WO2014003717A1 - Location detection apparatus and method - Google Patents

Location detection apparatus and method Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2014003717A1
WO2014003717A1 PCT/US2012/044172 US2012044172W WO2014003717A1 WO 2014003717 A1 WO2014003717 A1 WO 2014003717A1 US 2012044172 W US2012044172 W US 2012044172W WO 2014003717 A1 WO2014003717 A1 WO 2014003717A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
communication device
geographical location
communication
location information
message
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2012/044172
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Bizhan Karimi-Cherkandi
Farrokh Mohammadzadeh Kouchri
Schah Walli Ali
Thomas Nagel
Original Assignee
Siemens Enterprise Communications Gmbh & Co. Kg
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Siemens Enterprise Communications Gmbh & Co. Kg filed Critical Siemens Enterprise Communications Gmbh & Co. Kg
Priority to PCT/US2012/044172 priority Critical patent/WO2014003717A1/en
Publication of WO2014003717A1 publication Critical patent/WO2014003717A1/en

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Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G01MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01SRADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S5/00Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
    • G01S5/0009Transmission of position information to remote stations
    • G01S5/0072Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems
    • GPHYSICS
    • G01MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01SRADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S5/00Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
    • G01S5/02Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using radio waves
    • G01S5/0205Details
    • G01S5/0244Accuracy or reliability of position solution or of measurements contributing thereto
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04WWIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W64/00Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
    • GPHYSICS
    • G01MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01SRADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES
    • G01S5/00Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations
    • G01S5/02Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations using radio waves
    • G01S5/14Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to communication systems and methods of using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a telecommunication apparatus and method that is configured to permit mobile terminal devices and access points to exchange location information so that a device is able to detect or retrieve its location information when lacking such information.
  • interconnecting terminal devices such as telephones to switches for utilizing a telephone system often had locations fixed and their location information was often provisioned by a system administrator. For instance, each phone may have been assigned a room in which it was located and an administrator may have kept a table of phone numbers and room numbers that corresponded with a particular phone.
  • some telephones have the capability of being removed from one hardwired position to another hardwired position. Such capability meant that an initially assigned location may no longer be accurate.
  • access points to which a number of phones may interconnect for connection within a system was typically utilized as the device that had location information for the telephones that interconnected with the access point.
  • Such approaches often fail to permit location information to be resolved when a mobile terminal device such as a tablet, mobile telephone, cellular telephone, or mobile smart phone is included in the system.
  • Approaches to resolving the location of such mobile devices include use stations such as the Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM") triangulation method.
  • GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
  • Such approaches require the terminal device to obtain its location information by communicating with a service that identifies a location by communicating with multiple base stations or by communicating with multiple different satellites.
  • GPS or GSM triangulation methods are unable to account for mobile devices that are not part of a GSM network or are unable to utilize a GPS service. Such devices may not have a GSM receiver or GPS receiver for example and therefore may be unable to obtain or detect their location information.
  • Wi-Fi Location Based Services 4.1 Design Guide which is available via the internet at the uniform resource locator of:
  • Wi-Fi is a term that is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance and is a brand name associated with wireless local area networks that operate as designed by one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (“IEEE”) 802.11 standards.
  • IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers'
  • the suggested approach increases costs associated with hardware elements of networks as dedicated location services are required.
  • the suggested approach also fails to permit an access point that is moved from its initial location to autonomously determine its location without using substantial network resources or a dedicated location service.
  • a new telecommunications system and method are needed for permitting mobile terminal devices and access points to determine their location or obtain their location information.
  • such a system and method permit access points and terminal devices to automatically or autonomously obtain such location information from their surrounding environment without communicating with a location service to obtain its location information or without having to provision individually the location information.
  • a device may be able to obtain its location information autonomously.
  • a communication system may include a plurality of communication terminals and a first communication device communicatively connected to the communication terminals.
  • the first communication device may send at least one location resolution request message ("LRR message") to the communication terminals.
  • LRR message location resolution request message
  • Each LRR message may request geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message.
  • Each of the communication terminals that receive an LRR message may send a reply message to the first communication device in response to the received LRR message.
  • the reply message may include the geographical location information of that terminal.
  • the first communication device may receive the reply messages and correct the geographical location information of each reply message to determine a geographical location of the first communication device.
  • the first communication device may be an access point such as a router or Wi-Fi router.
  • the first communication device may be a communication terminal such as, for example, a soft phone running on a personal computer, tablet or laptop that does not utilize a GPS service or GSM service.
  • the first communication device could be a voice over Internet Protocol telephone, which may also be called a VoIP phone.
  • the first communication device may be wirelessly communicatively coupled to all the terminals or some of the terminals.
  • the first communication device may also have a communication connection with one or more of the terminals that is defined by a transmission path involving a wired connection.
  • the first communication device may perform the correcting of the geographical location information until the geographical location of the first communication device is determined to be within a predetermined accuracy range or accuracy confidence interval.
  • the correcting of the geographical location information from the terminals may include the communication device determining where the received geographical location information indicates the communication device is located and then correcting that determined location to correct for a number of factors associated with the identified location and the locations indicated by other received reply messages sent in response to the one or more LRR messages.
  • the reply messages may each include geographical information of the terminal sending that reply message, information indicating an accuracy of that geographical location information, and information indicating a location detection methodology by which the geographical location information was determined.
  • the reply messages may each also include information related to where the terminal was located when it obtained its geographical location information and information related to movement of the terminal after determining or obtaining its geographical location information.
  • the location detection methodology and accuracy of the geographical location information may be utilized to factors applied by the first communication device during the correcting of the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine its geographical location.
  • the first communication device may detect a transmission signal strength for each reply message and associate that transmission signal strength with the reply message. For instance, such a transmission signal strength may be included in a reply message so that the first communication device can detect the transmission signal strength.
  • the transmission signal strength and a receiver signal strength for a receiver of the first communication device may be used to determine a corrective factor applied to the geographical location information of that reply message. That corrective factor may then be applied during the correcting of the geographical location information.
  • the system includes a second communication device that is an access point or a router.
  • the second communication device may be communicatively connected to the communication terminals and to the first communication device.
  • the first communication device may be one of a tablet, a laptop computer, a cellular phone and a mobile communication terminal.
  • the communication terminals may be mobile communication terminals.
  • the communication terminals may each be one of a tablet, a laptop computer, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant, a mobile computer device having a wireless communication transceiver, and an internet appliance.
  • a method is also provided.
  • the method may define a way by which a communication system can be utilized to determine a geographical location of a communication device.
  • One system that may be utilized to practice the method is a communication system as mentioned above and further discussed below.
  • the method may include the step of a first communication device sending at least one LRR message to a plurality of communication terminals.
  • Each LRR message can request geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message.
  • the first communication device may receive the reply messages from the terminals.
  • Each reply message may include geographical location information of the terminal that sent that reply message.
  • the first communication device may then correct the received geographical location information to determine its own geographical location information.
  • the first communication device may be an access point or a router. In other embodiments, the first communication device may be a
  • communication terminal such as a laptop computer, tablet, or computer device.
  • the application is executable by a processor unit of a communication device so that the device performs a method when the application is executed by the processor unit.
  • the method may include the steps of (a) the communication device sending at least one LRR message to a plurality of communication terminals that each request geographical location information of the terminal that receives the LRR message, (b) the communication device receiving reply messages from the terminals that are responsive to the one or more LRR messages that each include geographical location information of the terminal that sent that reply message, and (c) the communication device sending the at least one LRR message, receiving the reply messages, and correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device until its geographical location is determined within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
  • the computer readable medium may include a hard drive, flash memory, a compact disc, a floppy disc, memory of a server hosting an application download service, or be memory of a communication device or communication terminal.
  • the processor unit that may execute the application may be a central processor, one or more microprocessors, or other type of processor.
