Transmitter location searching system
First Claim
1. A transmitter location searching method useable in a multipath transmission environment, comprising the steps of:
- (a) geometrically partitioning a monitored area into a plurality of cells;
(b) receiving at the base stations a burst transmission from a transmitter to be located;
(c) determining minima of a total cost function at the center of each cell in response to receipt of said burst transmission;
(d) choosing the cell with the smallest of the plurality of total cost functions as a new candidate cell for locating said transmitter;
(e) dividing the new candidate cell into smaller cells;
(f) determining minimum costs for each corner of the smaller cells; and
(g) iterating the process of steps (c)-(f) until a dimension of a new candidate cell is smaller than a selected geometric threshold.
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Abstract
A transmitter location searching system produces fast, stable and accurate results in a multipath transmission environment by geometrically partitioning the monitored area into a plurality of cells and finding the optima of a total cost function at the centers of the cells. The original three-dimensional optimization problem is thus reduced to a one-dimensional problem. Based on this calculation, the cell providing the smallest cost is chosen as a new candidate cell which is divided into smaller cells and the minimum costs are calculated for each of these smaller cells. The cell that provides the smallest cost is chosen as the center of another new candidate cell. The process is iterated until a dimension of a new candidate cell is smaller than a predetermined threshold. By reducing the dimensions of each cell by a factor of two at each iteration, the algorithm converges rapidly.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A transmitter location searching method useable in a multipath transmission environment, comprising the steps of:
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(a) geometrically partitioning a monitored area into a plurality of cells; (b) receiving at the base stations a burst transmission from a transmitter to be located; (c) determining minima of a total cost function at the center of each cell in response to receipt of said burst transmission; (d) choosing the cell with the smallest of the plurality of total cost functions as a new candidate cell for locating said transmitter; (e) dividing the new candidate cell into smaller cells; (f) determining minimum costs for each corner of the smaller cells; and (g) iterating the process of steps (c)-(f) until a dimension of a new candidate cell is smaller than a selected geometric threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A transmitter location searching system comprising:
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a plurality of base stations distributed over an area to be monitored, each of said base stations being adapted to receive a burst RF transmission from a transmitter within said area, the burst transmission containing information identifying the transmitter, each of said base stations further including a time of arrival subsystem responsive to a time reference and to said information for generating an output signal identifying said transmitter and a time arrival of a burst RF transmission from said transmitter; and a master station for receiving output signals from each of said base stations, said master station including ranging processor means for geometrically partitioning the monitored area into a plurality of cells based on the locations of said plurality of base stations, determining the minima of a total cost function at the centers of the cells, choosing the cell with the smallest of the plurality of total cost functions as a new candidate cell, dividing the new candidate cell into smaller cells, determining minimum costs for each corner of the smaller cells, and iterating the portion of the process beginning with determining the minima of a total cost function at the centers of the cells, until a dimension of a new candidate cell is smaller than a selected geometric threshold. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification