An inevitable direction for developing mobile communications technologies is to optimize a network and improve network quality. A drive test technology is an important means for performing network optimization, and provides a measurement and evaluation function for a network performance indicator. In a conventional drive test technology, network data is manually collected by using a drive test instrument, and as a result, a lot of resources are consumed. Minimization of drive tests (MDT) is that user equipment (UE) performs measurement on a radio signal, the UE sends a measurement result to a positioning apparatus, the positioning apparatus obtains positioning information of the UE according to the measurement result of the UE, and then the positioning apparatus sends drive test information that includes the positioning information, the measurement result of the UE, and a time stamp to an MTD functional entity. Then, an operator may perform network optimization according to the drive test information of the UE. An MDT technology can reduce drive test overheads and a network optimization cost.
Network optimization needs not only a measurement result of a radio signal, but also location information of the radio signal. This is because even if the measurement result of the radio signal measured by UE is known, the measurement result is meaningless for the network optimization if a location of the measurement result is unknown. The location information is an important basis for the network optimization. Therefore, location information of the UE needs to be collected in MDT.
A positioning technology is a technology used to determine a geographic location of user equipment (UE), and location information of the UE can be directly or indirectly obtained by using a radio signal of a radio communication network. In Long Term Evolution (LTE), a commonly used UE positioning manner is network-assisted Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning, observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) positioning, enhanced cell ID (e-CID) positioning, or uplink-time difference of arrival (UTDOA) positioning. Generally, in a UE positioning algorithm of LTE, a geometric location of UE can be estimated according to a related positioning algorithm by detecting a characteristic parameter of a signal transmitted by a radio wave between the UE and a base station, such as field strength of the signal, a time difference of arrival of the transmitted signal, and an azimuth of arrival of the signal.
In an existing positioning technology based on an enhanced serving mobile location centre (E-SMLC), an E-SMLC module is placed on a core network (CN), and the E-SMLC executes UE positioning in a GNSS manner, an OTDOA manner, an e-CID manner, or a UTDOA manner. An MDT unit sends an MDT request to an evolved NodeB (eNB), the eNB delivers logged measurement configuration information to UE, and the UE sends a positioning request to the E-SMLC. The E-SMLC sends positioning assistance information to the UE, and may further deliver a positioning measurement configuration message. The UE sends, to the E-SMLC, a measurement result measured according to a positioning measurement configuration. The E-SMLC sends positioning information to the UE. The UE sends drive test information that includes the positioning information, the measurement result, and a time stamp to the base station. The base station sends the received drive test information to the MDT unit.
It can be seen from the foregoing method that, the E-SMLC is located on a CN side and has no interface for interacting with a drive test unit, and therefore the positioning information, the measurement result, and the time stamp need to be sent to the drive test unit by using the UE and the eNB. Consequently, there are many steps in a process of obtaining the foregoing information by the drive test unit, and a delay is relatively long.
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