Ericsson Gmbh

Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (publ)

Ericsson Lnc.

Christopher Hugh Kingdon

Bagher Rouhollah Zadeh

Maya Roel-Ng

Stephen R Hayes

Tahir Hussain

Anders T Holmring

Bikash Saha

Leland Scott Bloebaum

Gunnar Borg

Jan Lennart Kransmo

Lars-Goran Lund

Andres Thomas Holmring

Jan Lennert Kransmo

A telecommunications system and method for rapid start-up of a Global Position System (GPS) receiver integrated with a mobile terminal is disclosed. The location of a reference GPS receiver associated with a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) within the cell that the mobile terminal is currently located is used as the local position estimate for that mobile terminal. The GSM TDMA frame numbers are first correlated with the GPS clock signal. Optionally, this correlation is adjusted using the adaptive frame alignment mechanism. This local position estimate is used to ascertain the location of the GPS receiver. The correlation data is then sent to the GPS-capable mobile terminal through the Short Messaging Service (SMS) cell broadcast facility or the Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) facility of the GSM network to enable the built-in GPS receiver to calculate its position relatively quickly.

System and method for fast cold start of a GPS receiver in a telecommunications environment

A system and method in a digital TDMA telecommunication system for evaluating time slot offsets of asynchronously operating transmitters. The transmitters are equipped to receive a common reference clock signal, whereupon the value of the reference clock signal is recorded at transmission of specific time slots. The transmitters then perform a modulo operation on the recorded time and reports the result to a controlling node. Results of the modulo operation may then be compared with similar results reported by other transmission sources to the controlling node to determine relative time slot offsets between the transmission sources.

System and method for time slot offset evaluation in an asynchronous TDMA network

A system and method are provided for determining the location or position of a mobile station (MS) within a digital wireless network when only two base stations are available for time of arrival or other triangulation measurements. A call setup is initiated concurrently with the gathering of timing advance or other such location data on the targeted MS, thereby allowing cell sector information to be collected. This data, along with the locating data, is then reported to a Master Positioning Center where distance calculations are made from the locating data. Positional ambiguities are then resolved with a comparison to the serving cell identity recovered during the call placement to the mobile when the locating data was being taken.

System and method for positioning a mobile station using two base stations

A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for provisioning assistance Global Position System (GPS) data to a GPS receiver within a mobile terminal. This can be accomplished by having multiple reference GPS receivers located throughout a cellular network, each reference GPS receiver being capable of providing locally valid lists of visible satellites and the associated ephemeris and clock correction information. The location of the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) within the cell that the mobile terminal with a built-in or attached GPS receiver is currently located in can be used as the local position estimate for that mobile terminal. From this local position estimate, the nearest reference GPS receiver can be ascertained and the relevant assistance data can then be sent to the GPS receiver within the mobile terminal through the cellular network to enable the built-in GPS receiver to calculate its position relatively quickly.

System and method for provisioning assistance global positioning system information to a mobile station

A system and method for efficiently utilizing the radio interface in a mobile station positioning capable mobile communications network. A maximum period of mobile station positioning inactivity is allowed after which any system resources, such as semi-permanently allocated control channels, may be deallocated, thereby allowing the control channel or like resource to be utilized for other Switching System/Base Station System communications.

System and method for configuring generic equipment measurement units with a mobile services switching center

In a base station for use in a mobile communication system for communication with mobile subscribers over a plurality of radio channels, an improved transceiver unit is provided including a traffic controller handling downlink and uplink communication traffic with mobile subscribers over the plurality of radio channels, and a measuring device measuring arrival times of burst signals from a mobile subscriber communicating on a select one of the radio channels, or from a mobile subscriber communicating on another transceiver unit, on one of the plurality of radio channels.

GSM transceiver unit equipped for time of arrival measurements

An improved system and method for determining a position of a mobile station in a mobile telecommunications network is disclosed. The system includes a database having geographical information pertaining to the service area of the telecommunications network, including whether service areas therein are characterized as urban areas, suburban areas or &ldquo;badurban&rdquo; areas in which radio communication is especially limited. The system further includes a mobile location center (MLC) which, among other things, calculates the number of access signal bursts which are required for transmission by the mobile station to be located. The access burst number is calculated based upon the geographical information pertaining to the service areas stored in the database and upon a requested position determination accuracy. By measuring the time of arrival delay of the burst signal transmission received by two or more base transceiver stations, the MLC computes the position of the mobile station.

