Femto base stations and methods for operating the same
View Patent ↗Femto base stations and methods described herein suppress the need for an external GPS antenna and cable, while still providing a network service provider with the ability to obtain the desired GPS location coordinates and the user with the flexibility of placing the femto cell at the location of their choice within a home regardless of GPS signal strength.
1. A femto base station comprising:
a global positioning system (GPS) receiver configured to determine whether position information signals are available; wherein
the femto base station is configured to determine whether anchor position information stored in a memory at the femto base station is valid if the position information signals are unavailable, the anchor position information being indicative of an anchor position of the femto base station; and
a parameter acquisition unit configured to identify network configuration parameters for the femto base station if the stored anchor position information is valid.
2. The femto base station of claim 1 , wherein the GPS receiver is configured to acquire current position information for the femto base station based on available position information signals if the position information signals are available, the GPS receiver being further configured to store, in the memory, the acquired current position information as the anchor position information.
3. The femto base station of claim 1 , wherein the anchor position information for the femto base station is acquired based on received position information signals, and the acquired anchor position information is stored in the memory.
4. The femto base station of claim 3 , wherein the femto base station is configured to determine the validity of the anchor position information stored in the memory by calculating an elapsed time since the stored anchor position information was acquired, comparing the elapsed time with a validity time interval threshold value, and determining whether the stored anchor position information is valid based on the comparison.
5. The femto base station of claim 4 , wherein the femto base station is configured to determine that the stored anchor position information is valid if the elapsed time is less than or equal to the validity time interval threshold value.
6. The femto base station of claim 4 , wherein the femto base station is configured to determine that the stored anchor position information is not valid if the elapsed time is greater than the validity time interval threshold value.
7. The femto base station of claim 1 , wherein the network configuration parameters include at least a frequency band for use by the femto base station.
8. The femto base station of claim 1 , wherein the GPS receiver acquires the anchor position information at a first power-up of the femto base station, and the GPS receiver determines whether position information signals are available in response to a subsequent power-up of the femto base station.
9. The femto base station of claim 1 , wherein a location fingerprint is stored in association with the anchor position information in the memory, wherein the parameter acquisition unit is further configured to identify a current location fingerprint for the femto base station, and wherein the femto base station is configured to determine the validity of the stored anchor position information based on the stored location fingerprint and the current location fingerprint.
10. The femto base station of claim 9 , wherein the stored anchor position information is valid if the stored location fingerprint matches the current location fingerprint.
11. The femto base station of claim 9 , wherein the stored location fingerprint includes at least one of characteristics of a radio environment in which the femto base station is located and network parameters unique to a point of connection of the femto base station.
12. The femto base station of claim 11 , wherein network parameters unique to the point of connection of the femto base station include media access (MAC) or Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of one or more hosting gateways.
13. The femto base station of claim 9 , wherein the current location fingerprint is identified and the validity of the stored anchor position is determined periodically in response to expiration of a periodicity timer.
14. The femto base station of claim 9 , wherein the current location fingerprint is identified and the validity of the stored anchor position is determined in response to a spontaneous power restoration.
15. The femto base station of claim 9 , wherein re-initialization of the femto base station is required if the anchor position information for the femto base station is not valid.
16. The femto base station of claim 9 , further comprising:
a radio frequency (RF) transceiver module configured to transmit and receive information to and from mobiles after the network configuration parameters are identified.
17. A femto base station comprising:
a location fingerprint acquisition unit configured to acquire a location fingerprint for the femto base station, store the acquired location fingerprint in a memory in association with anchor position information for the femto base station, and re-acquire a location fingerprint for the femto base station in response to a trigger event at the femto base station, the location fingerprint being indicative of a position of the femto base station; wherein
the femto base station is configured to compare the re-acquired location fingerprint with the stored location fingerprint to determine the validity of the anchor position information associated with the stored location fingerprint.
18. The femto base station of claim 17 , wherein the femto base station requires re-initialization if the anchor position information is not valid.
19. The femto base station of claim 17 , wherein the trigger event is spontaneous power restoration.
20. The femto base station of claim 17 , wherein the trigger event is expiration of a periodicity timer.