POSITIONING TECHNOLOGY SELECTION FOR GEO-FENCE

Abstract

A method is provided that is performed by at least a first apparatus and that includes: obtaining geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence; obtaining confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence; and selecting, from multiple positioning technologies, at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence. The selection of the at least one preferred positioning technology takes into account the desired confidence and power consumption of the multiple positioning technologies.

Claims

1) A method, performed by at least a first apparatus, the method comprising: obtaining geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence; obtaining confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence; and selecting, from multiple positioning technologies, at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence, wherein the selection of the at least one preferred positioning technology takes into account the desired confidence and power consumption of the multiple positioning technologies.

2) The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one preferred positioning technology enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.

3) The method according to claim 1, wherein, for selecting the at least one preferred positioning technology, positioning technologies with lower power consumptions are preferred.

4) The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one preferred positioning technology has the lowest power consumption of those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.

5) The method according to claim 1, wherein the selecting of the at least one preferred positioning technology comprises: determining, from a plurality of positioning technologies, those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence; and determining, from those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence, the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption as the at least one preferred positioning method.

6) The method according to claim 1, wherein the selecting of the at least one preferred positioning technology comprises: determining, from a plurality of positioning technologies, the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption; checking whether the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence; using this at least one positioning technology as the at least one preferred positioning technology in case of a positive result of said checking; and repeating said determining and checking with the remaining positioning technologies in case of a negative result of said checking.

7) The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: obtaining information on an achievable confidence for the geo-fence defined by the geo-fence information with respect to at least some of the multiple positioning technologies; and using the information on an achievable confidence in order to determine whether a respective positioning technology enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.

8) The method according to claim 7, wherein the method further comprises: obtaining positioning uncertainty information indicating one or more positioning uncertainties of one or more positioning technologies in an area defined by the geo-fence; and determining, based on the geo-fence information and the positioning uncertainty information, the achievable confidence achievable with a respective positioning technology for the geo-fence defined by the geo-fence information.

9) The method according to claim 1, wherein multiple preferred positioning technologies to be used for evaluating the geo-fence are selected.

10) The method according to claim 1, wherein the geo-fence comprises multiple sub-areas, wherein, for one or more of the multiple sub-areas, at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence in the respective sub-area is selected.

11) The method according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the multiple positioning technologies are based on one or more of: a cellular communication system; a non-cellular communication system; a communication system providing signals of opportunity; a communication system providing a dedicated positioning solution; a global satellite navigation system; a wireless local area network; a communication system utilizing Wi-Fi technology; a communication system utilizing GSM technology; a communication system utilizing WCDMA technology; a communication system utilizing LTE technology; a communication system utilizing Bluetooth technology; and/or a communication system utilizing UWB technology.

12) The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising: providing, to a second apparatus, the geo-fence information at least partially defining the geo-fence; the confidence information indicating the desired confidence for evaluating the geo-fence; and information indicating the least one selected preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence.

13) The method according to claim 12, wherein the geo-fence information, the confidence information and the information indicating the least one preferred positioning technology are provided to the second apparatus as part of a geo-fence definition.

14) A method, performed by at least a second apparatus, the method comprising: obtaining, from at least a first apparatus, geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence; confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence; and information indicating at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence.

15) The method according to claim 14, the method further comprising: evaluating the geo-fence based on the at least one preferred positioning technology.

16) An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform: obtaining geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence; obtaining confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence; and selecting, from multiple positioning technologies, at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence, wherein the selection of the at least one preferred positioning technology takes into account the desired confidence and power consumption of the multiple positioning technologies.

17) The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to select the at least one preferred positioning technology by: determining, from a plurality of positioning technologies, those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence; and determining, from those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence, the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption as the at least one preferred positioning method.

18) The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to select the at least one preferred positioning technology by: determining, from a plurality of positioning technologies, the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption; checking whether the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence; using this at least one positioning technology as the at least one preferred positioning technology in case of a positive result of said checking; and repeating said determining and checking with the remaining positioning technologies in case of a negative result of said checking.

