WO2011123138A1

WO2011123138A1 - User-to-user signaling to negotiate and carry location information

Info

Publication number: WO2011123138A1
Application number: PCT/US2010/029846
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kristian Alexander Lappalainen
Original assignee: Nokia Corporation; Nokia Inc.
Priority date: 2010-04-02
Filing date: 2010-04-02
Publication date: 2011-10-06

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for exchanging location information. In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include establishing, based on a user-to-user protocol, a service between a first user equipment and a second user equipment; providing location information in accordance with the user-to-user protocol; and generating a page for presentation at one or more of the first user equipment and the second user equipment. Related apparatus, systems, methods, and articles are also described.

Description

Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

USER-TO-USER SIGNALING TO NEGOTIATE AND CARRY LOCATION INFORMATION

FIELD

[001] The subject matter described herein relates to wireless communications and, in particular, user-to-user exchange of location information.

BACKGROUND

[002] The ability to pinpoint the location of a mobile terminal is a desirable feature of a mobile network. This is because of the need to provide customer services which rely on knowing the whereabouts of users of these services. For example, up-to-date local traffic information can be provided to enable a user to avoid nearby traffic jams. A user may also wish to know, for example, how to get to the nearest pub or restaurant from their present location. Clearly, the location of the user should be ascertained to within a few meters for this type of service to work. Another reason for determining the location of a mobile terminal is to enable emergency services that locate a caller who is unable to provide an accurate personal location.

[003] The ability to pinpoint the location of a mobile terminal typically relies on ascertaining the position of the mobile terminal relative to known positions of mobile network entities, such as for example base stations. It may also rely on receiving information from the Global Positioning System (GPS) and using that information to calculate the current position of the mobile terminal.

[004] Many of the mobile terminals and mobile networks available today employ these and other techniques to accurately determine the current position of the mobile terminal. Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

SUMMARY

[005] A method and apparatus is provided for exchanging location information. In one aspect there is provided a method. The method may include establishing, based on a user-to-user protocol, a service between a first user equipment and a second user equipment; providing location information in accordance with the user-to-user protocol; and generating a page for presentation at one or more of the first user equipment and the second user equipment.

[006] One or more of the following features may also be provided. A request may be sent to establish the service in a setup message of an alert message. An information element may have one or more preconfigured values indicative of the request to establish a location information service. A response may be received in at least one of an alert message and a connect message. The location information may be included in a supplementary service message. The supplementary service message may include an information element having one or more preconfigured values representative a location. Moreover, the service may be established at each of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, when the first user equipment and the second user equipment opt in to the service.

[007] The above-noted aspects and features may be implemented in a system, apparatus, method, and/or article depending on the desired configuration. The details of one or more variations of the subject matter described herein are set forth in the

accompanying drawings and the description below. Features and advantages of the Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO subject matter described herein will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[008] In the drawings,

[009] FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a wireless communication system;

[010] FIG. 2 depicts a process for enabling a location information service among users;

[011] FIGs. 3A-3B depict examples of information elements carried by a user-to- user signaling protocol to establish the location information service among users;

[012] FIG. 4 depicts an example of user interfaces at the calling party and the called party during the user-to-user exchange of location information using the location information service;

[013] FIG. 5 depicts an example of a message carrying location information from a calling party to a called party;

[014] FIG. 6 depicts an example of an information element carried by the message of FIG. 4;

[015] FIG. 7 depicts an example of user equipment; and

[016] FIG. 8 depicts a process to publish location information.

[0 7] Like labels are used to refer to same or similar items in the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[018] The subject matter described herein relates to using a user-to-user signaling protocol to establish location information services at a first user equipment and a second user equipment. According to some example embodiments, the location information Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

service enables the first user equipment and the second user equipment to exchange location information end-to-end. The location information service may also generate a page (for example, a markup page) for presentation at the first user equipment and the second user equipment. For example, the location information service may enable the first user equipment (or the user of the first user equipment) to publish its location information directly to the second user equipment, which receives and presents the received location information. The location information may be in any form, such as for example, GPS coordinates, simple latitude and longitude, graphic map data, etc. The user-to-user protocol may be used to allow the first user equipment and the second user equipment to publish and/or receive location information end-to-end, with or without network support.

