CN107710793B

CN107710793B - Positioning method and corresponding device

Info

Publication number: CN107710793B
Application number: CN201580081398.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 尹长川; 武霄泳; 罗涛
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2015-06-30
Filing date: 2015-06-30
Publication date: 2020-04-14
Anticipated expiration: 2035-06-30
Also published as: CN107710793A; WO2017000256A1

Abstract

The invention discloses a positioning method and a corresponding device, which are used for solving the problem of low utilization rate of time-slot resources when a plurality of terminals are positioned in the prior art. The method comprises the following steps: when a server locates a group, a positioning request is multicast to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group, wherein the positioning multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group; and the server receives the position information returned by the position information providers of the members of the group.

Description

Positioning method and corresponding device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a positioning method and a corresponding apparatus.

Background

Machine-to-Machine Communications (abbreviated as M2M) is a networked application and service with Machine intelligent interaction as a core, and realizes data communication without manual intervention by embedding a wireless or wired communication module and an application program module in a Machine, so as to meet the informatization requirements of users on monitoring, command scheduling, data acquisition, measurement and the like.

A large number of terminals are involved in a machine communication system, and many M2M services need to acquire the location information of the terminals, for example, for several groups of patrol vehicles distributed in various areas in a city, the headquarters need to know the location information of each group of members, so as to know the traffic conditions in time.

In the prior art, a server creates a Location Policy resource (Location Policy) resource for each located terminal, where the Location Policy resource stores Location parameters of the located terminal, and when locating the located terminal, the server determines a Location information provider according to the Location Policy resource of the terminal, and sends a Location request to the Location information provider to obtain Location information of the located terminal.

However, when positioning multiple terminals, the above-mentioned positioning method may consume a large amount of air interface transmission resources, and the utilization rate of the air interface resources is low.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a positioning method and a corresponding device, which are used for solving the problem of low utilization rate of time-slot resources when a plurality of terminals are positioned in the prior art.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a positioning method, including:

when a server locates a group, a positioning request is multicast to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group, wherein the positioning multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group;

and the server receives the position information returned by the position information providers of the members of the group.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, after the receiving, by the server, location information returned by location information providers of members of the group, the method further includes:

the server performs mixed aggregation on the received position information of each member of the group to generate group position information;

and the server returns the group position information generated by the mixed aggregation to a positioning request end.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the first aspect, before the multicasting, by the server, the positioning request to the location information providers of the group members of the group according to the prestored positioning multicast address of the group, the method further includes:

the server judges whether a network which sends a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group supports multicast, and executes the step of multicasting the positioning request to the position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group when the network supports multicast.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, before the multicasting, by the server, the positioning request to the location information providers of the group members of the group according to the prestored positioning multicast address of the group, the method further includes:

the server creates group resources according to the information of the group members;

the server creates a group positioning strategy resource according to the group resource and a group positioning parameter, wherein the group positioning strategy resource comprises a positioning multicast address of a group corresponding to the group resource, and the group positioning parameter comprises any one of a positioning updating period, a positioning information source and a group position information storage position;

wherein, the server multicasts the positioning request according to the positioning multicast address contained in the group positioning strategy resource.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, before the creating, by the server, the group resource according to the information of the group member, the method further includes:

the server creates positioning parameter resources for the positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resources comprise information of a storage space used for storing the position information of the positioned terminal in the server;

the server creates group resources according to the information of the group members, and the method comprises the following steps:

the server creates the group resource according to the identifiers of the positioning parameter resources of at least two positioned terminals, wherein the at least two positioned terminals are members of the group corresponding to the group resource.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the first aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the group positioning policy resource further includes: and the server locates the storage resource of the group position information according to the identifier of the storage resource of the group position information contained in the resource of the group positioning strategy, and performs the mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group by using the storage resource of the group position information.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a positioning apparatus, including:

the multicast module is used for multicasting a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group when the group is positioned, wherein the positioning multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group;

and the receiving module is used for receiving the position information returned by the position information provider of each group member of the group.

With reference to the second aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the apparatus further includes:

the mixed aggregation module is used for carrying out mixed aggregation on the received position information of each member of the group to generate group position information;

and the result returning module is used for returning the group position information generated by the mixed aggregation to the positioning request terminal.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the apparatus further includes:

the judging module is used for judging whether a network which sends a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group supports multicast;

wherein the multicast module is configured to: and when the judging module determines that the network supports multicast, multicasting the positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to the positioning multicast address.

