Methods and systems for mobile device clock management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10149261-B2
Application number	US-201414503233-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2014
Priority date	Nov 4, 2013
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, systems and/or devices to calibrate a network time by acquisition of satellite positioning system (SPS) signals and different instances of time, and time-tagging SPS times according to the network time. In particular, the network time may be calibrated based, at least in part, on a first difference between first and second SPS times obtained at two SPS position fixes and a second difference between corresponding first and second time stamps.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, at a mobile device, comprising:
obtaining a first value of a sleep counter and a first time stamp prior to the mobile device entering a lower power state, wherein the first time stamp is referenced to a local network time;
entering a higher power state to acquire a paging signal; obtaining a second value of the sleep counter and a second time stamp while in the higher power state,
wherein the second time stamp is referenced to the local network time;
returning to the lower power state; and while in the lower power state, estimating an increment cycle of the sleep counter based, at least in part, on a first difference between the first time stamp and the second time stamp, and at least in part on a second difference between the first value of the sleep counter and the second value of the sleep counter; and
while in the lower power state, perform an SPS position fix based, at least in part, on the estimated increment cycle of a sleep counter.

2. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising determining the local network time based, at least in part, on acquisition of the paging signal.

3. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising:
propagating a system clock time based, at least in part, on the estimated increment cycle of the sleep counter.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the system clock time is propagated by an amount based, at least in part, on the second difference multiplied by the estimated increment cycle of the sleep counter.

5. The method of claim 3 , and further comprising initiating acquisition of one or more satellite positioning system (SPS) signals based, at least in part, on the propagated system clock time.

6. The method of claim 5 , and further comprising determining a time uncertainty for acquisition of the one or more SPS signals based, at least in part, on a temperature of the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the time uncertainty is further determined based, at least in part, on an uncertainty is the local network time.

8. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising:
determining to perform the SPS position fix while the mobile device is in the lower power state.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lower power state comprises a sleep state.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first time stamp and the second time stamp are obtained during paging slots.

11. A mobile device comprising:
a receiver; a sleep counter circuit; and
one or more processors configured to:
obtain a first value of a sleep counter and a first time stamp prior to the mobile device entering a lower power state, wherein the first time stamp is to be referenced to a local network time to be maintained at a base station;
transition the mobile device to a higher power state to acquire a paging signal to be received at the receiver;
obtain a second value of the sleep counter and a second time stamp while in the higher power state, wherein the second time stamp is to be referenced to the local network time;
transition the mobile device to the lower power state; while in the lower power state, estimate an increment cycle of the sleep counter based, at least in part, on a first difference between the first time stamp and the second time stamp, and based at least in part on a second difference between the first value of the sleep counter and the second value of the sleep counter; and
while in the lower power state, perform an SPS position fix based, at least in part, on the estimated increment cycle of a sleep counter.

12. The mobile device of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine the local network time based, at least in part, on acquisition the paging signal.

13. The mobile device of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to propagate a system clock time based, at least in part, on the estimated increment cycle of the sleep counter circuit.

14. The mobile device of claim 13 , wherein the one or processors are further configured to propagate the system clock time by an amount based, at least in part, on the second difference multiplied by the estimated increment cycle.

15. The mobile device of claim 13 , and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to initiate acquisition of one or more satellite positioning system (SPS) signals based, at least in part, on the propagated system clock time.

16. The mobile device of claim 15 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to determine a time uncertainty for acquisition of the one or more SPS signals based, at least in part, on a temperature of the mobile device.

17. An article, comprising:
a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a mobile device to:
obtain a first value of a sleep counter and a first time stamp prior to the mobile device entering a lower power state, wherein the first time stamp is to be referenced to a local network time to be maintained at a base station;
transition the mobile device to a higher power state to acquire a paging signal;
obtain a second value of the sleep counter and a second time stamp while in the higher power state, wherein the second time stamp is to be referenced to the local network time;
transition the mobile device to the lower power state; and
while in the lower power state, estimate an increment cycle of the sleep counter based, at least in part, on a first difference between the first time stamp and the second time stamp, and based at least in part on a second difference between the first value of the sleep counter and the second value of the sleep counter; and
while in the lower power state, perform an SPS position fix based, at least in part, on the estimated increment cycle of a sleep counter.

18. The article of claim 17 , wherein the storage medium having stored thereon further instructions executable by the mobile device to determine the local network time based, at least in part, on acquisition of the paging signal.

19. The article of claim 18 , wherein the storage medium having stored thereon further instructions executable by the mobile device to:
propagate a system clock time based, at least in part, on the estimated increment cycle of the sleep counter.

20. The article of claim 19 , wherein the system clock time is to be propagated by an amount based, at least in part, on the second difference multiplied by the estimated increment cycle.

21. The article of claim 19 , wherein the storage medium having stored thereon further instructions executable by the mobile device to initiate acquisition of one or more satellite positioning system (SPS) signals based, at least in part, on the propagated system clock time.

22. At a mobile device, an apparatus comprising:
means for obtaining a first value of a sleep counter and a first time stamp prior to the mobile device entering a lower power state, wherein the first time stamp is referenced to a local network time maintained at a base station;
means for entering a higher power state to acquire a paging signal;
means for obtaining a second value of the sleep counter and a second time stamp while in the higher power state, wherein the second time stamp is referenced to the local network time; means for returning to the lower power state;
means for estimating, while in the lower power state, an increment cycle of the sleep counter based, at least in part, on a first difference between the first time stamp and the second time stam

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Farmer Dominic Gerard
• Wu Jie
• Morrison William James
• Lin Tong
• Rao Krishnaranjan S

Classifications

• Y02D70/162

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/142

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/144

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/1222

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/164

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic