980 results about "Angle of arrival" patented technology

A location system is disclosed for commercial wireless telecommunication infrastructures. The system is an end-to-end solution having one or more location centers for outputting requested locations of commercially available handsets or mobile stations (MS) based on, e.g., CDMA, AMPS, NAMPS or TDMA communication standards, for processing both local MS location requests and more global MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location centers. The system uses a plurality of MS locating technologies including those based on: (1) two-way TOA and TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) distributed antenna provisioning; (5) GPS signals, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from various types of very low cost non-infrastructure base stations for communicating via a typical commercial wireless base station infrastructure or a public telephone switching network. Accordingly, the traditional MS location difficulties, such as multipath, poor location accuracy and poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with strategies for: (a) automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes; (b) automatically capturing location signal data for continual enhancement of a self-maintaining historical data base retaining predictive location signal data; (c) evaluating MS locations according to both heuristics and constraints related to, e.g., terrain, MS velocity and MS path extrapolation from tracking and (d) adjusting likely MS locations adaptively and statistically so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signing environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

A location system is disclosed for commercial wireless telecommunication infrastructures. The system is an end-to-end solution having one or more location centers for outputting requested locations of commercially available handsets or mobile stations (MS) based on, e.g., CDMA, AMPS, NAMPS or TDMA communication standards, for processing both local MS location requests and more global MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location centers. The system uses a plurality of MS locating technologies including those based on: (1) two-way TOA and TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) distributed antenna provisioning; (5) GPS signals, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from various types of very low cost non-infrastructure base stations for communicating via a typical commercial wireless base station infrastructure or a public telephone switching network. Accordingly, the traditional MS location difficulties, such as multipath, poor location accuracy and poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with strategies for: (a) automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes; (b) automatically capturing location signal data for continual enhancement of a self-maintaining historical data base retaining predictive location signal data; (c) evaluating MS locations according to both heuristics and constraints related to, e.g., terrain, MS velocity and MS path extrapolation from tracking and (d) adjusting likely MS locations adaptively and statistically so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signaling environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

A system is provided for locating a vehicle. The system comprises a transmission device such as a key fob for transmission and receiving of a signal. Typically the key fob has a plurality of indicators such as LED indicators arranged in a circle. The key fob is adapted to transmit a radio frequency or microwave frequency transmission signal. An antenna array is positioned on or in a vehicle. The array comprises a plurality of antennas, generally arranged in a circular pattern. The array is adapted to receive the transmission signal from the transmission device which is converted to be analyzed by a microcontroller unit (MCU). The MCU is adapted to: (i) receive digital data converted from the transmission signal, (ii) calculate an angle of arrival (AOA) or direction of arrival (DOA) based on known components and an algorithm, and (iii) transmit a selection signal back to the key fob. A signal processing unit is coupled to the plurality of antennas and the MCU. The signal processing unit is adapted to receive the signal transmission from each antenna, convert the signal to digital data, and transmit the digital data to the MCU.

A system for wirelessly locating mobile station / units (MS) and using resulting location determinations for providing a product or service is disclosed. The system is useful for routing an MS user to a plurality of desired locations, alerting an MS user to a nearby desired product or service based on satisfaction of user criteria, and providing enhanced security and 911 response. In one embodiment, the system responds to MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location processing sites. A plurality of locating technologies including those based on: (1) TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) timing advance; (5) GPS and network assisted GPS, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from low cost base stations can be activated, in various combinations, by system embodiments. MS location difficulties resulting from poor location accuracy / reliability and / or poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signaling environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

The present invention provides a solution to mistaken location calculations based on multipath effects. The present invention determines a real-time location of an object in a facility using a combination of location algorithms, with a signal characteristic for a wireless signal from a communication device attached to the object received at a sensor of a mesh network. The location algorithms preferably include at least two of a proximity algorithm, a radial basis function algorithm, a maximum likelihood algorithm, a genetic algorithm, a minimum mean squared error algorithm, a radiofrequency fingerprinting algorithm, a multilateration algorithm, a time difference of arrival algorithm, a signal strength algorithm, a time of arrival algorithm, an angle of arrival algorithm, a spatial diversity algorithm, and a nearest neighbor algorithm.

