Locating a mobile station using a plurality of wireless networks and applications therefor

A method for locating a wireless mobile station, comprising:

• first receiving first signal characteristic measurements of wireless signals communicated between a mobile station and a first network of communication stations, wherein said communication stations in the first network are cooperatively linked by a first wireless service provider for wirelessly communicating with the mobile station;
• instructing the mobile station to search for a wireless signal from a second network of communication stations that are cooperatively linked by a second wireless service provider for providing wireless communication, wherein said mobile station is for a subscriber of said first wireless service provider, and said mobile station is not for a subscriber of said second wireless service provider;
• second receiving second signal characteristic measurements of wireless signals communicated between the mobile station and said second network of communication stations;
• estimating a location of the mobile station using at least one of said first and second signal characteristic measurements.

An apparatus for locating a first mobile station, wherein the first mobile station communicates via wireless signals with a first wireless network infrastructure having a plurality of spaced apart communication stations for wireless communication with said first mobile station, wherein at least one of said first mobile station and said first wireless network infrastructure has a capability for obtaining a plurality of multipath measurements for one of:

• one or more forward transmissions to said first mobile station, and one or more reverse transmissions from said first mobile station to said first wireless network infrastructure, and wherein said multipath measurements are derived from both fixed clutter and variable clutter, said apparatus comprising:
• an interface for receiving values indicative of said multipath measurements for at least one of said forward transmissions and said reverse transmissions;
• a mobile station location determining system for locating said first mobile station, wherein said location determining system uses the values, and generates additional values that have an enhanced dependence on multipath measurements derived from fixed clutter as compared to multipath measurements derived from variable clutter;
• wherein said mobile station location determining system includes at least one wireless location determining model for estimating a location of said first mobile station, said at least one model uses one or more of said additional values;
• an output interface for outputting to one of:
• a communication network that provides telephony services, and the Internet a resulting location estimate of said first mobile station, said resulting location estimate obtained from said location determining system.

An apparatus for locating a mobile station, comprising:

• a plurality of spaced apart communication stations, of a wireless network, for wirelessly communicating with a plurality of mobile stations, wherein said communication stations at least one of:
• transmit and receive wireless signals from the mobile stations, and wherein said wireless signals are transmitted by the communication stations in a forward bandwidth and said wireless signals are received at the communication stations in a different reverse bandwidth;
• an interface for accepting emergency related messages which are representative of one or more of a plurality of predetermined message types;
• wherein the interface accepts one or more of the emergency related messages in response to an emergency call from a particular mobile station that is not registered to a subscriber of wireless subscriber services from the network;
• wherein during the emergency call, the interface accepts emergency call related information communicated between at least one of the communication stations and the particular mobile station;
• wherein in response to receiving at least one of the emergency related messages, said interface provides to a mobile station location obtaining system, wireless measurements including:
• (i) a first measurement of said wireless signals transmitted to the particular mobile station in said forward bandwidth, and (ii) a second measurement of said wireless signals received from the particular mobile station in said reverse bandwidth;
• wherein said interface outputs further information for identifying the at least one communication station for locating the particular mobile station;
• and
• wherein said mobile station location obtaining system estimates a location of said particular mobile station using both said first measurements and said second measurements.

A method for locating a mobile station using wireless signal measurements obtained from transmissions between the mobile station and at least one of a plurality of communication stations, wherein each of said communications stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with the mobile station, comprising:

• transmitting to the mobile station, a control message from one of the communication stations, wherein said message is received by a receiving antenna of said mobile station;
• wherein the control message requests activation of at least one of a control processor and a searcher receiver in the mobile station, for determining a plurality of multipath finger sets for a wireless communication between said mobile station and at least a first of the communication stations, wherein at least some of said multipath finger sets are different;
• receiving information related to said finger sets in response to transmissions from the mobile station;
• and
• supplying said information for at least one of said finger sets to a mobile station location estimator for estimating a location of said mobile station.

A method for locating a wireless mobile station, comprising:

• receiving data indicative of wireless signal measurements obtained via wireless signals communicated between a particular mobile station and a plurality of communication stations of a wireless infrastructure operated by a commercial radio service provider, wherein said particular mobile station is not registered to a subscriber of said commercial radio service provider for subscriber services;
• wherein each of said communications stations includes one or more of a transmitter and a receiver for wirelessly communicating with said particular mobile station;
• wherein said data includes information that is dependent upon a location of each of at least a first and a second of said plurality of communication stations;
• determining, using at least said information, an estimate of a location, L, of said particular mobile station;
• wherein said step of determining includes performing a substep of obtaining at least (a) and (b) following:
• (a) first location data indicative of a first range of locations for L relative to said first communication station, and (b) second location data indicative of a second range of locations for L relative to said second communication station.

