FTM protocol with angle of arrival and angle of departure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9973949-B2
Application number	US-201615013374-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 2, 2016
Priority date	Feb 10, 2015
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

Apparatuses and methods are disclosed that may perform ranging operations between an initiator device and a responder device. The initiator device may request the responder device to perform a ranging operation. The responder device may transmit a first fine timing measurement (FTM) frame to the initiator device, may receive an acknowledgement (ACK) frame from the responder device, and may transmit a second FTM frame to the initiator device. The second FTM frame may include a time value and angle information. The time value may indicate a difference between a time of departure (TOD) of the first FTM frame and a time of arrival (TOA) of the ACK frame. The angle information may indicate a direction of the initiator device relative to the responder device. The initiator device may determine its position, relative to the responder device, based at least in part on the received time value and angle information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of performing a ranging operation between a first device and a second device, the method performed by one or more processors of the second device and comprising:
transmitting, to the first device, a fine timing measurement (FTM) request frame including a request, embedded within a vendor specific information element (VSIE) of the FTM request frame, for the first device to estimate angle of arrival (AoA) information or angle of departure (AoD) information for one or more frames exchanged between the first device and the second device;
receiving a first FTM frame from the first device;
transmitting an acknowledgement (ACK) frame to the first device; and
receiving a second FTM frame from the first device, the second FTM frame comprising:
a time value indicating a difference between a time of departure (TOD) of the first FTM frame and a time of arrival (TOA) of the ACK frame; and
angle information indicating a direction of the second device relative to the first device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a position of the second device, relative to the first device, based at least in part on the time value and the angle information received in the second FTM frame.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining comprises:
determining a round trip time (RTT) of the first FTM frame and the ACK frame based on the time value; and
estimating the relative position of the second device based, at least in part, on the RTT and the angle information.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request indicates a desired level of accuracy for the AoA information or the AoD information.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
receiving a response frame from the first device in response to the request, the response frame indicating the level of accuracy to be provided for the AoA information or the AoD information.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a response frame from the first device in response to the request, the response frame indicating whether the first device is capable of estimating the AoA information or the AoD information.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a beacon frame from the first device, the beacon frame indicating whether the first device is capable of estimating angle of arrival (AoA) information or angle of departure (AoD) information.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the angle information is embedded within one member of the group consisting of a TOD field and a TOA field of the second FTM frame.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the time value is embedded within the other member of the group consisting of the TOD field and the TOA field of the second FTM frame.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the angle information is at least one member of the group consisting of an angle of arrival (AoA) of the ACK frame and an angle of departure (AoD) of the first FTM frame.

11. A second device to perform a ranging operation with a first device, the second device comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory configured to store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the second device to:
transmit, to the first device, a fine timing measurement (FTM) request frame including a request, embedded within a vendor specific information element (VSIE) of the FTM request frame, for the first device to estimate angle of arrival (AoA) information or angle of departure (AoD) information for one or more frames exchanged between the first device and the second device;
receive a first FTM frame from the first device;
transmit an acknowledgement (ACK) frame to the first device; and
receive a second FTM frame from the first device, the second FTM frame comprising:
a time value indicating a difference between a time of departure (TOD) of the first FTM frame and a time of arrival (TOA) of the ACK frame; and
angle information indicating a direction of the first device relative to the second device.

12. The second device of claim 11 , wherein execution of the instructions causes the second device to:
determine a position of the second device, relative to the first device, based at least in part on the time value and the angle information received in the second FTM frame.

13. The second device of claim 12 , wherein execution of the instructions to determine the position causes the second device to:
determine a round trip time (RTT) of the first FTM frame and the ACK frame based on the time value; and
estimate the relative position of the second device based, at least in part, on the RTT and the angle information.

14. The second device of claim 11 , wherein the request indicates a desired level of accuracy for the AoA information or the AoD information.

15. The second device of claim 14 , wherein execution of the instructions causes the second device to:
receive a response frame from the first device in response to the request, the response frame indicating the level of accuracy to be provided for the AoA information or the AoD information.

16. The second device of claim 11 , wherein execution of the instructions causes the second device to:
receive a response frame from the first device in response to the request, the response frame indicating whether the first device is capable of estimating the AoA information or the AoD information.

17. The second device of claim 11 , wherein execution of the instructions causes the second device to:
receive a beacon frame from the first device, the beacon frame indicating whether the first device is capable of estimating angle of arrival (AoA) information or angle of departure (AoD) information.

18. The second device of claim 11 , wherein the angle information is embedded within one member of the group consisting of a TOD field and a TOA field of the second FTM frame.

19. The second device of claim 18 , wherein the time value is embedded within the other member of the group consisting of the TOD field and the TOA field of the second FTM frame.

20. The second device of claim 11 , wherein the angle information is at least one member of the group consisting of an angle of arrival (AoA) of the ACK frame and an angle of departure (AoD) of the first FTM frame.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs containing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a second device, cause the second device to perform a ranging operation with a first device by performing operations comprising:
transmitting, to the first device, a fine timing measurement (FTM) request frame including a request, embedded within a vendor specific information element (VSIE) of the FTM request frame, for the first device to estimate angle of arrival (AoA) information or angle of departure (AoD) information for one or more frames exchanged between the first device and the second device;
receiving a first FTM frame from the first device;
transmitting an acknowledgement (ACK) frame to the first device; and
receiving a second FTM frame from the first device, the second FTM frame comprising:
a time value indicating a difference between a time of departure (TOD) of the first FTM frame and a time of arrival (TOA) of the ACK frame; and
angle information indicating a direction of the second device relative to the first device.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 21 , wherein execution of the instructions causes the second device to

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Aldana Carlos Horacio
• Zhang Xiaoxin

Classifications

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• G01S13/74

  Systems using reradiation of radio waves, e.g. secondary radar systems; Analogous systems · CPC title

• H04W24/06 Primary

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using simulated traffic · CPC title

• G01S5/12 Primary

  by co-ordinating position lines of different shape, e.g. hyperbolic, circular, elliptical or radial · CPC title

• H04L43/0864

  Round trip delays · CPC title