  • a communication device may include a processor unit and non-transitory memory communicatively coupled to the processor unit.
  • the memory may have an application defined by program code stored thereon.
  • the processor unit may be able to execute the application so that the communication device performs a method when the application is executed by the processor unit.
  • the method may include the steps of (i) the communication device sending at least one LRR message to a plurality of communication terminals that each request geographical location information of the terminal that receives the LRR message, (ii) the communication device receiving reply messages from the terminals that are responsive to the one or more LRR messages that each include geographical location information of the terminal that sent that reply message, and (iii) the communication device sending the at least one LRR message, receiving the reply messages, and correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device until its geographical location is determined within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
  • the at least one LRR message may be a message that is sent via broadcast.
  • one or more LRR messages may be addressed to particular terminals so that those terminals receive the LRR messages.
  • the LRR messages may be transmitted within a local area network hosted by an access point or router to which the communication device is connected.
  • the communication device may be a router or access point that hosts a local area network and may send an LRR message to each terminal to which the communication device is connected.
  • Figure 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a communication system.
  • Figure 2 is a block diagram of a first exemplary embodiment of a communication device.
  • Figure 3 is a block diagram of a second exemplary embodiment of a communication device.
  • Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of determining a geographical location of a communication device that utilizes sending multiple location resolution request messages to communication terminals within a radio range of a communication device transceiver unit.
  • a communication system may include a first communication device 5.
  • the first communication device 5 may serve as an access point to a network 7 such as the internet or an enterprise network.
  • the first communication device 5 may be
  • the first, second, and third communication terminals 3a, 3b, and 3c may each be, for example, a tablet, smart phone, mobile phone, cellular phone, internet appliance, a laptop computer, and a mobile computer device having a wireless transceiver unit such as a van or other vehicle that may have a computer and wireless adapter.
  • the first communication device 5 may be an access point router that hosts a Wi-Fi wireless local area network that also provides access to the network 7.
  • the first communication device may be an access point, a router, a Wi-Fi router, or a border element that provides access to a local area network and also provides access to a wide area network.
  • the network 7 may be the internet, an enterprise network, or a wide area network.
  • a second communication device 5a may also be communicatively connectable to the first communication device 5.
  • the second communication device 5a may be a communication terminal such as a tablet, smart phone, mobile phone, cellular phone, internet appliance or laptop computer.
  • the second communication device 5a could, for instance, be a soft phone running on a personal computer, tablet or laptop that does not utilize a GPS service or GSM service.
  • the second communication device 5a could also be a voice over Internet Protocol (IP) telephone, which may also be called a VoIP phone. It should be understood that a VoIP phone may be a desk phone.
  • IP Internet Protocol
  • the second communication device 5a could alternatively be a wired IP device that is equipped with Wi-Fi functionality.
  • the first communication terminal 3a may be configured to obtain location information that identifies a geographic location of the terminal.
  • the second communication terminal 3b may obtain its location information identifying its geographical location by communicating with a GPS service and the third communication terminal 3c may communicate with a plurality of base stations such as GSM base stations to utilize a triangulation method for identifying its geographical location.
  • Each communication terminal may store its location information, the time that information was determined or obtained and other information related to its acquisition of such information in memory of the terminal.
  • the other information related to acquisition of location information that may be stored by a communication terminal can include an identification of the location information provider, the method by which that information was acquired (e.g. GSM triangulation, GPS, etc.), the origination of the location information provider, the relative time of the location information that is stored (e.g. when that data was obtained or stored), the accuracy of the location information (e.g. accuracy within a 10 meter radius, etc.), and information related to where the
  • Each communication terminal may also store information associated with the location information that identifies the amount of movement from the time the location information was acquired or stored. For instance, the communication terminal may estimate the speed and time at which the terminal was moved or amount of movement the terminal underwent via one or more sensors of the terminal such as one or more accelerometers and store that information and associate that information with the stored location information. It should be understood that such updated movement related information may be updated and stored in association with the initial location information that is received from a location service provider until new location information is obtained via a subsequent communications with the location service provider such as GSM base stations 8 or a GPS service 9.
  • the location service provider such as GSM base stations 8 or a GPS service 9.
  • information relating to the transmitting power of the communication terminal may be stored in association with the location information. For instance, if a communication terminal has a first transmission power for a wireless transmitter of the terminal, the first transmission power may be saved and associated with its location information so that such transmission power information can be included in messages sent to other devices.
  • the first communication device 5 may be an access point that is moved to a new location from a previous location or may otherwise not know its current geographical location due to a movement of the device.
  • the first communication device 5 may utilize a sending of location resolution request ("LRR") messages to obtain currently geographical location that it may then use to autonomously determine its current geographic location.
  • LRR location resolution request
  • the first communication device 5 may send a broadcast message to all the communication terminals within the radio range of its transmitter of a transceiver unit or the first communication device 5 may send each of a number of different communication terminals an LRR message addressed to that terminal.
  • a communication terminal may send a LRR reply message.
  • the LRR reply message may include a number of items of information or indicia indicating different items or types of information.
  • the LRR reply message may each include information identifying a geographical location of the communication terminal, the method by which that location information was acquired, the identification of the location provider or origination of the location information provider, and the time at which that location information was acquired or determined or information identifying the age of the location information.
  • the LRR reply message may also include an accuracy related to the location information such as an error range (e.g. plus or minus ten meters) or a confidence interval value for the geographical location identified in the location information.
  • the LRR reply message may also include information that indicates movement of the communication terminal that took place after the geographical location information was acquired or information that indicates a relative position of where the location information was acquired as compared to the current location of the communication terminal (e.g. the location information was acquired four meters north from the terminal).
  • the LRR reply message may also include transmission power information that identifies the power of a wireless transmitter (e.g. 5, Watts (W), 4 W, 2 W, 500 mW, 250 mW, or 200 mW) used to send the LRR reply to the first communication device 5.
  • the geographical location information and other information associated with that location information may all be included in the LRR reply message or may be indicated via indicia that correspond to such information. For instance, a certain number being present in a particular byte location of a message may correspond to a particular item of information such as a method by which the location information was acquired, or an age of the identified location information.
  • the second communication terminal 3b may respond to the LRR message sent by the first communication device 5 by sending a first LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GPS method, an identification of the GPS service 9 that provided the geographic location information, information indicating the at the location information is accurate to within ten meters, information indicating that the LRR reply message is being sent by a wireless transmitter that has a power of 500 mW and movement information indicating that the second
  • the third communication terminal 3c may respond to an LRR message sent by the first communication device 5 by sending a second LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the LRR reply message is being sent by a wireless transmitter that has a power of 2 W, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GSM triangulation method, and an identification of the GSM service or GSM base stations 8 that provided the geographic location information.
  • the second LRR reply message sent by the third communication terminal 3c may also include information indicating that the location information is accurate to within five meters, and movement information indicating that the second communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GSM base stations 8 included in the LRR reply message.
  • the geographical location information included in the first and second LRR reply messages are geographical related information. Such information is not an address of the terminal. Instead, such information is information that identifies a geographical location of the device using a known methodology for indicating such a position on Earth.
  • Examples of such geographical location methodologies that may be utilized to identify a geographical location include information utilizing geographical coordinates (e.g. longitude and latitude), indicia indicating what the geographical coordinates are for the location of the terminal, or indicia indicating a physical address by country, state or province, city, street, street number and zip code.
  • geographical coordinates e.g. longitude and latitude
  • indicia indicating what the geographical coordinates are for the location of the terminal
  • indicia indicating a physical address by country, state or province, city, street, street number and zip code e.g. longitude and latitude
  • the first communication device 5 may detect a radio signal strength for each received LRR reply message and associate the detected radio signal strength with each received LRR reply message.
  • the associated radio strength may be used to indicate how near or far the communication terminal that sent the LRR reply message is to the first communication device 5 for use in correcting the received geographical location information to adjust that information for determining the location of the first communication device 5.
