Data boundary aware base station assisted position location

• US 20020031192A1
• Filed: 09/18/2001
• Published: 03/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Kang, Inyup, Sih, Gilbert C., Zou, Qiuzhen
• Granted Patent: US 7,457,630 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/325
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/235 Calibration of receiver components
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/246 involving long acquisition integration times, extended snapshots of signals or methods specifically directed towards weak signal acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/254 relating to Doppler shift of satellite signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/258 relating to the satellite constellation, e.g. almanac, ephemeris data, lists of satellites in view
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/30 code related G01S19/246 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station

Abstract

The present invention is a novel and improved method and apparatus for performing position location in wireless communications system. One embodiment of the invention comprises a method for performing position location on a subscriber unit in a terrestrial wireless telephone system using a set of satellites each transmitting a signal, the terrestrial wireless telephone system having base stations, including the steps of transmitting an aiding message from the base station to the subscriber unit, said aiding message containing information regarding a data boundary for each signal from the set of satellites, applying correlation codes to each signal yielding corresponding correlation data and accumulating said correlation data over an first interval preceding a corresponding data boundary yielding a first accumulation result, and a second interval following said corresponding data boundary yielding a second accumulation result.

Claims

1. A mobile unit capable of receiving signals from a first and second source, the mobile unit comprising a coherent integrator adapted to receive a data phase signal from the first source and a content-bearing signal from a second source, wherein the data phase information is used to coherently integrate the content-bearing signal over time.

2. The mobile unit of claim 1, further comprising a first receiving section adapted to receive the data phase information and a second receiving section adapted to receive the content-bearing signal, the first and second receiving sections being coupled to the integrator.

3. The mobile unit of claim 2, wherein the first receiving section is adapted to receive signals from a terrestrial station and the second receiver is adapted to receive signals from a satellite.

4. The mobile unit of claim 3, wherein the terrestrial station is a base station within a communications network and the satellite is a global positioning satellite.

5. The mobile unit of claim 1, wherein the data phase information is information indicative of the timing of data boundaries in the content-bearing signal.

6. The mobile unit of claim 1, wherein the data phase information can assume a plurality of values, each value representing a particular timing of the data boundaries of the content-bearing signal.

7. A tangible data storage medium comprising executable data capable of causing a programmable device to perform the steps of:

(a) receiving data phase information from a first source;

(b) receiving a content-bearing signal from a second source; and

(c) using the data phase information to perform coherent integration on the content-bearing signal.

8. A tangible data storage medium comprising executable data capable of causing a programmable device to perform the steps of:

(a) receiving a first signal having at least one data boundary from an external source;

(b) receiving from a second source a second signal an aiding message containing information regarding at least one of the data boundaries within the first signal;

applying correlation codes to the first signal to yield correlation data;

accumulating the correlation data yielded by applying the correlation codes over a first interval preceding a first one of the data boundaries for which information was received from the second source yielding a first accumulation result; and

(c) accumulating the correlation data over a second interval following the first one of the data boundaries for which information was received from the second source yielding a second accumulation result, the timing of the first and second interval being based upon the knowledge of the timing of the at least one data boundary ascertained from the aiding message.