Claims
- 1. An antenna selection method for use in a wireless location system that determines the geographic location of a mobile wireless transmitter, the wireless location system including signal collection systems connected to multiple antennas at a plurality of cell sites and a location processor for processing digital data provided by the signal collection systems, the method comprising:
evaluating segments of data collected from a plurality of antennas at a signal collection system; selecting a subset of the segments of data; and using only the selected segments of data in location processing.
- 2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each antenna at a signal collection system is connected to a receiver, and each receiver converts received signals into a digital form, and then stores the digitized signals temporarily in a memory in the receiver.
- 3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein the location processor directs selected signal collection systems to retrieve segments of data from the temporary memory of selected receivers, and to provide the data for use in location processing.
- 4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the subset of the segments of data is selected by evaluating the segments of data against predetermined criteria.
- 5. An antenna selection method for use in a wireless location system that determines the geographic location of a mobile wireless transmitter, the wireless location system including signal collection systems located within the geography of a wireless communications system and having multiple antennas, and a location processor for processing digital data provided by the signal collection systems, the method comprising:
a) receiving a transmission from the wireless transmitter at multiple antennas and at multiple signal collection systems in the wireless location system; b) converting the transmission into a digital format in a receiver connected to each antenna; c) storing the digital data in a memory in each signal collection system; d) determining the channel on which the transmission occurred and a cell site and sector serving the wireless transmitter; e) designating one signal collection system as a primary signal collection system for processing the transmission; f) determining a timestamp associated with the received data at the primary signal collection system; g) determining a candidate list of signal collection systems and antennas to examine for use in location processing; h) for each candidate signal collection system/antenna, evaluating parameters of the data in the channel of the transmission and at the time of the determined timestamp; i) rank ordering the candidate signal collection system/antennas using specified criteria and creating a subset list of signal collection system/antennas to use in the location processing; and j) proceeding with location processing using data only from the subset list of signal collection system/antennas.
- 6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the parameters include the average SNR over the transmission interval used for location processing.
- 7. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the criteria used for the average SNR parameter is higher average SNR is preferred to lower average SNR.
- 8. A method as recited in claim 6, wherein the criteria used for the average SNR parameter is average SNR must be greater than a predetermined threshold in order for the candidate signal collection system/antenna to be included in the subset list of signal collection system/antennas used for location processing.
- 9. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the parameters include the variance in SNR over the transmission interval used for location processing.
- 10. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the criteria used for the variance in SNR parameter is low variance in SNR is preferred to higher variance in SNR.
- 11. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein the criteria used for the variance in SNR parameter is variance in SNR must be lower than a predetermined threshold in order for the candidate signal collection system/antenna to be included in the subset list of signal collection system/antennas used for location processing.
- 12. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the parameters include the number of bit errors in a demodulated form of the data.
- 13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the criteria used for the number of bit errors parameter is lower number of bit errors is preferred to higher number of bit errors.
- 14. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the criteria used for the number of bit errors parameter is the number of bit errors must be lower than a predetermined threshold in order for the candidate signal collection system/antenna to be included in the subset list of signal collection system/antennas used for location processing.
- 15. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the parameters include a measure of the correlation of the beginning of the received transmission against a predetermined pre-cursor.
- 16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein the predetermined pre-cursor includes an AMPS dotting and barker code.
- 17. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein the predetermined pre-cursor includes a sync word.
- 18. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the parameters include the magnitude and rate of change of SNR from just before the onset of the transmission to the onset of the transmission.
- 19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the criteria used for the magnitude and rate of change of SNR from just before the onset of the transmission to the onset of the transmission parameter is higher magnitude and faster rate of change of SNR is preferred to lower magnitude and slower rate of change of SNR.
- 20. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the parameters include comparing a demodulated form of the data at each candidate against a demodulated form of the data at the primary.
- 21. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the signal collection system/antenna with the highest rank ordering is designated as the reference signal collection system/antenna.
- 22. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the transmission is received and demodulated at a plurality of signal collection systems, and then a group of prescribed parameters is examined to determine which signal collection system/antenna to designate as the reference signal collection system/antenna.
- 23. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the prescribed parameters include an average SNR over a transmission interval.
- 24. A method as recited in claim 23, wherein the criteria used for the average SNR parameter is the highest average SNR.
- 25. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the prescribed parameters include a variance in SNR over the transmission interval.
- 26. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the criteria used for the variance in SNR parameter is lowest variance in SNR.
- 27. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the prescribed parameters include a correlation of the beginning of the received transmission against a predetermined pre-cursor.
- 28. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the prescribed parameters include the number of bit errors in the demodulated data.
- 29. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the prescribed parameters include the magnitude and rate of change of SNR from just before the onset of the transmission to the onset of the transmission.
- 30. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the average SNR is determined over an interval shorter than the transmission length.
- 31. A method as recited in claim 5, further comprising the step of ordering the signal collection system/antennas using the following criteria: signal collection system/antennas with a lower number of bit errors are preferred to signal collection system/antenna with a higher number of bit errors; average SNR for a given signal collection system/antenna must be greater than a predetermined threshold to be designated as the primary; signal collection system/antennas with higher average SNR are preferred over those with lower average SNR; signal collection system/antennas with lower SNR variance are preferred to those with higher SNR variance; and signal collection system/antennas with a faster SNR rate of change at the on-set of the transmission are preferred to those with a slower rate of change.
- 32. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the candidate list of signal collection systems and antennas is determined using a predetermined set of criteria based upon knowledge of the types of cell sites, types of antennas at the cell sites, geometry of the antennas.
- 33. A method as recited in claim 32, wherein a weighting factor is applied that weights certain antennas more than other antennas.
