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Platform and applications for wireless location and other complex services

  • US 8,135,413 B2
  • Filed: 08/13/2007
  • Issued: 03/13/2012
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/24/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for providing network services to a plurality of mobile units, wherein each of the mobile units is located using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between said mobile unit and a plurality of fixed location communication stations, wherein each of said communications stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said mobile unit, comprising:

  • providing first and second mobile unit location evaluators, wherein each of said location evaluators determine information related to the location of said mobile station units when said location evaluator is supplied with appropriate data for responding with information related to a location of one of the mobile units, wherein;

    (A) said first location evaluator determines information related to the location for a mobile unit (M), by performing one or more of the following techniques (i) through (x) when the first location evaluator is supplied with a corresponding instance of said appropriate data, wherein the appropriate data includes values obtained from wireless signal measurements provided by transmissions between the mobile unit M and the communication stations;

    (i) a first technique for determining, for at least one of the communication stations, one of;

    a distance, and a time difference of arrival between the mobile unit M and the at least one communication station, wherein said first technique estimates a time of arrival (TOA) of a received signal relative to a time reference at each one of a plurality of wireless signal monitoring stations using an inverse transform whose resolution is greater than Rayleigh resolution;

    (ii) a second technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M, using values from a corresponding instance of said appropriate data obtained from signals received by the mobile unit M from one or more satellites;

    (iii) a third technique for recognizing a pattern of characteristics of a corresponding instance of said appropriate data, wherein said pattern of characteristics is indicative of a plurality of wireless signal transmission paths between the mobile unit M and each of one or more of the communication stations; and

    (iv) a fourth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M using a USW model, wherein the following steps (iv-a)-(iv-d) are performed;

    (iv-a) receiving at an antenna array provided at one of the communication stations, signals originating from the mobile unit M, wherein the signals comprise p-dimensional array vectors sampled from p antennas of the array;

    (iv-b) determining from the received signals, a signal signature, wherein the signal signature comprises a measured subspace, wherein the array vectors are approximately confined to the measured subspace;

    (iv-c) comparing the signal signature to a database comprising calibrated signal signatures and corresponding location data, wherein the comparing comprises calculating differences between the measured subspace and calibrated subspaces; and

    (iv-d) selecting from the database a most likely calibrated signal signature and a corresponding most likely location of the mobile unit M by using the calculated differences;

    (v) a fifth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M using an E model, wherein the following steps (v-a)-(v-e) are performed;

    (v-a) receiving, at a multiplicity of the communication stations, a signal transmitted by the mobile unit M;

    (v-b) forwarding, by each of a multiplicity of the communication stations, said received signal and timing information to a central processing center;

    (v-c) calculating, within said central processing center, a time difference of arrival (TDOA) location estimate of said mobile unit M based upon said timing information;

    (v-d) calculating, within said central processing center, a timing advance (TA) location estimate of said mobile unit M based upon said timing information; and

    (v-e) determining said position of said mobile unit M using said TDOA and TA location estimates;

    (vi) a sixth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M using an ST model, wherein the following steps (vi-a)-(vi-e) are performed;

    (vi-a) receiving, in a SPS receiver co-located with the mobile unit M, SPS signals from at least one SPS satellite;

    (vi-b) transmitting cell based communication signals between;

    a communications system having a first of the communication stations coupled to said SPS receiver, and a second of the communication stations which is remotely positioned relative to said mobile unit M, wherein said cell based communication signals are wireless;

    (vi-c) determining a first time measurement which represents a time of travel of a message in said cell based communication signals in a cell based communication system having at least some of the communication stations which comprises said second communication station and said communication system;

    (vi-d) determining a second time measurement which represents a time of travel of said SPS signals;

    (vi-e) determining a position of said mobile unit M from at least said first time measurement and said second time measurement, wherein said cell based communication signals are capable of communicating data messages in a two-way direction between said mobile unit M and said communication system;

    (vii) a seventh technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M using an TE model, wherein the following steps (vii-a)-(vii-l) are performed;

    (vii-a) transmitting from said mobile unit M, m samples of a signal;

    (vii-b) receiving at one of the communication stations, said m samples together with multipath components and noise;

    (vii-c) determining an estimated channel power profile for each of said m samples;

    (vii-d) selecting a first set of N samples from said m samples;

    (vii-e) performing incoherent integration for said estimated channel power profiles for said first set of N samples to form a first integrated signal;

    (vii-f) if a quality level of said first integrated signal with respect to signal to noise is less than a predetermined threshold, selecting another sample from said M samples;

    (vii-g) performing incoherent integration for said estimated channel power profiles for said first set of N samples and said another sample to form a second integrated signal;

    (vii-h) if a quality level of said second integrated signal with respect to signal to noise is greater than or equal to said predetermined threshold, determining a time-of-arrival of a maximum level of said second integrated signal;

    (vii-i) entering said time-of-arrival into a time-of-arrival versus frequency of occurrence array;

