Patent ID: 9282529
Filing Date: 2016-03-08
CPC Classification: H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method of operating a wireless communication system to count wireless communication devices in a geographic area, the method comprising: receiving geographic data that indicates the geographic area; determining wireless coverage sectors in the geographic area; identifying wireless access nodes serving the wireless coverage sectors in the geographic area, wherein the wireless access nodes transmit one or more paging zone identifiers; transmitting a temporary zone identifier from the wireless access nodes in the geographic area instead of the one or more paging zone identifiers; receiving the temporary zone identifier from dormant wireless communication devices in the geographic area and identifying the dormant wireless communication devices in the geographic area; transmitting the one or more paging zone identifiers from the wireless access nodes in the geographic area instead of the temporary zone identifier; and receiving the one or more paging zone identifiers from the dormant wireless communication devices in the geographic area.