Technique for mobile wireless device location

• US 6,449,485 B1
• Filed: 01/22/1999
• Issued: 09/10/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Anzil, Claudio
• Primary Examiner(s): Urban, Edward F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): WASHINGTON, ERIKA ALISE
• Application Number:
  US09/235,627
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 455/517, 455/521, 455/456, 455/404, 342/357, 342/450, 342/457, 701/213, 701/214, 701/215
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/09 providing processing capability normally carried out by the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/17 Emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• 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 84/06 Airborne or Satellite Networks space-based or airborne stations H04B7/185
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A method and apparatus of determining the position of a mobile communications device using retransmitted GPS data is described. In the invention, a timing apparatus in the mobile communications device is synchronized with a timing device in the base station. The mobile unit samples and time stamps received GPS signals for retransmission to the base station. The base station uses the time stamp to determine an approximate time when the GPS sample was received allowing a reduction in the amount of GPS sample data needed to compute a position of the mobile communications device.

Claims

1. A mobile communications device comprising:

a timing apparatus to output a time stamp, the timing apparatus synchronized to a base station timing reference;

an antenna to receive and output GPS data transmitted from at least one GPS satellite;

a GPS receiving circuit coupled to the antenna and timing apparatus to sample the GPS data and combine a GPS data sample with e time stamp to form a data packet; and

a transmission circuit to transmit a plurality of data packets for periodic determination of the position of the mobile communications device at a sampling rate for correlation with data at a base station, the data at said base station being retrieved from a memory of the base station which data was received at the base station at the same time.

2. The mobile communications device of claim 1 wherein a frequency of the timing apparatus is synchronized to within one parts per million of the base station timing reference frequency.

3. The mobile communications device of claim 1 wherein the timing apparatus further comprises:

a real time clock which maintains an approximate time;

an oscillator synchronized with the base station to determine an error in the real time clock; and

wherein the time stamp includes data from both the real time lock and the oscillator.

4. The mobile communications device of claim 1 wherein the time stamp and the GPS data sample are packetized with digitized voice data.

5. The mobile communications device of claim 1 further comprising:

a microphone to receive sound signals;

an analog to digital converter coupled to the microphone to digitize the sound signals; and

wherein the transmission circuit is coupled to the analog to digital converter to transmit packets including digitized sound signals, the GPS data sample and the time stamp.

6. The mobile communications device of claim 1 further comprising:

a prioritization circuit to increase a sampling and transmission rate of GPS data when a predetermined condition occurs.

7. The mobile communications device of claim 6 wherein the redetermined condition includes the entry of an emergency code in keypad.

8. A method of determining a position of a mobile transmitting unit comprising the acts of:

synchronizing a timing apparatus with a timing signal received from a base station;

receiving and taking a plurality of samples of a GPS signal from at least one GPS satellite for periodic determination of the position of the mobile transmitting unit;

associating each sample of the received GPS signal with a corresponding time stamp, the corresponding time stamp based on the timing apparatus and indicating when the sample of GPS data was received; and

transmitting the plurality of samples of the GPS signal each with the corresponding time stamp to a base station for correlation with the data at the base station, the data at said base station being retrieved from a memory of the base station which data was received at the base station at the same time.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the act of synchronizing is done using a phase lock loop system.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the act of synchronizing synchronizes the timing apparatus to within two microseconds of a base station clock.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising the acts of:

packetizing the sample of GPS signal with the corresponding time stamp on a data packet prior to transmission.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

receiving audio data;

digitizing the audio data; and

transmitting the digitized audio data with the sample of GPS signal and the corresponding time stamp to the base station.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

detecting when an emergency situation occurs; and

increasing the sampling rate when the emergency situation occurs.

14. A method of determining a position of a mobile communications device comprising:

receiving GPS signals from at least one GPS satellite at a first station;

storing the GPS signals as GPS signal segments in a memory;

indexing each GPS signal segment with a corresponding index indicating a time when the GPS signal segment was received;

receiving a plurality of GPS samples and each sample associated with a corresponding time stamp from a mobile communications device;

matching GPS signal segments to corresponding GPS samples having time stamps corresponding to the index of each GPS segment; and

determining what time the GPS sample was received using the matching GPS signal segment.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

correlating the GPS sample to determine a position of the mobile communications device transmitting the GPS sample.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving digitized audio signals with the GPS samples and forwarding the digitized audio signals to a second mobile communications device.