  • the first communication terminal 5 may receive a LRR reply message indicating the message was sent by a transmitter having a power of 200 mW.
  • the first communication terminal may utilize such information in addition to information indicating the reception power of its receiver unit to calculate, estimate or otherwise determine the distance from which the first communication device 5 is from the terminal that sent the LRR reply message.
  • a reception power may be any of a number of different reception power values that could be acceptable for meeting a particular design objective, such as 5 W, 4 W, 2 W, 500 mW, 100 ⁇ etc.
  • Such a determination may indicate the relative distance separating the first communication device from the terminal sending the LRR reply message so that an estimated radius around the location identified in the LRR reply message may be made for use in identifying the location of the first communication terminal.
  • Some communication terminals may respond to an LRR message multiple times. If each LRR reply message includes an identification of the terminal sending the LRR reply message, the first communication terminal may use such information to determine that it has received multiple LRR reply messages from the same terminal device. The location information from the same terminal may then be weighted to account for the multiple reply messages if the messages identify different locations due to a change in position of the terminal, for example.
  • the first communication terminal may only count or consider one of the received LRR reply messages from the same terminal if no new location information in provided in any subsequently received LRR reply message.
  • the first communication device 5 may utilize the location information of the vehicle
  • accuracy, age and methodology information may correspond to different weights that are given to the location information and that location information when the location information is further assessed via one or more error correction processes such as an error correction calculation or a bell curve elimination calculation.
  • error correction processes such as an error correction calculation or a bell curve elimination calculation.
  • the bell curve elimination may be utilized to eliminate values that are outside of a certain standard deviation of other received values.
  • the communication device may not consider geographical location information from one or more LRR reply messages if the identified information is determined to identify a geographical location for the communication device that is beyond an upper threshold or below a lower threshold. Based on such corrected location information, which may also be corrected or correlated with the radio signal strength for each received LRR reply message to which that information was included the first
  • the communication device 5 may determine its current geographical location. The first
  • the communication device 5 may be configured to continue sending LRR messages until it receives enough LRR reply messages that permit the first communication device to determine its geographical location within a predetermined or desired accuracy range such as a 90% confidence interval range or an accuracy that is plus or minus ten meters. Once this accuracy threshold is reached, the first communication device 5 may reduce the frequency of sending LRR messages or stop sending out LRR messages.
  • a predetermined or desired accuracy range such as a 90% confidence interval range or an accuracy that is plus or minus ten meters.
  • specification limit and upper specification limit may be used to eliminate values measured or identified that are above the upper specification limit or below the lower specification limit such that the eliminated values are not considered when determining the geographical location of the communication device.
  • These limits may be defined as actual values or as being a value equal to a multiple of a standard of deviation for the received location information from the LRR reply messages. For instance, a plus/minus of two, three, or six times the standard deviation may be used to define the upper and lower specification limits. It should be understood that in addition to correcting the received geographical information by not considering certain values found to be outside of specified limits, the information that is received may also be corrected using other methodologies by weighing different received information to account for methodology used to obtain the location information, transmission and reception signal strength and application of other error correction methodologies.
  • the sending of LRR messages, receipt of reply messages, and, the determination of where the received geographical location information indicates the communication device is located, and the correction of the received geographical location information and communication device geographical location determined therefrom may be an iterative process and continue as necessary until a predetermined accuracy threshold is reached for the determined geographical information for the communication device.
  • the first communication device 5 may be configured to send LRR messages out until it has determined its geographical location after every time the device is turned on or may only perform such a determination when input is sent to the first communication device 5 asking it to identify or determine its current location.
  • the first communication device 5 may attempt to determine its current geographical location by sending out a plurality of LRR messages and then assessing the data obtained in LRR reply message periodically such as every four weeks, every three months, or after some other predetermined time period has passed since the first communication device last determined its current location information.
  • the first communication device 5 may then utilize its current location information by providing that information to other devices or by including that information in messages the first communication device 5 may forward to other devices. For instance, if a communication terminal communicatively interconnected with the first communication device 5, such as the first communication terminal 3a, sends an emergency call through the network 7 via its connection with the first communication device 5, the first client device 5 may include information in the signaling sent to initiate that call that identifies the geographical location of the first communication device 5 in the event location information of the first communication terminal 3a is not included in that signaling. Such data may be used by the device receiving the emergency call for identifying where an emergency event is occurring.
  • the first communication device 5 may send a message that includes its geographical location information to a location server for the server to save in a database so that an administrator may access the database to determine where the first communication device 5 is located within a number of facilities that may comprise an enterprise network.
  • the sending of such a message to a server simplifies location detection for communication devices 5 and permits location data to be collected without the need of using a location service as disclosed in the Wi-Fi Location Based Services 4.1 Design Guide. It should be understood that the sending of such a message may occur autonomously so that no user involvement is needed to initiate the sending of such a message.
  • a second communication device 5a may be a communication terminal that is communicatively connected to the first communication device 5, which may function as an access point for the network 7.
  • the second communication device 5a may be a mobile communication terminal that does not have access to a GPS service or GSM base stations or other location service.
  • the second communication may be configured to determine its current geographical location by sending a message to the first communication device 5 to obtain the current geographical location of the first communication device.
  • the second communication device 5a may send a plurality of LRRs to other communication terminals within a local area network hosted by the first communication device 5.
  • Such LRR messages may be a broadcast message sent by the second communication device 5a that is forwarded by the first communication device 5 or may be LRR messages that are addressed to different communication terminals interconnected to the first communication device 5.
  • the communication terminals that receive the LRR messages may send LRR reply messages to the second communication device 5a.
  • the second communication device 5a may then assess the geographical information and other location related information from such reply messages.
  • the receipt and processing of the location information provided in the LRR reply messages may be similar to how the first communication device 5 assesses such information as discussed above.
  • the second communication terminal 3b may respond to the LRR message sent by the second communication device 5a by sending a LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the second communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GPS method, an identification of the GPS service 9 that provided the geographic location information, information indicating the at the location information is accurate to within ten meters, and movement information indicating that the second communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GPS service 9 included in the LRR reply message.
  • a LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the second communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GPS method, an identification of the GPS service 9 that provided the geographic location information, information indicating the at the location information is accurate to within ten meters, and movement information indicating that the second communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GPS service 9 included in the LRR reply message.
  • the third communication terminal 3c may respond to an LRR message sent by the second communication device 5a by sending a LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the third communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GSM triangulation method, and an identification of the GSM service or GSM base stations 8 that provided the geographic location information.
  • the LRR reply message sent by the third communication terminal 3c may also include information indicating that the location information is accurate to within five meters and movement information indicating that the second communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GSM base stations 8 included in the LRR reply message.
  • the first communication device 5 may associate a radio signal strength with each received LRR reply message and that this associated radio strength may be included in any LRR reply messages that the first communication device 5 receives that is for receipt by the second communication device.
  • the LRR reply message may also include a source transmission power or the first communication device may otherwise associated a source transmission power for the terminal that sent the LRR reply message with that LRR reply message.
  • the first communication device 5 may add such radio signal strength information as well as information indicating its own transmission radio signal strength into the forwarded LRR reply message that is sent to the second communication device 5a so that the second communication device 5a may use that information to indicate how near or far the communication terminal that sent the LRR reply message is to the second communication device 5a. If the first communication device 5 also associated a source transmission power with the LRR reply message, it may also add the associated source power transmission in the forwarded LRR reply message so the second communication device can utilize such information for assessing its location.
  • the second communication device 5a may utilize the location information and information related thereto such as the accuracy related information, identified methodology used to determine the location information, and age of that location information to further process the location information utilizing one or more correction algorithms.
