Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-30
2002-10-08
Urban, Edward F. (Department: 2685)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S404200, C455S560000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06463287
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed, in general, to wireless communications systems and, more specifically, to apparatus, methods and systems relating to a wireless geographic positioning system, including a system for monitoring and analyzing characteristics of a wireless telecommunications network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The world is currently experiencing revolutionary changes in communications systems, brought about, in part, by the general availability and evolution of wireless telephony systems. Immediately after the first mobile user headed off into the sunset with a cellular telephone, or Mobile Station (MS), however, someone else wondered where they went. Unlike conventional wireline telephones, wireless callers are not usually associated with a fixed location, which provides many benefits such as freedom of use over large geographical areas. Because the location of a Mobile Station (MS), or wireless device in general, is usually not fixed, however, such freedom can be a detriment to a cellular user, such as when a user requires emergency assistance. For example, in a conventional wireless network, the location of a MS can not be determined when a user places a call to a public safety answering point (PSAP), such as a call to “911.”
Across the United States, various public safety agencies have reported that 911 calls from cellular telephones now constitute between 15 percent and 40 percent of all 911 calls received; recent statistics indicate that over 7 million cellular 911 calls are placed per year. Although public safety agencies desire to provide the same level of service to cellular callers as they do to landline callers, they are hampered by a great divergence in technology. The issue of supporting cellular 911 calls has become serious enough that on Feb. 12, 1998, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA) announced an agreement on a five-year implementation plan for deploying geographical location systems within all wireless networks.
In response to the FCC/CTIA implementation plan, various systems for providing the geographic location of MSs have been developed or proposed. The systems are generally network-based solutions that “overlay” a wireless carrier's existing network. As an overlay system, such systems monitor the numbers of all calls placed from MSs within a wireless network and, upon detecting a 911 call, initiate a procedure to determine the approximate geographic location of the MS. A particular problem with such systems is that they are generally independent systems that receive little or no assistance from an existing wireless network and, thus, require a great deal of hardware that is redundant to that already available in a wireless network.
In addition to the desire to provide geographic location information for a MS placing a 911 call, the availability of such information can also make possible many advanced services, such as location-sensitive billing, vehicle and fleet management, and inventory/package monitoring. Although the capability to provide such advanced services will allow service providers to recoup some of the investment that must be made to comply with the FCC/CTIA requirement for the geographic location of 911 calls, a service provider's return-on-investment will be maximized only if less-complex systems are developed. Accordingly, what is needed in the art are improved systems and methods for providing geographic location information for MSs in a wireless network; in particular, there is a need for geographical positioning systems that take advantage of the existing infrastructure of wireless networks and which provide the capability to offer premium services and/or improve the operation of wireless networks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention relates to apparatus, methods and systems employing an event detector integral to a wireless telecommunications network that causes the network to trigger a request to a wireless positioning system upon detecting a predefined event associated with a Mobile System (MS); the wireless positioning system is operable to determine and communicate the geographical location of the MS to the wireless network in response to receiving the request. Integrating an event detector within a wireless telecommunications network reduces the hardware, and processing load, associated with conventional “overlay” geographic positioning systems. Furthermore, an integral event detector provides the capability to offer premium services, and can be used in a system designed to improve the operation of wireless networks
Unlike conventional implementations of geographic positioning systems which, for example, monitor all calls from MSs to determine whether a call is being placed to a public safety answering point (PSAP), such as a call to “911,” an integral event detector can take advantage of the existing infrastructure of wireless networks, and the operational data available therein. For example, the integral event detector can selectively trigger a request for the geographic location of a MS based on various predefined events, such as the origination of a wireless call by or to a MS, the termination of a wireless call by or to a MS (including “dropped calls”), and many other events associated with a MS.
A system according to the principles disclosed herein can be implemented to meet the FCC/CTIA plan for deploying geographical location systems within all wireless networks. For example, a predefined event can be associated with a predefined called number, such as “911.”
As more fully described hereinafter, the principles disclosed herein can be employed in a conventional wireless telecommunications network, such as a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN); the invention, however, is not limited to use in terrestrial-based telecommunications systems. In preferred embodiments, the event detector is a computer processing system; in related embodiments, a conventional computer processing system in a Mobile-services Switching Center (MSC) can be programmed to provide the functions disclosed herein.
The integral event detector and principles disclosed herein can be advantageously employed in a system for monitoring and analyzing characteristics of a wireless telecommunications network. In such embodiments, a log (e.g., non-volatile computer storage, such as a magnetic storage medium) is provided for storing a plurality of records containing data associated with each occurrence of a predefined event. The records can contain data such as the type of event, the time of occurrence of the event, and the geographic location of a MS at the time of occurrence of the event. Furthermore, a predefined event can be associated with a threshold value of a parameter, such as a received signal strength associated with a MS, a bit error rate associated with a MS, or a rate of occurrence of a predefined event.
In a preferred embodiment, a system for monitoring and analyzing characteristics of a wireless telecommunications network includes a video terminal for displaying a graphical representation of the data associated with each occurrence of a predefined event. A graphical representation can be, for example, an overlay of the data on a topographical representation of at least a portion of a wireless telecommunications network, such as a geographic region within a particular network cell. In such embodiments, the system can be used to monitor and analyze geographic regions within the wireless telecommunications network that may have, for example, a high rate of “dropped calls” due to antenna occlusions in certain regions; remedial steps can then be taken to improve the operation of the wireless telecommunications network in the identified region.
The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, the principles of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the exemplary embodiments that follow. Those skilled in th
Burleigh Roger S.
Davis Temica M.
Ericsson Inc.
Ericsson Inc.
Urban Edward F.
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