CN106415303B - It supports the position identified using the device delivered by location protocol - Google Patents

Abstract

Techniques for using device-related information for location of a mobile device include providing, by the mobile device, non-unique device-related information to a location server. This device related information can be delivered from the mobile device to the server in a positioning protocol. The device related information may include information about the original equipment manufacturer OEM, model, version of the mobile device and information about the wireless chip OEM, model and version, and may enable retrieval of location characteristics of the mobile device from stored data to support the positioning of the mobile device. Techniques may also include the location server gathering information about positioning characteristics of mobile devices and storing this information in association with the mobile device type, which may reduce or avoid the need to configure stored data.

Description

Support for using device-identified locations delivered by location-based protocols

technical field

This application relates to positioning technology for mobile devices.

Background technique

New mobile devices such as mobile phones, smart phones and tablet computers are constantly appearing on the market. Additional new versions of existing mobile devices (eg, with new or updated hardware and/or software) are also frequently released. These new mobile device models and versions can be expected to have specific features and capabilities in terms of their ability to perform location-related measurements. Obtaining location related measurements by a mobile device and computing the location of the mobile device either by the mobile device or at another entity such as a location server can be important or even critical for some applications and services such as navigation, direction finding and emergency calling. Features and capabilities of a mobile device with respect to positioning support may include the accuracy of different measurements as well as certain limitations and possible failures. In addition, some measurements such as Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), Signal Round-Trip Time (RTT), Signal-to-Noise Ratio (S/N), and Inter-Frequency Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) may require recalibration to accurately account for different mobile Measurement error and measurement variance for device models.

The ability to provide an International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) or Electronic Serial Number (ESN) to a location server is added to some control plane (CP) location standards such as the CP location solution defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). This may enable the location server to infer certain aspects of the mobile device, such as model and seller, from these identifiers. This may enable the location server to infer certain positioning characteristics of the mobile device and thereby assist in the positioning of the mobile device. However, this approach is limited because it cannot account for different versions of the same phone model, and it depends on being able to preconfigure or make the database accessible at the location server to enable the location server to derive this information from the mobile device identifier . In such configurations, the location server may not be able to adapt positioning method support and/or other services for the new mobile device with a database or identifiers that the location server has not been configured to support.

Contents of the invention

Techniques disclosed herein include providing, by a target mobile device, additional non-unique device-related information (eg, the vendor, model, and version of the mobile device and/or one or more wireless chipsets in the mobile device) to a location server. Such device related information may be delivered from the target mobile device to the server in a positioning protocol. These techniques may allow location servers to more efficiently adapt to specific mobile device types. In addition, the techniques disclosed herein further enable location servers to gather information about new mobile device types and automatically adapt without relying on pre-configured databases.

An example method of using device-related information for positioning of a first mobile device in accordance with the present invention includes obtaining non-unique device-related information about a first mobile device from said first mobile device in a message using a positioning protocol, said The non-unique device-related information includes information indicative of hardware and/or software characteristics of the first mobile device; and determining, with the processing unit, a location characteristic of the first mobile device. A location characteristic of the first mobile device is determined based at least in part on the stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The method further includes providing location support to the first mobile device using the positioning characteristics of the first mobile device.

The example methods can include one or more of the following features. The non-unique device-related information may include information indicating an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) seller, OEM model number, OEM model version, chip seller, chip model number, chip model version ID, software or firmware release version, or any combination thereof. The location support may include at least one of: providing specific assistance data to the first mobile device using a positioning protocol; requesting specific location information from the first mobile device using a positioning protocol; or using a location received from the first mobile device using a positioning protocol The information calculates a location estimate for the first mobile device. The particular assistance data may include a radio frequency (RF) heatmap of an area, the RF heatmap having one or more position location values for each of a plurality of locations in the area. Positioning characteristics of the first mobile device may include inter-frequency bias for the Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning method for Long Term Evolution (LTE), bias between pseudorange measurements of different GNSS systems using different carrier frequencies, Additional latency for signal round-trip travel time (RTT) measurements of local area network (WLAN) access points (APs), accuracy of location measurements, internal delays in obtaining location measurements, or according to a fixed mathematical function with fixed parameters (e.g. fixed Coefficient) Modifies the function of the positioning measurement. The method may further include obtaining non-unique device-related information about the second mobile device from the second mobile device using a positioning protocol, the non-unique device-related information of the second mobile device being identical to that of the first mobile device The non-unique device-related information is identical or partially identical; receiving location information from the second mobile device using a location protocol; extracting location characteristics of the second mobile device from the location information received from the second mobile device; and linking the second mobile device to The location characteristic of is combined with at least a portion of the stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The location characteristic of the first mobile device may be determined based at least in part on the location characteristic of the second mobile device. The positioning protocol may include Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The method may further include transmitting a request for non-unique device-related information to the first mobile device using a positioning protocol.

An example method of using device-related information for positioning of a mobile device includes sending non-unique device-related information about the mobile device in a message from the mobile device to a server using the positioning protocol, the non-unique device-related information including an indication that the mobile device and receiving location support for the mobile device according to the positioning protocol. The location support is based at least in part on the non-unique device related information.

The example methods can include one or more of the following features. The non-unique device-related information may include information indicating an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vendor, OEM model number, OEM model version, chip vendor, chip model number, chip model version ID, software or firmware release version, or any combination thereof . The location support may include at least one of: receiving specific assistance data from the server using a positioning protocol; receiving a request for specific location information from the server using a positioning protocol; The location estimate of the device. Certain assistance data may include a radio frequency (RF) heatmap of an area with one or more location values for each of a plurality of locations in the area. The method may further comprise receiving information about a reference device corresponding to the RF heat map, and adjusting the one or more positions of at least one of the plurality of locations in the area based on the information about the reference device value. The positioning protocol may include Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The non-unique device-related information about the mobile device can be sent using a positioning protocol in response to a request received by the mobile device from the server for the non-unique device-related information about the mobile device.

According to the invention, an example server includes a communication interface, a memory, and a processing unit communicatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory. The processing unit is configured to cause the server to: obtain non-unique device-related information about the first mobile device from the first mobile device via a communication interface using a positioning protocol in a message, the non-unique device-related information including an indication of a first information about hardware and/or software features of a mobile device; and determining location characteristics of the first mobile device. A location characteristic of the first mobile device is determined based at least in part on the stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The processing unit is also configured to cause the server to provide location support to the first mobile device via the communication interface using positioning characteristics of the first mobile device.

The instance server may include one or more of the following features. The processing unit may be configured to cause the server to provide location support by: providing specific assistance data to the first mobile device using the positioning protocol; requesting specific location information from the first mobile device using the positioning protocol; using the positioning protocol from Computing a location estimate of the first mobile device from the location information received by the first mobile device; or any combination thereof. The processing unit may be configured to cause the server to provide specific assistance data comprising a radio frequency (RF) heat map of an area, the RF heat map having one for each of a plurality of locations in the area. or multiple targeting values. The processing unit may be configured to cause the server to use the positioning characteristics of the first mobile device by using one or more of: inter-frequency bias for the Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning method for Long Term Evolution (LTE), using different Bias between pseudorange measurements of different GNSS systems at carrier frequencies, additional delay for signal round-trip travel time (RTT) measurements of wireless local area network (WLAN) access points (APs), accuracy of position measurements, obtaining position measurements The internal delay in the process, or the functional modification of the positioning measurement with fixed parameters (e.g. fixed coefficients) according to a fixed mathematical function. The processing unit may be configured to cause the server to: obtain non-unique device-related information about the second mobile device from the second mobile device and using a positioning protocol via the communication interface, the non-unique device-related information for the second mobile device being related to the the non-unique device-related information of the first mobile device is identical or partially identical; receiving location information from a second mobile device using a location protocol; extracting location characteristics of the second mobile device from the location information received from the second mobile device; and A location characteristic of the second mobile device is combined with at least a portion of the stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The processing unit may be configured to cause the server to determine the location characteristic of the first mobile device based at least in part on the location characteristic of the second mobile device. The processing unit may be configured to cause the server to obtain non-unique device-related information about the first mobile device using Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The processing unit may be configured to cause the server to transmit a request for non-unique device-related information to the first mobile device using a location protocol.

According to the invention, a mobile device includes a communication interface, a memory, and a processing unit communicatively coupled to the communication interface and the memory, the processing unit being configured to cause the mobile device to: sending non-unique device-related information about the mobile device in a message using a positioning protocol, the non-unique device-related information including information indicative of hardware and/or software characteristics of the mobile device; and receiving location support for the mobile device according to the positioning protocol. The location support is based at least in part on the non-unique device related information.

The example mobile device can include one or more of the following features. The processing unit may be configured to cause the mobile device to receive location support by: receiving specific assistance data from the server using the positioning protocol; receiving a request for specific location information from the server using the positioning protocol; sending the location information to the server using the positioning protocol to The location information sent by the mobile device enables an estimation of the location of the mobile device at the server; or any combination thereof. The processing unit may be configured to cause the mobile device to utilize specific assistance data, wherein the specific assistance data includes a radio frequency (RF) heat map of an area, the RF heat map having each of a plurality of locations in the area One or more targeting values for . The processing unit may be configured to cause the mobile device to receive information about a reference device corresponding to the RF heatmap, and to adjust one or more of at least one of the plurality of locations in the area based on the information about the reference device. Multiple targeting values. The processing unit may be configured to cause the mobile device to send non-unique device-related information about the mobile device using Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The processing unit may be configured to cause the mobile device to send non-unique device-related information about the mobile device in response to a request for non-unique device-related information about the mobile device received from the server via the communication interface.

An example apparatus according to the present invention may comprise means for obtaining non-unique device-related information about a first mobile device from said first mobile device in a message using a positioning protocol, said non-unique device-related information comprising Information indicative of hardware and/or software features of the first mobile device; means for determining, with the processing unit, positioning characteristics of the first mobile device. The positioning characteristic is determined based at least in part on stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The example apparatus further includes means for providing location support to a first mobile device using positioning characteristics.

Example apparatus may further include one or more of the following features. The means for providing location support using positioning characteristics may include means for: providing specific assistance data to the first mobile device using a positioning protocol; requesting specific location information from the first mobile device using a positioning protocol; using The location protocol calculates a location estimate of the first mobile device using the location information received from the first mobile device; or any combination thereof. The means for providing specific assistance data may include means for providing a radio frequency (RF) heat map of an area, the RF heat map having one or more of each of a plurality of locations in the area. positioning value. The means for using the positioning characteristic may include means for using at least one of: inter-frequency bias for the Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning method for Long Term Evolution (LTE), different GNSS systems employing different carrier frequencies Bias between pseudorange measurements for wireless local area network (WLAN) access points (APs), additional delay for signal round-trip travel time (RTT) measurements, accuracy of position measurements, internal delays in obtaining position measurements , or a functional modification of the positioning measurement with fixed parameters (eg fixed coefficients) according to a fixed mathematical function. The apparatus may further include means for obtaining, from a second mobile device and using a location protocol, non-unique device-related information about the second mobile device, the non-unique device-related information for the second mobile device being related to the The non-unique device-related information of the first mobile device is identical or partially identical; means for receiving location information from a second mobile device using a positioning protocol; for extracting the second mobile device from the location information received from the second mobile device and means for combining the location characteristic of the second mobile device with at least a portion of the stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The means for determining a positioning characteristic of a first mobile device may make the determination based at least in part on a positioning characteristic of a second mobile device. The apparatus may further include means for sending the non-unique device-related information about the mobile device using Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The apparatus may further include means for communicating a request for non-unique device-related information to the first mobile device using a positioning protocol.

Another example device according to the present invention may comprise means for sending non-unique device-related information about the device from the device to a server in a message using a positioning protocol, the non-unique device-related information containing an indication information of hardware and/or software features of the device; and means for receiving location support for the device according to a positioning protocol. The location support is based at least in part on the non-unique device related information.