  • accuracy, age and methodology information may correspond to different weights that are given to the location information and that location information when the location information is further assessed via one or more error correction processes such as an error correction calculation or a bell curve elimination calculation.
  • the geographical location information of the different terminals may also be corrected or correlated with the radio signal strength for each received LRR reply message to which that information was included the first communication device 5 may determine its current geographical location.
  • the second communication device 5a may be configured to continue sending LRR messages until it receives enough LRR reply messages that permit the second communication device 5a to determine its geographical location within a predetermined or desired accuracy range such as a 85% confidence interval range or an accuracy that is plus or minus fifteen meters. Once this accuracy threshold is reached, the second communication device 5a may stop sending out LRR messages.
  • the second communication device 5a may be configured to actuate its geographic location finding mechanism that results in the sending of LRR messages and assessing replies received in response to those LRR message in any of a number of ways. For instance, a user may provide input that actuates an application on the second communication device 5a that defines a method that includes the sending of LRR messages and processing of information received in reply to those messages to determine a geographical location of the second communication device 5a. As another example, the second communication device 5a may be configured to periodically perform such location determinations upon a predetermined time period passing.
  • the second communication device 5a may store its detected geographic location information in memory and use that location information for certain applications.
  • the geographical location information may be included in communications exchanged during an emergency call or emergency communication message sent to an emergency services provider.
  • the location information may be included in a message sent to a location service so that the location information of the device may be updated by that service.
  • the location information could also be utilized for navigation applications for finding a closes service geographically near the second communication device or to calculate an amount of time it would take to travel to a particular destination.
  • the location information could also be sent to one or more devices such as a switch or server once that location is determined so that geographically dependent messages are accurately sent from the switch or server to the second communication device. It should be appreciated that there are a number of other uses that may also be made of such location information.
  • the first communication device 5 of the system shown in Figure 1 may be a computer device that functions as an access point such as a router.
  • the first communication device 5 may include a processor unit 12 such as a central processor or microprocessor that is communicatively coupled to at least a first transceiver unit 13 that includes a wireless transmission unit and a wireless receiver unit for communicatively connected to other devices as shown in Figure 2 for example.
  • the receiver unit of the first transceiver unit 13 may be an omni direction antenna that has a power of 5 W to 100 ⁇ .
  • the processor unit 12 may also be communicatively connected to non-transitory memory such as flash memory 14, a hard drive, or other memory.
  • An application 16 may be stored on the memory 14 that may include program code that defines a method that is executed when the processor unit 12 executes the application 16.
  • the method that is defined may define the functionality discussed above of sending out LRR messages and then subsequently processing the information obtained from LRR reply messages received in response to the sent LRR messages.
  • One example of such a method is shown in Figure 4.
  • the second communication device 5a may be configured to function as a communication terminal such as a tablet, smart phone, cellular phone or laptop computer.
  • the second communication device may include a processor unit 12 that is communicatively connected to non-transitory memory 14, a speaker 20, a second transceiver unit 13a, a microphone 18, a display unit 19 and one or more other input devices such as one or more buttons.
  • the display unit 19 may include a liquid crystal display or other display and be a touch screen that also permits a user to provide input by touching the display.
  • the speaker may emit audio and the microphone may record audio for receipt of input from a user.
  • the second transceiver unit 13a may include a wireless receiver unit and a wireless transmission unit for sending and receiving data or messages from other devices via a communication connection formed directly with those devices or a communication connection formed via an interconnection with the first
  • the receiver unit of the second transceiver unit 13a may be an omni direction antenna that has a power of 2 W to 100 ⁇ .
  • the memory 14 of the second communication device 5a may include an application 16.
  • the application 16 may include program code that defines a method that is executed when the processor unit 12 executes the application 16.
  • the method that is defined may define the functionality discussed above of sending out LRR messages and then subsequently processing the information obtained from LRR reply messages received in response to the sent LRR messages.
  • One example of such a method is also illustrated in Figure 4.
  • the communication system may be configured to operate utilizing a Wi-Fi protocol or an address resolution protocol.
  • the communication devices may be access points such as routers or other computer devices such as communication terminals.
  • one communication device may be a communication terminal that is configured to also functions as an access point for one or more terminal devices in some embodiments of the system.
  • the communication system may be configured to operate utilizing a Wi-Fi protocol or an address resolution protocol.
  • the communication devices may be access points such as routers or other computer devices such as communication terminals.
  • one communication device may be a communication terminal that is configured to also functions as an access point for one or more terminal devices in some embodiments of the system.
  • the communication system may be configured to operate utilizing a Wi-Fi protocol or an address resolution protocol.
  • the communication devices may be access points such as routers or other computer devices such as communication terminals.
  • one communication device may be a communication terminal that is configured to also functions as an access point for one or more terminal devices in some embodiments of the system.
  • the communication terminal may be configured to also
  • communication system may include terminals and communication devices that are only wirelessly connected and may also include one or more terminals that are connected via one or more wired transmission paths to a communication device.

Abstract

A method and apparatus utilize a location resolution request that may be sent to one or more devices to obtain a reply that provides location information. The reply may also identify a relative time such as the age of the location information and estimated accuracy of such information. Multiple location resolution request messages may be sent so that the location information obtained from replies to that message can be processed utilizing an error correction method to improve the reliability and precision of the location information until the location information that is so corrected is determined to be at or above a predetermined accuracy threshold such as at or above a 90% accuracy confidence interval or that a determined location is at or exceeds a predetermined confidence interval.

Description

LOCATION DETECTION APPARATUS AND METHOD
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to communication systems and methods of using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a telecommunication apparatus and method that is configured to permit mobile terminal devices and access points to exchange location information so that a device is able to detect or retrieve its location information when lacking such information.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Location information for different telecommunication systems has been organized in different ways. For instance, conventional systems that utilized hard wired lines for
interconnecting terminal devices such as telephones to switches for utilizing a telephone system often had locations fixed and their location information was often provisioned by a system administrator. For instance, each phone may have been assigned a room in which it was located and an administrator may have kept a table of phone numbers and room numbers that corresponded with a particular phone.
As another example, some telephones have the capability of being removed from one hardwired position to another hardwired position. Such capability meant that an initially assigned location may no longer be accurate. For such systems, access points to which a number of phones may interconnect for connection within a system was typically utilized as the device that had location information for the telephones that interconnected with the access point.
Such approaches often fail to permit location information to be resolved when a mobile terminal device such as a tablet, mobile telephone, cellular telephone, or mobile smart phone is included in the system. Approaches to resolving the location of such mobile devices include use stations such as the Global System for Mobile Communications ("GSM") triangulation method. Such approaches require the terminal device to obtain its location information by communicating with a service that identifies a location by communicating with multiple base stations or by communicating with multiple different satellites. The use of GPS or GSM triangulation methods, however, are unable to account for mobile devices that are not part of a GSM network or are unable to utilize a GPS service. Such devices may not have a GSM receiver or GPS receiver for example and therefore may be unable to obtain or detect their location information.
Currently, the use of internet connections for telephony services is growing. Devices such as SIP telephones, tablets, laptops, PC telephones, laptops or desktop computers may be configured to utilize one or more microphones and speakers for forming audio communication connections or video communication connections via an internet connection. Such devices often lack a GSM receiver or a GPS receiver. Devices that utilize such internet connectivity for engaging in telephony services therefore often do not have a way to retrieve their location information. This is particularly true for systems in which an access point was moved from its initial position to a new location.
