Method and apparatus for identifying coverage of cellular networks

Abstract

There is provided a method in a User Equipment (UE) device of identifying coverage of cellular networks, without limiting access to subscribed services provided by a subscribed network to the User Equipment, comprising: retrieving RF measurements and cell information from the subscribed network and from other non- subscribed networks detectable by the UE during an idle state. There is also provided an apparatus for carrying out the disclosed method.

Description

[0001] METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING COVERAGE OF CELLULAR NETWORKS

[0002] FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0003] The invention relates to a method and apparatus for gaining insight to the availability of mobile networks.

[0004] BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0005] There is a desire to provide cell network measurement data (e.g., Radio Frequency (RF) measurements, at a specific location, etc.) for determining the performance or geographical extent of a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) cellular Radio Access Network (RAN), Radio Access Technology (RAT) e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G networks, and beyond. There are various ways in which such cell network measurement data may be provided.

[0006] A first example source are the Crowd-source data aggregators (e.g., OpenSignal, Tutela, Teragence), who typically acquire network measurements from a User Equipment (UE) device registered to a cellular network, through specific dedicated software application libraries (Code) integrated into commercial mobile software applications (Apps). Apps containing such Code may be installed onto end-user UE’s, such as mobile phones and tablet computers, where network measurements are acquired by the App and further transmitted to the data aggregator.

[0007] A second example is the use of dedicated field measurement solutions (e.g., Commercial solutions such as Rohde & Schwarz GmbH ‘Mobile Network Test’ equipment), which typically use special dedicated software modified UEs to facilitate measurement tasks from the modem within the UE, and these special dedicated UEs may be combined with radio frequency (RF) scanners to augment other measurement data. Similarly, dedicated radio frequency scanners (e.g., Rohde & Schwarz GmbH ‘TSME’ equipment), can be used to capture measurements from many available networks in parallel.

[0008] Accordingly, there is a desire provide an improved method and apparatus for carrying cell network measurement in order to provide the cell network measurement data.

[0009] SUMMARY

[0010] It is an object of the present disclosure to facilitate identifying and measuring coverage of one or more cellular networks. The Measurements captured during this process may be used to provide comprehensive insight into network availability in a geographical location, and without the need for additional network subscriptions, other than the current registered network of the UE, and without limiting the ability to perform regular subscribed network services when required by the UE.

[0011] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Examples of the invention are further described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0013] Figure 1 shows an example method of acquiring Measurements according to an example of the disclosure;

[0014] Figure 2 shows an example of logical interfaces used by the method of Figure 1 ;

[0015] Figure 3 shows an example scheduling method for Measurements according to an example of the disclosure; Figure 4 shows an example Measurement UE configured to carry out any of the disclosed methods according to an example of the disclosure;

[0016] Figure 5 shows an example high level system configuration according to an example of the disclosure;

[0017] Figure 6 shows an example of possible triggers for Measurement activities according to an example of the disclosure;

[0018] Figure 7 shows an example timeline view of RRC IDLE and UE service request, according to an example of the disclosure;

[0019] Figure 8 shows an example of how a Measurement UE within a vehicle may travel along a route according to an example of the disclosure;

[0020] Figure 9 shows an example of contributors towards a ‘well defined’ RF environment according to an example of the disclosure.

[0021] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0022] There are problems with the afore-mentioned known processes to measure cell network measurement data. For example, RF measurements from crowd-sourced data aggregators are acquired from end-user devices with undefined RF transmission and reception paths (e.g., variations of antenna orientation, location of operation (e.g., in a jacket or trouser pocket, inside a motor vehicle, etc.)). Thus, methods using crowdsourcing may only capture empirical data that articulates an example user experience, but is subjective due to the uncontrolled and unrepeatable method of execution.

[0023] Furthermore, the availability of RF measurements and cell information from crowd-sourced devices is limited to that provided by the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on devices from the respective Operating System (OS) vendors Software Development Kits (SDK), e.g., Open Handset Alliance ‘Android’ OS and Apple Inc. ‘iOS’, etc. Apple Inc’s. iOS API, for example, provides a developer with a report of the current network operator and cellular technology from a target UE (where the term target UE defines the UE carrying out the cell information measurement process, in an App), however, the iOS API does not expose data reported by the modem for either cell RF measurements or further cell information. Moreover, previous UE based measurement solutions perform successive measurements from the registered network only (where registered means connected to the subscribed network).

[0024] Meanwhile, dedicated field measurement solutions typically contain a configuration of multiple UEs (e.g., a bank of differently configured UEs, each able to take their own measurements for the main network on which they are registered) to capture measurements from more than one network. Typically, such UEs are not able to be used concurrently for their regular intended purpose (e.g., used for calls, texts, data, etc), due to the way in which they are specifically configured for use in the field measurement solutions in which they are provided. Moreover, dedicated network field measurement equipment and RF scanners may be considered unattractive for wide-scale deployment due to cost and setup complexity.

[0025] Furthermore, current maps of network coverage are limited in accuracy, detail, and granularity due to a lack of real-world measurements. Network operators typically provide coverage maps based upon mathematical modelling, generated by network planning tools. These tools typically consider known constants, such as location of cell towers, orientation of their antennas, transmitted power levels and the frequency of the radio waves deployed. However, the accuracy of mathematical modelling is challenging, due to the numerous undefined radio propagators such as the reflection, absorption and scattering of radio waves from temporary or permanent objects, such as motor vehicles, trees, and buildings. This is to say, known modelling methods fail to consider real-world parameters that are often time-varying (such as local population movements, foliage coverage within the transmission(s) paths, etc). Here, it is also to be born in mind that the aim of the mathematical model is to predict the receive power at theoretical place(s) of reception.

[0026] With the aforementioned problems identified by the present inventors in mind, the technical operation and advantages of the present disclosure shall now be provided by way of a plurality of examples that are merely illustrative of the novel and inventive features, and the disclosed examples are intended to be fully combinable in any reasonable combination.

[0027] For example, examples of the present disclosure allow for measurement of actual power from the broadcast channel(s) received at any given location under measurement. It is also envisaged that the use of a Measurement UE, according to the present disclosure, that has a well-defined RF environment (i.e. , known and repeatable transmission path(s)) may be used to overcome the shortcomings of current crowd-sourced data acquisition methodologies.)

[0028] In the following disclosure, the term UE is meant a device containing a cellular modem plus Application Processor (AP) with associated RF components (antenna, cables, interconnects) which when connected to a power supply, and a valid subscription (via Subscription Identity Module (SIM) card, or other means) offers network connectivity. The device may offer data from additional sensors.

[0029] Furthermore, the term Measurement UE refers to a UE running the method. The Measurement UE may be connected to, or integrated within a vehicle and has access to Location data, e.g., Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) which may be enhanced with additional information provided by UE, such as 'wheel tick' and Real-Time Clock (RTC) for date-and-time.