19) The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: obtain information on an achievable confidence for the geo-fence defined by the geo-fence information with respect to at least some of the multiple positioning technologies; and use the information on an achievable confidence in order to determine whether a respective positioning technology enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.

20) The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to: obtain positioning uncertainty information indicating one or more positioning uncertainties of one or more positioning technologies in an area defined by the geo-fence; and determine, based on the geo-fence information and the positioning uncertainty information, the achievable confidence achievable with a respective positioning technology for the geo-fence defined by the geo-fence information.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0106] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a system comprising an operator device, a server and an asset for performing embodiments of the method according to the invention;

[0107] FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary embodiment of a method according to the invention;

[0108] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating another exemplary embodiment of a method according to the invention;

[0109] FIG. 4a-c show example representations of geo-fences according to the invention;

[0110] FIG. 5a,b show diagrams for illustrating the effect of the uncertainty of location estimates on the geo-fencing concept;

[0111] FIG. 5c shows a diagram for illustrating the achievable confidence depending on the geo-fence size and the uncertainty of the position estimate;

[0112] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an asset according to the invention;

[0113] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus according to the invention; and

[0114] FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of examples of tangible and non-transitory storage media according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0115] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an example embodiment of a system 100 comprising an operator device 110 and a server 120, which may each or together be an example of the at least first apparatus (performing a method according to the first exemplary aspect), an asset 130, which may be an example of the second apparatus (performing a method according to the second exemplary aspect and representative of a plurality of assets typically to be managed), and a network 140. However, generally, any of the apparatuses 110, 120 and 130 may alone or in combination represent the at least one apparatus for performing exemplary aspects of the invention. Server 120 may in particular be considered to comprise distributed servers and be located in an optional cloud 150. The different apparatuses 110, 120, 130 may communicate over network 140, which may represent a wireless network, wherein the wireless network may be any network of a cellular network (e.g. 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G or beyond 5G) or a non-cellular network, such as a WiFi network (e.g. based on IEEE 802.11), a Bluetooth network or any other well-suited wireless 2o network.

[0116] Operator device 110 may be a client device and may be a mobile device for instance. The operator device 110 and/or the server 120 may be used by an operator for inputting geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence and for inputting confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence. Also, the operator device 110 and/or server 120 may be used for selecting at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence, wherein the selection of the at least one preferred positioning technology takes into account the desired confidence and power consumption of the multiple positioning technologies.

[0117] For instance, server 120 may comprise a database or may be connected to a database, such as a database comprising location-specific and positioning technology-specific uncertainty information (e.g. for different cells and/or for different positioning technologies) and/or comprising location-specific and positioning technology-specific achievable confidence information (e.g. for different cells and/or for different positioning technologies). Furthermore, the database may also comprise information on the power consumption of different positioning technologies. Accordingly, operator device and/or server 120 may thus in particular be used for selecting at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence. The at least one preferred positioning technology may then be communicated to asset 130. Asset 130 may be any kind of movable or mobile device, the position of which is monitored with respect to the geo-fence by means of the at least one preferred positioning technology, i.e. asset 130 may trigger the desired geo-fence, once it is set up. The asset may be or may be part of an (e.g. battery powered) IoT device, a mobile computer, a mobile phone, a vehicle, a tracking device or any movable or mobile device, which may in particular be location-aware.

[0118] With regard to the flow charts 200, 300 of FIGS. 2, 3 exemplary embodiments of methods according to the invention will be described.

[0119] In FIG. 2 an exemplary embodiment of a method according to a second aspect is shown.

[0120] In action 210, geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence is obtained. The geo-fence information may be input at operator device 110 by a user and transmitted to server 120, for instance.

[0121] Example representations of such geo-fences are now described with reference to FIG. 4a-4c.