One approach that has been published for enhancing Wi-Fi to facilitate the exchange or detection of location information in the protocol used for such communications is disclosed in the Wi-Fi Location Based Services 4.1 Design Guide, which is available via the internet at the uniform resource locator of:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Mobility/lbswifig_external.pdf. It should be appreciated that "Wi-Fi" is a term that is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance and is a brand name associated with wireless local area networks that operate as designed by one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' ("IEEE") 802.11 standards. The approach suggested in the Wi-Fi Location Based Services 4.1 Design Guide fails to provide any automatism for devices lacking location information so that these devices may retrieve such information from their environment. Instead, such location based services merely relate to a location service
communicating with different access points to track the location of different mobile devices using a radio frequency fingerprinting methodology that uses radio frequency identification tags. The suggested approach increases costs associated with hardware elements of networks as dedicated location services are required. The suggested approach also fails to permit an access point that is moved from its initial location to autonomously determine its location without using substantial network resources or a dedicated location service.
A new telecommunications system and method are needed for permitting mobile terminal devices and access points to determine their location or obtain their location information.
Preferably, such a system and method permit access points and terminal devices to automatically or autonomously obtain such location information from their surrounding environment without communicating with a location service to obtain its location information or without having to provision individually the location information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
We have developed a new system, method, and device that may permit a communication device to obtain its location information without needing a GSM receiver or GPS receiver. In some embodiments of our apparatuses and method, a device may be able to obtain its location information autonomously.
A communication system may include a plurality of communication terminals and a first communication device communicatively connected to the communication terminals. The first communication device may send at least one location resolution request message ("LRR message") to the communication terminals. Each LRR message may request geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message. Each of the communication terminals that receive an LRR message may send a reply message to the first communication device in response to the received LRR message. The reply message may include the geographical location information of that terminal. The first communication device may receive the reply messages and correct the geographical location information of each reply message to determine a geographical location of the first communication device.
The first communication device may be an access point such as a router or Wi-Fi router. Alternatively, the first communication device may be a communication terminal such as, for example, a soft phone running on a personal computer, tablet or laptop that does not utilize a GPS service or GSM service. As another example, the first communication device could be a voice over Internet Protocol telephone, which may also be called a VoIP phone. The first communication device may be wirelessly communicatively coupled to all the terminals or some of the terminals. The first communication device may also have a communication connection with one or more of the terminals that is defined by a transmission path involving a wired connection.
In one embodiment of the system, the first communication device may perform the correcting of the geographical location information until the geographical location of the first communication device is determined to be within a predetermined accuracy range or accuracy confidence interval. The correcting of the geographical location information from the terminals may include the communication device determining where the received geographical location information indicates the communication device is located and then correcting that determined location to correct for a number of factors associated with the identified location and the locations indicated by other received reply messages sent in response to the one or more LRR messages.
The reply messages may each include geographical information of the terminal sending that reply message, information indicating an accuracy of that geographical location information, and information indicating a location detection methodology by which the geographical location information was determined. The reply messages may each also include information related to where the terminal was located when it obtained its geographical location information and information related to movement of the terminal after determining or obtaining its geographical location information. The location detection methodology and accuracy of the geographical location information may be utilized to factors applied by the first communication device during the correcting of the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine its geographical location.
In one embodiment of the system, the first communication device may detect a transmission signal strength for each reply message and associate that transmission signal strength with the reply message. For instance, such a transmission signal strength may be included in a reply message so that the first communication device can detect the transmission signal strength. The transmission signal strength and a receiver signal strength for a receiver of the first communication device may be used to determine a corrective factor applied to the geographical location information of that reply message. That corrective factor may then be applied during the correcting of the geographical location information.
In one embodiment of the system, the system includes a second communication device that is an access point or a router. The second communication device may be communicatively connected to the communication terminals and to the first communication device. The first communication device may be one of a tablet, a laptop computer, a cellular phone and a mobile communication terminal. The communication terminals may be mobile communication terminals. For instance, the communication terminals may each be one of a tablet, a laptop computer, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant, a mobile computer device having a wireless communication transceiver, and an internet appliance.
A method is also provided. The method may define a way by which a communication system can be utilized to determine a geographical location of a communication device. One system that may be utilized to practice the method is a communication system as mentioned above and further discussed below.
In one embodiment of the method, the method may include the step of a first communication device sending at least one LRR message to a plurality of communication terminals. Each LRR message can request geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message. The first communication device may receive the reply messages from the terminals. Each reply message may include geographical location information of the terminal that sent that reply message. The first communication device may then correct the received geographical location information to determine its own geographical location information.
In some embodiments of the method, the first communication device may be an access point or a router. In other embodiments, the first communication device may be a
communication terminal such as a laptop computer, tablet, or computer device.
A non-transitory computer readable medium having an application defined by program code stored thereon. The application is executable by a processor unit of a communication device so that the device performs a method when the application is executed by the processor unit. The method may include the steps of (a) the communication device sending at least one LRR message to a plurality of communication terminals that each request geographical location information of the terminal that receives the LRR message, (b) the communication device receiving reply messages from the terminals that are responsive to the one or more LRR messages that each include geographical location information of the terminal that sent that reply message, and (c) the communication device sending the at least one LRR message, receiving the reply messages, and correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device until its geographical location is determined within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
It should be understood that the computer readable medium may include a hard drive, flash memory, a compact disc, a floppy disc, memory of a server hosting an application download service, or be memory of a communication device or communication terminal. The processor unit that may execute the application may be a central processor, one or more microprocessors, or other type of processor.
A communication device is also provided. That communication device may include a processor unit and non-transitory memory communicatively coupled to the processor unit. The memory may have an application defined by program code stored thereon. The processor unit may be able to execute the application so that the communication device performs a method when the application is executed by the processor unit. The method may include the steps of (i) the communication device sending at least one LRR message to a plurality of communication terminals that each request geographical location information of the terminal that receives the LRR message, (ii) the communication device receiving reply messages from the terminals that are responsive to the one or more LRR messages that each include geographical location information of the terminal that sent that reply message, and (iii) the communication device sending the at least one LRR message, receiving the reply messages, and correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device until its geographical location is determined within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
It should be appreciated that the at least one LRR message may be a message that is sent via broadcast. Alternatively, or in combination, one or more LRR messages may be addressed to particular terminals so that those terminals receive the LRR messages. The LRR messages may be transmitted within a local area network hosted by an access point or router to which the communication device is connected. Alternatively, the communication device may be a router or access point that hosts a local area network and may send an LRR message to each terminal to which the communication device is connected.
Other details, objects, and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description of certain present preferred embodiments thereof and certain present preferred methods of practicing the same proceeds.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Present preferred devices, systems, and apparatuses for providing communications between multiple communication devices are shown in the accompanying drawings and certain present preferred methods of practicing the same are also illustrated therein. It should be understood that like reference numbers used in the drawings may identify like components.
Figure 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a communication system. Figure 2 is a block diagram of a first exemplary embodiment of a communication device. Figure 3 is a block diagram of a second exemplary embodiment of a communication device.
Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method of determining a geographical location of a communication device that utilizes sending multiple location resolution request messages to communication terminals within a radio range of a communication device transceiver unit.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PRESENT PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring to Figures 1-4, a communication system may include a first communication device 5. The first communication device 5 may serve as an access point to a network 7 such as the internet or an enterprise network. The first communication device 5 may be
communicatively connected to a first communication terminal 3a, second communication terminal 3b and third communication terminal 3c for example. The first, second, and third communication terminals 3a, 3b, and 3c may each be, for example, a tablet, smart phone, mobile phone, cellular phone, internet appliance, a laptop computer, and a mobile computer device having a wireless transceiver unit such as a van or other vehicle that may have a computer and wireless adapter. The first communication device 5 may be an access point router that hosts a Wi-Fi wireless local area network that also provides access to the network 7. For example, the first communication device may be an access point, a router, a Wi-Fi router, or a border element that provides access to a local area network and also provides access to a wide area network. The network 7 may be the internet, an enterprise network, or a wide area network.
