I. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to wireless communications and, in particular, to determining a propagation delay between a transmitter and a receiver.
II. Description of the Related Art
In wireless communication networks, the signal transmission propagation delay between a transmitter and a receiver may vary greatly. When such units communicate randomly in these networks, signal detection/synchronization may be difficult, requiring a receiver to search over a wide range of frequencies, times, codes, etc. and employ significant resources to complete random signal reception synchronization. Additionally, significant link overhead is required to enable successful demodulation. A need thus exists for a method and apparatus that reduces the random signal detection/synchronization complexity.
The present invention comprises methods and apparatus for determining a signal propagation delay between a transmitter and a receiver. In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises means for detecting a time interval event, means for receiving a first signal, the first signal comprising a marker, and means for determining a time difference between the time interval event and the marker. The apparatus may further comprise means for adjusting a transmission time of a second signal based on the time difference.
In another embodiment, the present invention comprises a method, the method comprising detecting a time interval event, receiving a first signal, the first signal comprising a marker; and determining a time difference between the time interval event and the marker. The method may further comprise adjusting a transmission time of a second signal based on the time difference.
The features, objects, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify correspondingly throughout and wherein:
The NMC 20 acts as a central routing station for communications between MCTs and one or more customers, shown in
A block diagram of an exemplary MCT 32, 34, 36, or 38 is shown in
When provided, the microphone 62 and speaker 64 may be incorporated in a handset coupled to the transceiver 60. The microphone 62 and speaker 64 may also be more physically separated to enable hands free communication with the user of the MCT 32. In this mode, the transceiver 60 may include voice activation circuitry that may convert voice into data transmitted to the CPU 66 for processing. The data is transmitted to CPU 66 via a serial bus 70. The transceiver 60 includes the instruction set necessary to communicate data and voice signals over the wireless communication network 40. In one embodiment, the transceiver 60 supports code division multiple access (“CDMA”) protocols and the wireless network is a CDMA based network that supports data and voice signals. The transceiver 60 is coupled to the antenna 72 for communicating signals with the wireless communication network 40. When a data signal is received by the transceiver 60, the data is transferred to the CPU 66 via the serial bus 70. The data may include text messages, traffic updates, suggested changes to road navigation, destination, multiple destination order priority, weather, accident, construction or other road network status data, or other information. The data may also include software updates for the unit. The transceiver 60 may be capable of receiving position and velocity vectors signals from one or more of a variety of position-location systems that are known in the art. In one embodiment, the CPU 66 may also direct the transceiver 60 to receive a global positioning signal (“GPS”) from a satellite and decode the GPS to extract position and timing information.
A block diagram of a typical NMC 20 is shown in
Occasionally, an MCT 32, 34, 36, 38 may desire to send a message to the NMC 20. To prevent or limit simultaneous message transmission or interference, architecture 10 employs a polling protocol. In this protocol, the NMC 20 periodically sends a polling message to the MCT 32, 34, 36, and 38, which queries an MCT as to whether or not it has a message to send back to the NMC 20. When an MCT has a message to send, it waits to receive a polling message and then responds with a “request to send” message at a particular time based on the polling message. The “request to send” message indicates that MCT 32 desires to transmit a message to the NMC 20. The NMC 20 receives the “request to send” message and in response, issues a grant to the MCT 32. The grant gives permission for the requesting MCT to send the message, and typically comprises other information, such as when to transmit the message, or on what frequency to transmit the message. The MCT may then send the message based on the information contained in the grant.
When the NMC 20 sends the polling message, several MCTs 32, 34, 36, and 38 may respond. It is noted that the “request to send” message sent by the MCT typically begins with a preamble that is recognized by NMC 20. The preamble is used to allow the NMC 20 to detect the “request to send” message, as well as other messages, and to achieve timing and frequency synchronization, which is used to demodulate these messages. The propagation delay varies among MCTs due to their typically varying distances from NMC 20. Without the knowledge of the propagation delay for each MCT, the NMC 20 must search any received signals within the possible propagation delay uncertainty range in the whole network. This requires much processing power at the NMC 20 and/or a long preamble to facilitate the search process. The present invention enables each MCT to measure its propagation delay to the NMC 20 and pre-correct its transmit timing to account for the propagation delay such that signals transmitted from each MCT arrives at the NMC 20 at a time expected by the NMC. Since the uncertainty of the signal arrival time is greatly reduced, the required search effort is likewise reduced. This solution allows less complex hardware/processing power at the NMC 20 and/or allows a short preamble, thus increasing the system capacity since the time saved from shortening the preamble can be used to transmit useful information. Other benefits include reducing the chance of message collision and interference.
In one embodiment, the tracking data comprises a pilot signal, pilot burst, or pilot data, Plk where k represents the slot number. The NMC 20 generates the tracking data and an MCT uses the tracking data to lock the transmission frequency and time and ultimately demodulate the NMC signal. In one exemplary embodiment, the NMC 20 inserts a time marker, or simply “marker”, into the pilot signal by inverting the pilot signal (pilot signal 142 shown in
In an embodiment where GPS timing signals are used, each MCT 32, 34, 36, and 38 receives the same GPS timing signal as the NMC 20 using GPS receiver 18. In this embodiment, an MCT starts a counter upon receipt of the one PPS GPS timing signal and stops the counter upon receipt of a time slot containing an inverted pilot. The one way signal propagation delay between NMC 20 and an MCT may then be approximately determined based on the count. An MCT may then adjust a message transmission timing based on the determined one way signal propagation delay.
While this invention has been described in terms of a best mode for achieving this invention's objectives, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations may be accomplished in view of these teachings without deviating from the spirit or scope of the present invention. For example, the present invention may be implemented using any combination of computer programming software, firmware or hardware. As a preparatory step to practicing the invention or constructing an apparatus according to the invention, the computer programming code (whether software or firmware) according to the invention will typically be stored in one or more machine readable storage mediums such as fixed (hard) drives, diskettes, optical disks, magnetic tape, semiconductor memories such as ROMs, PROMs, etc., thereby making an article of manufacture in accordance with the invention. The article of manufacture containing the computer programming code is used by either executing the code directly from the storage device, by copying the code from the storage device into another storage device such as a hard disk, RAM, etc. or by transmitting the code on a network for remote execution.
This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application titled “Method and Apparatus For Determining Propagation Delays For Use In Wide Area Networks”, Ser. No. 12/042,127, filed Mar. 4, 2008 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application titled “Method and Apparatus for Determining Propagation Delays for Use in Wide Area Networks”, Ser. No. 10/357,834, filed Feb. 3, 2003 which is assigned to the assignee hereof and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5657313 | Takahashi et al. | Aug 1997 | A |
5703873 | Ojanpera et al. | Dec 1997 | A |
6192247 | Dillon et al. | Feb 2001 | B1 |
6900775 | Shapira | May 2005 | B2 |
6999778 | DiBuduo | Feb 2006 | B2 |
7363009 | Erlenbach et al. | Apr 2008 | B2 |
8078114 | Erlenbach et al. | Dec 2011 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2359960 | Jun 2004 | GB |
Entry |
---|
International Search Report and Written Opinion—PCT/US2004/003213, International Search Authority—European Patent Office—Feb. 28, 2005. |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20120082153 A1 | Apr 2012 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 12042127 | Mar 2008 | US |
Child | 13323482 | US | |
Parent | 10357834 | Feb 2003 | US |
Child | 12042127 | US |