JP2013108959A - Measurement method determination device and measurement method determination method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To select a measurement method in order to have appropriate measurement accuracy and power consumption according to a situation of a mobile terminal.SOLUTION: A mobile terminal 10 is a measurement method determination device which has a mobile communication function and a reception function of signals used for GPS measurement and determines a measurement method of its own terminal 10. The mobile terminal 10 comprises: a transmission power information acquisition unit 13 for acquiring information indicating base station transmission power of a radio wave received from a base station by the terminal 10 using the mobile communication function; a measurement method selection unit 16 for selecting a measurement method on the basis of the information indicating the base station transmission power; and an output unit 17 for outputting information indicating the selected measurement method.

Description

  The present invention relates to a positioning method determination device and a positioning method determination method for determining a positioning method of a mobile terminal.

  Various positioning methods for mobile terminals such as global positioning system (GPS) technology and positioning (cell positioning) technology using a cellular network have become widespread. With GPS technology, positioning with high accuracy is possible with an error of about 10 meters outdoors, but power consumption is large. Cell positioning can be measured with high accuracy under the control of an indoor base station, but a positioning error of several hundred meters occurs outdoors when the cell size is large. Cell positioning consumes less power. In Patent Document 1 below, sector information indicating a communication area of a base station that performs radio communication with a mobile terminal is assumed to be moving when the handover frequency of the mobile terminal is equal to or higher than a certain level. In other cases, a technique has been proposed for performing the GPS positioning.

JP 2011-43479 A

  However, in the conventional method such as Patent Document 1, GPS positioning is performed even when the mobile terminal is located indoors (stays). In that case, since it is difficult for a mobile terminal to receive a signal from a GPS satellite, there is a high possibility that positioning is not successful, and power consumption increases. In addition, since the cell size usually varies depending on the area, there is a problem that if the frequency is set according to a small cell, the cell does not operate normally with a large cell.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and a positioning method determination device that enables a positioning method to be selected so as to achieve appropriate positioning accuracy and power consumption according to the situation of a mobile terminal, and It aims at providing the positioning method determination method.

  In order to achieve the above object, a positioning method determining apparatus according to the present invention is a positioning method determining apparatus that determines a positioning method of a mobile terminal having a mobile communication function and a function of receiving a signal used for GPS positioning. The transmission power information acquisition means for acquiring information indicating the base station transmission power of the radio wave from the base station received by the mobile terminal by the mobile communication function, and the base station transmission power acquired by the transmission power information acquisition means A positioning method selecting unit that selects a positioning method based on the information; and an output unit that outputs information indicating the positioning method selected by the positioning method selecting unit.

  In the positioning method determining apparatus according to the present invention, the positioning method is determined based on information indicating the base station transmission power of radio waves from the base station received by the mobile terminal. Therefore, it is possible to select a positioning method so as to obtain appropriate positioning accuracy and power consumption according to the situation of the mobile terminal corresponding to the base station transmission power.

  The positioning method determining means selects GPS positioning based on the signal received by the mobile communication function when the base station transmission power exceeds a preset threshold, and when the base station transmission power falls below the threshold, the cell It is good also as selecting positioning. According to this configuration, GPS positioning is selected in a situation where a signal used for GPS positioning is easily received, and cell positioning is selected in other situations. Therefore, it becomes possible to select a positioning method so as to ensure appropriate positioning accuracy and power consumption according to the situation of the mobile terminal.

  The positioning method determination device further includes reception power information acquisition means for acquiring information indicating reception power of radio waves received by the mobile terminal by the mobile communication function, and the positioning method determination means is acquired by the reception power information acquisition means. The positioning method may be selected based on information indicating the received power. According to this configuration, it is possible to select an appropriate positioning method according to the situation of the mobile terminal corresponding to the received power.

  The positioning method determining means may select the positioning method based on the difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power in the base station. According to this configuration, it is possible to appropriately select a positioning method according to the situation of the mobile terminal in consideration of path loss (propagation loss of radio waves from the base station).

  The positioning method determining means may select the positioning method when the received power of the serving cell of the mobile terminal exceeds a preset threshold value. According to this configuration, the positioning method can be selected according to the ease of communication by the mobile communication function of the mobile terminal. For example, the positioning method can be selected only when the mobile terminal can easily communicate.

  The positioning method selecting means selects a positioning method using a base station transmission power from a base station whose received power exceeds a preset threshold among a plurality of base stations that have received radio waves by a mobile communication function. It is good also as selecting the base station used for. Alternatively, the positioning method selection means selects a base station to be used when selecting a positioning method from a plurality of base stations that have received radio waves by the mobile communication function, using a difference between base station transmission power and reception power. It is good. According to these configurations, it is possible to appropriately determine the base station related to the base station transmission power used for selecting the positioning method, and as a result, it is possible to more appropriately select the positioning method according to the situation of the mobile terminal. it can.

  The positioning method determination device further includes a movement state information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the movement state of the mobile terminal, and the positioning method determination unit is also based on the information indicating the movement state acquired by the movement state information acquisition unit. It is also possible to select a positioning method. According to this configuration, it is possible to select an appropriate positioning method according to the moving state of the mobile terminal.