A second communication device 5a may also be communicatively connectable to the first communication device 5. The second communication device 5a may be a communication terminal such as a tablet, smart phone, mobile phone, cellular phone, internet appliance or laptop computer. The second communication device 5a could, for instance, be a soft phone running on a personal computer, tablet or laptop that does not utilize a GPS service or GSM service. As another example, the second communication device 5a could also be a voice over Internet Protocol (IP) telephone, which may also be called a VoIP phone. It should be understood that a VoIP phone may be a desk phone. As yet another example, the second communication device 5a could alternatively be a wired IP device that is equipped with Wi-Fi functionality.
The first communication terminal 3a may be configured to obtain location information that identifies a geographic location of the terminal. The second communication terminal 3b may obtain its location information identifying its geographical location by communicating with a GPS service and the third communication terminal 3c may communicate with a plurality of base stations such as GSM base stations to utilize a triangulation method for identifying its geographical location. Each communication terminal may store its location information, the time that information was determined or obtained and other information related to its acquisition of such information in memory of the terminal.
The other information related to acquisition of location information that may be stored by a communication terminal can include an identification of the location information provider, the method by which that information was acquired (e.g. GSM triangulation, GPS, etc.), the origination of the location information provider, the relative time of the location information that is stored (e.g. when that data was obtained or stored), the accuracy of the location information (e.g. accuracy within a 10 meter radius, etc.), and information related to where the
communication terminal was located when that location information was obtained. Each communication terminal may also store information associated with the location information that identifies the amount of movement from the time the location information was acquired or stored. For instance, the communication terminal may estimate the speed and time at which the terminal was moved or amount of movement the terminal underwent via one or more sensors of the terminal such as one or more accelerometers and store that information and associate that information with the stored location information. It should be understood that such updated movement related information may be updated and stored in association with the initial location information that is received from a location service provider until new location information is obtained via a subsequent communications with the location service provider such as GSM base stations 8 or a GPS service 9.
Additionally, information relating to the transmitting power of the communication terminal may be stored in association with the location information. For instance, if a communication terminal has a first transmission power for a wireless transmitter of the terminal, the first transmission power may be saved and associated with its location information so that such transmission power information can be included in messages sent to other devices.
The first communication device 5 may be an access point that is moved to a new location from a previous location or may otherwise not know its current geographical location due to a movement of the device. The first communication device 5 may utilize a sending of location resolution request ("LRR") messages to obtain currently geographical location that it may then use to autonomously determine its current geographic location. For instance, the first communication device 5 may send a broadcast message to all the communication terminals within the radio range of its transmitter of a transceiver unit or the first communication device 5 may send each of a number of different communication terminals an LRR message addressed to that terminal. In response to an LRR message, a communication terminal may send a LRR reply message. The LRR reply message may include a number of items of information or indicia indicating different items or types of information. For instance, the LRR reply message may each include information identifying a geographical location of the communication terminal, the method by which that location information was acquired, the identification of the location provider or origination of the location information provider, and the time at which that location information was acquired or determined or information identifying the age of the location information. The LRR reply message may also include an accuracy related to the location information such as an error range (e.g. plus or minus ten meters) or a confidence interval value for the geographical location identified in the location information. The LRR reply message may also include information that indicates movement of the communication terminal that took place after the geographical location information was acquired or information that indicates a relative position of where the location information was acquired as compared to the current location of the communication terminal (e.g. the location information was acquired four meters north from the terminal). The LRR reply message may also include transmission power information that identifies the power of a wireless transmitter (e.g. 5, Watts (W), 4 W, 2 W, 500 mW, 250 mW, or 200 mW) used to send the LRR reply to the first communication device 5. The geographical location information and other information associated with that location information may all be included in the LRR reply message or may be indicated via indicia that correspond to such information. For instance, a certain number being present in a particular byte location of a message may correspond to a particular item of information such as a method by which the location information was acquired, or an age of the identified location information. For example, the second communication terminal 3b may respond to the LRR message sent by the first communication device 5 by sending a first LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GPS method, an identification of the GPS service 9 that provided the geographic location information, information indicating the at the location information is accurate to within ten meters, information indicating that the LRR reply message is being sent by a wireless transmitter that has a power of 500 mW and movement information indicating that the second
communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GPS service 9 included in the LRR reply message.
As another example, the third communication terminal 3c may respond to an LRR message sent by the first communication device 5 by sending a second LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the LRR reply message is being sent by a wireless transmitter that has a power of 2 W, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GSM triangulation method, and an identification of the GSM service or GSM base stations 8 that provided the geographic location information. The second LRR reply message sent by the third communication terminal 3c may also include information indicating that the location information is accurate to within five meters, and movement information indicating that the second communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GSM base stations 8 included in the LRR reply message. It should be understood that the geographical location information included in the first and second LRR reply messages are geographical related information. Such information is not an address of the terminal. Instead, such information is information that identifies a geographical location of the device using a known methodology for indicating such a position on Earth.
Examples of such geographical location methodologies that may be utilized to identify a geographical location include information utilizing geographical coordinates (e.g. longitude and latitude), indicia indicating what the geographical coordinates are for the location of the terminal, or indicia indicating a physical address by country, state or province, city, street, street number and zip code.
Additionally, it should be appreciated that the first communication device 5 may detect a radio signal strength for each received LRR reply message and associate the detected radio signal strength with each received LRR reply message. The associated radio strength may be used to indicate how near or far the communication terminal that sent the LRR reply message is to the first communication device 5 for use in correcting the received geographical location information to adjust that information for determining the location of the first communication device 5.
For example, the first communication terminal 5 may receive a LRR reply message indicating the message was sent by a transmitter having a power of 200 mW. The first communication terminal may utilize such information in addition to information indicating the reception power of its receiver unit to calculate, estimate or otherwise determine the distance from which the first communication device 5 is from the terminal that sent the LRR reply message. Such a reception power may be any of a number of different reception power values that could be acceptable for meeting a particular design objective, such as 5 W, 4 W, 2 W, 500 mW, 100 μ\¥ etc. Such a determination may indicate the relative distance separating the first communication device from the terminal sending the LRR reply message so that an estimated radius around the location identified in the LRR reply message may be made for use in identifying the location of the first communication terminal.
Some communication terminals may respond to an LRR message multiple times. If each LRR reply message includes an identification of the terminal sending the LRR reply message, the first communication terminal may use such information to determine that it has received multiple LRR reply messages from the same terminal device. The location information from the same terminal may then be weighted to account for the multiple reply messages if the messages identify different locations due to a change in position of the terminal, for example.
Alternatively, the first communication terminal may only count or consider one of the received LRR reply messages from the same terminal if no new location information in provided in any subsequently received LRR reply message.
The first communication device 5 may utilize the location information of the
communication terminals and the and information related thereto included in the LRR reply messages such as the accuracy related information, identified methodology used to determine the location information, and age of that location information to further process the location information utilizing one or more correction algorithms to determine the geographical location of the first communication device 5. For example, accuracy, age and methodology information may correspond to different weights that are given to the location information and that location information when the location information is further assessed via one or more error correction processes such as an error correction calculation or a bell curve elimination calculation. For instance, the bell curve elimination may be utilized to eliminate values that are outside of a certain standard deviation of other received values. For instance, the communication device may not consider geographical location information from one or more LRR reply messages if the identified information is determined to identify a geographical location for the communication device that is beyond an upper threshold or below a lower threshold. Based on such corrected location information, which may also be corrected or correlated with the radio signal strength for each received LRR reply message to which that information was included the first
communication device 5 may determine its current geographical location. The first
communication device 5 may be configured to continue sending LRR messages until it receives enough LRR reply messages that permit the first communication device to determine its geographical location within a predetermined or desired accuracy range such as a 90% confidence interval range or an accuracy that is plus or minus ten meters. Once this accuracy threshold is reached, the first communication device 5 may reduce the frequency of sending LRR messages or stop sending out LRR messages.
