Determining a location of a target wireless device
View Patent ↗Various techniques and systems are provided for determining a location of a target wireless device. Specifically, various techniques and systems are provided for determining a location of a wireless device using timestamps assigned to communications transmitted between the wireless device and one or more other wireless devices on a same WiFi channel as the wireless device. Implementations describe devices, computer-program products, and methods including transmitting a beacon frame by a network device on a channel of a radio frequency band, receiving a first frame that corresponds to the client device, assigning a first timestamp to the first frame, transmitting a second frame in response to the client device communication, assigning a second timestamp to the second frame, determining a time difference between the first timestamp and the second timestamp, receiving an alternative time difference corresponding to an alternative network device on the channel, and determining a location of the client device using the time difference and the alternative time difference.
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
transmitting a beacon frame by a network device on a channel of a radio frequency band, wherein the beacon frame facilitates a client device connecting to the channel, and wherein the client device is associated with the network device;
receiving a first frame that corresponds to the client device;
assigning a first timestamp to the first frame, wherein the first timestamp includes a time that the first frame is received at the network device;
transmitting a second frame to an access point in response to the client device communication;
assigning a second timestamp to the second frame, wherein the second timestamp includes a time that the network device transmits the second frame; determining a time difference between the first timestamp and the second timestamp;
receiving an alternative time difference corresponding to the access point on the channel, wherein the alternative time difference is based on a time that the access point received the first frame and a time that the access point received the second frame; and
determining a location of the client device using the time difference and the alternative time difference.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a second alternative time difference corresponding to a second alternative access point on the channel, wherein the second alternative time difference is based on a time that the second access point receives the first frame and a time that the second access point receives the second frame; and
determining a location of the client device using the time difference, the alternative time difference, and the second alternative time difference.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, by the network device, channel information corresponding to the channel, wherein the channel information facilitates the access point connecting to the channel.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the network device and the access point are connected to the same channel.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the client device is in sleep mode, and
transmitting the beacon frame facilitates removing the client device from sleep mode.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a location query including the time difference and the alternative time difference; and
receiving a response to the location query including a location of the client device.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first frame includes an indication that the client device is connected to the channel.
8. A network device, comprising:
one or more processors;
a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
receiving a first frame that corresponds to the client device;
assigning a first timestamp to the first frame, wherein the first timestamp includes a time that the first frame is received at the network device;
transmitting, to an access point, a second frame in response to the client device communication;
assigning a second timestamp to the second frame, wherein the second timestamp includes a time that the network device transmits the second frame;
determining a time difference between the first timestamp and the second timestamp;
receiving an alternative time difference corresponding to the access point on the channel, wherein the alternative time difference is based on an a time that the access point received the first frame and a time that the access point received the second frame; and
determining a location of the client device using the time difference and the alternative time difference.
9. The network device of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
receiving a second alternative time difference corresponding to a second
access point on the channel, wherein the second alternative time difference is based on a time that the second access point receives the first frame and a time that the second access point receives the second frame; and
determining a location of the client device using the time difference, the alternative time difference, and the second alternative time difference.
10. The network device of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
transmitting, by the network device, channel information corresponding to the channel, wherein the channel information facilitates the access point connecting to the channel.
11. The network device of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
determining that the network device and the access point are connected to the same channel.
12. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the client device is in sleep mode,
and transmitting the beacon frame facilitates removing the client device from sleep mode.
13. The network device of claim 8 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:
transmitting a location query including the time difference and the alternative time difference; and receiving a response to the location query including a location of the client device.
14. The network device of claim 8 , wherein the first frame includes an indication that the client device is connected to the channel.
15. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of a computing device, including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
receive a first frame that corresponds to the client device;
assign a first timestamp to the first frame, wherein the first timestamp includes a time that the first frame is received at the network device;
transmit, to an access point, a second frame in response to the client device communication;
assign a second timestamp to the second frame, wherein the second timestamp includes a time that the network device transmits the second frame;
determine a time difference between the first timestamp and the second timestamp;
receive an alternative time difference corresponding to the access point on the channel, wherein the alternative time difference is based on an a time that the access point received the first frame and a time that the access point received the second frame; and
determine a location of the client device using the time difference and the alternative time difference.