Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Patent
1996-11-04
1998-12-15
Wolfe, Willis R.
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
455422, 455444, 455517, 455575, 34082549, H04Q 700
Patent
active
058506098
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for locating a cellular radio telephone communication mobile station, as well as to equipment serving in this locating.
The known cellular systems make it possible to identify the position of a subscriber at the level of a cell, at least when he sets up a call. The applicant has, however, concluded that it would be desirable to be able to ascertain the position of the subscriber more accurately, in particular to be able to determine with sufficient accuracy whether the subscriber is or is not at home. A benefit of this locating would be that it would enable the subscriber to be offered a privileged service when he is at home and is using his cellular radio telephone. In particular, it would be possible to apply a preferential tariff to the subscriber when he is using his cellular radio telephone from home, and in this way the cellular radio telephone service could compete with the fixed telephone services and have the further advantage, for the users, of not requiring necessarily the deployment of a fixed telephone set in addition to their cellular radio telephone set.
In certain particular cases, cellular systems enable the position of the subscriber to be located by triangulation. Nevertheless, this solution has a few drawbacks: within the coverage of at least three cells, which is not generally the case; of transmission of the radio signals between the mobile station and the base stations, assuming that transmission is performed by line-of-sight. This is not always true, in particular in an urban environment, and this results in a relatively large uncertainty as to the actual position of the subscriber, this uncertainty being incompatible with the objective indicated above.
EP-A-0 568 824 describes a cellular radio telephone system in which beacons emit signals for locating mobile stations. These beacons each emit characteristic signals for the geographic area in which they are installed. A drawback of this system is that the beacons constitute a further network to be managed by the operator of the cellular network of the base stations. To be able to carry out fine locating of users so as to offer the associated services over a large territorial expanse then poses a serious problem to the operator since he must have the use of numerous public sites to install such beacons.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An aim of the invention is to propose a method of location making it possible to obtain in a reliable manner the certainty that the subscriber is at home, or in the very near vicinity thereof.
The invention thus proposes a method for locating a cellular radio telephone communication mobile station, characterized in that at least one fixed beacon is associated with a user of the mobile station and emits, with a range substantially smaller than the characteristic dimension of a cell, a radio signal specific to the said user, and in that, when the mobile station picks up the radio signal emitted by the beacon, it addresses a signal to the communication network indicating that it is within range of the beacon.
The emitting range of the beacon will typically be that of a fixed cordless telephone set, that is to say less than around 300 meters, allowing coverage of an area corresponding to the user's home or place of work. The user may moreover deploy several beacons, if he wishes to have the use of a more expanded coverage, or if he wishes to have several local connection areas (main home and secondary residence for example).
The fixed beacon preferably emits its radio signal on the same frequency band as the down communications from the base stations of the cellular network to the mobile stations. It is particularly beneficial to provide for the radio signal to be emitted by the beacon according to the format of a channel for broadcasting from a base station of the network to mobile stations. In this case, the mobile station listens in to the channel on which its associated beacon is emitting in the same way as it listens in to a base statio
REFERENCES:
patent: 3913017 (1975-10-01), Imaseki
patent: 5121126 (1992-06-01), Clagett
patent: 5539924 (1996-07-01), Grube et al.
Klandrud et al., "Beacon control of radio transmitters to reduce radio freqnency interference", Motorola Technical Development, vol. 16, Aug. 1992, pp. 130-132.
Weirs, "Conventional Local Area Radio Coverge System", Motorola Technical Developments, vol. 13, Jul. 1991, pp. 67-69.
Cellmer Jean
Duplessis Phillippe
Ohana Alain
Sugarbroad Ian
Nortel Matra Cellular
Vo Hieu T.
Wolfe Willis R.
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