  The movement state information acquisition means acquires information indicating the movement state at every predetermined time, and the positioning method determination means is based on the movement state transition indicated by the information acquired by the movement state information acquisition means. It is good also as selecting. According to this configuration, it is possible to select an appropriate positioning method according to the transition of the movement state of the mobile terminal.

  The positioning method determination device may further include positioning means for performing positioning by the positioning method related to the information output by the output means. According to this structure, the positioning result according to the selected positioning method can be acquired reliably.

  The positioning method determination device further includes a transmission unit that transmits a positioning result of the positioning unit to the content distribution server, and a reception unit that receives the content according to the positioning result from the content distribution server, and the movement state information acquisition unit The presence or absence of content reception by the receiving means may be determined according to the acquired information indicating the movement state. According to this configuration, it is possible to receive content appropriately according to the movement state.

  By the way, the present invention can be described as an invention of a positioning method determination apparatus as described below, in addition to being described as an invention of a positioning method determination apparatus as described above. This is substantially the same invention only in different categories and the like, and has the same operations and effects.

  That is, the positioning method determination method according to the present invention is a positioning method determination method by a positioning method determination device that determines a positioning method of a mobile terminal having a mobile communication function and a signal reception function used for GPS positioning, In the transmission power information acquisition step for acquiring information indicating the base station transmission power of the radio wave from the base station received by the mobile terminal by the mobile communication function, and the information indicating the base station transmission power acquired in the transmission power information acquisition step A positioning method selection step for selecting a positioning method based on the output method, and an output step for outputting information indicating the positioning method selected in the positioning method selection step.

  In the present invention, since the positioning method is determined based on information indicating the base station transmission power of radio waves from the base station received by the mobile terminal, appropriate positioning is performed according to the situation of the mobile terminal corresponding to the base station transmission power. It becomes possible to select a positioning method so as to achieve accuracy and power consumption.

It is a figure which shows the function structure of the mobile terminal which is a positioning method determination apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention, and the structure of the communication system containing the said mobile terminal. It is the figure which showed the positional relationship of a mobile terminal, a serving cell, and an adjacent cell. It is the table | surface which showed the positioning method selected according to RSSI of a serving cell, and the base station transmission power of an object base station. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the mobile terminal which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process (positioning method determination method) performed with the mobile terminal which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process which acquires the information which shows a movement state.

  Embodiments of a positioning method determination device and a positioning method determination method according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the description of the drawings, the same elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  FIG. 1 shows a mobile terminal 10 that is a positioning method determination device according to the present embodiment. The mobile terminal 10 determines a method for estimating the position of the own terminal 10, that is, a positioning method of the own terminal 10. The mobile terminal 10 has a mobile communication function and a signal reception function used for GPS positioning, as will be described later in more detail. The positioning method to be determined is selected from cell positioning and GPS positioning based on the signal received by the mobile communication function.

  The mobile terminal 10 performs mobile communication by transmitting and receiving radio waves to and from the base station 20 configuring the mobile communication network N. The mobile terminal 10 can transmit and receive information between the positioning server 30 and the content distribution server 40 via the mobile communication network N. Specifically, the mobile terminal 10 corresponds to a mobile phone or the like and is carried by the user. The base station 20 includes hardware such as a communication module.

  The positioning server 30 is a device that estimates the position of the mobile terminal 10 by cell positioning. The content distribution server 40 is a server that receives location information indicating the location of the mobile terminal 10 and provides the mobile terminal 10 with content corresponding to the location information. For example, information about a store near the position of the mobile terminal 10 is transmitted to the mobile terminal 10 as content. The positioning server 30 and the content distribution server 40 are configured as server devices including hardware such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a memory.

  Here, cell positioning and GPS positioning will be described. Cell positioning is a positioning method based on a signal received by a mobile communication function. Specifically, for example, it is a method of estimating the position of the base station 20 or the position of the sector where the mobile terminal 10 is communicating (located or receives radio waves) as the position of the mobile terminal 10. . Note that the base station 20 is usually fixedly positioned and installed, and the positions of the base station 20 and the sector (center) are grasped by a communication carrier of the mobile communication network N or the like. Alternatively, the transmission delay (for example, RTT: Round Trip Time) of radio waves transmitted and received between the mobile terminal 10 and the base station 20 and information indicating the attenuation amount of radio waves (or information measured for calculating such information) Alternatively, the distance between the mobile terminal 10 and the base station 20 may be calculated, and the position of the mobile terminal 10 may be calculated with reference to the position information of the base station 20 or the like. In addition, any other method may be used as cell positioning as long as it is a positioning method based on signals transmitted and received by the mobile communication function.

  In GPS positioning, the mobile terminal 10 receives a signal from a GPS satellite (not shown), and calculates the position of the mobile terminal 10 based on the received signal. The GPS satellite is located at a predetermined location according to time, and transmits a positioning signal used for positioning from the position. Specifically, four to five GPS satellites are arranged on six orbits at an altitude of about 20,000 km, and move on the orbit as time passes. The positioning signal transmitted by the GPS satellite includes identification information for distinguishing and specifying the GPS satellite, information indicating the orbit of the GPS satellite, and information indicating the time at which the signal was transmitted.

