Pseudolite-augmented GPS for locating wireless telephones
First Claim
1. A geolocation system for augmenting the Global Positioning System with a network of pseudolites, comprising:
- at least three binary code signal sources, wherein at least one of said binary code signal sources is a pseudolite capable of transmitting binary code signals on at least one radio frequency not used by the Global Positioning System, said pseudolite transmitting binary code signals according to a time division multiplexing system;
at least one mobile receiver capable of receiving binary code signals;
means for interleaving the binary code signals of said binary code signal sources, wherein a (different binary code signal) broadcast slot is assigned to each of said binary code signal sources;
a signal time processor associated with each mobile receiver, each said signal time processor being capable of determining the arrival times of binary code signals at an associated mobile receiver; and
a location processor associated with each mobile receiver, each said location processor being capable of determining the location of an associated mobile receiver from binary code signal arrival times and binary code signal source location information.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Ground-based pseudolites support accurate determination of mobile receiver locations by broadcasting CDMA signals interleaved by a TDMA system. Pseudolites synchronize signal transmissions with an accurate timing reference, such as can be derived from GPS satellites. Adjacent pseudolites broadcast CDMA signals at different times, eliminating near-far signal interference between pseudolites. A mobile receiver, typically a cellular telephone, receives and enables determination of times of arrival (TOA) of the pseudolite signals. A location processor associated with the mobile receiver may access an internal database of pseudolite locations, or pseudolite location information may be encoded in pseudolite transmissions. The location processor uses pseudolite location information and TOA to determine mobile receiver location. The TDMA pseudolite-based system may augment the GPS to provide more accurate location information than is available from the GPS alone.
266 Citations
68 Claims
-
1. A geolocation system for augmenting the Global Positioning System with a network of pseudolites, comprising:
-
at least three binary code signal sources, wherein at least one of said binary code signal sources is a pseudolite capable of transmitting binary code signals on at least one radio frequency not used by the Global Positioning System, said pseudolite transmitting binary code signals according to a time division multiplexing system; at least one mobile receiver capable of receiving binary code signals; means for interleaving the binary code signals of said binary code signal sources, wherein a (different binary code signal) broadcast slot is assigned to each of said binary code signal sources; a signal time processor associated with each mobile receiver, each said signal time processor being capable of determining the arrival times of binary code signals at an associated mobile receiver; and a location processor associated with each mobile receiver, each said location processor being capable of determining the location of an associated mobile receiver from binary code signal arrival times and binary code signal source location information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
-
24. A method for locating a wireless telephone by augmenting the Global Positioning System with a network of pseudolites, comprising the steps of:
-
transmitting binary code signals from at least three binary code signal sources, at least one binary code signal being transmitted from a pseudolite on a radio frequency not used by the Global Positioning System, the pseudolite binary code signal transmitted according to a time division multiplexing system; interleaving the binary code signals of said binary code signal sources according to said time division multiplexing system, wherein said time division multiplexing system assigns a different binary code signal broadcast time slot for each of said binary code signal sources; receiving the binary code signals with a mobile receiver; determining the times the binary code signal sources transmitted the binary code signals; determining the times the mobile receiver received the binary code signals; and determining the location of the mobile receiver from each binary code signal time of transmission and time of arrival, and from binary code signal source location information. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
-
-
45. A geolocation system, comprising:
-
means for transmitting binary code signals from sources having known locations, including at least one ground-based means for transmitting binary code signals on a radio frequency not used by the Global Positioning System, the ground-based means transmitting binary code signals according to a time division multiplexing system; means for receiving the binary code signals; means for determining the arrival times of binary code signals at each means for receiving binary code signals; means for interleaving the binary code signals of the binary code signal sources according to said time division multiplexing system, wherein said time division multiplexing system assigns a different binary code signal broadcast time slot for each of the binary code signal sources; and means for determining a location of a mobile receiver from the arrival times of the binary code signals and the known locations of the binary code signal sources. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
-
Specification