[0122] As exemplarily depicted in FIG. 4a, a geo-fence 400 may be defined by a point 411 and a radius 412 such that an area defined by the geo-fence is a circle 410 around the point 411 with radius 412, as exemplarily shown in FIG. 4a. As exemplarily depicted in FIG. 4b, a geo-fence 400′ may be defined by an ellipse 420, which may be arranged around a point 421. As a further example and exemplarily depicted in FIG. 4c, a geo-fence 400″ may also be defined by a polygon 430 set around an area-of-interest. For instance, said polygon 430 may be a standard polygon which enables the capture of a complex area in the real-word. In FIG. 4c, point 435 may define the center of the area defined by geo-fence 400″. It may be useful to determine a representation of the size of the geo-fence for determining the achievable confidence of a geo-fence. As one example, such a size of a geo-fence may be indicative of the whole size of the geo-fence 400, 400′, 400″, e.g. the area of the geo-fence. For instance, the size of the geo-fence may be a representative of or correlated to the whole area of the geo-fence. For instance, if the geo-fence is defined by a circle, then the radius, or the diameter or the circumference may also be a representative of a size of the geo-fence, or as another example, if the geo-fence is defined by an ellipse or a polygon, the size being the whole size may be defined by the circumference of the ellipse 420 or the polygon 430 or another suitable representative being correlated with the area defined by the ellipse or the polygon.

[0123] Returning to FIG. 2, in action 220 confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence is obtained. Similar to the geo-fence information, the confidence information may also be input at operator device 110 by a user and transmitted to server 120, for instance.

[0124] In action 230, at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence is selected from multiple positioning technologies. For this, the selection of the at least one preferred positioning technology takes into account the desired confidence and power consumption of the multiple positioning technologies. More specifically, the at least one preferred positioning technology has the lowest power consumption of those preferred positioning technologies, which enable evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.

[0125] In one example, those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence are determining, from a plurality of positioning technologies. From those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence, the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption is then determined as the at least one preferred positioning method.

[0126] In another example the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption is determined from a plurality of positioning technologies. It is then checked whether the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence. This at least one positioning technology can be used as the at least one preferred positioning technology in case of a positive result of said checking. If the desired confidence cannot be reached by the so determined positioning technology (negative checking result) said determining and checking may be repeated with the remaining positioning technologies.

[0127] In order to determine, whether a positioning technology enables evaluating a geo-fence with a desired confidence, positioning uncertainty information may be obtained (e.g. from a database), which indicates one or more positioning uncertainties of the respective positioning technologies in the area defined by the geo-fence. Based on the geo-fence information and the so obtained positioning uncertainty information, a confidence achievable with a respective positioning technology for the geo-fence can be determined. The so obtained information on an achievable confidence can be used in order to determine whether a respective positioning technology enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.

[0128] In the following it will be explained in more detail with reference to FIG. 5 how the determination of an achievable confidence for a certain geo-fence can be realized.

[0129] First, it shall be explained in more detail, how the location uncertainty and the geo-fence size or area relate to the achievable geo-fence triggering confidence. One way to look at this is to understand the achievable geo-fence triggering confidence as being related to the maximum probability mass enclosed by the geo-fence, i.e. the maximum of the location estimate probability density function integral over the geo-fence area.

[0130] In FIG. 5a, b the effect of the uncertainty on the geo-fencing concept is illustrated. In the two illustrated cases, the geo-fence is a one-dimensional area in the range [−1,1] for the sake of simplicity and illustration. In addition, in each of the cases there are two location estimates, (solid line and dashed line). In the examples, the location estimate is normally distributed and the best location estimate is taken as the mean of the distribution.

[0131] In the case illustrated in FIG. 5a, the means of both, the solid line and the dashed line location estimates are within the exemplary geo-fence (both have the mean of zero). However, the location estimates have different uncertainties (standard deviation of 1 and 2, respectively). Considering the probability of being inside the geo-fence, it turns out that the solid line location estimate is inside with 68% and the dashed line location estimate with 38% probability. Therefore, taking the uncertainty into account shows that the dashed line location estimate is most likely not inside the geo-fence. In contrast, the solid line location estimate is inside more probably than outside.

