Determining device location
AssigneeT-Mobile USA, Inc.
InventorDavid Jones
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Certain cellular communication systems may use beamforming to create distinct signal beams in different radial directions relative to a base station. Upon receiving a request for the location of a mobile device, a position calculation function is used to calculate the location of the mobile device based on multiple types of location-related data. The location-related data may indicate the direction of the directional signal beam that is currently being used for communications between the mobile device and a base station. The direction may be used in conjunction with other location-related data, such as distance information, to estimate the location of the mobile device.
Claims20
A mobile device, comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
- communicating wirelessly, at a location of the mobile device, with a first base station of a plurality of base stations;
- switching, to a second base station of the plurality of base stations that uses beamforming, based at least in part on the first base station not using directional beams for communicating wirelessly with the mobile device;
- and
- communicating wirelessly with the second base station based at least in part on a set of multiple directional beams that are formed by the second base station, the location of the mobile device being determined by the second base station based at least in part on the set of multiple directional beams.
A method comprising:
- communicating wirelessly, at a location of a mobile device, with a first base station of a plurality of base stations;
- switching, to a second base station of the plurality of base stations that uses beamforming, based at least in part on the first base station not using directional beams for communicating wirelessly with the mobile device;
- and
- communicating wirelessly with the second base station based at least in part on a set of multiple directional beams that are formed by the second base station, the location of the mobile device being determined by the second base station based at least in part on an average tilt of the set of multiple directional beams.
A mobile device, comprising:
- at least one processor;
- and
- memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
- communicating wirelessly, at a location of the mobile device, with a first base station of a plurality of base stations;
- switching, to a second base station of the plurality of base stations that uses beamforming, based at least in part on the first base station not using directional beams for communicating wirelessly with the mobile device;
- and
- communicating wirelessly with the second base station based at least in part on a set of multiple directional beams, the location of the mobile device being determined by the second base station based at least in part on mobile device data and a position calculation function, the mobile device data comprising data of the mobile device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.