Patent ID: 7925274
Filing Date: 2011-04-12
Classification: G01S,H04W

Abstract:
1. A method for determining the location of a mobile station (MS) equipped with embedded GPS signal reception capability and equipped to operate within a wireless communications network (WCN), the method comprising: using a serving cell site of the WCN, providing assistance data to the MS to be located, said assistance data enhancing an ability of the MS to receive GPS signals and extract time of arrival (TOA) or pseudorange measures; at the serving cell site, receiving GPS data from the MS to be located, wherein said GPS data comprises TOA or pseudorange measures; at a first location measurement unit (LMU), receiving a communications-band signal from said MS to be located and using location-measurement facilities to extract location-related characteristic data from the communications-band signal, wherein, at the first location measurement unit (LMU), the extraction of location-related characteristic data from said communications-band signal comprises measuring location-related signal characteristics of the communications-band signal, said location-related characteristic data extracted from the communications-band signal including at least one of time of arrival (TOA) data, time difference of arrival (TDOA) data, angle of arrival (AOA) data, signal strength or propagation loss (PL) data, and timing advance (TA) data; and wherein said location-related characteristic data extracted from the communications-band signal is a function of the geographic location of said MS relative to said first location measurement unit (LMU); at a land station equipped for performing location-determination calculations, selecting location-determining data for the location-determination calculations based on location latency requirements, call state of the MS, and network state of the MS, wherein the location-determining data is selected from the group consisting of the GPS data, the extracted location-related characteristic data, or a combination of the GPS data and the extracted location-related characteristic data; and at the land station equipped for performing location-determination calculations, performing location-determination calculations using the location-determining data to derive an estimated location for the MS.