System and method of gathering WLAN packet samples to improve position estimates of WLAN positioning device

• US 8,315,233 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2007
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Inventors: Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Farshid
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Nimesh
• Application Number:
  US11/774,392
• Publication Number:
  US 20080008118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,964 Days
• Field of Search: 455/453, 455/436, 455/439, 455/442, 455/522, 370/331, 370/319, 370/519, 370/328, 342/461, 342/109
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/019 Energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/26 at least one of which is mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Systems and methods of gathering WLAN packet samples to improve position estimates of WLAN positioning device. A device estimates the position of itself in response to gathering wireless signal information from WLAN access points (APs). The device includes a WLAN radio module for receiving WLAN signals transmitted by WLAN APs in range of said device, extraction logic for extracting information from said received WLAN signals to identify the WLAN APs, and logic to cooperate with a WLAN-based positioning system to estimate the position of the device based at least in part on the extracted information identifying the WLAN APs in the range of said device.

Claims

1. A device for estimating the position of itself in response to gathering WLAN packets, said device comprising:

a radio module for receiving at least one WLAN packet addressed to at least one

WLAN access point (AP), the radio module not receiving WLAN packets transmitted from the at least one WLAN AP while receiving the at least one WLAN packet addressed to the at least one WLAN AP, wherein the radio module omits transmission logic, thereby causing the device to be a receive-only device incapable of WLAN transmission;

extraction logic for extracting information from said at least one WLAN packet addressed to at least one WLAN access point (AP) not presently in range of the radio module to identify the at least one WLAN AP receiving the at least one WLAN packet; and

logic to cooperate with a WLAN-based positioning system to estimate the position of the device based at least in part on the information extracted from the at least one packet which identifies the at least one WLAN AP.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein the extraction logic includes logic to gather a diversity of WLAN packets and to combine the diversity to extract WLAN information from the combination to provide to the WLAN-based positioning system.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein said extraction logic operates at a physical layer of a network protocol and that receives packets at the base data rate of said protocol.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein at least one of the WLAN packets transmitted within range of said device and to a WLAN AP is a partial packet.