Of course, a number of different error correction methodologies may be utilized for applying an error correction to received locations identified in LRR reply messages for purposes of determining a location of the first communication device 5. For example, a lower
specification limit and upper specification limit may be used to eliminate values measured or identified that are above the upper specification limit or below the lower specification limit such that the eliminated values are not considered when determining the geographical location of the communication device. These limits may be defined as actual values or as being a value equal to a multiple of a standard of deviation for the received location information from the LRR reply messages. For instance, a plus/minus of two, three, or six times the standard deviation may be used to define the upper and lower specification limits. It should be understood that in addition to correcting the received geographical information by not considering certain values found to be outside of specified limits, the information that is received may also be corrected using other methodologies by weighing different received information to account for methodology used to obtain the location information, transmission and reception signal strength and application of other error correction methodologies. The sending of LRR messages, receipt of reply messages, and, the determination of where the received geographical location information indicates the communication device is located, and the correction of the received geographical location information and communication device geographical location determined therefrom may be an iterative process and continue as necessary until a predetermined accuracy threshold is reached for the determined geographical information for the communication device.
The first communication device 5 may be configured to send LRR messages out until it has determined its geographical location after every time the device is turned on or may only perform such a determination when input is sent to the first communication device 5 asking it to identify or determine its current location. As yet another alternative, the first communication device 5 may attempt to determine its current geographical location by sending out a plurality of LRR messages and then assessing the data obtained in LRR reply message periodically such as every four weeks, every three months, or after some other predetermined time period has passed since the first communication device last determined its current location information.
The first communication device 5 may then utilize its current location information by providing that information to other devices or by including that information in messages the first communication device 5 may forward to other devices. For instance, if a communication terminal communicatively interconnected with the first communication device 5, such as the first communication terminal 3a, sends an emergency call through the network 7 via its connection with the first communication device 5, the first client device 5 may include information in the signaling sent to initiate that call that identifies the geographical location of the first communication device 5 in the event location information of the first communication terminal 3a is not included in that signaling. Such data may be used by the device receiving the emergency call for identifying where an emergency event is occurring.
As another example, the first communication device 5 may send a message that includes its geographical location information to a location server for the server to save in a database so that an administrator may access the database to determine where the first communication device 5 is located within a number of facilities that may comprise an enterprise network. The sending of such a message to a server simplifies location detection for communication devices 5 and permits location data to be collected without the need of using a location service as disclosed in the Wi-Fi Location Based Services 4.1 Design Guide. It should be understood that the sending of such a message may occur autonomously so that no user involvement is needed to initiate the sending of such a message.
In other embodiments, a second communication device 5a may be a communication terminal that is communicatively connected to the first communication device 5, which may function as an access point for the network 7. The second communication device 5a may be a mobile communication terminal that does not have access to a GPS service or GSM base stations or other location service. The second communication may be configured to determine its current geographical location by sending a message to the first communication device 5 to obtain the current geographical location of the first communication device. Alternatively, the second communication device 5a may send a plurality of LRRs to other communication terminals within a local area network hosted by the first communication device 5. Such LRR messages may be a broadcast message sent by the second communication device 5a that is forwarded by the first communication device 5 or may be LRR messages that are addressed to different communication terminals interconnected to the first communication device 5.
The communication terminals that receive the LRR messages may send LRR reply messages to the second communication device 5a. The second communication device 5a may then assess the geographical information and other location related information from such reply messages. The receipt and processing of the location information provided in the LRR reply messages may be similar to how the first communication device 5 assesses such information as discussed above.
For example, the second communication terminal 3b may respond to the LRR message sent by the second communication device 5a by sending a LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the second communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GPS method, an identification of the GPS service 9 that provided the geographic location information, information indicating the at the location information is accurate to within ten meters, and movement information indicating that the second communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GPS service 9 included in the LRR reply message.
As another example, the third communication terminal 3c may respond to an LRR message sent by the second communication device 5a by sending a LRR reply message that includes geographical location information for the third communication terminal, a time indicative of the age of that location information, information indicating that the location information was obtained via a GSM triangulation method, and an identification of the GSM service or GSM base stations 8 that provided the geographic location information. The LRR reply message sent by the third communication terminal 3c may also include information indicating that the location information is accurate to within five meters and movement information indicating that the second communication terminal has moved three meters south since acquiring the location information from the GSM base stations 8 included in the LRR reply message.
Additionally, it should be appreciated that the first communication device 5 may associate a radio signal strength with each received LRR reply message and that this associated radio strength may be included in any LRR reply messages that the first communication device 5 receives that is for receipt by the second communication device. The LRR reply message may also include a source transmission power or the first communication device may otherwise associated a source transmission power for the terminal that sent the LRR reply message with that LRR reply message. The first communication device 5 may add such radio signal strength information as well as information indicating its own transmission radio signal strength into the forwarded LRR reply message that is sent to the second communication device 5a so that the second communication device 5a may use that information to indicate how near or far the communication terminal that sent the LRR reply message is to the second communication device 5a. If the first communication device 5 also associated a source transmission power with the LRR reply message, it may also add the associated source power transmission in the forwarded LRR reply message so the second communication device can utilize such information for assessing its location.
The second communication device 5a may utilize the location information and information related thereto such as the accuracy related information, identified methodology used to determine the location information, and age of that location information to further process the location information utilizing one or more correction algorithms. For example, accuracy, age and methodology information may correspond to different weights that are given to the location information and that location information when the location information is further assessed via one or more error correction processes such as an error correction calculation or a bell curve elimination calculation. In addition to weighing different received geographical location values and no considering certain identified values that are determined to be outside of upper or lower specification limits, the geographical location information of the different terminals may also be corrected or correlated with the radio signal strength for each received LRR reply message to which that information was included the first communication device 5 may determine its current geographical location.
The second communication device 5a may be configured to continue sending LRR messages until it receives enough LRR reply messages that permit the second communication device 5a to determine its geographical location within a predetermined or desired accuracy range such as a 85% confidence interval range or an accuracy that is plus or minus fifteen meters. Once this accuracy threshold is reached, the second communication device 5a may stop sending out LRR messages.
The second communication device 5a may be configured to actuate its geographic location finding mechanism that results in the sending of LRR messages and assessing replies received in response to those LRR message in any of a number of ways. For instance, a user may provide input that actuates an application on the second communication device 5a that defines a method that includes the sending of LRR messages and processing of information received in reply to those messages to determine a geographical location of the second communication device 5a. As another example, the second communication device 5a may be configured to periodically perform such location determinations upon a predetermined time period passing.
The second communication device 5a may store its detected geographic location information in memory and use that location information for certain applications. For example, the geographical location information may be included in communications exchanged during an emergency call or emergency communication message sent to an emergency services provider. As another example, the location information may be included in a message sent to a location service so that the location information of the device may be updated by that service. The location information could also be utilized for navigation applications for finding a closes service geographically near the second communication device or to calculate an amount of time it would take to travel to a particular destination. The location information could also be sent to one or more devices such as a switch or server once that location is determined so that geographically dependent messages are accurately sent from the switch or server to the second communication device. It should be appreciated that there are a number of other uses that may also be made of such location information.
It should be understood that the first communication device 5 of the system shown in Figure 1 may be a computer device that functions as an access point such as a router. The first communication device 5 may include a processor unit 12 such as a central processor or microprocessor that is communicatively coupled to at least a first transceiver unit 13 that includes a wireless transmission unit and a wireless receiver unit for communicatively connected to other devices as shown in Figure 2 for example. For instance, the receiver unit of the first transceiver unit 13 may be an omni direction antenna that has a power of 5 W to 100 μ\¥. The processor unit 12 may also be communicatively connected to non-transitory memory such as flash memory 14, a hard drive, or other memory. An application 16 may be stored on the memory 14 that may include program code that defines a method that is executed when the processor unit 12 executes the application 16. The method that is defined may define the functionality discussed above of sending out LRR messages and then subsequently processing the information obtained from LRR reply messages received in response to the sent LRR messages. One example of such a method is shown in Figure 4.
