System and method for concurrently determining locations of mobile device in wireless communication network

1. A method for a mobile location center (MLC) to determine a location of a mobile device in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

receiving a request initiated by the mobile device to determine the location of the mobile device;

concurrently requesting global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements from the mobile device and terrestrial measurements from transceivers in the wireless communication network;

receiving the GNSS measurements and at least one of the terrestrial measurements;

calculating a GNSS location of the mobile device as a function of the received GNSS measurements, and determining that the location of the mobile device comprises the calculated GNSS location when the calculated GNSS location meets a predetermined accuracy threshold;

calculating a terrestrial location of the mobile device as a function of the received terrestrial measurements, and determining that the location of the mobile device comprises the calculated terrestrial location when the calculated terrestrial location meets the predetermined accuracy threshold; and

calculating a hybrid location of the mobile device as a function of the received GNSS measurements and the received terrestrial measurements when neither the calculated GNSS location nor the calculated terrestrial location meets the predetermined accuracy threshold, and determining that the location of the mobile device comprises the calculated hybrid location when the calculated hybrid location meets the predetermined accuracy threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the GNSS measurements and the at least one terrestrial measurement are received over substantially the same period of time.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the GNSS location of the mobile device as a function of the received GNSS measurements and calculating the terrestrial location of the mobile device as a function of the received terrestrial measurements are performed in parallel.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether the received terrestrial measurements include terrestrial measurements from all of the transceivers when the calculated hybrid location does not meet the predetermined accuracy threshold; and

receiving remaining terrestrial measurements and calculating an additional terrestrial location of the mobile device as a function of the received terrestrial measurements and the received remaining terrestrial measurements when the received terrestrial measurements do not include the terrestrial measurements from all of the transceivers.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the GNSS measurements comprise measurements from one of a global positioning system (GPS), a Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), Galileo system or a COMPASS Navigation Satellite System (BeiDou).

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the terrestrial measurements comprise measurements from one of an uplink time difference of arrival (U-TDOA) system, an enhanced observed time difference (E-OTD) system, an angle of arrival (AoA) system or a power of arrival (POA) system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received request includes the predetermined accuracy threshold.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined accuracy threshold comprises a quality of position (QoP) parameter.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received request comprises a time limit in which the MLC is to complete determining the location of the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received request comprises a 911 call placed by the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

calculating GPS assistance data in response to the received request when the GNSS measurements comprise measurements from a GPS system; and

sending the GPS assistance data to the mobile device to improve a time-to-first-fix and a yield for obtaining the GPS measurements.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein calculating the GPS assistance data comprises:

receiving and collating GPS data from a plurality of fixed GPS receivers; and

calculating the GPS assistance data based on the received GPS data and an estimated location of the mobile device.

13. A system for determining a location of a mobile device in a wireless communication network, the system comprising:

a mobile location center (MLC) configured to determine, in parallel, a first location of the mobile device and a corresponding first accuracy as a function of first measurements and a second location of the mobile device and a corresponding second accuracy as a function of second measurements, and to identify one of the first location and the second location as the geographic location of the mobile device when any one of the first or second accuracies exceeds a predetermined threshold, and to determine a hybrid location of the mobile device as a function of the first measurements and the second measurements when neither the first accuracy nor the second accuracy exceeds the predetermined accuracy threshold.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the first measurements comprise global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurements received at least in part from the mobile device, and the second measurements comprise terrestrial measurements received from a plurality of nodes in the wireless communication network.

15. The system of claim 14 , further comprising:

an uplink time difference of arrival (U-TDOA) location service (ULS) server configured to receive the second measurements from the plurality of network nodes, the second measurements comprising U-TDOA measurements based on signals transmitted from each of the plurality of network nodes to the mobile device.

16. A method for a mobile location center (MLC) to determine a geographic location of a mobile device in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

concurrently requesting global navigation system (GNSS) measurements from the mobile device and terrestrial measurements from a plurality of nodes in the wireless communication network;

concurrently calculating a first location of the mobile device as a function of the GNSS measurements and a second location of the mobile device as a function of the terrestrial measurements;

calculating a third location of the mobile device as a function of both the GNSS measurements and the terrestrial measurements; and

selecting one of the first, second or third locations having a highest accuracy as the geographic location of the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein calculating the third location comprises:

determining when a complete set of GNSS measurements and a complete set of terrestrial measurements have been received; and

calculating the third location of the mobile device after the complete sets of GNSS and terrestrial measurements have been received.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein selecting the one of the first, second or third locations comprises:

determining an uncertainty value corresponding to each of the first, second and third locations; and

selecting one of the first, second or third locations having a smallest corresponding uncertainty value as the geographic location of the mobile device.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the wireless communication network comprises one of a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network and a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network.