The example apparatus can include one or more of the following features. The means for receiving location support may include means for at least one of: receiving specific assistance data from a server using a positioning protocol; receiving a request for specific location information from a server using a positioning protocol; The location information sent by the device receives an estimate of the location of the device from a server. The apparatus may include means for utilizing specific assistance data, wherein the specific assistance data includes a radio frequency (RF) heat map of an area, the RF heat map having each of a plurality of locations in the area One or more targeting values for . The apparatus may further comprise means for receiving information about a reference device corresponding to an RF heatmap, and for adjusting at least one of the plurality of locations in the area based on the information about the reference device means of the one or more positioning values. The apparatus can include means for sending non-unique device-related information about a mobile device using a positioning protocol including Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The apparatus may include means for sending non-unique device-related information about the mobile device in response to a request for non-unique device-related information about the mobile device received from a server via the communication interface.

An example computer-readable medium according to this disclosure may include instructions embedded thereon for locating a first mobile device using device-related information. The instructions may include computer code for obtaining, in a message from the first mobile device, non-unique device-related information about the first mobile device using a positioning protocol, the non-unique device-related information including information indicating the first mobile device Information on hardware and/or software features; means for determining, with the processing unit, positioning characteristics of the first mobile device. A location characteristic is determined based at least in part on stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The instructions may further include computer code for providing location support to the first mobile device using the positioning characteristics.

The example computer-readable medium can further include computer code for implementing one or more of the following features. The computer code for providing location support using positioning features may include computer code for: providing specific assistance data to the first mobile device using a positioning protocol; requesting specific location information from the first mobile device using a positioning protocol; using The location protocol calculates a location estimate of the first mobile device using the location information received from the first mobile device; or any combination thereof. The computer code for providing specific assistance data may include computer code for providing a radio frequency (RF) heat map of an area, the RF heat map having one for each of a plurality of locations in the area. or multiple targeting values. The computer code for using the positioning feature may include computer code for using at least one of: inter-frequency bias for the Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning method for Long Term Evolution (LTE), different Bias between pseudorange measurements of GNSS systems, additional delay for signal round-trip travel time (RTT) measurements of wireless local area network (WLAN) access points (APs), accuracy of position measurements, time in obtaining position measurements Internal delay, or functional modification of positioning measurements with fixed parameters (eg fixed coefficients) according to a fixed mathematical function. The instructions may further include computer code for obtaining, from a second mobile device and using a location protocol, non-unique device-related information about the second mobile device, the non-unique device-related information for the second mobile device being consistent with the The non-unique device-related information of the first mobile device is identical or partially identical; computer code for receiving location information from a second mobile device using a positioning protocol; for extracting the second location information from the location information received from the second mobile device. computer code for location characteristics of the mobile device; and computer code for combining the location characteristics of the second mobile device with at least a portion of the stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. The computer code for determining positioning characteristics of the first mobile device may base the determination at least in part on positioning characteristics of the second mobile device. The instructions may further include computer code for sending non-unique device-related information about the mobile device using Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The instructions may further include computer code for communicating a request for non-unique device-related information to the first mobile device using a positioning protocol.

Another example computer-readable medium according to this disclosure may include instructions embedded thereon for locating a mobile device using device-related information. The instructions may include computer code for sending non-unique device-related information about the mobile device in a message from the mobile device to the server using a positioning protocol, the non-unique device-related information including an indication of hardware and/or hardware of the mobile device or software feature information; and computer code for receiving location support for the mobile device according to the location protocol. The location support is based at least in part on non-unique device related information.

The example computer-readable medium can further include computer code for implementing one or more of the following features. The instructions may include computer code for receiving location support, and may include computer code for at least one of: receiving specific assistance data from a server using a positioning protocol; receiving location-specific information from a server using a positioning protocol or receive a location estimate of the mobile device from the server based on location information sent by the mobile device using a positioning protocol. The instructions may include computer code for utilizing specific assistance data, wherein the specific assistance data includes a radio frequency (RF) heat map of an area, the RF heat map having a location for each of a plurality of locations in the area. or one or more targeting values. The instructions may comprise: computer code for receiving information about a reference device corresponding to an RF heatmap; and for adjusting at least one of the plurality of locations in the area based on the information about the reference device computer code for the one or more targeting values. The instructions may include computer code for sending non-unique device-related information about a mobile device using a positioning protocol including Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP) or LPP Extensions (LPPe). The instructions may include computer code for sending non-unique device-related information about the mobile device in response to a request for non-unique device-related information about the mobile device received from a server via the communication interface.

Items and/or technologies described herein may provide one or more of the following capabilities, as well as others not mentioned. Techniques may be provided for location servers to efficiently adapt to specific mobile devices without relying on pre-configured databases. These and other advantages and features are described in more detail in conjunction with the following and accompanying drawings.

Description of drawings

An understanding of the nature and advantages of various embodiments may be achieved by reference to the following figures.

FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of a positioning system capable of implementing the positioning functionality described herein, according to one embodiment.

Figure 2 is a message flow diagram showing the interaction between a mobile device and a location server at the protocol level for implementing the positioning functionality described herein, according to one embodiment.

3 and 4 are process flow diagrams illustrating a method of implementing the positioning functionality described herein, according to one embodiment.

5 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a mobile device.

6 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computer system.

Detailed ways

The positioning of mobile devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, laptop computers, tablet computers, portable media players, etc., may be used for a variety of reasons to provide additional functionality to mobile devices. This location can, for example, help the mobile device locate in an emergency, enable the mobile device to provide navigation features to the user, and so forth.

As used herein, the term "positioning" is synonymous with the terms "locating" and "location support" and refers to obtaining the position (or position estimate) of a mobile device or assisting or enabling a mobile device to The ability to obtain its own location at the current time and/or at some later time. The term location may also be called position, location estimate, position estimate, location fix, position fix, fix, or some other name, and may refer to a mobile device's geographic location (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude), urban location (e.g., such as a postal address or the name of a well-known place), and/or relative location (e.g., such as at a known A set of distances east or west, north or south, and above or below the reference location). A mobile device may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, wireless terminal, wireless device, device, terminal, target mobile device, target device, target, Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) enabled terminal (SET) or some other name.

Methods for enabling positioning may be implemented by the mobile device and/or by other devices in communication with the mobile device as part of a positioning system. For example, a location server may be used to implement positioning methods for supporting positioning of mobile devices. These positioning methods may include, for example, mobile device measurements of signals emitted by (i) satellites (SV) belonging to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS); (ii) base stations belonging to wireless cellular networks; And/or (iii) Access Points (APs), Home Base Stations, Small Cells and/or Femto Cells with short radio range (eg 100 meters or less), which may belong to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). Measurements may be Time of Arrival (TOA), Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) for Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning methods, signal strength (e.g. Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI)), Signal Round Trip Travel Time (RTT) and/or Measurement of other signal characteristics. The different signal measurements may be associated with different positioning methods. For example, in the case of the Assisted-GNSS (A-GNSS) positioning method, the location server may send GNSS-related assistance data to the mobile device to assist the mobile device in one or more GNSS systems (e.g., such as GPS, Glonass, Galileo , Beidou), thereafter the mobile device or location server can use the measurements to compute a position estimate for the mobile device. Similar to the OTDOA positioning method, mobile devices can perform RSTD measurements on signals transmitted from base stations and/or femtocells in wireless networks supporting 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology, and then move A device or location server may use the measurements and measured known locations of LTE base stations (referred to as eNodeBs) and/or LTE femtocells (referred to as home eNodeBs or HeNBs) to calculate the location of the mobile device. Additionally, in the case of a WLAN positioning method, the mobile device may target one of the supported IEEE 802.11 WLAN radio technologies and/or One or more APs of one of the Short Range Node (SRN) technologies measure RSSI and/or RTT. The location server or mobile device can then use the WLAN RSSI and/or RTT measurements and (i) the known location of the AP and/or (ii) provide information that would otherwise be at a set of grid points (e.g., covering, say, 200 by 200 meters) A radio frequency (RF) heat map of expected RSSI and/or expected RTT values measured over a rectangular array of 1-meter spaced grid points) over an area to calculate the location of the mobile device.

In cases where a location server calculates the location of a mobile device (which is commonly referred to as user equipment (UE) assisted mode), the mobile device may first communicate location-related measurements to the location server. In the case where the mobile device calculates the position (which is often referred to as UE-based mode), the location server may first provide assistance data to the mobile device to assist in the position calculation. This assistance data may include: (i) satellite-related data for A-GNSS, such as orbit data, timing data, almanac data, expected Doppler and code phase shift; (ii) information about eNodeB for OTDOA, including eNodeB Identity, supported frequencies and/or frequency bands, positioning reference signal (PRS) characteristics, location and/or timing; and/or (iii) information about the AP for WLAN positioning or SRN positioning, including AP identity, location, Transmit characteristics (e.g., transmit power, antenna gain, transmit technology, transmit channel) and/or AP RF heatmap.

The location server may adapt the positioning method used based on known information about the mobile device, which may include information about specific positioning characteristics of the mobile device, including assistance data sent to the mobile device and location measurements requested from the mobile device. For example, a mobile device may take measurements according to a given positioning method and send the measurements to a location server. When calculating the location of the mobile device (eg, in UE-assisted mode), the location server can then adapt its processing of the measurements to any known positioning characteristics of the mobile device, including any known faults, shortcomings and/or strengths. This functionality can thus be based on known information about the mobile device.

Conventional techniques for delivering device information to a location server have limitations in the types of information that can be delivered. This in turn may limit the adaptability of the location server. For example, specific control plane (CP) location solutions defined by 3GPP (such as CP location solutions for LTE access or for other access types supported by 3GPP, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA)) allows the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of the target mobile to be provided by the network to the location server. While information about the vendor and possibly the model of the mobile device may in some cases be obtained using the IMEI (for example, by using a database, index, or key word to determine that a particular value of the IMEI corresponds to a particular vendor), information about which wireless Information about which chipset is used in a mobile device (eg, to support modem or WiFi functionality) or which version of a particular model of mobile device is in use may often not be ascertainable. Furthermore, the IMEI may generally not be available to location servers for user plane location solutions, such as the Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) solution defined by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). Furthermore, utilizing the IMEI will typically require prior configuration of data in the location server (eg configuration of vendors and models associated with different parts of the IMEI, and configuration of known properties for each vendor and/or each model). Such configuration information will generally not apply to later models and versions of mobile devices, and may also contain inaccurate or outdated data that may not be easily corrected or removed.

Embodiments described herein address these shortcomings by using techniques in which additional device-related information is provided by a target mobile device to one or more location servers. Such information may include information indicative of hardware and/or software features of the mobile device (which may be common among mobile devices of a particular device type), such as original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vendor identification (ID), OEM model number ID, OEM model version ID, software or firmware release version ID, and/or (e.g., for each chipset in a mobile device supporting the wireless interface) chip vendor ID, chip vendor model ID, and chip vendor model version ID. The identification (ID) of each piece of information (such as OEM vendor, chip vendor, software or firmware release) can be a name, string, number, or some other token that can be standardized and unique to the OEM or vendor are associated or may be defined by each vendor and are not standardized but are considered unique due to some unique aspect incorporated into the OEM or vendor (eg, the OEM or vendor's business or trade name). Such device-related information may be delivered from the target mobile device to the server using a location protocol, such as the LTE Location Protocol (LPP) defined by 3GPP in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 36.355, by OMA (such as in OMA TS OMA - the LPP Extensions (LPPe) protocol defined in TS-LPPe-V2_0), the IS-801 defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), or some other positioning protocol. The LPPe protocol may be combined with the LPP protocol in some embodiments in which an LPPe message is embedded within an LPPe message. In this case, the combined protocol may be referred to as LPP/LPPe and may be used to deliver device related information. In an embodiment, the device related information may be delivered as part of the positioning capabilities of the target device, eg, may be added to the positioning capabilities defined for LPPe and delivered using LPPe or LPP/LPPe Provide Capabilities messages. These techniques and embodiments may allow location servers to more efficiently adapt to specific mobile devices. Additionally, the techniques disclosed herein further enable location servers to gather information about mobile device types and automatically adapt without relying on pre-configured databases.

