Patent · US Active

Method for measuring time of arrival of signals in a communications network

US7295159B1 · kind B1 · utility

14Cited by
0References
14Claims
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Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 26, 2006
Grant dateNov 13, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 26, 2026

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04W84/18
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for measuring the Time Of Arrival of signals in a communications network is provided. A transmitter emits a beacon that is a digital message of known content, followed by timing information. The message is preceded by a pseudo-random binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulated sequence that allows the receiver to synchronize on the received signal using the autocorrelation method. During the synchronization process, are computed the approximated Time Of Arrival (TOA) and approximated frequency difference between the local oscillator and the received signal. The content of the beacon message is then used for correcting the approximated TOA and the frequency differences, providing results of very high precision of TOA. The timing information that follows the beacon is used for network clock synchronization and for computing the distances between network nodes.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.