JP2012154834A - Wireless terminal device and positioning method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wireless terminal device capable of appropriately selecting a positioning scheme according to network environment, and to provide a positioning method.SOLUTION: A cellular phone 1 includes a positioning unit 34 for selecting one of a plurality of positioning schemes and performing positioning. When required to perform positioning, if the location of the cellular phone is registered by CDMA that allows communication with a predetermined positioning server, the positioning unit 34 performs positioning by a requested positioning method. If the location is registered by LTE that does not allow communication with the predetermined positioning server, the positioning unit 34 performs positioning by Standalone method that uses no positioning servers.

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless terminal device capable of positioning by GPS and a positioning method thereof.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a positioning service using GPS (Global Positioning System) has been provided to acquire current position information of a wireless terminal device. In this service, a wireless terminal device often receives auxiliary information for capturing radio waves from a GPS satellite from a predetermined positioning server (for example, PDE; Position Determination Entity) via a base station.

  As a positioning method for acquiring auxiliary information from a positioning server, there are an Assisted method and a Based method (for example, refer to Patent Document 1). In the Assisted method, the wireless terminal device receives satellite acquisition assistance information (Acquisition Assistance data) from the positioning server, and searches for GPS satellites. The search result is returned to the positioning server, and position calculation is performed by the positioning server. The wireless terminal device receives the position calculation result and outputs it as a positioning result. In the Based scheme, the wireless terminal device receives satellite information (Ephemeris data and Almanac data) from the base station. The wireless terminal device creates satellite acquisition auxiliary information based on the received satellite information, searches for a satellite, and performs position calculation without transmitting the search result to the positioning server.

  In some cases, a positioning method in which auxiliary information is not acquired from the positioning server may be taken. In the Standalone method, the wireless terminal device does not communicate with the base station for positioning. That is, the wireless terminal device decodes a GPS satellite signal and acquires Ephemeris data and Almanac data by itself.

JP 2010-130249 A

  By the way, the wireless terminal device uses a predetermined network provided by a communication carrier, but the network to which the above-described positioning server is connected is limited. Therefore, when positioning for acquiring auxiliary information from the positioning server is specified, the positioning server may not be connected depending on the network being used, and the positioning process may fail.

  An object of this invention is to provide the radio | wireless terminal apparatus and position positioning method which can select a positioning system appropriately according to network environment.

  A wireless terminal device according to the present invention is a wireless terminal device including a positioning unit that selects a position from among a plurality of positioning methods and performs positioning, and the positioning unit is configured to perform predetermined positioning when requested for positioning. If the location registration is performed by the first communication method capable of communicating with the positioning server, the location is measured by the requested positioning method, and the location registration is performed by the second communication method incapable of communicating with the predetermined positioning server. If it is, the positioning is performed by a positioning method that does not use the positioning server.

  Further, the wireless terminal device according to the present invention is based on the measurement unit that measures the radio field intensity of the base station and the radio field intensity measured by the measurement unit when the location registration is performed by the second communication method. A determination unit that determines the presence or absence of an obstacle when capturing a GPS satellite, and when the positioning unit determines that there is an obstacle when the determination unit determines that there is no obstacle It is preferable to enlarge the search window and search time of GPS satellites.

  In addition, when the position is registered by the second communication method, the determination unit is configured so that when the base station of the second communication method is an outdoor installation type, an obstacle is detected when the radio field intensity is equal to or less than a predetermined value. If the base station of the second communication method is an indoor installation type, it is preferable to determine that there is an obstacle when the radio field intensity is equal to or higher than a predetermined value.

  In addition, the wireless terminal device according to the present invention includes an acquisition unit that acquires location information of neighboring base stations, and a base station that is registered by the positioning unit when the location registration is performed by the second communication method. It is preferable to include a calculation unit that calculates a position based on the position information and the radio wave intensity of the neighboring base station acquired by the acquisition unit when the positioning is not performed within a predetermined range.

  The first communication method is preferably CDMA, and the second communication method is preferably LTE.

  The position positioning method according to the present invention is a position positioning method in which a wireless terminal device selects one of a plurality of positioning methods and performs position positioning, and communicates with a predetermined positioning server when position positioning is requested. When the location registration is performed using the first communication method that is possible, the location measurement is performed using the requested positioning method, and the location registration is performed using the second communication method that is not possible to communicate with the predetermined positioning server. Positioning is performed by a positioning method that does not use the positioning server.