[0132] In the case illustrated in FIG. 5b, the mean of the solid line location estimate is outside the geo-fence, whereas dashed line one is inside. By a traditional approach the dashed line location estimate would trigger the geo-fence, while one indicated by the solid line does not. However, the location estimates have different uncertainties (standard deviation of 1 and 2, respectively). Therefore, considering the probability of being inside the geo-fence, it turns out that the solid line location estimate is inside with 41% and the dashed line location estimate with 38% probability. Therefore, taking the uncertainty into account shows that most likely none of the true locations is inside the geo-fence. Furthermore, although the mean of the solid line location estimate is outside and the mean of the dashed line location estimate is inside the geo-fence boundaries, it turns out that actually the solid line location estimate is inside the geo-fence at higher probability (by a small margin).

[0133] The above two examples show that just by considering, if the location is inside the geo-fence, may lead to incorrect conclusion about the situation.

[0134] Thus, in order to decide, whether to trigger a geo-fence or not, a desired confidence is set. This desired confidence can be understood as the fraction of the probability mass, which needs to be inside the geo-fence, before the geo-fence is triggered.

[0135] To exemplify, if the desire of the operator is to have a low number of false positives, the triggering confidence needs to be correspondingly high. For instance, setting the confidence level to 65% results in above first scenario (FIG. 5a) and the solid line location estimate triggers and the dashed line location estimate does not trigger the geo-fence. If the confidence level was set to e.g. 80%, none of the locations would trigger the geo-fence.

[0136] If the desire is to have high sensitivity (geo-fence triggers easily), the desired confidence needs to be set to a correspondingly low level. The drawback of this approach is the increasing number of false positives. For instance, in the above second case (FIG. 5b) setting the confidence level to 40% results in the solid line location estimate to trigger and the dashed line location estimate not to trigger the geo-fence.

[0137] Considering uncertainties and setting the confidence level also has consequences to the sizes of the geo-fences that can be triggered. To exemplify, assume that a positioning technology has typically a 10-m CEP68 uncertainty, i.e. the true location is inside a 10-m circle around the estimated location in 68% of the cases. If the desired confidence is set to 50%, this location technology would never be able to trigger smaller than an 8-m radius circular geo-fences (because a 10-m CEP68 means that less than 50% of the probability mass is enclosed by a radius circle smaller than 8m).

[0138] However, even if the geo-fence is large enough, there is still the complication that a certain position technology may not be able to reach its best or even its typical accuracy, because even the typical accuracy may often not be achieved in many situations, environments and locations.

[0139] Therefore, it is advantageous to not use a typical or standard value for the positioning uncertainty with a certain technology, but to estimate the achievable positioning performance in cells over large areas using the information from positioning databases (e.g. signal-of-opportunity databases, such as Wi-Fi or cellular network radiomap databases) and map data. This provides an understanding, what positioning performance (i.e. accuracy and uncertainty, respectively) is to be expected in each cell.

[0140] Now, these two concepts can be combined to model for each cell the maximum achievable triggering confidence for any given geo-fence size. FIG. 5c shows a result of such a calculation. In the diagram of FIG. 5c, the x-axis is the circular geo-fence radius (as an example representation of the size of the geo-fence for the example of a circular geo-fence). As discussed above, other representations of the size of the geo-fence may be used as well. The y-axis in the diagram of FIG. 5c, represents the location estimate uncertainty (in this example in terms of CEP68). The z-axis then represents the maximum triggering confidence achievable given the geo-fence radius and the location uncertainty CEP68.

[0141] FIG. 5c shows that when the uncertainty CEP68 is large and the geo-fence radius is small, the maximum achievable confidence is zero (lower left corner of the diagram). In contrast, when the uncertainty CEP68 is small and the geo-fence is large, the maximum achievable confidence can be 100% (upper right corner of the diagram). As illustrated, knowing the potential CEP68 for each small cell for respective parts of the surface earth for e.g. Wi-Fi-based network positioning enables modeling (per each small cell) the achievable confidence as a function of the geo-fence area size (in this example a circle).