[019] An example system environment is shown in FIG. 1 . FIG. 1 is a simplified functional block diagram of a wireless communication system 100. According to some example embodiments, the wireless communication system 100 includes a base station 110 supporting a corresponding service or coverage area 1 12 (also referred to as a cell). The base station 110 may be capable of communicating with wireless devices, such as for example user equipment 1 14A-B, within coverage area 112. Although FIG. 1 depicts the base station 1 10, the cell 1 12, and two user equipment 1 14A-B, the wireless

communication system 100 may include other quantities of base stations, cells, and user equipment and may include other network configurations as well. For example, although user equipment 1 14A and 1 14B are depicted in the same cell 1 12, user equipment 1 14A and 1 14B may be located in different cells, different networks, and the like.

[020] According to some example embodiments, the system 100 may support user-to-user signaling, such as for example the signaling described in ETSI EN 301 711 , V7.0.2 (1999-12), Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); User-to-User Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01WO

Signaling (UUS) Supplementary Service; Stage 3 (GSM 04.87 version 7.0.2 Release 1998), as well as subsequent revisions to the signaling standard (collectively referred to as UUS).

[021] According to some example embodiments, the base station 110 may be compatible with one or more standards referred to generally as GERAN (GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network), UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network), E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN, which is also referred to as Long Term Evolution(LTE)), and/or LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced), as well as any subsequent additions or revisions to those standards. For example, base station 1 10 may be implemented as an evolved Node B (eNB) type base station consistent with standards, such as for example 3GPP TS

36.201 , "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Long Term Evolution (LTE) physical layer; General description," 3GPP TS 36.2 , "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical channels and modulation," 3GPP TS 36.212, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Multiplexing and channel coding," 3GPP TS 36.213, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical layer

procedures," 3GPP TS 36.214, "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical layer - Measurements," and any subsequent additions or revisions to these and other 3GPP standards. Although the aforementioned standards are described, the base station 1 10 may be implemented using other technologies and/or standards as well.

[022] Although FIG. 1 depicts an example of a configuration for the base

station 1 10, according to some example embodiments the base station 1 10 may be configured in other ways as well and include, for example, relays, cellular base station transceiver subsystems, gateways, access points, radio frequency (RF) repeaters, frame repeaters, nodes, and include access to other networks as well. For example, the base Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

station may have wired and/or wireless backhaul links to other network elements, such as for example other base stations, a radio network controller, a core network, a serving gateway, a mobility management entity, a serving GPRS (general packet radio service) support node, a network management system, and the like.

[023] According to some example embodiments, the wireless communication system 100 may include radio access links, such as for example link 122. For example, the access link 122 may include a downlink 116 for transmitting to the user equipment 1 14A and an uplink 126 for transmitting from user equipment 114A to the base station 1 10. The downlink 116 and uplink 126 may each represent a radio frequency (RF) signal.

[024] According to some example embodiments, the user equipment 114A-B may be implemented as a mobile device and/or a stationary device. The user equipment 1 14A- B may be referred to as, for example, mobile stations, mobile units, subscriber stations, wireless terminals, or the like. The user equipment may include a processor, a computer- readable storage medium (for example, memory, storage, and the like), a radio access mechanism, and a user interface. For example, the user equipment may take the form of a wireless telephone, a computer with a wireless connection to a network, or the like.

