Method and system for geolocating a terminal in range of a transmitting device of interest

1. A method for geolocating a terminal of a wireless communication system, the terminal being configured to exchange messages with an access network of the wireless communication system according to a first wireless communication protocol, the method comprising:

receiving, by the terminal, a message transmitted according to a second wireless communication protocol by a transmitting device of interest;

obtaining an ambiguous item of identification information from the transmitting device of interest;

transmitting, by the terminal and to the access network, a message comprising the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest wherein the message does not include any other binary data allowing to estimate a geographical position of the terminal;

estimating, by the access network, an approximate geographical position of the terminal;

identifying, by the access network, in a table storing a list of transmitting device identifiers and respective geographical positions of transmitting devices, the transmitting device of interest being a transmitting device in the table whose identifier corresponds to the ambiguous item of identification information and whose geographical position corresponds to the approximate geographical position of the terminal; and

estimating, by the access network, a precise geographical position of the terminal based on a geographical position of the transmitting device of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message received from the transmitting device of interest comprises an ambiguous identifier of the transmitting device of interest, and wherein the ambiguous item of identification information corresponds to the ambiguous identifier.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message received from the transmitting device of interest comprises an identifier of the transmitting device of interest; and wherein obtainment of the ambiguous item of identification information comprises a lossy compression of the identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of transmitting devices of interest are used, the precise geographical position of the terminal being estimated based on the respective geographical positions of the plurality of transmitting devices of interest.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein ambiguous items of identification information of at least two transmitting devices of interest are transmitted to the access network, in the same message according to the first wireless communication protocol.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a range of the second wireless communication protocol is less than a range of the first wireless communication protocol.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the approximate geographical position of the terminal is estimated based on at least one message received by at least one base station of the access network, said at least one base station being located in a predetermined geographical position.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimation of the approximate geographical position of the terminal is performed by the access network without using any explicit information in a message received by the access network from the terminal.

9. A terminal of a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising:

a first communication module configured to exchange messages with an access network of the wireless communication system according to a first wireless communication protocol;

a second communication module configured to receive messages according to a second wireless communication protocol; and

wherein the terminal configured to:

receive, by the second communication module, a message transmitted by a transmitting device of interest;

obtain, by a processing circuit of the terminal, an ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest; and

transmit, by the first communication module, a message comprising the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest, wherein the message does not include any other binary data allowing to estimate a geographical position of the terminal.

10. The terminal of claim 9 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to obtain the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest from an identifier of the transmitting device of interest included in the message received from the transmitting device of interest.

11. The terminal of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to obtain the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest by lossy compression of the identifier of the transmitting device of interest.

12. An access network of a wireless communication system, the access network being configured to exchange messages with a terminal, wherein the access network is configured to:

receive a message transmitted by the terminal, the message comprising an ambiguous item of identification information of a transmitting device of interest in the vicinity of the terminal, wherein the message does not include any other binary data allowing to estimate a geographical position of the terminal;

estimate an approximate geographical position of the terminal;

identify, in a table storing a list of transmitting device identifiers and respective geographical positions of transmitting devices, the transmitting device of interest as being a transmitting device in the table whose identifier corresponds to the ambiguous item of identification information and whose geographical position corresponds to the approximate geographical position of the terminal; and

estimating a precise geographical position of the terminal based on a geographical position of the transmitting device of interest.

13. The access network of claim 12 , wherein, the table being stored in a geolocation server external to the access network, the access network comprises an enquiry server configured to:

transmit a request for the geographical position of the transmitting device of interest to the geolocation server, the request for the geographical position comprising the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest and the approximate geographical position of the terminal; and

receive from the geolocation server a response comprising the geographical position of the transmitting device of interest.

14. The access network of claim 13 , wherein each of the geolocation server and the enquiry server comprises one or more processors, or one or more programmable logic circuits.

15. The access network of claim 12 , wherein, the table being stored in a geolocation server external to the access network, the access network comprises an enquiry server configured to:

transmit a request for the geographical position of the transmitting device of interest to the geolocation server, the request for the geographical position comprising the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest;

receive from the geolocation server a response comprising geographical positions of the transmitting devices whose identifiers correspond to the ambiguous item of identification information; and

wherein the access network being configured to identify the geographical position of the transmitting device of interest as being a received geographical position corresponding to the approximate geographical position of the terminal.

16. The access network of claim 15 , wherein each of the geolocation server and the enquiry server comprises one or more processors, or one or more programmable logic circuits.

17. A wireless communication system comprising the access network of claim 12 and a terminal comprising:

a first communication module configured to exchange messages with the access network of the wireless communication system according to a first wireless communication protocol;

a second communication module configured to receive messages according to a second wireless communication protocol; and

wherein the terminal configured to:

receive, by the second communication module, a message transmitted by the transmitting device of interest;

obtain, by a processing circuit of the terminal, the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest; and

transmit, by the first communication module, the message comprising the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest, wherein the message does not include any other binary data allowing to estimate a geographical position of the terminal.

18. A processor-based geolocation server comprising a storage device to store a table, the table comprising a list of transmitting device identifiers and respective geographical positions of transmitting devices, the geolocation server being configured to:

receive a request for a geographical position of a transmitting device of interest, the request for a geographical position comprising an ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest and an approximate geographical position;

identify a transmitting device in the table whose stored identifier corresponds to the ambiguous item of identification information of the transmitting device of interest and whose geographical position corresponds to the approximate geographical position; and

transmit a response comprising the geographical position of the transmitting device identified in the table.