SIGNALING IN A WIRELESS POSITIONING SYSTEM

• US 20180003794A1
• Filed: 09/15/2017
• Published: 01/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NextNav, LLC
• Original Assignee: NextNav, LLC
• Inventors: RAGHUPATHY, ARUN, SENDONARIS, ANDREW, KRASNER, NORMAN F.
• Granted Patent: US 10,598,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/042 Transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/11 wherein the cooperating elements are pseudolites or satellite radio beacon positioning system signal repeaters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/46 the supplementary measurement being of a radio-wave signal type
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0226 Transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

Devices, systems, and methods for sending positional information from transmitters/beacons. In one implementation a transmitter generates a range block including a ranging signal and a hybrid block including positioning data, and sends the range block and hybrid block at different times. A user device may receive signals from a plurality of transmitters and generates position/location information using trilateration and measured altitude information in comparison with transmitter altitude information.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A method for receiving signaling used for position determination in a positioning system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first transmitter, a first range block that includes a first ranging signal,

wherein the first range block was generated by the first transmitter and transmitted from the first transmitter in a first predefined slot of a plurality of predefined slots of a first transmit frame; and

receiving, from the first transmitter, a first hybrid block that includes a first positioning signal with positioning data that includes data specifying a location of the first transmitter or data specifying a pressure,

wherein the first hybrid block was generated by the first transmitter and transmitted from the first transmitter in a second transmit frame that is disjoint from the first transmit frame.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first range block is received during a first time period and the first hybrid block is received during a second time period that is different than the first time period.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the first hybrid block does not include any ranging signal.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the first range block does not include any positioning data specifying the location of the first transmitter and does not include any positioning data specifying the pressure.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the first hybrid block does not include any ranging signal, and wherein the first range block does not include any positioning data specifying the location of the first transmitter and does not include any positioning data specifying the pressure.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the positioning data includes the data specifying the location of the first transmitter, and the data specifying the location of the first transmitter includes positional coordinate data in one, two, or three dimensions.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the method comprises:

receiving, from the first transmitter, a second hybrid block that includes a second positioning signal with positioning data that includes the data specifying the location of the first transmitter or the data specifying the pressure,

wherein the second hybrid block was generated by the first transmitter and transmitted from the first transmitter in a third transmit frame that is disjoint from the first transmit frame, the second transmit frame, or both of the first and second transmit frames.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first range block does not include any positioning data specifying the location of the first transmitter and does not include any positioning data specifying the pressure, wherein the first hybrid block does not include any ranging signal, and wherein the second hybrid block does not include any ranging signal.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first range block is received during a first time period, the first hybrid block is received during a second time period that is different than the first time period, and the second hybrid block is received during a third time period that is different than the first time period and the second time period.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the method comprises:

receiving, from the first transmitter, a second hybrid block that includes a second positioning signal with positioning data that includes the data specifying the location of the first transmitter or the data specifying the pressure,

wherein the second hybrid block was generated by the first transmitter and transmitted from the first transmitter in a second predefined slot of the plurality of predefined slots of the first transmit frame.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first range block does not include any positioning data specifying the location of the first transmitter and does not include any positioning data specifying the pressure, wherein the first hybrid block does not include any ranging signal, and wherein the second hybrid block does not include any ranging signal.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first range block is received during a first time period, the first hybrid block is received during a second time period that is different than the first time period, and the second hybrid block is received during a third time period that is different than the first time period and the second time period.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the method comprises:

receiving, from a second transmitter, a second range block that includes a second ranging signal,

wherein the second range block was generated by the second transmitter and transmitted from the second transmitter in a second predefined slot of the plurality of predefined slots of the first transmit frame; and

receiving, from the second transmitter, a second hybrid block that includes a second positioning signal with positioning data that includes data specifying a location of the second transmitter or data specifying an additional pressure,

wherein the second hybrid block was generated by the second transmitter and transmitted from the second transmitter in the second transmit frame.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first range block does not include any positioning data specifying the location of the first transmitter and does not include any positioning data specifying the pressure, wherein the first hybrid block does not include any ranging signal, wherein the second range block does not include any positioning data specifying the location of the second transmitter and does not include any positioning data specifying the additional pressure, and wherein the second hybrid block does not include any ranging signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first range block is received during a first time period, wherein the first hybrid block is received during a second time period that is different than the first time period, wherein the second range block is received during a third time period, and wherein the second hybrid block is received during a fourth time period that is different than the third time period.

17. The method of claim 2, wherein the positioning data includes the data specifying the pressure, and wherein the method comprises:

using the data specifying the pressure to estimate an altitude of a receiver.

18. The method of claim 8, wherein the first hybrid block includes data specifying a first lowered resolution value of a transmitter parameter, wherein the second hybrid block includes data specifying a second lowered resolution value of the transmitter parameter, wherein the method comprises:

using the first lowered resolution value and the second lowered resolution value in combination to generate the transmitter parameter.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein the first hybrid block includes data specifying a first portion of a transmitter parameter, and the second hybrid block includes data specifying a second portion of the transmitter parameter.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the transmitter parameter is a pressure value, a temperature value, or both the pressure value and the temperature value.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the transmitter parameter is a latitude value, a longitude value, an altitude value, or any combination of the latitude value, the longitude value and the altitude value.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the transmitter parameter is a reference time correction for the first transmitter.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the method comprises:

using the data specifying the first portion of the transmitter parameter and the data specifying the second portion of the transmitter parameter to estimate a position of a receiver that received the first hybrid block and the second hybrid block.

24. The method of claim 2, wherein the first range block does not include any of the following data:

the data specifying the location of the first transmitter, the data specifying the pressure, data specifying an identifier of the first transmitter, data specifying a reference time correction for the first transmitter, and data specifying a transmit quality metric for the first transmitter.

25. The method of claim 2, wherein the method comprises:

receiving none of the following data from the first transmitter when the first range block is received;

the data specifying the location of the first transmitter, the data specifying the pressure, data specifying an identifier of the first transmitter, data specifying a reference time correction for the first transmitter, and data specifying a transmit quality metric for the first transmitter.

26. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media embodying program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method for providing signaling used for position determination in a positioning system, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first transmitter, a first range block that includes a first ranging signal,

wherein the first range block was generated by the first transmitter and transmitted from the first transmitter in a first predefined slot of a plurality of predefined slots of a first transmit frame; and

receiving, from the first transmitter, a first hybrid block that includes a first positioning signal with positioning data that includes data specifying a location of the first transmitter or data specifying a pressure,

wherein the first hybrid block was generated by the first transmitter and transmitted from the first transmitter in a second transmit frame that is disjoint from the first transmit frame.