(12) united states patent g100 et a1. (45) date of patent ...€¦ · device location measurement...

(12) United States Patent G100 et a1.

US008098155B2

US 8,098,155 B2 Jan. 17, 2012

(10) Patent N0.: (45) Date of Patent:

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SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LOCATING A TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE

Inventors: Richard Michael Gloo, Mohawk, NY (US); Jacob Michael Baker, Rome, NY (US); Alexander James Williams, Schenectady, NY (US); Jason S. Lashure, Marcy, NY (US); Robert James Durham, Rome, NY (US); Nicholas Lawrence Owens, Rome, NY (Us)

Assignee: Assured Information Security, Inc., Rome, NY (US)

Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 422 days.

Appl. No.: 12/472,060

Filed: May 26, 2009

Prior Publication Data

US 2010/0302014 A1 Dec. 2, 2010

Int. Cl. G08B 1/08 (2006.01) H04M 11/04 (2006.01) H04 W24/00 (2009.01) US. Cl. ....... .. 340/539.21; 340/539.11; 340/539.13;

455/404.2; 455/456.1; 455/457; 342/386; 342/417; 342/451

Field of Classi?cation Search ............ .. 340/539.2l

See application ?le for complete search history.

References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

7,072,669 B1 7/2006 Duckworth 7,322,044 B2 1/2008 Hrastar

2004/0160363 A1 8/2004 Powers et a1. 2006/0128354 A1 6/2006 Carle et a1.

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

FR 2688892 A1 9/1993

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Yasar et a1, “Low Cost Solution for location Determination of Mobile

Nodes in aWireless Local Area Networ ” (ACE 06, Jun. 14-16, 2006,

Hollywood, CA, USA). Rick Hill, GeoLocation of Wireless Access Points and “Wireless GeoCaching.”

(Continued)

Primary Examiner * Donnie Crosland

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm * Blanche E. Schiller, Esq.; Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti RC.

(57) ABSTRACT

A method for locating a target wireless device is disclosed. At least one directional antenna is swept through a ?eld of view at each of a plurality of sensing locations. A position is deter mined for each of the plurality of sensing locations. During the sweep at each of the plurality of sensing locations, a set of signal strength data for the target wireless device and a set of bearing information are collected. A plurality of lines of bearing are determined, one from each of the plurality of sensing locations to the target wireless device, based on the determined position, the collected set of signal strength data, and bearing information for each of the plurality of sensing locations. A target location of the target wireless device is determined based on an intersection of at least two lines of bearing from the plurality of lines of bearing.

4,954,836 A 9/1990 Sakuma 5,448,248 A 9/1995 Anttila 6,141,558 A 10/2000 Chen 7,058,796 B2 6/2006 Lynn

'_ SELEcT A TARGET WIRELESS DEvIcE FROM A LISTING or WIRELESS I‘ 45 l DEVICES COLLECTED EITHER TH ROUGH A PRELIMINARY SWEEP OF THE M l AT LEAST oNE nIREcTIoNAI. ANTENNA OR FROM PRELIMINARY l READINGS QFAT LEAST oNE OMNIDIRECTIONALANTENNA J

FSEND AT LEAST oNE TRANsIvIIsBIoN To THE TARGET WIRELESS nEvIcE | 45 I To CAUSE THE TARGET DEVICE To EMIT TRANsMIssIoNs I)

50

. _ _ A _ _ A n54

F ADJUST ONE OR MoRE USER INTERFACE l | FEEDBACK MECHANISMS WHILE wLLEcTING l I THE SET or SIGNAL STRENGTH DATA FOR I | THE TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE DURING THE | | SWEEP AT EAcH or THE PLURALITV OF | | SENSING LOCATIONS To INDICATE A SIGNAL | I STRENGTH OF THE TARGET WIRELESS I I BEvIcE DURING THE SWEEFING AcTIoN AT I I EAcH OF THE PLURALITV OF SENSING I

I. _______________ _ _

COORDINATED WITH THE SWEEP AT EAcH OF THE

NAL STRENGTH DATA FOR THE

TARGET WIRELESS DEVICEAND A SET OF BEARING INFORMATION

A

i 54 DETERMINEA FLURALITV OF LINES OF BEARING‘ ONE FROM EACH OF THE

PLURALITV OF SENSING LOCATIONS TO THE TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE‘ BASED ON THE DETERMINED POSITION‘ THE COLLECTED SET OF SIGNAL STRENGTH DATA‘