[025] According to some example embodiments, user equipment 114A may publish or otherwise provide location information to user equipment 114B, which receives the location information. Likewise, user equipment 114B may publish location information to user equipment 1 14A, which receives the location information. This exchange of location information between user equipment 14A-B may be performed in accordance with a user-to-user protocol, such as for example UUS. Moreover, the exchange of location information between user equipment 114A-B may be performed when one or more of the users of user equipment 1 14A-B opt in to the location service by negotiating Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

the establishment of the location service (as described for example below with respect to FIG. 2).

[026] According to some example embodiments, when the UUS protocol is implemented, user equipment 114A-B may exchange user information, such as for example location information, end-to-end. The location information may be sent using the UUS protocol from user equipment 114A via the network to user equipment 114B with or without any special handling by the network components, such as for example altering, storing, etc. For example, the UUS protocol may be used to allow user information to be provided by a user equipment to the network and a corresponding destination user equipment. Specifically, one or more of the UUS signaling protocol messages, such as for example alerting, connect, disconnect, progress, release, release complete, and setup, may establish the location information service at each equipment 1 14A-B. The UUS signaling protocol may be used to deliver messages which contain user information configured as an information element, as described further below.

[027] According to some example embodiments, the process 200 shown in FIG. 2 may be used to exchange location information between a first user equipment 1 14A and a second user equipment 114B via the UUS protocol.

[028] According to some example embodiments, user equipment 1 14A may send a setup message 210 to user equipment 1 14B via the network (for example, base station 1 0 and/or other nodes of the network). The setup message 210 may include an indication that location information support is requested of user equipment 1 14B. For example, the setup message 210 may contain an information element which indicates to user equipment 1 14B that the location information service is being requested. Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

[029] According to some example embodiments, the information element shown in FIG. 3A may be included in a setup message 210 to indicate that location information service support is requested of user equipment 1 14B. For example, the protocol portion of the message may comprise one or more predefined values, such as for example "101010", to indicate a location information service, and the PT portion of the message may comprise one or more predefined values, such as for example "01", to indicate a request to discover whether the other end supports the location information service over the UUS protocol.

[030] Referring again to FIG. 2, according to some example embodiments, although FIG. 2 depicts that the setup message is configured as a UUS required message, the setup message 210 may instead indicate that UUS is not required in accordance with the UUS signaling standard noted above.

[031] In some example embodiments, user equipment 1 14B may respond with an indication that the location information service is supported. When user equipment 1 4B receives a "location information support request" carried by, for example, message 210, user equipment 1 14B may reply with a "location information support response" to user equipment 1 14A in, for example, an alert message 220, a connect message 230, or some other message when the user equipment 114B supports the location information service. In the example of FIG. 2, the response may be carried by the connect message 230.

[032] According to some example embodiments, the information element shown in FIG. 3B may be included in connect message 230 or an alert message 220 to respond to a request for location information service support. For example, the protocol portion of the message may comprise one or more predefined values, such as for example "101010", to indicate a location information service support, and the PT portion of the message may comprise one or more predefined values, such as for example "10", to indicate that the Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

location information service support request received was understood and that the equipment supports this service.

[033] Referring again to the example of FIG. 2, according to some example embodiments, when the response 230 is received, user equipment 1 14A may enable the location information service. For example, when the user equipment 114B responds to the location information service request 210, both user equipment 1 14A-B recognize, based on the negotiation of process 200, that the other end supports location sharing during a call (for example, during a circuit switched call). At each of user equipment 1 14A-B, the location information service may be enabled as an application providing the location information in a user interface presented at user equipment 114A, so that the location information may be presented to the user of user equipment 114A. For example, each of user equipment 1 14A-B may include an application configured to publish and/or receive location information.

