Time Domain Corporation

Tdc Acquisition Holdings, Inc.

Irina Dodoukh

Mark D Roberts

Larry W Fullerton

Kelly Loum

W Michael Einhorn, Ii

S Scott O'Hanian

James Lee Richards

Vernon R Brethour

Mark Andrew Barnes

Teresa E Fisher

Jennifer P Rolin

The present invention is an improved system and method for detecting the leading edge of a waveform. More specifically, the invention relates to detecting the leading edge of an ultra wideband waveform. The invention requires locking to the ultra wideband waveform at a lock reference time, and sampling the ultra wideband waveform during one or more time windows relative to the lock reference time to identify one or more leading edge candidate times based on one or more detection criterion. The ultra wideband signal is sampled at a band limited Nyquist rate that avoids aliasing within a band of interest of the ultra wideband waveform, but allows aliasing outside of the band of interest to minimize the number of samples for leading edge detection processing.

Enhanced system and method for detecting the leading edge of a waveform

A method and system for extensible positioning that uses a primary reference node at a known first position and a secondary reference node at a second position, where a range is measured between the secondary reference node and the primary reference node. The second position is determined based upon the first position and the measured range. A second range is measured between the secondary reference node and a non-fixed node. A third position corresponding to the non-fixed node is determined based upon the second position and the second range.

Method and system for extensible position location

An ultra wideband system employing a threshold to detect signal quality during acquisition wherein the threshold is adjusted based on signal characteristics such as packet traffic rate, packet loss rate, and packet loss fraction. In one embodiment, the threshold is adjusted by adjusting the gain of a variable gain stage ahead of the threshold. In another embodiment, gain and threshold are adjusted in a coordinated manner wherein gain is adjusted for low signal levels and threshold is adjusted for high signal levels. In one embodiment, packet traffic rate is evaluated over an interval based on maximum packet length, number of monitor packets, and inter-packet delay. In a further embodiment, multiple ramp builders are operated in parallel at multiple code offset values to generate signal statistics to compare with the threshold. Embodiments are disclosed wherein the thresholds are adaptively adjusted based on signal performance characteristics or the multipath environment.

System and method for fast acquisition of ultra wideband signals

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Huntsville, AL, United States of America

Irina Dodoukh