Methods and systems for controlling implementation of a location-based service for a wireless communication device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9924449-B1
Application number	US-201514686035-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Apr 14, 2015
Priority date	Apr 14, 2015
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

A wireless communication device (WCD) stores a location of a portable WAP and is configured to report the stored location of the portable WAP to a location-based service provider (LBSP) when the WCD is within coverage of the portable WAP and requests a location-based service from the LBSP. While the WCD is within coverage of the portable WAP, the WCD (i) uses a wireless-communication interface to detect that the WCD is also within one or more particular cellular coverage areas and (ii) stores a correlation between the portable WAP and the one or more particular cellular coverage areas. Thereafter, while the WCD is again within coverage of the portable WAP, the WCD determines that the WCD is not within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas. In response, the WCD reconfigures itself to not report the stored location of the portable WAP to the LBSP when the WCD requests the location-based service.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for controlling reporting of location to a location-based service provider (LBSP) to facilitate implementation of a location-based service for a wireless communication device (WCD), wherein the WCD stores a location of a portable wireless access point (WAP) and is configured to report the stored location of the portable WAP to the LBSP when the WCD is within coverage of the portable WAP and requests the location-based service from the LBSP, the method comprising:
while the WCD is within coverage of the portable WAP, (i) the WCD using a wireless-communication interface to detect that the WCD is also within one or more particular cellular coverage areas and (ii) responsive to thereby detecting that the WCD is within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas while within coverage of the portable WAP, the WCD storing a correlation between the portable WAP and the one or more particular cellular coverage areas; and
thereafter, while the WCD is again within coverage of the portable WAP, (i) the WCD using the wireless-communication interface to scan for coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas but determining from the scanning that the WCD is not within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas and (ii) responsive to the determining, the WCD reconfiguring itself to not report the stored location of the portable WAP to the LBSP when the WCD requests the location-based service.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining from the scanning that the WCD is not within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas comprises:
determining that a level of confidence in a comparison between the one or more particular cellular coverage areas and one or more cellular coverage areas detected from the scanning does not exceed a threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining from the scanning that the WCD is not within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas comprises:
determining that each of one or more cellular areas detected from the scanning does not match each of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the WCD storing the correlation between the portable WAP and the one or more particular cellular coverage areas comprises storing a correlation between an identifier of the portable WAP and one or more coverage area identifiers corresponding to the one or more particular cellular coverage areas.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more coverage area identifiers comprise one or more Physical Cell Identities (PCIs) or one or more pseudo-noise (PN) offsets.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the WCD reconfiguring itself to not report the stored location of the portable WAP to the LBSP when the WCD requests the location-based service comprises:
transmitting to the LBSP an indication that the stored location is incorrect.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein transmitting to the LBSP the indication that the stored location is incorrect comprises including a statistical certainty measure of the indication that the stored location is incorrect.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stored location of the portable WAP is a first location of the portable WAP, and wherein the WCD reconfiguring itself to not report the stored location of the portable WAP to the LBSP when the WCD requests the location-based service comprises:
outputting by the WCD, on a user interface, a prompt for user entry of a second location of the portable WAP;
receiving by the WCD, in response to the prompt, the user entry of a current location of the portable WAP as the second location;
storing by the WCD, in place of the first location of the portable WAP, the received second location of the portable WAP; and
using by the WCD the received second location of the portable WAP, rather than the first location of the portable WAP, to facilitate the location-based service.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the LBSP is an emergency service provider, and wherein the location-based service is emergency service.

10. A method of controlling implementation of a location-based service for a wireless communication device (WCD), the method comprising:
associating by the WCD with a portable wireless access point (WAP) that provides wireless coverage in which to serve the WCD, and storing by the WCD a location of the portable WAP for use to facilitate a location-based service when the WCD is associated with the portable WAP;
when the WCD is associated with the portable WAP, the WCD using a wireless-communication interface to detect that the WCD is also within coverage of one or more particular cellular coverage areas, and, responsive to detecting that the WCD is within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas when the WCD is associated with the portable WAP, storing by the WCD a correlation between the portable WAP and the one or more particular cellular wireless coverage areas; and
thereafter again associating by the WCD with the portable WAP, and when the WCD is so again associated with the portable WAP, the WCD (i) using the wireless-communication interface to scan for the one or more particular cellular coverage areas, (ii) determining, based on the scanning, that the WCD is not within coverage of the one or more particular cellular coverage areas, and (iii) responsive to the determining, avoiding use of the stored location of the portable WAP to facilitate the location-based service.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the WCD transmits to a LBSP a request for the location-based service, wherein using the stored location of the portable WAP to facilitate the location-based service comprises retrieving the stored location and transmitting the location to the LBSP to enable the LBSP to provide the requested location-based service based on the location.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein avoiding by the WCD use of the stored location of the portable WAP to facilitate the location-based service comprises:
forgoing by the WCD from transmitting the location of the portable WAP to the LBSP.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein avoiding by the WCD use of the stored location of the portable WAP to facilitate the location-based service comprises:
transmitting to the LBSP an indication that the location is incorrect.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein transmitting to the LBSP the indication that the location is incorrect comprises including a statistical certainty measure of the indication that the location is incorrect.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the stored location of the portable WAP is a first location of the portable WAP, and wherein avoiding by the WCD use of the stored location of the portable WAP to facilitate the location-based service comprises:
outputting by the WCD, on a user interface, a prompt for user entry of a second location of the portable WAP;
receiving by the WCD, in response to the prompt, the user entry of a current location of the portable WAP as the second location;
storing by the WCD, in place of the first location of the portable WAP, the received second location of the portable WAP; and
using by the WCD the received second location of the portable WAP, rather than the first location of the portable WAP, to facilitate the location-based service.

16. The method of claim 15 ,
wherein the WCD transmits to a LBSP a request for the location-based service,
wherein using the stored first location of the portable WAP to facilitate the location-based service comprises retrieving the stored first location and t

Assignees

• Sprint Spectrum Lp

Inventors

• Mcmullen Michael P
• Bartlett Roger D

Classifications

• H04W4/22

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W48/16 Primary

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W4/20

  Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel · CPC title

• H04W64/00

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

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title