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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9995818-B2
Application number	US-201615017340-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2016
Priority date	Mar 4, 2011
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

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 plurality of wireless signal streams, each of the wireless signal streams including a signal of interest;
opening a window for an interval that includes a duration of one of the one or more pulses, wherein the signal of interest is stored in memory during the interval;
identifying a location in the memory using timing information associated with the window;
obtaining, from the location in the memory, symbols of the signal of interest;
formatting the symbols; and
determining time-of-arrival information based on the formatted symbols.

2. A system as defined in claim 1 , wherein the one or more 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 such that the memory 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.

8. A system as defined in claim 1 , wherein identifying the location in the memory comprises providing a memory address based on the window.

9. 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 plurality of wireless signal streams that originated from at least one node device, each of the wireless signal streams including a signal of interest;
opening, via the processing circuitry, a window for an interval that includes a duration of one of the one or more pulses, wherein the signal of interest is stored in memory during the interval;
identifying, via the processing circuitry, a location in the memory using timing information associated with the window;
obtaining, from the location in the memory, symbols of the signal of interest;
formatting, via the processing circuitry, the symbols; and
determining, via the processing circuitry, time-of-arrival information based on the formatted symbols.

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

11. A method as defined in claim 9 , 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.

12. A method as defined in claim 9 , 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.

13. A method as defined in claim 9 , further comprising storing the wireless signal steams in the memory such that the memory operates as a circular buffer for incoming wireless signals.

14. A method as defined in claim 9 , 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.

15. An apparatus including processing circuitry configured to at least:
generate signal timing information including one or more pulses corresponding to a plurality of wireless signal streams, each of the wireless signal streams including a signal of interest;
open a window for an interval that includes a duration of one of the one or more pulses, wherein the signal of interest is stored in memory during the interval;
identify a location in the memory using timing information associated with the window;
obtain, from the location in the memory, symbols of the signal of interest;
format the symbols; and
determine time-of-arrival information based on the formatted symbols.

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

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 15 , 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.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 15 , 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.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 15 , wherein the wireless signal streams originated from at least one of a plurality of node devices.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 15 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to store the wireless signal steams in the memory such that the memory operates as a circular buffer for incoming wireless signals.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 15 , 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.

Assignees

• Zih Corp

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G01S5/0226

  Transmitters · CPC title

• G01S5/0205

  Details · 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