Iterative localization techniques

• US 8,565,106 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2010
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wildfire.Exchange, Inc. (Plume Design, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Accelera Mobile Broadband, Inc.
• Inventors: SMOLNIKAR, Miha, LIKAR, Bojan, POSEL, Robert, KALAGASIDIS, Andreas, JAVORNIK, Tomaz, KANDUS, Gorazd, MOHORCIC, Mihael, SVIGELJ, Ales, BESTER, Janez, KOS, Andrej
• Primary Examiner(s): RENNER, BRANDON M
• Application Number:
  US12/825,048
• Publication Number:
  US 20110317570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,212 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/338, 455/404.2, 455/446, 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/68 Marker, boundary, call-sign, or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/878 Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management

Abstract

The present invention refers to iterative localization techniques with wireless communication systems for rural environment with limited number of base stations in the range of the mobile station and urban environment with multipath propagation channel and several base stations in the range of mobile station.

Claims

1. A method for mobile station (MS) location estimation in the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication systems comprising the following steps:

a) WiMAX MS measurement of received signal strength of at least two base stations, where base station one is a serving base station (BS1);

b) WiMAX MS measurement of a relative delay which denotes a propagation delay difference between the BS1 and a non-serving base station (BS2);

c) Sending data corresponding to the WiMAX MS measurements to the location server;

d) Calculation of an area of MS locations based on relative delay applying time difference of arrival method;

e) Bounding the area of MS locations applying received signal strength value of the BS2 and its approximation of an antenna diagram using cosⁿ approximation, antenna tilt and azimuth applying angle of arrival method;

f) Estimation of an approximation of the MS location applying center of gravity calculation for the area of MS locations assuming uniform distribution of the weight over area;

g) Calculation of a weight distribution for the area of MS locations based at least in part on radio signal from BS1;

h) Estimation of a new approximation of MS location considering a previous approximation and a calculated center of gravity in step g;

i) Calculation of a weight distribution for the area of MS locations based at least in part on radio signal from BS2;

j) Estimation of a new approximation of MS location considering a previous approximation and a calculated center of gravity in step i;

k) exiting from the iterative loop based at least in part on a predetermined criteria; and

l) determining a new area of MS locations.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said new MS location is calculated as a center of gravity for the area of MS locations.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the criteria is a maximal distance from a set of distances from the approximation of said new MS location and each center of gravity calculated in the last iteration.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the new area of MS locations is calculated as a sphere the radius thereof being proportional to a maximal distance from a set of distances from the approximation of said new MS location and each center of gravity calculated in the last iteration.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the weight distribution of the area is calculated as a normalized square error between measured received signal strength and predicted RSS for the point of interest and normalized by a mean square error for the area of MS locations.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the proportional factor for the area radius is obtained as a random number from an interval between 1 and 3 and a probability density function of the random process is uniform.

7. A system for mobile station (MS) location estimation in a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) communication system, comprising:

an interface receiving and sending communication signals; and

a processor configured to perform the following steps;

a) WiMAX MS measurement of received signal strength of at least two base stations, where base station one is a serving base station (BS1);

b) WiMAX MS measurement of a relative delay which denotes a propagation delay difference between the BS1 and a non-serving base station (BS2);

c) Sending data corresponding to the WiMAX MS measurements to the location server;

d) Calculation of an area of MS locations based on relative delay applying time difference of arrival method;

e) Bounding the area of MS locations applying received signal strength value of the BS2 and its approximation of an antenna diagram using cosⁿ approximation, antenna tilt and azimuth applying angle of arrival method;

f) Estimation of an approximation of the MS location applying center of gravity calculation for the area of MS locations assuming uniform distribution of the weight over area;

g) Calculation of a weight distribution for the area of MS locations based at least in part on radio signal from BS1;

h) Estimation of a new approximation of MS location considering a previous approximation and a calculated center of gravity in step g;

i) Calculation of a weight distribution for the area of MS locations based at least in part on radio signal from BS2;

j) Estimation of a new approximation of MS location considering a previous approximation and a calculated center of gravity in step i;

k) exit from the iterative loop based at least in part on a predetermined criteria; and

l) determining a new area of MS locations.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein said new MS location is calculated as a center of gravity for the area of MS locations.

9. The system according to claim 7, wherein the criteria is a maximal distance from a set of distances from the approximation of said new MS location and each center of gravity calculated in the last iteration.

10. The system according to claim 7, wherein the new area of MS locations is calculated as a sphere the radius thereof being proportional to a maximal distance from a set of distances from the approximation of said new MS location and each center of gravity calculated in the last iteration.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein the weight distribution of the area is calculated as a normalized square error between measured received signal strength and predicted RSS for the point of interest and normalized by a mean square error for the area of MS locations.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the proportional factor for the area radius is obtained as a random number from an interval between 1 and 3 and a probability density function of the random process is uniform.