  Specifically, the GPS positioning calculation calculates the position of the GPS satellite, the distance from the mobile terminal 10 to the GPS satellite, and the like based on the information received by the mobile terminal 10 from the GPS satellite. The position of the mobile terminal 10 is calculated. For this calculation, assist data indicating the position of a GPS satellite and the like acquired from the mobile communication network N by the mobile terminal 10 may be used.

  Since GPS positioning requires the mobile terminal 10 to receive a signal from a GPS satellite, if the mobile terminal 10 is indoors where the signal from the GPS satellite is blocked, positioning may fail or sufficient positioning accuracy may be obtained. It may not be obtained, or it may take a long time for positioning as compared with the case where the mobile terminal 10 is outdoors, and may consume a lot of power. In addition, when the mobile terminal 10 is moving at a certain speed or higher, the GPS positioning is performed as compared with the case where the positioning fails or sufficient positioning accuracy is not obtained or the mobile terminal 10 is stationary. It may take a long time and consume a lot of power. On the other hand, GPS positioning can estimate the position of the mobile terminal 10 with higher accuracy than cell positioning.

  Compared to GPS positioning, cell positioning is possible as long as the mobile terminal 10 can receive radio waves from the base station 20, and compared to GPS positioning, it is less affected by whether the mobile terminal 10 is located indoors or outdoors. . In addition, cell positioning is less affected by movement of the mobile terminal 10 than GPS positioning.

  In addition, the base station 20 has what is provided indoors and what is provided outdoors. The base station 20 transmits radio waves with transmission power set in advance by a communication carrier of the mobile communication network N or the like. The larger the transmission power, the wider the cell (communication area) configured by the base station 20. Usually, the base station 20 provided indoors is set to a low transmission power because it is less necessary to enlarge the cell than the base station 20 provided outdoors.

  Subsequently, functions of the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile terminal 10 includes a mobile communication unit 11, a GPS positioning unit 12, a transmission power information acquisition unit 13, a reception power information acquisition unit 14, a movement state information acquisition unit 15, and positioning. A method selection unit 16 and an output unit 17 are provided. Note that the mobile terminal 10 may have functions normally provided as a mobile phone or an information terminal in addition to the functions of the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment described below.

  The mobile communication unit 11 is means for performing mobile communication by performing wireless communication with any of the plurality of base stations 20 included in the mobile communication network N. The mobile communication unit 11 is provided with an antenna for mobile communication, and mobile communication is performed using the antenna. The mobile communication unit 11 performs normal mobile communication such as telephone communication and acquires information by mobile communication used for selecting a positioning method. Specific information to be acquired will be described later. The mobile communication unit 11 outputs the acquired information to the transmission power information acquisition unit 13 and the reception power information acquisition unit 14 according to the information.

  The mobile communication unit 11 transmits and receives information to and from the positioning server 30 via the base station 20 (mobile communication network N). The mobile communication unit 11 requests the positioning server 30 to perform cell positioning of the terminal 10 when there is an instruction to perform cell positioning from the output unit 17 as will be described later. When the request is received, the positioning server 30 acquires information on transmission / reception of radio waves from the base station 20 to the mobile terminal 10 and performs cell positioning of the mobile terminal 10 based on the information. The positioning result is transmitted from the positioning server 30 to the mobile terminal 10 and received by the mobile communication unit 11. The positioning result of cell positioning is, for example, information on latitude and longitude where the mobile terminal 10 is located. Further, the positioning result may include information indicating positioning accuracy.

  In the present embodiment, the positioning server 30 performs the cell positioning calculation, but the own terminal 10 may perform the cell positioning. In that case, information necessary for cell positioning, for example, location information of the base station 20 is stored in the mobile terminal 10 in advance. In that case, the mobile terminal 10 is provided with positioning means (means for performing cell positioning) for performing positioning by the determined positioning method.

  In addition, the mobile communication unit 11 may constitute a transmission unit that transmits the positioning result of the terminal 10 (position information indicating the position of the terminal 10) to the content distribution server in order to acquire the content. In response to the transmission of the positioning result, content corresponding to the position of the mobile terminal 10 is transmitted from the content distribution server. Further, the mobile communication unit 11 may constitute a receiving unit that receives content according to the positioning result from the content distribution server. The content received by the mobile communication unit 11 is appropriately used by being referred to by the user of the mobile terminal 10. Note that the positioning result may be transmitted only when GPS positioning with high positioning accuracy is performed (in the case of cell positioning, the positioning result is not transmitted). Further, content transmission (or content reception by the mobile communication unit 11) is performed only when GPS positioning is performed when the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is “stop after movement” as will be described later. It is good as well. This is because, when the movement state is “stop after movement”, it is highly likely that the user has arrived at the destination and the possibility of using the transmitted content relating to the position is high. That is, as described above, the mobile communication unit 11 may determine whether or not content is received according to information indicating the movement state.

  The GPS positioning unit 12 is means for receiving a signal used for positioning transmitted from a GPS satellite. The GPS positioning unit 12 is provided with an antenna for receiving a signal from a GPS satellite, and reception is performed using the antenna. The GPS positioning unit 12 performs GPS positioning calculation based on the information that has received the signal, and calculates the position of the terminal 10 itself. The positioning result of GPS positioning is, for example, information on latitude and longitude where the mobile terminal 10 is located. Further, the positioning result may include information indicating positioning accuracy.

  The GPS positioning unit 12 performs the above-described GPS positioning when there is an instruction to perform GPS positioning from the output unit 17 as will be described later. That is, the GPS positioning unit 12 is positioning means (means for performing GPS positioning) that performs positioning by the determined positioning method. The positioning result by the GPS positioning of the GPS positioning unit 12 is output as appropriate. For example, as described above, the content corresponding to the position information is acquired from the positioning server 30 and is output to the mobile communication unit 11.

  In the present embodiment, the mobile terminal 10 performs GPS positioning calculation. However, the mobile terminal 10 does not necessarily have a means for performing GPS positioning calculation, and a device other than the mobile terminal 10, for example, The GPS positioning calculation may be performed by the positioning server 30. In that case, the information on the radio wave received from the GPS satellite received by the mobile terminal 10 is transmitted to a device that performs GPS positioning calculation. In that case, the mobile terminal 10 does not include positioning means (means for performing GPS positioning) for performing positioning by the determined positioning method.

  The transmission power information acquisition unit 13 is a transmission power information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the base station transmission power of radio waves from the base station 20 received by the mobile communication unit 11. Specifically, the base station transmission power is, for example, the transmission power of the pilot channel. Information indicating the transmission power of the pilot channel is usually included in broadcast information (pilot signal) constantly transmitted from the base station 20 at a constant time interval. Note that as the information indicating the base station transmission power, any signal transmission power capable of defining the cell size other than the transmission power of the pilot channel may be used.

  The notification signal is received by the mobile communication unit 11 from the base station 20 that can receive the notification signal, and is input to the transmission power information acquisition unit 13. The transmission power information acquisition unit 13 acquires information indicating the transmission power of the pilot channel from the input broadcast signal. Note that the information indicating the base station transmission power to be acquired may be acquired not only for the serving cell but also for the neighboring cell (information on only the serving cell or only the neighboring cell may be obtained. ). The transmission power information acquisition unit 13 outputs information indicating the acquired base station transmission power to the positioning method selection unit 16 together with information indicating the corresponding base station 20 (for example, base station ID).

  The reception power information acquisition unit 14 is a reception power information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating reception power of radio waves received by the mobile communication unit 11. Specifically, for example, the received power is measured by the mobile communication unit 11 with respect to radio waves of control signals such as notification information. The reception power information acquisition unit 14 inputs and acquires information indicating reception power measured by the mobile communication unit 11. As the received power, for example, RSSI is measured.

  Note that as the information indicating the received power, the received power of a signal other than the received power of the broadcast information may be used. Further, the information indicating the received power to be acquired may be acquired not only for the serving cell but also for the neighboring cell (information on only the serving cell or only the neighboring cell may be acquired). The reception power information acquisition unit 14 outputs information indicating the acquired reception power to the positioning method selection unit 16 together with information indicating the corresponding base station 20 (for example, a base station ID). Note that, as described later, when information indicating received power is not used for selecting a positioning method, the mobile terminal 10 does not necessarily include the received power information acquisition unit 14.

  The movement state information acquisition unit 15 is a movement state information acquisition unit that acquires information indicating the movement state of the mobile terminal 10. Moreover, it is good also as acquiring the information which shows the movement state for every predetermined time. The movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is, for example, any one of three states of “stationary”, “movement”, and “stop after movement”. “Still” is a state in which the mobile terminal 10 is not moving at a certain speed or more (specifically, for example, a speed at which GPS positioning is hindered). “Movement” is a state in which the mobile terminal 10 is moving at a certain speed or higher. “Still after moving” is a state in which it has not moved at a certain speed immediately after it has moved at a certain speed or more (moving immediately before it has not moved at a certain speed or more) The state is moving at a certain speed or higher).

  The movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is determined using, for example, information on the cell positioning result and the GPS positioning result. This determination is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 as will be described later. When determining the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 using the cell positioning result and the GPS positioning result, either cell positioning or GPS positioning (the selected positioning method) is continuously performed at regular time intervals. The fixed time interval is set in advance, for example, an interval of several minutes. The movement state information acquisition unit 15 acquires and stores past positioning result information from the mobile communication unit 11 and the GPS positioning unit 12.

  In GPS positioning and cell positioning, errors such as changes in latitude and longitude occur even if the user is at the same position due to radio wave conditions. Due to this error, it is necessary to avoid erroneously determining that the user is moving even though the user is actually stationary. The movement state information acquisition unit 15 calculates a difference between each of the latitude and longitude indicated by the latest positioning result and each of the latitude and longitude indicated by the previous positioning result, and at least one of each difference is x If it is greater than the degree, it is determined as “move”. Here, x is a preset value. In addition, as a difference between the latest positioning result and the previous positioning result, a difference in distance between them may be used instead of using a difference for each latitude and longitude as described above.

  The movement state information acquisition unit 15 determines that the difference between each latitude and longitude indicated by the latest positioning result and each latitude and longitude indicated by the previous positioning result is less than or equal to x degrees, and the previous time point If the determination result of the movement state is “movement”, it is determined as “stop after movement”. The movement state information acquisition unit 15 stores past determination results. The movement state information acquisition unit 15 determines that the difference between each latitude and longitude indicated by the latest positioning result and each latitude and longitude indicated by the previous positioning result is less than or equal to x degrees, and the previous time point If the determination result is “movement”, the following determination is further performed. In that case, the movement state information acquisition unit 15 includes the latitude and longitude indicated by the latest positioning result, and the latitude and longitude acquired at the time when it was determined to be “still after moving” before (GPS as described later) (Latitude and longitude acquired by positioning) are calculated, and if at least one of the differences is greater than x degrees, it is determined as “move”. If any of these differences is less than or equal to x degrees, it is determined as “still”.