The second communication device 5a may be configured to function as a communication terminal such as a tablet, smart phone, cellular phone or laptop computer. The second communication device may include a processor unit 12 that is communicatively connected to non-transitory memory 14, a speaker 20, a second transceiver unit 13a, a microphone 18, a display unit 19 and one or more other input devices such as one or more buttons. The display unit 19 may include a liquid crystal display or other display and be a touch screen that also permits a user to provide input by touching the display. The speaker may emit audio and the microphone may record audio for receipt of input from a user. The second transceiver unit 13a may include a wireless receiver unit and a wireless transmission unit for sending and receiving data or messages from other devices via a communication connection formed directly with those devices or a communication connection formed via an interconnection with the first
communication device 5 or other access point of a network 7. For instance, the receiver unit of the second transceiver unit 13a may be an omni direction antenna that has a power of 2 W to 100 μ\¥.
The memory 14 of the second communication device 5a may include an application 16. The application 16 may include program code that defines a method that is executed when the processor unit 12 executes the application 16. The method that is defined may define the functionality discussed above of sending out LRR messages and then subsequently processing the information obtained from LRR reply messages received in response to the sent LRR messages. One example of such a method is also illustrated in Figure 4.
It should be appreciated that a number of variations to the embodiments of the communication system and communication device disclosed above may be made to meet a particular design objective. For instance, the communication system may be configured to operate utilizing a Wi-Fi protocol or an address resolution protocol. As another example, the communication devices may be access points such as routers or other computer devices such as communication terminals. As another example, one communication device may be a communication terminal that is configured to also functions as an access point for one or more terminal devices in some embodiments of the system. As yet another example, the
communication system may include terminals and communication devices that are only wirelessly connected and may also include one or more terminals that are connected via one or more wired transmission paths to a communication device. Thus, while certain present preferred embodiments of the communication device, communication system, and methods of making and using the same have been shown and described above, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:
1. A communication system comprising:
a plurality of communication terminals; and
a first communication device communicatively connectable to the communication terminals;
the first communication device sending at least one location resolution request message ("LRR message") to the communication terminals, each of the at least one LRR message requesting geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message;
each of the communication terminals receiving the at least one LRR message and sending a reply message to the first communication device in response to the received LRR message, the reply message comprising the geographical location information of the communication terminal; the first communication device receiving the reply messages from the communication terminals; and
the first communication device correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device.
2. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the first communication device performs the correcting of the geographical location information from each of the reply messages until the geographical location of the first communication device is determined to be within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
3. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the reply messages each comprise geographical information of the communication terminal sending that reply message, information indicating an accuracy of the geographical location information of the
communication terminal, and information indicating a location detection methodology by which the geographical location information of the communication terminal was determined.
4. The communication system of claim 3 wherein the reply messages each also comprise information related to where the communication terminal was located when the geographical location for the communication terminal was determined or obtained and information related to movement of the communication terminal after determining or obtaining the geographical location of the communication terminal.
5. The communication system of claim 3 wherein the accuracy of the geographical location information of the communication terminal and the information indicating a location detection methodology by which the geographical location information of the communication terminal was determined from the reply messages define factors applied by the first
communication device during the correcting of the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device.
6. The communication system of claim 5 wherein the first communication device detects a transmission signal strength for each reply message and associates the transmission signal strength with that reply message, the transmission signal strength and a receiver signal strength of the first communication device indicating a corrective factor applied to the geographical location information of that reply message that is applied during the correcting of the geographical location information.
7. The communication system of claim 3 wherein the first communication device detects a transmission signal strength for each reply message and associates the transmission signal strength with that reply message, the transmission signal strength and a receiver signal strength of the first communication device indicating a corrective factor applied to the geographical location information of that reply message that is applied during the correcting of the geographical location information.
8. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the first communication device is an access point or a router and the first communication device is wirelessly communicatively coupled to the communication terminals.
9. The communication system of claim 1 further comprising a second
communication device, the second communication device being an access point or a router connected to a network, the second communication device communicatively connected to the communication terminals and communicatively connected to the first communication device; and
wherein the first communication device is one of a tablet, a laptop computer, a cellular phone, and a mobile communication terminal.
10. The communication system of claim 1 wherein the communication terminals are mobile communication terminals, each of the communication terminals being one of a tablet, a laptop computer, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant, a mobile computer device having a wireless communication transceiver, and an internet appliance.
11. A method of determining a geographical location of a communication device comprising:
a first communication device sending at least one location resolution request message ("LRR message") to a plurality of communication terminals, each of the at least one LRR message requesting geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message;
the first communication device receiving reply messages from the communication terminals that are responsive to the at least one LRR message, each of the reply messages comprising the geographical location information of the communication terminal that sent that reply message; and
the first communication device correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the first communication device sends the at least one LRR message, receives the reply messages and performs the correcting of the geographical location information from each of the reply messages until the geographical location of the first communication device is determined to be within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
13. The method of claim 11 wherein the reply messages each comprise geographical information of the communication terminal sending that reply message, information indicating an accuracy of the geographical location information of the communication terminal, and information indicating a location detection methodology by which the geographical location information of the communication terminal was determined.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein the reply messages each also comprise information related to where the communication terminal was located when the geographical location for the communication terminal was determined or obtained and information related to movement of the communication terminal after determining or obtaining the geographical location of the communication terminal.
15. The method of claim 13 wherein the accuracy of the geographical location information of the communication terminal and the information indicating a location detection methodology by which the geographical location information of the communication terminal was determined from the reply messages define factors applied by the first communication device during the correcting of the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the first communication device.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the first communication device detecting a transmission signal strength for each reply message and associating the transmission signal strength with that reply message, the transmission signal strength and receiver signal strength of a receiver of the first communication device indicating a corrective factor that is applied to the geographical location information of that reply message applied during the correcting of the geographical location information.
17. The method of claim 13 further comprising the first communication device detecting a transmission signal strength for each reply message and associating the transmission signal strength with that reply message, the transmission signal strength and receiver signal strength of a receiver of the first communication device indicating a corrective factor applied to the geographical location information of that reply message that is applied during the correcting of the geographical location information.
18. The method of claim 11 wherein the first communication device is an access point or a communication terminal.
19. A non-transitory computer readable medium having an application defined by program code stored thereon, the application being executable by a processor unit of a communication device such that the communication device performs a method when the application is executed by the processor unit, the method comprising:
the communication device sending at least one location resolution request message ("LRR message") to a plurality of communication terminals, each of the at least one LRR message requesting geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message;
the communication device receiving reply messages from the communication terminals that are responsive to the at least one LRR message, each of the reply messages comprising the geographical location information of the communication terminal that sent that reply message; and
the communication device sending the at least one LRR message, receiving the reply messages and correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the communication device until the geographical location of the communication device is determined to be within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
20. A communication device comprising:
a processor unit;
non-transitory memory, the memory having an application defined by program code stored thereon, the application being executable by a processor unit of a communication device such that the communication device performs a method when the application is executed by the processor unit, the method comprising:
the communication device sending at least one location resolution request message ("LRR message") to a plurality of communication terminals, each of the at least one LRR message requesting geographical location information of the communication terminal that receives the LRR message; the communication device receiving reply messages from the communication terminals that are responsive to the at least one LRR message, each of the reply messages comprising the geographical location information of the communication terminal that sent that reply message; and
the communication device sending the at least one LRR message, receiving the reply messages and correcting the geographical location information from each of the reply messages to determine a geographical location of the communication device until the geographical location of the communication device is determined to be within a predetermined accuracy range or a predetermined accuracy confidence interval.
PCT/US2012/044172 2012-06-26 2012-06-26 Location detection apparatus and method WO2014003717A1 (en)

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