With reference to the second aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the apparatus further includes:

the positioning resource creating module is used for creating group resources according to the information of the group members; creating group positioning strategy resources according to the group resources and group positioning parameters, wherein the group positioning strategy resources comprise positioning multicast addresses of groups corresponding to the group resources, and the group positioning parameters comprise any one of a positioning updating period, a positioning information source and a group position information storage position;

wherein, the multicast module multicasts the positioning request according to the positioning multicast address contained in the group positioning strategy resource.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the positioning resource creating module is configured to: creating a positioning parameter resource for a positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resource comprises information of a storage space in the device for storing position information of the positioned terminal; and creating the group resource according to the identifiers of the positioning parameter resources of at least two positioned terminals, wherein the at least two positioned terminals are members of the group corresponding to the group resource.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the second aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the positioning resource creating module is configured to: creating a group position information memory resource for the group, wherein the group position information memory resource is used for carrying out mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group;

the device locates the storage resource of the group position information according to the storage resource of the group positioning strategy, and performs the mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group by using the storage resource of the group position information.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a server, including:

the transceiver is used for sending a positioning request to a position information provider and receiving position information returned by the position information provider;

a storage unit to store instructions;

a processor, respectively connected to the transceiver and the storage unit, for executing the instructions stored in the storage unit to perform the following operations: when a group is positioned, the transceiver is instructed to multicast a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group, wherein the positioning multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group; and instructing the transceiver to receive the position information returned by position information providers of the members of the group.

With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the transceiver is further configured to perform data transmission with a positioning request end;

the processor is further configured to: performing mixed aggregation on the received position information of each member of the group to generate group position information; and instructing the transceiver to return the group position information generated by the hybrid aggregation to the positioning request terminal.

With reference to the third aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a second possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the processor is configured to: before instructing the transceiver to multicast a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a pre-stored positioning multicast address of the group, the transceiver is further configured to: and judging whether a network which sends a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group supports multicast, and when the network supports multicast, indicating the transceiver to multicast the positioning request to the position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group.

With reference to the third aspect or the first possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the processor is further configured to: creating group resources according to the information of the group members; creating group positioning strategy resources according to the group resources and group positioning parameters, wherein the group positioning strategy resources comprise positioning multicast addresses of groups corresponding to the group resources, and the group positioning parameters comprise any one of a positioning updating period, a positioning information source and a group position information storage position;

wherein the transceiver is further configured to: and multicasting the positioning request according to the positioning multicast address in the group positioning strategy resource.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fourth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, before the processor creates the group resource according to the information of the group members, the processor is further configured to: creating a positioning parameter resource for a positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resource comprises information of a storage space for storing position information of the positioned terminal;

the processor is configured to: creating group resources according to the information of the group members, specifically:

the processor creates the group resource according to the identifiers of the positioning parameter resources of at least two positioned terminals, wherein the at least two positioned terminals are members of a group corresponding to the group resource.

With reference to the third possible implementation manner of the third aspect, in a fifth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, the processor is further configured to: creating a group position information memory resource for the group, wherein the group position information memory resource is used for carrying out mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group; and positioning the group position information memory resource according to the group positioning strategy resource, and performing mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group by using the group position information memory resource.

One or more technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present invention have at least the following technical effects or advantages:

in the embodiment of the invention, the server sends the positioning request to the position information providers of the group members in a multicast mode, and receives the position information returned by the position information providers of the group members to realize the positioning of the group. Compared with the scheme of sending the positioning requests one by one in the prior art, the method has the advantages that the information transmission amount in the transmission link is reduced, the utilization rate of air interface transmission resources is improved, the transmission rate is improved due to the fact that congestion of the transmission link is relieved, time delay is reduced, and positioning time is shortened.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious for those skilled in the art to obtain other drawings based on these drawings without inventive exercise.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a positioning policy resource in the background art;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a positioning method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a further detailed flow of the positioning method in the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a server creating a location related resource according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a group resource according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a group positioning policy resource according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a location parameter resource according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of the server for the returned location information according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a communication system in an example of use of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of an apparatus 200 according to the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a server 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

To facilitate understanding of the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present invention, a communication system related to the embodiments of the present invention is described first.

Referring to fig. 1, the location request terminal may initiate a request to the server, obtain location information of the located terminal, and the server responds to the request of the location request terminal to locate the located terminal and return a location result to the location request terminal. The positioning request end initiating the positioning request can be a mobile communication device, such as a smart phone and a tablet computer, and can also be a notebook computer, a desktop computer and the like; the server can be one computer or a cluster formed by a plurality of computers; the terminal to be positioned can be various vehicles, such as automobiles, ships and the like, and can also be terminal equipment with a positioning module, such as a smart bracelet, a smart watch, a smart phone and the like. When a user wears a terminal device with a positioning module, the position of the user can be determined through the position information of the terminal device.

In the prior art, the server creates a location policy resource shown in fig. 2 for each located terminal, and the location policy resource includes the following attributes: location information Source (Location Source), Location update Period (Location update Period), Location Target identifier (Location Target Id), Location Server (Location Server), Location result memory resource identifier (Location Container Id), Location result memory resource Name (Location Container Name), Location state (Location Status), and the like.

When positioning a plurality of terminals, the server determines the position information provider of each terminal according to the Location Policy resource of each terminal, sends positioning requests to the position information provider of each terminal one by one, receives position information returned by the position information provider of each positioned terminal, and realizes positioning. However, the above positioning method consumes a large amount of transmission resources and causes channel congestion.

In order to solve the problem, embodiments of the present invention provide a positioning method and a corresponding apparatus, and the technical solutions of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, it should be understood that the specific features in the embodiments and the embodiments of the present invention are detailed descriptions of the technical solutions of the present invention, and are not limited to the technical solutions of the present invention, and the technical features in the embodiments and the embodiments of the present invention may be combined with each other without conflict.