  This makes it possible to correctly determine that the user is “moving” when walking slowly. The initial state is “movement”. The movement state information acquisition unit 15 outputs information indicating the acquired movement state of the mobile terminal 10 to the positioning method selection unit 16.

  Moreover, the movement state information acquisition part 15 is good also as acquiring the information which shows the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 by methods other than using a positioning result. For example, the moving state may be determined using an acceleration sensor. As will be described later, when the information indicating the movement state is not used for selecting the positioning method, the mobile terminal 10 does not necessarily have to include the reception power information acquisition unit 14.

  The positioning method selection unit 16 is a positioning method selection unit that selects a positioning method based on information indicating the base station transmission power acquired by the transmission power information acquisition unit 13. For example, the positioning method selection unit 16 selects GPS positioning when the base station transmission power exceeds a preset threshold value, and selects cell positioning when the base station transmission power falls below the threshold value. The positioning method selection unit 16 selects cell positioning when the base station transmission power matches the threshold. That is, the positioning method selection unit 16 selects cell positioning when the base station transmission power is less than or equal to the threshold value. The threshold value here is preferably set to an appropriate value for determining whether the base station transmission power is the indoor base station 20 or not. When the base station transmission power is low, there is a high possibility that the cell is an indoor cell, and since the cell is small, a highly accurate positioning result (position information) can be obtained even by cell positioning. In addition, there is a high possibility that GPS positioning will fail because the GPS signal cannot be received indoors. For this reason, cell positioning is selected if the base station transmission power is less than or equal to the threshold, and GPS positioning is selected if the base station transmission power exceeds the threshold.

  In addition, the positioning method selection unit 16 may select a target base station to be used in selecting a positioning method as follows from information on a plurality of base station transmission powers including a serving cell and an adjacent cell. Good.

  Specifically, the positioning method selection unit 16 compares the received power of each base station 20 with a preset threshold value, and receives the received power among the plurality of base stations 20 that have received radio waves by the mobile communication unit 11. Is selected as a target base station from base stations 20 that exceed a preset threshold (or greater than or equal to the threshold) using base station transmission power for these base stations 20 (received power exceeds a preset threshold) It is good to do. The threshold value here is preferably set to a value of received power that allows the mobile terminal 10 to perform mobile communication (no problem in mobile communication), for example. Moreover, it is good also considering the base station 20 with the lowest base station transmission power among the base stations 20 whose received power exceeds a threshold as a target base station used for selection of a positioning method. This is because if the base station transmission power of an adjacent cell is small and the mobile terminal 10 is in that cell, it is highly possible that the mobile terminal 10 is indoors and it is desirable to select cell positioning. However, when the received power (RSSI) is less than or equal to the threshold value, there is a possibility of being away from the indoor area, so that the adjacent cell is not targeted.

  Alternatively, the positioning method selection unit 16 calculates the difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power in each base station 20, and based on the difference, from the plurality of base stations 20 that have received radio waves by the mobile communication unit 11. The target base station may be selected. For example, a cell having a low path loss (a radio wave propagation loss from the base station) represented by the above difference among the serving cell and the adjacent cell may be set as the target base station. The serving cell is not changed until the quality is below a certain level. That is, even when the path loss of the neighboring cell is smaller than the path loss of the serving cell, the serving cell may not change. For example, when the mobile terminal 10 is located at a cell boundary between a large cell and a small cell, the large cell is located in the large cell even though the path loss is higher and the distance is longer. There is. However, since the mobile terminal 10 and the base station 20 are closer to the small cell (more likely), it is better to perform the indoor / outdoor determination with the base station transmission power of the small cell.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when the mobile terminal 10 is located in a wide cell 51 and is located in a narrow cell 61 that is also an adjacent cell (that is, the base station transmission power of both the cells 51 and 61) And information indicating received power can be acquired), and the base station 20 of the cell 61 that is located in the cell 51 but has a small base station transmission power is set as a target base station to be used for selecting a positioning method. .

  In the above-described example, after the target base station is selected, the positioning method is determined based only on the information indicating the base station transmission power. However, the positioning method selection unit 16 receives the received power information acquisition unit 14. It is good also as selecting a positioning method based also on the information which shows the acquired received power. For example, the positioning method may be selected by comparing the difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power with a preset threshold value. When the difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power is small, the mobile terminal 10 is likely to be located near the base station 20. For this reason, cell positioning may be selected if the difference is less than or equal to the threshold value, and GPS positioning may be selected if the difference exceeds the threshold value. This is because when the difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power is large, the power consumption of the cell positioning is large and the accuracy is low.