  According to the present invention, the wireless terminal device can appropriately select a positioning method according to the network environment.

1 is an external perspective view of a mobile phone according to an embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the function of the mobile telephone which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of base station distribution DB which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of electric field strength DB which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the positioning process which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the adjustment process of the search window and search time which concerns on embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the present embodiment, a mobile phone 1 will be described as an example of a wireless terminal device.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a mobile phone 1 according to the present embodiment.
FIG. 1 shows a so-called foldable mobile phone, but the mobile phone according to the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a sliding type in which one casing is slid in one direction from a state in which both casings are overlapped, or a rotary type in which one casing is rotated around an axis along the overlapping direction ( Turn type), or a type (straight type) in which the operation unit and the display unit are arranged in one housing and does not have a connecting unit.

  The mobile phone 1 includes an operation unit side body 2 and a display unit side body 3. The operation unit side body 2 includes an operation unit 11 on the front surface unit 10 and a microphone 12 to which a voice uttered by a user of the mobile phone 1 during a call or when using a voice recognition application is input. The The operation unit 11 includes a function setting operation button 13 for activating various functions such as various setting functions, a telephone book function, and a mail function, and an input operation button 14 for inputting numbers of telephone numbers, mail characters, and the like. , And a determination operation button 15 for performing determination and scrolling in various operations.

  The display unit side body 3 includes a display unit 21 for displaying various types of information on the surface unit 20 and a receiver 22 for outputting the voice of the other party of the call.

  Further, the upper end portion of the operation unit side body 2 and the lower end portion of the display unit side body 3 are connected via a hinge mechanism 4. In addition, the mobile phone 1 relatively rotates the operation unit side body 2 and the display unit side body 3 which are connected via the hinge mechanism 4, so that the operation unit side body 2 and the display unit side body 3 are rotated. The body 3 can be in an open state (open state), or the operation unit side body 2 and the display unit side body 3 can be folded (closed state).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing functions of the mobile phone 1 according to the present embodiment.
The mobile phone 1 includes an operation unit 11, a display unit 21, a control unit 30, a communication unit 40, a GPS reception unit 50, a voice control unit 60, and a storage unit 70.

  The control unit 30 controls the entire mobile phone 1 and performs predetermined control on each unit such as the display unit 21 and the communication unit 40, for example. In addition, the control unit 30 receives input from the operation unit 11, the communication unit 40, the GPS reception unit 50, and the like, and executes various processes. And the control part 30 controls the memory | storage part 70 in the case of a process execution, reads various programs and data, and writes data. Detailed functions of the control unit 30 according to the present embodiment will be described later.

  The communication unit 40 communicates with an external device (base station) in a predetermined use frequency band (for example, 2 GHz band, 800 MHz band, etc.). Then, the communication unit 40 demodulates the signal received from the main antenna 41, supplies the processed signal to the control unit 30, modulates the signal supplied from the control unit 30, and outputs the signal from the main antenna 41. Send to external device.

  Here, in the present embodiment, the communication unit 40 uses CDMA2000_1x or W-CDMA (hereinafter referred to as CDMA), which is a communication protocol for voice and data communication, and LTE, which is a communication protocol mainly used for high-speed data communication. (Long Term Evolution) and communication is possible with any protocol communication system. The communication unit 40 communicates with the base station using any protocol based on a command from the control unit 30.

  The GPS receiving unit 50 demodulates a radio signal of a predetermined frequency band from a GPS satellite received by the GPS antenna 51 and supplies the processed signal to the control unit 30. The functions of the GPS receiving unit 50 and the GPS antenna 51 may be performed by the communication unit 40 and the main antenna 41, respectively.

  The sound control unit 60 performs predetermined sound processing on the signal supplied from the communication unit 40 under the control of the control unit 30, and outputs the processed signal to the receiver 22. The receiver 22 outputs the signal supplied from the audio control unit 60 to the outside. This signal may be output from a speaker (not shown) instead of the receiver 22 or together with the receiver 22. In addition, the voice control unit 60 processes the signal input from the microphone 12 according to the control of the control unit 30, and outputs the processed signal to the communication unit 40. The communication unit 40 performs predetermined processing on the signal supplied from the voice control unit 60 and outputs the processed signal from the main antenna 41.