[034] FIG. 4 depicts an example of user interfaces 410A-B of user equipment 1 14A-B. According to some example embodiments, at user equipment 1 14A, the location information service may present (for example, as text, images, a map, etc) at user interface 41 OA the location of user equipment 114B. At user equipment 1 14B, the location information service may present (for example, as text, images, a map, etc) at user interface 410B the location of user equipment 14A. In some example embodiments, the user equipment 1 14A-B may be configured to only provide the location information under the control or permission of a user. For example, the user of user equipment 1 14A may be prompted with an indicator requesting permission before publishing the location of user equipment 1 14A. The location information may be provided manually by the user of the Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

user equipment or provided in an automated way such as for example by GPS information, cell identifier information, or base station triangulation as related to the user equipment.

[035] Referring again to FIG. 2, according to some example embodiments, if no response is received to the UUS location information request sent in message 210 (or some UUS message is received other than "location information support response" of 230), the location information service at user equipment 1 14A may not be enabled.

[036] According to some example embodiments, when either user equipment 1 14A-B seeks to publish location information after the location information service has been enabled (for example, as described with respect to FIG. 2), the user equipment may send a location information data message via UUS signaling. For example, the location information may be transmitted via the UUS supplementary service messages, although other messages may be used as well.

[037] According to some example embodiments, after the process 200, user equipment 1 14A may publish its position to user equipment 1 14B via a UUS

supplementary service message 510, as depicted at FIG. 5. Although FIG. 5 depicts message 510, other messages may be exchanged as well to provide the location of the user equipment. For example, user equipment 1 14B may send UUS supplementary service message 510 including the location of user equipment 114B.

[038] According to some example embodiments, FIG. 6 depicts an example of an information element 600 carried by a UUS supplementary service message 510. The information element 600 provides location information in a predefined format so that both user equipment 1 14A-B recognize the contents of the information element 600. The protocol portion of the information element 600 may comprise a binary number, such as for example "101010", to indicate support for a location information service. The PT portion of Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

information element 600 may include an identifier (for example, "1 1 ") to indicate that this message carries the location information. The information element 600 may also include the longitude, latitude, and position accuracy each represented as, for example, 32 bit values. The longitude and latitude may be specified in accordance with the World

Geodetic System standard WGS84, although other formats may be used as well. The accuracy parameter may represent the accuracy (specified, for example, in centimeters) of the location information given by the longitude and/or latitude parameters. This accuracy parameter may be used to indicate the accuracy provided by different sources (for example, GPS, Cell ID, etc.), each of which may have different accuracy.

[039] FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of user equipment 700, which may be used in some embodiments as user equipment 1 4A-B. The user equipment 700 may include an antenna 720 for receiving a downlink and transmitting via an uplink. The user equipment 700 also may include a radio interface 770, which may include other components, such as for example filters, converters (for example, digital-to-analog converters and the like), symbol demappers, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) module, and the like, to process symbols, such as for example OFDMA symbols, carried by a downlink or an uplink. In some implementations, the user equipment 700 may be compatible with

GERAN, UTRAN, E-UTRAN, and/or other standards and specifications as well. The user equipment 700 may include at least one processor, such as for example processor 730, for controlling user equipment 700 and for accessing and executing program code stored in memory 735. Moreover, the processor 730 may perform one or more of the operations described herein including, for example, generate and/or send one or more of the messages described herein (for example, the UUS signaling messages of FIG. 2, user information message of FIG. 5, information elements, etc.). The processor 730 may also Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

execute the user location service to allow both user equipments 114A-B to publish and/or receive location information of the other device. The processor 730 may also perform the operations described below with respect to FIG. 8.

[040] FIG. 8 depicts a process 800 which may be used in some embodiments at for example user equipment 114A-B.

[041] According to some example embodiments, at 810 a location information service may be established among one or more user equipments. For example, the location information service may be established based on the UUS signaling protocol, as described above with respect to the negotiation depicted at FIG. 2. Moreover, the location information service may be implemented as an application at the user equipment. This application may communicate to the other user equipment via the UUS signaling protocol. In some embodiments, the user equipment may prompt a user to opt in before providing location information via the location information service.

