Lucent Technologies Inc.

Alcatel Lucent

Byron H Chen

Tung Ching Chiang

Ibrahim Tekin

Giovanni Vannucci

Ren Da

John Freidenfelds

Kiran Meghashyam Rege

Tin Kam Ho

Howard C Huang

Kirk K Chang

Maria E Palamara

Robert Ellis Richton

Daniel R Jeske

Piotr Mirowski

Charles Varvaro

Christopher Burke Barroso

Amy Ortega

A system and method for position tagging within an environment includes at least one mobile electronic device adapted to be moved within the environment and a pedestrian dead reckoning module. The at least one mobile electronic device includes an inertial measurement unit and at least one of a near field communication chip, barcode scanner, global positioning system, Bluetooth receiver or WiFi receiver. The pedestrian dead reckoning module is adapted to query and record time stamped readings from the inertial measurement unit and the at least one of the near field communication chip, barcode scanner, global positioning system, Bluetooth receiver or WiFi receiver. The system and method may generate one or more spatial maps of the environment through the collection of radio frequency signal data along with the time stamped readings.

Method and apparatus for indoor position tagging

Disclosed is a method for deriving accurate global positioning satellite (GPS) timing by calibrating frame boundaries to GPS timing. Time calibration is achieved by determining a time difference &#x394;t between a reference GPS time (or pulse) and an nth frame boundary. The time difference &#x394;t and a frame boundary identifier specifying the nth frame boundary are provided to a device equipped with a full or partial GPS receiver so that the GPS equipped device may synchronize itself to GPS timing. Upon synchronizing itself to GPS timing, the GPS equipped device may search for GPS signals using information provided by a geographical location server, e.g., WAG server.

Method of timing calibration

A method and apparatus for facilitating detection of satellite signals using a dynamic integration technique in which integration time periods of correlators are adjusted according to signal strength measurements of satellite signals received at GPS receivers. Specifically, integration time periods are inversely adjusted, either proportionally or non-proportionally, to received strengths of signals being searched.

Satellite-based location system employing dynamic integration techniques

A method of geolocation that is backward compatible and more accurate than the well-known Cell/Sector ID method is provided. The geolocation method provided comprises the steps of determining a set of candidate locations for the mobile-station based on a timing advance value associated with the mobile-station and determining a location of the mobile-station using the set of candidate locations and signal strength measurements associated with same cell-neighboring sectors or different cell-neighboring sectors.

Geolocation using enhanced timing advance techniques

A local positioning system (LPS) uses the radio propagation parameters in a CDMA forward link or TDMA reverse link to establish a mobile station's position. The mobile station receives pilot channel signals from at least three distinct base stations and records the PN chip offset of the pilot channel signals. The LPS time difference of arrival triangulation approach requires no additional signal detection capabilities. Base stations send out pilot channel signals that arrive at a mobile station with a particular phase and at least a predetermined minimum strength. The mobile station reports back the &ldquo;visible&rdquo; pilot channel signals, their phases and signal strength to the LPS which uses a location non-linear system, expressed as a set of cost functions, to estimate the mobile location. The LPS can also solve the 9-1-1 mobile location problem for wireless CDMA systems by determining the position of a person in distress that has a digital cellular phone.

Local positioning system

A position locator enables the detection of an originating location of a 911 caller under various RF propagation positions. Through the use of a transceiver and global positioning unit in a portable position locator, even if only one base station receiving the 911 call can be detected, the origin of the 911 call can still be located. Utilizing information from the position locator and at least one base station, an estimated distance between the position locator and the 911 caller, as well as an estimated distance between the at least one base station and the 911 caller, can be determined utilizing TOA or TDOA techniques to enable the location of the caller. An emergency vehicle carrying the position locator can constantly monitor and move toward the location of the 911 caller calling from a wireless mobile unit.

Method and apparatus for locating a wireless mobile unit

A method and apparatus for estimating the location of a mobile terminal. The method estimates the locations by: a) using at least one forward-link geo-location technique without using any reverse-link geo-location techniques, this being performed when there are enough base stations visible to the mobile terminal to be able to use the forward-link geo-location technique without using any reverse-link geo-location techniques to estimate the location, and b) using at least one reverse-link geo-location technique when there are not enough base stations visible to the mobile terminal to be able to use the forward-link geo-location technique without also concurrently using any reverse-link geo-location techniques to estimate the location. The forward-link geo-location techniques can be used either alone or in combination with each other, and include such known geo-location techniques as a time-difference-of-arrival technique and angle-difference-of-arrival technique. Illustratively, when the predetermined number, for example three, base stations are visible to the mobile terminal, the location of the mobile terminal is estimated using time-difference-of-arrival. When fewer than three base stations are visible to the mobile terminal, the location of the mobile terminal is estimated using round trip delay. Estimating the location of a mobile terminal by using only forward-link geo-location techniques when there are enough base stations visible to the mobile terminals to be able to use forward-link geo-location techniques, produces a more accurate estimation of the mobile terminal's location. It also allows wireless assisted GPS (AGPS) systems to more quickly estimate a more precise location of the mobile terminal.

Method and apparatus for estimating the location of a mobile terminal

Weighted ridge regression (WRR) processing is applied to three or more distance measurements to determine the location of a terminal. For example, in an integrated satellite-based navigation system/wireless network, the location of a mobile unit can be determined by applying WRR processing to at least three distance measurements, where one or more of the distance measurements are satellite-based distance measurements (e.g., GPS pseudorange measurements) and one or more are wireless network-based distance measurements (e.g., round-trip delay or pilot phase offset measurements). WRR processing provides improved accuracy in the determination of mobile unit position over conventional least mean square techniques.

Location determination using weighted ridge regression

The location of a mobile unit in the service area of a CDMA cellular telephone system is predicted from a spatial probability distribution that is generated over a region of sub-cells within the service area. The spatial distribution, and hence the predicted location, is updated sequentially based on RF measurements provided by the mobile unit through the use of a Bayesian-update method.

Bayesian-update based location prediction method for CDMA systems

A technique for identifying a geographical location of a mobile terminal which includes receiving a set of characteristics from the mobile terminal, comparing the set of characteristics from the mobile terminal with a set of attributes for each of the cells, and identifying one of the sub-cells whose attributes most closely match the characteristics from the mobile terminal as the sub-cell in which the mobile terminal located. The attributes may include discrete RF attributes, such as average pilot strength, chip offset, or pilot strength. The attributes may also include continuous features, such as signature waveforms.

Pattern-recognition-based geolocation

A location or position of a wireless mobile unit is determined using only measurements from a single base station. A distance between the wireless mobile unit and the base station is calculated utilizing a roundtrip delay value of an RF uplink signal received from a wireless mobile unit. Thereafter, an angle of arrival of the received signal is determined using measurements of the received signal from each of a plurality of antenna sectors of a multi-sector antenna. The angle of arrival is determined based upon stored antenna signal measurements of the multi-sector antenna, wherein a combination of different sector signal measurements corresponds to a single angle measurement. Using the determined distance and angle of arrival, a position or location of a wireless mobile unit can easily be determined using only measurements of the single base station.

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Morris, NJ, United States of America

Byron H Chen