Additionally, these techniques allow location servers to provide device-related information to targeted mobile devices. For example, server deployment of device-related information may be useful when the server provides an RF heat map to a target device containing expected RSSI, RTT, and/or S/N values for a particular reference device, as described in more detail below . In this case, the server may also provide device related information to the target mobile device associated with the reference device.

FIG. 1 is a simplified illustration of a positioning system 100 capable of implementing the techniques described herein, according to one embodiment. The positioning system may include mobile device 105 , satellite positioning system (SPS) satellites 110 , base station 120 , wireless network 140 , access point 130 , location server 160 , and the Internet 150 . It should be noted that Figure 1 merely provides a generalized illustration of the various components, any or all of which may be utilized as desired. Furthermore, components may be rearranged, combined, separated, replaced, duplicated, and/or omitted depending on desired functionality. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize many modifications to the components illustrated.

In the positioning system 100, the location of the mobile device 105 may be determined in any of a variety of ways, which may depend on the particular context or application. In some scenarios, for example, the location of the mobile device 105 may be calculated using information transmitted from the SPS satellites 110 using trilateration, multilateration, and/or other positioning techniques. For example, the mobile device 105 may measure pseudoranges for each of several SVs of one or more GNSS, and then the mobile device or location server 160 may calculate the location of the mobile device 105 from the measured pseudoranges .

In one embodiment, base station 120 may be an eNodeB supporting LTE access. The access point 130 may be an access point supporting WiFi communication according to the IEEE 802.11 standard, an access point for SRN technology such as Bluetooth, and/or a femtocell or small cell supporting LTE. Wireless network 140 may be a wide area wireless network (WWAN) and support LTE access, WCDMA access, or GSM access, or some other type of access, and may include some or all of base stations 120 and/or access points 130 . In one embodiment, the wireless network 140 may be a 3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS). In some embodiments, location server 160 may be an Enhanced Services Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) or a SUPL Location Platform (SLP). Location server 160 may be part of or accessible from wireless network 140 (eg, via a direct link or via some other network, such as another wireless network (not shown) or the Internet 150).

Wireless network 140 (including base stations 120) and/or access point 130 may further communicatively connect mobile device 105 to Internet 150 and to entities accessible from Internet 150 and/or wireless network 140, such as location server 160. Other embodiments may include other networks in addition to or instead of the Internet 150 . Such networks may comprise any of a variety of public and/or private communication networks, including wide area networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and the like. Additionally, networking technologies may include switched and/or packetized networks utilizing optical, radio frequency (RF), cable, satellite, and/or other technologies.

Access point 130 may be used for wireless voice and/or data communications with mobile device 105 . Access point 130 may be part of a WiFi network (802.11x), a cellular piconet and/or femtocell, a Bluetooth network, or the like. The access point 130 may also form part of an indoor positioning system - eg a positioning system as defined by the Indoor Positioning Alliance (ILA). Embodiments may include any number of access points 230, any of which may be removable nodes, or otherwise capable of relocating.

Wireless network 140 may support CP location solutions such as the CP location solution defined by 3GPP for LTE access or the CP solution defined by 3GPP for WCDMA. Alternatively or additionally, wireless network 140 may support or enable mobile device 105 access to a user plane location solution, such as the SUPL solution from OMA. In a CP solution, the signaling is carried over the signaling interface for the wireless network 140 (e.g. between the mobile device 105 and the location server 160), while in a user plane solution, from the perspective of the wireless network 140 , signaling is carried as data (for example using Transmission Control Protocol combined with Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)). In case the wireless network 140 supports the 3GPP CP solution for LTE, the location server 160 may be an E-SMLC. Where the wireless network supports or provides access to a SUPL user plane location solution, the location server 160 may be an SLP, and may further have functions as a Home SLP (H SLP), a Discovery SLP (D-SLP), or an Emergency SLP ( E-SLP) role. For both CP solutions and user plane solutions, the location server 160 may support positioning methods such as A-GNSS, OTDOA, WLAN, SRN, and/or other methods, and may benefit from receiving the target mobile device at the location server 160. 105 device related information (eg vendor, model, version).

The location server 160 can further assist the positioning of the mobile device 105 by implementing various positioning methods such as A-GNSS, OTDOA, WLAN, SRN, etc. Using OTDOA positioning, the mobile device 105 can measure the PRS signal received from a particular reference cell (e.g., supported by one of the base stations 120 or one of the APs 130) in relation to one or more neighboring cells (e.g., each supported by the base station 120). RSTD between PRS signals received by each of the APs 130 or one of the APs 130 supports. The mobile device 105 or the location server 160 can then determine the location of the mobile device 105 based on the RSTD measurements and the measured known locations of the antennas of the reference cells and the measured neighboring cells using multilateration techniques. OTDOA positioning for LTE is defined in 3GPP TS 36.355 and 36.211. Utilizing WLAN and SRN positioning, mobile device 105 may measure RTT, RSSI, S/N, angle of arrival (AOA), or other signal characteristics of one or more of APs 130 . Mobile device 105 or location server 160 may then use triangulation, trilateration, multilateration, RF finger printing, or other techniques based on the AP signal measurements and, for example, the measured known location of the AP, the emission characteristics of the AP, and/or the AP's Information such as the RF heat map determines the location of the mobile device 105 . WLAN and SRN positioning when used with the LPPe positioning protocol is defined in OMATS OMA-TS-LPPe-V1_0-20150414-C and OMA-TS-LPPe-V2_0-20141202-C, as previously described, these positioning methods can be based on Adapted with respect to information obtained by a particular mobile device. Embodiments herein include techniques in which mobile device 105 provides non-unique device-related information, such as OEM vendor ID, OEM model ID, OEM model version ID, software or firmware release version, to location server 160. ID and/or (for each chipset in the mobile device 105 that supports the wireless interface) a chip vendor ID, a chip vendor model ID, a chip vendor model version ID, or any combination thereof. Location server 160 may use this information to provide location support and/or information gathering functions.

In a positioning support function, location server 160 may use known information of mobile device 105 to support positioning more effectively and/or efficiently. For example, location server 160 may identify the positioning method best supported by mobile device 105 and specific positioning related information (e.g., specific measurements or specific assistance data), and/or identify errors and and/or possible sources of calibration parameters. The location server may also take advantage of known failures or limitations of the mobile device to avoid erroneous or imprecise positioning of the mobile device. In such cases, the location server 160 may use information about the OEM vendor, model, and possibly version of the mobile device 105, about software or firmware versions (e.g., for the mobile device 105 or the chipset or wireless chipset in the mobile device 105 ), and possibly information about one or more wireless chipsets contained in the mobile device 105 to obtain the positioning characteristics of the mobile device 105. The location characteristic may relate to some known capability, failure, limitation, or other property of the mobile device 105 with respect to the location of the mobile device 105 . The location server 160 may provide location-specific support to or on behalf of the mobile device 105 using location characteristics. Some positioning characteristics and examples of their use by location server 160 to provide location support are provided in Table 1.

Table 1

Known information for different OEM vendors, models, and model versions and different software or firmware releases and/or different chip vendors, models, and model versions, such as known location characteristics of the types illustrated in Table 1, may be provided by the location server 160 service provider or operator configuration. Additionally or alternatively, this information may be collected by location server 160 and/or by another server as described further below.

The information gathering functions that may be supported by the location server 160 involve compiling information on mobile devices 105 by gathering statistics from the location of many mobile devices 105 to provide part of the previously mentioned "known information" and "location characteristics" of the location support functions or all. For example, location server 160 may observe certain limitations, failures, or other properties when targeting many different target devices of the same vendor, model, version, and chipset. Location server 160 may then compile this data in a database to provide the positioning support functions described above.

This information gathering function can be applied to the examples in Table 1. For example, in support of Example A of Table 1, the location server 160 may observe that none of the target mobile devices 105 of a particular OEM vendor and model can measure an OTDOA value for any LTE frequency other than the serving cell carrier frequency (e.g., when respond with an error when instructed to perform such measurements, or may simply ignore the instruction).

To support the information gathering function of Example B of Table 1, the location server 160 may observe that the target 105 provides RTT measurements for one or more WLAN APs that do not enable the calculation of a single location of the target 105 or do not enable the same Computation of the same position as the position of the target 105 calculated using other positioning methods such as A-GNSS or OTDOA. The location server 160 may then measure the measured RTT by estimating that the target 105 should be at the position of the target 105 calculated using some other more reliable method, such as A-GNSS or OTDOA, and then obtain the error E as the measured The error E in the RTT measurement provided by the target 105 is estimated by the difference between the RTT and the RTT that should have been measured. If the value of the error E is the same, nearly the same, or has a general statistical distribution (e.g., a normal distribution), then for all RTT measurements made by the target 105 and all other targets 105 of the same OEM vendor and model, the location server E (and any statistical distribution of E including mean and variance) is equal to the delay D described for Example B (and any statistical distribution of D including mean and variance). The location server 160 can thereby determine the positioning characteristics of the target 105 for that OEM vendor and model corresponding to the known error E (and equivalent delay D). Additionally or as an alternative, the location server 160 may simply try to add or subtract different fixed errors E to and from the measured RTT value from the target device and may find a particular fixed value E The subtraction of enables the calculation of a constant position estimate and/or a position estimate consistent with position estimates calculated using other positioning methods. The location server can observe that subtraction of the same fixed value E also results in correct positioning of other target devices of the same type.

To support the information gathering function of Example C of Table 1, the location server 160 may observe that it may use RSSI measurements above a certain threshold (e.g., -50 dBm) rather than using RSSI measurements below this threshold to obtain the accurate location of the target device . The location server 160 may also observe that with later versions of the target device of the same OEM vendor and model, it is possible to obtain an accurate location using RSSI values lower than the previous threshold (eg, all the way down to -70dBm). These observations can provide information on localized properties, such as C in Table 1.

To support the information gathering function of Example D in Table 1, the location server 160 may assume that normally when obtaining an OTDOA RSTD measurement between a reference cell R using a carrier frequency F1 and a neighboring cell N using a different carrier frequency F2, the target device 105 Some deviation B (as described for Example D) will be included. The assumption may be based on the target device 105 potentially using different internal paths within the target device 105 (eg, different RF chains that may include different RF chips and/or different antennas) to process and measure received RF signals at different frequencies. The location server may then consider the bias B as an additional unknown variable whose value may be obtained using RSTD measurements provided by the target device 105 along with unknown location coordinates of the target device 105 (eg, latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). The bias B can be introduced into the RSTD equation by adding or subtracting the bias B to the RSTD measurement, which links the RSTD measurements of cells R and N to the location coordinates of the target device 105 and the cells R and The known location coordinates of N's antenna. The bias B can be introduced into any other RSTD equation in the same way, linking the RSTD measurements of the reference unit R and any other cell N* using the same frequency F2 as cell N. It should be noted that the RSTD equation linking the RSTD measurement between the reference unit R and the neighboring cell using the same frequency F1 as the cell R will not be adjusted using the bias B. Such mathematical treatments are known in the art and may enable comparisons when compared to solving for the target device 105 position for the target device 105 position which would require minimal RSTD measurements in the absence of any bias (ie, bias B equals 0). The value of bias B along with the position of the target device 105 is obtained by solving the RSTD equation when multiple RSTD measurements (and thus more RSTD equations) are available. The location server 160 may obtain other values of the bias B from similar location calculations involving RSTD measurements between cells using the two carrier frequencies F1 and F2 provided by other mobile devices of the same OEM vendor and model. Furthermore, it may generally not matter whether the reference unit for a particular location calculation uses frequency F1 or frequency F2, as long as the neighboring cell uses another frequency (eg, frequency F1 if the reference unit uses frequency F2). Location server 160 may then determine a fixed value of bias B or a statistical distribution of bias B (eg, with a particular mean and variance) for all target devices of the same OEM vendor and model. This information can then be stored and form a positioning characteristic (described for instance D in Table 1). It should be appreciated that location server 160 may use the same technique at different offsets B to obtain similar positioning characteristics for any other pair of frequencies used by a given OEM vendor and model of target device for the pair of cells for which RSTD measurements are made. The location server may also determine more than one offset when the target device provides a sufficient number of RSTD measurements made between the reference unit and neighboring cells that use more than one frequency different from that of the reference unit. Furthermore, a single offset B or several offsets for different pairs of frequencies may be obtained by the location server 160 for target devices belonging to many different OEM vendors, models, versions, and possibly having different wireless chips and/or different software or firmware releases.