A method for operating a communications system is provided. The method includes receiving a plurality of signals at a plurality of antenna elements, the plurality of signals arriving at the array of antenna elements at a plurality of angles of arrival (AOAs) with respect to a reference location. The method also includes calculating a plurality of differential distance vectors between the plurality of antenna elements and the reference location, each of the plurality of differential distance vectors associated with one of the plurality of AOAs and at least one of the pluralities of signals. The method further includes obtaining a plurality of actual phase center locations for the plurality of antenna elements based on the plurality of differential distance vectors and the plurality of AOAs and providing a correction to configuration data for the array of antenna elements based at least on the plurality of actual phase center locations.

Rather than costly modifications to existing radars, a small, low cost radar warning receiver is used to monitor the RF environment. This add-on receiver can provide situational awareness including RF signal levels and angle of arrival, and recommend or provide antenna scanning synchronization, blanking inputs or gated reactionary outputs to or for the airborne radar. Utilization of this information can be used to reduce false alarms and improve system performance.

Angle of arrival and / or range estimation within a wireless communication device. Appropriate processing of communications received by a wireless communication device is performed to determine the angle of arrival of the communication (e.g., with respect to some coordinate basis of the wireless communication device). Also, appropriate processing of the communications may be performed in accordance with range estimation as performed by the wireless communication device to determine the distance between the transmitting and receiving wireless communication devices. There are two separate modes of packet processing operations that may be performed: (1) when contents of the received packet are known, and (2) when contents of the received packet are unknown. The wireless communication device includes a number of antenna, and a switching mechanism switches from among the various antennae capitalizing on the spatial diversity of the antennae to generate a multi-antenna signal.

A system for wirelessly locating mobile station / units (MS) and using resulting location determinations for providing a product or service is disclosed. The system is useful for routing an MS user to a plurality of desired locations, alerting an MS user to a nearby desired product or service based on satisfaction of user criteria, and providing enhanced security and 911 response. In one embodiment, the system responds to MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location processing sites. A plurality of locating technologies including those based on: (1) TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) timing advance; (5) GPS and network assisted GPS, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from low cost base stations can be activated, in various combinations, by system embodiments. MS location difficulties resulting from poor location accuracy / reliability and / or poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signaling environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

A device for identifying interference source in wireless communications is provided, including a correlation compound module, a matching and screening module, a statistical analysis module, and a match identification module. The correlation compound module uses the time of arrival (TOA) of the burst as the synchronization basis to compound the correlated frequency word, time difference of arrival (TDOA) word, amplitude word and angle of arrival (AOA) word to form a burst descriptor word (BDW). The matching and screening module uses the BWD to match the burst library to screen out the non-interference sources. The statistic analysis module uses the screened outcome for statistical analysis, and obtains a source discriminator file (SDF). The matching and identification module uses the SDF to search the interference source library for matching and obtains an identification result.

Replica correlation processing, and associated representative signal-data reduction and reconstruction techniques, are used to detect signals of interest and obtain robust measures of received-signal parameters, such as time differences of signal arrival and directional angles of arrival, that can be used to estimate the location of a cellularized-communications signal source. The new use in the present invention of signal-correlation processing for locating communications transmitters. This enables accurate and efficient extraction of parameters for a particular signal even in a frequency band that contains multiple received transmissions, such as occurs with code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) communications. Correlation processing as disclosed herein further enables extended processing integration times to facilitate the effective detection of desired communications-signal effects and replication measurement of their location-related parameters, even for the communications signals modulated to convey voice conversations or those weakened through propagation effects. Using prior, constructed, signal replicas in the correlation processing enables elimination of the inter-site communications of the signal representations that support the correlation analyses. Reduced-data representations of the modulated signals for voiced conversation, or for the variable components of data communications, are used to significantly reduce the inter-site communications that support the correlation analyses.

Systems and methods for localizing the position of a wireless device using a plurality of coordinated highly directional or adaptive antennas to detect signals from the wireless device. Because of the directional nature and / or adaptive processing of the antennas, off-angle multipath signals resulting from reflection and scattering as the wireless signal propagates through a cluttered environment are rejected by the antennas and processing. As a result, the antennas pass primarily direct path signals from the wireless device to the location estimator. The time of arrival of the signal and the angle of arrival at each antenna are used to in the location estimator to calculate the position of the wireless device. Various robust inversion techniques may also be applied to the data to minimize the effect of residual multipath-corrupted detections. Furthermore, the systems and methods include specialized wireless devices that provide locating signals and signals related to the biological condition of their owner.