  The storage unit 70 includes, for example, a working memory and is used for arithmetic processing by the control unit 30. In addition to various programs according to the present embodiment, a base station distribution DB (database) 71, an electric field strength DB 72, and the like described later are stored.

Next, the function of the control unit 30 will be described in detail.
The control unit 30 includes an acquisition unit 31, a measurement unit 32, a determination unit 33, a positioning unit 34, and a calculation unit 35.

  The acquisition unit 31 acquires position information of neighboring base stations. Specifically, the acquisition unit 31 transmits a predetermined message transmitted from the base station in communication (for example, the System Parameter Message, the Mobile Station Registered Message, or the Sector Parameters Message Message in the 3GPP2 standard, or in the 3GPP standard). Corresponding message). Then, the acquisition unit 31 collects the identification information and position information of the neighboring base stations included in the received message and records them in the base station distribution DB 71. This process is periodically repeated until the mobile phone 1 is turned off or a radio wave off mode that does not use the communication function is set.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the base station distribution DB 71 according to the present embodiment.
In the base station distribution DB 71, for base stations with which the mobile phone 1 can communicate, identifiers (BSID) of these base stations, band classes (BC) indicating frequency bands, codes for signal synchronization (PN), frequencies (FREQ) ), Latitude (Lat) and longitude (Lon) are stored.

  The measurement unit 32 measures the electric field strength as the radio field strength of the base station whose location is registered or a base station in the vicinity thereof. Specifically, the measuring unit 32 periodically receives neighboring base station information (Active Set and Neighbor Set) from the communicating base station, and is the intensity of the radio wave transmitted from these neighboring base stations. Measure the field strength. Then, the measuring unit 32 collects the measured electric field strength and records it in the electric field strength DB 72. This process is periodically repeated until the mobile phone 1 is turned off or a radio wave off mode that does not use the communication function is set.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the electric field strength DB 72 according to the present embodiment.
The field strength DB 72 stores, for each base station, an Active Set or Neighbor Set classification, a code (PN) for identifying the base station, and each field strength (Strength).

  The determination unit 33 determines the presence or absence of an obstacle when capturing a GPS satellite based on the electric field intensity measured by the measurement unit 32 when the position is registered in LTE. Specifically, when the position registration is performed in LTE, the determination unit 33 detects that the radio wave of the GPS satellite when the mobile phone 1 is indoors when the electric field strength of a base station installed outdoors is below a predetermined value. It is determined that there is an obstacle in receiving.

  The determination unit 33 extracts information indicating whether the base station to be registered is an outdoor installation type from base station information received from the base station at the time of synchronization with the base station, which is a femto cell base station. If so, the determination is made based on the acquired information at the time of acquisition, such as indoor installation type, otherwise outdoor installation type.

  The positioning unit 34 determines a network environment or a communication carrier currently in use when position positioning is requested by a user operation input or application processing, and selects one of a plurality of positioning methods to perform position positioning. I do. Specifically, the positioning unit 34, when the location of the mobile phone 1 is registered by CDMA (first communication method) that can communicate with the positioning server, is the requested positioning method (for example, the Assisted method or the Based method). Positioning is performed by. On the other hand, when the location of the mobile phone 1 is registered by LTE (second communication method) incapable of communicating with the positioning server, the positioning unit 34 performs the positioning by the positioning method that does not use the positioning server, that is, the Standalone method. .

  In addition, when the determination unit 33 determines that there is an obstacle, the positioning unit 34 searches for a GPS satellite compared to a case where it is determined that there is no obstacle in order to increase the possibility of capturing the GPS satellite. Enlarge window and search time.

  When the position registration is performed by LTE, the calculation unit 35, when the positioning unit 34 has not performed positioning within a predetermined range from the base station whose position is registered, calculates the neighboring base station stored in the base station distribution DB 71. The position of the mobile phone 1 is calculated based on the position information and the electric field strength of the neighboring base station stored in the electric field strength DB 72.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the positioning process in the mobile phone 1 according to the present embodiment.