All observed information associated with inferred location characteristics of target devices of different OEM vendors, models and versions, different software or firmware releases, and/or different internal wireless chips (e.g., as exemplified above) may be determined by one or more The location server 160 configures that the location server 160 can share this observed information with other location servers. Thus, this observed information can later be used by the same or by a different location server to provide the positioning support functionality described earlier. Furthermore, several different servers may jointly support the information gathering function, each server collecting information about positioning characteristics of different types of mobile devices. While no single server may necessarily always have enough information to know each positioning characteristic accurately and reliably, when information from several or all servers is combined (e.g., at a single central server or at each of different servers) , it may be possible to more accurately and reliably determine the positioning characteristics. For example, information (e.g., location measurements, values, etc.) about particular positioning characteristics observed by any one server in a small number of mobile devices of a given type (e.g., for a given OEM vendor and OEM vendor model) can be compared with A similar combination of information about the same or similar positioning characteristics of the same (or similar) type of mobile device collected by other servers. As an example, values gathered by different servers (e.g., bias B (for instance D in Table 1) or delay D (for instance B in Table 1)) can be combined via averaging or weighted averaging, or can be used for Determine the statistical distribution of the values (for example by determining the mean and variance). In addition, the combined information can be used to determine whether the location feature is broadly applicable (e.g., not just for a few mobile devices or a statistical anomaly for a particular server), and if so, whether the location feature is applicable to all mobile devices of a particular OEM vendor, All mobile devices of a specific OEM vendor and OEM vendor model or only for mobile devices of a specific OEM vendor, vendor model and model version (or only OEM vendors and models of mobile devices using a specific wireless chipset).

Additionally, and unlike conventional techniques that require a location server database to be pre-configured for each mobile device type, the information gathering functionality that compiles information for mobile devices 105 can be applied to new mobile devices previously unknown to location server 160 by utilizing the information provided. . For example, location server 160 may receive from a target device the OEM vendor, vendor model number, model version and possibly software or firmware release version and (for each of one or more wireless chipsets in the target) Identifier (ID) of the chipset vendor, model, and model version. Location server 160 may not recognize some or all of these IDs (eg, may not be configured with the IDs). However, location server 160 may still perform information gathering functions and observe and store information about one or more location characteristics of the target device, and associate and store these observed capabilities and limitations with the received ID. capabilities and limitations. The location server can similarly enforce information for other target devices associated with the same set of OEM and wireless chipset IDs (or with a common subset of these IDs, such as the same OEM vendor ID and the same OEM vendor model ID). collection capabilities, and may also observe the same or similar location characteristics in these targeted devices. The location server may then combine the different mobile device's location values in the case of numerical positioning characteristics (e.g., such as deviation B in instance D in Table 1), e.g., via averaging or weighted averaging or by inferring a statistical distribution with a particular mean and variance. Same type of targeting properties. Location server 160 or another location server may use observed information (e.g., which may include combined location characteristics of target devices that share all or a common subset of their OEM and/or chipset IDs) to at a later time by making the slave Matching all or a common subset of OEM and/or chipset IDs received by a device with previously stored IDs helps support the location of target devices of the same type. While the ID may be known to location server 160 (eg, configured in location server 160 ), as just described, this is not required, and information gathering may be possible for previously unknown OEM and/or chipset IDs. This may allow the functionality of the mobile device 105 to be supported to be identified and adapted without any pre-configuration. Accordingly, the location server 160 can learn and adapt to new mobile devices that the location server 160 was not previously aware of.

As an example, a known fault of a particular type of mobile phone may be corrected in a newer version of the phone, in a newer software or firmware version of the phone, and/or in a newer chipset. When initially using the new version, the location server 160 may employ the same functionality and positioning features as for the previous version, including known bugs, when identifying and adapting the positioning support for the mobile phone. However, analysis of the compiled information for the new version of the mobile phone (e.g., by accumulating data from one or more mobile devices of the new version over time) may show that the previous failure no longer occurs, and thus can be detected by the location server 160. considered corrected. This can then be used as "known information" and the new positioning characteristics of the new phone version when the location server 160 subsequently provides positioning support to other mobile phones of the new phone version.

Known information about the positioning characteristics of a particular type of mobile device may vary. As described in embodiments detailed herein, location characteristics may indicate different types of capabilities, limitations, failures, and other properties with respect to location for a particular mobile device type. In addition and/or as an alternative to any of the other capabilities described herein, known location characteristics for a particular mobile device type may generally include information such as: Supported air interfaces (e.g., LTE, CDMA, WCDMA, GSM , WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.), supported measurement capabilities for a given interface (e.g., capable of measuring RSSI, RTT, S/N, AOA, Observed Time Difference (OTD), TOA, RSTD, etc.), supported GNSS systems ( If present), supported positioning modes (e.g., UE-assisted, UE-based, standalone, etc.), supported assistance data types (e.g., GNSS coarse time, GNSS fine time, GNSS bit prediction, GNSS almanac, GNSS ephemeris , base station almanac, marked map, WiFi AP location/transceiver location, WiFi APRF heat map, etc.), whether or how the mobile device can calculate the location (including whether to allow the location server to calculate the location and whether to support hybrid location calculation).

Some positioning characteristics of a particular mobile device 105 may be provided to a network (e.g., wireless network 140) and/or location server 160 as part of normal mobile device and network operation—for example, may be provided to all mobile devices when they are attached to the network. and may be provided by the network and/or by the mobile device to the location server 160 when the network or the mobile device requests the location server 160 for the location of the mobile device. For example, the LPP and LPPe positioning protocols enable the location server 160 to request and the mobile device 105 to provide positioning capabilities of the mobile device 105 relative to all capabilities that may be supported by the LPP and LPPe positioning protocols (e.g., the mobile device 105 supports LPP and LPPe which location methods, location method assistance data, and location method measurements in . Positioning characteristics that may be explicitly delivered to the location server 160 in such a manner may not need to be stored in the location server as part of the known positioning characteristics of the type of mobile device 105 (e.g., as the OEM seller, OEM model number, etc.) of the mobile device 105. and known positioning characteristics of OEM versions).

However, there may be other issues that cannot be delivered by the network 140 or mobile device 105 to the location server 160 due to lack of protocol support for such delivery and/or due to information not already known by the network 140 and/or mobile device 105. "Hide Positioning Properties". In general, such concealed positioning characteristics may be properties of hardware and/or software implementations and are not directly related to capabilities defined for different positioning protocols, such as LPP or LPPe, or for normal operation of the mobile device. Because these hidden positioning characteristics cannot be delivered to the location server 160 using the positioning capabilities of the positioning protocol or by other explicit means, there may be a need to associate such hidden positioning characteristics with the mobile device type ID (e.g., for OEM and chipset). Increased benefits. Examples of such hidden positioning properties may include each of the positioning properties described in Examples A-D in Table 1. Other examples of concealed positioning characteristics may include: (i) measurement accuracy of mobile device types for different types of measurements of different wireless interfaces (due to limitations in the mobile device, and not due to errors such as multipath and fading) external sources) (e.g., the accuracy of RTT and RSSI measurements for IEEE 802.11 WiFi interfaces, the accuracy of RSTD measurements for OTDOA for LTE access, the accuracy of AOA measurements for Bluetooth access); (ii) Inter-mobile delays in obtaining different types of measurements; (iii) the ability to make different measurements serially or in parallel; (iii) different types of skew in making measurements for signals of different frequencies (e.g., OTDOA inter-frequency bias B described in Example D in 1 or a similar bias between pseudorange measurements obtained for different GNSS systems using different carrier frequencies); (iv) compared to e.g. Different types of fixed addition or fixed subtraction of measurements such as extra delay D for RTT measurements; and (v) other functional modifications of measurements such as acquisition of signal characteristics with correct value X (if measured correctly) for the mobile device's location Equal to the measured value of F(X), where F is some fixed mathematical function with fixed parameters (eg, a linear, quadratic or other polynomial function with fixed coefficients and/or fixed constants). Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that a variety of other possible positioning characteristics may be utilized as known positioning characteristics in embodiments of the present invention. Such known positioning characteristics (both covert and non-covert) can be associated with the type of mobile device, and thus can be inferred from knowledge of the type of mobile device (e.g., by knowing the OEM and chipset correlations mentioned earlier herein) ID). Furthermore, some of these location characteristics (eg, hidden location characteristics) may be determined by information gathering functions in location server 160 as previously described, as an alternative or in addition to configuration in location server 160 .

2 is a message flow diagram showing a process 200 illustrating the interaction between the mobile device 203 and the location server 207 at the protocol level, according to one embodiment. For example, the interactions shown in FIG. 2 may be incorporated into positioning protocols such as LPP and/or LPPe. Mobile device 203 and/or location server 207 may be implemented in a positioning system similar to positioning system 100 of FIG. 1 and may correspond to mobile device 105 and/or location server 160, respectively. Furthermore, mobile device 203 and/or location server 207 may be implemented in software and/or hardware, as described in more detail below with respect to FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively.

At block 210 the location server 207 optionally requests capabilities from the mobile device 203 . The requested capabilities may include the previously described positioning capabilities and/or non-unique device related information. In an embodiment, block 210 includes sending an LPP/LPPe request capability message from the location server 207 to the mobile device 203 . In some embodiments, this request may not be necessary. In either case, at block 220, the mobile device 203 provides the non-unique device related information to the location server 207, eg, in association with providing its location capability. The non-unique device-related information may identify the type of mobile device that may be used by the location server 207 at blocks 240, 250, and 270 as described later, and may include an OEM vendor ID, OEM model ID, OEM version ID, software or firmware One or more of a release version ID, a wireless chip OEM vendor ID, a wireless chip OEM model ID, and a wireless chip OEM version ID. In an embodiment, block 220 includes sending an LPP/LPPe provisioning capability message from mobile device 203 to location server 207 .

At block 230, the mobile device 203 optionally sends a request for assistance data to the location server 207, and the location server 207 provides assistance at block 240 in response to any request at block 230 or without such a request. data. The assistance data may include A-GNSS assistance data (such as SV navigation data, almanac data, SV acquisition assistance data), OTDOA assistance data (such as LTE eNodeB PRS information and timing information), WLAN positioning assistance data (such as AP locations, AP identities, and/or RF heatmaps) and/or assistance data from other positioning methods. The assistance data may enable positioning using a UE-assisted mode and/or may enable using a UE-based mode. Location server 207 may determine which positioning methods to provide assistance data for, which assistance data to provide for each positioning method, and/or how to provide assistance based on stored information about the type of mobile device that may include one or more positioning characteristics of mobile device 203. The assistance data is provided to the mobile device 203 . The type of mobile device 203 may be based on the non-unique device related information sent by mobile device 203 at block 220 . Stored information including location characteristics of the mobile device type may be configured in the location server 207 and/or may be accumulated by an information gathering function in the location server 207 as described above. In an embodiment, block 230 includes sending an LPP/LPPe Request Assistance Data message from mobile device 203 to location server 207 . In an embodiment, block 240 includes sending an LPP/LPPe Provide Assistance Data message from the location server 207 to the mobile device 203 .