The terms "comprises," "comprising," and any other variation thereof, in the description and claims of this invention, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a positioning method, and referring to fig. 3, a schematic flow chart of the positioning method is shown, where the flow chart includes the following steps:

step 101: when the server locates the group, the server multicasts a locating request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored locating multicast address of the group, the locating multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the locating request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group.

Specifically, each group member of the group is a located terminal, and the location information provider thereof may have the following embodiments:

firstly, the position information provider of the member is the member itself, that is, the member can determine the position information of the member itself through the positioning module of the member itself and return the position information of the member to the server.

And secondly, the position information provider of the group member is a positioning server in the underlying network. For example, a communication carrier provides a positioning function, a positioning server of the communication carrier stores position information of group members, and the server may send a positioning request to a positioning server in the underlying network to acquire the position information of the group members. In practical cases, the positioning servers of the underlying network are usually deployed based on location, and therefore, the positioning servers corresponding to group members located in different areas are usually different.

Specifically, the sharing device stores the position information of the group members and shares the position information of the group members, and when the server locates the group members, the server may send a request to the sharing device to request to acquire the position information of the group members shared by the sharing device.

Multicast refers to a sender delivering information to a set of destination addresses (i.e., Multicast addresses) at the same time, the information being delivered only once on each network link, and the information being replicated only when the links diverge.

In the embodiment of the invention, the server is prestored with the positioning multicast address which is determined as the group and contains the address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, therefore, the server can multicast the positioning request to the position information provider of each group member of the group according to the positioning multicast address, so that the position information provider of each group member can receive the positioning request, information redundancy caused by the existence of a plurality of copies of the positioning request in the same transmission chain can be avoided, and transmission resources are saved.

In addition, the triggering conditions for the server to locate the group include: firstly, a server receives a positioning request for positioning a group sent by a positioning request end, and the server responds to the request and triggers a group positioning process. And secondly, a timer is arranged on the server, when the time of the timer reaches, the group positioning of the group is triggered, in the actual situation, when the time of the timer reaches, the timer returns to zero, and the next timing period is entered, so that the periodic group positioning is realized.

Step 102: and the server receives the position information returned by the position information provider of each group member of the group.

Specifically, after receiving a positioning request multicast by the server, the location information provider of each group member of the group responds to the positioning request, and returns the location information of the positioned group member to the server, and the server receives the location information returned by the location information provider of the group member.

In the technical scheme, the server sends a positioning request to the position information providers of the group members in a multicast mode, and receives the position information returned by the position information providers of the group members to realize the positioning of the group. Compared with the scheme of sending the positioning requests one by one in the prior art, the method has the advantages that the information transmission amount in the transmission link is reduced, the utilization rate of air interface transmission resources is improved, the transmission rate is improved due to the fact that congestion of the transmission link is relieved, time delay is reduced, and positioning time is shortened.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, after step 102, with reference to fig. 4, the following steps are further included:

step 103: the server performs mixed aggregation on the received position information of each member of the group to generate group position information;

step 104: and the server returns the group position information generated by the mixed aggregation to the positioning request terminal.

Specifically, the mashup (mashup) refers to the process of fusing different information into a new item of information, in the embodiment of the invention, the server performs the mashup processing on the received position information of each member of the group to obtain a new item of information, the new information comprises the position information of each member of the group, and the new information is the group position information.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the condition that the server returns the group location information to the location request terminal includes: firstly, a positioning request end initiates a request for acquiring group position information to a server; and secondly, the server updates the position information of each group member of the group at regular time, and returns the updated group position information to the positioning request terminal after the group position information is updated successfully.

In the technical scheme, the server mixes the position information of each group member of the group into one group position information and returns the mixed group position information to the positioning request end, and compared with the mode that the server returns the position information of each group member of the group to the positioning request end one by one in the prior art, the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention can effectively reduce the occupation of transmission resources when the server returns the positioning result to the positioning request end, and improve the utilization efficiency of the transmission resources. Moreover, since the position information of the whole group is stored in one item of information (i.e., the group position information), the data processing and data management of the server and the positioning request terminal are facilitated.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, before step 101, with reference to fig. 4, step 105 is further included: the server determines whether the network that sends the location request to the location information provider of each group member of the group supports multicast, and if the network supports multicast, executes step 101.

Specifically, in an actual situation, a network where a location information provider of each group member of the group is located may not support multicast, and in this case, the server cannot send a location request to the location information provider of each group member through multicast, so the server first determines whether the network where the location information provider of each group member of the group is located supports multicast according to a location multicast address of the group, and if so, executes step 101; if multicast is not supported, then there may be two operations performed: firstly, a positioning request is unicast to a position information provider of each group member; secondly, the positioning request is multicast to the position information providers of the group members supporting multicast, and the positioning request is unicast to the position information providers not supporting multicast. By determining that the network supports multicast before the multicast positioning request, the failure of sending the positioning request can be avoided, and the reliability of sending the positioning request is ensured.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, before step 101, with reference to fig. 4, step 106 is further included: the server determines that the group includes at least two members.

