KR20110065272A - Device and method for calculating position of terminal in WLAN based positioning system - Google Patents

Abstract

In a WLAN-based positioning system, the positioning terminal selects an AP to be used for location measurement by using a spatial information identifier of an access point (AP) that transmits a wireless signal, and then selects an AP having identifier information that matches the identifier information of the selected AP. Searching in the AP database, and calculates the location of the positioning terminal by using the location information of the searched AP.

Description

A device and method for calculating position of a terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CALCULATING LOCATION OF TERMINAL IN POSITIONING SYSTEM BASED ON WLAN}

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for calculating a position of a terminal in a WLAN based positioning system.

It is derived from the research conducted as part of the IT source technology development of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of the present invention [Task Management Number: 2007-F-040-03, Task name: Indoor and outdoor continuous positioning technology development].

Positioning technology using wireless infrastructure exists in various ways depending on infrastructure type and service range.

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) refers to a system that determines a user's location using satellite signals on Earth's orbit. GNSS provides high location accuracy and availability with a location error of less than 10 m in flat or suburban areas where direct line of sight is secured from satellites and receivers. In the urban center area, which is a Line Of Sight section, the error of the location information reaches 50m due to the multipath error, and in particular, in the indoor area, the reception signal sensitivity decreases, making it impossible to determine the location.

Cellular-based positioning technology determines the location of the user by using the location information and the measurement signal of the mobile communication base station, and according to the number of base stations that can be received from the terminal (Cell-ID), Enhanced-Observed Time Different (E-OTD) , AFLT (Advanced-Forward Link Trilateration), and the like. Such a cellular-based positioning technology has the advantage that the location can be determined indoors as well as outdoors due to the characteristics of the mobile communication infrastructure that covers most of the city and suburbs as a service range. However, since the positioning accuracy varies depending on the placement density of the base station, and has an error of the position information of about 100 to 800m on average, it is not suitable for indoor and outdoor navigation services requiring position accuracy.

On the other hand, wireless local area network (WLAN) based positioning technology is a representative method to overcome the difficulties of indoor positioning, signal measurement value in the database including the identifier and reference location of the access point (AP) An AP having an identifier that matches the identifier of the AP for is extracted, and the location of the terminal is calculated using the extracted location information of the AP.

However, as the service area becomes wider, a huge amount of AP information is stored in a database. This requires WLAN-based positioning techniques to compare the identifier of the AP for signal measurements with the identifiers of all the APs in the database for the AP, which results in a lot of time searching the database for the AP, resulting in a slow position calculation. However, it is not suitable for services requiring fast response.

The present invention has been made in an effort to provide an apparatus and method for calculating a position of a terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system capable of reducing the time required for calculating the position of the terminal and increasing the accuracy of the position calculation.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method for calculating the position of a terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system is provided. The method for calculating a location of a terminal may include receiving a radio signal transmitted by a plurality of APs, and selecting an AP to be used for calculating the location of the terminal from among the plurality of APs by using spatial information identifiers of the plurality of APs. And calculating the location of the terminal using the selected AP.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a method for calculating the position of a terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system is provided. The method for calculating a location of a terminal includes: receiving a radio signal transmitted by a plurality of APs, classifying the plurality of APs into at least one group according to a spatial information identifier, and positioning the at least one group Selecting a group to be used for the calculation, receiving an identifier and location information of an AP having the same spatial information identifier as the spatial information identifier of the selected group from the database server, from the identifier and location information of the AP received from the database server Extracting location information of an AP having the same identifier as the AP of the selected group, and calculating a location of the terminal using the extracted location information of the AP.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for calculating the position of a terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system is provided. The location calculation device of the terminal includes a registration information extractor, an access point (AP) selector, and a location calculator. The registration information extracting unit extracts registration information of the plurality of APs by using a radio signal transmitted by the plurality of APs. The AP selecting unit selects an AP to be used for calculating the position of the terminal from among the plurality of APs using the registration information of the plurality of APs. The location calculator calculates a location of the terminal using registration information of the selected AP.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, even if a location determination terminal receives a radio signal transmitted by a plurality of APs in a WLAN-based positioning system, the location determination terminal does not reflect all of them in the location calculation but reflects the location calculation using the spatial information identifier. By selecting the APs to be done, the time required to search the AP database can be reduced, and the accuracy of position calculation can be improved.