- 34. A method as recited in claim 33, wherein the weighting factor takes into account knowledge of the terrain in which the wireless location system is operating.
- 35. A method as recited in claim 33, wherein the weighting factor takes into account past empirical data on the contribution of each antenna has made to good location estimates.
- 36. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the candidate list includes all signal collection systems up to a maximum number of signal collection systems that are closer than a predefined maximum radius from the primary signal collection systems.
- 37. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the wireless location system dynamically determines the candidate list of signal collection systems and antennas based upon the predetermined set of criteria.
- 38. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein a fixed list is used to determine the candidate list of signal collection systems and antennas.
- 39. A method as recited in claim 38, wherein the fixed list is read directly from a table when location processing is initiated.
- 40. An antenna port selection method for use in a wireless location system that determines the geographic location of a mobile wireless transmitter, the wireless location system including signal collection systems having multiple antennas and a location processor for processing digital data provided by the signal collection systems, the method comprising:
selecting segments of data collected from a plurality of antenna ports at a candidate signal collection system receiving transmissions from multiple antennas via corresponding antenna ports; selecting one of said antenna ports as a best port; and using the segments of data from the best antenna port in location processing.
- 41. A method as recited in claim 40, wherein, in selecting the best port, the candidate signal collection system divides the received transmission into segments, measures the SNR separately in each segment, and then selects the best port on the basis of the highest SNR.
- 42. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the highest SNR is determined by using the antenna port with the most segments with the highest SNR.
- 43. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the highest SNR is determined by averaging the SNR in all segments and using the antenna port with the highest average SNR.
- 44. A method as recited in claim 41, wherein the highest SNR is determined by using the antenna port with the highest SNR in any one segment.
- 45. A method as recited in claim 40, wherein, in selecting the best port, the candidate signal collection system selects the port with the lowest variance in SNR over the transmission interval used for location processing.
- 46. A collision recovery method for use in a wireless location system that determines the geographic location of a mobile wireless transmitter, the wireless location system including signal collection systems having multiple antennas and a location processor for processing digital data provided by the signal collection systems, wherein the wireless location system performs the following acts in locating the wireless transmitter:
receiving a transmission from the wireless transmitter at multiple signal collection systems and multiple antenna ports of each of said multiple signal collection systems; at each of said multiple signal collection systems, converting the transmission received at each antenna port into a digital format; at each of said multiple signal collection systems, storing digital data representative of the received transmission; demodulating the transmission; performing TDOA analysis on the digital data from pairs of signal collection systems, whereby TDOA data is provided; and determining the location of the wireless transmitter using the TDOA data; wherein the method further comprises verifying that the RF data from each antenna port is from the wireless transmitter to be located.
- 47. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein the verifying step is accomplished by demodulating a short segment of the transmission received at each antenna port to verify that any of the MIN, MSID, TMSI, IMSI, or ESN is correct.
- 48. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein the wireless location system also correlates a short segment of the received signal at an antenna port with the signal received at a reference or primary signal collection system to verify that the correlation result is above a predetermined threshold.
- 49. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein the SNR of the transmission is measured and, if the variance over the entire length of the transmission is above a pre-determined threshold, the transmission is divided into segments and each segment is tested to determine whether the energy in that segment is primarily from the transmission from the wireless transmitter for which location processing has been selected or from an interfering transmitter.
- 50. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein, if the wireless location system has detected that a partial collision has occurred at a signal collection system/antenna, the signal collection system identifies those segments of the received transmission which represents a signal from the wireless transmitter for which location processing has been selected, and those segments of the received transmission which contains co-channel interference, and the wireless location system commands the signal collection system to send or use only selected segments of the received transmission that do not contain the co-channel interference.
- 51. A method as recited in claim 46, wherein, when determining TDOA and/or FDOA for a baseline using only selected segments from a signal collection system/antenna, the wireless location system uses only the corresponding segments of the transmission as received at a reference signal collection system/antenna.
- 52. A method for use in a wireless location system to determine the geographic location of a mobile wireless transmitter, the wireless location system including signal collection systems and location processors for processing digital data provided by the signal collection systems, wherein TDOA data is determined with respect to a plurality of first signal collection system/antenna—second signal collection system/antenna baselines, the method comprising:
for each of the plurality of first signal collection system/antenna—second signal collection system/antenna baselines, calculating a number of parameters; and including in a final location solution only those baselines meeting or exceeding predefined threshold criteria for each of the parameters.
- 53. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include the peak or average power of the transmission as received at the second signal collection system/antenna port used in a baseline and over an interval used for location processing.
- 54. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include the variance in the power of the transmission as received at the second signal collection system/antenna port used in a baseline and over an interval used for location processing
- 55. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include the correlation value from a cross-spectra correlation between the second signal collection system/antenna used in the baseline and a first signal collection system/antenna.
- 56. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include the delay value for the baseline.
- 57. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include multipath mitigation parameters.
- 58. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include residual values remaining after multipath mitigation calculations.
- 59. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include a contribution of the second signal collection system/antenna to a weighted geometric dilution of precision in the final location solution.
- 60. A method as recited in claim 52, wherein the parameters include a measure of the quality of fit of the baseline in the final location solution, if the baseline were included.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/648,404, filed on Aug. 24, 2000, which is a continuation of 09/227,764, filed on Jan. 8, 1999, entitled “Calibration for Wireless Location System,” now U.S. Pat. No. 6,184,829 B1.
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09648404 |
Aug 2000 |
US |
Child |
10158522 |
May 2002 |
US |
Parent |
09227764 |
Jan 1999 |
US |
Child |
09648404 |
Aug 2000 |
US |