[0030] In typical regular deployment, a 3GPP cellular UE will enter a state defined by the 3GPP standards body as Radio Resource Control (RRC) IDLE state. This state is entered when a modem within a UE has no ongoing service request. This RRC IDLE state is defined to facilitate a modem to save power. In prior implementations, the RRC IDLE state is only interrupted by service requests from either the UE, modem, or the serving network. For example, whilst in the RRC IDLE state, the modem of the UE may execute scheduled measurements of the registered network only, according to 3GPP specifications, to maintain its connection with the serving cell in a power efficient manner.

[0031] Examples of the present disclosure provide a UE specifically configured with the ability to perform the acquisition and measuring processes on top of its regularly intended purpose (i.e. to provide communications according to the respective wireless communications standard). In the present disclosure, such a specifically configured UE is referred to as a Measurement UE (i.e., a Measurement UE refers to a UE running one or more of the disclosed method(s)). The Measurement UEs according to the present disclosure may be connected to, or integrated within, a vehicle and may have access to location data (e.g., derived from location detecting hardware within the vehicle, or indeed itself).

[0032] A typical application for a Measurement UE according to the present disclosure, is to acquire “Measurements” and then present maps of network coverage based on those Measurements. However, examples of the present disclosure are not limited to this single application.

[0033] According to the present disclosure, a Measurement refers to data reported by the method. This Measurement data may contain one or more of the following:

[0034] 1) a predefined RF measurement according to the 3GPP wireless standard in use, e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (in 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE)) (RSRP), Synchronization Signal Reference Signal Received Power (in 5G New Radio (NR)) (SS-RSRP), Synchronization Signal Reference Signal

[0035] Received Quality (in NR) (SS-RSRQ), Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) in LTE and NR.

[0036] 2) Informational Elements received from the network Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH): Master

[0037] Information Block (MIB) and System Information Blocks (SIB), identify its Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) Mobile Country Code (MCC) Mobile Network Code (MNC) its area code Location Area Code (LAC) in 2G, or Routing Area Code (RAC) in 3G, or Tracking Area Code (TAC) in 4G, and its Cell Identity (Cl). Different RATs identify the area code differently. Additionally Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), Carrier Bandwidth.

[0038] 3) Geo-Location data (e.g., from location detection hardware, such as GPS / GLONASS, and the like, or from network location services, e.g., triangulation).

[0039] 4) Date-and-time from RTC

[0040] 5) Additional data available from other sensors within a UE.

[0041] According to some examples, the different possible types of Measurement data exemplified above may be combined to provide enriched data sets. For example, RF measurements, or Informational Element(s) enriched with geo-location data. A Measurement may also be defined as a datapoint having multiple values or Informational Elements of different type, out of the above listed examples.

[0042] Mobile devices such as handsets or tablet computers containing 3GPP compliant modems are typically power constrained due to limited battery capacity. To support the goal of increasing device autonomy, the 3GPP specifications propose mechanisms to reduce power consumption. One of these mechanisms within the 3GPP standards is to enable the receiver only for scheduled RF measurements, during RRC IDLE.

[0043] When these scheduled RF measurement tasks are not active (e.g., within the scheduled non-active periods), and no request for UE networks services is ongoing, the relevant 3GPP standard(s) defines the RRC IDLE state, which is a UE cellular modem power state that provides the UE an opportunity to save power.

[0044] Whereas, in a Measurement UE according to the present disclosure, the Measurement UE purposely surrenders the ability to save power in RRC IDLE state, in order to gain utility of capturing measurements and cell information during the RRC IDLE periods. Accordingly, to make the most beneficial use of the inventive concept, the Measurement UE would be a UE device with a widely unconstrained electrical power supply. For example, the Measurement UE may be connected to or integrated into a vehicle with its own, effectively unlimited, power supply (since it either has so much battery power available, it is not limiting to examples of this disclosure, or it can literally produce power from its Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) with Alternator setup, or the like), or the UE may be coupled to alternative and / or additional power supplies - e.g. integrated with an additional battery (e.g. vehicle traction or general system battery), an alternator, a generator or the like, and / or may be powered by some renewable power source means, such as solar, wind, tidal, or otherwise.

[0045] Examples of the method and apparatus according to the present disclosure may be applied to any form of vehicle. In a more typical use-case scenario, examples may be vehicles with integrated UE cellular modems (e.g., the vehicle gateway device) such as passenger or commercial vehicles, where the said vehicle’s additional power sources (e.g., ICE, Traction battery, etc) can provide the noted widely unconstrained electrical power supply with respect to the power budget to operate the Measurement UE modem (esp. vs. the power budget of the vehicle overall).

[0046] Moreover, vehicular example embodiments are particularly beneficial, since they may offer a well- defined / characterised RF environment, are eminently repeatable in use, and naturally operate in areas in which network cell information measurements are most useful - i.e., operate “where people go” or “where devices that need RF communications / coverage go”. Furthermore, the typical mounting height for automotive antennas (for example, approximately 1 m-5m for vehicles, and more particularly, 1.5m from ground level for passenger vehicles), is also in the range considered typical for mobile handset UE operation. Thus, using vehicular based Measurement UEs are a good proxy / surrogate for the wider / more generally applicable UE mobile terminal use experience.

[0047] Furthermore, example embodiments of the present disclosure that are vehicle based can be integrated and made available for use within a vehicle at little additional cost and effort, thereby creating opportunity for a wide distribution of measurement nodes (i.e., at a numerically / statistically valid scale).

[0048] Examples of the present disclosure utilises a suitably programmed UE (which is herein also referred to as the Measurement UE) to capture the above defined Measurements about the various network entities that the UE can detect, or otherwise communicate with, during use as the UE moves about a geographical area. The UE may be transported in any way, for example placed on any form of vehicle.

[0049] Examples of the present disclosure allows a UE cellular modem that is part of a Measurement UE to perform the disclosed method(s), without limiting the ability to perform subscribed network tasks, when required by the UE.

[0050] Examples of the present disclosure enable the capture of Measurements from radio cells of the registered and other networks visible to (i.e., detectable by) the UE, from one logical instance of a cellular modem.

[0051] As will now be appreciated, existing solutions designed to capture measurements and cell information from network radio cells require specialist equipment for data acquisition, such as a) dedicated Radio Frequency (RF) scanners; b) dedicated field measurement equipment deploying significantly software modified UE(s) to facilitate the performance of measurement tasks on a registered network (such modified UEs are commonly configured in multiples, to facilitate the capture of measurements from several different networks, but most importantly, such modified UEs are not used concurrently for their regular intended purpose, i.e. providing typical UE derived communication abilities to a standard / lay-person user); c) Non-dedicated test equipment such as a commercial UE running a software application containing code from a crowd-source data aggregator, is limited in scope, and hence only able to capture a reduced set of measurements from the registered network, and without any form of defined radio performance being available, hence limiting the use of the resultant measurement data to provide detailed and more generally applicable measurement metrics.

[0052] Examples of the present disclosure may enrich the captured measurements and cell information with geolocation data and present maps of network coverage based upon the geolocation-enriched captured measurement and cell information data.

