Angle of arrival and/or range estimation within a wireless communication device

• US 8,723,729 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2010
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Desai, Prasanna, Ibrahim, Brima B., Mak, Siukai
• Primary Examiner(s): LIU, HARRY K
• Application Number:
  US12/787,256
• Publication Number:
  US 20100302102A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,449 Days
• Field of Search: 342/433
• US Class Current: 342/433
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/06 using intensity measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/14 Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction aerial arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern H01Q3/00; combinations of different interacting aerial units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q21/29; aerials or aerial systems providing at least two radiation patterns H01Q25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/50 the waves arriving at the antennas being pulse modulated and the time difference of their arrival being measured
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/12 by co-ordinating position lines of different shape, e.g. hyperbolic, circular, elliptical or radial
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination

Abstract

Angle of arrival and/or range estimation within a wireless communication device. Appropriate processing of communications received by a wireless communication device is performed to determine the angle of arrival of the communication (e.g., with respect to some coordinate basis of the wireless communication device). Also, appropriate processing of the communications may be performed in accordance with range estimation as performed by the wireless communication device to determine the distance between the transmitting and receiving wireless communication devices. There are two separate modes of packet processing operations that may be performed: (1) when contents of the received packet are known, and (2) when contents of the received packet are unknown. The wireless communication device includes a number of antenna, and a switching mechanism switches from among the various antennae capitalizing on the spatial diversity of the antennae to generate a multi-antenna signal.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of antennae to receive a signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus;

a switching mechanism to dwell on each of the plurality of antennae for a respective period of time and to generate a multi-antenna signal there from;

a front-end circuitry, coupled to the switching mechanism, to generate a digital signal based on the multi-antenna signal;

a processing circuitry, coupled to the front-end circuitry, to process the digital signal, in accordance with at least one operational mode, selected from a plurality of operational modes based on at least one characteristic of the signal, to generate at least one of an estimate of an angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus and a range estimate corresponding to a distance between the apparatus and the at least one additional apparatus; and

an operational mode selection circuitry adaptively to direct operation of the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry in accordance with a first of the plurality of operational modes and a second of the plurality of operational modes; and

wherein;

the first of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including predetermined contents; and

the second of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including unknown contents.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the front-end circuitry comprising:

a digital packet processing circuitry to identify repetition coded bits within the digital signal and to direct the switching mechanism to switch between two of the plurality of antennae during a selected bit within the repetition coded bits.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, the front-end circuitry comprising:

a digital packet processing circuitry to use the digital signal to identify a media access control (MAC) address corresponding to the at least one additional apparatus.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein:

the apparatus to associate the MAC address with a predetermined location corresponding to the at least one additional apparatus; and

the apparatus to estimate a position of the apparatus, relative to the at least one additional apparatus, based on the predetermined location corresponding to the at least one additional apparatus.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, the processing circuitry comprising:

an angle of arrival circuitry to generate the estimate of the angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from the at least one additional apparatus; and

a received signal strength indication (RSSI) circuitry to calculate an RSSI estimate corresponding to the estimate corresponding to the distance between the apparatus and the at least one additional apparatus.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the processing circuitry comprising:

an angle of arrival circuitry to generate the estimate of the angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from the at least one additional apparatus.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the signal having characteristics being compliant with Bluetooth low energy (BLE), Bluetooth basic range/enhanced data rate (BR/EDR), or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the apparatus being one of a plurality of locating devices;

the at least one additional apparatus being at least one of a plurality of transmitting devices respectively associated with a plurality of locations; and

the plurality of locating devices to generate estimates of respective angles of arrival of respective signals transmitted from the plurality of transmitting devices and respective range estimates corresponding to respective distances between the plurality of transmitting devices and the plurality of locating devices.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein:

the respective angles of arrival and the respective range estimates being employed by a gaming console to monitor movement of at least one of a plurality of transmitting devices respectively associated with a plurality of locations.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the apparatus being a locating device; and

the at least one additional apparatus being a transmitting device implemented within a key fob, a transmitting device associated with a at least one location, a wireless station (STA), or a wireless local area network (WLAN/WiFi) access point (AP).

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a plurality of antennae to receive a signal transmitted from at least one additional apparatus;

a switching mechanism to dwell on each of the plurality of antennae for a respective period of time and to generate a multi-antenna signal there from;

a front-end circuitry, coupled to the switching mechanism, to generate a digital signal based on the multi-antenna signal;

an angle of arrival circuitry, coupled to the front-end circuitry, to generate an estimate of an angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from the at least one additional apparatus;

a received signal strength indication (RSSI) circuitry, coupled to the front-end circuitry, to calculate an RSSI estimate corresponding to an estimate corresponding to a distance between the apparatus and the at least one additional apparatus; and

an operational mode selection circuitry adaptively to direct operation of the front-end circuitry and the processing circuitry in accordance with a first operational mode and a second operational mode; and

wherein;

the first operational mode corresponding to the signal including predetermined contents; and

the second operational mode corresponding to the signal including unknown contents.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the front-end circuitry comprising:

a digital packet processing circuitry to identify repetition coded bits within the digital signal and to direct the switching mechanism to switch between two of the plurality of antennae during a selected bit within the repetition coded bits.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, the front-end circuitry comprising:

a digital packet processing circuitry to use the digital signal to identify a media access control (MAC) address corresponding to the at least one additional apparatus; and

wherein;

the apparatus to associate the MAC address with a predetermined location corresponding to the at least one additional apparatus; and

the apparatus to estimate a position of the apparatus, relative to the at least one additional apparatus, based on the predetermined location corresponding to the at least one additional apparatus.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

the signal having characteristics being compliant with Bluetooth low energy (BLE), Bluetooth basic range/enhanced data rate (BR/EDR), or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

the apparatus being a locating device; and

the at least one additional apparatus being a transmitting device implemented within a key fob, a transmitting device associated with a at least one location, a wireless station (STA), or a wireless local area network (WLAN/WiFi) access point (AP).

16. A method for operating a communication device, comprising:

operating a plurality of antennae for receiving a signal transmitted from at least one additional communication device;

operating a switching mechanism for dwelling on each of the plurality of antennae for a respective period of time and for generating a multi-antenna signal there from;

generating a digital signal based on the multi-antenna signal; and

processing the digital signal, in accordance with at least one operational mode, selected from a plurality of operational modes based on at least one characteristic of the signal, thereby generating at least one of an estimate of an angle of arrival corresponding to the signal transmitted from at least one additional communication device and a range estimate corresponding to a distance between the communication device and at least one additional communication device; and

adaptively directing operation of the communication device in accordance with a first of the plurality of operational modes and a second operational modes; and

wherein;

the first of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including predetermined contents; and

the second of the plurality of operational modes corresponding to the signal including unknown contents.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

identifying repetition coded bits within the digital signal and, based on the repetition coded bits, directing the switching mechanism to switch between two of the plurality of antennae during a selected bit within the repetition coded bits.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

using the digital signal for identifying a media access control (MAC) address corresponding to the at least one additional communication device;

associating the MAC address with a predetermined location corresponding to the at least one additional communication device; and

estimating a position of the communication device, relative to the at least one additional communication device, based on the predetermined location corresponding to the at least one additional communication device.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

calculating an received signal strength indicator (RSSI) estimate corresponding to an estimate corresponding to a distance between the communication device and at least one additional communication device.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the communication device being a locating device; and

the at least one additional communication device being a transmitting device implemented within a key fob, a transmitting device operable to be situated on a person, a wireless station (STA), or a wireless local area network (WLAN/WiFi) access point (AP).