Wireless device locating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10278023-B2
Application number	US-201615271082-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 20, 2016
Priority date	Sep 20, 2016
Publication date	Apr 30, 2019
Grant date	Apr 30, 2019

Abstract

A method of locating a target device includes: producing, at a query device, a request for a location of a target device, the query device including a first radio, of a first type, configured to communicate wirelessly using a first communication protocol, the target lacking a radio of the first type but including a second radio, of a second type, configured to communicate wirelessly using a second communication protocol, the second communication protocol being incompatible with the first communication protocol; and transmitting the request wirelessly, from the query device to a first intermediate device, using the first radio.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of locating a target device, the method comprising:
producing, at a query device, a request for a location of the target device, the query device including a first radio, of a first type, configured to communicate wirelessly using a first communication protocol, the target device lacking a radio of the first type but including a second radio, of a second type, configured to communicate wirelessly using a second communication protocol, the second communication protocol being incompatible with the first communication protocol;
determining from a communication history log that a first intermediate device is a last known device with which the target device communicated, the communication history log indicating at least one device with which the target device has communicated using short-range wireless communication without being in short-range communication, directly or indirectly, with the query device; and
transmitting, in response to the determining, the request wirelessly from the query device to the first intermediate device using the first radio.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, at the query device, that the target device lacks a radio of the first type;
determining that the first intermediate device includes a radio of the first type; and
including a destination address of the first intermediate device in the request.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining that a second intermediate device includes a radio of the first type; and
including a destination address of the second intermediate device in the request;
wherein transmitting the request comprises transmitting the request to the first intermediate device and to the second intermediate device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing, at the query device, a history of devices with which the target device has communicated.

5. The method of claim 4 , the method further comprising transmitting the request to a second intermediate device, wherein transmitting the request to the first intermediate device and transmitting the request to the second intermediate device are performed in reverse chronological order of last known, by the query device, times at which the target device communicated with the first intermediate device and the second intermediate device, respectively.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the query device, a list of target device attributes including each available radio type of the target device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request is produced, in response to the determining, to include a destination address of the first intermediate device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication history log indicates devices with which the target device communicated and timing of communications by those devices with the target device.

9. A query device comprising:
a transceiver including a first radio of a first type configured to communicate wirelessly using a first communication protocol;
a memory; and
a processor communicatively coupled to the transceiver and configured, in conjunction with the memory, to:
produce a request for a location of a target device, the target device lacking a radio of the first type but including a second radio, of a second type, configured to communicate wirelessly using a second communication protocol, the second communication protocol being incompatible with the first communication protocol;
determine from a communication history log that a first intermediate device is a last known device with which the target device communicated, the communication history log indicating at least one device with which the target device has communicated using short-range wireless communication without being in short-range communication, directly or indirectly, with the query device; and
transmit, in response to determining that the first intermediate device is a last known device with which the target device communicated, the request wirelessly via the first radio to the first intermediate device.

10. The query device of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine that the target device lacks a radio of the first type;
determine that the first intermediate device includes a radio of the first type; and
include a destination address of the first intermediate device in the request.

11. The query device of claim 10 , wherein the processor is configured to:
determine that a second intermediate device includes a radio of the first type;
include a destination addresses of the a second intermediate device in the request; and
transmit the request to the second intermediate device via the first radio.

12. The query device of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the request to a second intermediate device, wherein the processor is configured to transmit the request to the first intermediate device and to the a second intermediate device in reverse chronological order of last known, by the query device, times at which the target device communicated with the first intermediate device and the a second intermediate device, respectively.

13. The query device of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to store, in the memory, a history of devices with which the target device has communicated.

14. The query device of claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to receive, via the transceiver, a list of target device attributes including each available radio type of the target device.

15. The query device of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to produce the request to include a destination address of the first intermediate device in response to the processor determining that the first intermediate device is the last known device with which the target device communicated.

16. The query device of claim 9 , wherein the first communication protocol is incompatible with short-range communication, and wherein the processor is configured to receive communication history information via the first radio and to update the communication history log with the communication history information.

17. A query device comprising:
means for producing a request for a location of a target device that lacks a radio of a first type configured to communicate wirelessly using a first communication protocol but includes a second radio, of a second type, configured to communicate wirelessly using a second communication protocol;
means for determining from a communication history log that a first intermediate device is a last known device with which the target device communicated, the communication history log indicating at least one device with which the target device has communicated using short-range wireless communication without being in short-range communication, directly or indirectly, with the query device; and
means for transmitting, in response to determining that the first intermediate device is a last known device with which the target device communicated, the request wirelessly from the query device to the first intermediate device using a first radio, of the first type, configured to communicate wirelessly using the first communication protocol, the first communication protocol being incompatible with the second communication protocol.

18. The query device of claim 17 , further comprising:
means for determining that the target device lacks a radio of the first type; and
means for determining that the first intermediate device includes a radio of the first type;
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Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Venkatraman Sai Pradeep
• Do Ju-Yong
• Gao Weihua
• Agrawal Meghna
• Zhang Gengsheng

Classifications

• H04W4/025 Primary

  using location based information parameters · CPC title

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04W76/16

  Involving different core network technologies, e.g. a packet-switched [PS] bearer in combination with a circuit-switched [CS] bearer · CPC title