[0053] An example of the present disclosure utilises specified modem functionality, particularly the performance of network search, prescribed by the standards body 3GPP through specifications, to enable the subscriber to search for all available networks. During this measurement procedure, cell RF measurements and the decoding of cell information from radio cells of the registered and other networks are performed by the so- configured UE.

[0054] The network availability provided by examples of the present disclosure may include a summarized form of any data collected.

[0055] Figure 1 shows an example method of performing Measurements, consisting of RF measurements and decoding of MIBs and SIBs by a Measurement UE according to an example of the present disclosure. The method starts at step 110, by the cellular modem in the UE (hereinafter called UE Modem) receiving the measurement task(s) from a Scheduler, which begins a network search. This may take the form of an AT+COPS=? command, as defined by the 3GPP standard 27.007.

[0056] The network search is carried out for all configured bands and (enhanced) absolute radio-frequency channel numbers ((E)-ARFCNs) starting at 120.

[0057] At 130, it is tested whether the UE Modem is currently in the RRC IDLE state. If it is not in the RRC IDLE state, then the method waits for either ongoing UE initiated, modem initiated or other network-initiated task(s), to complete 140 (See Figure 7 for more details). Optionally, the method may return to 130 to check once again. Whereas, if the UE Modem is in the RRC IDLE state, then the method proceeds by the UE Modem performing RF measurements 150, and decodes information received from the base station(s) during the scan. For example, the method may comprise decoding information received from the BCCH of identified cell(s).

[0058] At step 160, the UE Modem presents the results of the RF measurements and the information decoded from the identified cell(s) to the Scheduler 200.

[0059] At step 170, the method checks that the overall network search is complete, e.g., checks all defined cells, (E)ARFCNs, etc, have been measured and processed.

[0060] Once the one or more individual network search(s) (e.g. one per configured band) are complete, then the overall results may be presented 180 to the Scheduler 200. A typical report for step 180, may be the result of a manual PLMN (network) search, where all identified networks and associated RATs are presented.

[0061] Figure 2 shows an example of the logical interfaces used by the method of Figure 1 . Figure 1 shows a UE Modem 101 , which shows how examples of the disclosure engages at least part of the UE Modem infrastructure to carry out the disclosed measurement tasks. The UE Modem is operably coupled to the Scheduler 200, via output signals 204 and input signal 202 (for example the AT+COPS=? command described in more detail below). The output signals include one or more of: Detailed information from the identified cell(s); Further information of the identified cell(s); list of available networks; Modem task completion flag; other signals described below. The UE Modem 101 may or may not have inputs from one or more Additional Sensor(s) 230, via the connection 232.

[0062] The scheduler 200 carries out the configuring and starting / stopping of the measurement tasks, the forwarding of results to another entity for further processing or display, with an option to do some lightweight post-processing, and is operatively coupled to a Location function 210, providing location data 211 , a Date-and- Time function 220, providing Date-and-Time data 221 . The Additional Sensor(s) 230, may or may not provide data over bi-directional connection 232 in addition to the Additional Sensor(s) data to the Scheduler 200 over bidirectional connection 231 . The scheduler 200 is also operatively coupled to a Back-end processing system 240, which provides Control and Data processing, Data storage and Presentation functions, which may be local to the Measurement UE, or remote. The Backend 240 may provide measurement task requests 206 (i.e. measurement task triggers) to the Scheduler 200, for example, including one or more of: Continuous request; Time-based request; Location based request, or another form of request. The Back End 240 may also receive the outputted Measurement(s) results 208.

[0063] Figure 3 shows an example scheduling method for Measurements according to an example of the disclosure. This scheduling method may be used for the overall method carried out by the UE Modem 101 , as shown Figure 1 . As can be seen from this figure, the Scheduler 200 is at least responsible for:

[0064] 1 . Initiating a UE Modem task to carry out the RF measurements;

[0065] 2. Handling UE Modem responses with the results of the Measurements (RF measurements and information decoded from MIBs / SIBs) carried out;

[0066] 3. Enriching the Measurements with further data, such as geolocation, Date-and-Time data, and potentially additional sensor(s) data (this may take the form of correlating Measurements with said geolocation and / or date-and-Time data);

[0067] 4. Forwarding enriched Measurements for data recording, and eventual use in the mapping of network availability.

[0068] In more detail, the Local Control function 310, is responsible for calling the receiver for task trigger 320, depending on the defined trigger conditions set by a Backend 240, this may include configuration of output conditions 355 via connection 357. The trigger conditions set by the Backend 240 may refer to data from entities external to the Scheduler 200, e.g., Location data 211 , Date-and-Time data 221 and other optional Additional Sensor(s) data 231 , which are available to the Scheduler 200 (e.g., Local Control function 310, etc). Local Control 310, is also responsible for the forwarding of enriched responses created by 370 to the Backend via response 208. At completion (i.e. the end of) of a triggered task 380 it informs Local Control 310.

[0069] The receiver for task trigger 320, issues commands to the UE Modem 101 , e.g., via connection 202, to configure the measurement task at UE Modem 101 , as well as potentially issuing commands (e.g., configuration commands) to any Additional Sensor(s) 230, e.g., via connection 321 .

[0070] The receiver for partial task response 340, is responsible for collecting responses from UE Modem 101 , e.g., via connection 204, and any Additional Sensor(s) 230, e.g. via connection 341. Should the Modem response(s) 204 not indicate completion of the task, a decision may be made at task completed 350, whether to end the loop at End 380 and to return to Local Control 310, or the partial response is enriched at 360, for example by Date-and-Time data 221 and Location data 211 if not already performed by UE Modem 101 and contained in Modem response(s) 204. Subsequently a check is made whether values meet the output conditions of 355. Depending on the decision at 355, the loop returns to receiver for partial task response 340. Otherwise, the loop returns by forwarder for enriched response 370 instead. The completed response(s) 371 are forwarded to Local Control 310 for further processing. The forwarder 370 returns to receiver for partial task response 340 to process the next received response from Modem responses 204 or Sensor(s) data values 341 .

[0071] In addition to commands to configure the UE Modem 101 , e.g., via connection 202, which are prescribed by the 3GPP standards body and which offer limited Measurement information to the method, proprietary commands are frequently available from cellular modem vendors, providing specific commands that may be leveraged by examples of the present disclosure to provide more detailed RF measurements or cell information. According to some examples, bespoke functions may be added to the firmware of the UE Modem 101 . By adding such functions to the firmware of the UE Modem, it becomes possible to provide the disclosed method with further opportunities to enhance the execution of the method and further detail the Measurements carried out (and data / analysis provided therefrom). Deeper integration of the disclosed method within the UE Modem 101 also offers opportunity to reduce power consumption of the method. In some examples, detailed cell information may be provided by the UE Modem, but which can be modified in use to capture the most detailed view of the network(s) visible to the UE during the measurement phase(s) of the disclosed method. Figure 4 shows an example Measurement UE 400 that can be used to explore the deployment options of the method according to an example of the disclosure. As shown in this figure, examples of the disclosed testing method(s) may reside in a Measurement UE 400 and may be controlled / carried out by any one or more of the processing resources available in the Measurement UE 400, those processing resources including: an Application Processor (AP) 410, operatively coupled to the UE Modem CPU 420, and / or a Layer 1 CPU 440. As such, the method may be carried out by any one or more of the processing resources available in the UE Modem 101 , as will be described in further detail below. In this figure, the layers are defined as follows: Layer 1 (490) is a programming, logical interface to the physical layer (PHY), which may also be referred to as the Radio layer in wireless communications standards; Layer 2 (450) is an abstraction of control for Radio Resource Control (RRC); Layer 3 (430) is a control Plane including Mobility and Session Management to maintain the logical connection of the Measurement UE 400 to the network.