At block 250 , location server 207 optionally sends a request to mobile device 203 for location information. The location server 207 may adapt the request depending on stored information about the type of mobile device which may include one or more positioning characteristics of the type of mobile device. For example, measurements that are known to be well supported by the mobile device 203 may be requested at block 250, and may not be requested when the mobile device 203 is known to not support the measurement or to support the measurement inaccurately. Mobile device 203 then obtains some or all of the location information requested at block 250, and then provides it to location server 207 at block 260 if block 250 occurs, or at block 250 if block 250 does not occur. Location information is provided at block 260 without a request. The type of location information requested and provided may vary. For example, location information may include measurements and/or location estimates obtained by mobile device 203 . This information may depend on the positioning method used, which as previously indicated may depend on stored information comprising positioning characteristics that the location server 207 has regarding the type of mobile device 203 . In an embodiment, block 250 includes sending an LPP/LPPe request location information message from the location server 207 to the mobile device 203 . In an embodiment, block 260 includes sending an LPP/LPPe provide location information message from the mobile device 203 to the location server 207 .

At block 270 , the location server 207 may use the location information received at block 260 to determine or verify a location estimate and possibly velocity of the mobile device 203 . The location server 207 may use stored information including one or more stored location characteristics of the type of mobile device 203 to determine how to process and use some or all of the received location information. For example, if a mobile device 203 of that type is known to be below a threshold signal level (e.g., as previously described for instance C in Table 1) to incorrectly measure the RSSI of a WLAN AP, then having Any received measurements of the value may be discarded. Similarly, if a mobile device 203 of that type is known to measure the RTT of a WLAN AP, and includes an additional internal delay whose value is known (e.g., as previously described for instance B in Table 1), then This value may be subtracted from any RTT value returned by the mobile device 203 at block 270 . Also similarly, if a signal characteristic (e.g. RTT, RSSI, AOA, S/N, TOA) has the correct value X at the location of the mobile device 203 and it is known that a mobile device of that type is incorrect by measuring F(X) value to modify this measurement, where F is a known mathematical function with known parameters (such as a linear or quadratic function with known coefficients and constants), then the location server 203 can recalibrate the incorrectly measured value F(X ) to obtain the correct measured value X by transforming F(X) into X using the inverse function G for F (ie, a function G satisfying G(F(Y))=Y for all values of Y). Means for correcting for other types of measurement errors caused by other known positioning characteristics of the mobile device 203 will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The location estimate of the mobile device 203 determined or verified at block 270 may be sent by the location server 207 (not shown in FIG. 2 ) to the mobile device 203 or to some other entity. Another entity in this case may be an external client that requires the location of the mobile device 203 in order to provide the mobile device 203 or the user of the mobile device 203 with a certain service, such as navigation assistance or roadside assistance for the user in the vehicle. Provision of assistance or provision of emergency assistance in the case of an emergency call.

At block 280, location server 207 (e.g., an information gathering function in location server 207) may extract information about mobile device 203 based on the location information received at block 260 and/or based on subsequent location calculations using this location information at block 270. Information about one or more targeting properties for . The extracted information of the one or more positioning characteristics may be stored in a database, or combined (eg via averaging or weighted averaging) with information already in the database. The stored or combined information may then be used for future interactions with devices of the same (or similar) type as mobile device 203 - eg, to support positioning as described above for blocks 210-270. For example, the location server 207 may observe, and may store or combine in a database in association with the observations that the type of mobile device 203 provides incorrect WLAN RTT values for a certain type of WLAN or when measured at different LTE frequencies Low accuracy when manipulating OTDOA values between eNodeBs. Alternatively, the location server 207 may store information in a database regarding suspicious or inaccurate location properties in the absence of sufficient information to reliably identify the exact location characteristics, and may store additional information about suspicious or imprecise location characteristics. Information (eg, received measurements, position estimates, or estimates calculated from some of the measurements may be stored). Subsequent off-line analysis by the location server 207 or another server of all such stored information on suspicious or imprecise location characteristics of many objects of the same mobile device type can then be used to look for common patterns and reliably determine the same Exact location characteristics of many objects of mobile device type.

In some embodiments, the location server 207 may provide an RF heat map of a geographic area to the target device (e.g., at block 240 in FIG. Expected RSSI, RTT and/or S/N measurements for a specific WLAN AP as measured by a specific reference device at a location. The reference device may correspond to a particular type of mobile device of a particular OEM vendor, model, and version. The different locations may in some embodiments comprise a rectangular grid of locations within the geographic area covered by the RF heatmap (eg, locations separated by a distance of one meter in each of two vertical directions). In some embodiments, the area covered by the RF heatmap (e.g., a building) can be divided into distinct zones (e.g., rooms, corridors, and/or portions thereof) using techniques and shapes other than rectangular grids, where each sub- A zone contains a set of locations (e.g., based on a rectangular grid) and where the RF heatmap again provides measurements (e.g., RSSI, RTT, and/or or S/N value). The location server 207 may then also provide information identifying the type of reference device to the mobile device 203 (eg, as at block 240 in FIG. 2 ). This information may include the reference device's OEM vendor ID, OEM model ID, OEM model version ID, software or firmware release version ID, and/or (for each chipset in the reference device supporting the wireless interface) chip vendor ID, Chip model ID, chip model version ID, or any combination thereof. Mobile device 203 can use this information in a number of ways. In the first example embodiment, if the reference device is the same type of device as the mobile device 203 (that is, if the reference device's device type information such as OEM and chipset ID is all or possibly the same as the target device's device type information some matches), then recalibration of the received RSSI, RTT or S/N values in the RF heatmap may not be required. In this embodiment, the location server 207 may maintain several different versions of the same RF heatmap that has been recalibrated for the most common device types (or for device types that do not support recalibration of RF heatmaps). In a second example embodiment, the mobile device 203 can be configured by another server with RF heatmap calibration parameters for a different type of reference device, and these parameters can then be used to recalibrate the received RF heatmap values for a particular reference device (e.g. RSSI, RTT, or S/N) to match measurements that the mobile device 203 would make, or measurements made by the mobile device 203 (such as measurements of RSSI, RTT, or S/N) to match values that the reference device would have been expected to make . In various embodiments, recalibration of measurements (e.g., by mobile device 203) or expected measurements (e.g., against a reference device) may include adding known calibration parameter values to or from the measurements. Subtract or perform some other transformation of the measured values (eg using a linear math function with known fixed calibration parameters). Recalibration may be required because the reference device and the mobile device 203 each measure the same signal characteristic (eg, RSSI or RTT) using different hardware and/or software, and often do not achieve exactly the same measured value. In a third example embodiment, the mobile device 203 may use, for example, values measured by the mobile device 203 at one or more known locations (eg, The comparison of values of RSSI, RTT or S/N) with the expected values for a new reference device given these same locations in the RF heatmap determines the calibration parameters for the new reference device itself. The mobile device 203 can then apply the determined calibration parameters to recalibrate a new RF heat map that is later provided by the location server 207 for the same reference device.

It should be noted that while the example embodiments above provide specific ways in which assistance data may be provided (eg, as RF heatmaps) and how the assistance data may be recalibrated or adjusted, embodiments are not limited thereto. In other embodiments, location server 207 may provide additional or alternative information that may be used in alternative ways.

3 and 4 are process flow diagrams illustrating exemplary methods 300 and 400 of implementing the functions described above at servers and mobile devices, according to one embodiment. As with other figures provided herein, Figures 3 and 4 are provided as examples. Other embodiments of the invention may perform similar methods differently by, for example, adding, omitting, combining, separating, rearranging, and/or otherwise altering the blocks illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 . Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize many variations.

With respect to FIG. 3 , one or more blocks of method 300 may be performed by a server, such as, for example, location server 160 of positioning system 100 of FIG. 1 , or server 207 described in association with FIG. 2 . The particular means for performing the illustrated blocks of method 300 may be performed by hardware and/or software components of a computer system, such as the example computer system illustrated in FIG. 6 and described in more detail below.

Referring first to FIG. 3, at block 310, non-unique device-related information about the first mobile device is obtained from the first mobile device in a message ("location protocol message") using a positioning protocol. The positioning protocol may be the Long Term Evolution (LTE) Positioning Protocol (LPP), LPP Extensions (LPPe), or a combination of LPP and LPPe. Here, unlike a serial number or other unique identifier, which may require comparison against a database to determine a particular device characteristic, the device-related information is not unique, but is shared among devices of a particular device type. Specifically, the non-unique device-related information may indicate hardware and/or software characteristics of the first mobile device. As described above, this information may include OEM Vendor ID, OEM Model ID, OEM Model Version ID, Software or Firmware Release Version ID, and/or (for each chipset in the first mobile device supporting the wireless interface) Chip Vendor ID, Chip Model ID, Chip Model Version ID, or any combination thereof.

The non-unique device-related information can be obtained by the server from the mobile device in a number of ways. As discussed in more detail above, it may be obtained via a positioning protocol such as LPP, LPPe or a combined LPP/LPPe protocol. Optionally, the non-unique device related information may be received from the first mobile device in response to a request for information sent by the server using a positioning protocol.

At block 320, a location characteristic of the first mobile device is determined based at least in part on stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information. As previously indicated, the non-unique device-related information can be used by the server to identify the device type and/or other characteristics about the first mobile device that can affect location support, and the server can then retrieve the stored information about the device type and/or other characteristics. information. The stored information may be indicative of location characteristics of the first mobile device, and may be associated with one or more IDs of the non-unique device-related information gathered in block 310 . Non-unique device-related information may include IDs of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) sellers, OEM models, OEM model versions, chip sellers, chip models, chip model version IDs, software or firmware release versions, or Any combination of IDs. In addition, the stored information and location characteristics can be associated with: (i) only the OEM vendor ID (and apply to all OEM models, versions and chipsets for this OEM vendor); (ii) specific OEM Vendor ID and Model ID (and applicable to all OEM model versions and chipsets for this OEM vendor and model); (iii) specific chipset vendor (and possibly chipset model) and applicable to sales using this chipset (iv) a specific software or firmware release of a specific OEM vendor, model, and version, or a specific chipset vendor, model, and version, and applies to use of this software or firmware release in conjunction with a specific All mobile devices of OEM vendor, model and version or specific chipset vendor, model and version; or (v) all IDs provided and not applicable to target devices for which one or more of the IDs are different . As previously indicated, the stored information may include, for example, known information about strengths and/or weaknesses of a particular type of first mobile device, as identified using non-unique device-related information and may specifically include For example the specific type of positioning characteristics of the first mobile device as exemplified in Table 1 above.

In an embodiment, the positioning characteristics determined for the first mobile device at block 320 may include one of the positioning characteristics exemplified in the table or as previously discussed in association with FIG. 1 . The positioning characteristics may thus comprise one of: inter-frequency bias for the Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning method for Long Term Evolution (LTE); bias between pseudorange measurements of different GNSS systems employing different carrier frequencies ; additional delay for signal round-trip travel time (RTT) measurements of wireless local area network (WLAN) access points (APs); accuracy of location measurements; internal delays in obtaining location measurements; or according to a fixed mathematical function with fixed parameters Modifications to functions for positioning measurements. In some embodiments, more than one positioning characteristic of the first mobile device may be determined at block 320 based on the non-unique device-related information obtained at block 310 .

At block 330 , location support is provided to the first mobile device using the positioning characteristic (or several positioning characteristics) determined at block 320 . For example, the location support may include at least one of: providing specific assistance data to the first mobile device using a positioning protocol (eg, as illustrated at block 240 of FIG. 2 ), using a positioning protocol (eg, as illustrated in FIG. 2) request specific location information from the first mobile device, or use location information received from the first mobile device to calculate location information for the first mobile device using a positioning protocol (e.g., as illustrated at block 270 of FIG. 2 ). location estimate. In one embodiment, the specific assistance data provided to the first mobile device as part of the location support at block 330 may include a radio frequency (RF) heat map of an area, wherein the RF heat map includes One or more positioning values for each of the plurality of locations in the described area.

