Method and system to calculate an approximate location of a mobile station in a recurrent route

A method of training a mobile station location identification system, comprising:

• decoding a first unique identifier that uniquely identifies a first cell that is in communication with the mobile station when the mobile station is located at a first location on a first boundary of the first cell;
• transmitting the first unique identifier to a database;
• receiving, at the database, at a first time, the first unique identifier;
• storing, at the database, the first time and the first unique identifier;
• decoding, upon handoff to a second cell at a second location on a second boundary of the second cell, a second unique identifier that uniquely identifies the second cell;
• transmitting the second unique identifier to the database;
• receiving, at the database, at a second time, the second unique identifier;
• and
• storing, at the database, the second time and the second unique identifier;
• wherein the stored first and second unique identifiers and the stored first and second times are configured to be used by the mobile station location identification system to identify the location of the mobile station.

A method of calculating an estimated time of arrival of a mobile station at a segment endpoint, of a segment having a startpoint and an endpoint, comprising:

• a) detecting the startpoint of the segment at a first time;
• b) storing the first time;
• and
• c) calculating an estimated time of arrival at the endpoint of the segment, the calculating step comprising:
• c1) retrieving a stored travel time for travel along the segment from a database, wherein the stored travel time is derived using a method comprising:
• i) decoding a first unique identifier that uniquely identifies a first cell that is in communication with a mobile station when the mobile station is located at the startpoint on a first boundary of the first cell at a start time;
• ii) storing the first unique identifier and the start time;
• iii) decoding, upon handoff to a second cell at the endpoint on a second boundary of the second cell and at an end time at which the mobile station is located at the second boundary, a second unique identifier that uniquely identifies the second cell;
• iv) storing the second unique identifier and the end time, wherein the stored first and second unique identifiers and the stored start and end times are configured to be used by a mobile station location identification system to identify a location of the mobile station;
• and
• v) subtracting the end time and the start time and storing a result as the stored travel time;
• and
• c2) adding the stored travel time and the first time to yield the estimated time of arrival of the mobile station at the endpoint of the segment.

A system for calculating an approximate location of a mobile station along a recurrent route of travel between a first location and a second location, comprising:

• a first cellular base station configured to provide cellular coverage to the mobile station in a first cell having a first boundary including the first location;
• a second cellular base station configured to provide cellular coverage to the mobile station in a second cell having a boundary including the second location;
• a database configured to store a previously measured time of travel of the mobile station from the first location to the second location, the previously measured time of travel having been calculated by a method including subtracting (1) a first time at which the mobile station was at the first location on the first cell's boundary, from (2) a second time at which the mobile station was at the second location on the second cell's boundary;
• and
• a processor configured to calculate the approximate location of the mobile station along the recurrent route of travel between the first location and the second location using the previously measured time of travel stored in the database.