  In step S1, the positioning unit 34 receives a positioning request from a user or an application. In this positioning request, a positioning method may be specified. If not specified, for example, an Assisted method with a low processing load is selected.

  In step S2, the positioning unit 34 investigates an active network currently in use. Specifically, in the mobile phone 1 that can use CDMA or LTE, the positioning unit 34 determines which communication method is being used.

  In step S3, the positioning unit 34 determines whether or not it can be connected to the positioning server by the active network determined in step S2. If this determination is YES (in the case of CDMA), the process proceeds to step S4. If the determination is NO (in the case of LTE), the process proceeds to step S5.

  In step S4, since the positioning unit 34 can be connected to the positioning server, the positioning unit 34 performs positioning according to the positioning method (eg, Assisted method) specified in step S1 as usual.

  In step S5, the positioning unit 34 sets the positioning method to the Standalone method that does not require connection to the positioning server, regardless of the designated positioning method.

  In step S <b> 6, the determination unit 33 acquires the electric field strength DB 72 in order to determine the presence or absence of an obstacle when capturing a GPS satellite.

  In step S7, the control unit 30 (determination unit 33, positioning unit 34) determines the presence or absence of an obstacle based on the electric field strength information obtained from the electric field strength DB 72, and adjusts the search window and search time of the GPS satellite.

  In step S8, the positioning unit 34 attempts to acquire a GPS satellite using the adjusted search window. Here, the positioning unit 34 tries to capture the search time until it captures four or more GPS satellites.

  In step S9, the positioning unit 34 performs a positioning calculation process based on the signal received from the captured GPS satellite.

  In step S10, the positioning unit 34 determines whether there are four or more GPS satellites captured in step S8 and the signal strength is sufficient. If the determination is YES, the reliability of the positioning result is high, so the process moves to step S15. If the determination is NO, the process moves to step S11.

  In step S11, the positioning unit 34 determines whether the GPS positioning is successful based on signals from less than four GPS satellites. If this determination is YES, the process proceeds to step S12, and if the determination is NO, the process proceeds to step S13.

  In step S12, the positioning unit 34 determines whether the positioning result is within a predetermined range from the base station where the position is registered. If this determination is YES, since the positioning result is reliable, the process proceeds to step S15. On the other hand, when the determination is NO, since the reliability of the positioning result is low, the process proceeds to step S13.

  In step S <b> 13, the calculation unit 35 acquires the base station distribution DB 71 and the electric field strength DB 72 in order to calculate the position of the mobile phone 1.

  In step S14, the calculation unit 35 acquires the position information and field strength information of the neighboring base station from the database acquired in step S13, and calculates the position of the mobile phone 1.

  In step S15, the control unit 30 outputs the positioning result obtained by the positioning unit 34 or the calculation unit 35.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing search window and search time adjustment processing according to the present embodiment. This process corresponds to step S7 of the positioning process (FIG. 5).

  In step S <b> 21, the determination unit 33 refers to the electric field strength DB 72 and acquires the electric field strength of the communicating base station.

  In step S22, the determination unit 33 determines whether or not the electric field strength acquired in step S21 is a weak electric field equal to or less than a predetermined value. If this determination is YES, the determination unit 33 determines that there is an obstacle in capturing the GPS satellite, and the process proceeds to step S23. On the other hand, when the determination is NO, the determination unit 33 determines that there is no obstacle, and the process proceeds to step S25.

  In step S23, it is determined that the mobile phone 1 is difficult to capture a GPS satellite due to an obstacle, and since it is a weak electric field, it is difficult to calculate the position from the distribution of base stations and the electric field strength. Therefore, the positioning unit 34 sets the search time of the GPS satellite to the maximum value (for example, 255 seconds) in order to increase the possibility of capturing the GPS satellite.

  In step S24, the positioning unit 34 enlarges the search window in order to further increase the possibility of acquiring GPS satellites.

  In step S25, it is determined that the mobile phone 1 can easily capture the GPS satellite. Even if GPS positioning fails, it is possible to calculate the position from the distribution of base stations and the electric field strength because the electric field is strong. Therefore, the positioning unit 34 sets the GPS satellite search time to a standard value (for example, 60 seconds).

