Crowdsourcing based on base station almanac quality

Abstract

Systems, apparatus and methods for a mobile device and a base station almanac server to throttle crowdsourcing information are presented. The crowdsourcing information is used to improve a location of a base station in a base station almanac. A portion of the base station almanac is provided to a mobile device. For example, the mobile device may identify its current cell and request the base station almanac. The mobile device records crowdsourcing information to identify, for each particular base station of at least one base station, a cellular identifier for the particular base station, optional ranging information between the particular base station and the mobile device, and an independent position of the mobile device. The independent position of the mobile device may be formed from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) or station signals independent of the at least one base station.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method in a mobile device for throttling crowdsourcing data, the method comprising:
 receiving, from a base station almanac server, a base station almanac that is based on a current cell identifier;   identifying, for each particular base station of at least three base stations, a cellular identifier for the particular base station;   computing a first position estimate of the mobile device based on locations of the at least three base stations;   determining a second position estimate of the mobile device, wherein the second position estimate of the mobile device is independent of signals from the at least three base stations;   determining that a discrepancy exist from a difference of the first position estimate and the second position estimate being greater than a threshold; and   sending crowdsourcing information for the at least three base stations, based on the discrepancy, to the base station almanac server;   wherein the crowdsourcing information comprises:
 the cellular identifier for each particular base station of the at least three base stations; and 
 the first position estimate and the second position estimate. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 measuring ranging information between the at least three base stations and the mobile device;   wherein the crowdsourcing information comprises the ranging information.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 measuring ranging information between the at least three base stations and the mobile device;   wherein the first position estimate is based on the ranging information.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the second position estimate of the mobile device comprises a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) position estimate. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the second position estimate of the mobile device comprises a position estimate based on base station signals. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving the threshold from the base station almanac server.