[0072] AP 410 Controlled:

[0073] In the simplest data retriever approach, the AP 410 runs the scheduler 200 which can be implemented within any Measurement UE 400, and which is limited only by the specific Measurement options which a given UE Modem 101 implementation offers (For example, a basic PLMN Search may be provided (e.g. AT+COPS=?)). The UE Modem 101 may be configurable to listen to diagnostic channels and / or be operated by proprietary commands to acquire further information from SIBs or other RF derived data, including RF measurements. These commands may be issued by the AP 410 to the UE Modem 101 .

[0074] Modem CPU 420 controlled:

[0075] In this alternative, the disclosed Measurement method may be controlled by the UE modem CPU 420. In this scenario, code to carry out the described Measurement method may be provided in the UE Modem’s firmware, for example in a Layer 4 application 428. In some cases, the UE Modem may be able execute code provided by an integrator, for example, JAVA applications or the like. In other cases, the UE Modem may offer the ability for tasks to be added, with limited access to modem functionality via an API 435 provided by the UE Modem CPU 420. Any Measurement task scheduled to run may share resources with existing modem firmware tasks.

[0076] In the case of execution within Layer 4 Application 428, the measurement scheduler 200 is not informed of the modem entering RRC IDLE state (this is covered by Layer 3 (Non-Access Stratum (NAS)) 430 and lower layers), with the exception of information offered by the API 435. In this case, the measurement scheduler 200 may only trigger the measurement tasks and receive the Measurements results.

[0077] Laver 1 CPU 440 controlled:

[0078] In this alternative, the disclosed Measurement method may be run on Layer 1 CPU 440. In this case, there is no explicit Measurement request when the Layer 2 (RRC) 450 enters RRC IDLE state. The UE Modem 101 according to the present disclosure may start scanning autonomously (i.e., without a separate scheduler 200). Parameters, such as band(s) and (E)ARFCN(s), may be configured from higher layers to the Measurement task in the Layer 1 CPU 440. The RRC entity 450 may keep a database of identified cells and measurements. Depending on parameterization, the RRC entity 450 may deliver the Measurements upwards (in the network stack - i.e., to Layer 4 Application 428), so it can be reported by a CMD Handler 425 either as an asynchronous event, or may be polled by command from the AP 410. Usually, the RRC IDLE state implies that there are no further tasks active and Modem CPU 420 can enter a CPU idle state. The Layer 1 CPU 440 remains active.

[0079] This technique offers an advantage with regards to power consumption due to reduced CPU usage. To mention explicitly, the first two deployment options (AP 410 Controlled and Modem CPU 420 Controlled) will lead to a higher power consumption than a battery powered mobile handset strives to achieve, because the UE Modem 101 and Layer 1 CPU 440 are unlikely to enter a power saving state as desired for mobile handset power autonomy. Layer 1 CPU 440 Controlled may be a good choice for optimizing power saving in a Measurement UE 400, as only the Layer 1 CPU 440 is required to be active for the described measurement tasks.

[0080] Figure 5 shows an example high level system configuration according to an example of the disclosure. In Figure 5, the overall system 500 is presented. The system 500 comprises of the Backend 240, which is connected to a Measurement UE 400 via a Transport 520. This Transport 520 may be realised by any suitable means, for example, by internet connectivity for online use or by removable media for physical transport, or by local (wireless) network access. There are also shown Endpoints 510 and 530, located at the junctions between the Measurement UE 400 and the Transport 520, and the Transport 520 and the Back End 240, respectively. The Endpoints 510 and 530, represent the respective activities occurring across the interface between the respective entities.

[0081] The Backend 240 may comprise a Database 552 to persistently store Measurements that have been recorded or otherwise provided by the Measurement UE 400, and a Command and Control entity 554 that may be used to configure the Measurement UE 400, including trigger conditions (for example, see items 601-607 in Figure 6 summarised by Requests 206 in Figure 2.

[0082] As shown in this Figure 5, and elsewhere, the Measurement UE 400 comprises of a Scheduler 200, responsible for the configuration of tasks towards the UE Modem 101 , and which accepts data from (and sends data to, for configuration purposes, for example) Location function 210, Date-and-Time function 220, and / or additional sensor(s) 230.

[0083] Figure 6 shows an example of possible triggers for Measurement activities according to an example of the disclosure, which are issued by the Back End 230 to configure the Scheduler 200. These include: Persistent Measurement 601 ; 3GPP location (LAC, TAC, Cl, etc) 602; 3GPP Network MCC / MNC, or RAT availability 603; Physical Location / area 604; Time and / or Date, repeating schedule, etc 605; UE moving, or static 606; RF threshold(s) (e.g. frequency, power, modulation, etc) 607. The disclosure is also meant to encompass using any other suitable trigger data available now or in the future. The Scheduler 200 may also build the Measurement from the RF measurements & Information Elements 540 and may include information from Additional Sensor(s) 230. The Scheduler 200 may enrich this data by Location from 210 and Date-and-Time from 220.

[0084] Figure 7 shows an example timeline 700 view of the 3GPP RRC IDLE state and a UE service request occurring within a period of that state, according to an example of the disclosure. The present disclosure utilises periods of RRC IDLE state of a modem 750 to capture Measurements and cell information, from the serving and other cells, from both the registered network and additional networks detectable by the modem 101 , within the UE 400.

[0085] When no service request is active, the UE Modem enters RRC IDLE state 750. When there is a service request, e.g., Data 707 needs to be transferred, the start of the data transfer is used as a trigger 705 to change the UE Modem 101 into RRC ACTIVE state 760, enabling the Modem transmitter. At the end of the Data transmission 707 the UE Modem 101 detects this condition and changes to RRC INACTIVE state 770, this additionally starts the Guard Timer 740 as prescribed by the relevant 3GPP standards. While the Guard Timer 740 is active, the UE Modem 101 is prepared to restart RRC ACTIVE 760 state if a new service request is received. Should the UE Modem 101 not receive a new service request before the expiry of the Guard Timer 740, the UE Modem 101 enters RRC IDLE state 750 again.

[0086] As will be appreciated, the methods and apparatuses according to the present disclosure utilise the modem RRC IDLE state 750 periods to execute measurements, albeit at the cost of the opportunity for the UE being able to save power during the RRC IDLE state, as per usual 3GPP UE operational implementation.