As an optional part of method 300, the server may perform information gathering functions as previously described herein to obtain and store information including information regarding location characteristics of one or more mobile devices. The stored information may be used later to help provide location support to other mobile devices, eg, when blocks 310-330 of method 300 are performed for a different first mobile device. Information gathering functions are illustrated in Figure 3 by blocks 340-370 (and shown using dashed boxes in Figure 3, as these are optional). It should be noted that while blocks 340-370 are shown as occurring after blocks 310-330, in some embodiments they may occur before or concurrently with blocks 310-330. At block 340, the server may obtain non-unique device-related information about the second mobile device from the second mobile device and using a positioning protocol. The non-unique device-related information of the second mobile device may be identical or partially identical to the non-unique device-related information of the first mobile device. For example, the non-unique device-related information for the first and second mobile devices may include a common OEM vendor ID and a common OEM model ID but may differ in OEM vendor model version ID. Alternatively, all OEM and chipset IDs of the non-unique device-related information of the first and second mobile devices may be the same.

At block 350, the server may receive location information from the second mobile device using a positioning protocol. For example, the server may request a nearby base station (such as base station 120 in FIG. 1), a nearby AP (such as AP 130 in FIG. The mobile device requests and later receives (eg, using a positioning protocol) location-related measurements. The measurements may include a position estimate for the second mobile device, a position estimate for each of the one or more base stations, and/or broadcast or provided by each base station and/or AP to the second mobile device (or by the second mobile device). Measurements of AP, RTT, RSSI, S/N, AOA, RSTD, TOA, GNSS pseudorange, and/or other measurements calculated by the mobile device based on measurements with respect to each base station and/or AP. Alternatively, the server may receive location information from the second mobile device as part of crowdsourcing as described further herein below.

At block 360 , the server may extract a positioning characteristic (or several positioning characteristics) of the second mobile device from the location information received at block 350 . The extraction may be performed by observing or inferring various failures, limitations, and other characteristics (eg, no or limited support for particular positioning methods, latency issues in particular situations, imprecise measurements, etc.). These characteristics can be identified by the server by analyzing the consistency of the measurements (e.g., whether the measurements suggest the same or a different location), receiving error reports from the second mobile device, using more than one positioning method, and/or using redundant measurements to determine Consistency of position and measurements within the same positioning method and/or across different positioning methods, etc. Additionally or alternatively, the extracted positioning characteristics may be indicative of aspects of positioning that the second mobile device performs particularly well, such as performing specific measurements, positioning methods, and the like. The extracted positioning characteristics may in some embodiments comprise one or more of the following: inter-frequency bias for the Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) positioning method for Long Term Evolution (LTE); Bias between pseudorange measurements; additional delay for signal round-trip travel time (RTT) measurements for wireless local area network (WLAN) access points (APs); accuracy of location measurements; internal delays in obtaining location measurements; Or a functional modification of the location measurement according to a fixed mathematical function with fixed parameters. In some embodiments, the extracted location characteristics may be treated by the server as tentative and non-confirmative, and thus until several other moves from sharing some or all of the same non-unique device-related information via repetition of blocks 340-360 The device acquisition is considered necessarily associated with the non-unique device-related information of the second mobile device. In some embodiments, blocks 340-360 may need to be repeated for other second mobile devices in order to determine for which parts of the non-unique device-related information the extracted location characteristics are relevant—for example, the extracted location characteristics are applicable to All mobile devices of the same OEM, or only for all mobile devices of the same OEM and OEM model. In some embodiments, blocks 340-360 may need to be repeated for other second mobile devices to improve the accuracy of the determination of the extracted location characteristics in order to accurately determine statistical distributions (eg, mean and variance) or single values.

At block 370 , the server may combine the location characteristics of the second mobile device extracted at block 360 with at least a portion of any stored information associated with the non-unique device-related information obtained at block 340 . In the case of a numerical positioning characteristic (e.g., such as deviation B in instance D in Table 1), the combination may comprise an average or a weighted average of the positioning characteristic with information already stored for this positioning characteristic, Or a statistical distribution of inferred location properties (eg, with a particular mean and variance) may be included. Furthermore, the extracted positioning characteristics may be stored for the first time in instances where no stored information is available for the type of mobile device (eg, when a new model or mobile device containing a new chipset is encountered). Alternatively, for a type of mobile device for which information is already stored, the extracted information may be used to improve and/or augment the stored information to help increase the accuracy of such stored information. The stored information may then be utilized in future instances where the server encounters the same type of mobile device and performs the functionality of blocks 310-330 and/or blocks 340-370. Additionally or alternatively, the server may share the extracted and/or stored information with other servers by storing the information on a database accessible by the other server or otherwise transmitting the extracted and/or stored information to the other server. information.

In an embodiment, the location characteristics determined for the first mobile device at block 320 may be the same type of location characteristics extracted for the second mobile device at block 360 . In this case, location characteristics of the first mobile device may be determined at block 320 based at least in part on the location characteristics extracted for the second mobile device at block 360 . For example, the location characteristics of the first mobile device may be the same as the location characteristics extracted for the second mobile device at block 360, or may have been selected from several mobile devices containing the location characteristics extracted for the second mobile device at block 360 The positioning characteristics obtained.

The means for performing the functionality of blocks 310-370 of the method 300 for the process flow 300 of FIG. , operating system 640 and/or applications 645.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a method 400 illustrates functionality that mirrors that of method 300 from the perspective of a mobile device. That is, one or more blocks of method 400 may be performed by a mobile device, and may be performed in conjunction with a server performing method 300 of FIG. 3 . The mobile device may include, for example, mobile device 105 of positioning system 100 of FIG. 1 , or mobile device 203 of process 200 of FIG. 2 (as another example). The particular means for performing the illustrated blocks of method 400 may be performed by hardware and/or software components of a mobile device, such as the example mobile device illustrated in FIG. 5 and described in more detail below.

At block 410, non-unique device-related information about the mobile device is sent in a message to a server (e.g., location server 160 of FIG. 1, location server 207 of FIG. server). In one embodiment, the non-unique device-related information may be sent in response to a request received by the mobile device from a server (not shown in FIG. 4 ), eg, using a positioning protocol. In another embodiment, the positioning protocol may be LPP, LPPe or a combination of LPP and LPPe (LPP/LPPe). As described above, the non-unique device-related information may include any of a variety of non-unique identification information for the mobile device. For example, the non-unique device-related information may include identification of one or more of: OEM vendor, OEM model, OEM model version, chip vendor, chip model, chip model version ID, software or Firmware releases, or any combination thereof. This information may be stored in the memory of the mobile device. Depending on desired functionality, this information may be pre-programmed into the memory of the mobile device and/or obtained directly from components of the mobile device (eg, firmware, chipset, etc.) that have non-unique device-related information. Means for performing the functionality of block 410 may include, for example, a processing unit 510, a bus 505, a memory 560, a wireless communication interface 530, and/or a wireless communication antenna 532 of the mobile device 105 as shown in FIG.

At block 420, location support for a mobile device is received based at least in part on the non-unique device-related information according to a positioning protocol. As indicated elsewhere herein (eg, for process 200 of FIG. 2 and exemplary method 300 of FIG. 3 ), location support may include at least one of: receiving specific assistance data from a server using a positioning protocol (eg, as in FIG. 2 ). block 240), using a positioning protocol to receive a request from the server for specific location information (such as at block 250 in FIG. For example, at block 270 in FIG. 2). Where a location estimate is determined, the server may provide the location estimate to the mobile device (thereby directly benefiting the mobile device), or may provide the location estimate to some other entity (such as a navigation assistance server or a public safety answering point), The other entity may then provide the mobile device or a user of the mobile device with some service based on the location estimate (thereby indirectly benefiting the mobile device or the user of the mobile device).

Certain assistance data in block 420 may be determined by the server to be applicable or otherwise appropriate for one or more positioning characteristics possessed by a type of mobile device (as indicated by the non-unique device-related information sent at block 410 ). For example, if a type of mobile device has positioning characteristics that indicate that the mobile device is capable of reliably computing its position using a hybrid combination of positioning methods, such as UE-based assisted-GNSS and UE-based OTDOA, the server may target several types of positioning-based The UE's positioning method sends assistance data in the expectation that the mobile device will be able to effectively use the assistance data. In an embodiment, the specific assistance data may include a radio frequency (RF) heatmap of an area with one or more location values ( such as RSSI value or RTT value). The mobile device may also receive (e.g., as part of specific assistance data) information from the server about a reference device corresponding to the RF heatmap, and may then adjust (e.g., recalibrate) the temperature in the region of the heatmap based on the information about the reference device. Some or all of the values are located in the RF heatmap for one or more of the locations. This recalibration may convert the RF heat map positioning values from values suitable for the reference device to values suitable for the mobile device, as previously described in association with FIG. 2 . Means for performing the functionality of block 420 may include, for example, a processing unit 510, a bus 505, a memory 560, a wireless communication interface 530, and/or a wireless communication antenna 532 of the mobile device 105 as shown in FIG.

At block 430, which may be optionally performed (and thus shown as a dashed box), support is provided by the mobile device based at least in part on the location received at block 420 (eg, based on specific assistance data received and/or based on location-specific request for information) to determine the location information of the mobile device. For example, the location information determined at block 430 may correspond to the specific location information requested at block 420 . Location information may include obtaining location-specific measurements (e.g., measurements of RTT, RSSI, S/N, AOA, and/or RSTD) for one or more nearby base stations and/or WLAN APs, obtaining SPS pseudoranges for one or more GNSS systems and/or determine a position estimate and/or a velocity estimate of the mobile device. Means for performing the functionality of block 430 may include, for example, processing unit 510, bus 505, wireless communication interface 530, SPS receiver 580, and/or memory 560 of mobile device 105 as shown in FIG.

Optionally, at block 440, the location information determined at block 430 may be sent by the mobile device to the server using a positioning protocol. For example, location information may be sent if the mobile device has received a request for specific location information at block 420 . The server may then utilize the location information to provide location-based services to the mobile device or to some other entity, and/or to determine characteristics and behavior of devices having the same or similar non-unique device-related information as the mobile device. As indicated elsewhere herein, the server may utilize information about the characteristics and behavior of the device, and adapt positioning support to better complement these characteristics and behaviors. Means for performing the functionality of block 440 may include, for example, a processing unit 510, a bus 505, a memory 560, a wireless communication interface 530, and/or a wireless communication antenna 532 of the mobile device 105 as shown in FIG.

It may be noted that while the embodiments in FIGS. 3 and 4 are described in positioning protocol messages and used for other interactions between the mobile device and the server (e.g., to deliver assistance data from the server to the mobile device and position information Non-unique device-related information about the mobile device is obtained and sent from the same positioning protocol that the mobile device delivers to the server, but other embodiments may not be so limited. Other standards and/or protocols may be used in alternate embodiments.