Specifically, before executing step 101, the server will determine whether the number of group members in the group reaches two, and if the group includes at least two members, execute step 101 to multicast a positioning request; if the group only contains one group member, the positioning request is issued in a unicast mode.

In specific implementation, when the positioning process includes step 105 and step 106, the order between the two steps is not limited, that is, step 105 may be executed first, and step 106 is executed when multicast support is determined; step 106 may be performed first, and after determining that the group includes two group members, step 105 is performed.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, when step 104 is executed, after receiving the request for obtaining the group location information from the requester, the server authenticates the requester, and after the authentication is successful, returns the group location information obtained by the mashup to the requester, so as to ensure the security of the information.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, if step 102 is executed, the server directly receives location information returned by the location information providers of some group members in the group, and location information of the remaining group members fails to be obtained, when a location request end requests location information of the group from the server, the server may aggregate the obtained location information of the group members into group location information, and meanwhile, the obtained group location information also includes information of the group member that has failed to be located, and the server returns the group location information to the location request end.

In addition, if the server fails to acquire the location information of all group members of the group, when the location request end requests the location information of the group from the server, the server may directly return an error identifier to the location request end, indicating that the server does not acquire the location information of all group members of the group currently.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the location parameter of the group is implemented in the form of an attribute of a resource, and the resource is a general name of a physical entity (e.g., a sensor or a location device), an application object (e.g., a program for controlling a location process or a program for processing a location result), and data in a machine communication system, and may be described by a resource structure, be independently addressable, be capable of being searched and discovered, and have a unique identifier, and generally use a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) as a resource identifier. The resource includes attribute information, and may also include sub-resources, and the positioning parameter of the group is included in the attribute information of the resource or the attribute information of the sub-resource related to the positioning in the server.

In practical situations, the location request end needs to create a location related resource on the server before location, and the location parameters of the group are stored in the location related resource. In the embodiment of the present invention, referring to fig. 5, before step 101, the method further includes the following steps:

step 107: the server creates group resources according to the information of the group members.

Specifically, the group member information may be sent to the server by the group creation end, or may be input by the creator through an input operation directly performed on the server. For example, a first administrator of a transport company creates a fleet group through an office computer, the office computer is the group creation end, and the first administrator gives a second administrator the authority to acquire fleet position information, so that the second administrator can request the server for the position information of the fleet through the handheld terminal, and at the moment, the handheld terminal of the second administrator is the positioning request end.

The Group creating end sends a request for creating a Group (Group) resource to the server, where the request carries information of the Group members, such as identifiers of the Group members. And the server responds to the request, creates group resources and associates the positioned terminals contained in the request sent by the group creation terminal into a group.

Referring to fig. 6, which is a schematic diagram of a resource structure of a Group resource, attributes of the Group resource include: group Name (Group Name); a group creation terminal (Creator); group Member identification (Member IDs), and the positioned resource can be added into the Group by adding the identification of the positioned terminal in the Member IDs of the Group resource, so that the Group members of the Group can be caused to be members. In practical cases, the Group resource may further include other attributes and sub-resources according to different requirements, and the embodiment of the present invention is not described in detail herein.

Step 108: the server establishes a group positioning strategy resource according to the group resource and a group positioning parameter, wherein the group positioning strategy resource comprises a positioning multicast address of a group corresponding to the group resource identifier, and the group positioning parameter comprises any one of a positioning updating period, a positioning information source and a group position information storage position; the server multicasts the positioning request according to the positioning multicast address contained in the group positioning strategy resource.

Specifically, the user sends a request for creating a positioning Policy (Group Location Policy) resource (hereinafter referred to as GLP resource) to the server, where the request carries a specific Group positioning parameter and a Group resource for executing the positioning Policy, and the server executes step 108 to create the GLP resource according to information carried in the user request.

Referring to fig. 7, which is a schematic diagram of a resource structure of a GLP resource, attribute information of the GLP resource includes: a Group identifier (Group ID) which is an identifier of a Group associated with the positioning policy resource, that is, a Group corresponding to the Group ID is positioned according to the positioning policy defined by the GLP resource; a Group Location Name (Group Location Name), which is the Name of the Group associated with the Location policy resource; and the positioning multicast address (Group address) is the positioning multicast address of the Group corresponding to the Group ID.

Optionally, the attribute information of the GLP resource may further include the following: a location update Period (LocationUpdate Period) for instructing the server to locate the group according to a set Period and update the location information of the group; the Group Location Status (Group Location Status) is Status information indicating whether the Group Location is successful.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of groups may be associated in one GLP resource, that is, for any one group of the plurality of groups associated with GLP, a group positioning policy defined by the GLP resource is adopted for positioning.

Optionally, the attribute information of the GLP resource may further include: a Location Source (Location Source) for defining the Source of the Location information of the group, where the specific Source includes a Location server of the underlying network (e.g., a Location server provided by a communication operator), the located terminal itself, and a Location sharing information Source. The Location Source attribute can define the Location information sources of the group members of the group as the same type, so that the Location information of the group members can be conveniently obtained by multicast.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, before step 107, further includes:

step 109: the server creates positioning parameter resources for the positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resources comprise information of a storage space used for storing the position information of the positioned terminal in the server.