[0087] Figure 8 shows an example of the method applied to a ‘Vehicle-on-route’ scenario according to an example of the present disclosure.

[0088] This figure gives a simplified example of a Measurement UE 400 according to the present disclosure, deployed in the form of a vehicle 810, travelling along a route passing many different cell towers 820-890 belonging to various operators indicated by their Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) identifiers, provided by respective MCC and MNC. According to this example, the vehicle-based Measurement UE has a valid subscription for PLMN1 and is assumed to be registered (i.e. , active) in this PLMN. In this simplified example, signal strength is just assumed a function of distance to the respective cell tower(s), and the cell tower(s) are simplified to run a circular antenna setup instead of a sectorized antenna setup.

[0089] A cell tower is either designated by its Physical Cell Identifier (PCI), or the tuple of: MCC, MNC, TAC, and Cl in an example using an LTE network (similar identifying data, or collection of data, is available for other types of radio networks).

[0090] The PCI is mainly a short quick identifier to identify the cell in a region of others. The PCI may be seen as a kind of a “colour code” to easily re-identify a message coming from a certain cell, when used on the physical layer where messages are typically very short, and likely sent / received in a bursty nature. Use of the PCI is the simplistic form of the method and is used as a unique identifier at the hyperlocal level. Although PCI codes are frequently repeated at the wider regional level, the PCI code is not reused in neighbouring cells. Thus a UE Modem shall only receive a PCI identifying a unique cell once per location. The concept is akin to the ‘Four Colour Theorem’. In mathematics, the Four Colour Theorem (or the four colour map theorem), states that no more than four colours are required to colour the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same colour.

[0091] In accordance with normal 3GPP use, a mobile UE device will only follow its subscribed network, because only this network can be used to establish a service request. In this simplified view, a TAC is an area shared for paging, so a mobile terminated call / service will start by the mobile being paged in all cells of a TAC. Therefore, the mobile must invoke a Tracking Area Update procedure for 4G / 5G (Location Area Update procedure for 2G / 3G), when going to a cell with a stronger signal belonging to a different TAC, but still within the same PLMN.

[0092] In the following examples, for simplicity, the quality information during the Measurements is simply going to be referred to something called “signal strength” or just “strength” (whereas, in reality, this is a more complex measurement, as noted previously). Moreover, it is assumed the vehicle 810 has a geolocation receiver available (optionally with a features like wheel tick, or dead reckoning) to provide accurate location data as per item 210 in the foregoing Figures, that can be used to enrich the Measurement(s) taken. A satellite based location system 805 (e.g., GNSS), is unable to offer a location data to a vehicles location receiver in poor reception conditions (e.g., tunnel 806-807). In this situation a technique known as dead reckoning can be used to provide a location. This may be achieved by additional vehicle sensors data such as wheel tick, steering angle, and others.

[0093] In light of the above, there now follows a discussion of how the UE Modem in the vehicle 810 of Figure 8 reports the Measurements taken at each of locations 1 to 6 according to the newly defined novel UE behaviour, compared to what would happen according to existing typical current implementation of UE behaviour in UE cellular modems.

[0094] The following sections will also identify where functionalities are deployed within the UE 400, depicted by Figure 4.

[0095] Current UE Operation (status quo):

[0096] This section describes default functionality deployed within the UE Modem CPU 420, for example where results are presented by the Application Processor 410, without any implementation of the disclosed method.

[0097] The vehicle starts at position (1) and is served by an LTE base-station 820, (Cl 101 ). The UE Modem reports the strength of 820 (CI101). As the vehicle moves further along the path, the vehicle reaches position (2) and the vehicle-based UE reports strength from base-station 840 (Cl 102), as this is now the strongest cell available to the UE. The process carries on in the same way for position (3), and at position (4), but where basestation 860 (Cl 103) becomes the closest, therefore the strongest cell from the registered PLMN (in this simplified scenario) and therefore reported accordingly. At position (5), the base-station 870 (CI111) is the strongest, which is a base-station with a new TAC (TAC11), which indicates a new region of the same serving PLMN, therefore, the UE Modem in the UE performs a Tracking Area Update, and now reports RF strength from base-station 1070 (CI1 11). At position (6), after again a Tracking Area Update procedure has been completed, the UE is reporting with a base-station 890 from the first TAC (TAC10), and the UE now reports from basestation 860 (Cl 103).

[0098] Crowd-sourced measurement data acquisition enriches reported network strength information by time and location. However, in the foregoing, it will be noted that only information for PLMN1 has been provided, and only during normal 3GPP defined operation to maintain connection with the serving PLMN (PLMN1). As such, no reports for any cell(s) from PLMN2 or PLMN3 are provided.

[0099] First Variant.

[0100] This section describes functionality of a first variant of the method that may be deployed only within the Application Processor 410 and using 3GPP specified functionality of the UE Modem CPU 420.

[0101] This first variant may use the manual PLMN search (AT+COPS=?) command exclusively, and is the simplest example use-case of the present disclosure. The scheduler 200 being executed on Application Processor 410, may issue an AT+COPS=? command to CMD Handler 425 on UE Modem CPU 420, at a respective first, i.e. start, location (e.g., <n>a, (where <n> may be a value 1 to 6)) on the route shown in Figure 8, and reports the result at a respective second, i.e. end, location (e.g., <n>b). The function of the AT+COPS=? command initiates a Manual PLMN Search, available to all 3GPP compliant cellular modems that may be used to carry out the disclosed method.

[0102] As a consequence, a so-called “Geo-Window” is provided. That is, is the method able to report which PLMNs have been passed by the Measurement UE 400, according to the present disclosure, while it was driving from (<n>a) to (<n>b). Because the PLMN Search command (AT+COPS=?) does not report Cis, but reports only the PLMNs (MCC, MNC) and RAT, it is known which networks are visible to the vehicle-based Measurement UE in this geographical area. As such, for the given route, around position (1) in Figure 8, information is provided about PLMN1 , but also for PLMN2, being another PLMN available with sufficient strength to allow the Measurement UE to register (but no strength information may be given for PLMN2). At position (2), the information provided would be similar, since the same two PLMNs are detectable by the Measurement UE. When passing position (3), information may be provided for PLMN1 , PLMN2 and now PLMN3 as well - i.e., information about all three networks serving this area, even if the subscription of the vehicle-based Measurement UE that carries out the disclosed method is only subscribed to the network of PLMN1 .

[0103] At position (4), similarly only PLMN1 and PLMN3 are visible to the Measurement UE, so information only about those two networks may be provided. At position (5) likely only PLMN1 is strong enough to serve the Measurement UE here, so information about only that one network may be provided. At position (6), again, information may be provided for PLNM1 and PLMN3.

[0104] As such, the first variant provides information on Geo-Windows (i.e., specific areas served by multiple PLMNs) that have been identified while driving from (<n>a) to (<n>b), which in this case is position (1) to (6). These are so-called Geo-Windows, because it is not known exactly where the Measurement UE was located when taking the measurement, but it is known which general geographic area was involved by virtue of PLMN and RAT information.

