Reference Satellite

• US 20130002480A1
• Filed: 01/05/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cambridge Silicon Radio Limited (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pratt, Anthony Richard, Jarvis, Murray Robert
• Application Number:
  US13/344,410
• Publication Number:
  US 20130002480A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.25
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/28 Satellite selection
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position

Abstract

An apparatus for determining the location of a receiver in dependence on signalling events transmitted to the receiver by a satellite constellation comprising a reference satellite and one or more other satellites, the apparatus being arranged to, for each of the one or more satellites, compare an indication of the transit time of the signalling event transmitted by that satellite and an indication of the transit time of the signalling event transmitted by the reference satellite and calculate the location of the receiver in dependence on those comparisons; the apparatus being further arranged to determine, for each of the satellites in the constellation, an indication of an error that would be incorporated in the comparisons if that satellite were selected as the reference satellite and to designate one of the satellites in the constellation as the reference satellite in dependence on those indications.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining the location of a receiver in dependence on signalling events transmitted to the receiver by a satellite constellation comprising a reference satellite and one or more other satellites, the apparatus being arranged to:

for each of the one or more other satellites, compare an indication of the transit time of a signalling event transmitted by that satellite and an indication of the transit time of a signalling event transmitted by the reference satellite; and

calculate the location of the receiver in dependence on those comparisons;

the apparatus being further arranged to determine, for each of the satellites in the constellation, an indication of an error that would be incorporated in the comparisons if that satellite were selected as the reference satellite and to designate one of the satellites in the constellation as the reference satellite in dependence on those indications.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein apparatus is arranged to estimate a transmission time for the signalling events transmitted by each satellite and estimate a location of the receiver.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the apparatus is arranged to compare the indications of the transit times in dependence on the estimated transmission time of the signalling event transmitted by the satellite, the estimated transmission time of the signalling event transmitted by the reference satellite and the estimated location of the receiver.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the apparatus is arranged to determine an indication of the error that would be incorporated in the comparisons in dependence on an error comprised in the estimates of transmission time and/or the estimate of receiver location.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is arranged to use, as the indication of the transit time of a signalling event, a time-of-arrival of that signalling event at the receiver.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the apparatus is arranged to use, as the indication of the transit time of a signalling event, an estimated distance between the receiver and the satellite that transmitted that signalling event.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the apparatus is arranged to estimate the distance between the receiver and the satellite in dependence on the estimated time of transmission of the signalling event transmitted by that satellite and the estimated location of the receiver.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is arranged to determine an average line-of-sight velocity for the satellites in the constellation.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the apparatus is arranged to designate, as the reference satellite, the satellite having a line-of-sight velocity that is closest to the average line-of-sight velocity.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is arranged to determine a direction vector corresponding to an average of the direction vectors from the receiver to each satellite in the constellation.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the apparatus is arranged to designate, as the reference satellite, the satellite for which the direction vector from the receiver to that satellite is closest to the average direction vector.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the apparatus is arranged to designate, as the reference satellite, the satellite in the constellation having either:

the closest line-of-sight velocity to the average line-of-sight velocity;

or

the direction vector to the receiver that is closest to the average direction vector;

in dependence on the relative magnitudes of an error in the estimate of the location of the receiver and an error in the estimates of the transmission times.

13. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the apparatus is arranged to designate as the reference satellite the satellite of the plurality of satellites having an optimum combination of line-of-sight velocity and direction vector in relation to the average line-of-sight velocity and average direction vector.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the apparatus is arranged to calculate for each of the plurality of satellites a metric, Δ

_j², that is given by the following equation;

15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is arranged to calculate for each of the plurality of satellites a metric, Δ

_j0², that is given by the following equation;

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is arranged to designate a reference satellite by:

selecting each of the satellites in the constellation in turn as a candidate for being the reference satellite;

for each candidate, forming indications of the error that would be incorporated in each of the comparisons if that satellite were the reference;

for each candidate, identifying a maximum of those errors; and

designating as the reference satellite the candidate that would generate the minimum maximum error.

17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is arranged to select a subset of the satellites that are visible to the receiver to form the constellation of satellites.

18. An apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the apparatus is arranged to designate one of the subset of satellites as the reference satellite.

19. A method for determining the location of a receiver in dependence on signalling events transmitted to the receiver by a satellite constellation comprising a reference satellite and one or more other satellites, the method comprising:

for each of the one or more satellites, comparing an indication of the transit time of the signalling event transmitted by that satellite and an indication of the transit time of the signalling event transmitted by the reference satellite; and

calculating the location of the receiver in dependence on those comparisons;

the method further comprising determining, for each of the satellites in the constellation, an indication of an error that would be incorporated in the comparisons if that satellite were selected as the reference satellite and selecting the reference satellite in dependence on those indications.

20. A computer-readable medium encoded with instructions, that when executed by an apparatus for determining the location of a receiver in dependence on signalling events transmitted to the receiver by a satellite constellation comprising a reference satellite and one or more other satellites, cause the apparatus to:

for each of the one or more satellites, compare an indication of the transit time of the signalling event transmitted by that satellite and an indication of the transit time of the signalling event transmitted by the reference satellite; and

calculate the location of the receiver in dependence on those comparisons;

the instructions further causing the apparatus to determine, for each of the satellites in the constellation, an indication of an error that would be incorporated in the comparisons if that satellite were selected as the reference satellite and to select the reference satellite in dependence on those indications.