Neighbor cell location averaging

摘要

In some implementations, a location of a mobile device can be determined by calculating an average of the locations of wireless signal transmitters that have transmitted signals received by the mobile device. In some implementations, locations are weighted with coefficients and the average is a weighted average. In some implementations, the locations of the wireless signal transmitters are determined based on identification information encoded in the wireless signals received by the mobile device. The identification information can include an identifier for a wireless signal transmitter. The identification information can include characteristics of the received wireless signal that can be used to identify wireless signal transmitters. In some implementations, identification information from one signal can be combined with identification information from another signal to determine a location of a wireless transmitter.

主权项

1. A method comprising: receiving, at a mobile device, wireless signals transmitted by a plurality of transmitters; extracting identification information and non-unique signal characteristics from the wireless signals corresponding to the plurality of transmitters, wherein the identification information includes an identifier of a serving transmitter, and the non-unique signal characteristics, alone, are insufficient for uniquely identifying a transmitter; determining a location of the serving transmitter by searching the identifier in a transmitter cache; determining neighboring transmitters that are different from the serving transmitter based on the received signal information, wherein determining the identities comprises: searching the non-unique signal characteristics in the transmitter cache to identify matching transmitters, the matching transmitters including transmitters the signal characteristics of which match the non-unique signal characteristics extracted from the wireless signals; determining locations of the neighboring matching transmitters using signal transmitter records for the matching transmitters as stored in the transmitter cache; and designating one or more matching transmitters the locations of which are geographically nearest to the location of the serving transmitter as the neighboring transmitters; calculating an average of the locations of the neighboring transmitters and the location of the serving transmitter, wherein calculating the average of the transmitter locations comprises: determining a respective weight of each neighboring transmitter that does not serve the mobile device, including determining a weight of the serving transmitter and applying the weight of the serving transmitter as a negative weight in determining the respective weight of each neighboring transmitter, wherein determining the weight of the serving transmitter is based on a count of the neighboring transmitters, wherein a greater count, up to a pre-specified limit, corresponds to a lower weight of the serving transmitter; and calculating the average by applying a respective weight to each transmitter location and determining a location of the mobile device based on the calculated average.