locations identified by said locus of locations, a signal time delay dependent condition is satisfied for a wireless signal communicated between the at least one communication station and M_j.

190. The location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of some of the mobile stations M_k, the selection component selectively communicates with one of the location providing sources that determines an instance of the location information for M_j by:

(i) obtaining access to a computational machine model that is determined using an association between geographical locations in a wireless coverage area, and signal data obtained from the geographical locations, wherein for each of the geographical locations, L, the association associates;

(i-1) a representation of L, and (i-2) a portion of the signal data for measurements, m_L, of wireless signals communicated between;

a mobile station, M_L, approximately at the location L, and the communication stations; and

(ii) supplying to the computational machine model data for measurements, m_j, of wireless signals communicated between M_j and the communication stations;

wherein the instance of the location information for M_j, output by the one location providing source, is dependent upon the computational machine model determining a similarity between the data for the measurements m_j, and the signal data of the association;

wherein the measurements m_L for at least some of the locations L include one of;

measurements of a variation in wireless signal strengths within the coverage area, and measurements of a variation in wireless signal time delay within the coverage area.

191. The mobile location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of some of the mobile stations M_k, the selection component selectively communicates with one of the location providing sources that determines the location information for M_j as an offset of the mobile station M_j from at least one of the communication stations.

192. The mobile location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of some of the plurality of mobile stations, the selection component selectively communicates with one of the location providing sources that determines an instance of the location information for M_j using a direction of arrival technique, wherein the technique determines a geographic estimation for a location of M_j, by using a direction from which wireless signals arrive at one of the communication stations from the mobile station M_j.

193. The mobile location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of some of the plurality of mobile stations, the selection component selectively communicates with a second of the location providing sources that determines an instance of the location information for M_j from a locus computing technique, wherein the technique determines a geographic estimation for M_j by utilizing timing measurements for determining a locus of locations for M_i;

wherein the timing measurements are a function of a signal time delay between the mobile station M_j, and at least one of the communication stations CS.

194. The mobile location system of claim 185, further including a data store for caching a location estimate for the location indicative data of each at least some of the plurality of mobile stations, wherein the data store resides on the network and distinct is from a corresponding one of the mobile stations for which the location estimate was obtained,

wherein for each of the location estimates and a corresponding one of the requests resulting in the location estimate, the location estimate is cached in the data store, and remains in the data store for a subsequent request for obtaining another instance of the location indicative data for the corresponding mobile station.

195. The location system of claim 185, wherein for at least one mobile station (M_j) of the mobile stations M_n, the mobile station M_j is an instance of the mobile station M_i and is an instance of the mobile station M_k.

196. The location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of at least some of the mobile stations M_n, the network node accesses data indicative of an accuracy of a location estimate provided by an instance of the location information for M_j received from one of the location providing sources, wherein the data indicative of an accuracy is used for activating one or more processes for obtaining an additional location estimate.

197. The location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of at least some of the mobile stations M_n, the network node determines the location indicative data for M_j.

198. The mobile location system of claim 185, wherein for one of the requests for locating one of the plurality of mobile stations (M_j), the network node receives a plurality of instances of the location information for M_j, at least two of the instances obtained using different wireless location techniques.

199. The location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of at least some of the mobile stations M_n, the location indicative data therefor includes a likelihood that the mobile station M_j resides in a geographical area represented by the location indicative data therefor.

200. The location system of claim 185, further including a component (C_f) of the computational equipment for one of interpolating and extrapolating a location, for each mobile station of at least some of the mobile stations M_n, from locations L of other mobile stations.

201. The location system of claim 185, further including a combiner component of the computational equipment for receiving, for each mobile station (M_j) of at least some of the mobile stations M_n, a first instance of the location information for M_j from the first location providing source, and a second instance of the location information for M_j from the one location providing source, and combining the first and second instances to obtain the location indicative data for M_j, the combining including identifying data indicative of at least one location common to both the first instance and the second instance.

202. The location system of claim 185, wherein for each mobile station (M_j) of at least some of the mobile stations M_n, at least one of an instance of the location information for M_j and an instance of the location indicative data for M_j includes information descriptive of location processing performed for locating M_j.

227. The location system as claimed in claim 185, wherein each of the following limitations holds:

(a) said transmitting stations include GPS satellites;

(b) said network provides for a transmission to at least one of said two or more location providing sources using at least a portion of the Internet different from the network; and

(c) said selection component is activated by the network node.

203. A mobile station location system for locating each mobile station (M₀) of a plurality of mobile stations (said plurality of mobile stations denoted Σ

),

wherein the location system provides communications for obtaining information indicative of locations of the mobile stations of Σ

by activating one or more of mobile station location estimating sources provided by computational machinery;

wherein for locating each of a plurality of the mobile stations of Σ

, a first of the one or more estimating resources provides a corresponding first location information that is dependent upon a result of computational machinery performing an implementation of a location technique included in the category (a) of location techniques following, and for locating each of a plurality of the mobile stations of Σ

, corresponding second location information is obtained that is dependent upon a result of computational machinery performing an implementation of a location technique of the category (b) of location techniques following;

(a) a first category of one or more signal processing location techniques, wherein each of the signal processing location techniques estimates a location of at least one of the mobile stations (M_a) of E by determining location information for M_a by a conversion of signal timing data to a geographical extent of M_a, wherein the signal timing data includes;

for each of a plurality of transmitting stations, located above and not supported on the Earth'"'"'s surface, an elapsed time of one or more wireless signals transmitted from the transmitting stations, and received by the mobile station M_a;