A novel wireless tracking system is disclosed for determining a location of an 802.xx compatible mobile tag or other 802.xx compatible wireless device located within the wireless tracking system. The mobile tag or wireless device communicates with the wireless tracking system using data packets in accordance with predetermined wireless protocols. A plurality of location sensors receive the data packets and provide angle of arrival and intensity information to a wireless tracking system server which performs statistical processing on this information and determines the location of the mobile tag or other wireless device within the wireless tracking system.

Beamforming techniques to limit radiated power where there is the potential for interference with macro-cellular coverage or with adjacent mobile stations. Smart antenna beamforming techniques (including the use of angle of arrival information) are combined with access probe information to determine the direction for radiated power and the level of the needed transmitted power as well for the small office or home (SOHO) environment. The placement of RF power in the SOHO specific to where it is needed, minimizes radiating power in directions where it will cause interference with macrocell coverage. In addition, the beamforming techniques provide a base transceiver station with an economical method to quickly solve coverage issues internal to a SOHO, without introducing interference external to this coverage environment. In addition, there specific placement of the RF power where it is needed provides an increase in spectral efficiency of a deployed network.

A ranging system includes at least one beacon and a control module. The at least one beacon is configured to scan each segment in a plurality of segments of an arc with a narrow radio frequency (RF) beam and receive a response signal from an end user node in at least one segment. Each segment of the arc is scanned at a specified time interval. The control module is configured to communicate with the at least one beacon. The control module is further configured to calculate at least one of an angle-of-arrival (AOA) and a time-of-flight (TOF) of a response signal from the end user node to the beacon and generate an end user node location relative to a beacon location.

A system for wirelessly locating mobile station / units (MS) and using resulting location determinations for providing a product or service is disclosed. The system is useful for routing an MS user to a plurality of desired locations, alerting an MS user to a nearby desired product or service based on satisfaction of user criteria, and providing enhanced security and 911 response. In one embodiment, the system responds to MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location processing sites. A plurality of locating technologies including those based on: (1) TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) timing advance; (5) GPS and network assisted GPS, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from low cost base stations can be activated, in various combinations, by system embodiments. MS location difficulties resulting from poor location accuracy / reliability and / or poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signaling environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

Location based wireless services in a service provider's network are intertwined with a message database (text and / or audio) to automatically provide location information regarding the subscriber to the message database, without requiring the wireless device itself to provide the location information. A location management system is provided to perform the location management functions of determining subscriber location (e.g., by call / sector ID, angle of arrival (AOA), time difference of arrival (TDOA), time of arrival (TOA)), and of mapping the location to the desired text and / or audio. Speed information may also be determined by the location management system, or the subscriber may be prompted to input a particular mode of transportation, or generally indicate their speed. Of course, the slower the speed of the subscriber, the fewer location updates will be required, lessening the burden on the tour guide system in the wireless network.

Replica correlation processing, and associated representative signal-data reduction and reconstruction techniques, are used to detect signals of interest and obtain robust measures of received-signal parameters, such as time differences of signal arrival and directional angles of arrival, that can be used to estimate the location of a cellularized-communications signal source. The new use in the present invention of signal-correlation processing for locating communications transmitters. This enables accurate and efficient extraction of parameters for a particular signal even in a frequency band that contains multiple received transmissions, such as occurs with code-division-multiple-access (CDMA) communications. Correlation processing as disclosed herein further enables extended processing integration times to facilitate the effective detection of desired communications-signal effects and replication measurement of their location-related parameters, even for the communications signals modulated to convey voice conversations or those weakened through propagation effects. Using prior, constructed, signal replicas in the correlation processing enables elimination of the inter-site communications of the signal representations that support the correlation analyses. Reduced-data representations of the modulated signals for voiced conversation, or for the variable components of data communications, are used to significantly reduce the inter-site communications that support the correlation analyses.