[042] According to some example embodiments, at 8 5 one or more of the user equipments may provide location information via the UUS protocol. For example, the user equipment 1 14A may provide location information using a UUS information element as described above with respect to FIGs. 5 and 6.

[043] According to some example embodiments, at 820 a page may be generated for presentation at the user equipment. For example, the location information service application at the user equipment may generate and/or present a page including the location information provided at 815. The page may be a markup page (for example, hypertext markup language document, etc.) and may be presented at a user interface, such as user interface 41 OA of user equipment 114A. User equipment 1 14B may present Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

a page including the location information as well. Thus, the user equipment 114A-B may publish and/or receive location information exchanged in accordance with a UUS protocol.

[044] The subject matter described herein may be embodied in a system, apparatus, method, and/or article depending on the desired configuration. For example, the base stations and user equipments (or one or more components therein) and/or the processes described herein may be implemented using one or more of the following: a processor executing program code, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a digital signal processor (DSP), an embedded processor, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and/or combinations thereof. These various implementations may include implementation in one or more computer programs that are executable and/or interpretable on a programmable system including at least one programmable processor, which may be special or general purpose, coupled to receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a storage system, at least one input device, and at least one output device. These computer programs (also known as programs, software, software applications, applications, components, program code, or code) may include machine instructions for a programmable processor, and may be implemented in a high-level procedural and/or object-oriented programming language, and/or in assembly/machine language. As used herein, the term "machine-readable medium" refers to any computer program product, computer-readable medium, computer-readable medium, apparatus and/or device (for example, magnetic discs, optical disks, memory, Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs)) used to provide machine instructions and/or data to a programmable processor, including a machine-readable medium that receives machine instructions.

Similarly, systems are also described herein that may include a processor and a memory Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

coupled to the processor. The memory may include one or more programs that cause the processor to perform one or more of the operations described herein.

[045] Although a few variations have been described in detail above, other modifications or additions are possible. In particular, further features and/or variations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. For example, the implementations described above may be directed to various combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed features and/or combinations and subcombinations of several further features disclosed above. In addition, the logic flow depicted in the accompanying figures and/or described herein does not require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. Other embodiments may be within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO WHAT IS CLAIMED:

1. A method comprising:

establishing, based on a user-to-user protocol, a service between a first user equipment and a second user equipment;

providing location information in accordance with the user-to-user protocol; and generating a page for presentation at one or more of the first user equipment and the second user equipment.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the establishing further comprises:

sending a request to establish the service in a setup message of an alert message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the request comprises an information element having one or more preconfigured values indicative of the request to establish a location information service.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the establishing further comprises:

receiving, in response to the request, a response in at least one of an alert message and a connect message.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the providing further comprises:

including in a supplementary service message the location information. Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the supplementary service message comprises an information element having one or more preconfigured values representative a location.

7. The method of claim , wherein the establishing further comprises:

establishing the service at each of the first user equipment and the second user equipment, when the first user equipment and the second user equipment opt in to the service.

8. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including code, wherein the at least one memory and the code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to provide operations comprising:

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the establishing further comprises:

sending a request to establish the service in a setup message of an alert message. Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the request comprises an information element having one or more preconfigured values indicative of the request to establish a location information service.

1 1. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the establishing further comprises:

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the providing further comprises:

including in a supplementary service message the location information.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the supplementary service message comprises an information element having one or more preconfigured values representative a location.

14. An computer-readable storage medium comprising code which when executed by a processor provide operations comprising:

providing location information in accordance with the user-to-user protocol; and generating a page for presentation at one or more of the first user equipment and the second user equipment. Agent's Reference No.: 39700-818F01 WO

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the

establishing further comprises:

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the request comprises an information element having one or more preconfigured values indicative of the request to establish a location information service.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the

establishing further comprises:

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the providing further comprises:

including in a supplementary service message the location information.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the

supplementary service message comprises an information element having one or more preconfigured values representative a location.