Device for round trip time measurements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9137681-B2
Application number	US-201313752270-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2013
Priority date	Apr 30, 2010
Publication date	Sep 15, 2015
Grant date	Sep 15, 2015

Abstract

An appliance facilitates localization of a station (STA) in a network, for example, a short-range wireless network. An automatic response to a request for a measurement related communication is provided. The appliance can include a radio frequency (RF) interface and a media access control (MAC) section. The MAC section can receive the request and generate the automatic response immediately after a uniform period that is uniform among any such appliance within the network. The appliance performs only the generation of the automatic response, though the response can include additional information such as (x, y) coordinates of the appliance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for facilitating localization of a station (STA) in a short-range wireless network, the apparatus comprising:
a radio frequency (RF) interface;
memory; and
a processing unit coupled to the RF interface and the memory and configured to:
receive, over the RF interface, from the STA, a request for measurement related communication;
recognize the request for measurement related communication; and
initiate transmission, to the STA, via the RF interface, of a response to the request, after a uniform delay is established;

wherein the uniform delay is implemented in each of a plurality of apparatuses within the short-range wireless network; and
wherein the response is for generating a round-trip time (RTT) for facilitating localization of the STA.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the request for measurement related communication includes a request for round trip time (RTT) measurement related communication and wherein the response forms a RTT measurement related communication.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the RF interface supports an 802.11 transmission band.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to initiate transmission, via the RF interface, of a uniform resource identifier (URI) associated with a resource containing additional location information.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the response includes a localization criterion.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the localization criterion includes an (x, y) coordinate pair associated with a location of the apparatus and the response includes the (x, y) coordinate pair.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the response includes an acknowledgement (ACK) of the request for measurement related communication, the ACK forming the measurement related communication.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus comprises a dedicated network apparatus.

9. An apparatus for facilitating localization of a station (STA) in a short-range wireless network, the apparatus comprising:
means for receiving, from the STA, a request for measurement related communication;
means for recognizing the request for measurement related communication;
means for generating a response associated with the request, wherein the uniform delay is implemented in each of a plurality of dedicated network apparatuses within the short-range wireless network; and
means for transmitting the response to the request for measurement related communication after a uniform delay, wherein the uniform delay is implemented in each of a plurality of dedicated network apparatuses within the short-range wireless network;
wherein the response is for generating a round-trip time (RTT) for facilitating localization of the STA.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the request for measurement related communication includes a request for round trip time (RTT) measurement related communication.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the means for transmitting and the means for receiving support an 802.11 transmission band.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the response includes a uniform resource identifier (URI) associated with a resource containing additional location information.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the means for transmitting further comprises means to transmit, in a beacon message, a uniform resource identifier (URI) associated with a resource containing location information.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the means for transmitting further comprises means to transmit, in a beacon message, an (x, y) coordinate pair associated with a location of the dedicated network apparatus.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the response includes an (x, y) coordinate pair associated with a location of the apparatus.

16. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the response includes an acknowledgement (ACK) frame of the request for measurement related communication, the ACK frame forming the measurement related communication.

17. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the response includes a beacon frame, and wherein the means for transmitting further comprises means for implementing a carrier sense mechanism, a back-off mechanism using the beacon frame, or both.

18. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the apparatus comprises a dedicated network apparatus.

19. A method for facilitating localization in a short-range wireless network utilizing an apparatus, the method comprising:
receiving, from a station (STA), a request for measurement related communication at the apparatus, wherein the apparatus is one of a plurality of apparatuses in the short-range wireless network;
recognizing the request for measurement related communication at the apparatus; and
transmitting, to the STA, a response to the request, from the apparatus, after a uniform processing delay;
wherein the uniform processing delay is implemented in each of the plurality of apparatuses; and
wherein the response is for generating a round-trip time (RTT) for facilitating localization.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the response includes a uniform resource identifier (URI) associated with a resource containing additional location information.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein the response includes an (x, y) coordinate pair associated with a location of the apparatus.

22. The method of claim 19 , wherein the response includes an acknowledgement (ACK) of the request for measurement related communication, the ACK forming the measurement related communication.

23. The method of claim 19 , wherein the apparatus comprises a dedicated network apparatus.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, for use with an apparatus, having instructions thereon for providing localization of a station (STA) in a short-range wireless network, the instructions being executable by a processing unit of the apparatus to perform operations, the instructions comprising:
code to receive, from the STA, a request for measurement related communication;
code to recognize the request for measurement related communication; and
code to transmit, to the STA, a response to the request for the measurement related communication, after a uniform delay for processing of the request and the response;
wherein the uniform delay is implemented in each of a plurality of apparatuses within the short-range wireless network; and
wherein the response is for generating a round-trip time (RTT) for facilitating localization.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24 , wherein the response includes a uniform resource identifier (URI), the URI associated with a resource containing additional location information.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24 , wherein the response includes an (x, y) coordinate pair associated with a location of a corresponding element within the short-range wireless network that is capable of providing the response.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24 , wherein the response includes an acknowledgement (ACK) of the request for measurement related communication, the ACK forming the measurement related communication.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24 , wherein the apparatus comprises a dedicated network apparatus.

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Das Saumitra Mohan
• Aggarwal Alok
• Naguib Ayman Fawzy
• Hardie Edward Thomas Lingham

Classifications

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04W84/10

  Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks · CPC title

• G01S13/82

  wherein continuous-type signals are transmitted · CPC title

• G01S13/46

  Indirect determination of position data · CPC title

• G01S2013/466

  by Trilateration, i.e. two antennas or two sensors determine separately the distance to a target, whereby with the knowledge of the baseline length, i.e. the distance between the antennas or sensors, the position data of the target is determined · CPC title