Method, apparatus, and computer program product for processing received signals for locating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9285454-B2
Application number	US-201213411220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2012
Priority date	Mar 4, 2011
Publication date	Mar 15, 2016
Grant date	Mar 15, 2016

Abstract

Example embodiments are directed to various aspects of processing received signals for determining a location of a source of the signals. An example method may include generating signal timing information, and determining times for a plurality of window periods for the signal of interest based on the signal timing information. The example method may also include retrieving, from a memory device that stores the signal stream, symbols of the signal of interest based on the window periods, and formatting the symbols of the signal of interest in preparation for determining a location of a source of the signal of interest. Additional and alternative methods and apparatuses are also provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for locating a signal source, the system comprising:
a plurality of receivers including a first receiver; and
a plurality of node devices, wherein the first receiver includes processing circuitry configured to perform operations including:
receiving a plurality of wireless signal streams that originated from at least one of the node devices, wherein each of the wireless signal streams includes a signal of interest and has a respective carrier frequency;
generating signal timing information including one or more pulses corresponding to a correlation with one or more frequencies based on each of the plurality of wireless signal streams, the pulses being time-compressed portions of the signal of interest;
determining times for a plurality of window periods for the signal of interest with respect to the signal timing information for each of the respective carrier frequencies, wherein each window period is associated with a respective pulse of the signal timing information;
applying times and one or more determined gains for the signal of interest to permit estimate of a phase of the received signal for a time-of-arrival determination;
retrieving, from a memory device that stores the wireless signal streams, symbols of the signal of interest based on the window periods;
formatting the symbols of the signal of interest in preparation for determining a location of a source of the signal of interest;
determining time of arrival information based on the formatted symbols; and
providing the time of arrival information to a location processing service, wherein the location processing service is configured to determine the location of the source of the signal of interest based on the time of arrival information.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry of the first receiver is configured to format the symbols by filtering data within the retrieved symbols to include only portions of the signal of interest that are associated with the window periods.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry of the first, receiver is further configured to:
estimate the phase of the signal of interest via utilization of quadrature sampled data from the signal of interest; and
reduce interference and noise by processing a portion of the signal of interest that is in-phase with the estimated phase.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein, the processing circuitry of the first receiver is further configured to store the wireless signal streams in the memory device.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the processing circuitry of the first receiver configured to store the wireless signal streams stream such that the memory device operates as a circular buffer for incoming wireless signals.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry of the first receiver is configured to generate the signal timing information via at least one matched filter.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing each of the one or more pulses is time-compressed based on a spread ratio.

8. A method comprising:
receiving a plurality of wireless signal streams that originated from at least one node device, wherein each wireless signal stream includes a signal of interest and has a respective carrier frequency;
generating signal timing information including one or more of pulses corresponding to a correlation with one or more frequencies based on each of the plurality of wireless signal streams, the pulses being time-compressed portions of the signal of interest;
determining times for a plurality of window periods for the signal of interest with respect to the signal timing information for each of the respective carrier frequencies, wherein each window period is associated with a respective pulse of the timing information;
applying times and one or more determined gains for the signal of interest to permit estimate of a phase of the received signal for a time-of-arrival determination;
retrieving, from a memory device that stores the wireless signal streams, symbols of the signal of interest based on the window periods;
formatting the symbols of the signal of interest in preparation for determining a location of a source of the signal of interest;
determining time of arrival information based on the formatted symbols; and
providing the time of arrival information to a location processing service to determine the location of the source of the signal based on the time of arrival information.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein formatting the symbols includes filtering data within the retrieved symbols to include only portions of the signal of interest that are associated with the window periods.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:
estimating the phase of the signal of interest via, utilization of quadrature sampled data from the signal of interest; and
reducing interference and noise by processing a portion of the signal of interest that is in-phase with the estimated phase.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising storing the wireless signal streams in the memory device.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein storing the wireless signal streams includes storing the wireless signal streams such that the memory device operates as a circular buffer for incoming wireless signals.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein generating the signal timing information includes generating the signal timing information via at least one matched lifter.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein generating the signal timing information includes generating the one or more pulses where each pulse is time-compressed based on a spread ratio.

15. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to perform operations including:
receiving a plurality of wireless signal streams from at least one node device, wherein each wireless signal stream includes a signal of interest and has a respective carrier frequency;
generating signal timing information including one or more of pulses corresponding to a correlation with one or more frequencies based on each of the plurality of wireless signal streams, the pulses being time-compressed portions of the signal of interest;
determining times for a plurality of window periods for the signal of interest with respect to the signal timing information for each of the respective carrier frequencies, wherein each window period is associated with a respective pulse of the timing information;
applying times and gains for the signal of interest to permit estimate of a phase of the received signal for a time-of-arrival determination;
retrieving, from a memory device that stores the wireless signal streams, symbols of the signal of interest based on the window periods;
formatting the symbols of the signal of interest in preparation for determining a location of a source of the signal of interest;
determining time of arrival information based on the formatted symbols; and
provide the time of arrival information to a location processing service to determine the location of the source of the signal based on the time of arrival information.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to format the symbols by filtering data within the retrieved symbols to include only portions of the signal of interest that are associated with the window periods.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
estimate the phase of the signal of Interest via utilization of quadrature sampled data from the signal of interest; and
reduce interference and noi

Assignees

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

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G01S5/0205 Primary

  Details · CPC title

• G01S5/0226

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S5/14 Primary

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