Specifically, before creating the group resource, the group creation end requests the server to create a Location Parameter (LPa) resource for each located terminal.

In the embodiment of the invention, the server creates a Location Container resource for each located terminal, and the Location Container defines the storage Location of the Location information of the located terminal, which is acquired by the server through storage, in the storage unit of the server side. In practical cases, the storage unit for storing the position information of the terminal to be located may be disposed inside the chassis of the server or disposed outside the chassis of the server.

Referring to fig. 8, which is a schematic diagram of a resource structure of an LPa resource, the attribute information of the LPa resource includes: a Location result memory resource identifier (Location Container ID) that is an identifier of a Location Container resource storing Location information of a located terminal; the Location Container Name (Location Container Name) is the Name of the Location Container resource that stores the Location information of the terminal to be located.

Optionally, the LPa resource further includes the following attributes: a Location Server (Location Server) for providing Location information of a terminal to be located; a positioning Target identifier (Location Target Id) that is an identifier for retrieving Location information of a terminal to be positioned in a positioning server; the Location Status (Location Status) is a Status indicating whether the Location of the terminal to be located is successful.

In this case, the LPa resource may not include the two attributes of Location Target ID and Location Server, or the two attributes may have null values.

By adding the Location Server and Location Target ID attributes to the LPA resources, the Location Server and Location Target ID attributes can unicast a Location request to a Location data provider of a located terminal according to information stored in the Location Server and Location Target ID when a network does not support multicast or a multicast Location request fails, so as to ensure that a Location result can be obtained.

In this embodiment of the present invention, when step 107 is executed, the server specifically creates a group resource according to the identifiers of the positioning parameter resources of the at least two terminals to be located, where the at least two terminals to be located are members of a group corresponding to the group resource. The located terminal can be added into the Group by adding the identifier of the location parameter resource of the located terminal in the Number IDs attribute of the Group resource.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the group positioning policy resource created in step 108 further includes: a Group location information storage resource identifier (Group Container ID), which is a resource created by the server for the Group and used for performing a blending process on the location information of each Group member of the Group. The server locates the storage resource of the group position information according to the identification of the storage resource of the group position information contained in the resource of the group locating strategy, and performs the mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group by using the storage resource of the group position information.

Specifically, when the server executes step 103, the server performs the blending of the location information of each group member through the storage resource of the group location information to generate the group location information.

Optionally, with continued reference to fig. 7, the attributes of the GLP resource further include: and a data return policy (Method) which is a processing mode of data when the server fails to acquire the position information of all the group members. The specific treatment mode comprises the following steps: firstly, an error state is returned to inform a requester that the position information of all group members is not obtained currently; and secondly, the acquired position information of the group members is mixed and aggregated into group position information, the group position information is returned to the positioning requester, and the positioning requester is informed of the information of the group members with positioning failure.

Referring to fig. 9, a schematic flow chart of a manner in which a server processes received location information according to Method information in GLP is shown, the flow chart including the steps of:

step 110: the server receives the position information of the group member returned by the position information provider;

step 111: the server checks the value of the group positioning status in the GLP resources of the group; if the group location state is in the location success state, go to step 112; otherwise, step 113 is performed.

Step 112: and the position information of each group member is mixed and aggregated into group position information, and the mixed and aggregated group position information is returned to the positioning request terminal.

Step 113: acquiring the content of the data return strategy attribute in the GLP resource, and executing step 114 when the data return strategy is the first content; when the data return policy is the second content, step 115 is performed.

Step 114: and the position information of the successfully positioned group members is mixed and gathered into group position information, and the group position information and the information of the unsuccessfully positioned group members are returned to the positioning request terminal.

Step 115: and returning a message indicating that the group positioning fails to the positioning request end.

Specifically, when the acquisition of the location information of a group member fails, the first content indication server of the data return policy (Method) still performs hybrid aggregation on the location information of the group member successfully positioned, and returns a hybrid aggregation result to the positioning request end; and the second content indication server of the Method directly returns error information to the positioning request end when the position information of the group member fails to be acquired. The specific values of the Method in the above two states are not limited in the embodiments of the present invention.

By adding the Method attribute in the GLP, the Method for processing the acquired position information by the server can be defined when the acquisition of the position information of the group member fails, so that different requirements of different users can be met.

Optionally, when the LPa resource, the Group resource, and the GLP resource are created by the server, a notification of successful creation of the resource is returned to the Group creator to notify the Group creator that the creation of the resource is successful, so that the Group creator can enter the operation of the next stage of resource creation.

When the creation of the LPa resource, the Group resource and the GLP resource is completed, the positioning parameters of the Group are stored in the server, and the server can position the Group according to the LPa resource, the Group resource and the GLP resource, and then the positioning result is mixed and gathered into Group position information, and the Group position information is returned to the positioning request terminal.

For convenience of understanding, the positioning method provided by the embodiment of the invention is described in detail below with reference to specific application examples.

