System and method for location assurance of a mobile device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9648460-B2
Application number	US-201414168818-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 30, 2014
Priority date	May 21, 2010
Publication date	May 9, 2017
Grant date	May 9, 2017

Abstract

A method for forging location measurements at a wireless device can include determining, at the wireless device, a Cell-ID for a cell in a vicinity of a false location. The method can also include receiving, at the wireless device, an identification of a set of satellites that are within view from the false location. The method can further include generating, at the wireless device, forged location measurements that characterize satellite signals from a subset of the set of satellites that would be received at the false location. The method can still further include providing, from the wireless device, the forged location measurements.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for forging location measurements at a wireless device, comprising:
determining, at the wireless device, a Cell-ID for a cell in a vicinity of a false location;
receiving, at the wireless device, an identification of a set of satellites that are within view from the false location;
generating, at the wireless device, forged location measurements that characterize satellite signals from a subset of the set of satellites that would be received at the false location; and
providing, from the wireless device, the forged location measurements.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the set of satellites is a proper subset of the set of satellites.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating further comprises introducing random errors into the forged location measurements.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the random errors includes a simulated clock error.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the random errors include a simulated ionosphere error.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the random errors include a simulated troposphere error.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises querying a cell database to retrieve the Cell-ID for the cell in the vicinity of the false location.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless device is located in a cell with a different Cell-ID than the false location.

9. A wireless device for forging location measurements, comprising:
a memory for storing machine executable instructions; and
a processor to execute the machine executable instructions, the machine executable instructions configured to:
determine an identification of a set of satellites that are within view from a false location;
generate forged location measurements that characterize satellite signals from a subset of the set of satellites that would be received at the false location;
introduce random errors into the forged location measurements; and
output the forged location measurements.

10. The wireless device of claim 9 , wherein the identification of the set of satellites is received from a secure user plan location (SULP) location platform (SLP).

11. The wireless device of claim 9 , wherein the subset of the set of satellites is a proper subset of the set of satellites.

12. The wireless device of claim 9 , wherein the random errors includes a simulated clock error.

13. The wireless device of claim 9 , wherein the random errors include a simulated ionosphere error.

14. The wireless device of claim 9 , wherein the random errors include a simulated troposphere error.

15. A wireless device for forging location measurements, comprising:
a memory for storing machine executable instructions; and
a processor to execute the machine executable instructions, the machine executable instructions configured to:
determine an identification of a set of satellites that are within view from a false location;
query a cell database to retrieve a Cell-ID for a cell in the vicinity of the false location;
generate forged location measurements that characterize satellite signals from a subset of the set of satellites that would be received at the false location; and
output the forged location measurements.

16. The wireless device of claim 9 , wherein the wireless device is located in a cell with a different Cell-ID than the false location.

17. A system for forging location measurements, the system comprising:
a computer having a location based application (LBA) executing thereon, the LBA being configured to provide a request for a location of a secure user plan location (SULP) enabled terminal (SET) to an SULP location platform (SLP);
the SLP being configured to provide a location request message to the SET in response to receiving the request of the location of the SET;
the SET being configured to:
receive, from the SLP, the location request message;
determine a Cell-ID for a cell in a vicinity of a false location in response to the location request message;
determine an identification of a set of satellites that are within view from the false location;
generate forged location measurements that characterize satellite signals from a subset of the set of satellites that would be received at the false location; and
provide the forged location measurements to the SLP.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the SLP is further configured to provide data characterizing the falsified location to the LBA in response to the request for the location of the SET.

19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the subset of the set of satellites is a proper subset of the set of satellites.

20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the SET is further configured to introduce random errors into the forged location measurements.

21. The system of claim 17 , wherein the SET is located in a cell with a different Cell-ID than the false location.

Assignees

• Telecomm Systems Inc

Inventors

• Harper Neil

Classifications

• H04W12/12

  Detection or prevention of fraud · CPC title

• G01S19/215

  issues related to spoofing · CPC title

• G01S19/42

  Determining position · CPC title

• G01S19/03

  Cooperating elements; Interaction or communication between different cooperating elements or between cooperating elements and receivers · CPC title

• H04W64/00

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