It should be noted that previous embodiments (described, for example, in connection with FIGS. 1-4 ) included (i) obtaining information about one or more location characteristics of the mobile device due to the location of the mobile device (e.g., at blocks 280 and 280 in FIG. 2 ). Block 360 in FIG. 3 ), and (ii) utilize already-obtained information about one or more positioning characteristics to assist positioning of the mobile device (eg, blocks 240, 250, and 270 in FIG. 2 and box 330). However, due to crowdsourcing, location characteristics associated with device type information (eg, OEM and chipset ID) can also be obtained by a location server from one or more mobile devices. For example, a device ID including OEM vendor, model and version ID, software or firmware release version ID, and/or wireless chipset ID may be included in a message (such as a location protocol message) sent to a location server as Part of crowdsourcing and carries location-related measurements (e.g., RSSI, RTT, S/N , RSTD, AOA). Location-related measurements may typically be used by a location server to infer measured characteristics of a base station and/or AP (e.g., its transmit power, signal timing, location), which may be stored (e.g., as Base Station Almanac (BSA) data) and later It is then used by the location server to (i) assist in determining the location of other mobile devices by the location server and/or (ii) provide assistance data sent to other mobile devices to assist these other mobile devices in determining their location. The location server can also use any device IDs (e.g., OEM and chipset ID) received in a message from a mobile device containing crowdsourced measurements to infer characteristics about the sending mobile device—for example, the crowdsourced measurements can be used to locate the sender mobile device and infer positioning characteristics with respect to the resulting position and raw measurements, as exemplified in Examples A, B, C and D of Table 1. The inferred positioning characteristics can be stored and used later to assist in the positioning of other mobile devices of the same type. Alternatively or in addition, the location server may use known location characteristics of any mobile device that has sent crowdsourced measurements to the location server along with its device ID (eg, OEM and chipset ID) to adjust the received crowdsourced measurements. For example, if a certain type of mobile device is known to report inaccurate RSSI values below -50 dBm, any received RSSI values below this level may be discarded. Similarly, if a type of mobile device is known to contain a fixed additional internal delay in RTT measurements for a particular type of AP, the location server may subtract the known fixed additional internal delay from any received RTT value received as part of crowdsourcing Delay, then use the RTT value (eg to help compile BSA data). Known location characteristics of a mobile device may be obtained from previous locations of mobile devices of the same type (e.g., as described for blocks 340-370 of FIG. Package measurements are obtained.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a mobile device 105 that may be utilized as described herein above. For example, mobile device 105 may be used in positioning system 100 of FIG. 1 to implement the method shown in FIG. 4 , and/or may correspond to and perform the functions of mobile device 203 as described for FIG. 2 . It should be noted that Figure 5 is only intended to provide a generalized illustration of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as desired. It may be noted that in some cases, the components illustrated in FIG. 5 may be localized to a single physical device and/or distributed among various networked devices that may be disposed at different physical locations.

Mobile device 105 is shown including hardware elements that can be electrically coupled (or can otherwise communicate as desired) via bus 505 . The hardware elements may include a processing unit 510, which may include, without limitation, one or more general purpose processors, one or more special purpose processors such as digital signal processing (DSP) chips, graphics accelerators, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) ) and/or the like), and/or other processing structures or devices that may be configured to perform one or more of the methods described herein, including the functionality shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 . As shown in Figure 5, some embodiments may have a separate DSP 520 depending on the desired functionality. The mobile device 105 may also include: one or more input devices 570, which may include, without limitation, touch screens, touch pads, microphones, buttons, dials, switches, and/or the like; and one or more output devices 515, It may include, without limitation, displays, light emitting diodes (LEDs), speakers, and/or the like.

The mobile device 105 may also include a wireless communication interface 530, which may include, without limitation, a modem, network card, infrared communication device, wireless communication device, and/or chipset (e.g., Bluetooth ^™ device, IEEE 802.11 device, IEEE 802.15.4 device, WiFi device, WiMax device, cellular communication infrastructure (eg, for LTE), etc.). Wireless communication interface 530 may permit data to be exchanged with networks, wireless access points, other computer systems, and/or any other electronic devices described herein. Communications may be effected via one or more wireless communication antennas 532 that transmit and/or receive wireless signals 534 . Wireless communication interface 530 may also enable location-related measurements (e.g., measurements of RTT, RSSI, S/N, AOA, and/or RSTD) to be obtained by mobile device 105, which may be employed to provide location-related information to a location server (e.g., as at block 260 in FIG. 2 ) and supports various techniques described herein (eg, providing location information suitable for location information received for block 350 of FIG. 3 ).

Depending on desired functionality, wireless communication interface 530 may include a separate transceiver to communicate with a base station ( For example, base station 120 of FIG. 1) and/or an access point (eg, access point 130 of FIG. 1) communicates. As previously indicated with respect to FIG. 1 , the wireless network can be a WWAN and includes various network types such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks, Orthogonal Frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) network, single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) network, WiMax (IEEE802.16), etc. A CDMA network may implement one or more radio access technologies (RATs) such as cdma2000, Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), and so on. Cdma2000 includes IS-95, IS-2000 and/or IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implement Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Digital Advanced Mobile Phone System (D-AMPS), or some other RAT. The OFDMA network may employ LTE, LTE-Advanced, and the like. LTE, LTE-Advanced, GSM and WCDMA are described in documents from 3GPP. Cdam2000 is described in documents from a consortium named "3rd Generation Partnership Project 2" (3GPP2). 3GPP and 3GPP2 documents are publicly available. A wireless network may also include or include a WLAN or a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). A WLAN may be an IEEE 802.11x network or a Bluetooth network, and a WPAN may be a Bluetooth network, IEEE 802.15x, or some other type of network. The techniques described herein may also be used for any combination of WWAN, WLAN, and/or WPAN.

The mobile device 105 may further include a sensor 540 . Such sensors may include, without limitation, one or more accelerometers, gyroscopes, cameras, magnetometers, altimeters, microphones, proximity sensors, light sensors, and the like. Some or all of sensors 540 may be used, among other things, for dead reckoning and/or other positioning methods. In some embodiments, sensor 540 may be used to determine the location of a mobile device as described in embodiments herein, including the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 .

Embodiments of the mobile device may also include an SPS receiver capable of receiving signals 584 from one or more SPS satellites (such as SPS satellites 110 of FIG. 1 and SPS satellites for GNSS) using an SPS antenna 582 that may be used to assist in locating the mobile device 580. This positioning can be used to complement and/or incorporate the techniques described herein. SPS receiver 580 may extract SPS measurements (e.g., pseudoranges) using conventional techniques known for SPS and GNSS systems, either by a mobile device (e.g., using processing unit 510) or by a separate location server (e.g., location server 160 of FIG. 1 ). The SPS measurements determine the location of the mobile device. The SPS system may be a GNSS system such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo, Glonass, Compass, Quasi-Apex Satellite System (QZSS) over Japan, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) over India, Beidou over China, and / or similar. In addition, SPS receiver 580 may use various augmentation systems (e.g., a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS)), which may be associated with or otherwise communicated with one or more global and/or regional navigation satellite systems. Enabled for use with the one or more global and/or regional navigation satellite systems. By way of example and not limitation, a SBAS may include augmentation systems that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), European Geosynchronous Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), Multifunction Satellite Augmentation System ( MSAS), GPS Aided Geographically Augmented Navigation or GPS and Geographically Augmented Navigation System (GAGAN), and/or the like. Thus, as used herein, an SPS may comprise any combination of one or more global and/or regional navigation satellite systems and/or augmentation systems, and an SPS signal may comprise an SPS, a SPS-like and/or a combination of such one or more other signals associated with each SPS.

The mobile device 105 may further include and/or be in communication with a memory 560 . Memory 560 may include, without limitation, local and/or network-accessible storage devices, disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, solid-state storage devices such as random access memory (“RAM”), and/or read-only memory ("ROM"), which may be programmable, flash updateable) and/or the like. Such storage may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including but not limited to various file systems, database structures, and/or the like.

The memory 560 of the mobile device 105 may also include software elements (not shown), including an operating system, device drivers, executable libraries, and/or other code, such as one or more applications, which may include The computer programs provided by various embodiments, and/or can be designed to implement the methods provided by other embodiments as described herein and/or configure the systems provided by other embodiments as described herein. By way of example only, one or more of the procedures described with respect to the methods discussed above, such as the mobile device functionality shown in FIGS. processing unit) (and/or another device of the positioning system) to execute code and/or instructions. In one aspect, such code and/or instructions may then be used to configure and/or adapt a general purpose computer (or other device) to perform one or more operations in accordance with the described methods.

6 illustrates an embodiment of a computer system 600 that may be incorporated at least in part into, for example, location server 160 of FIG. 1 , location server 207 of FIG. 2 , location servers that perform some or all of the techniques described herein, and and/or in a computing device or the like incorporated herein and/or communicatively connected therewith, as described herein. FIG. 6 provides a schematic illustration of one embodiment of a computer system 600 that can perform methods provided by various other embodiments, such as the methods described with respect to FIG. 3 and/or the location server as shown in FIG. 2 207 functionality. It should be noted that FIG. 6 is only intended to provide a generalized illustration of various components, any or all of which may be utilized as appropriate. FIG. 6 thus illustrates generally how individual system elements may be implemented in a relatively separate or relatively more integrated manner. Additionally, it may be noted that the components illustrated in FIG. 6 may be localized to a single device and/or distributed among various networked devices that may be disposed at different physical locations.

Computer system 600 is shown comprising hardware elements that can be electrically coupled (or can otherwise communicate as desired) via bus 605 . Hardware elements may include processing unit 610, which may include, without limitation, one or more general purpose processors, one or more special purpose processors (such as digital signal processing chips, graphics accelerators, and/or the like), and and/or other processing structures that may be configured to perform one or more of the methods described herein, including the methods described with respect to FIG. 3 and/or the location server 207 as shown in FIG. 2 Feature. Computer system 600 may also include: one or more input devices 615, which may include, without limitation, a mouse, keyboard, camera, microphone, other biometric sensors, and/or the like; and one or more output devices 620, which may May include, without limitation, display devices, printers, and/or the like.

Computer system 600 may further include (and/or be in communication with): one or more non-transitory storage devices 625, which may include, without limitation, local and/or network Accessible storage devices, and/or may include (without limitation) disk drives, drive arrays, optical storage devices, solid-state storage devices (e.g., random access memory (“RAM”) and/or read-only memory (“ROM”) ”)), which may be programmable, flash updateable, and/or the like. Such storage may be configured to implement any suitable data storage, including but not limited to various file systems, database structures, and/or the like. Additionally, storage 625 can be used to store information about different types of mobile devices, including a device ID (e.g., OEM and/or chipset ID) for each type of mobile device and location characteristics associated with those device IDs (e.g., Such as the positioning characteristics exemplified in Examples A-D in Table 1).

Computer system 600 may also include a communications subsystem 630 , which may include wireless and/or wired communications technologies managed and controlled by communications interface 633 . The communication subsystem may include a modem, a network card (wireless or wired), an infrared communication device, a wireless communication device, and/or a chipset (e.g., a Bluetooth ^™ device, an IEEE 802.11 device, an IEEE 802.15.4 device, a WiFi device, a WiMax device, a cellular communication facilities, UWB interface, etc.) and/or the like. Communication subsystem 630 may include one or more input and/or output communication interfaces, such as communication interface 633, to permit communication with a network, a mobile device (e.g., mobile device 105 of FIGS. 1 and 5 or mobile device 203 of FIG. 2), other Computer systems and/or any other electronic devices described herein exchange data. Communication subsystem 630 may support communications based on Internet Protocol (IP) and/or other data-related protocols (e.g., TCP, UDP), and may enable communications with other entities (e.g., wireless network 140 of FIG. For example, the communication of the mobile device 105).

In many embodiments, computer system 600 will further include working memory 635, which may include RAM or ROM devices, as described above. Software elements shown as located within working memory 635 may include an operating system 640, device drivers, executable libraries, and/or other code, such as one or more applications 645, which may include and/or may be designed to implement methods provided by other embodiments as described herein and/or configure systems provided by other embodiments as described herein. By way of example only, one or more procedures described with respect to the methods discussed above (eg, the methods described with respect to FIG. 3 and/or the functionality of the location server 207 as shown in FIG. 2 ) might be implemented as Code and/or instructions executable by a computer (and/or a processing unit within a computer); in one aspect, such code and/or instructions can then be used to configure and/or adapt a general purpose computer (or other device) to One or more operations in accordance with the described method are performed.