AND BEARING INFORMATION FOR EACH OF THE PLURALITV OF SENSING LOCATIONS

DETERMINE A TARGET LOCATION OF THE TARGET WI RELESS DEVICE

BASED 0N AN INTERsEcTIoN OF AT LEAsTTvIIoLINEs OF BEARING FROM 50 \ [12 THE PLLIRALITY or LINES 0F BEARING |- QQEE?EF-M; gRETECEAELE "L

I DATA TRANSMITTED BY THE TARGET I WIRELESS DEVICE |

_ _ _ _ _ __fs2_ _____________

l nIsRuIv THE PLURALITVOF | I HIGHIIGHTAN INTER3ECTION OF l 54 I SENSING LocATIoNs AND THE | I AT LEAST TWO or THE PLURALITV V I FLURALITY or LINES SP | l or LINES OF BEARING GN THE I BEARING ON A MAP | | MAP

40 Claims, 17 Drawing Sheets

US 8,098,155 B2

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Elnahrawy et al, “Adding Angle of Arrival Modality to Basic RSS Location Management Techniques” (Department of Computer Sci ence, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854). Satoh et al., “Position Estimation of Wireless Access Point using Directional Antennas” (Graduate School of Information Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan; Information Technology Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan). Gwon et al., “Error Characteristics and Calibration-free Techniques for Wireless LAN-based Location Estimation” (MobiWac ’04, Oct. 1, 2004, Philadelphia, PA, USA). King et al., “Compass: A Probabilistic Indoor Positioning System Based on 802.11 and Digital Compasses” (WiNTECH ’06, Sep. 29, 2006, Los Angeles, CA, USA). Ferris et al., “Gaussian Processes for Signal Strength-Based Location Estimation” (University of Washington, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Seattle, WA; Intel Research Seattle, Seattle, WA). Byers et al., “802.1 1B Access Point Mapping” (Communications of the ACM, May 2001, vol. 46, No. 5). Faria et al., “Detecting Identity-Based Attacks in Wireless networks Using Signalprints” (WiSe ’06, Sep. 29, 2006, Los Angeles, CA, USA). An et al., “A Geocast Architecture for Mobile Cellular Networks” (NGC ’00, 11/00, Palo Alto, CA, USA). Haeberlen et al., “Practical Robust Localization over Large-Scale 802.11 Wireless Networks” (MobiCom ’04, Sep. 26-Oct. 1, 2004, Philadelphia, PA, USA). Astrain et al., “Fuzzy Location and Tracking on Wireless Networks” (MobiWAC ’06, Oct. 2, 2006, Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain).

Agiwal et al., “LocatoriLocation Estimation System for Wireless LANs” (WMASH ’04, Oct. 1, 2004, Philadelphia, PA, USA). Nasipuri et al., “A Directionality based Location Discovery Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks” (WSNA ’02, Sep. 28, 2002, Atlanta, GA, USA). Moustafa Youssef & Ashok Agrawala, “The Horus WLAN Location Determination System” (Department of Computer Science, Univer sity of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA). Zaruba et al., “Indoor location tracking using RSSI reading from a single Wi-Fi access point” (Published online: Jun. 8, 2006, Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007). Kozma et at., “Geometrically Aware Communication in Random Wireless Networks” (PODC ’04, Jul. 25-28, 2004, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada). Song et al., “Localized Algorithms for Energy Efficient Topology in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks” (Mobile Networks and Applications 10,911-923,2005). Schloter et al., “Wireless Symbolic Positioning using Support Vector Machines” (IWCMC’06, Jul. 3-6, 2006, Vancouver, British Colum bia, Canada). Bishop et al., “A Discussion on Passive Location Discovery in Emit ter Networks Using Angle-Only Measurements” (IWCMC ’06, Jul. 3-6, 2006, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada). Lamarca et al., “Self-Mapping in 802.11 Location Systems” (Intel Research Seattle). Krumm et al., “Minimizing Calibration Effort for an Indoor 802.11 Device Location Measurement System” (Microsoft Research, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA 98052). de Moraes et at., “Calibration-Free WLAN Location System Based on Dynamic Mapping of Signal Strength” (MobiWac ’06, Oct. 2, 2006, Torremolinos, Malaga, Spain). International Search Report and Written Opinion for PCT/US2010/ 036161 dated Oct. 11,2010.