  Moreover, the positioning method selection part 16 is good also as selecting a positioning method, when the receiving power of the serving cell of the mobile terminal 10 exceeds the preset threshold value. When the positioning result of the mobile terminal 10 is transmitted / received by mobile communication, or when information on the positioning process is transmitted / received by mobile communication, transmission / reception cannot be performed properly unless the reception power of the cell in the area is sufficient. Or the transmission / reception time increases, or the power consumption of the mobile terminal 10 for transmission / reception increases. Therefore, only cell positioning or GPS positioning is selected only when the received power of the serving cell exceeds a preset threshold, and positioning itself is performed when the received power of the serving cell is less than the threshold. It's okay to not. The threshold value here is preferably set to a value of received power that allows the mobile terminal 10 to perform mobile communication (no problem in mobile communication), for example.

  For example, as shown in the table of FIG. 3, when the RSSI of the serving cell is equal to or less than the threshold value, it is not necessary to acquire position information because mobile communication is not possible, and thus positioning is not performed. When the RSSI of the serving cell is equal to or higher than the threshold value and the base station transmission power of the target base station is equal to or lower than the threshold value, the cell positioning is performed because the possibility of an indoor small cell capable of cell positioning is high. If the base station transmission power of the target base station exceeds the threshold, GPS positioning is performed because the possibility of an outdoor large cell is high. In the present embodiment, since GPS positioning is performed in the mobile terminal 10, GPS positioning may be performed even when the RSSI of the serving cell is below the threshold value. Note that the threshold value here may be set based on an allowable amount of power consumption for cell positioning.

  Furthermore, the positioning method selection unit 16 may select a positioning method based on information indicating the movement state acquired by the movement state information acquisition unit 15 (including information indicating transition of the movement state). More specifically, the positioning method selection unit 16 determines that the base station transmission power exceeds the threshold, or the positioning method selection unit 16 determines that the difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power exceeds the threshold (the example described above). Then, when GPS positioning is performed), the positioning method may be further selected using information indicating the movement state. For example, when the moving state of the mobile terminal 10 is “still after moving”, GPS positioning is selected. When the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is “movement” or “stationary” other than “stationary after movement”, cell positioning is selected. In the present embodiment, as described above, it is assumed that content is transmitted from the content distribution server 40 when “stop after movement”, and therefore GPS positioning is performed only when content that requires accuracy is received. By doing so, power consumption can be reduced.

  The positioning method selection unit 16 outputs information indicating the positioning method selected as described above to the output unit 17.

  The output unit 17 is an output unit that outputs information indicating the positioning method selected by the positioning method selection unit 16. This output is performed, for example, by instructing the positioning means so that the positioning is executed by the selected positioning method. For example, when the selected positioning method is GPS positioning, the GPS positioning unit 12 is instructed to perform GPS positioning. On the other hand, when the selected positioning method is cell positioning, the mobile communication unit 11 is instructed to perform cell positioning. If the input from the positioning method selection unit 16 is not to perform positioning, the output unit 17 does not perform any processing.

  When the GPS positioning is selected by the positioning method selection unit 16 (when information to that effect is input from the positioning method selection unit 16), the output unit 17 sends the positioning result of GPS positioning to the content distribution server. The GPS positioning unit 12 and the mobile communication unit 11 may be instructed to transmit to 40.

  Further, the output by the output unit 17 may be performed by a method other than the above. For example, display output or the like may be performed, or information indicating the selected positioning method may be transmitted to another device. This is a functional configuration of the mobile terminal 10.

  Subsequently, FIG. 4 shows a hardware configuration of the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, the mobile terminal 10 includes a CPU 101, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 102, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 103, an operation unit 104, a display 105, a mobile communication module 106, a mobile communication antenna 107, a GPS. It is configured by hardware such as the reception module 108 and the GPS reception antenna 109. The functions described above are exhibited by the operation of these components. The above is the configuration of the mobile terminal 10.

  Subsequently, a positioning method determination method, which is a process executed by the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment, will be described using the flowchart of FIG. This process is continuously performed at a predetermined time interval (for example, every several minutes), for example.

  First, in the mobile terminal 10, the transmission power information acquisition unit 13 acquires information indicating the base station transmission power of the radio wave from the base station 20 received by the mobile communication unit 11 (S01, transmission power information acquisition step). Information indicating the acquired base station transmission power is output from the transmission power information acquisition unit 13 to the positioning method selection unit 16.

  Subsequently, the received power information acquisition unit 14 acquires information indicating the received power of the radio wave from the base station 20 received by the mobile communication unit 11 (S02, received power information acquisition step). The acquired information indicating received power is output from the received power information acquisition unit 14 to the positioning method selection unit 16.

  Subsequently, information indicating the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is acquired by the movement state information acquisition unit 15 (S03, movement state information acquisition step). The determination of the movement state of the movement state information acquisition unit 15 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  In this processing, past positioning results by cell positioning and GPS positioning are referred to. First, the difference between each latitude and longitude indicated by the latest positioning result and each latitude and longitude indicated by the previous positioning result is calculated. It is determined whether at least one of the differences is greater than x degrees (S31). When it is determined that at least one of the differences is greater than x degrees (Yes in S31), the moving state of the mobile terminal 10 is determined as “moving” (S32).

  If it is determined in S31 that each difference is equal to or less than x degrees (No in S31), it is subsequently determined whether or not the determination result of the movement state at the previous time point is “movement”. If it is determined that the determination result of the movement state at the previous time point is “movement” (Yes in S33), the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is determined to be “still after movement” (S34).