[0105] Second Variant:

[0106] This section describes functionality of a second variant of the method that may be deployed only within the Application Processor 410 and using 3GPP specified functionality of the Modem CPU 420 plus vendor proprietary commands.

[0107] This variant may use the AT+COPS=? and cell information summary commands, as well as vendor proprietary commands.

[0108] Some UE Modems provide proprietary reports resulting from use of vendor proprietary commands, which together with the list of found PLMNs, may be used to report identified Cis and strength information when returning results of a Manual PLMN search. As described in the first variant, there is the limitation that it is not known exactly where between (<n>a) and (<n>b) the respective base station cell was measured by the Measurement UE. Additionally, the location, and thus the measured RF strength of the signal from any given base-station, can deviate from one ride to another, as the measured channel (e.g. BCCH) may be received at a certain point in time within the framing structure of the wireless communication (e.g. LTE) signal, therefore it is not possible to have the same exact timing and location when repeating the journey along the same route.

[0109] Third Variant:

[0110] This describes functionality of a third variant of the method deployed only within the Application Processor 410, and using 3GPP specified functionality of the Modem CPU 420 plus more detailed vendor proprietary interfaces and vendor proprietary commands.

[0111] This variant may use the AT+COPS=? command and immediate System Information Block (SIB) and proprietary reports.

[0112] Some UE Modems offer more detailed proprietary reports which may immediately show the SIBs received. Those received SIBs may contain, for example, the Cis and other relevant information. The BCCH channel used to transport these SIBs may be the measured signal used to provide the RF strength information. In some examples of the present disclosure, after information contained within those received SIBs is extracted, that extracted information may be further enriched by the location information available to the Measurement UE at exact time of presentation, for example from location function 210, and may therefore provide a precise RF measurement for a precisely specified location. Of course, the exact location of the acquired data will vary from journey to journey, similarly, the received RF strength will change at least marginally. However, if the disclosed RF measurement method is applied together with a dense collection of Measurements from a plurality of journeys (i.e., the Measurement UE vehicles travel within a given area, in order to provide higher measurement density), a statistically significant distribution of RF strength measurements across all positions between position (<n>a) and position(<n>b) can be provided. This may be presented as a heatmap of the cell(s) area, or even a heatmap of all cells along a Geo-Window.

[0113] Going back to the example route shown in Figure 8, at position (3), going from (3a) to (3b), a decrease in strength for base-station 840 (Cl 102) and base-station 830 (CI201) will be observed and an increasing strength for base-station 850 (CI301). The strength reported from base-station 860 (Cl 103) will likely not show a significant change, as the Measurement UE vehicle 810 travels tangentially to the cell tower. Of significance in this scenario, in this location it is possible to acquire cell information and measurement data from three PLMNs, across four cells, which significantly increases the measurement data acquired over and above what would have been available according to First Variant which would only provide reports of the three PLMNs available, and all without detailed cell information. This third variant is also an improvement over the second variant, which provides only information on a collection of cells with no detailed distribution in the Geo-Window. Similarly at position (5), instead of receiving a report for one PLMN only, it is possible to collect a distribution of strength of all cells along the route.

[0114] Fourth variant: (second or third variant integrated within UE Modem 101)

[0115] This section describes functionality of a fourth variant of the method that may be deployed within the UE Modem 101 itself, more particularly, the UE Modem CPU 420 as a Layer 4 Application 428. In this example, the Application Processor 410, may only be used for 1) forwarding Measurements, 2) adding Location information 211 (if applicable) and 3) Additional Sensors Data 231 (if applicable).

[0116] From a similar journey as made in the other variant and shown in Figure 8, Measurements captured are similar to the third variant, however it is advantageous to control and acquire Measurements within the UE Modem 101 itself, (i.e., no need to issue “AT+COPS=?” command at (<n>a) and wait for results to be presented at (<n>b)), The UE Modem may persistently perform some scanning for relevant channels, e.g. BCCH(s). Depending on location 210 being provided by the UE Modem chipset, location information 211 can be added. Alternatively, if no location information is available from the UE Modem chipset, summary reports can be issued to the AP 410 at frequent intervals, then location data 211 can be added by the AP 410.

[0117] The advantage of performing these measurement tasks inside UE Modem software stack, is to address power consumption - as detailed further below - because not all entities of the Measurement UE 400 are required to be active in the same time period.

[0118] Fifth Variant: (Measurement task inside Layer 1 CPU 440)

[0119] This section describes functionality of a fifth variant of the method that may be deployed within the Layer 1 CPU 440. The Layer 4 Application 428 may be used for Local Control 310 (see Figure 3). The Application Processor 410, may be used for 1) forwarding Measurements, 2) adding Location information 211 (if applicable) and 3) Additional Sensors Data 231 (if applicable).

[0120] In this fifth variant, the Measurement task is executed within the Layer 1 CPU 440 of the UE Modem 101 . Higher layers on Modem CPU 420 are used to control Measurement task and for forwarding Measurement data, with the option to temporarily store the Measurement data. The technique of moving tasks to the Layer 1 CPU 440 is typically used to allow the following of: Paging 480, 3GPP Cell measurement tasks 470 and respective SIB decoding 460. This is done to have these frequently called Layer 2 450 activities close to the Layer 1 (PHY) 490 for the purpose of power efficiency reasons, i.e., to only wake Layer 1 CPU 440 for frequent tasks.

[0121] This fifth variant offers the highest level of power saving, due to the reduction of overall CPU activity during the execution of the method.

[0122] Assuming the implementation of the method runs autonomously in the UE Modem, the AP 410 is only required to be used for forwarding of results.

[0123] Furthermore, according to this variant, all RRC IDLE time is available to perform Measurements. As a result, a dense reporting along the entire route with detailed location and strength information for cells (1) to (6) would be available.

[0124] Data treatment:

[0125] Assuming a Measurement UE 400 vehicle 810 (according to the present disclosure) is able to frequently travel along a given route, or a fleet of different UE Measurement vehicles can drive along this same route, then regardless of any specific Measurement UE vehicle’s subscription, it will be possible to acquire a dense dataset of network coverage in a relatively short time period. On routes where the method is executed continuously, for example executed by a Measurement UE 400 located on a bus travelling a known bus route, examples of the present disclosure are able to rapidly inform users about changes of network coverage and availability. This may be useful to both the network(s) operator(s) (e.g., to detect loss of connectivity or coverage due to factors outside of the network), or third parties (both for the same external connectivity factors, but also as a proxy to the internal factors, since they do not have access to the control / management information provided by the network(s) itself).

[0126] Wherever there are Measurement UEs deployed in a geographical area, it can be expected that one or more Measurement UEs that are acquiring and reporting Measurements may be damaged (and hence no longer report correctly). As such, statistical processing may be used to detect these issues with the Measurement UEs, or at least obviate them causing any data integrity issues. It is also to be born in mind that characteristics of the vehicles used to carry the Measurement UEs (e.g. antenna pattern, direction and velocity) or meteorological data (fog, rain, sunny, or summer or winter in forests) may be used to further inform the reviewer of the data provided.

