Motorola Corporation

Motorola Mobility LLC

General Dynamics Decision Systems, Inc.

Sirf Technology, Inc.

George Jeffrey Geier

Thomas Michael King

Yilin Zhao

Troy L Strother

Roger Charles Hart

Robert Harbour

Mark Heng

James Stephen

Ravikiran Nory

Gerald J Gutowski

Joel Lloyd Gross

Eric Jay Hefner

Christopher F Bussan

William P DeClerck

Xiang Yuan

John Thomas Solar

Rodney Landers

Michael Joseph Slade

Daniel Eric Bishop

Jeffrey Scott Moffett

George Arthur Schauer

Russell S Figor

Russel Figor

Chu Gen Wang

Paul DeClerck

Gaylin David Brenchley

Todd Conroy

Sayfe Kiaei

A satellite positioning system receiver programmed to determine information for a satellite using ephemeris data (), determine information for the same satellite using almanac data (), which may have been previously stored on the receiver, to determine an error between the satellite information determined from the ephemeris data and the satellite information determined from the stored almanac data (), and to update the stored almanac data based upon the error ().

Satellite positioning system receivers and methods

GPS assistance message and data issue identifiers for transmission to GPS enabled mobile stations in cellular communications networks and methods therefore. The GPS data issue identifiers indicate whether GPS data, for example corresponding ephemeris and almanac data, stored at the mobile station requires updating. In the exemplary 3generation (W-CDMA/UMTS) architecture, the GPS assistance message is a System Information Block (SIB), and the GPS ephemeris data identifier and corresponding satellite identifier is encoded in a value tag included in a Master Information Block (MIB).

GPS assistance messages in cellular communications networks and methods therefor

An assisted global positioning satellite (Assisted GPS) system has a GPS reference network node () that collects GPS satellite broadcast messages and prepares separate GPS assistance messages to be modulated by a base transceiver station (BTS) () on a cellular carrier signal () and sent to single or multiple handset (). In a first preferred embodiment, instead of the handset () receiving standard ephemeris and clock correction data elements in a GPS assistance message, a compressed GPS assistance message containing XYZ information contains a GPS satellite's coordinate position modified according to the satellite clock correction. In a second preferred embodiment, there is a first type of compressed GPS assistance message containing subframe 1, 2, 3 data of a GPS satellite broadcast message and a second type of compressed GPS assistance message containing subframe 4, 5 data of a GPS satellite broadcast message. The compressed GPS assistance messages according to the second preferred embodiment lack redundant or predictable information in order to reduce the size of the compressed GPS assistance message. The first type can be updated at a different rate than the second type in order to reduce the traffic and yet keep the handset () up to date.

Method and apparatus for compressing GPS satellite broadcast message information

A method in a satellite positioning system receiver, including acquiring () a set of satellite positioning system satellites, determining () satellite subset time based on over-determined position solutions for at least two different subsets of the satellites acquired, determining () satellite time from at least two satellite subset times, computing () a position solution based on the satellite time or a refined () satellite time.

Satellite positioning system receiver time determination in minimum satellite coverage

A satellite positioning system receiver having a battery, wherein the receiver is programmed to determine () whether the receiver is connected to a power supply other than its battery, to begin continuous reception () of satellite positioning system navigation data when the receiver is connected to a power supply other than its battery, and to store () the navigation data received in memory of the receiver.

A satellite positioning system receiver programmed to operate synchronously with an expected time of arrival of information from at least one satellite of a satellite positioning system, and to receive the information from the at least one satellite when the receiver is operating during the expected time of arrival of the information. In one embodiment, the receiver operates synchronously with an expected arrival of specific subframe information from at least one satellite of a satellite positioning system, and receives the specific subframe information when the receiver is operating.

A cellular network protocol that maintains the reliability of assisted GPS based positioning is taught. An Integrity Monitor (IM) informs mobile stations, their users, or networks of measurement quality and it warns them of failing and failed GPS satellites by isolating them from the effects of these failures. Whenever an unhealthy satellite is detected, its corresponding assistance data will be excluded for delivery or for position determination. In other words, there are two specific aspects to the Integrity Monitor (IM). For DGPS users, it predicts the reliability or quality of the DGPS corrections. For all users, it isolates the mobile position calculation from the effects of GPS satellite failures. The UDRE parameter, nominally output by a reference DGPS receiver, is used to communicate the DGPS quality information, and DGPS corrections are simply excluded for failed satellites. For autonomous GPS users, a special integrity message is required and defined to communicate the satellite failure status information.

