METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR POSITION DETERMINATION WITH HYBRID SPS ORBIT DATA

• US 20100194634A1
• Filed: 02/04/2009
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Biacs, Zoltan F., Sheynblat, Leonid, Gum, Arnold Jason
• Granted Patent: US 9,366,763 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.31
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/23 Testing, monitoring, correcting or calibrating of receiver elements
• 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 19/27 creating, predicting or correcting ephemeris or almanac data within the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/33 Multimode operation in different systems which transmit time stamped messages, e.g. GPS/GLONASS
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position

Abstract

A method and system for a mobile station to determine its position (or velocity) and time using a hybrid combination of satellite orbit data. In one aspect, the mobile station combines predicted orbit data from one satellite and real-time orbit data from another satellite in the determination of a fix. The combination can be made to the satellites in the same or different satellite systems. The mobile station can use the real-time orbit data of a satellite at one time period and the predicted orbit data of the same satellite at another time period. In another aspect, the mobile station can use the real-time orbit data to correct the clock bias in the predicted orbit data. The correction to the clock bias can be made to the same satellite that provides the real-time orbit data, or to a different satellite in the same or in another satellite system.

Claims

1. A method of a mobile station, comprising:

receiving real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

combining the real-time orbit data of the first satellite and predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station wherein the first satellite and the second satellite belong to two different satellite systems.

2. A method of a mobile station, comprising:

receiving real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

combining the real-time orbit data of the first satellite and predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station by using a weighted combination of the real-time orbit data and the predicted orbit data based on at least one of the following;

User Range Accuracy (URA), User Range Error (URE), time to Time of Ephemeris (TOE), and an age of the predicted orbit data since a last update, wherein the real-time orbit data and the predicted orbit data overlap in time.

3. A method of a mobile station, comprising:

receiving real-time orbit data from a plurality of satellites for a determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station; and

using the real-time orbit data of the plurality of satellites to correct an error of a clock bias in predicted orbit data of one or more additional satellites, wherein the number of satellites in the plurality of satellites is equal to or greater than the number of unknowns in the spatial and time information of the mobile station, and wherein the plurality of satellites belong to different satellite systems.

4. A method of a mobile station, comprising:

receiving real-time orbit data from a plurality of satellites for a determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station; and

using the real-time orbit data of the plurality of satellites to correct an error of a clock bias in predicted orbit data of one or more additional satellites, wherein the number of satellites in the plurality of satellites is equal to or greater than the number of unknowns in the spatial and time information of the mobile station, and wherein the one or more additional satellites belongs to a first satellite system and the plurality of satellites belong to one or more other satellite systems.

5. A system of a mobile station, comprising:

a receiver interface to receive real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

a combining unit to combine the real-time orbit data of the first satellite with predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station;

wherein the combining unit is to use predicted orbit data of the first satellite, in place of the real-time orbit data of the first satellite, in the determination of the spatial and time information of the mobile station when the real-time orbit data of the first satellite becomes unavailable and wherein the combining unit is to interpolate the real-time data of the first satellite and the predicted orbit data of the first satellite to smooth a transition between the real-time data and the predicted orbit data.

6. A system of a mobile station, comprising:

a receiver interface to receive real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

a combining unit to combine the real-time orbit data of the first satellite with predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station, wherein the combining unit is to use a weighted combination based on at least one of the following;

User Range Accuracy (URA), User Range Error (URE), time to Time of Ephemeris (TOE), and an age of the predicted orbit data since a last update, wherein the real-time orbit data and the predicted orbit data overlap in time.

7. A system of a mobile station, comprising:

a receiver interface to receive real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

a combining unit to combine the real-time orbit data of the first satellite with predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station.

a correction unit to correct an error of a clock bias in predicted orbit data of the first satellite using the real-time orbit data of the first satellite.

8. A system of a mobile station, comprising:

a receiver interface to receive real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

a combining unit to combine the real-time orbit data of the first satellite with predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station, wherein the first satellite and the second satellite belong to two different satellite systems.

9. A system of a mobile station, comprising:

a receiver interface to receive real-time orbit data of a first satellite;

a combining unit to combine the real-time orbit data of the first satellite with predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station, and

a reconstruction unit to compute an approximation to the predicted orbit data based on coarse orbit data of the second satellite and a correction to the coarse orbit data, wherein the approximation is used by the mobile station as the predicted orbit data of the second satellite.

10. A system of a mobile station, comprising:

a receiver interface to receive real-time orbit data from a plurality of satellites for a determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station; and

a correction unit to correct an error of a clock bias in predicted orbit data of one or more additional satellites using the real-time orbit data of the plurality of satellites,

wherein the number of satellites in the plurality of satellites is equal to or greater than the number of unknowns in the spatial and time information of the mobile station.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of satellites belong to different satellite systems.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more additional satellites belongs to a first satellite system and the plurality of satellites belong to one or more other satellite systems.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the correction unit is to use the real-time orbit data of a first satellite in the plurality of satellites to correct the error of the clock bias in the predicted orbit data of the first satellite.

14. A mobile station, comprising:

means for receiving real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

means for combining the real-time orbit data of the first satellite and predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station wherein the first satellite and the second satellite belong to two different satellite systems.

15. A mobile station, comprising:

means for receiving real-time orbit data of a first satellite; and

means for combining the real-time orbit data of the first satellite and predicted orbit data of a second satellite in determination of spatial and time information of the mobile station by using a weighted combination of the real-time orbit data and the predicted orbit data of a same satellite based on at least one of the following;

User Range Accuracy (URA), User Range Error (URE), time to Time of Ephemeris (TOE), and an age of the predicted orbit data since a last update, wherein the real-time orbit data and the predicted orbit data overlap in time.

16. A computer program product for enabling a computer to determine spatial and time information:

software instructions for enabling the computer to perform predetermined operations; and

a computer readable storage medium bearing the software instructions;

the predetermined operations including;

receiving information indicative of real-time orbit data of a first satellite from a first satellite system; and

receiving information indicative of a combination of the real-time orbit data of the first satellite and predicted orbit data of a second satellite from a second satellite system, wherein the second satellite system is different from the first satellite system.

17. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the predetermined operations are further adapted to generate spatial and time information of a mobile station.