Method and apparatus for geolocating a wireless communication unit

A geolocation system arranged to perform geolocation of a wireless communication unit, the geolocation system comprising at least one signal processing module arranged to:

• receive measurement data for radio frequency (RF) signals between the wireless communication unit and at least one base transceiver station;
• calculate an RF measurement based geolocation estimate for the wireless communication unit based at least partly on the received RF signal measurement data;
• obtain geographical area data for at least one wireless coverage area visible to the wireless communication unit;
• determine a geolocation validation area based at least partly on the obtained geographical area data for the at least one wireless coverage area visible to the wireless communication unit;
• and
• derive a confidence factor for the RF measurement based geolocation estimate based at least partly on the determined geolocation validation area.

A non-transitory computer program product having computer-readable code stored thereon for programming a signal processing module to perform a method for geolocating a wireless communication unit, the code operable for:

• receiving measurement data for radio frequency (RF) signals between the wireless communication unit and at least one base transceiver station;
• calculating an RF measurement based geolocation estimate for the wireless communication unit based at least partly on the received RF signal measurement data;
• obtaining geographical area data for at least one wireless coverage area visible to the wireless communication unit;
• determining a geolocation validation area based at least partly on the obtained geographical area data for the at least one wireless coverage area visible to the wireless communication unit;
• and
• deriving a confidence factor for the RF measurement based geolocation estimate based at least partly on the determined geolocation validation area.