Techniques and methods for controlling crowdsourcing from a mobile device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9609539-B2
Application number	US-201414535278-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 6, 2014
Priority date	Nov 8, 2013
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

Systems, apparatus and methods for crowdsourcing measurements of wireless base stations, access points and/or other transmitters from a mobile device to a server are presented. A crowdsourcing request sent by a server to a mobile device may comprise control parameters and measurement parameters. Control parameters may determine when a mobile obtains and reports measurements and measurement parameters may determine which types of measurements a mobile device obtains. Control parameters may comprise trigger parameters for crowdsourcing activation, measurement, reporting and duration. Crowdsourcing may be instigated by a control server and reported to a different data server. Crowdsourcing may be anonymous and may comprise basic or advanced reporting.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method in a mobile device for reporting crowdsourcing measurements to a first server, comprising:
receiving a request from a second server, wherein the request comprises first control parameters and first measurement parameters;
returning a response to the second server, wherein the response comprises second control parameters and second measurement parameters;
obtaining measurements at a first plurality of different times, wherein the measurements are based on the second measurement parameters, and wherein the first plurality of different times is based on the second control parameters; and
sending the measurements to the first server in a plurality of measurement reports at a second plurality of different times, wherein the second plurality of different times is based on the second control parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first server is a data server and the second server is a control server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second control parameters are equivalent to the first control parameters.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second measurement parameters are equivalent to or a subset of the first measurement parameters.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first control parameters and the second control parameters each comprise at least one of activation trigger parameters, measurement trigger parameters, reporting trigger parameters and duration trigger parameters.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the activation trigger parameters comprise conditions for activating and deactivating crowdsourcing at the mobile device, and wherein the first plurality of different times comprises times when crowdsourcing is activated.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the activation trigger parameters comprise at least one of a geographic area parameter, an activation area parameter, a deactivation area parameter, a country-network parameter, a detected transmitters parameter, a target motion state parameter, an environment parameter, a logical trigger combination parameter, an activation delay parameter and a deactivation delay parameter.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the measurement trigger parameters comprise conditions for obtaining the measurements, and wherein the first plurality of different times comprises times that are determined by the conditions.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the measurement trigger parameters comprise at least one of a measurement periodicity parameter, a measurement movement parameter, a measurement floor change parameter, a measurement change of Serving Cell or AP parameter, and a logical measurement combination parameter.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the reporting trigger parameters comprise conditions for sending the measurements to the first server, and wherein the second plurality of different times comprises times that are determined by the conditions.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the reporting trigger parameters comprise at least one of a real time parameter, a quasi-real time parameter and a batch parameter.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the real time parameter is included in the reporting trigger parameters but not the quasi-real time parameter or the batch parameter, and wherein the second plurality of different times are equivalent to the first plurality of different times or a subset of the first plurality of different times.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the quasi-real time parameter is included in the reporting trigger parameters but not the real time parameter or the batch parameter, and wherein a subset of the second plurality of different times is equivalent to a subset of the first plurality of different times.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the batch parameter is included in the reporting trigger parameters but not the real time parameter or the quasi-real time parameter, and further comprising:
storing the measurements obtained at each of the first plurality of different times; and
sending all measurements to the first server that are currently stored at each of the second plurality of different times, wherein each of the second plurality of different times is based on the batch parameter.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the batch parameter comprises at least one of a batch report movement parameter, a batch report on change of serving network parameter, a batch access network restriction parameter and a batch storage overflow parameter.

16. The method of claim 5 , wherein the duration trigger parameters comprise at least one of a crowdsourcing start time parameter and a crowdsourcing duration parameter.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request, the response and each measurement report comprise a session ID.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the session ID in the response and in each measurement report comprises a fixed anonymous value.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a crowdsourcing query from one of the first server and the second server; and
returning a response to the crowdsourcing query to the one of the first server and the second server, wherein the response to the crowdsourcing query comprises the second control parameters and the second measurement parameters.

20. A method in a server for obtaining crowdsourcing measurements from a mobile device, comprising:
sending a request to the mobile device, wherein the request comprises first control parameters and first measurement parameters;
receiving a response from the mobile device, wherein the response comprises second control parameters and second measurement parameters; and
receiving measurements from the mobile device in a plurality of measurement reports, wherein the measurements are obtained by the mobile device at a first plurality of different times based on the second control parameters, and wherein the measurements are sent by the mobile device at a second plurality of different times determined by the second control parameters.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the second control parameters are equivalent to the first control parameters.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein the second measurement parameters are equivalent to the first measurement parameters or a subset of the first measurement parameters.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein the first control parameters and the second control parameters each comprise at least one of activation trigger parameters, measurement trigger parameters, reporting trigger parameters and duration trigger parameters.

24. The method of claim 23 , wherein the activation trigger parameters comprise conditions for activating and deactivating crowdsourcing at the mobile device, and wherein the first plurality of different times comprises times when crowdsourcing is activated.

25. The method of claim 24 , wherein the activation trigger parameters comprise at least one of a geographic area parameter, an activation area parameter, a deactivation area parameter, a country-network parameter, a detected transmitters parameter, a target motion state parameter, an environment parameter, a logical trigger combination parameter, an activation delay parameter and a deactivation delay parameter.

26. The method of claim 23 , wherein the measurement trigger parameters comprise conditions for obtaining the measurements, and wherein the first plurality of different times comprises times that are determined by the conditions.

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Edge Stephen William
• Coleman David Richard
• Wong Kin Fai

Classifications

• G01S5/0236

  Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac · CPC title

• H04L69/24 Primary

  Negotiation of communication capabilities · CPC title

• H04W4/21

  for social networking applications · CPC title

• H04W24/10 Primary

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04W64/00

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