    (vii-j) selecting a second set of N samples from said m samples;

    (vii-k) repeating all of said performing through said entering steps for said second set of N samples; and

    (vii-l) determining a minimum value estimated time-of-arrival from said array;

    (viii) an eighth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M using an SigT model, wherein the following steps (viii-a)-(viii-e) are performed;

    (viii-a) within the mobile unit M, transmitting a locating signal composed of at least two tone components;

    (viii-b) within each of a plurality of the communication stations, receiving the locating signal at one or more antennas, and within at least one of the communication stations, receiving the locating signal with at least two antennas;

    (viii-c) coupling each antenna to a receiver;

    (viii-d) within each receiver, generating amplitude and phase values from the locating signal as received by the antenna, the values indicative of amplitude and phase of at least two tone components of the locating signal, as received at the corresponding antenna and measured at defined times; and

    (viii-e) combining the values indicative of amplitude and phase for the tone components from a plurality of the receivers to determine the position of the mobile unit M;

    (ix) an ninth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M using a TLME model, wherein the following steps (ix-a)-(ix-h) are performed therefor in a mobile radio system providing at least some of the communication stations, said mobile radio system including a network controller and at least three of the communication stations, each of said at least three communication stations including an uplink TOA measuring unit operable to communicate with said network controller, a control unit, and a time reference unit operable to provide timing reference signals to said uplink TOA measuring unit, at least one of said at least three communication stations co-located with and connected to a second mobile unit M2, said second mobile unit M2 coupled to said network controller via a radio interface, and a service node operable to store known positions of at least two of said at least three communication stations;

    (ix-a) receiving a request in said mobile radio system to determine the geographical position of said mobile unit M;

    (ix-b) determining and reporting the position of said second mobile unit M2 to said service node;

    (ix-c) directing said mobile unit M to transmit digital signals uplink on a traffic channel when said mobile unit M is not transmitting or transmitting only analog signals;

    (ix-d) measuring in each uplink TOA measuring unit an uplink TOA of the digital signals transmitted by the mobile unit M;

    (ix-e) receiving in said network controller said uplink TOA measurements from said at least three communication stations and a traffic channel number to said traffic channel;

    (ix-f) translating said traffic channel number to an identity of said mobile unit M;

    (ix-g) conveying said uplink TOA measurements and said mobile unit M identity to said service node; and

    (ix-h) calculating in said service node the position of said mobile unit M using said known positions of said at least three communication stations and said uplink TOA measurements;

    (x) a tenth technique for estimating a location of said mobile unit M using an N model, wherein the following steps (x-a)-(x-d) are performed;

    (x-a) receiving global positioning system satellite (GPS) signals from a plurality of global positioning system satellites;

    (x-b) receiving a plurality of cellular position signals that do not contain data in a GPS-like format;

    (x-c) calculating the geographic position of the mobile unit M using said received global positioning system satellite signals when a requisite number of the plurality of global positioning system satellites are in view of a global positioning system receiver; and

    (x-d) calculating the geographic position of the mobile unit M using both said received plurality of cellular position signals and substantially all of said received global positioning system satellite signals when the requisite number of the plurality of global positioning system satellites are not in view of the global positioning system receiver;

    (B) for at least a particular one of said techniques (A)(i) through (A)(x) performed by said first location evaluator, said second location evaluator performs a different one of said techniques when supplied with a corresponding instance of said appropriate data for the different technique;

    receiving, from a plurality of requesting sources, requests for location based services;

    first obtaining, from said first location evaluator, first location related information for one of the mobile units in response to a first of the requests;

    second obtaining, from said second location evaluator, second location related information for one of the mobile units in response to a second of the requests;

    first determining a first destination for a first of the location based services for transmitting a first estimated location obtained from the first location related information;

    second determining a second destination for a second of the location based services for transmitting a second estimated location obtained from the second location related information;

    first communicating, to a first receiving source, a first communication responsive to the first request, wherein said first communication is dependent upon a first result from the first location based service;

    wherein the first location based service determines the first result after receiving the first estimated location;

    wherein the first request is used in identifying the first receiving source;

    second communicating, to a second receiving source, a second communication responsive to the second request, wherein said second communication is dependent upon a second result from the second location based service;

    wherein the second location based service determines the second result after receiving the second estimated location;

    wherein the second request is used in identifying the second receiving source;

    wherein the steps of at least one of (1) and (2) following are performed;

    (1) first contacting a billing system for authorizing access to network services for the first request;

    wherein the first contacting step is performed prior to the first estimated location being determined;

    second contacting the same billing system for authorizing access to network services for the second request;



    wherein the second contacting step is performed prior to the second estimated location being determined; and

    (2) the step of first determining, includes a step of selecting the first location based service from a plurality of location based services wherein each of the plurality of location based services is for fulfilling the first request, wherein said step of selecting includes obtaining data indicative of a load on each of two of the plurality of location based services and using the data to determine the first destination.

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