Method, Apparatus, and Computer Program Product for Processing Received Signals for Locating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016154087-A1
Application number	US-201615017340-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 5, 2016
Priority date	Mar 4, 2011
Publication date	Jun 2, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An example disclosed system for locating a signal source includes a receiver; and a plurality of node devices, wherein the receiver includes processing circuitry configured to perform operations including generating signal timing information including one or more pulses corresponding to a correlation with one or more frequencies based on each of a plurality of wireless signal streams, each of the wireless signal streams including a signal of interest; applying times and one or more determined gains for the signal of interest to permit estimate of a phase of the received signal; obtaining, from a memory device that stores the wireless signal streams, symbols of the signal of interest based on window periods associated with the pulses; formatting the symbols; and determining time-of-arrival information based on the formatted symbols.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for locating a signal source, the system comprising:
a receiver; and a plurality of node devices, wherein the receiver includes processing circuitry configured to perform operations including:
generating signal timing information including one or more pulses corresponding to a correlation with one or more frequencies based on each of a plurality of wireless signal streams, each of the wireless signal streams including a signal of interest;
applying times and one or more determined gains for the signal of interest to permit estimate of a phase of the received signal;
obtaining, from a memory device that stores the wireless signal streams, symbols of the signal of interest based on window periods associated with the pulses;
formatting the symbols; and
determining time-of-arrival information based on the formatted symbols.

2 . A system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the pulses are time-compressed portions of the signal of interest.

3 . A system as defined in claim 1 , further comprising providing the time-of-arrival information to a location processing service, wherein the location processing service is configured to determine a location of a source of the signal of interest based on the time-of-arrival information.

4 . A system as defined in claim 1 , wherein formatting the symbols of the signal of interest comprises formatting the symbols in preparation for determining the location of the source of the signal of interest.

5 . A system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the wireless signal streams originated from at least one of the node devices.

6 . A system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise storing the wireless signal steams in the memory device such that the memory device operates as a circular buffer for incoming wireless signals.

7 . A system as defined in claim 1 , wherein formatting the symbols comprises filtering data within the obtained symbols to include only portions of the signal of interest that are associated with the window periods.

8 . A method for locating a signal source, the method comprising:
generating, via processing circuitry, signal timing information including one or more pulses corresponding to a correlation with one or more frequencies based on each of a plurality of wireless signal streams that originated from at least one node device, each of the wireless signal streams including a signal of interest; applying, via the processing circuitry, times and one or more determined gains for the signal of interest to permit estimate of a phase of the received signal; obtaining, from a memory device that stores the wireless signal streams, symbols of the signal of interest based on window periods associated with the pulses; formatting, via the processing circuitry, the symbols; and determining, via the processing circuitry, time-of-arrival information based on the formatted symbols.

9 . A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein the pulses are time-compressed portions of the signal of interest.

10 . A method as defined in claim 8 , further comprising providing the time-of-arrival information to a location processing service, wherein the location processing service is configured to determine a location of a source of the signal of interest based on the time-of-arrival information.

11 . A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein formatting the symbols of the signal of interest comprises formatting the symbols in preparation for determining the location of the source of the signal of interest.

12 . A method as defined in claim 8 , further comprising storing the wireless signal steams in the memory device such that the memory device operates as a circular buffer for incoming wireless signals.

13 . A method as defined in claim 8 , wherein formatting the symbols comprises filtering data within the obtained symbols to include only portions of the signal of interest that are associated with the window periods.

14 . An apparatus including processing circuitry configured to at least:
generate signal timing information including one or more pulses corresponding to a correlation with one or more frequencies based on each of a plurality of wireless signal streams, each of the wireless signal streams including a signal of interest; apply times and one or more determined gains for the signal of interest to permit estimate of a phase of the received signal; obtain, from a memory device that stores the wireless signal streams, symbols of the signal of interest based on window periods associated with the pulses; format the symbols; and determine time-of-arrival information based on the formatted symbols.

15 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein the pulses are time-compressed portions of the signal of interest.

16 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to provide the time-of-arrival information to a location processing service, wherein the location processing service is configured to determine a location of a source of the signal of interest based on the time-of-arrival information.

17 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein formatting the symbols of the signal of interest comprises formatting the symbols in preparation for determining the location of the source of the signal of interest.

18 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein the wireless signal streams originated from at least one of a plurality of node devices.

19 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to store the wireless signal steams in the memory device such that the memory device operates as a circular buffer for incoming wireless signals.

20 . An apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein formatting the symbols comprises filtering data within the obtained symbols to include only portions of the signal of interest that are associated with the window periods.

Assignees

• Zih Corp

Inventors

• Boyd Robert
• English Jerald W
• Richardson Thomas L
• Wohl Michael A

Classifications

• G01S5/0205

  Details · CPC title

• G01S5/14 Primary

  Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location · CPC title

• G01S5/0226

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S5/06

  Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements (G01S5/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S5/0221

  Receivers · CPC title