Referring to fig. 10, a scenario of the present application example is a kindergarten security monitoring system in a machine communication network, where a terminal device used by a kindergarten teacher or a kindergarten party is a positioning request terminal; the positioning device worn by children in the kindergarten is a positioned terminal, indicated as 'child # i' in the figure, and means the positioning device of the child numbered as i, and the positioning device provides position information capable of indicating the position of the child; the computers in the machine room of the kindergarten are servers, and the machine communication network can be realized based on a Wireless communication network, such as a Wireless Fidelity (Wireless Fidelity) network.

Firstly, a teacher sends a request to a server through a smart phone to create LPA resources for 20 children on his class, wherein the LPA resource corresponding to each child comprises information of a position information provider of the child, information of a memory resource in the server for storing position data of the child, and a positioning state (positioning success or positioning failure) of the child. When the server receives a request for creating LPA resources, the server authenticates a requester at first, and if the authentication is successful, creates LPA resources for each child according to information carried by the request.

Then, the teacher requests the server to create a Group resource, and the request carries the identification of the LPa resource of the 20 children on the teacher's shift. And the server responds to the request to create the Group resource, adds the identifier of the LPA resource carried in the request in the Member IDs attribute of the Group resource, and realizes that the children on the teacher class are associated into a Group.

Then, the teacher requests the server to create the GLP resource, where the request carries the identifier of the group resource associated with the GLP resource, and specific positioning policy parameters (such as a positioning update period, a multicast address, and the like). The server creates the GLP resource in response to the request, defining a location policy for the group.

Then, the server can return a message that the resource creation is successful to the smart phone used by the teacher, and multicast the positioning request to the position information provider of the positioning device of each child according to the created LPa resource, Group resource and GLP resource.

Then, the server receives the position information returned by the position information providers corresponding to the 20 children, mixes the 20 pieces of position information into the position information of the class member by using the sub-resource Group Container resource of the GLP resource, and returns the position information of the class member obtained by mixing to the teacher who initiates the positioning request.

In practical situations, only LPa resources, Group resources and GLP resources need to be created at the initial stage of Group positioning, and then the server can periodically update the position information of the class members by the LPa resources, the Group resources and the GLP resources and periodically return the position information to the teacher; the teacher can also send a class member position information query request at any time to acquire the position information of 20 children.

In the above application example, the teacher only needs to send a query request to the server, and the server only needs to return the position information of the class member to the teacher, so that the teacher can know the position information of 20 children. In the prior art, a teacher needs to send positioning requests to a server one by one, and the server returns positioning results one by one.

Moreover, in an application example, the server sends the positioning request to the position information providers of the 20 children in a multicast mode, and in the prior art, the server needs to unicast the positioning request to the position information providers of the 20 children one by one.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present invention provides a positioning apparatus 200 in a second aspect, and referring to fig. 11, the apparatus 200 includes:

a multicast module 201, configured to, when a group is located, multicast a location request to a location information provider of each group member of the group according to a pre-stored location multicast address of the group, where the location multicast address includes address information of the location information provider of each group member of the group, and the location request is used to request to acquire location information of the group member of the group;

the receiving module 202 is configured to receive location information returned by a location information provider of each group member of the group.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus 200 further includes:

a blending module 203, configured to blend the received location information of each member of the group, so as to generate group location information;

and a result returning module 204, configured to return the group location information generated by the hybrid aggregation to the location request end.

a judging module 205, configured to judge whether a network that sends a location request to a location information provider of each group member of the group supports multicast;

the multicast module 201 is configured to: when the determining module 205 determines that the network supports multicast, a positioning request is multicast to the position information provider of each group member of the group according to the positioning multicast address.

a positioning resource creating module 206, configured to create a group resource according to the information of the group members; creating group positioning strategy resources according to the group resources and the group positioning parameters, wherein the group positioning strategy resources comprise positioning multicast addresses of groups corresponding to the group resources, and the group positioning parameters comprise any one of positioning updating periods, positioning information sources and group position information storage positions;

the multicast module 201 multicasts the positioning request according to the positioning multicast address included in the group positioning policy resource.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the positioning resource creating module 206 is configured to: establishing a positioning parameter resource for the positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resource comprises information of a storage space in the device for storing the position information of the positioned terminal; and creating group resources according to the identifiers of the positioning parameter resources of the at least two positioned terminals, wherein the at least two positioned terminals are members of the group corresponding to the group resources.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the positioning resource creating module 206 is configured to: creating a group position information memory resource for the group, wherein the group position information memory resource is used for carrying out mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group;

In the present embodiment, the positioning apparatus 200 and the positioning method provided by the first aspect are based on two aspects of the same inventive concept, and the implementation process of the positioning method has been described in detail in the foregoing, so that those skilled in the art can clearly understand the structure and implementation process of the positioning apparatus 200 according to the foregoing description, and for the sake of brevity of the description, details are not repeated here.

Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present invention provides a server 300 in a third aspect, and referring to fig. 12, the server 300 includes: a processor 301, a storage unit 302, and a transceiver 303, wherein the processor 301 is connected to the storage unit 302 and the transceiver 303, respectively.

The transceiver 303 is configured to send a positioning request to a location information provider, and receive location information returned by the location information provider. The memory unit 302 is used to store instructions.

