Devices, methods, and computer programs for detecting potential displacement of a wireless transceiver

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9538405-B2
Application number	US-201114000015-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 17, 2011
Priority date	Feb 17, 2011
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

It is presented a method for detecting potential displacement of a wireless transceiver connected to a machine-to-machine device. The method comprises the steps, executed in a displacement detection server, of: receiving an updated radio environment message from the wireless transceiver, the radio environment message comprising updated radio characteristics of at least two radio cells, the updated characteristics being measured by the wireless transceiver; determining whether the updated radio characteristics differ significantly from previous radio characteristics of a previous radio environment message from the wireless transceiver; and when it is determined that radio characteristics differ significantly, sending a displacement indication message to a device management server, the displacement indication message indicating potential displacement of the wireless transceiver. Corresponding displacement detection server, host device, computer program and computer program product are also presented.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A displacement detection server for detecting potential displacement of a wireless transceiver connected to a machine-to-machine device, the displacement detection server comprising:
a receiver hardware apparatus for receiving an updated radio environment message, the updated radio environment message comprising information identifying updated radio characteristics of at least two radio cells, the updated characteristics being measured by the wireless transceiver;
a processor configured to determine whether the updated radio characteristics of said at least two radio cells differ more than a certain predetermined amount from previous radio characteristics of a previous radio environment message from the wireless transceiver; and
a transmitter hardware apparatus, wherein
the displacement detection server is arranged to use the transmitter to send a displacement indication message to a device management server as a result of the processor determining that the updated radio characteristics differ more than the certain predetermined amount from the previous radio characteristics, the displacement indication message indicating potential displacement of the wireless transceiver,
the displacement detection server is located remotely from the wireless transceiver,
the information identifying updated radio characteristics of the at least two radio cells comprises a first set of received signal strength values, said first set of received signal strength values comprising a first received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from a first cell and a second received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from a second cell,
the previous radio characteristics of said previous radio environment message comprises a second set of received signal strength values, said second set of received signal strength values comprising a third received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from the first cell and a fourth received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from the second cell, and
the processor is configured to determine whether the updated radio characteristics of said at least two radio cells differ more than the certain predetermined amount from the previous radio characteristics of the previous radio environment message by determining whether the first set of received signal strength values differs more than the certain predetermined amount from the second set of received signal strength values.

2. The displacement detection server of claim 1 , wherein
the processor is configured to determine whether the updated radio characteristics differ more than the certain predetermined amount from the previous radio characteristics by: i) generating a first numeric value using the first and second received signal strength values, and ii) determining whether the first numeric value differs more than the certain predetermined amount than a previously generated numeric value that was previously generated using information from the previous radio environment message.

3. The displacement detection server of claim 2 , wherein generating the first numeric value comprises forming an ordered set of received signal strength values, said ordered set comprising the first and second received signal strength value.

4. The displacement detection server of claim 2 , wherein generating the first numeric value comprises calculating a numerical value using the first and second received signal strength values.

5. The displacement detection server of claim 4 , wherein calculating the numerical value using the first and second received signal strength values comprises multiplying the first received signal strength value by a first weight value and multiplying the second received signal strength value by a second weight value.

6. A method for detecting potential displacement of a wireless transceiver connected to a machine-to-machine device, the method comprising the steps, executed in a displacement detection server, of:
receiving, at the displacement detection server, an updated radio environment message from the wireless transceiver, the updated radio environment message comprising information identifying updated radio characteristics of at least two radio cells, the updated characteristics being measured by the wireless transceiver;
determining, by the displacement detection server, whether the updated radio characteristics differ more than a certain predetermined amount from previous radio characteristics of a previous radio environment message from the wireless transceiver; and
as a result of determining that radio characteristics differ more than the certain predetermined amount, the displacement detection server sending a displacement indication message to a device management server, the displacement indication message indicating potential displacement of the wireless transceiver, wherein
the displacement detection server is located remotely from the wireless transceiver,
the information identifying updated radio characteristics of the at least two radio cells comprises a first set of received signal strength values, said first set of received signal strength values comprising a first received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from a first cell and a second received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from a second cell,
the previous radio characteristics of said previous radio environment message comprises a second set of received signal strength values, said second set of received signal strength values comprising a third received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from the first cell and a fourth received signal strength value based on a measured strength of a signal from the second cell, and
the step of determining whether the updated radio characteristics differ more than the certain predetermined amount from the previous radio characteristics comprises determining whether the first set of received signal strength values differs more than the certain predetermined amount from the second set of received signal strength values.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the updated radio environment message comprises radio characteristics of all radio cells available to the wireless transceiver.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the updated radio environment message comprises measurements of signal strength of all radio cells available to the wireless transceiver.

9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of determining involves determining that the updated radio characteristics differ more than the certain predetermined amount from previous radio characteristics of a previous radio environment message from the wireless transceiver when a difference is persistent, as defined by radio characteristics differing from previous radio characteristics during a predetermined number of radio environment messages.

10. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of receiving receives the updated radio environment message as an initiative from the wireless transceiver.

11. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising the step of sending to the wireless transceiver a request message requesting the wireless transceiver to send the updated radio environment message, wherein the sending step is performed prior to the step of receiving the updated radio environment message.

12. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the step of determining involves calculating a difference using root mean square.

13. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory

Assignees

• Skog Robert
• Ljunggren Andreas
• ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M (publ)

Inventors

• Skog Robert
• Ljunggren Andreas

Classifications

• G01S5/017

  Detecting state or type of motion · CPC title

• H04W24/08 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• G01S5/02

  using radio waves (using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00) · CPC title

• H04W64/00 Primary

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