US. Patent Jan. 17, 2012 Sheet 1 0f 17 US 8,098,155 B2


I SELECT A TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE FROM A LISTING OF WIRELESS I 46 I DEVICES COLLECTED EITHER THROUGH A PRELIMINARY SWEEP OF THE I I AT LEAST ONE DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA OR FROM PRELIMINARY I READINGS OF AT LEAST ONE OM NIDIRECTIONAL ANTENNA I l- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ — _ _ _ _._...l

5- —|48 ITS-TENT) KTTETAST ONE TTRATNSTATSSTON TO THE TAITGETWIREIESSTDET/ICE I TO CAUSE THE TARGET DEVICE TO EMIT TRANSMISSIONS [j I- _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Y ._ ._ _ __ __

5O SWEEP AT LEAST ONE DIRECTIONAL DETERMINE A POSITION 51 K ANTENNA THROUGH A FIELD OF FOR EACH OF THE /

VIEW AT EACH OF A PLURALITY OF PLURALITY OF SENSING SENSING LOCATIONS LOCATIONS

ADJUST ONE OR MORE USER INTERFACE TI gevoE'ég'zyEiDcnvgg I FEEDBACK MECHANISMS WHILE COLLECTING |

| THE SET OF SIGNAL STRENGTH DATA FOR | fgéiqénsoggihgsi | THE TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE DURING THE |

SET OF'S‘GNAL SWEEP AT EACH OF THE PLURALITY OF STRENGTH DATA FOR THE | SENSING LOCATIONS TO INDICATE A SIGNAL

TARGET WIRELESS I STRENGTH OF THE TARGET WIRELESS ‘ DEVICE AND A SET OF DEvICE DURING THE SWEEPING ACTION AT

EACH OF THE PLURALITY OF SENSING II L _ _ _ _ _ _ LOEAIIQNB _ _ _ _ _ _ J

V /56 DETERMINE A PLURALITY OF LINES OF BEARING, ONE FROM EACH OF THE

PLURALITY OF SENSING LOCATIONS TO THE TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE, BASED ON THE DETERMINED POSITION, THE COLLECTED SET OF SIGNAL STRENGTH DATA,

AND BEARING INFORMATION FOR EACH OF THE PLURALITY OF SENSING LOCATIONS

I BEARING INFORMATION |

[____._T _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___158 68 /\ 66 IGNORE ONE OR MORE OF THE I] FL, / / \

IL PLURALITY OF LINES OF BEARING I / / CONSmOUg J _ _ _ _ Q _ _ _ _ T _ _ _ _ NO / INSTRUCTION TO \ \ 70

\ SAVE OR LOOK AT DETERMINE A TARGET LOCATION OF \ PROTECTABLE/ / YES

\ THE TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE BASED ON AN INTERSECTION OF AT LEAST TWO LINES OF BEARING FROM 60 \' 72

THE PLURALITY OF LINES OF BEARING |_ ;R6TTE_C¥ABLEC I I DATA TRANSMITTED BY THE TARGET |

l I WIRELESS DEVICE L- _ _ _ _ _ _ — — _ _ — ~ _- —

__ _ _ _ _ f62_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

I DISPLAY THE PLURALITY OF I I HIGHLIGHT AN INTERSECTION OF I 64 I SENSING LOCATIONS AND THE [ I AT LEAST TWO OF THE PLURALITY V I PLURALITY OF LINES OF I I OF LINES OF BEARING ON THE I BEARING ON A IVIAP | I MAP |


USER 82 INTERFACE j

DIRECTIONAL POSITIONING _ _ _ _ _ _

ANTENNA SYSTEM : FEEDBACK ywzl E E IMEEiA?'iMJ

PROCESSOR

/ ' \ 86

80\ I (9) I \ a) /

COMPASS ( I l _. __ \

88 : FT —- T )| 90 | _ _ _ _ _ _| DATA I]

