Patent ID: 8180368

Claim:
A subsystem for use by a wireless location system (WLS) in locating a femto-cell device operating in a wireless communications system, wherein the WLS includes a serving mobile location center (SMLC), a plurality of location measuring units (LMUs) in communication with the SMLC, a plurality of link monitors in communication with the SMLC, and an SMLC database in communication with the SMLC and containing cell locations and other radio aspects of the wireless communications system, the subsystem comprising: (a) a subsystem configured for discovering and initiating location of the femto-cell device, wherein said discovering and initiating comprises at least one of the following procedures: (a1) receiving femto-cell ID information from the wireless communications system; (a2) discovery of the femto-cell ID information via analysis of call detail records; and (a3) discovery of the femto-cell ID information via monitoring of wireless communications system link traffic for new cell-IDs within messages related to call events; (b) a subsystem configured for storing femto-cell identification information in the SMLC database; (c) a subsystem configured for setting a trigger for location of the femto-cell, wherein said setting a trigger comprises at least one of the following procedures: (c1) setting a femto-cell cell-ID trigger in the SMLC database via a wireless intelligent network (WIN) facility; (c2) setting an internal femto-cell cell-ID trigger in the SMLC database to indicate to the WLS that mobile station (MS) location information should be examined to identify when the femto-cell device is serving the MS; (c3) setting a femto-cell cell-ID trigger in a radio network monitor (RNM) or link monitoring system (LMS) associated with the WLS, wherein the WLS is configured such that detection of the femto-cell cell-ID provokes the WLS to attempt location of the femto-cell device; (d) a subsystem configured for calculating the location of the femto-cell device; (e) a subsystem configured for calculating a confidence factor relating to the calculated location of the femto-cell; and (f) a subsystem configured for comparing the calculated confidence factor with a confidence factor stored in the SMLC database.