EP-4741865-A1 - A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING A CURRENT GEOGRAPHICAL REGION OF A DEVICE

EP4741865A1EP 4741865 A1EP4741865 A1EP 4741865A1EP-4741865-A1

Abstract

There is described a method for estimating a current geographical region of a device, comprising: (i) receiving a first signal at a first radio frequency in a first geographical region; (ii) determining a value of the first radio frequency and a value of a first characteristic parameter of the first signal; (iii) providing a value of a second radio frequency of a second signal and a related value of a second characteristic parameter of the second signal and wherein the combination of these two values relate to a second geographical region; (iv) comparing the determined value of the first radio frequency with the value of the second radio frequency, and comparing the value of the first characteristic parameter with the value of the second characteristic parameter; (v) estimating if the device is located in the second geographical region based on the comparisons.

Inventors

GRUBER, ANDREAS
BAWOLSKI, MARCIN TOMASZ

Assignees

NXP B.V.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20241112

Claims (15)

A method for estimating a current geographical region of a device (200), wherein the device (200) comprises a sending and receiving unit (210) which is configured for sending and receiving signals at a radio frequency, and an analysis unit (220), wherein the method comprises: receiving a first signal at a first radio frequency in a first geographical region by the sending and receiving unit (210) of the device (200); determining a value of the first radio frequency and a value of a first characteristic parameter of the first signal by the analysis unit (220); providing from a database a value of a second radio frequency of a second signal and a related value of a second characteristic parameter of the second signal and wherein the combination of these two values relate to a second geographical region; comparing the determined value of the first radio frequency with the value of the second radio frequency, and comparing the value of the first characteristic parameter with the value of the second characteristic parameter by the analysis unit (220); estimating if the device (200) is located in the second geographical region based on the comparisons by the analysis unit (220).
The method according to claim 1, wherein the estimating is only carried out if based on the comparing the value of the first radio frequency is at least substantially the same as the value of the second radio frequency.
The method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the receiving of the first signal occurs repeatedly in succession at predetermined time intervals, and wherein the estimating is carried out for each of the first signals received.
The method according to one of the preceding claims, further comprising based on the estimation determining a probability that the device (200) is located in the second geographical region.
The method according to one of the preceding claims, wherein determining the value of the first characteristic parameter comprises applying a demodulation to the first signal received.
The method according to claim 5, wherein applying the demodulation comprises applying at least one of the group consisting of phase shift keying, PSK, frequency shift keying, FSK, gaussian frequency shift keying, GFSK, amplitude shift keying, ASK, on-off keying, OOK and binary phase shift keying, BPSK.
The method according to one of the preceding claims, comprising determining as characteristic parameter of the received first signal at least one of the group of transmission rate, preamble and start-frame-delimiter.
The method according to one of the preceding claims, further comprises determining, in case the result of the estimation is that the device is located in the second geographical region, a value-range of a radio frequency band at which it is allowed to send radio signals in the second geographical regions.
The method according to claim 8, wherein the device (200) sends a signal only at a value of a radio frequency which has been determined as being allowed at the current geographical region.
The method according to one of the preceding claims further comprises in case the result of the estimation is that the device is located in the second geographical region: Storing the combination of the value of the received first signal at the first radio frequency and the value of the first characteristic parameter with the related second geographical region as related data in the database; Using the stored combination and the related geographical region for the next estimation.
The method according to one of the preceding claims, further comprising: providing from a database a value of a third radio frequency of a third signal and a related value of a third characteristic parameter of the third signal and wherein the combination of these two values relate to a third geographical region; comparing the determined value of the first radio frequency with the value of the third radio frequency, and the value of the first characteristic parameter with the value of the third characteristic parameter by the analysis unit (220); wherein the estimating comprises if the device (200) is located in the second geographical region or the third geographical region based on the comparisons by the analysis unit (220).
A device (200), which is configured to perform the method according to one of the preceding claims.
