Antenna positioning using data across air interface types

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9736649-B1
Application number	US-201615262843-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 12, 2016
Priority date	Sep 12, 2016
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed herein are techniques for determining a location of an antenna supporting structure. Crowdsourced data associated with antennas that are installed on a same antenna supporting structure but are used for different air interface types and/or data from aerial images can be used, alone or in combination, to more accurately and more efficiently determine the location of the antenna supporting structure and therefore the locations of the antennas on the antenna supporting structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining a location of an antenna supporting structure, the method comprising:
obtaining a first set of data associated with a first antenna for a first air interface type, the first antenna installed on the antenna supporting structure;
obtaining a second set of data associated with a second antenna for a second air interface type different from the first air interface type, the second antenna installed on the antenna supporting structure; and
determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprising the first set of data and the second set of data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first air interface type comprises at least one of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), or LTE advanced; and
the second air interface type comprises at least one of GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, UMTS, LTE, or LTE advanced.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of data comprises information regarding a distance or a time of flight of a wireless signal between a mobile device and the first antenna.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
performing a multi-lateration or multi-angulation operation using at least some data from the first set of data and at least some data from the second set of data.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining a third set of data associated with a third antenna for a third air interface type different from the first and the second air interface types, the third antenna installed on the antenna supporting structure,
wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure comprises performing a multi-lateration or multi-angulation operation using at least some data from the first set of data, at least some data from the second set of data, and at least some data from the third set of data.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
determining a first location of the first antenna based on the first set of data;
determining, using the first location as a candidate location, a second location of the second antenna based on the second set of data; and
assigning the second location as the location of the antenna supporting structure.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
determining a first candidate region for a location of the first antenna based on the first set of data;
determining a second candidate region for a location of the second antenna based on the second set of data; and
determining the location of the antenna supporting structure based on an overlapped region of the first candidate region and the second candidate region.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
identifying the first air interface type or the second air interface type as an air interface type that allows for more accurate antenna location determination based on the first set of data and the second set of data;
determining an antenna location based on the first set of data or the second set of data associated with the air interface type that allows for more accurate antenna location determination; and
assigning the antenna location as the location of the antenna supporting structure.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
determining a candidate location of the antenna supporting structure based on at least one of the first set of data or the second set of data;
obtaining an aerial image of a geographic area comprising the candidate location, the aerial image comprising associated geographic metadata to enable the computation of a geographic location of objects captured in the image;
identifying the antenna supporting structure in the aerial image using computer-based image processing; and
determining the location of the antenna supporting structure identified using the computer-based image processing based on the geographic metadata.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying the first antenna and the second antenna as installed on the antenna supporting structure.

11. A system comprising:
a memory comprising machine-readable instructions stored thereon; and
a processing unit communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to execute the machine-readable instructions to determine a location of an antenna supporting structure by:
obtaining a first set of data associated with a first antenna for a first air interface type, the first antenna installed on the antenna supporting structure;
obtaining a second set of data associated with a second antenna for a second air interface type different from the first air interface type, the second antenna installed on the antenna supporting structure; and
determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprising the first set of data and the second set of data.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the first air interface type comprises at least one of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), or LTE advanced; and
the second air interface type comprises at least one of GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, UMTS, LTE, or LTE advanced.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the first set of data comprises information regarding a distance or a time of flight of a wireless signal between a mobile device and the first antenna.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
performing a multi-lateration or multi-angulation operation using at least some data from the first set of data and at least some data from the second set of data.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to execute the machine-readable instructions to determine the location of the antenna supporting structure by:
obtaining a third set of data associated with a third antenna for a third air interface type different from the first and the second air interface types, the third antenna installed on the antenna supporting structure,
wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure comprises performing a multi-lateration or multi-angulation operation using at least some data from the first set of data, at least some data from the second set of data, and at least some data from the third set of data.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
determining a first location of the first antenna based on the first set of data;
determining, using the first location as a candidate location, a second location of the second antenna based on the second set of data; and
assigning the second location as the location of the antenna supporting structure.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein determining the location of the antenna supporting structure using combined data comprises:
determining a first candidate region for a location of the first antenna based on the first set of data;

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Do Ju-Yong
• Moeglein Mark
• Gao Weihua
• Zhang Gengsheng

Classifications

• G01S5/0258

  by combining or switching between measurements derived from different systems · CPC title

• G01S5/0264

  at least one of the systems being a non-radio wave positioning system · CPC title

• H04W64/003

  locating network equipment · CPC title

• H04W4/023

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

• H04W24/02

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title