Patent · US Active

Highly scalable, lower precision idle mode locating method for wireless devices

US8509822B1 · kind B1 · utility

7Cited by
13References
18Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 19, 2007
Grant dateAug 13, 2013
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 12, 2032

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04W4/20
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Methods of determining and providing location information as to the whereabouts of a wireless device are disclosed which have less geographical precision that those based on GPS or triangulation algorithms, but which are much more scalable, efficient and less costly. The methods make use of SMS paging and in particular obtain cell and cell sector information from a wireless device from a response message to an SMS page to the device. The cell and cell sector is converted to user-friendly geographical information such as an address or name of a building using a database correlating cell sectors to landmarks, location or addresses, and this user-friendly information is returned to the requestor.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.