[0127] The disclosure may be applied to any form of vehicle - e.g. car, train, van, bus, ship, air vehicle etc. The following section describe the elements of the disclosure where a Measurement UE is integrated within a vehicle.

[0128] Figure 9 shows an example of contributors towards a ‘well defined’ RF environment for a Measurement UE 400 according to an example of the disclosure. In this example, a type approved motor vehicle 810 contains a Measurement UE 400 having a Modem 100 contained therein. The following components describe the transition of radio power to / from Modem 100 from / to an Antenna 907. The Antenna 907 is typically connected to a conducting cable 905 via mechanical Interconnects 902 on both ends. The Radiation Pattern 909 of the Antenna 907, is a result of its position on the vehicle 810. Here, type approval refers to a mass-produced vehicle that meets a minimum set of regulatory and technical requirements. As per most countries’ car manufacturer rules, commercially available mass-produced vehicles must consistently meet specified performance standards, these days including RF performance standards. As such, it can be assumed that the RF environment for a particular model is consistent for all vehicles of the same type-approval. As described in previous sections of the disclosure, a vehicle 810 may be used to host a Measurement UE 400. In this case there are usually further entities that may provide the afore-described functions of the Location function 210, Date-and-Time function 220 and Additional sensor(s) 230 These may include a GNSS Receiver for the Location function 210, and a Real Time Clock (RTC) for the Date-and-Time function 220, which may or may not be part of the Measurement UE 400. As the vehicle will include an internal communications network (e.g. CANBUS), the location information 211 and date-and-time data 221 will be available to the networked UE Modem 101 component. Other vehicle components may contribute to provide the Additional sensor(s) data 231 in much the same way, and themselves may even make use of RTC or GNSS Receiver. The other vehicle components may also make use of the Measurement UE 400 for a gateway function to access internet.

[0129] Examples of the present disclosure may be implemented by suitably programmed computer hardware configured to carry out UE functions, for example as shown in Figures 2-6 and 9.

[0130] The various functional components described herein, according to some example embodiments, may be implemented via instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and operable to create the circuitry to perform, or perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, hence providing the apparatus or system to carry out the described method for assessing availability (and performance) of mobile networks. Specifically, hardware resources to carry out the described methods may include one or more processors (or processor cores), one or more memory / storage devices, and one or more communication resources, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus. The processors 410, 420 and 440 shown in Figure 4 may be any of: a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof.

[0131] The memory / storage devices may be provided, and may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory / storage devices may include, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage device (SSD), magnetic storage based hard disk drive (HDD) media, etc.

[0132] The communication resources, such as the afore-described UE Modem, may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices or one or more databases via a network. For example, the communication resources may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via Ethernet, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) or the like), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

[0133] Instructions may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory / storage devices, or any suitable combination thereof.

[0134] Furthermore, any portion of the instructions may be transferred to the hardware resources from any combination of the peripheral devices or the databases. Accordingly, the memory of processors, the memory / storage devices, the peripheral devices, and the databases are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

[0135] In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, of any of the Figures may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof.

[0136] In the foregoing, functions are described as modules or blocks, i.e., functional units that are operable to carry out the described function, algorithm, or the like. These terms may be interchangeable. Where modules, blocks, or functional units have been described, they may be formed as processing circuitry, where the circuitry may be general purpose processor circuitry configured by program code to perform specified processing functions. The circuitry may also be configured by modification to the processing hardware. Configuration of the circuitry to perform a specified functions may be entirely in hardware, entirely in software or using a combination of hardware modification and software execution. Program instructions may be used to configure logic gates of general purpose or special-purpose processor circuitry to perform a processing function.

[0137] Circuitry may be implemented, for example, as a hardware circuit comprising custom Very Large Scale Integrated, VLSI, circuits or gate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or other discrete components. Circuitry may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, FPGA, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices, A System on Chip, SoC, or the like.

[0138] Machine readable program instructions may be provided on a transitory medium such as a transmission medium or on a non-transitory medium such as a storage medium. Such machine-readable instructions (computer program code) may be implemented in a high-level procedural or object oriented programming language. However, the program(s) may be implemented in assembly or machine language, if desired. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language, and combined with hardware implementations. Program instructions may be executed on a single processor or on two or more processors in a distributed manner.

[0139] Examples listing:

[0140] Examples provide an apparatus and methods for identifying coverage of cellular networks without limiting subscribed services towards user equipment.

[0141] Examples provide an apparatus and methods for identifying the availability of cellular networks by making use of modem RRC IDLE state in 3GPP networks.

[0142] Examples provide an apparatus and methods for identifying the availability of cellular networks (by making repeated use of modem RRC IDLE state in 3GPP networks,) without limiting the availability of network services towards the UE.

[0143] Examples provide a method in a User Equipment (UE) device of identifying coverage of cellular networks, without limiting access to subscribed services provided by a subscribed network to the UE device, comprising: retrieving RF measurements and cell information from the subscribed network and from other nonsubscribed networks detectable by the UE device during an RRC (Radio Resource Control) IDLE state, wherein the UE idle state is defined by 3GPP RRC specifications (e.g. as described in relevant specifications by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards body), and wherein the UE device is a Measurement UE as defined herein

[0144] According to some examples, the method is executed in an unconstrained power environment for the UE device. According to some examples, the method is executed in a defined Radio Frequency reception environment of the UE device. In some examples, the method is carried out using a defined RF environment for the UE device, and wherein the defined RF environment comprises an at least partially characterised transmission path of the RF environment. In some examples, the at least partially characterised transmission path is the transmission path from a UE Modem carrying out the method to an antenna operable to receive mobile communications from one or more networks detectable by the UE device, for use in the method. In some examples, the at least partial characterisation of the transmission path comprises known transmission or reception loss(es), known radiation pattern(s), and wherein the at least partially characterised transmission path is reproducible during use of the UE device.

[0145] In some examples, the method further comprises executing extended measurements using one or more additional sensor(s).

[0146] In some examples, the method is implemented in an application processor (AP) of a UE device making use of features presented by a cellular modem of the UE device (i.e. UE Modem).

[0147] In some examples, the method is implemented by a UE Modem and AP together, wherein the AP is used for postprocessing and transfer / storage of data.

[0148] In some examples, at least a portion of the method is executed by one or more of the processor(s) within a UE Modem.

[0149] In some examples, at least a portion of the method is executed by a dedicated Layer 1 CPU, using higher modem layer for overarching control and data transfer.

[0150] In some examples, the method further comprises postprocessing data obtained from the method either locally or remotely, wherein transfer to a subsequent processing facility is performed during measurement operation, or subsequently.

[0151] In some examples, the method is executed autonomously or on demand.

[0152] In some examples, the method is configured to start data acquisition by triggers set by a controlling entity.