1 is a view schematically showing a WLAN-based positioning system to which the present invention is applied,
2 is a view showing the collection device shown in FIG.
3 is a view showing a positioning terminal in an embodiment of the present invention,
4 is a view showing a position calculation method according to an embodiment of the present invention,
5 is a diagram illustrating a method of selecting an AP to be used for position calculation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art may easily implement the present invention. As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification and claims, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, it means that it can further include other components, without excluding other components unless specifically stated otherwise.

Now, an apparatus and method for calculating a position of a terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram schematically showing a WLAN-based positioning system to which the present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 1, the WLAN-based positioning system includes collection apparatuses 10a and 10b, access points (APs) 20a_1 to 20a_3, 20b_1 to 20b_3, a database server 30, and a positioning terminal ( 40).

The collection devices 10a and 10b collect registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 and 20b_1 to 20b_3 located in the collection areas A and B, and store and manage them in an AP database (not shown). In addition, the collection apparatuses 10a and 10b transmit registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 and 20b_1 to 20b_3 to the database server 30 according to the capacity limitation of the AP database (not shown). Here, the registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 and 20b_1 to 20b_3 may include spatial information identifier information, identifier information, location information, and characteristic information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 and 20b_1 to 20b_3.

The APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 and 20b_1 to 20b_3 form an indoor positioning wireless communication infrastructure for providing indoor location-based services, and transmit radio signals for indoor location-based services.

The database server 30 stores and manages registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 and 20b_1 to 20b_3. The database server 30 transmits the registration information of the AP requested by the positioning terminal 40 to the positioning terminal 40 at the request of the positioning terminal 40.

The positioning terminal 40 receives a radio signal transmitted by the AP, and receives an AP database (not shown) from the database server 30 for use in calculating a location using the spatial information identifier of the AP that transmitted the radio signal. . Then, the positioning terminal 40 calculates the position of the positioning terminal 40 using the AP database (not shown) and the AP which transmitted the radio signal. The signal measurement value may include a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), a signal to noise ratio (SNR), and a distance measurement value with a terminal. In addition, various methods may be used for measuring RSSI and SNR.

For example, assuming that the positioning terminal 40 is located in the area A, the positioning terminal 40 may receive a radio signal transmitted by the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 located in the area A. The positioning terminal 40 may obtain the spatial information identifiers of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 by using the radio signals transmitted by the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3. The positioning terminal 40 receives an AP database that stores registration information of the AP that matches the spatial identifier information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 from the database server 30 and then receives the AP database from the database server 30. The AP having the identifier information that matches the identifier information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 that transmits the radio signal in the database may be searched for, and the position of the positioning terminal 40 may be calculated using the searched position information of the AP.

In addition, the positioning terminal 40 manages the position information of the positioning terminal 40, the time information for calculating the position information, the resources required for the position calculation, and the like.

The positioning terminal 40 may be connected to the database server 30 through a network, and the collection apparatuses 10a and 10b may also be connected to the database server 30 through a network.

2 is a view showing the collection device shown in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a view showing the AP database shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, only the collecting device 10a is illustrated, and the collecting device 10b may also be configured in the same manner as the collecting device 10b.

Referring to FIG. 2, the collecting device 10 is a diagram illustrating a registration information collecting unit 12 and an AP database 12.

The registration information collecting unit 12 collects registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 located in the area A, and stores the registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 in the AP database 14. In this case, as a method of collecting registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3, the registration information collecting unit 12 may receive the spatial information identifier of the AP, the identifier of the AP, and the location information of the AP from the user. The registration information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 may be collected.

Referring to FIG. 3, the AP database 14 includes spatial information identifiers of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3, identifiers of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3, location information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3, and characteristic information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3. Is stored.

The spatial information identifiers of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 represent spatial information in which the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 are installed, and may include an area identifier and a building identifier. The region identifier indicates the region where the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 are installed, and displays "wide city / province" in 1 byte, "city / county / gu" in 1 byte, and "eup / Plane / dong "can be displayed in 1 byte. The building identifier indicates a building name in which the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 are installed, and the "building name" may be displayed as 1 byte. In other words, by uniquely assigning an identifier to each individual building located in the building, a 4-byte spatial information identifier can be constructed. In addition, it is possible to add "floor information" in addition to "building name" as a building identifier. At this time, "layer information" may also be displayed in 1 byte.