[0142] Thus, FIG. 5c may be interpreted such that any desired confidence above the curve is a desired confidence above the maximum achievable confidence (and thus leading to an incompatibility between the desired confidence and the geo-fence) and any desired confidence (e.g. sufficiently) below the curve is a desired confidence below the maximum achievable confidence (and may thus be allowed during the creation of a geo-fence).

[0143] This computation can be performed for each positioning technology, so that one obtains information on an achievable confidence depending on the used positioning technology and the geo-fence to be evaluated. Thus, one can determine those positioning technologies, which enable evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.

[0144] Returning to FIG. 2, in action 240, the geo-fence information at least partially defining the geo-fence, the confidence information indicating the desired confidence for evaluating the geo-fence; and the information indicating the least one selected preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence are provided to a second apparatus, such as asset 130 of FIG. 1.

[0145] Flow chart 300 of FIG. 3 now shows an exemplary embodiment of a method according to the second aspect, performed by a second apparatus (such as asset 130) is illustrated.

[0146] In action 310, the second apparatus, such as asset 130 of FIG. 1, obtains (e.g. due to action 240, described above), the geo-fence information at least partially defining the geo-fence, the confidence information indicating the desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence, and the information indicating the at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence. In action 320, the second apparatus can now evaluate the geo-fence based on the at least one preferred positioning technology (e.g. by exclusively using the least one preferred positioning technology).

[0147] FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus in the form of a mobile device 600, which may in particular represent an asset, the position of which shall be monitored. For example, mobile device 600 may be one of a smartphone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a smart watch, a smart band and an IoT device. For instance, mobile device 600 may be considered to be part or at least carried by a vehicle, e.g. a car or a truck or any other well-suited vehicle.

[0148] Mobile device 600 comprises a processor 601. Processor 601 may represent a single processor or two or more processors, which are for instance at least partially coupled, for instance via a bus. Processor 601 executes a program code stored in program memory 602 (for instance program code causing mobile device 600 to perform one or more of the embodiments of a method according to the invention or parts thereof, when executed on processor 601), and interfaces with a main memory 603. Program memory 602 may also contain an operating system for processor 601. Some or all of memories 602 and 603 may also be included into processor 601.

[0149] One of or both of a main memory and a program memory of a processor (e.g. program memory 602 and main memory 603) could be fixedly connected to the processor (e.g. processor 601) or at least partially removable from the processor, for instance in the form of a memory card or stick.

[0150] A program memory (e.g. program memory 602) may for instance be a non-volatile memory. It may for instance be a FLASH memory (or a part thereof), any of a ROM, PROM, EPROM, MRAM or a FeRAM (or a part thereof) or a hard disc (or a part thereof), to name but a few examples. For example, a program memory may for instance comprise a first memory section that is fixedly installed, and a second memory section that is removable from, for instance in the form of a removable SD memory card.

[0151] A main memory (e.g. main memory 603) may for instance be a volatile memory. It may for instance be a DRAM memory, to give non-limiting example. It may for instance be used as a working memory for processor 601 when executing an operating system and/or programs.

[0152] Processor 601 further controls a radio interface 604 configured to receive and/or output data and/or information. For instance, radio interface 604 may be configured to receive radio signals from a radio node. The radio interface 604 is configured to scan for radio signals that are broadcast by radio nodes, e.g. based on WiFi (WLAN) or a Bluetooth or any other radio communications system. Furthermore, the radio interface 604 may be configured for evaluating (e.g. taking measurements on the received radio signals like measuring a received signal strength) and/or extracting data or information from the received radio signals. It is to be understood that any computer program code based processing required for receiving and/or evaluating radio signals may be stored in an own memory of radio interface 604 and executed by an own processor of radio interface 604 or it may be stored for example in memory 603 and executed for example by processor 601.

[0153] For example, the radio interface 604 may at least comprise a BLE and/or Bluetooth radio interface including at least a BLE receiver (RX). The BLE receiver may be a part of a BLE transceiver. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to BLE or Bluetooth. For example, radio interface 604 may additionally or alternatively comprise a WLAN radio interface including at least a WLAN receiver (RX). The WLAN receiver may also be a part of a WLAN transceiver.