System and method for time of arrival positioning measurements based upon network characteristics

A system and method that makes more efficient utilization of BTS resources when BTSs are employed in time of arrival (TOA) measurements as is common in mobile positioning operations. A maximum signaling delay is assumed for which BTS resource assignment is delayed by a default time span in the event of an impending TOA measurement thereby allowing the BTS availment of the resources which would otherwise be idle yet assigned and therefore unavailable for other BTS functions during the period of signaling delay. The period of resource assignment delay may be increased or decreased, the actual adaption of the delay dependent on the true signaling delay.

System and method for adaptively modifying base station transceiver resources for time of arrival measurements

A telecommunications system and method is disclosed which performs authorization checks prior to allowing a location service to position a mobile terminal within a cellular network. The various checks involve ensuring that the requesting agency has authorization to request positioning of mobile terminals, determining whether positioning of mobile terminals is allowed within the cellular network that the mobile terminal is currently located in, verifying the authenticity of the identity of the mobile positioning center, ascertaining whether the mobile subscriber has allowed the requesting agency to position the mobile terminal, and confirming that all relevant criteria for positioning have been met by both the mobile subscriber and the requesting agency.

System and method for authorization of location services

A telecommunications system and method is disclosed which utilizes a terminal-based browser, such as the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 'deck', within a Mobile Station (MS) to connect the MS to web-based location services and to a Mobile Positioning Center (MPC). Terminal based browsers, such as WAP 'deck', allow for the graphical presentation of the current location of the MS on a display on the MS and provide an interactive user dialog, which permits the mobile subscriber to determine the format of the graphical presentation of the current location of the MS.

System and method for positioning a mobile terminal using a terminal

A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for allowing an application requesting positioning of a mobile terminal to indicate the quality of positioning information desired, e.g., timeliness, accuracy, etc. In addition, prior to performing the positioning, the cellular network can determine whether the quality of service requested can be achieved, and if so, return the positioning information along with a message indicating that the quality of service requested was achieved. However, if the quality of service requested cannot be achieved, a failure message is sent to the requesting application and the positioning is not performed.

System and method for implementing positioning quality of service

A telecommunications system and method for determining optimal target Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) to perform positioning handovers and obtain positioning data is disclose. When a positioning request is received by a Base Station Controller (BSC) serving the Mobile Station (MS) to be positioned, the serving BSC accesses a database within the BSC, which contains a list of cells belonging to candidate target BTSs. Based on this information, and the main antenna direction of the serving BTS, two candidates for positioning handovers are selected from the list such that the angle between the main direction of two adjacent BTSs is nearly equivalent to the angle between the main direction of two additional adjacent BTSs. By selecting the target BTSs in this manner, it can be ensured that the target BTSs surround the MS, thus decreasing the error in the location calculations performed by a Positioning Center (PC).

Selection of positioning handover candidates based on angle

A method, apparatus, and system for the selection of target nodes in locating a receiver is disclosed. The receiver measures the strength of signals transmitted by a number of nodes. The received strength is subtracted from the transmitting power of the nodes to determine the respective path losses. The node with the lowest path loss is selected as the target node. The target node is then used to perform a triangulation for determining the location of the receiver.

Selection of positioning handover candidates based on path loss

A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for determining the address of both the home and serving Mobile Positioning Centers (MPCs). Each Mobile Switching Center/Visitor Location Register (MSC/VLR) and Home Location Register (HLR) within a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) will be provided with the MPC address that is valid for its PLMN. When a Mobile Station (MS) roams into a new (serving) PLMN, a Location Update is performed by the serving MSC/VLR to the Home Location Register (HLR). The MPC address for the serving MSC/VLR will be included in every location update operation to the HLR, which can then store this serving MPC address in the subscriber's HLR record. Furthermore, the home MPC address, valid for the PLMN of the HLR, is included in every subscriber data transfer operation from the HLR to the serving MSC/VLR, which can then store this home MPC address, in the subscriber's VLR record.

System and method for mobile terminal positioning

A telecommunications system and method is disclosed which avoids unwanted feature interactions while positioning a mobile station that was in idle mode when the positioning request was received by the network. When the serving MSC/VLR receives a request to collect positioning measurements for a mobile station that is in idle mode, the serving MSC/VLR will set an indicator associated with the subscriber to 'busy for connection management due to positioning'. This flag will allow the MSC/VLR to make a distinction between a positioning connection and the normal mark of 'busy for connection management'. Thereafter, when a mobile terminating call arrives to the MSC/VLR for a subscriber that is marked as 'busy for connection management due to positioning', the MSC/VLR can place the incoming call in a queue until the positioning measurements are taken and the subscriber being positioned is put back in idle mode.

Growing community of inventors

Garland, TX, United States of America

Christopher Hugh Kingdon