In this way, a unique identifier can be assigned to 255 buildings in one town, town, and district, and can be solved by increasing the number of bytes if there is not enough memory to assign a unique identifier for a building in the area. . Such spatial information identifiers may be defined in various forms having features for distinguishing geospatial spaces.

The identifiers of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 represent unique identification information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3. MAC addresses may be used as identifiers of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3.

The location information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 indicates an installation location including floor information and horizontal location information where the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 are installed. The layer identifier, which is a unique identifier indicating layer information, may be configured by 1 byte and may distinguish a total of 255 layers. For example, the 1-50 underground levels can be represented by 1-50, and the 1st-105th floor can be represented by 51-255. As the horizontal position information, a position input by a user of the collection apparatus 10a from a map displayed on a user interface (UI) may be used, and may be expressed in 4 bytes.

The characteristic information of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3 indicates information such as the model name and the manufacturer of the APs 20a_1 to 20a_3.

3 is a view showing a positioning terminal in an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is a view showing a position calculation method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the positioning terminal 40 includes a registration information extracting unit 43, an AP selecting unit 44, a position calculating unit 46, and a display unit 48.

Referring to FIG. 4, the registration information extracting unit 42 receives a radio signal transmitted by a plurality of APs, and extracts registration information of an AP that transmits a radio signal using the received radio signal (S410).

The AP selector 44 selects an AP to be used for calculating the position of the positioning terminal 40 by using the registration information of the AP that transmits the radio signal (S420).

That is, an AP whose location is changed may exist among the APs stored in the database server 30. If the location information of the AP is not updated when the location of the AP is changed, the location information of the AP that has not been updated may be used for the location calculation of the positioning terminal 40.

For example, when the AP 20a_1 is moved from the area A to the area B, if the user does not update the location information of the AP 20a_1, the location determination terminal 40 located in the area B is located. When the position is to be calculated, the positioning terminal 40 may receive a radio signal transmitted by the AP 20a_1. Then, the location determination terminal 40 receives registration information of the AP 20a_1 from the database server 30 and uses it for location calculation. However, since the location information of the AP 20a_1 corresponds to the location information of the area A, when the location information of the AP 20a_1 is used when calculating the location of the positioning terminal 40 located in the area B, The accuracy of the position calculation of the positioning terminal 40 is reduced. In addition, since the registration information of the AP having the same spatial information identifier as the spatial information identifier of the AP 20a_1 should be provided from the database server 30 and compared with the identifier information of the AP 20a_1, the time required for calculating the location This will be longer.

Accordingly, the AP selector 44 according to an embodiment of the present invention selects an AP to be used for position calculation from the AP which transmits the radio signal by using the spatial information identifier.

The location calculator 46 requests the registration information of the AP having the same spatial information identifier as the spatial information identifier of the AP selected from the AP selector 44 to the database server 30 (S430), and in response thereto, the database server. In step S440, an AP database storing registration information of the AP is provided. Thereafter, the position calculator 46 searches for an AP having identifier information that matches the identifier information of the AP selected from the AP selector 44 in the AP database provided from the database server 30 (S450). In step D460, location information corresponding to identifier information of the searched AP is searched for. The location calculator 46 calculates the location of the location determination terminal 40 using the searched location information of the AP (S470).

The display unit 48 displays the location information of the positioning terminal 40 (S480).

5 is a diagram illustrating a method of selecting an AP to be used for position calculation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the AP selector 44 extracts a spatial information identifier from registration information of a plurality of APs that have transmitted radio signals (S510).

The AP selector 44 classifies the plurality of APs into groups having the same spatial information identifier by using the spatial information identifiers of the plurality of APs (S520).

The AP selector 44 selects a group having a set number of APs or more from among groups having the same spatial information identifier (S530), and transmits identifier information of the AP in the selected group to the positioning terminal 40.

That is, the AP selecting unit 44 sets an AP of a group having a set number of APs or more as an AP to be used for position calculation, and excludes APs of a group having less than a set number of APs from the position calculation. In other words, if the same spatial information identifier is less than the set number, it is likely that the AP does not use the corresponding area as location information. Therefore, the AP selector 44 excludes the AP from the position calculation in advance. In this case, the set number may be set according to the number of APs where the positioning terminal 40 receives the radio signal, or may be arbitrarily set by the user. For example, the set number may be set to 1/10 of the number of APs where the positioning terminal 40 has received a radio signal.