74__/4 |STORAGE k ,'


108 FIG. 4B


FOEIZOE FOTGAEEETWF'EFEESBEvEEBT MoT?o'Faf?c? _| 154 ONE OR MORE SELECTED CHANNELS OR FREQUENCIES

RECEIVE DATA FROM THE TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE WHILE SWEEPNG A DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA THROUGH A FIELD OF VIEW

I A FIRST LIST OF BEARINGS AND AN AVERAGE SIGNAL STRENGTH VALUE RECEIVED AT EACH BEARING ARE

CREATED FROM THE COLLECTED SET OF SIGNAL STRENGTH DATA AND BEARING INFORMATION FOR THE SENSING

LOCATION.

158

I IDENTIFY THE MAXIMUM SIGNAL STRENGTH J

VALUE IN THE FIRST LIST

I 162 DEFINE A SIGNAL THRESHOLD BASED ON _/ THE MAXIMUM SIGNAL STRENGTH VALUE

ALL PAIRS OF BEARING AND AVERAGE SIGNAL STRENGTH VALUES FROM THE FIRST LIST HAVING AN AVERAGE SIGNAL STRENGTH VALUE ABOVE THE SIGNAL THRESHOLD ARE ADDED TO A SECOND

LIST

i 165 FSCALEBEARHTGS IN THE SECONIETLTS'FIEE/ THEY ARE BELOW ZERO DEGREES OR

ABOVE 359 DEGREES

AVERAGE THE BEARING VALUES IN THE SECOND LIST TO DETERMINE A LINE OF BEARING TO THE TARGET WIRELESS

DEVICE.

FIG. 8


testing: imageTest Date Run Wed Apr U9 11:21:56 EDT 2006 Report Created Wed Apr 23 10:32:18 EDT ZDDEI Packet Count 221 Devices Discovered if) 2 access points, 3 attached devices:

(11:17:59) System initialized. Operating System: Windows Antenna Type: Phased Array Beacon List: Alerts List (by MAC): IJIJ:1C:26:U6:1C:7E Alerts List (by SSID): off

(11:18:03) Started scanning on all channels.

(11:18:38) Started capturing on channel snurne: 1‘, destination: *.

(11:18:51) Locked on to IJD:13:CE:22:CU:6E on channel 5.

(11:19::15) Note added: took lock screenshot

(11:19:51.) Line nf Bearing Determined: 4-3 13.1642' N 75 25.23v W Heading: 243,7 Residual: 0156435331407

(11:19:51) Cleared lock from UIII:13:CE:22:CIJ:6E.

(11:19:51) Started scanning on channel off.

(11:19:53) Started scanning an all channels.

FIG. 9


i'__ Line Of Be?fill? [0 0:91)

4313.1T9'N 75 26.246B'W Heading: 149.0 1 Residual: [195435998941 38264

25 M58

7 Residual: 0.6226369818446109

j Heading: 55,5 1 Residual: 0.5963494590059574

.T mmumiionfno #:2013315 91) imamwm 11s 25.2mm

FIG. 12 K204

U S. Patent Jan. 17, 2012 Sheet 10 0f 17 US 8,098,155 B2

FIG. 13

US. Patent Jan. 17, 2012

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US 8,098,155 B2 1

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR LOCATING A TARGET WIRELESS DEVICE

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

This invention Was made With government support under United States Government contract number FA8750-07-C 0192. The government has certain rights in the invention.

FIELD

The claimed invention generally relates to methods and systems for locating Wireless devices.

COPYRIGHT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document con tains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright oWner has no objection to the facsimile reproduc tion by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark O?ice patent ?les or records, but oth erWise reserves all copyright rights Whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

When thinking about cyber crimes, it is common to think about illegal hacking into a secured computer system to vieW or steal information. Others may perhaps think about the creation of computer viruses Which are then set loose on netWorks or the internet to sloW doWn computer systems, tie up communication bandWidth, or erase computer data. Cyber crimes have also expanded to include a range of activities from the stealing of internet service, to inappropriate contact With children or the posting of child pornography on the internet.

