Devices, methods, and apparatuses for mobile device acquisition assistance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9798010-B2
Application number	US-201213732071-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 31, 2012
Priority date	Jul 31, 2012
Publication date	Oct 24, 2017
Grant date	Oct 24, 2017

Abstract

Methods, apparatuses and/or articles of manufacture, which may be employed in a mobile device and/or in a location server, enable acquisition assistance at the mobile device. In at least one implementation, which is not intended to limit claimed subject matter, acquisition assistance may include expected Doppler frequency shift and expected code phase in the case of a particular Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellite vehicle, as well as a search window for each of these, and a confidence value. The confidence value may indicate the likelihood of detecting signals from the satellite vehicle at the current expected location of the mobile device and within the given search windows and may enable one or more of faster location estimation, reduced battery consumption, and detection of weaker satellite signals.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, at a location server, for providing acquisition assistance parameters for use in acquisition of one or more positioning system signals, comprising:
determining, at said location server, via one or more processing units coupled to a memory, a first initial estimated location of a first mobile device based, at least in part, on service of said first mobile device from a serving cell, a serving base station or a serving access point, and determining a first uncertainty area of said first initial estimated location, said first uncertainty area being based, at least in part, on signals received by said first mobile device from said serving cell, said serving base station or said serving access point;
determining a confidence value for said first uncertainty area of said first initial estimated location, said confidence value being based, at least in part, on whether a previous initial estimated location of a second mobile device, served by said serving cell, by said serving base station or by said serving access point, was within a second uncertainty area determined for said previous initial estimated location;
obtaining, from a memory, said acquisition assistance parameters including one or more search windows based, at least in part, on said first initial estimated location; and
transmitting, over a communications network, one or more messages comprising said acquisition assistance parameters and said confidence value for use by first mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising said first mobile device scheduling processing resources to search within a search window for satellite positioning system (SPS) signals responsive to said first mobile device receiving said confidence value.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising said first mobile device scheduling processing resources to search within a search window for positioning signals from one or more terrestrial base stations responsive to said first mobile device receiving said confidence value from at least one terrestrial base station.

4. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising transmitting a measure of reliability based, at least in part, on a location of said serving base station or said access point being known to be correct or being known to have changed one or more times in the past.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said one or more search windows comprises a search window of CDMA pilot phases.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said one or more search windows comprises a time-of-arrival difference window for signals transmitted to said first mobile device from two or more terrestrial base stations.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said one or more search windows comprises a GNSS Doppler frequency search window.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said one or more search windows comprises a GNSS code phase search window.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein a first boundary of said code phase search window is computed to correspond to a location within an uncertainty area at an approximate furthest distance from a satellite of one or more satellite positioning system (SPS), and wherein a second boundary of said code phase search window is computed to correspond to a location within said uncertainty area at an approximate closest distance from said satellite.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining said first initial estimated location comprises associating a location of a currently serving base station with a location of said first mobile device.

11. An apparatus comprising:
a communications interface configured to transmit messages to and receive messages from a communications network; and
one or more processors configured to:
determine a first initial estimated location of a first mobile device, based, at least in part, on service of said first mobile device from a serving cell, a serving base station or a serving access point and determining a first uncertainty area of said first initial estimated location, said first uncertainty area to be based, at least in part, on signal parameters in messages received from said communications network at said communications interface, said signal parameters being related to signals received by said first mobile device from said serving cell, signals received by said serving base station or signals received by said serving access point, said signal parameters comprising serving cell signal parameters, serving base station signal parameters or serving access point signal parameters, or a combination thereof;
determine a confidence value for said first uncertainty area of said initial estimated location, said confidence value to be based, at least in part, on whether a previous initial estimated location of a second mobile device, served by said serving cell, by said serving base station or by said serving access point, was within a second uncertainty area determined for said previous initial estimated location; and
obtain, from a memory, acquisition assistance parameters to include one or more search windows based, at least in part, on said first initial estimated location;

initiate transmission, over said communications network through said communications interface, one or more messages comprising said acquisition assistance parameters and said confidence value for use by said first mobile device.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said one or more processors additionally are configured to compare said first initial estimated location with a position estimation transmitted by said first mobile device.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said one or more processors additionally are configured to accept an estimated position transmitted from said first mobile device resulting, at least in part, in an update of said first initial estimated location.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein said one or more processors additionally are configured to update said first uncertainty area based, at least in part, on signals received by said first mobile device from said serving cell, said serving base station or said serving access point.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said acquisition assistance parameters comprise GNSS Doppler frequency shift and GNSS pseudorandom code phase.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said acquisition assistance parameters comprise a window of a CDMA pilot phase or a time-difference-of-arrival that permits said first mobile device to estimate position.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein said acquisition assistance parameters permit said first mobile device to determine location using transmitted signals compatible with at least one of LTE, WCDMA, GSM, CDMA2000 1x, and HRPD.

18. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said communications interface comprises a terrestrial cellular base station or a femtocell base station.

19. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein said communications interface comprises a small cell access node.

20. An article comprising:
a storage medium comprising non-transitory machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executed by a special-purpose computing apparatus to:
determine a first initial estimated location of a first mobile device, based, at least in part, on service of said first mobile device from a serving cell, a serving base station or a serving access point, and a first uncertainty area of said first initial estimated location, said first uncertainty area being based, at least in part, on signals received by s

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Fischer Sven
• Edge Stephen William

Classifications

• G01S19/06 Primary

  employing an initial estimate of the location of the receiver as aiding data or in generating aiding data · CPC title

• G01S19/254

  relating to Doppler shift of satellite signals · CPC title

• G01S19/252

  Employing an initial estimate of location in generating assistance data · CPC title

• G01S19/46

  the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type · CPC title

• G01S5/0236

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