| 摘要 |
A wireless communication system constructed according to the present invention interfaces with a Service Control Point (SCP) to provide location information for a serviced mobile unit. The SCP sends a locate request to a Home Location Register (HLR) of the wireless communication system, requesting the location of the serviced mobile unit. The HLR then accesses a serving Mobile Switching Center (MSC), the serving MSC being identified by the HLR as currently servicing the mobile unit. Depending upon the particular constraints of the requested operation by the SCP (e.g., immediate locate request or most recent locate request), the serving MSC either retrieves location information for the mobile unit from its Visitor Location Register (VLR) or sends a page to the mobile unit. The mobile unit responds to the page and, based upon the cell/sector from which the mobile unit responded, the serving MSC determines an approximate location of the mobile unit. With the location information retrieved, the serving MSC then converts the cell/sector identification to longitude and latitude information. The serving MSC may also convert a time-stamp associated with the location information (when the location information was recorded) to a normalized time standard such as Greenwich Standard Time. With this location information determined, the serving MSC provides the information to the requesting SCP. This information may be provided either directly by the serving MSC to the requesting SCP or may be provided via the HLR that receive the request. In converting the cell/sector identification in which the mobile unit was last located, the serving MSC (or other element of the wireless communication system that performs the conversion) provides the most likely location of the mobile unit within the cell/sector.
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