Supporting positioning
A method performed by a mobile terminal is provided for supporting positioning of the mobile terminal. The method includes receiving a defined filter pattern from a network node in a communications network or another node of the communications network, discovering identities of a plurality of reference devices based on signals received from the plurality of reference devices, filtering the identities of the plurality of reference devices to obtain a subset of identities of the plurality of reference devices that each satisfy the defined filter pattern, and reporting information on the subset of the identities of the plurality of reference devices to the network node.
1. A method of operating a mobile terminal for supporting positioning of the mobile terminal:
receiving a defined filter pattern from a network node in a communications network or another node of the communications network;
discovering identities of a plurality of reference devices based on signals received from the plurality of reference devices;
filtering the discovered identities of the plurality of reference devices to obtain a subset of identities of the plurality of reference devices that each satisfy the defined filter pattern; and
reporting information on the subset of the identities of the plurality of reference devices to the network node.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discovering identities of the plurality of reference devices based on signals received from the plurality of reference devices comprises discovering the identity of each of the plurality of reference devices based on a signal received from each of the plurality of reference devices.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identities of the plurality of reference devices that are discovered comprise at least one of: a WLAN basic service set identifier, a WLAN service set identifier, a media access control address, a Bluetooth address, and a Bluetooth device name.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filtering of the identities of the plurality of reference devices outputs identities for inclusion in the subset that are determined to match a string of characters or a portion of a string of characters defined by the defined filter pattern.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the filtering of the identities of the plurality of reference devices outputs identities for inclusion in the subset that are determined to match at least one of: a default value defined by the defined filter pattern, a mobile country code defined by the defined filter pattern, a mobile network code defined by the defined filter pattern, a realm defined by the defined filter pattern, and a public land mobile network identifier defined by the defined filter pattern.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
checking for receipt of the defined filter pattern from the communications network; and
responsive to an absence of receipt of the defined filter pattern from the communications network, using at least one default value for the defined filter pattern.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a geographic location of the mobile terminal;
communicating a query containing the geographic location through the communications network toward a map server requesting a listing of known business identifiers proximately located to the mobile terminal;
receiving a response from the map server containing the listing of known business identifiers; and
generating at least a portion of the defined filter pattern based on the listing of known business identifiers.
8. A mobile terminal comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one memory connected to the at least one processor and storing program code for supporting positioning of the mobile terminal by being, when executed by the at least one processor causes the mobile terminal to:
receive a defined filter pattern from a network node in a communications network or another node of the communications network;
discover identities of a plurality of reference devices based on signals received from the plurality of reference devices;
filtering the discovered identities of the plurality of reference devices to obtain a subset of identities of the plurality of reference devices that each satisfy the defined filter pattern; and
reporting information on the subset of identities of the plurality of reference devices to the network node.
9. The mobile terminal of claim 8 , wherein the discovery of identities of the plurality of reference devices based on signals received from the plurality of reference devices comprises discovering the identity of each of the plurality of reference devices based on a signal received from each of the plurality of reference devices.
10. The mobile terminal of claim 8 , wherein the identities of the plurality of reference devices that are discovered comprise at least one of: a WLAN basic service set identifier, a WLAN service set identifier, a media access control address, a Bluetooth address, and a Bluetooth device name.
11. The mobile terminal of claim 8 , wherein the filtering of the identities of the plurality of reference devices obtains identities for inclusion in the subset that are determined to match a string of characters or a portion of a string of characters defined by the defined filter pattern.
12. The mobile terminal of claim 8 , wherein the filtering of the identities of the plurality of reference devices outputs identities for inclusion in the subset that are determined to match at least one of: a default value defined by the defined filter pattern, a mobile country code defined by the defined filter pattern, a mobile network code defined by the defined filter pattern, a realm defined by the defined filter pattern, and a public land mobile network identifier defined by the defined filter pattern.
13. The mobile terminal of claim 8 , wherein the memory further stores program code that is executed by the at least one processor to perform further operations comprising:
checking for receipt of the defined filter pattern from the communications network; and
responsive to an absence of receipt of the defined filter pattern from the communications network, using at least one default value for the defined filter pattern.
14. The mobile terminal of claim 8 , wherein the memory further stores program code that is executed by the at least one processor to perform further operations further comprising:
determining a geographic location of the mobile terminal;
communicating a query containing the geographic location through the communications network toward a map server requesting a listing of known business identifiers proximately located to the mobile terminal;
receiving a response from the map server containing the listing of known business identifiers; and
generating at least a portion of the defined filter pattern based on the listing of known business identifiers.
15. The mobile terminal of claim 8 , wherein the filtering of the identities of the plurality of reference devices outputs identities for inclusion in the subset that are determined to contain at least a defined portion of one of the listing of known business identifiers.
16. A computer program product comprising:
a non-transitory computer readable medium storing program code configured for execution by a processor of a mobile terminal to cause the processor to perform operations for supporting positioning of the mobile terminal, the operations comprising:
receiving a defined filter pattern from a network node in a communications network or another node of the communications network;
discovering a plurality of reference devices based on signals received from the plurality of reference devices;
filtering the discovered identities of the plurality of reference to obtain a subset of identities of the plurality of reference devices that each satisfy the defined filter pattern; and
reporting information on the subset of the identities of the plurality of reference devices to the network node.
17. The computer program product of claim 16 , the operations further comprising:
collecting a wireless communication signal measurement for each of the reference devices identified in the subset.
18. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the identities of the plurality of reference devices that are discovered comprise at least one or more of: a WLAN basic service set identifier, a WLAN service set identifier, a media access control address, a Bluetooth address, and a Bluetooth device name.
19. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the filtering of the identities of the plurality of reference devices outputs identities for inclusion in the subset that are determined to match a string of characters or a portion of a string of characters defined by the defined filter pattern.
20. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the filtering of the identities of the plurality of reference devices outputs identities for inclusion in the subset that are determined to match at least one of: a default value defined by the defined filter pattern, a mobile country code defined by the defined filter pattern, a mobile network code defined by the defined filter pattern, a realm defined by the defined filter pattern, and a public land mobile network identifier defined by the defined filter pattern.