Method for determining location of wireless devices

• US 9,277,369 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm technologies international, ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lindskog, Erik, Wan, Hong
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, DHAVAL V
• Application Number:
  US14/319,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20150382152A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.2, 455/456.1, 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 370/252, 370/311
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/765 with exchange of information between interrogator and responder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0864 Round trip delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/02 Hierarchically pre-organised networks, e.g. paging networks, cellular networks, WLAN [Wireless Local Area Network] or WLL [Wireless Local Loop]

Abstract

Methods for determining a location of a client device in a wireless network having at least a first other network device with a known location are disclosed. Transmission-to-self calibrations are performed at the first other network device and/or the client device to determine RF group delay of the first other network device and/or the client device. The client device receives messages and acknowledgements from the other network devices and determines its location based on information received including the time at which it received the messages, the acknowledgements and the RF groupdelay of the first other network device. As such, the location calculation can be refined by accounting for the RF group delays of the first other network device and/or the client device.

Claims

1. A method for determining the location of a client device in a wireless network including the client device and at least one other network device having a known location, the method comprising:

determining a RF delay of the client device by performing, at the client device, a transmission-to-self calibration;

receiving, at the client device, a first message transmitted by the other network device to the client device;

transmitting, from the client device, an acknowledgement message to the other network device in response to receiving the first message;

receiving, at the client device, a second message transmitted by the other network device to the client device, the second message including an indication of a difference between a receipt time of the acknowledgement message at the other network device adjusted for an RF delay of the other network device determined at the other network device by a transmission-to-self calibration and a transmission time of the first message from the other network device; and

calculating, at the client device, the location of the client device based on a receipt time of the first message at the client device, a transmission time of the acknowledgment message from the client device, the indication of the difference included in the second message, and the known location of the other network device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the client device includes an RF section and a digital section where receive circuitry of the RF section is coupled to the digital section by analogue-to-digital conversion (ADC) circuitry and transmit circuitry of the RF section is coupled to the digital section by digital-to-analogue conversion (DAC) circuitry.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the receipt time of the first message at the client device is a time at which the first message is processed by the ADC circuitry of the client device, and the transmission time of the acknowledgment message from the client device is a time at which the acknowledgement message is processed by the DAC circuitry of the client device.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein determining the RF delay of the client device comprises determining a RF transmission delay and a RF reception delay.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the RF transmission delay is the time for a signal to travel from the DAC circuitry to the transmit circuitry of the RF section.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the RF reception delay is the time for a signal to travel from the receive circuitry of the RF section to the ADC circuitry.

7. The method according to claim 2, wherein the receipt time of the first message at the client device is a time at which the first message is received at the RF section or the receive circuitry of the RF section, and the transmission time of the acknowledgment message from the client device is a time at which the acknowledgment message is transmitted at the RF section of the transmit circuitry of the RF section.

8. A method for determining a location of a client device in a wireless network including the client device and at least a first other network device and a second other network device both having known locations, the method comprising:

receiving, at the client device, a first message transmitted by the first other network device to second other network device;

receiving, at the client device, an acknowledgement message transmitted by the second other network device to the first other network device in response to the second other network device receiving the first message;

receiving, at the client device, a second message transmitted by the first other network device, the second message including an indication of a difference between a receipt time of the acknowledgement message at the first other network device adjusted for an RF delay of the first other network device determined at the first other network device by a transmission-to-self calibration and a transmission time of the first message from the first other network device; and

calculating the location of the client device based on based on a receipt time of the first message at the client device, a receipt time of the acknowledgment message at the client device, the indication of the difference included in the second message, and the known locations of the first other network device and the second other network device.