[0154] Moreover, for instance, processor 601 may control a further communication interface 605 which is for example configured to communicate according to a cellular communication system like a 2G/3G/4G/5G cellular communication system. Mobile device 600 may use communication interface 605 to communicate with a server, e.g. with server 120 depicted in FIG. 1.

[0155] Furthermore, processor 601 may control an optional GNSS positioning sensor 606 (e.g. a GPS sensor or any other GNSS positioning techniques previously mentioned). GNSS positioning sensor may be configured to receive satellite signals of a GNSS system (e.g. GPS satellite signals) and to determine a position of the mobile device (e.g. a current position of the mobile device) at least partially based on satellite signals of the GNSS system that are receivable at this position.

[0156] Furthermore, processor 601 may control further optional means for determining a position of the mobile device either alone or in combination with other means. For instance, mobile device may comprise one or more of a motion sensor 607, such as an accelerometer or a gyroscope (which may in particular be able to determine a relative position with respect to an absolute position fix from another positioning technology), a barometer 608 (which may allow for determining the vertical position of the mobile device) and a magnetometer 609 (which may allow for determining a position fix based on a magnetic footprint, for instance).

[0157] Any of the radio interface 604 (i.e. specifically the Bluetooth interface, the WLAN interface), the communication interface 605 (i.e. specifically a 2G/3G/4G/5G communication interface), the GNSS position sensor 606, the motion sensor 607, the barometer 608, the magnetometer 609 may alone or in combination allow for determining a positioning and provide a positioning technology, which may be selected as a preferred positioning technology. For instance, in terms of power consumption the GNSS sensor may have a high power consumption (but typically a high accuracy and thus a high achievable confidence, at least outdoors), while cellular communication interface may have a low power consumption in comparison (but potentially a lower accuracy and achievable confidence, as well). Both, the achievable confidence as well as the power consumption may in particular be a function of the location of the mobile device and may not be universally valid but may rather be derived from a database in dependence of the location of the mobile device, as explained above.

[0158] The components 602 to 606 of mobile device 600 may for instance be connected with processor 601 by means of one or more serial and/or parallel busses.

[0159] It is to be understood that mobile device 600 may comprise various other components. For example, mobile device 600 may optionally comprise a user interface (e.g. a touch-sensitive display, a keyboard, a touchpad, a display, etc.) or one or more inertial sensors (e.g. an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a barometer, etc.).

[0160] For instance, the mobile device 600 may process a set geo-fence and may track its position based on the at least one preferred positioning technology in order to provide a notification when the mobile device is within the boundaries of the geo-fence, i.e. that the geo-fence is triggered.

[0161] FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a an apparatus, such as operator device 110 or server 120 of FIG. 1, which may be an operator device or a server in a positioning support system or any other server, e.g. of an Internet of Things (IoT) cloud.

[0162] For instance, apparatus 700 may be used for setting up and/or processing at least one geo-fence (as described with the method of FIG. 2) and/or may track the position of one or more assets (e.g. asset 130 of FIG. 1) in order to send a notification when the asset triggers a geo-fence.

[0163] Apparatus 700 comprises a processor 701. Processor 701 may represent a single processor or two or more processors, which are for instance at least partially coupled, for instance via a bus. Processor 701 executes a program code stored in program memory 702 (for instance program code causing apparatus 700 to perform one or more of the embodiments of a method according to the invention or parts thereof (e.g. the method or parts of the method described below with reference to FIG. 2, when executed on processor 701), and interfaces with a main memory 703.

[0164] Program memory 702 may also comprise an operating system for processor 701. Some or all of memories 702 and 703 may also be included into processor 701.

[0165] Moreover, processor 701 controls a communication interface 704 which is for example configured to communicate according to a cellular communication system like a 2G/3G/4G/5G cellular communication system. Communication interface 704 of apparatus 700 may be provided for communicate between operator device 110 and server 150 in FIG. 1.

[0166] Apparatus 700 further comprises a user interface 705 (e.g. a touch-sensitive display, a keyboard, a touchpad, a display, etc.). The user interface 705 may be configured to receive a user input for defining a geo-fence and/or a desired confidence, as explained above, in particular with reference to FIG. 2.