These sets of instructions and/or code may be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, such as storage device 625 described above. In some cases, the storage media may be incorporated within a computer system (eg, computer system 600). In other embodiments, the storage medium may be separate from the computer system (e.g., removable media (e.g., an optical disc)), and/or provided in an installation package such that the storage medium can be used to program, configure, and/or adapt its computer system. A general-purpose computer on which instructions/code are stored. These instructions may be in the form of executable code executable by the computer system 600, and/or may be in the form of source and/or installable code that is compiled and/or installed by the computer system 600 Once on computer system 600 (eg, using any of a number of commonly available compilers, installers, compression/decompression utilities, etc.), then in the form of executable code.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous variations can be made according to particular requirements. For example, custom hardware might also be used, and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software (including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Additionally, connections to other computing devices (eg, network input/output devices) may be utilized.

Referring to the figures, a component that may include a memory may include a non-transitory machine-readable medium. As used herein, the terms "machine-readable medium" and "computer-readable medium" refer to any storage medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion. In the embodiments provided above, various machine-readable media may have participated in providing instructions/code to the processing unit and/or other devices for execution. Additionally or alternatively, the machine-readable medium may be used to store and/or carry such instructions/code. In many implementations, a computer readable medium is an object and/or a tangible storage medium. This medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmitted media. Common forms of computer readable media include, for example, magnetic and/or optical media, punched cards, paper tape, any other physical media with a pattern of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, A carrier wave as described below, or any other medium from which a computer can read instructions and/or code.

The methods, systems, and devices discussed herein are examples. Various embodiments may omit, substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. For example, features described with respect to certain embodiments may be combined in various other embodiments. Different aspects and elements of the embodiments may be combined in a similar manner. Various components of the diagrams presented herein may be embodied in hardware and/or software. Also, technology evolves, and thus many of the elements are examples, which do not limit the scope of the invention to those particular examples.

It has proven convenient at times, principally because of common usage, to refer to such signals as bits, information, values, elements, symbols, characters, variables, terms, numbers, labels, or the like. It should be understood, however, that all of these or similar terms are to be associated with appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels. Unless specifically stated otherwise, it is clear from the above discussion that it should be understood that throughout the discussion of this specification, references such as "processing", "calculating", "estimate", "determining", "confirming", " The terms "identify", "correlate", "measure", "execute" and the like refer to an action or process of a specific device, such as a special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device. Thus, in the context of this specification, a special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device is capable of manipulating or transforming signals, typically represented as memory, registers or other information storage devices, transmission devices, or a special purpose computer or similar special purpose electronic computing device A physical, electronic, electrical or magnetic quantity within a display device.

As used herein, the terms "and" and "or" can encompass a variety of meanings that are also expected to depend at least in part on the context in which such terms are used. In general, if "or" is used to associate a list (such as A, B, or C), then it is intended to mean A, B, and C, here used in an inclusive sense, and A, B, or C, here used in Exclusive use. In addition, as used herein, the term "one or more" may be used to describe any feature, structure or characteristic in the singular or may be used to describe some combination of features, structures or characteristics. It should be noted, however, that this is merely an illustrative example, and claimed subject matter is not limited to this example. Furthermore, if the term "at least one of" is used in connection with a list (such as A, B or C), it may be interpreted to mean any combination of A, B and/or C, such as A, AB, AA, AAB, AABBCCC, etc.

Having described several embodiments, various modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents may be used without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the above elements may be merely components of a larger system in which other rules may override or otherwise modify the application of the invention. Also, a number of steps may be performed before, during, or after considering the above-mentioned elements. Accordingly, the above description does not limit the scope of the present invention.

Claims (28)

1. a kind of method that use device relevant information is used for the positioning of the first mobile device, the described method includes：

It is obtained using location protocol in a message from first mobile device on the not exclusive of first mobile device Device relevant information, the not exclusive device relevant information include：

Original equipment manufacturer OEM retailers,

OEM models,

OEM model versions,

Chip vendor,

Chip model or

Chip model revision ID,

Or any combination thereof；

The locating features of first mobile device are determined using processing unit, wherein the positioning of first mobile device Characteristic is based at least partially on the not exclusive device relevant information to determine；And

Position is provided using the locating features of first mobile device to first mobile device to support.

2. according to the method described in claim 1, wherein the position support to include it is at least one of following：Using described fixed Bit protocol provides specific auxiliary data to first mobile device, using the location protocol to first mobile device It asks specific location information or the positional information calculation institute received from first mobile device is used using the location protocol State the location estimation of the first mobile device.

It is 3. described according to the method described in claim 2, wherein described specific auxiliary data includes the radio frequency thermal map in a region RF thermal maps have one or more locator values of each of multiple positions in the region.

4. according to the method described in claim 1, the locating features of wherein described first mobile device include：

For the frequency offset of the observation reaching time-difference OTDOA localization methods of Long Term Evolution LTE；

Using the deviation between the pseudo range measurement of the different GNSS systems of different carrier frequencies；

The extra delay measured for the signal round trip propagation time RTT of WLAN WLAN access points AP；

The accuracy of position measurement；

Obtain the internal latency during position measurement；Or

The function of positioning measurement is changed according to the fixation mathematical function with preset parameter.

5. according to the method described in claim 1, it further comprises：

It is obtained from the second mobile device and using the location protocol related on the not exclusive device of second mobile device Information, the not exclusive device relevant information of second mobile device and the not exclusive dress of first mobile device Put that relevant information is identical or part is identical；

Using the location protocol location information is received from second mobile device；

The locating features of second mobile device are extracted from the location information received from second mobile device；And

The locating features of second mobile device are related to the not exclusive device with second mobile device At least a portion combination of associated the stored information of information.

6. according to the method described in claim 5, wherein at least it is based partially on the locating features of second mobile device Determine the locating features of first mobile device.

7. according to the method described in claim 1, wherein described location protocol includes Long Term Evolution LTE location protocols LPP or LPP Extend LPPe.

8. according to the method described in claim 1, it further comprises that using the location protocol the not exclusive dress will be directed to The request for putting relevant information is transmitted to first mobile device.

9. a kind of method that use device relevant information is used for the positioning of mobile device, the described method includes：

It will be filled using location protocol in a message on the not exclusive device relevant information of the mobile device from the movement It puts and is sent to server, the not exclusive device relevant information includes：

Original equipment manufacturer OEM retailers,

OEM models,

OEM model versions,

Chip vendor,

Chip model or

Chip model revision ID,

Or any combination thereof；And

Position support for the mobile device is received according to the location protocol, wherein the position is supported at least partly Based on the not exclusive device relevant information.

10. according to the method described in claim 9, wherein the position support to include it is at least one of following：Using described Location protocol receives specific auxiliary data from the server, is received using the location protocol from the server for specific The request of location information determines the service using the location protocol based on the location information sent by the mobile device Device is to the location estimation of the mobile device.

11. according to the method described in claim 10, wherein described specific auxiliary data includes the radio frequency thermal map in a region, institute State one or more locator values of RF thermal maps with each of multiple positions in the region.

12. according to the method for claim 11, further comprise：

Receive the information on the reference unit corresponding to the RF thermal maps；And

At least one position in the multiple position in the region is adjusted based on the described information on the reference unit One or more the described locator values put.

13. according to the method described in claim 9, wherein described location protocol include Long Term Evolution LTE location protocols LPP or LPP extends LPPe.

14. according to the method described in claim 9, wherein in response to being directed to by the mobile device from what the server received The request of the not exclusive device relevant information on the mobile device is sent using the location protocol on the shifting The not exclusive device relevant information of dynamic device.

15. a kind of server, including：

Communication interface；

Memory；

Processing unit couples by correspondence with the communication interface and the memory, and the processing unit is configured to Cause the server：

It is obtained in a message using location protocol via the communication interface from the first mobile device on the described first movement The not exclusive device relevant information of device, the not exclusive device relevant information include：

Original equipment manufacturer OEM retailers,

OEM models,

OEM model versions,

Chip vendor,

Chip model or

Chip model revision ID,

Or any combination thereof；

The locating features of first mobile device are determined, wherein the locating features of first mobile device are at least partly Ground is determined based on the not exclusive device relevant information；And

Using the locating features of first mobile device to be carried via the communication interface to first mobile device It is supported for position.

16. server according to claim 15 passes through wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the server It operates to provide the position support below：Specific auxiliary data is provided to first movement using the location protocol to fill It puts；Using the location protocol specific location information is asked to first mobile device；Using the location protocol use from The location estimation of first mobile device described in the positional information calculation that first mobile device receives；Or any combination thereof.

17. server according to claim 16 provides wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the server The specific auxiliary data, the specific auxiliary data include the radio frequency thermal map in a region, and the RF thermal maps have the area One or more locator values of each of multiple positions in domain.

18. server according to claim 15 passes through wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the server The locating features of first mobile device are used using one or more of following：

For the frequency offset of the observation reaching time-difference OTDOA localization methods of Long Term Evolution LTE；

Using the deviation between the pseudo range measurement of the different GNSS systems of different carrier frequencies；

The extra delay measured for the signal round trip propagation time RTT of WLAN WLAN access points AP；

The accuracy of position measurement；

Obtain the internal latency during position measurement；Or

The function of positioning measurement is changed according to the fixation mathematical function with preset parameter.

19. server according to claim 15, wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the server：

It is obtained from the second mobile device and using the location protocol via the communication interface on second mobile device Not exclusive device relevant information, the not exclusive device relevant information of second mobile device with described first movement fill The not exclusive device relevant information put is identical or part is identical；

Using the location protocol location information is received from second mobile device；

The locating features of second mobile device are extracted from the location information received from second mobile device；And

By the locating features of second mobile device and the not exclusive device phase on second mobile device Close at least a portion combination of information.

20. server according to claim 19, wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the server at least The locating features for being based in part on second mobile device determine the locating features of first mobile device.

21. server according to claim 15 uses wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the server Long Term Evolution LTE location protocols LPP or LPP extension LPPe obtain the not exclusive device phase on first mobile device Close information.

22. server according to claim 15 uses wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the server The location protocol will be transmitted to first mobile device for the request of the not exclusive device relevant information.

23. a kind of mobile device, including：

Communication interface；

Memory；

Processing unit couples by correspondence with the communication interface and the memory, and the processing unit is configured to Cause the mobile device：

It is via the communication interface that the not exclusive device on the mobile device is related using location protocol in a message Information is sent to server, and the not exclusive device relevant information includes：

Original equipment manufacturer OEM retailers,

OEM models,

OEM model versions,

Chip vendor,

Chip model or

Chip model revision ID,

Or any combination thereof；And

Position support for the mobile device is received according to the location protocol, wherein the position is supported at least partly Based on the not exclusive device relevant information.

24. mobile device according to claim 23, wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the mobile device The position is received by following operation to support：Using the location protocol specific auxiliary data is received from the server；Make The request for being directed to specific location information is received from the server with the location protocol；Or the location protocol is used by position Information is sent to the server to be realized based on the location information sent by the mobile device in the server The location estimation of the mobile device；Or any combination thereof.

25. mobile device according to claim 24, wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the mobile device Using the specific auxiliary data, wherein the specific auxiliary data includes the radio frequency thermal map in a region, the RF thermal maps tool There are one or more locator values of each of multiple positions in the region.

26. mobile device according to claim 25, wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the mobile device：

Receive the information on the reference unit corresponding to the RF thermal maps；And

At least one position in the multiple position in the region is adjusted based on the described information on the reference unit One or more the described locator values put.

27. mobile device according to claim 23, wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the mobile device The not exclusive device phase on the mobile device is sent using Long Term Evolution LTE location protocols LPP or LPP extension LPPe Close information.

28. mobile device according to claim 23, wherein the processing unit is configured to cause the mobile device In response to the not exclusive device being directed on the mobile device received via the communication interface from the server The request of relevant information and send the not exclusive device relevant information on the mobile device.