A position estimating method and apparatus are disclosed that determine an angle of arrival of a signal received from a terminal; determine a distance of the terminal, using an arrival time difference between the arrival time of the signal and a reference time; and determine a position of the terminal based on the determined angle of arrival and distance.

Aspects of the present disclosure provide for beam management in wireless communication systems. In some examples, beam angle information (e.g., angles of arrival / departure) may be utilized to select one or more serving downlink beams for communication between a scheduling entity and a scheduled entity. The beam angle information may further be utilized to facilitate additional operations within a backhaul network, such as wireless node locating, obstacle locating, system mapping within the network topology, beam determination and beam sweeping configuration, and mobility management among wireless nodes of a backhaul network. In other examples, aperiodic uplink beam measurements may be triggered based on downlink beam measurement reports and / or in response to a request from a scheduled entity. The scheduling entity may then jointly select uplink and downlink beams based on both the received downlink beam measurement report and uplink beam measurements.

An improved system is provided for aiming a shotgun-based or other countermeasure system so as to be able to countermeasure incoming rockets or projectiles. In one embodiment a shotgun aimed and controlled by the subject system projects a pattern of pellets to intercept a rocket-propelled grenade or incoming projectile. The fire control system uses a CW two-tone monopulse radar to derive range and angle of arrival within 150 milliseconds, with range and angle of arrival measurements having approximately twice the accuracy of prior CW two-tone monopulse radars. The improvement derives from using all of the information in the returned radar beams and is the result of the recognition that one can use the Sum and Difference signals to assemble a two-by-two Rank One matrix that permits using singular value decomposition techniques to generate range and angle of arrival matrices in which all available information is used and in which noise is eliminated.

Systems, methods, and apparatus for geolocating a signal emitting device are disclosed. A monitoring array comprises at least four monitoring units. A distance ratio between the at least four monitoring units relative to a midpoint is determined. The at least four monitoring units are operable to scan independently for a signal of interest. The at least four monitoring units are operable to calculate times of arrival and angles of arrival for the signal of interest. Each of the at least four monitoring units is operable to measure the signal of interest and transmit a formatted message to other monitoring units within the monitoring array. Each of the at least four monitoring units is operable to determine a location of the signal emitting device from which the signal of interest is emitted based on calculations and measurements relating to the signal of interest.

A system for wirelessly locating mobile station / units (MS) and using resulting location determinations for providing a product or service is disclosed. The system is useful for routing an MS user to a plurality of desired locations, alerting an MS user to a nearby desired product or service based on satisfaction of user criteria, and providing enhanced security and 911 response. In one embodiment, the system responds to MS location requests via, e.g., Internet communication between a distributed network of location processing sites. A plurality of locating technologies including those based on: (1) TDOA; (2) pattern recognition; (3) timing advance; (5) GPS and network assisted GPS, (6) angle of arrival, (7) super resolution enhancements, and (8) supplemental information from low cost base stations can be activated, in various combinations, by system embodiments. MS location difficulties resulting from poor location accuracy / reliability and / or poor coverage are alleviated via such technologies in combination with automatically adapting and calibrating system performance according to environmental and geographical changes so that the system becomes progressively more comprehensive and accurate. Further, the system can be modularly configured for use in location signaling environments ranging from urban, dense urban, suburban, rural, mountain to low traffic or isolated roadways. Accordingly, the system is useful for 911 emergency calls, tracking, routing, people and animal location including applications for confinement to and exclusion from certain areas.