  In step S <b> 26, the positioning unit 34 sets the search window to the standard as with the search time.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the mobile phone 1 cannot communicate with the positioning server, the positioning method is set to the Standalone method, so that the positioning method can be appropriately selected according to the network environment. As a result, it is not necessary to consider the network environment in an application that requires GPS positioning, and it can be easily generalized, and the processing load is reduced.

  In addition, the mobile phone 1 can determine the presence or absence of an obstacle when capturing a GPS satellite by measuring the electric field strength of the base station. Further, when it is determined that there is an obstacle, the search window and search time of the GPS satellite are expanded, so that the possibility that the GPS satellite can be captured increases and the reliability of the positioning process is improved.

  In addition, the mobile phone 1 can acquire the position information of neighboring base stations and measure the electric field strength of each. Therefore, the mobile phone 1 can calculate the position based on the position information and the electric field strength information even when the reliability of the GPS positioning result is low.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not restricted to embodiment mentioned above. The effects described in the embodiments of the present invention are only the most preferable effects resulting from the present invention, and the effects of the present invention are limited to those described in the embodiments of the present invention. is not.

  CDMA2000_1x as the first communication method and LTE as the second communication method in the above-described embodiment are merely examples, and other communication protocols may be used. For example, examples of the first communication method include CDMA EVDO and W-CDMA. Moreover, as a 2nd communication system, WiFi etc. are mentioned, for example.

Here, if the second communication method is WiFi or the like and the base station is an indoor installation type, it is determined that there is an obstacle when the electric field strength is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.
As described above, since the mobile phone 1 has different methods for determining the presence or absence of an obstacle depending on whether the base station of the communication system being used is an outdoor installation type or an indoor setting type, the present invention can be applied. Communication systems increase.

  Further, the wireless terminal device according to the present invention is not limited to the mobile phone 1. The present invention can be applied to various devices such as a PHS (registered trademark), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a game machine, a navigation device, a personal computer, and a communication dedicated module specialized for a communication function. .

1 Mobile phone (wireless terminal device)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Operation part 21 Display part 30 Control part 31 Acquisition part 32 Measurement part 33 Determination part 34 Positioning part 35 Calculation part 40 Communication part 41 Main antenna 50 GPS reception part 51 GPS antenna 60 Voice control part 70 Storage part 71 Base station distribution DB
72 Electric field strength DB

Claims (6)

A wireless terminal device including a positioning unit that performs position positioning by selecting one of a plurality of positioning methods,
When the positioning unit is requested to perform positioning, if the location is registered by the first communication method capable of communicating with a predetermined positioning server, the positioning unit performs position positioning by the requested positioning method, and performs the predetermined positioning. A wireless terminal device that performs position positioning by a positioning method that does not use the positioning server when the position is registered by a second communication method incapable of communicating with a positioning server. A measurement unit for measuring the radio field intensity of the base station;
A determination unit that determines the presence or absence of an obstacle when capturing a GPS satellite based on the radio wave intensity measured by the measurement unit when the location is registered in the second communication method;
2. The radio according to claim 1, wherein when the determination unit determines that there is an obstacle, the positioning unit expands a search window and a search time of a GPS satellite compared to a case where it is determined that there is no obstacle. Terminal device.   When the location is registered in the second communication method, and the base station of the second communication method is an outdoor installation type, the determination unit has an obstacle when the radio wave intensity is equal to or lower than a predetermined value. The wireless terminal device according to claim 2, wherein if the base station of the second communication method is an indoor installation type, it is determined that there is an obstacle when the radio field intensity is greater than or equal to a predetermined value. An acquisition unit for acquiring location information of neighboring base stations;
When the location is registered by the second communication method, the location information of the neighboring base station acquired by the acquisition unit when the positioning unit is not positioned within a predetermined range from the base station registered by the location The wireless terminal device according to claim 2, further comprising: a calculation unit that calculates a position based on the radio wave intensity.   The wireless terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first communication method is CDMA, and the second communication method is LTE. A positioning method in which a wireless terminal device performs positioning by selecting one of a plurality of positioning methods,
When the position registration is requested, if the position is registered by the first communication method capable of communicating with the predetermined positioning server, the position measurement is performed by the requested positioning method, and communication with the predetermined positioning server is not possible. A position positioning method that performs position positioning by a positioning method that does not use the positioning server when the position is registered by a second communication method that is possible.

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