A method for utilizing mobile station location information, comprising:

• receiving, at a predetermined destination and as a consequence of a transmission from a location providing system location information for a mobile station (M1);
• wherein the location providing system performs a first geolocation computation which yields a geolocation result for determining at least one geographical extent or position (G1) for the mobile station M1, and wherein the geographical extent or position G1 is used to obtain the location information;
• wherein the first geolocation computation is performed using a first input obtained as a result of (A) and (B) following:
• (A) a communication of M1 geolocation indicative data from the mobile station M1 to a network (NTWK1), the M1 geolocation indicative data obtained from a corresponding wireless communication between:
• (1) the mobile station M1, and (2) at least one of:
• a receiver at a known location, and a transmitter at a known location;
• and
• (B) a transmission, via the network NTWK1, of M1 geolocation information for providing at least a portion (P1) of the first input to the first geolocation computation, wherein the M1 geolocation information is obtained, at least in part, from the M1 geolocation indicative data;
• wherein the location providing system performs a second geolocation computation which yields a geolocation result for determining at least one geographical extent or position (G2) for a mobile station (M2);
• wherein the second geolocation computation is performed using a second input obtained via (C) and (D) following:
• (C) a wireless communication of M2 geolocation indicative data from the mobile station M2 to a network (NTWK2), the M2 geolocation indicative data obtained from a corresponding wireless communication between:
• (3) the mobile station M2, and (4) at least one of:
• a receiver at a known location, and a transmitter at a known location;
• and
• (D) a transmission, via the network NTWK2, of M2 geolocation information for providing at least a portion (P2) of the second input to the second geolocation computation, wherein the M2 geolocation information is obtained, at least in part, from the M2 geolocation indicative data;
• wherein the network NTWK1 is operated by a first service provider and the network NTWK2 is operated by a second service provider different from the first service provider;
• wherein at least one of the following (a) and (b) is satisfied:
• (a) the portion P1 is obtained using a signal time delay, and the geographical extent or position G1 is obtained using P1, and the portion P2 is obtained using a signal time delay, and the geographical extent or position G2 is obtained using P2;
• and
• (b) for a geolocation computation (CG) that is the same as the second geolocation computation, or yields effectively a same geolocation result as the second geolocation computation when each is supplied with a geolocation content obtained from the second input, the location providing system does not perform CG for locating M1;
• and
• using said location information for one of:
• locating, monitoring and accessing said mobile station M1.

A method for locating one or more mobile stations, comprising:

• first receiving, by a location providing system a request for locating a mobile station (M1);
• first performing a first geolocation computation which yields a geolocation result for determining at least one geographical extent or position (G1) for the mobile station M1, wherein the first geolocation computation uses first input for obtaining G1, and the first input is obtained using (A) and (B) following:
• (A) a wireless communication of M1 geolocation indicative data from the mobile station M1 to a network (NTWK1), the M1 geolocation indicative data obtained from a corresponding communication between:
• (1) the mobile station M1, and (2) at least one of:
• a receiver at a known location, and a transmitter at a known location;
• and
• (B) a transmission via the network NTWK1 of M1 geolocation information for providing at least a portion (P1) of the first input to the first geolocation computation, wherein the M1 geolocation information is obtained, at least in part, using the M1 geolocation indicative data;
• second receiving, by the location providing system, a request for locating a mobile station (M2);
• second performing a second geolocation computation which yields a geolocation result for determining at least one geographical extent or position (G2) for the mobile station M2, wherein the second geolocation computation uses a second input, the second input obtained using (C) and (D) following:
• (C) a wireless communication of M2 geolocation indicative data from the mobile station M2 to a network (NTWK2), the M2 geolocation indicative data obtained from a corresponding communication between:
• (3) the mobile station M2, and (4) at least one of:
• a receiver at a known location, and a transmitter at a known location;
• and
• (D) a transmission, via the network NTWK2, of M2 geolocation information for providing at least a portion (P2) of the second input to the second geolocation computation, wherein the M2 geolocation information is obtained, at least in part, from the second geolocation indicative data;
• wherein the network NTWK1 is operated by a first service provider and the network NTWK2 is operated by a second service provider different from the first service provider,
• wherein at least one of the following (a) and (b) is satisfied:
• (a) the portion P1 is obtained using a signal time delay, and the geographical extent or position G1 is obtained using P1, and the portion P2 is obtained using a signal time delay, and the geographical extent or position G2 is obtained using P2;
• and
• (b) for a geolocation computation (CG) that is the same as the second geolocation computation, or yields effectively a same geolocation result as the second geolocation computation when each is supplied with a geolocation content obtained from the second input, the location providing system does not perform CG for locating M1;
• and
• providing, to a predetermined destination, location information obtained using one or more of said geographical extents or positions G1 and G2.