As described above, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, even if a plurality of APs transmits a radio signal, the APs that receive the radio signal do not reflect all of the APs in the position calculation and reflect the position information using the spatial information identifier. By screening the AP, the accuracy of the position calculation is improved. In addition, according to an embodiment of the present invention, by receiving only the registration information of the AP having the same spatial information identifier as the spatial information identifier of the AP to be reflected in the position calculation from the database server 30, the identifier of the AP to reflect this in the position calculation It also reduces the time it takes to compare with.

Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present invention, although the collection device 10 for collecting the registration information of the AP and the terminal 40 for calculating the location are shown as separate, one terminal collects the registration information and calculates the location of the AP. It may be. Even in this case, the apparatus and / or method described above may be equally applied.

An embodiment of the present invention is not implemented only through the above-described apparatus and / or method, but may be implemented through a program for realizing a function corresponding to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention or a recording medium on which the program is recorded. Such an implementation can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains based on the description of the above-described embodiments.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the present invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of rights.

Claims (13)

In the method for calculating the position of the terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system,
Receiving a radio signal transmitted by a plurality of APs;
Selecting an AP to be used for calculating the position of the terminal from among the plurality of APs by using the spatial information identifiers of the plurality of APs, and
Computing the location of the terminal using the selected AP
Position calculation method of the terminal comprising a. The method of claim 1,
The selecting step,
Classifying the plurality of APs into at least one group having the same spatial information identifier, and
And setting a group having at least a predetermined number of APs among the at least one group as an AP to be used for the location calculation. The method of claim 2,
The calculating step,
Receiving, from a database server, a database storing identifier information and location information of an AP having a spatial information identifier that matches the spatial information identifier of the AP of the selected group;
Extracting an AP matching the identifier information of the AP of the selected group from the database;
Retrieving location information of the AP extracted from the database, and
Computing a location of the terminal using the location information of the searched AP. The method of claim 1,
Registering registration information of the plurality of APs to be used in the WLAN-based positioning system in a database server;
More,
And the registration information includes a spatial information identifier, an identifier, and location information. The method of claim 1,
The spatial information identifier includes a location identifier and a building identifier. In the method for calculating the position of the terminal in a WLAN-based positioning system,
Receiving a radio signal transmitted by a plurality of APs;
Classifying the plurality of APs into at least one group according to a spatial information identifier;
Selecting a group to be used for position calculation among the at least one group,
Receiving an identifier and location information of an AP having the same spatial information identifier as that of the selected group from the database server,
Extracting location information of an AP having the same identifier as the AP of the selected group from the identifier and location information of the AP received from the database server; and
Calculating the location of the terminal using the extracted location information of the AP;
Position calculation method of the terminal comprising a. The method of claim 6,
The selecting step,
And setting a group having at least a predetermined number of APs among the at least one group as a group to be used for the location calculation. The method of claim 7, wherein
The setting number is determined by the terminal according to the number of APs that have received a radio signal. The method of claim 6,
The spatial information identifier includes a location identifier and a building identifier. An apparatus for calculating a position of a terminal in a WLAN based positioning system,
A registration information extraction unit for extracting registration information of a plurality of APs by using a wireless signal transmitted from a plurality of APs;
An AP selecting unit which selects an AP to be used for calculating a position of the terminal from among a plurality of APs using the registration information of the plurality of APs, and
Location calculation unit for calculating the location of the terminal using the registration information of the selected AP
Position calculation device of the terminal comprising a. The method of claim 10,
The registration information includes an identifier, a spatial information identifier and location information,
The AP selector,
Calculate a location of a terminal that classifies the plurality of APs into at least one group having the same spatial information identifier, and selects an AP of a group having a set number or more of APs as the AP to be used for calculating the location of the terminal. Device. The method of claim 11,
The AP selector,
The apparatus for calculating the position of the terminal excluding groups having less than a set number of APs from the at least one group from the AP for use in calculating the position of the terminal. The method of claim 11,
The position calculation unit,
Receiving, from a database server, a database storing registration information of an AP having the same spatial information identifier as that of the selected AP;
And retrieving location information of an AP having identifier information corresponding to the identifier information of the selected AP from the database, and calculating a location of the terminal using the retrieved location information of the AP.

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