  In S33, when it is determined that the determination result of the movement state at the previous time point is other than “movement” (No in S33), each of the latitude and longitude indicated by the latest positioning result, and before that Differences between the latitude and longitude acquired at the time point when it is determined that “still after moving” are calculated. It is determined whether at least one of the differences is greater than x degrees (S35). When it is determined that at least one of the differences is greater than x degrees (Yes in S35), the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is determined as “movement” (S36). If it is determined in S35 that the respective differences are not more than x degrees (No in S35), the moving state of the mobile terminal 10 is determined to be “still” (S37). The above is the determination process of the movement state of the movement state information acquisition unit 15.

  Returning to FIG. 5, subsequently, the positioning method of the mobile terminal 10 is determined based on the information input from the power information acquisition unit 13, the received power information acquisition unit 14, and the movement state information acquisition unit 15 by the positioning method selection unit 16. Is selected (S04, positioning method selection step). As described above, there is an aspect in which the positioning method is selected without using the information acquired by the reception power information acquisition unit 14 and the movement state information acquisition unit 15. In this case, it is not necessary to acquire information that is not used for selecting a positioning method. Information indicating the selected positioning method is output from the positioning method selection unit 16 to the output unit 17.

  Subsequently, information indicating the selected positioning method is output by the output unit 17 (S05, output step). Specifically, for example, an instruction is given to execute the selected positioning method. When the selected positioning method is GPS positioning, the GPS positioning unit 12 is instructed to perform GPS positioning. On the other hand, when the selected positioning method is cell positioning, the mobile communication unit 11 is instructed to perform cell positioning. If the input from the positioning method selection unit 16 is not to perform positioning, no processing is performed.

  Subsequently, positioning according to the selected positioning method is performed (S06, positioning step). Specifically, processing related to positioning is performed by the mobile communication unit 11 or the GPS positioning unit 12.

  When the positioning is executed and the positioning result is obtained, the positioning result is output (S07). Specifically, for example, when GPS positioning is performed as described above, the positioning result may be transmitted from the mobile terminal 10 to the content distribution server 40. In addition, other outputs such as display output may be performed. The above is the positioning method determination method that is a process executed by the mobile terminal 10 according to the present embodiment.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the positioning method is determined based on information indicating the base station transmission power of radio waves from the base station 20 received by the mobile terminal 10. As described above, since the base station 20 with low base station transmission power is likely to be a base station installed indoors, there is a high possibility that GPS positioning will fail. On the other hand, since the cell is small, high accuracy is achieved even with cell positioning. Position information can be obtained. That is, the base station transmission power is information indicating information on the mobile terminal 10. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to select a positioning method so as to obtain appropriate positioning accuracy and power consumption according to the situation of the mobile terminal corresponding to the base station transmission power.

  Further, as in the present embodiment, the base station transmission power and the threshold value are compared, and GPS positioning or cell positioning can be selected based on the comparison. According to this configuration, GPS positioning is selected in a situation where a signal used for GPS positioning is easily received, and cell positioning is selected in other situations. It is possible to select a positioning method so as to ensure appropriate positioning accuracy and power consumption according to the situation of the mobile terminal 10.

  Moreover, it is good also as selecting a positioning method in consideration of received power like this embodiment. According to this configuration, it is possible to select an appropriate positioning method according to the situation of the mobile terminal corresponding to the received power.

  Specifically, the positioning method may be selected based on the difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power. According to this configuration, it is possible to appropriately select a positioning method according to the situation of the mobile terminal 10 in consideration of path loss (propagation loss of radio waves from the base station 20).

  Alternatively, the positioning method may be selected when the received power of the serving cell exceeds a threshold value. According to this configuration, a positioning method can be selected according to the ease of communication by the mobile communication function of the mobile terminal 10. For example, the positioning method can be selected only when the mobile terminal 10 is easy to communicate.

  Moreover, it is used when selecting a positioning method from the base station 20 whose received power exceeds a preset threshold value among the plurality of base stations 20 that have received radio waves by the mobile communication unit 11. The target base station may be selected. Or it is good also as selecting the object base station used when selecting a positioning method from the some base station 20 which received the electromagnetic wave by the mobile communication part 11 using the difference of base station transmission power and reception power. . According to these configurations, it is possible to appropriately determine the base station 20 related to the base station transmission power used for selecting the positioning method, and as a result, more appropriately select the positioning method according to the situation of the mobile terminal 10. be able to.

  Further, the positioning method may be selected in consideration of the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 and its transition. According to this configuration, it is possible to select an appropriate positioning method according to the movement state of the mobile terminal 10. Specifically, when the mobile terminal 10 is in a moving state, cell positioning can be selected while avoiding GPS positioning. Alternatively, GPS positioning can be selected in a state where the mobile terminal 10 is stationary after moving, that is, in a state where it is desirable to obtain more accurate position information.

  Moreover, it is good also as a means to perform positioning by the selected positioning method. According to this structure, the positioning result according to the selected positioning method can be acquired reliably.