Method and apparatus for assisted GPS

A method in a satellite positioning system (SPS) receiverincluding acquiring a plurality of at least two SPS signals, estimating frequency error for each of the plurality of SPS signals, and compensating for the frequency error of each of the plurality of SPS signal based on the estimated frequency errors for all of the plurality of SPS signals.

Frequency error tracking in satellite positioning system receivers

Method in a Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, including determining pseudorange (PNR) measurements for at least four satellites (), determining a coarse time () corresponding to the pseudorange measurement, determining an offset time () between a periodic GPS event of one of the four satellites and the coarse time, determining a time correction delta () based upon the period of the Periodic GPS event, the offset time and the coarse time if an error of the coarse time is less than &#xbd; the period of the periodic GPS event, and determining corrected time () based upon the coarse time and the time correction delta if the error of the coarse time is less than &#xbd; the period of the periodic GPS event.

Time determination in satellite positioning system receivers and methods therefor

Methods and architectures for data message bit synchronization of a spread spectrum signal having a repeating sequence of pseudorandom code bits modulated with data message bits having a data bit time that is an integer number of a repeat time of the pseudorandom code bits. In one embodiment, an adjusted bit sync offset time is determined for each of a plurality of signals for which bit sync offset time is not known based on a corresponding clock error corrected propagation time for each signal, based on a known bit synch offset time and based on a clock error corrected propagation time of the signal for which bit synch offset time is known.

Data message bit synchronization and local time correction methods and architectures

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for generating time of arrival estimates for use by a wireless communication network for locating the position of a wireless or mobile source () within the service area of the wireless communication network. The mobile source generates time of arrival estimates from data bursts received from base sites () operating within the network. In at least one embodiment, the mobile source (), then, communicates the time of arrival estimates for each of the base sites () to the network, from which the location of the mobile source () is determined. In at least some instances, the mobile units additionally determine a variance estimate for each time of arrival estimates, which is representative of the degree of confidence in the time of arrival information being supplied to the network.

Method and apparatus for generating time of arrival estimates for use in determining a location

A method () and a mobile station () for determining a code phase are described herein. The mobile station () may generate a first auto correlation function (ACF) associated with correlation samples over a range of code phases corresponding to a line-of-sight signal. The mobile station () may generate a second ACF within the mobile station based on measured correlation samples over a range of code phases. The mobile station () may compare the first ACF to the second ACF to generate a code phase offset between the first and second ACFs. The mobile station () may adjust the first ACF to match the second ACF.

Method and mobile station for determining a code phase

A method for locating a satellite positioning system receiver, for example, a satellite positioning system enabled wireless communications device in cellular network, including obtaining a coarse position and/or a time estimate (), and computing a satellite positioning system based position and/or time solution () that is constrained by uncertainty information associated with the coarse position and/or a time estimate. The uncertainty constraints may also be used to identify erroneous measurements used to compute the position solution.

Aiding location determinations in satellite positioning system receivers

Methods for determining the location of a satellite positioning system receiver by determining an estimated location of the receiver ( ), transmitting the estimated location of the receiver to a network, determining a reference altitude of the receiver at the network based upon the estimated location of the receiver ( ), and determining a new location of the receiver based upon the reference altitude of the receiver ( ). In some embodiments, terrain slope is determined at the estimated location for use in updating the estimated location. In some embodiments, satellite information and weighting factors used to estimate receiver location along with other parameters are utilized to update the estimated location.

Satellite positioning system receivers and methods therefor

A method ( ) for correcting oscillator frequency error in GPS signal acquisition includes a first step ( ) of receiving at least one broadcasted GPS signal. A next step ( ) includes estimating a plurality of Doppler offsets. A next step ( ) includes correlating the signal to produce a Doppler modulation for each of the plurality of Doppler estimates. A next step ( ) includes calculating a magnitude separation of peak and null states of each modulation. A next step ( ) includes searching the peak and null separation to finding the Doppler estimate producing the largest magnitude separation in peak and null states. The found Doppler estimate defines a frequency error estimate for the at least one broadcasted GPS signal, which will be common across all satellites.

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Scottsdale, AZ, United States of America

George Jeffrey Geier