The device (200) of claim 12, comprising: a sending and receiving unit (210), which is configured for receiving a first signal at a value of a first radio frequency in a first geographical region; a data storage in which a database with a number of signal data, each comprising a combination of a value of a radio frequency and a value of a characteristic parameter related to a geographical region, are stored; an analysis unit (220) which is configured to: determining a value of the first radio frequency and a value of a first characteristic parameter of the first signal; providing from a database a value of a second radio frequency of a second signal and a related value of a second characteristic parameter of the second signal and wherein the combination of these two values relate to a second geographical region; comparing the determined value of the first radio frequency with the value of the second radio frequency, and comparing the value of the first characteristic parameter with the value of the second characteristic parameter; estimating if the device (200) is located in the second geographical region based on the comparisons.
The device (200) of claim 13, comprising a control unit (230), which is configured to initiate sending a radio frequency signal at an allowed frequency, based on the estimation.
A computer program comprising instructions which have the effect that the device (200) of any of claims 12 to 14 executes the method steps of any of claims 1 to 11.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a method for estimating a current geographical region of a device, a device and a computer program. The disclosure may hence relate to the technical field of tracking a device in different geographical regions. TECHNICAL BACKGROUND In modern production supply chains components or sub-assemblies are often transported across different continents, i.e. across different geographical regions. Thereby throughout the logistic chain a so-called "live tracking" is aimed for. This means that the transported component can be located at any time or is located repeatedly with pre-set intervals. It is known that positions can be determined by using, for example, a global positioning system (GPS). However, there are cases where a localization determination via GPS is not working, for example if there is no GPS-receiver arranged at the component. For this reason, transmitting or sending units are arranged in the components, in palettes or plastic containers in which the components are transported. For tracking lower-value components a transmitter-only solution can be employed, in which a region of a given component can be estimated several times per day by e.g., by base stations of the known Sigfox network, which utilize received signal strength and trilateration for this purpose. This allows for using a low power tracker with long lasting batteries. However, at different continents, i.e. at different geographical regions, different rules for using industrial, science and medical (ISM) radio frequencies or radio frequency bands can apply. For example, different frequency bands can be assigned for license free operation for the ISM band. In other words, it is possible that in one continent a certain frequency band is license free for using ISM operation, wherein in another continent the same frequency band is used for another application and is not license free or it is not dedicated for ISM operation. One example can be a case where in the USA a frequency of 915 MHz is released for license free operation, wherein in Europe this frequency can be used only by license owners (e.g. mobile phone providers, terrestrial television providers). Conversely, the frequency band around 868 MHz is license-free in Europe for ISM applications, but in USA this frequency band is dedicated for licensed mobile phone communication. Sending with a frequency which is not dedicated to ISM applications would interfere with operations of licensed users and might even be forbidden by law. Defining regions in the world and which usage of frequency bands is allowed in each of the regions is within the responsibility of an organization called International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Such a region can then be named as for example ITU region 1 (e.g. Europe), 2 (e.g. USA) or 3. SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE There may be a need to provide an efficient and reliable method for estimating the current geographical region of a device in a situation where a positioning signal, for example based on a GPS signal, cannot be used. A method, a device and a computer program are provided. According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, it is described a, for example computer-implemented, method for estimating a current geographical region of a device, wherein the device comprises a sending and receiving unit which is configured for sending and receiving signals at a radio frequency, for example at a radio frequency range, and an analysis unit, wherein the method comprises: (i) receiving a first signal at a first radio frequency in a first geographical region by the sending and receiving unit of the device; (ii) determining a value of the first radio frequency and a value of a first characteristic parameter of the first signal by the analysis unit; (iii) providing from a database a value of a second radio frequency of a second signal and a related value of a second characteristic parameter of the second signal and wherein the combination of these two values relate to a second geographical region; (iv) comparing the determined value of the first radio frequency with the value of the second radio frequency, and comparing the value of the first characteristic parameter with the value of the second characteristic parameter by the analysis unit; (v) estimating if the device is located in the second geographical region based on the comparisons by the analysis unit. According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, it is described a device, which is configured to carry out the method of the first aspect. According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, it is described a computer program comprising instructions which have the effect that the device of the second aspect executes the method steps of the method of the first aspect. In the context of the present disclosure, the term "radio frequency" relates to electromagnetic waves at high frequencies which for example are in the range of 20 MHz to 300 GHz, and m