Location estimation in a communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016349351-A1
Application number	US-201615165271-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 26, 2016
Priority date	May 28, 2015
Publication date	Dec 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program are provided for estimating a characteristic static location of a user equipment in a wireless communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes for transmitting radio signals. Each network node has an associated cell corresponding to a predicted geographical coverage area of a corresponding transmitted radio signal. Location event data for the user equipment provides a cell-specific location for the user equipment at a point in time. A plurality of event frequencies is determined for the user equipment, each corresponding to a cumulative number of received location events locating the user equipment in a respective cell/sector in a given time interval. A characteristic static location is calculated using a combined measure of at least two non-zero values of the plurality of event frequencies corresponding respectively to at least two different cells or sectors.

First claim

1 . Method for estimating a characteristic static location of a user equipment in a wireless communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes for transmitting radio signals, each network node having an associated cell corresponding to a predicted geographical coverage area of a corresponding transmitted radio signal, the method comprising:
receiving location event data for the user equipment, each of a plurality of location events of the location event data providing a cell-specific location for the user equipment at a point in time; determining a plurality of event frequencies for the user equipment, each event frequency corresponding to a cumulative number of received location events locating the user equipment in a respective cell and/or sector in a given time interval; calculating the characteristic static location using a combined measure of at least two non-zero values of the plurality of event frequencies corresponding respectively to at least two different cells or sectors.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least two non-zero values of the plurality of event frequencies correspond to two at least partially overlapping cells or sectors.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the combined measure of event observation frequencies comprises determining the characteristic static location to be in an overlap region of the two at least partially overlapping cells when a difference between respective event frequencies for the two different cells or sectors is less than a predetermined threshold.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the combined measure of event frequencies is a weighted mean of spatial coordinates corresponding to the at least two different cells or sectors, wherein the weightings depend upon the event observation frequencies.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the spatial coordinates for the weighted mean comprise coordinates of a centroid of the respective cell or sector.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the weightings depend upon an observed dwell time of the user equipment in a respective cell/sector of the at least two different cells/sectors.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the weightings depend upon a cell/sector radius of the at least two different cells/sectors.

8 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the weightings depend upon a number of consecutive location events for the respective cell or sector.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cell-specific location comprises a unique cell identifier.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the unique cell identifier corresponds to a sector served by one direction of a multi-directional antenna.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the observation events correspond to at least one of: a call being received at the user equipment, a call being transmitted from the user equipment, sending of a short messaging service message, a periodic location area update for the UE and a Packet Data Protocol context setup for the user equipment.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic static cell location corresponds to a home cell and wherein one of the at least two non-zero values corresponds to a highest incidence cell having a highest frequency count for event observations in the given time interval.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the combined measure of at least two non-zero values of the plurality of event frequencies comprises three or more non-zero values corresponding to the highest incidence cell and two or more cells, each having at least a partial overlap with the highest incidence cell.

14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication network is a heterogeneous network comprising at least two cell types selected from macrocells, microcells, picocells and femtocells and wherein the at least two different cells comprise different cell types.

15 . Apparatus for estimating a characteristic static location of a user equipment in a wireless communication network comprising a plurality of network nodes for transmitting radio signals, each network node having an associated cell corresponding to a predicted geographical coverage area of a corresponding transmitted radio signal, the apparatus comprising an analytics module having a processor configured to:
receive location event data for the user equipment, each of a plurality of location events of the location event data providing a cell-specific location for the user equipment at a point in time; determine a plurality of event frequencies for the user equipment, each event frequency corresponding to a cumulative number of received location events locating the user equipment in a respective cell and/or sector in a given time interval; calculate the characteristic static location using a combined measure of at least two non-zero values of the plurality of event frequencies corresponding respectively to at least two different cells or sectors.

16 . A computer program product embodied on a computer-readable medium comprising program instructions configured such that when executed by processing circuitry causes the processing circuitry to implement the method of claim 1 .

17 . (canceled)

18 . (canceled)

19 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Vodafone Ip Licensing Ltd

Inventors

• Ludden Brendan

Classifications

• G01S5/0295

  Proximity-based methods, e.g. position inferred from reception of particular signals · CPC title

• G01S5/00

  Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more direction or position line determinations; Position-fixing by co-ordinating two or more distance determinations {(using active systems G01S13/00, G01S15/00, G01S17/00)} · CPC title

• G01S5/0294 Primary

  Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering · CPC title

• G01S5/0027

  of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile · CPC title

• H04W64/00 Primary

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