Methods of and systems for measuring beacon stability of wireless access points

• US 8,971,923 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2013
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Skyhook Wireless Incorporated (Liberty Broadband Corp.)
• Inventors: Alizadeh-Shabdiz, Farshid, Brachet, Nicolas, Cavanaugh, Gerald, Dancus, Andrei, Jones, Russel K., Steger, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, CONGVAN
• Application Number:
  US14/052,113
• Publication Number:
  US 20140045525A1
• Time in Patent Office: 508 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/456.1, 455/456.3, 455/521, 342/357.06, 342/420, 342/457, 370/328, 370/338
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/024 of beacon transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0252 Radio frequency fingerprinting
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0278 involving statistical or probabilistic considerations G01S5/0252, G01S5/0294 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• 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

Abstract

Methods of and systems for measuring beacon stability of wireless access points are provided. A method of determining a measure of likelihood that a designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic includes determining a set of reference points associated with a designated wireless device, and retrieving attributes of the reference points, attributes associated with other wireless devices related to the designated wireless device, and/or statistical information. The statistical information includes a temporal distribution of detection of signals of reference points, a spatial distribution of the reference points, and/or a cardinality of the set or a subset of the reference points. The method further includes determining a measure of likelihood that the designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic based on attributes of the reference points, attributes associated with the reception of signals, and/or the statistical information.

Claims

1. A method of determining a measure of likelihood that a designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic, the pathological characteristic causing errors in position estimation to occur when the designated wireless device is used as a landmark in a position estimation system if left uncorrected, the method comprising:

based on information from signals received from a designated wireless device, retrieving at least one of (i) an identifier representing a manufacturer of the designated wireless devices and (ii) an identifier representing a model type of the designated wireless device; and

determining a measure of likelihood that the designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic based on at least one of (i) the identifier representing a manufacturer of the designated wireless devices and (ii) the identifier representing a model type of the designated wireless device.

2. The method of claim 1, the measure of likelihood being a binary decision.

3. The method of claim 1, the measure of likelihood being a relative measure of a probability that the designated wireless device exhibits the at least one pathological characteristic.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a measure of likelihood that a wireless device other than the designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic based on the other wireless device having a relationship with the designated wireless device, the existence of the relationship being based on the designated wireless device and the other wireless device being within signal reception range of a same position within a given period of time.

5. The method of claim 1, the designated wireless device having a first identifier and the method further comprising determining a second measure of likelihood that a second designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic based on a comparison of the first identifier and a second identifier associated with the second designated wireless device.

6. The method of claim 1, the at least one pathological characteristic including the designated wireless device being a mobile device which lacks a fixed geographic position.

7. The method of claim 1, the at least one pathological characteristic including the designated wireless device exhibiting signal transmission characteristics that are atypical of a wireless device of a type matching the designated wireless device.

8. The method of claim 1, the at least one pathological characteristic including that the location information associated with the designated wireless device is not an accurate present location of the wireless device.

9. The method of claim 1, the at least one pathological characteristic including that an identifier associated with the designated wireless devices is also associated with at least one other wireless device.

10. The method of claim 1, the designated wireless device having an identifier and the method further comprising associating, in a reference database, the identifier with an indication of the measure of likelihood.

11. The method of claim 1, the designated wireless device being a WiFi-enabled access point.

12. The method of claim 1, the designated wireless device being a mobile telephone transceiver installation.

13. A system for determining a measure of likelihood that a designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic, the pathological characteristic causing errors in position estimation to occur when the designated wireless device is used as a landmark in a position estimation system if left uncorrected, the system comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable media including instructions that when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to;

based on information from signals received from a designated wireless device, retrieve at least one of (i) an identifier representing a manufacturer of the designated wireless devices and (ii) an identifier representing a model type of the designated wireless device; and

determine a measure of likelihood that the designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic based on at least one of (i) the identifier representing a manufacturer of the designated wireless devices and (ii) the identifier representing a model type of the designated wireless device.

14. The system of claim 13, the measure of likelihood being a binary decision.

15. The system of claim 13, the measure of likelihood being a relative measure of a probability that the designated wireless device exhibits the at least one pathological characteristic.

16. The system of claim 13, the non-transitory computer readable media further including instructions that when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to determine a measure of likelihood that a wireless device other than the designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic based on the other wireless device having a relationship with the designated wireless device, the existence of the relationship being based on the designated wireless device and the other wireless device being within signal reception range of a same position within a given period of time.

17. The system of claim 13, the designated wireless device having a first identifier and the non-transitory computer readable media further including instructions that when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to determine a second measure of likelihood that a second designated wireless device exhibits at least one pathological characteristic based on a comparison of the first identifier and a second identifier associated with the second designated wireless device.

18. The system of claim 13, the at least one pathological characteristic including the designated wireless device being a mobile device which lacks a fixed geographic position.

19. The system of claim 13, the at least one pathological characteristic including the designated wireless device exhibiting signal transmission characteristics that are atypical of a wireless device of a type matching the designated wireless device.

20. The system of claim 13, the at least one pathological characteristic including that the location information associated with the designated wireless device is not an accurate present location of the wireless device.

21. The system of claim 13, the at least one pathological characteristic including that an identifier associated with the designated wireless devices is also associated with at least one other wireless device.

22. The system of claim 13, the designated wireless device having an identifier and the non-transitory computer readable media further including instructions that when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to associate, in a reference database, the identifier with an indication of the measure of likelihood.

23. The system of claim 13, the designated wireless device being a WiFi-enabled access point.

24. The system of claim 13, the designated wireless device being a mobile telephone transceiver installation.