The processor 301 is configured to execute the instructions stored by the storage unit 302 to perform the following operations: when a group is positioned, the instruction transceiver 303 multicasts a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group, wherein the positioning multicast address contains address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire position information of the group member of the group; and instruct the transceiver 303 to receive location information returned by the location information providers of the members of the group.

Optionally, the server 300 further includes: the bus 304, the processor 301 is connected to the memory unit 302 and the transceiver 303 through the bus 304.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the transceiver 303 is further configured to perform data transmission with a location request end;

the processor 301 is further configured to: the received position information of each member of the group is mixed and gathered to generate group position information; and instructs the transceiver 303 to return the group location information generated by the hybrid aggregation to the location request side.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the processor 301 is configured to: before instructing the transceiver 303 to multicast the positioning request to the position information provider of each group member of the group according to the pre-stored positioning multicast address of the group, the transceiver is further configured to: judging whether the network sending the positioning request to the position information provider of each group member of the group supports multicast, and when the network supports multicast, instructing the transceiver 303 to multicast the positioning request to the position information provider of each group member of the group according to the pre-stored positioning multicast address of the group.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the processor 301 is further configured to: creating group resources according to the information of the group members; creating group positioning strategy resources according to the group resources and the group positioning parameters, wherein the group positioning strategy resources comprise positioning multicast addresses of groups corresponding to the group resources, and the group positioning parameters comprise any one of a positioning updating period, a positioning information source and a group position information storage position;

wherein the transceiver 303 is configured to: and multicasting the positioning request according to the positioning multicast address in the group positioning strategy resource.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, before creating the group resource according to the information of the group member, the processor 301 is further configured to: creating a positioning parameter resource for the positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resource comprises information of a storage space for storing the position information of the positioned terminal;

the processor 301 is configured to: creating group resources according to the information of the group members, specifically:

the processor 301 creates a group resource according to the identifiers of the positioning parameter resources of at least two terminals to be positioned, where the at least two terminals to be positioned are members of a group corresponding to the group resource.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, the processor 301 is further configured to: creating a group position information memory resource for the group, wherein the group position information memory resource is used for carrying out mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group; and positioning the resources of the group position information memory according to the group positioning strategy resources, and performing mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group by using the resources of the group position information memory.

Optionally, the storage unit 302 is a random access memory, and after the server 300 enters a normal operation state, the application program and the operating system are run in the random access memory.

Optionally, the server 300 further includes: and a rom, when the server 300 needs to be operated, the bios boot system solidified in the rom is started, and the server 300 is booted to enter a normal operation state.

In this embodiment, the positioning server 300 and the positioning method provided by the first aspect are based on two aspects of the same inventive concept, and the implementation process of the positioning method has been described in detail in the foregoing, so that those skilled in the art can clearly understand the structure and implementation process of the positioning server 300 according to the foregoing description, and for the sake of brevity of the description, details are not repeated here.

Based on the same technical concept, an embodiment of the present invention provides, in a fourth aspect, another positioning method, including the steps of:

a positioning request terminal sends a request for acquiring group position information to a server;

the positioning request end receives the group position information returned by the server, wherein the group position information is generated by the server multicasting the positioning request to the position information providers of the group members according to the prestored positioning multicast address of the group, receiving the position information returned by the position information providers of the group members of the group and carrying out the mixed aggregation of the received position information of the group members.

In the positioning method, the positioning request end only needs to send a group positioning request to the server and receive a group position information returned by the server, so that the position information of each group member in the whole group can be obtained. Moreover, since the position information of the whole group is stored in one group position), the data processing and data management of the positioning request terminal are facilitated.

Optionally, in this embodiment of the present invention, before sending the request for obtaining the group location information to the server, the location request end may also send the location parameters of the group members to the server, request the server to create the group resource, and send the group location parameters to the server, request the server to create the group location policy resource, so that the server provides a multicast location request to the location information providers of the group members of the group according to the created group resource and the group location policy resource, and performs location.

The positioning method provided by the fourth aspect of the present embodiment and the positioning method provided by the first aspect are based on two aspects of the same inventive concept, and the implementation process of the positioning method provided by the first aspect has been described in detail in the foregoing, so that a person skilled in the art can clearly understand the implementation process of the positioning method provided by the fourth aspect of the present embodiment according to the foregoing description, and for the sake of brevity of the description, details are not repeated here.

Based on the same technical concept, an embodiment of the present invention provides, in a fifth aspect, an apparatus for requesting positioning, including:

the sending module is used for sending a request for acquiring the group position information to the server;

and the receiving module is used for receiving the group position information returned by the server, wherein the group position information is generated by the server multicasting the positioning request to the position information providers of the members of the group according to the prestored positioning multicast address of the group, receiving the position information returned by the position information providers of the members of the group and carrying out the mixed aggregation on the received position information of the members of the group.

The device requesting positioning in the fifth aspect of the present embodiment and the positioning method provided in the first aspect are based on two aspects of the same inventive concept, and the implementation process of the positioning method has been described in detail in the foregoing, so that those skilled in the art can clearly understand the structure and implementation process of the device requesting positioning in the fifth aspect according to the foregoing description, and for the sake of brevity of the description, details are not repeated here.

Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present invention provides, in a sixth aspect, a location request apparatus, including:

a transmitter for transmitting a request for acquiring group location information to a server;

and the receiver is used for receiving the group position information returned by the server, wherein the group position information is generated by the server multicasting the positioning request to the position information providers of the members of the group according to the prestored positioning multicast address of the group, receiving the position information returned by the position information providers of the members of the group and carrying out the mixing of the received position information of the members of the group.

in the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention, the server sends the positioning request to the position information providers of the group members in a multicast mode, and receives the position information returned by the position information providers of the group members, thereby realizing the positioning of the group. Compared with the scheme of sending the positioning requests one by one in the prior art, the method has the advantages that the information transmission amount in the transmission link is reduced, the utilization rate of air interface transmission resources is improved, the transmission rate is improved due to the fact that congestion of the transmission link is relieved, time delay is reduced, and positioning time is shortened.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present invention is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of positioning, comprising:

when the server receives a positioning request for positioning the group sent by a positioning request end, or the server periodically triggers a flow for positioning the group according to the time of a timer;

when a server locates a group, a positioning request is multicast to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group, wherein the positioning multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group; the information provider is the group member itself, or a positioning server or a sharing device;

the server receives the position information returned by the position information provider of each group member of the group; after the server receives the location information returned by the location information provider of each group member of the group, the method further comprises the following steps:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein before the server multicasts the positioning request to the position information providers of the members of the group according to the prestored positioning multicast address of the group, the method further comprises:

3. The method of claim 1, wherein before the server multicasts the positioning request to the position information providers of the members of the group according to the prestored positioning multicast address of the group, the method further comprises:

4. The method of claim 3, before the server creates the group resource based on the information of the group members, further comprising:

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the group positioning policy resource further comprises: and the server locates the storage resource of the group position information according to the identifier of the storage resource of the group position information contained in the resource of the group positioning strategy, and performs the mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group by using the storage resource of the group position information.

6. A positioning device is characterized in that a positioning device is arranged on a base,

the method comprises the following steps:

the trigger module is used for triggering a group positioning process when receiving a positioning request for positioning the group sent by a positioning request end or according to the time periodicity of a timer;

the multicast module is used for multicasting a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group when the group is positioned, wherein the positioning multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group; the information provider is the group member itself, or a positioning server or a sharing device;

the receiving module is used for receiving the position information returned by the position information provider of each group member of the group;

7. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

8. The apparatus of claim 6, further comprising:

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the positioning resource creation module is to: creating a positioning parameter resource for a positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resource comprises information of a storage space in the device for storing position information of the positioned terminal; and creating the group resource according to the identifiers of the positioning parameter resources of at least two positioned terminals, wherein the at least two positioned terminals are members of the group corresponding to the group resource.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the positioning resource creation module is to: creating a group position information memory resource for the group, wherein the group position information memory resource is used for carrying out mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group;

11. A server, comprising:

the transceiver is used for sending a positioning request to a position information provider and receiving position information returned by the position information provider, and the transceiver is also used for receiving a positioning request for positioning a group sent by a positioning request end;

a storage unit to store instructions;

a processor, respectively connected to the transceiver and the storage unit, for executing the instructions stored in the storage unit to perform the following operations: when the transceiver receives a positioning request for positioning a group sent by a positioning request end, or a positioning flow of the group is triggered periodically according to the time of a timer; when a group is positioned, the transceiver is instructed to multicast a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group, wherein the positioning multicast address comprises address information of the position information provider of each group member of the group, and the positioning request is used for requesting to acquire the position information of the group member of the group; and instructing the transceiver to receive the position information returned by position information providers of the members of the group; the information provider is the group member itself, or a positioning server or a sharing device; the transceiver is also used for carrying out data transmission with the positioning request end;

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to: before instructing the transceiver to multicast a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group according to a pre-stored positioning multicast address of the group, the transceiver is further configured to: and judging whether a network which sends a positioning request to a position information provider of each group member of the group supports multicast, and when the network supports multicast, indicating the transceiver to multicast the positioning request to the position information provider of each group member of the group according to a prestored positioning multicast address of the group.

13. The server of claim 11, wherein the processor is further configured to: creating group resources according to the information of the group members; creating group positioning strategy resources according to the group resources and group positioning parameters, wherein the group positioning strategy resources comprise positioning multicast addresses of groups corresponding to the group resources, and the group positioning parameters comprise any one of a positioning updating period, a positioning information source and a group position information storage position;

wherein the transceiver is to: and multicasting the positioning request according to the positioning multicast address in the group positioning strategy resource.

14. The server of claim 13, wherein the processor, prior to creating the group resource based on the information of the group members, is further configured to: creating a positioning parameter resource for a positioned terminal, wherein the positioning parameter resource comprises information of a storage space for storing position information of the positioned terminal;

15. The server of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to: creating a group position information memory resource for the group, wherein the group position information memory resource is used for carrying out mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group; and positioning the group position information memory resource according to the group positioning strategy resource, and performing mixed aggregation processing on the position information of each group member of the group by using the group position information memory resource.