A method for accessing a location providing system, comprising:

• first obtaining, by a network (NTWK1) operated by a first service provider, first geolocation related information for locating a mobile station (M1,1);
• first communicating with a location providing system for providing thereto the first geolocation related information, wherein there is two-way communication between the network NTWK1, and the location providing system, and wherein the location providing system uses the first geolocation related information for performing a first geolocation computation which yields a geolocation result for determining at least one geographical extent or position (G1,1) for the mobile station M1,1;
• wherein the first geolocation computation is performed using a first input obtained as a result of (A) and (B) following:
• (A) a wireless communication of M1,1 geolocation indicative data from the mobile station M1,1 to the network NTWK1, the M1,1 geolocation indicative data obtained from a corresponding wireless communication between:
• (1) the mobile station M1,1, and (2) at least one of:
• a receiver at a known location, and a transmitter at a known location;
• and
• (B) a transmission, from the network NTWK1, of M1,1 geolocation information for providing at least a portion (P1,1) of the first input to the first geolocation computation, wherein the M1,1 geolocation information is obtained, at least in part, from the M1,1 geolocation indicative data;
• second obtaining, by the network NTWK1, second geolocation related information for locating a mobile station (M1,2);
• second communicating with the location providing system for providing thereto the second geolocation related information, wherein there is two-way communication between the network NTWK1, and the location providing system uses the second geolocation related information for performing a second geolocation computation which yields a geolocation result for determining at least one geographical extent or position (G1,2) for the mobile station M1,2;
• wherein the second geolocation computation is performed using a second input obtained via (C) and (D) following:
• (C) a communication of M1,2 geolocation indicative data for the mobile station M1,2 to the network NTWK1, the M1,2 geolocation indicative data obtained from a corresponding communication between:
• (3) the mobile station M1,2, and (4) at least one of:
• a receiver at a known location, and a transmitter at a known location;
• and
• (D) a transmission from the network NTWK1 of M1,2 geolocation information for providing at least a portion (P1,2) of the second input to the second geolocation computation, wherein the M1,2 geolocation information is obtained, at least in part, from the M1,2 geolocation indicative data;
• wherein there is two way communication between the location providing system and another network (NTWK2) that is operated by a second service provider in competition with the first service provider, wherein the communication with the network NTWK2 provides third geolocation related information for locating a mobile station (M2), wherein the location providing system uses the third geolocation related information for performing a third geolocation computation which yields a geolocation result for determining at least one geographical extent or position (G2) for the mobile station M2;
• wherein the third geolocation computation is performed using a third input obtained via (E) and (F) following:
• (E) a wireless communication of M2 geolocation indicative data from the mobile station M2 to the network NTWK2, the M2 geolocation indicative data obtained from a corresponding wireless communication between:
• (5) the mobile station M2, and (6) at least one of:
• a receiver at a known location, and a transmitter at a known location;
• and
• (F) a transmission from the network NTWK2 of M2 geolocation information for providing at least a portion (P2) of the third input to the third geolocation computation, wherein the M2 geolocation information is obtained, at least in part, from the M2 geolocation indicative data;
• wherein at least one of the following (a) through (c) are satisfied:
• (a) the portion P1,1 is obtained using a signal time delay, and the geographical extent or position G1,1 is obtained using P1,1, and the portion P2 is obtained using a signal time delay, and the geographical extent or position G2 is obtained using P2;
• (b) for a geolocation computation (CG2) that is the same as the third geolocation computation, or yields effectively a same geolocation result as the third geolocation computation when each is supplied with a geolocation content obtained from the third input, the location providing system does not perform CG2 for locating M1,1;
• and
• (c) for a geolocation computation (CG1,2) that is the same as the second geolocation computation, or yields effectively a same geolocation result as the second geolocation computation when each is supplied with a geolocation content obtained from the second input, the location providing system does not perform CG1,2 for locating M1,1.