Patent ID: 8275391

Claim:
A method for estimating the position of a subscriber station in a radio communication system, comprising: receiving reports from the subscriber station at a receive station providing coverage for a radio cell in which the subscriber station is located, each report containing information relating to a signal strength at a location of the subscriber station of at least one receive signal received by the subscriber station and sent by a transmitting station; storing the reports in a memory of the receive station of the radio communication system providing coverage for the radio cell in which the subscriber station is located, such that received signal strength information is stored for signals received at the subscriber station from at least two different transmitting stations; receiving a request for position estimation at the receive station of the radio communication system; and estimating the position at a position determining unit taking into account at least two reports stored prior to the request for position estimation, wherein the position determining unit estimates position by comparing signal strengths obtained from the reports with signal strengths stored in a signal strength database; the position determining unit requests a second number of reports from the receive station; if the number of reports stored is fewer than the second number when the request for position estimation is received, then the receive station stores additional reports until the second number of reports has been stored or until a maximum period of time has expired, if the second number of reports is stored before expiration of the maximum period of time, then the receive station sends the second number of reports prior to the expiry of the maximum period of time, and if the second number of reports cannot be stored before expiration of the maximum period of time, then the base station sends all stored reports after the expiry of the maximum period of time, even if the number of stored reports remains smaller than the second number of reports.