While laW enforcement of?cials have become increasingly vigilant for cyber crimes, their ability to track doWn and catch cyber criminals is hampered by a proliferation of Wireless technology Which is being used to access computer netWorks. For example, police o?icers are often able to identify illegal cyber activity and trace it back to a source location, for example, a street address associated With a broadband modem that has been linked to the cyber crime. Often, hoWever, once the o?icers investigate the residence or business at the located street address, they ?nd that a Wireless access point has been installed at the location and that the people at the residence or business do not oWn or have the Wireless device Which Was

connecting to the Wireless access point and committing the cyber crime. Once the people at that location are cleared, the police unfortunately do not have a Way to trace the offending device and user Which are or Were connecting to the Wireless access point.

With the proliferation of Wireless access points and other Wireless technologies, it is becoming even easier for crimi nals to commit cyber crimes. Furthermore, there is increas ingly a cyber component to traditional crimes. For example, more criminals are taking advantage of Wireless voice-over lP technology to have untraceable phone calls. Even terrorists are taking advantage of Wireless technology to detonate explosive devices. Sadly, as many as 95% of cyber crimes are believed to go unsolved due to such dif?culties, and laW enforcement of?cials are in great need of tools not only to help them identify the source of such threats, but also to locate the perpetrators themselves so that the criminals may be apprehended and the cyber crimes prevented.

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2 Therefore, it Would be very desirable to have an economi

cal, ?exible, potentially portable, and easy to use method and system for locating a target Wireless device.

SUMMARY

A method for locating a target Wireless device is disclosed. At least one directional antenna is sWept through a ?eld of vieW at each of a plurality of sensing locations. A position for each of the plurality of sensing locations is determined. Dur ing the sWeep at each of the plurality of sensing locations, a set of signal strength data for the target Wireless device and a set of bearing information are collected. A plurality of lines of bearing are determined, one from each of the plurality of sensing locations to the target Wireless device, based on the determined position, collected set of signal strength data, and bearing information for each of the plurality of sensing loca tions. A target location of the target Wireless device is deter mined based on an intersection of at least tWo lines of bearing from the plurality of lines of bearing. An apparatus for locating a target Wireless device is also

disclosed. The apparatus has a directional antenna con?gured to be sWept through a ?eld of vieW at each of a plurality of sensing locations. The apparatus also has a positioning sys tem con?gured to determine each of the plurality of sensing locations. The apparatus also has a compass con?gured to determine bearing information for the directional antenna. The apparatus further has a user interface. The apparatus also has a processor coupled to the directional antenna, the posi tioning system, the compass, and the user interface. The pro cessor is con?gured to I) collect a set of signal strength data for transmissions received from the target Wireless device by the directional antenna during a sWeep of the directional antenna at each of the plurality of sensing locations; 2) deter mine a position from the positioning system for each of the plurality of sensing locations; 3) collect a set of bearing information from the compass for each set of signal strength data; 4) determine a plurality of lines of bearing, one from each of the plurality of sensing locations to the target Wireless device, based on the determined position, the collected set of signal strength data, and collected set of bearing information for each of the plurality of sensing locations; 5) determine a target location of the target Wireless device based on an inter section of at least tWo lines of bearing from the plurality of lines of bearing; and 6) display the target location on the user interface. A system for locating a target Wireless device is also dis

closed. The system has a plurality of directional antennas, each con?gured to be sWept through a ?eld of vieW at one or more sensing locations. The system also has a plurality of compasses con?gured to determine bearing information for the plurality of directional antennas. The system further has at least one user interface. The system also has at least one processor coupled to the plurality of directional antennas, at least one of the plurality of compasses, and the at least one user interface. The at least one processor is con?gured to I) collect multiple sets of signal strength data from transmis sions received from the target Wireless device by the plurality of directional antennas during a sWeep of the plurality of directional antennas at the one or more sensing locations; 2) collect multiple sets of bearing information from the plurality of compasses, each of the sets of bearing information corre sponding to one of the multiple sets of signal strength data; 3) determine a plurality of lines of bearing, one from each of the one or more sensing locations to the target Wireless device, based on the collected sets of signal strength data and bearing information for each of the plurality of sensing locations; 4)

(12) united states patent g100 et a1. (45) date of patent ...€¦ · device location measurement...

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