Location access units (LAUs) in a wireless communications system (WCS) for transmitting information to a wireless client device in the WCS for determining location of the client device, and related systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11006353-B2
Application number	US-201916598666-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2019
Priority date	Jan 18, 2017
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

Location access units (LAUs) in a wireless communications system (WCS) for transmitting information to a wireless client device in a WCS for determining location of wireless client device. The LAUs each include a transmitter(s) configured to transmit local wireless communications signal that includes identification information of the LAU, to a wireless client device in the WCS. This identification information can be used to associate the location of the LAU to the client device, because the client device is known to be in communication range of the LAU. In one example, the carrier of a communication session with a client device in the WCS can instruct the client device to scan for local wireless communications signals transmitted by an LAU. The client device returns received identification information from received wireless communications signals transmitted by an LAU to the carrier to associate this location of the LAU to the client device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless communications system (WCS), comprising:
a central unit configured to:
receive downlink cellular communications signals from at least one signal source;
distribute the received downlink cellular communications signals over at least one downlink communications medium to at least one remote unit among a plurality of remote units;
receive uplink wireless communications signals from the plurality of remote units over at least one uplink communications medium; and
distribute the received uplink wireless communications signals to the at least one signal source;

each remote unit among the plurality of remote units comprising at least one antenna and configured to:
receive downlink cellular communications signals over the at least one downlink communications medium from the central unit;
transmit the received downlink cellular communications signals over the at least one antenna to a wireless client device;
receive uplink wireless communications signals over the at least one antenna from a wireless client device comprising an uplink wireless communications signal from the wireless client device comprising received identification information from a local access unit (LAU) at a known location among one or more LAUs, the LAU located in proximity with the remote unit communicating with the wireless client device; and
distribute the received uplink wireless communications signals comprising the received identification information in the uplink wireless communication signal received from the wireless client device over the at least one uplink communications medium as uplink communications signals to the central unit;

the one or more LAUs each located in proximity with a remote unit among the plurality of remote units, each LAU of the one or more LAUs comprising:
at least one antenna; and
one or more wireless transmitters coupled to the at least one antenna, each of the one or more wireless transmitters configured to transmit a wireless communications signal comprising the received identification information associated with the known location of the LAU to the wireless client device communicating with the remote unit associated with the LAU;

the WCS configured to determine a location of the wireless client device in proximity to the LAU by associating the received identification information of the LAU received by the remote unit in the received uplink wireless communications signals with the wireless client device.

2. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein each remote unit associated with a LAU among the one or more LAUs is configured to receive the uplink wireless communications signals further comprising:
a second uplink wireless communications signal from the wireless client device comprising a request to establish a location-based communication session with a signal source among the at least one signal source.

3. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein each remote unit associated with a LAU among the one or more LAUs is further configured to receive the downlink cellular communications signals comprising:
a first downlink cellular communications signal instructing the wireless client device to scan for the wireless communications signal from a LAU comprising identification information associated with the location of the LAU.

4. The WCS of claim 2 , wherein the location-based communication session is an emergency 911 (E911) call.

5. The WCS of claim 2 further configured to look up location information of the LAU associated with the remote unit communicating with the wireless client device, in a location database based on identification information in the second uplink wireless communications signal received from the wireless client device.

6. The WCS of claim 5 further comprising the location database.

7. The WCS of claim 6 , wherein the central unit comprises the location database.

8. The WCS of claim 6 , wherein the location database comprises a NEAD database.

9. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein the one or more wireless transmitters are not configured to connect to a network.

10. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein a wireless transmitter among the one or more wireless transmitters comprises a WiFi transmitter.

11. The WCS of claim 10 , wherein the identification information comprises an identifier comprised from the group consisting of a service set identifier (BSSID).

12. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein a wireless transmitter among the one or more wireless transmitters comprises a Bluetooth transmitter.

13. The WCS of claim 12 , wherein the identification information is comprised form the group consisting of universal unique identification (UUID) and a Bluetooth media access control (MAC) address.

14. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein a wireless communication range of the one or more LAUs is substantially the same as the remote unit associated with the LAU among the one or more LAUs.

15. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein at least one LAU among the one or more LAUs further comprises a pressure sensor configured to generate a pressure signal indicative of barometric pressure of the at least one LAU;
the at least one LAU configured to distribute pressure information associated with the pressure signal to the central unit to be provided to a carrier.

16. The WCS of claim 15 , wherein:
each remote unit associated with a LAU among the one or more LAUs is configured to receive the uplink wireless communications signals comprising a second uplink wireless communications signal from the wireless client device comprising a request to establish a location-based communication session with a signal source among the at least one signal source; and
the at least one LAU is configured to:
receive a second downlink cellular communications signal from the carrier comprising a request for the pressure information for the wireless client device communicating with the remote unit associated with the at least one LAU; and
distribute the pressure information from the LAU associated with the wireless client device communicating with the remote unit in the second uplink wireless communications signal to the central unit to be distributed to the carrier.

17. The WCS of claim 16 , further comprising a central LAU associated with the central unit, the central LAU comprising a pressure sensor configured to generate a central pressure signal indicative of barometric pressure of the central LAU, the central LAU configured to transmit central pressure information;
the central LAU configured to receive a downlink cellular communications signal from the carrier comprising a request for the central pressure information from the central LAU.

18. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein:
each LAU of the one or more LAUs further comprises an input power port; and
the remote unit among the plurality of remote units associated with each LAU among the one or more LAUs comprises an output power port configured to be electrically coupled to the input power port to provide power to the associated LAU.

19. The WCS of claim 18 , wherein:
each input power port of the one or more LAUs comprises a power-over-Ethernet port; and
each output power port of the remote unit associated with a LAU among the one or more LAUs comprises a power-over-Ethernet port.

20. A wireless communications system (WCS), comprising:
a central unit configured to:
receive downlink cellular communications signals from at least one signal source;
distribute the received downlink cellular communications signals over at least one optical downlink communications medium to at least one re

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communication Llc
• Corning Optical Communications LLC

Inventors

• Bachbut Liav
• Chamarti Aravind

Classifications

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W4/023 Primary

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• H04W8/005

  Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals · CPC title

• H04W8/02

  Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of mobility data, e.g. between HLR, VLR or external networks · CPC title

• H04W64/003

  locating network equipment · CPC title