  In addition, the positioning result is transmitted to the content distribution server 40 according to the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 as in the case where the GPS state is determined by determining that the movement state of the mobile terminal 10 is “still after moving”. Also good. According to this configuration, the positioning result can be appropriately transmitted to the content distribution server 40 according to the movement state. Moreover, it is good also as determining the presence or absence of content reception according to the movement state of the mobile terminal 10. FIG. According to this configuration, it is possible to receive content appropriately according to the movement state.

  In the present embodiment, the positioning method determination device is the mobile terminal 10 itself that is a positioning target, but a device other than the mobile terminal 10 may be the positioning method determination device. For example, the positioning server 30 may be a positioning method determination device. In this case, information necessary for determining the positioning method is transmitted from the mobile terminal 10 to the positioning method determining device, and the positioning method is determined (selected) based on the transmitted information.

  Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, they are merely illustrative and those skilled in the art will appreciate various variations, modifications, alternatives, substitutions, and the like. . For example, the present invention may be applied to any appropriate cellular mobile communication system. In addition, the cell positioning may be replaced with any positioning method applied to the cellular mobile communication system. The classification of the examples or items is not essential to the present invention, and the items described in two or more items may be used in combination as necessary, and the items described in one item may be combined with other items. It may be applied (as long as it is not inconsistent) to the matters described. For convenience of explanation, an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described using a functional block diagram, but such an apparatus may be realized by hardware, software, or a combination thereof. The software is available on random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read only memory (ROM), EPROM, EEPROM, registers, hard disk (HDD), removable disk, CD-ROM, database, server and any other suitable storage medium May be. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications, modifications, alternatives, substitutions, and the like are included in the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Mobile terminal, 11 ... Mobile communication part, 12 ... GPS positioning part, 13 ... Transmission power information acquisition part, 14 ... Reception power information acquisition part, 15 ... Movement state information acquisition part, 16 ... Positioning method selection part, 17 ... Output unit 101 ... CPU 102 ... RAM 103 ... ROM 104 ... Operation unit 105 ... Display 106 ... Mobile communication module 107 ... Mobile communication antenna 108 ... GPS reception module 109 ... Reception Antenna, 20 ... base station, 30 ... positioning server, 40 ... content distribution server.

Claims (12)

A positioning method determining device for determining a positioning method of a mobile terminal having a mobile communication function and a function of receiving a signal used for GPS positioning,
Transmission power information acquisition means for acquiring information indicating base station transmission power of radio waves from a base station received by the mobile terminal by the mobile communication function;
Positioning method selection means for selecting a positioning method based on information indicating the base station transmission power acquired by the transmission power information acquisition means;
Output means for outputting information indicating the positioning method selected by the positioning method selection means;
A positioning method determination device comprising:   The positioning method selection means selects GPS positioning based on a signal received by the mobile communication function when the base station transmission power exceeds a preset threshold, and the base station transmission power satisfies the threshold. The positioning method determination device according to claim 1, wherein cell positioning is selected when the measured value is lower. The mobile terminal further comprises reception power information acquisition means for acquiring information indicating the reception power of the radio wave received by the mobile communication function,
The positioning method determination device according to claim 1, wherein the positioning method selection unit selects a positioning method based also on information indicating the received power acquired by the received power information acquisition unit. .   4. The positioning method determination device according to claim 3, wherein the positioning method selection unit selects a positioning method based on a difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power in the base station.   The positioning method determination device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the positioning method selection unit selects a positioning method when the received power of a cell in the mobile terminal exceeds a preset threshold value.   The positioning method selection means uses the base station transmission power to determine a positioning method from a base station in which the received power exceeds a preset threshold among a plurality of base stations that have received radio waves by the mobile communication function. The positioning method determination device according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein a base station used for selection is selected.   The positioning method selection means selects a base station to be used when selecting a positioning method from a plurality of base stations that have received radio waves by the mobile communication function, using a difference between the base station transmission power and the reception power. The positioning method determination device according to any one of claims 3 to 6. It further comprises a movement state information acquisition means for acquiring information indicating the movement state of the mobile terminal,
The positioning method determination device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the positioning method selection unit selects a positioning method based on information indicating the movement state acquired by the movement state information acquisition unit. . The movement state information acquisition means acquires information indicating the movement state at every predetermined time,
The positioning method determination device according to claim 8, wherein the positioning method selection unit selects a positioning method based also on the transition of the movement state indicated by the information acquired by the movement state information acquisition unit.   The positioning method determination apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising positioning means for performing positioning by a positioning method related to information output by the output means. Positioning means for performing positioning by a positioning method related to the information output by the output means;
Transmitting means for transmitting a positioning result by the positioning means to a content distribution server;
Receiving means for receiving content according to the positioning result from the content distribution server,
The positioning method determination device according to claim 8 or 9, wherein presence / absence of content reception by the reception unit is determined according to information indicating the movement state acquired by the movement state information acquisition unit. A positioning method determination method by a positioning method determination device that determines a positioning method of a mobile terminal having a mobile communication function and a signal reception function used for GPS positioning,
A transmission power information acquisition step for acquiring information indicating base station transmission power of radio waves from a base station received by the mobile terminal by the mobile communication function;
A positioning method selection step of selecting a positioning method based on information indicating the base station transmission power acquired in the transmission power information acquisition step;
An output step of outputting information indicating the positioning method selected in the positioning method selection step;
Positioning method determination method including

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