[0167] The components 702 to 705 of apparatus 700 may for instance be connected with processor 701 by means of one or more serial and/or parallel busses.

[0168] It is to be understood that apparatus 700 may comprise various other components.

[0169] FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of examples of tangible and non-transitory computer-readable storage media according to the present invention that may for instance be used to implement memory 602 of FIG. 6 or memory 702 of FIG. 7. To this end, FIG. 8 displays a flash memory 800, which may for instance be soldered or bonded to a printed circuit board, a solid-state drive 801 comprising a plurality of memory chips (e.g. Flash memory chips), a magnetic hard drive 802, a Secure Digital (SD) card 803, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory stick 804, an optical storage medium 805 (such as for instance a CD-ROM or DVD) and a magnetic storage medium 806.

[0170] Any presented connection in the described embodiments is to be understood in a way that the involved components are operationally coupled. Thus, the connections can be direct or indirect with any number or combination of intervening elements, and there may be merely a functional relationship between the components.

[0171] Further, as used in this text, the term ‘circuitry’ refers to any of the following: [0172] (a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) [0173] (b) combinations of circuits and software (and/or firmware), such as: (i) to a combination of processor(s) or (ii) to sections of processor(s)/software (including digital signal processor(s)), software, and memory(ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone, to perform various functions) and [0174] (c) to circuits, such as a microprocessor(s) or a section of a microprocessor(s), that re-quire software or firmware for operation, even if the software or firmware is not physically present.

[0175] This definition of ‘circuitry’ applies to all uses of this term in this text, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this text, the term ‘circuitry’ also covers an implementation of merely a processor (or multiple processors) or section of a processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term ‘circuitry’ also covers, for example, a baseband integrated circuit or applications processor integrated circuit for a mobile phone.

[0176] Any of the processors mentioned in this text, in particular but not limited to processors 601 and 701 of FIGS. 6 and 7, could be a processor of any suitable type. Any processor may comprise but is not limited to one or more microprocessors, one or more processor(s) with accompanying digital signal processor(s), one or more processor(s) without accompanying digital signal processor(s), one or more special-purpose computer chips, one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAS), one or more controllers, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICS), or one or more computer(s). The relevant structure/hardware has been programmed in such a way to carry out the described function.

[0177] Moreover, any of the actions or steps described or illustrated herein may be implemented using executable instructions in a general-purpose or special-purpose processor and stored on a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., disk, memory, or the like) to be executed by such a processor. References to ‘computer-readable storage medium’ should be understood to encompass specialized circuits such as FPGAs, ASICs, signal processing devices, and other devices.

[0178] Moreover, any of the actions described or illustrated herein may be implemented using executable instructions in a general-purpose or special-purpose processor and stored on a computer-readable storage medium (e.g., disk, memory, or the like) to be executed by such a processor. References to ‘computer-readable storage medium’ should be understood to encompass specialized circuits such as FPGAs, ASICs, signal processing devices, and other devices.

[0179] The wording “A, or B, or C, or a combination thereof” or “at least one of A, B and C” may be understood to be not exhaustive and to include at least the following: (i) A, or (ii) B, or (iii) C, or (iv) A and B, or (v) A and C, or (vi) B and C, or (vii) A and B and C.

[0180] It will be understood that all presented embodiments are only exemplary, and that any feature presented for a particular exemplary embodiment may be used with any aspect of the invention on its own or in combination with any feature presented for the same or another particular exemplary embodiment and/or in combination with any other feature not mentioned. It will further be understood that any feature presented for an example embodiment in a particular category may also be used in a corresponding manner in an example embodiment of any other category.

