Signaling interface for a position determining entity in a radio telecommunications network

摘要

A signaling interface method for interfacing a position determining entity (PDE) (11) with a radio telecommunications (10) network having a plurality of mobile switching centers (MSCs) (14-15) each of which controls a plurality of radio base stations having position measuring equipment therein. A requesting node (16) in the network sends a position determination request (32) to the PDE and identifies a mobile station (MS) (12) to be positioned, the MS's serving MSC (14) and serving cell (19), a positioning type, and a requested accuracy. The PDE determines a list of optimal radio base stations to make the positioning measurements based on the location of the serving cell and the locations of the radio base stations. Controlling MSCs are then requested to collect positioning measurements from the radio base stations on the list. The collected positioning measurements are sent from each controlling MSC to the PDE where the position of the identified mobile station is determined utilizing the collected positioning measurements. The determined position is then sent from the PDE to the requesting node.