Facilitation of timed fingerprint mobile device locating

• US 9,408,174 B2
• Filed: 06/19/2012
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Meredith, Sheldon Kent, Fix, Jeremy, Kosseifi, Mario
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Thai
• Application Number:
  US13/526,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20130337844A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,505 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 4554561-4566, 455/457, 455/458
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/06 using intensity measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• 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

Downlink signal strength measurements from base stations (BSs) are reported by mobile devices to facilitate mobile device locating. A system receives the signal strength information and determines whether the mobile device is within a selected distance from any of the BSs in response to detecting that signal strength information for one of the BSs is greater than a predefined value. The system determines an area over which to search for the mobile device if the system fails to detect that the signal strength information for any of the BSs is greater than the predefined value. The area over which the search is performed is an intersection of all regions determined by the signal strengths of the BSs.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

determining respective signal strength information for base station devices, wherein the respective signal strength information is measured by a mobile device;

based on the mobile device measuring signal strength information for a base station device of the base station devices and determining the signal strength information for the base station device satisfies a defined condition, wherein the defined condition comprises the signal strength information for the base station device being determined to be greater than a defined threshold;

decreasing an initial search area associated with a set of the base station devices to a search area associated with the base station device having the signal strength information that satisfies the defined condition;

determining a defined distance from an approximate location of the base station device comprising the signal strength information that satisfies the defined condition, wherein an amount of the defined distance is based on another amount of the signal strength information for the base station device; and

scanning bin regions representing the search area, wherein the search area is a polygonal region.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining respective regions around the base station devices based at least on the respective signal strength information for the base station devices and respective locations of the base station devices.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining an intersection of the respective regions around the base station devices.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the polygonal region is an irregular polygonal region.

5. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

receiving respective signal strength information for base station devices, wherein the respective signal strength information is measured by a mobile device; and

based on the mobile device measuring signal strength information for a base station device of the base station devices and determining the signal strength information for the base station device satisfies a defined condition, wherein the defined condition comprises the signal strength information for the base station device being determined to be greater than a defined threshold;

reducing an initial search area associated with a set of the base station devices to a search area associated with the base station device having the signal strength information that satisfies the defined condition;

determining a defined distance from an approximate location of the base station device comprising the signal strength information that satisfies the defined condition, wherein an amount of the defined distance is based on another amount of the signal strength information for the base station device; and

scanning bin regions representing the search area, wherein the search area is an irregular polygonal region.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the receiving the signal strength information comprises receiving downlink signal strengths measured at the mobile device.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise searching the area for the mobile device, the searching comprising:

performing a first determination, for the base station devices, of respective expected downlink signal powers according to parameters;

utilizing the respective signal strength information for the base station devices, measured by the mobile device, as a proxy for respective distances between the mobile device and the base station devices;

performing a second determination of respective regions associated with the base station devices based at least on the respective signal strength information for the base station devices and respective locations of the base station devices; and

performing a third determination of an intersection of the respective regions.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the performing the first determination of the respective expected downlink signal powers is made with respect to respective antenna heights of the base station devices and an antenna height of the mobile device.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the performing the third determination of the intersection of the respective regions comprises generating an approximation of a rectangular region at least substantially covering the intersection of the regions.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the performing the third determination of the intersection of the respective regions comprises generating a definition of an irregular polygonal region having a perimeter defined by the intersection of the regions.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the performing the first determination of the respective expected downlink signal powers is made with respect to a morphology of a terrain over which downlink signals are transmitted.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the performing the first determination of the respective expected downlink signal powers is made with respect to a frequency of a channel over which the respective signal strength information is received by the mobile device.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a device comprising a processor, respective signal strength information for base station devices, wherein the respective signal strength information is measured by a mobile device; and

based on the mobile device measuring signal strength information for a base station device of the base station devices and determining the signal strength information for the base station device satisfies a defined condition, wherein the defined condition comprises the signal strength information for the base station device being determined to be greater than a defined threshold;

reducing, by the device, an initial search area associated with a set of the base station devices to a search area associated with the base station device having the signal strength information that satisfies the defined condition;

determining, by the device, a defined distance from an approximate location of the base station device comprising the signal strength information that satisfies the defined condition, wherein an amount of the defined distance is based on another amount of the signal strength information for the base station device; and

scanning, by the device, bin regions representing the search area, wherein the search area is a polygonal region.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, by the system, an intersection region over which the respective regions around the base station devices overlap one another.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising searching, by the system, for the mobile device within the intersection region.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining, by the system, the respective expected downlink signal power information according to respective parameters.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the determining the respective expected downlink signal power information according to respective parameters comprises determining the respective expected downlink signal power information according to a frequency of a channel over which respective signal strength information for the base station devices is received by the mobile device.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the intersection region comprises approximating a rectangular region substantially covering the intersection region.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the determining the intersection region comprises determining an irregular polygonal region.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the irregular polygonal region comprises a perimeter defined by an intersection of the respective regions.