[0181] The following embodiments are also disclosed: [0182] 1) A method, performed by at least a first apparatus, the method comprising: [0183] obtaining geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence; [0184] obtaining confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence; and [0185] selecting, from multiple positioning technologies, at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence, wherein the selection of the at least one preferred positioning technology takes into account the desired confidence and power consumption of the multiple positioning technologies. [0186] 2) The method according to embodiment 1, wherein the at least one preferred positioning technology enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence. [0187] 3) The method according to embodiment 1 or 2, wherein, for selecting the at least one preferred positioning technology, positioning technologies with lower power consumptions are preferred. [0188] 4) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, wherein the at least one preferred positioning technology has the lowest power consumption of those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence. [0189] 5) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, wherein the selecting of the at least one preferred positioning technology comprises: [0190] determining, from a plurality of positioning technologies, those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence; and [0191] determining, from those positioning technologies enabling evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence, the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption as the at least one preferred positioning method. [0192] 6) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, wherein the selecting of the at least one preferred positioning technology comprises: [0193] determining, from a plurality of positioning technologies, the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption; [0194] checking whether the at least one positioning technology having the lowest power consumption enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence; [0195] using this at least one positioning technology as the at least one preferred positioning technology in case of a positive result of said checking; and [0196] repeating said determining and checking with the remaining positioning technologies in case of a negative result of said checking. [0197] 7) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, wherein the method further comprises: [0198] obtaining information on an achievable confidence for the geo-fence defined by the geo-fence information with respect to at least some of the multiple positioning technologies; [0199] using the information on an achievable confidence in order to determine whether a respective positioning technology enables evaluating the geo-fence with the desired confidence.
8) The method according to embodiment 7, wherein the method further comprises: [0200] obtaining positioning uncertainty information indicating one or more positioning uncertainties of one or more positioning technologies in the area defined by the geo-fence; [0201] determining, based on the geo-fence information and the positioning uncertainty information, an achievable confidence achievable with a respective positioning technology for the geo-fence defined by the geo-fence information. [0202] 9) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, wherein multiple preferred positioning technologies to be used for evaluating the geo-fence are selected. [0203] 10) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, wherein the geo-fence comprises multiple sub-areas, wherein, for one or more of the multiple sub-areas, at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence in the respective sub-area is selected. [0204] 11) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, wherein one or more of the multiple positioning technologies are based on one or more of: [0205] a cellular communication system; [0206] a non-cellular communication system; [0207] a communication system providing signals of opportunity; [0208] a communication system providing a dedicated positioning solution; [0209] a global satellite navigation system; [0210] a wireless local area network; [0211] a communication system utilizing Wi-Fi technology; [0212] a communication system utilizing GSM technology; [0213] a communication system utilizing WCDMA technology; [0214] a communication system utilizing LTE technology; [0215] a communication system utilizing Bluetooth technology; and/or [0216] a communication system utilizing UWB technology. [0217] 12) The method according to any of the preceding embodiments, the method further comprising: [0218] providing, to a second apparatus, [0219] the geo-fence information at least partially defining the geo-fence; [0220] the confidence information indicating the desired confidence for evaluating the geo-fence; and [0221] information indicating the least one selected preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence. [0222] 13) The method according to embodiment 12, wherein the geo-fence information, the confidence information and the information indicating the least one preferred positioning technology are provided to the second apparatus as part of a geo-fence definition. [0223] 14) A method, performed by at least a second apparatus, the method comprising: [0224] obtaining, from at least a first apparatus, [0225] geo-fence information at least partially defining a geo-fence; [0226] confidence information indicating a desired confidence for triggering the geo-fence; and [0227] information indicating at least one preferred positioning technology to be used for evaluating the geo-fence. [0228] 15) The method according to embodiment 14, the method further comprising: [0229] evaluating the geo-fence based on the at least one preferred positioning technology. [0230] 16) An apparatus comprising means for performing the method according to any of embodiments 1 to 15. [0231] 17) A computer program code, the computer program code when executed by a processor of an apparatus causing said apparatus to perform the method according to any of embodiments 1 to 15. [0232] 18) A system at least comprising a first apparatus and a second apparatus, wherein said first apparatus and said second apparatus are configured to cooperate for performing the method according to any of embodiments 1 to 15 or one of said first apparatus and said second apparatus is configured for performing the method according to any of embodiments 1 to 15 alone.