Methods and systems for enhanced round trip time (RTT) exchange

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9699052-B2
Application number	US-201414285594-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 22, 2014
Priority date	May 30, 2013
Publication date	Jul 4, 2017
Grant date	Jul 4, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods and devices for obtaining round trip time measurements for use in location based services. In particular implementations, a fine timing measurement request message wirelessly transmitted by a first transceiver device to a second transceiver device may permit additional processing features in computing or applying a signal round trip time measurement. Such a signal round trip time measurement may be used in positioning operations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising, at a first wireless transceiver device:
transmitting a fine timing measurement request message to a second wireless transceiver device, the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying at least one physical signal characteristic of one or more fine timing measurement messages requested for transmission from the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message;
calculating a round trip time (RTT) measurement based, at least in part, on the one or more fine timing measurement messages requested for transmission; and
performing a positioning operation based, at least in part, on the calculated RTT measurement, to determine a location of the first wireless transceiver device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a field of the at least one field specifies a fine timing measurement message channel separation to be implemented in a transmission of at least one fine timing measurement message to be transmitted by the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one field specifies the fine timing measurement channel separation as an encoded byte.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a field of the at least one field specifies a frequency channel for transmission of a message from the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one field further specifies an encoding type to be implemented in the transmission of at the least one fine timing measurement message.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the encoding type is specified as HT, non-HT or VHT encoding.

7. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising:
receiving a fine timing measurement request message acknowledgement message in response to the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying a transmit power to be used in transmitting subsequent fine timing measurement messages from the second wireless transceiver device.

8. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising at the first wireless transceiver device:
receiving a fine timing measurement request message acknowledgement message transmitted by the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying an antenna gain to be applied in transmitting subsequent fine timing measurement messages from the second wireless transceiver device.

9. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising:
receiving a fine timing measurement request message acknowledgement message transmitted by the second wireless transceiver device in response to receipt of the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying an identifier of an antenna to be used in transmitting subsequent fine timing measurement messages from the second wireless transceiver device.

10. A first wireless transceiver device comprising:
a transceiver to transmit messages to and receive messages from a wireless communication network; and
one or more processors configured to:
initiate transmission of a fine timing measurement request message through the transceiver to a second wireless transceiver device, the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying at least one physical signal characteristic of one or more fine timing measurement messages requested for transmission from the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message;
calculate a round trip time (RTT) measurement based, at least in part, on the one or more fine timing measurement messages requested for transmission; and
perform a positioning operation based, at least in part, on the calculated RTT measurement, to determine a location of the first wireless transceiver device.

11. The first wireless transceiver device of claim 10 , wherein a field of the at least one field specifies a fine timing measurement message channel separation to be implemented in a transmission of at least one fine timing measurement message to be transmitted by the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message.

12. The first wireless transceiver device of claim 10 , wherein a field of the at least one field specifies a frequency channel for transmission of a message from the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message.

13. The first wireless transceiver device of claim 10 , wherein the at least one field further specifies an encoding type to be implemented in the transmission of the least one fine timing measurement message.

14. The first wireless transceiver device claim 10 , and further comprising:
receiving a fine timing measurement request message acknowledgement message in response to the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying a transmit power to be used in transmitting subsequent fine timing measurement messages from the second wireless transceiver device.

15. The first wireless transceiver device of claim 10 , the one or more processors at the first wireless transceiver device further configured to:
receive a fine timing measurement request message acknowledgement message transmitted by the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying an antenna gain to be applied in transmitting subsequent fine timing measurement messages from the second wireless transceiver device.

16. An article comprising:
a non-transitory storage medium comprising machine-readable instructions stored thereon which are executable by a special purpose computing apparatus of a first wireless transceiver device to:
initiate transmission of a fine timing measurement request message to a second wireless transceiver device, the fine timing measurement request message comprising at least one field specifying at least one physical signal characteristic of one or more fine timing measurement messages requested for transmission from the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message;
calculate a round trip time (RTT) measurement based, at least in part, on the one or more fine timing measurement messages requested for transmission; and
perform a positioning operation based, at least in part, on the calculated RTT measurement, to determine a location of the first wireless transceiver device.

17. The article of claim 16 , wherein a field of the at least one field specifies a fine timing measurement message channel separation to be implemented in a transmission of at least one fine timing measurement message to be transmitted by the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message.

18. The article of claim 16 , wherein a field of the at least one field specifies a frequency channel for transmission of a message from the second wireless transceiver device in response to the fine timing measurement request message.

19. The article of claim 16 , wherein the at least one field further specifies an encoding type to be implemented in the transmission of at the least one fine timing measurement message.

20. The article of claim 16 , and wherein the instructions are further executable by the special purpose co

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Aldana Carlos Horacio
• Homchaudhuri Sandip
• He Xin
• Zhang Xiaoxin
• Shukla Ashish Kumar

Classifications

• H04W72/541

  using the level of interference · CPC title

• H04W4/30

  Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes · CPC title

• H04L5/005

  of common pilots, i.e. pilots destined for multiple users or terminals · CPC title

• G01S5/0072

  Transmission between mobile stations, e.g. anti-collision systems · 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