The present invention generally relates to the field of wireless communication systems. It particularly refers to a spatial diversity transmitter (110) and a spatial diversity receiver (120) in a wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) spatial multiplexing system as well as a corresponding method for wirelessly transmitting and receiving modulated RF signals via multiple wireless signal propagation paths (Pl) of a multipath fading channel in a way that correlation between the MEMO channel components are reduced and / or the signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) is increased which hence result in an improved bit error rate (BER) or packet error rate (PER) performance of said wireless MIMO spatial multiplexing system. On the receiver side, for example, this is achieved by controlling at least one antenna switching and / or combining means (121a′+b′) to select a specific combination of different fixed beam antennas (121a+b) from each receiver-resident antenna array. According to the invention, said selection is based on estimated values of the channel impulse responses (hl(τl, t)) for said signal propagation paths (Pl). An antenna beam selection control means (129) is configured for selecting a specific antenna beam combination so as to maximize the average signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios ( γl) of RF signals (rl(τl, t, φl)) received via said multiple wireless signal propagation paths (Pl) and / or to minimize the correlation coefficients (ρr<sub2>l1< / sub2>r<sub2>l2< / sub2>(t)) indicating the correlations of different pairs of these RF signals (rl1(τl1, t, φl1) and rl2(τl2, t, φl2)).Thereby, each fixed beam antenna (121a+b) of the receiver-resident antenna arrays has a distinct radiation pattern with a different beam center and / or beam width in the azimuth and / or elevation plane, wherein a superposition of all these radiation patterns may cover all possible azimuthal (φ) and / or elevational angles of arrival (θ) of an RF signal (s(t)).For compensating detected multipath fades in the channel amplitude response (|Hl(f, t)|) of at least one signal propagation path (Pl) between the spatial diversity transmitter (110) and the spatial diversity receiver (120), a receiver-resident channel estimation and / or equalization circuitry (124, 128) is applied.

A method and apparatus for estimating the location of a wireless terminal are disclosed. The location of the wireless terminal is estimated based on one or more signal strength measurements in conjunction with: (i) one or more angle-of-arrival measurements, (ii) one or more time-of-arrival measurements, or (iii) a combination of (i) and (ii). At each measurement time, the illustrative embodiment (a) determines the candidate locations for the wireless terminal, (b) computes a measurement likelihood function for any signal strength measurements that are available at that time, (c) computes a measurement likelihood function for any geometry-of-arrival measurements that are available at that time, (d) computes a joint likelihood function for all measurements available at that time, and (e) updates the location probability distribution for the wireless terminal with the joint measurement likelihood function. Estimates of the location of the wireless terminal are obtained from the location probability distribution.

A system and method of using a standard ADS-B transmitter and encoder to identify targets to provide a collision avoidance system, wherein the method includes the steps of providing a standard ADS-B transmitter and encoder, a phase modulator including a digital synthesizer, radio-frequency electronics, antennas, and a radar transceiver; synthesizing digital-based band signals from the ADS-B transmitter with additional random phase modulation using the digital synthesizer; using the antennas to both transmit and receive signals; and estimating angles-of-arrival for every target in a field-of-view. The method may include the steps of demodulating the signals received by the antennas, providing a digital signal processor, and performing matched filtering on received signals. The method may also include the step of estimating a target range of identified targets using the digital signal processor.

Methods, systems, and devices are described for determining positioning information of a mobile device using modulated light signals. A modulated light signal may be received from each of at least one light source. Each modulated light signal may be decoded to obtain identification information identifying the at least one light source. An angle of arrival of each modulated light signal may also be identified. Each angle of arrival of may be associated with an identified light source.

A method and system for determining the three-dimensional location of a mobile wireless device. In one implementation, the device is a cellular telephone making a 911 call from one floor of a multi-story building. An embodiment of the method of the invention includes establishing a database that associates transmission metrics with altitudes of x-y coordinate locations having more than one altitude at which the mobile wireless device could be located, receiving a communication from the mobile wireless device, determining an x-y coordinate location of the mobile wireless device, measuring a transmission metric of the mobile wireless device, and consulting the database to determine the altitude from the x-y coordinate location and the measured transmission metric. The transmission metric could be, for example, the transmission time or angle of arrival of a wireless signal received from the mobile wireless device.

Location based wireless services in a service provider's network are intertwined with a message database (text and / or audio) to automatically provide location information regarding the subscriber to the message database, without requiring the wireless device itself to provide the location information. A location management system is provided to perform the location management functions of determining subscriber location (e.g., by call / sector ID, angle of arrival (AOA), time difference of arrival (TDOA), time of arrival (TOA)), and of mapping the location to the desired text and / or audio. Speed information may also be determined by the location management system, or the subscriber may be prompted to input a particular mode of transportation, or generally indicate their speed. Of course, the slower the speed of the subscriber, the fewer location updates will be required, lessening the burden on the tour guide system in the wireless network.