[0153] In some examples, the data recorded by the method is filtered by conditions set by a controlling entity.

[0154] In some examples, the method further comprises correlating retrieved RF measurement and cell information with location data acquired by the UE device during execution of the method.

[0155] In some examples, the method further comprises deriving a network coverage map from the RF measurement and cell information correlated with location data.

[0156] In some examples, the network coverage map may be 2D or 3D (where 3D may additionally comprise altitude data). The altitude data may be provided by one or more of the Additional Sensor(s).

[0157] In some examples, the method further comprises correlating to a geographical window or at least one predetermined geographical location.

[0158] Examples also provide an apparatus comprising one or more processors and memory, configured to carry out the method of any of the disclosed methods.

[0159] Examples also provide a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to carry out the method of any of the disclosed methods.

[0160] Examples also provide a distributed mobile network measurement system for carrying out the disclosed method(s) comprising at least one Measurement UE, and a Back-end processing system in communication with the at least one Measurement UE, for carrying out any one or more of: initiating the at least one Measurement UE (including one or more of setting up the Measurement UE and / or the triggers and other parameters in use to control the method(s)), receiving the measurement data and providing at least one output based upon the measurement data (where the output of the system is any of the generally disclosed output data sets, for example measurements, network map, etc.).

[0161] Examples also provide a Back-end processing system configured to work with one or more Measurement UEs arranged to carry out any of the disclosed example method(s), and output any of the disclosed data sets.

[0162] It is explicitly envisaged that any and all of the disclosed examples of the disclosed method(s), apparatus(es) and system(s) may be combined in any reasonable combination, in order to realise various advantages and effects, as long as the specific combination does not cause a conflict with the explicit directions of use for any given example, and does not otherwise break the laws of physics.

[0163] In some examples an unconstrained power environment is realised by the Measurement UE (or portion thereof carrying out the disclosed method) being connected to: utility power grid services; a power source, whereby power consumption of the Measurement UE is negligible in relation to other consumers connected to the same power source, (e.g., Measurement UE connected to an ICE powered or Electric battery powered vehicle); a constrained power environment where the power consumption of the Measurement UE is accepted for the purpose of acquiring measurements according to the method (e.g., a regular User Equipment or dedicated Measurement UE used in portable setup, for example within a backpack).

[0164] In some examples, the RF reception environment is defined by and one or more of: Antenna radiation pattern of measurement device (antenna(s) including influences of the surrounding surface); Electrical interfaces between antenna(s) and modem (cabling and RF interconnects); Modem (factory calibrated); Location of antenna(s) and geometry at measurement device (height and position).

[0165] In some examples, the defined RF reception environment is used to (at least): provide absolute measurement value(s); and / or facilitate repeatability (within tolerance).

[0166] In some examples, confidence of the RF reception environment is available from any one or more of: Antenna matching information reported by UE modem (e.g., identifying a disturbed antenna radiation pattern); Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) from baseband signal sampling (e.g., identifying the deviation from an ideal signal).

[0167] In some examples, extended measurements may comprise any one or more of: Geolocation data acquired from a GNSS receiver, which may be enriched by wheel tick and dead reckoning; Date-and-time data, acquired from a real-time clock (RTC); Environmental data (e.g., temperature, barometric pressure); UE Modem health indicators (e.g., temperature of the chipset components); Other sensors of the device or apparatus in which the Measurement UE is integrated.

[0168] In some examples, the processing of data acquired by the method is executed any one or more of : Locally (e.g., during a disaster use case); Remotely (e.g., in a backend server); Automatically, e.g., via telemetry subsystem; Manually, (e.g.: On demand, over an available network connection, during use, Copying content locally using data carriers (e.g., SD card, or the like), Copying content semi-remotely (e.g., when detecting a specific WiFi network).

[0169] In some examples, the recording of data and presentation of responses may be configured using triggers and conditions which may be derived from any one or more of: Continuous execution (Persistent Measurement); Location identifier(s) (LAC, TAC, Cl, etc) from a 3GPP network; Network, or RAT availability from a 3GPP network; Physical Location / area from Geolocation coordinates; Time and / or Date, repeating schedule; detecting the UE is moving, or is static; RF Threshold(s) (e.g., frequency, power, modulation, etc).

[0170] In some examples, measurements are attributed to a geographical window (Geo-Window) defined by a start and an end position. These start and end positions may be defined by any one or more of: The region between beginning and end of the PLMN scan; The region between two geographical points; The region within a centre and a radius; Any geographical shape.

[0171] In some examples, the Date-and-time data is a unique reference to calendar year, month, day, hour, minute, second, or even more detailed time periods, and the Geo-window is a reference of a geographic path between a start and end location.

[0172] In some examples, location data may refer to any of; longitude, latitude, altitude, heading and velocity of the Measurement UE.

[0173] The disclosed methods may be executed in a constrained or unconstrained power environment.

[0174] Examples may be particularly useful when applied to farming, forestry or other vehicles that are in usually undefined RF environments, but where getting a proper measure of the RF environment can be particularly beneficial - e.g., for use in improving communications used for autonomous farming and the like.

[0175] While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described herein, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that such embodiments are provided by way of example only. Numerous variations, changes, and substitutions will now occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure. It should be understood that various alternatives to the embodiments of the invention described herein may be employed in any combination in practicing the disclosure. It is intended that the following claims define the scope of the invention and that methods and structures within the scope of these claims and their equivalents be covered thereby.

Claims

Claims:1 . A method in a User Equipment (UE) device of identifying coverage of cellular networks, without limiting access to subscribed services provided by a subscribed network to the UE device, comprising: retrieving RF measurements and cell information from the subscribed network and from other nonsubscribed networks detectable by the UE device during an RRC (Radio Resource Control) IDLE state.

2. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method is executed in an unconstrained power environment for the UE device.

3. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method is executed in a defined Radio Frequency reception environment of the UE device.

4. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method further comprises executing extended measurements using one or more additional sensor(s).

5. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method is implemented in an application processor (AP) of a UE device making use of features presented by a cellular modem of the UE device.

6. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the method is implemented by a UE Modem and AP together, wherein the AP is used for postprocessing and transfer / storage of data.

7. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein at least a portion of the method is executed by one or more of the processor(s) within a UE Modem.

8. The method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein at least a portion of the method is executed by a dedicated Layer 1 CPU, using higher modem layer for overarching control and data transfer.

9. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method further comprises postprocessing data obtained from the method either locally or remotely, wherein transfer to a subsequent processing facility is performed during measurement operation, or subsequently.

10. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method is executed autonomously or on demand.11 . The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method is configured to start data acquisition by triggers set by a controlling entity.

12. The method of any preceding claim, wherein data recorded by the method is filtered by conditions set by a controlling entity.

13. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the method further comprises correlating retrieved RF measurement and cell information with location data acquired by the UE device during execution of the method.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises correlating to a geographical window or at least one predetermined geographical location.

15. An apparatus comprising one or more processors and memory, configured to carry out the method of any of claims 1 to 14.