(b) a second category of one or more location techniques, wherein each of the location techniques of the second category outputs corresponding data for locating of each mobile station (M_b) of a plurality of the mobile stations of Σ

, the corresponding data dependent upon wireless communication between the mobile station M_b and at least one of a plurality of terrestrially based stationary communication stations of a wireless network, wherein the corresponding data is obtained using information for identifying a location of one of the terrestrially based stationary location communication stations, CS, and

wherein the wireless communication includes a plurality of receptions of wireless signal transmissions communicated between the mobile station M_b and CS, with at least one of the transmissions being received at CS;

the location system comprising;

equipment for communicating on one or more communications networks, the equipment including;

a location data resource for the communications networks, the location data resource including a network interface, wherein for each of the mobile stations M₀, the network interface provides a location estimate of the mobile station M₀ to a predetermined network destination via one of the communications networks;

wherein the location data resource includes a selection process that performs a selection resulting in preferring an instance (I₁) of the corresponding first location information for M₀ being an instance of M_a, for obtaining the location estimate over an instance (I₂) of the corresponding second location information for M₀ being an instance of M_b.

204. The system of claim 203, wherein the location data resource receives at least one of:

I₁ when available, and I₂ when available.

205. The system of claim 203, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations, M₁, the equipment includes the computational machinery for performing the implementation of the location technique for determining the corresponding second location information for M₁, and the corresponding second location information for M₁ is obtained by identifying or recognizing a similarity between (i) and (ii) following:

(i) at least a portion of signal location characteristic data obtained from each of a plurality of locations in a wireless coverage area corresponding to the plurality of the communication stations, the portion obtained using signal transmissions from a mobile station different from M₁, and

(ii) a corresponding portion of signal location characteristic data of the wireless signal measurements communicated between M₁ and at least one of the communication stations.

206. The system of claim 203, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations, M₁, the equipment includes the computational machinery for performing the implementation of the location technique for determining the corresponding second location information for M₁, and the corresponding second location information for M₁ is obtained by utilizing timing measurements of wireless signals between the mobile station M₁ and the plurality of terrestrially based communication stations for determining a geographical range of the mobile station M₁ from one of the terrestrially based communication stations, CS;

wherein the timing measurements are used to determine a signal time delay between the mobile station M₁, and CS, and

wherein for obtaining the timing measurements, there is a plurality of wireless signal transmissions between the mobile station M₀ and CS, with at least one of the transmissions being from the mobile station M₁ to CS.

207. The system of claim 203, wherein for at least one of the mobile stations, M₁, the equipment includes the computational machinery for performing the implementation of the location technique for determining the corresponding second location information for M₁ at a location L, and the corresponding second location information for M₁ includes location data related to a coverage area of at least one of the terrestrially based communication stations, wherein the location data is used as a location estimate of the mobile station M_s when the first location information is unavailable at the location L.

208. The system of claim 203, wherein for at least one instance of the mobile station M₀, the selection process selects one of:

the instance I₁, and the instance I₂ according to a result indicative of wireless signaling or environmental characteristics of a geographical area.

228. The mobile station location system of claim 203, further including at least one data storage provided by the equipment, or provided by computational machinery that is in operative communication with the equipment, the at least one data storage having information indicative of past locations of some of the mobile stations provided by at least one of said estimating resources in providing previous location estimates of at least some of the mobile stations of Σ

, wherein said information indicative of past locations is used for determining information indicative of a location of at least one mobile station being an instance of the mobile station M₀;

wherein the information indicative of a location of the at least one mobile station is used by the equipment for obtaining the location estimate.

229. The system of claim 203

further including a combiner provided by the equipment, or provided by computational machinery that is in operative communication with the equipment, the combiner performing machine instructions for combining at least a portion of the first location information, and at least a portion of the second location information for M₀ for obtaining the location estimate.

230. The system of claim 203, further including an output gateway provided by the equipment, or provided by computational machinery that is in operative communication with the equipment, the output gateway performing machine instructions for transmitting location information on one of the communications networks;

wherein the location information includes, said location estimate, wherein the output gateway provides for transmitting said location information according to one or more of the following transmission characteristics;

(i) a destination for transmission, (ii) a data representation for transmission, (iii) a transmission protocol, (iv) a granularity of transmission, and (v) a frequency of transmitting an instance of the location information;

wherein the output gateway uses a description indicative of an input to be transmitted to the predetermined network destination for determining the one or more transmission characteristics, the description being one of a plurality of descriptions indicative of the one or more transmission characteristics for a plurality of different destinations to which the output gateway transmits a corresponding instance of the location information.

231. The system of claim 230, wherein for transmitting the location information, the output gateway uses output criteria including at least some of:

(a) an identification of a transmission protocol;

(b) a granularity for representing a location estimate (LE) of the mobile station M, wherein LE is represented by said output location information; and

(c) a frequency with which repeated location estimates of the mobile station M are to be output to a destination corresponding to the request.

232. The system of claim 203 wherein for said instance I₁ being available, I₁ includes first data that is descriptive of location processing performed for locating M₀, and for said instance I₂ being available, I₂ includes second data that is descriptive of location processing for locating M₀.