The field of the invention relates to portable communication devices and more particularly to methods of locating portable communication devices.
Portable radios vastly improve the effectiveness of police, fire and military personnel. During a public or military emergency, often the first personnel on-site can avert tragedy and can direct subsequent personnel as to how to best respond to the exigencies of the situation.
However, the first personnel on-site can become injured by unstable situations. For example, during a fire, firemen can become lost in smoke filled buildings while looking for fire victims. If not found, fireman can become overcome by the smoke with fatal results.
Similarly, in covert operations by the military, hostile fire can incapacitate personnel during an initial or unintended contact with hostile forces. If incapacitated personnel cannot be quickly located, the result, again, can be fatal.
In general, methods of locating personnel (via their transceiver) are known. For example, cellular base stations typically hand off cell phones among base stations based upon a received signal strength indication (RSSI). In such cases, RSSI is assumed to be a measure of distance from the base station. By knowing the distance from the base station, a controller of the base stations may determine a location of the cell phone to within a few hundred feet.
On the other hand, where the transceiver is carried by a fireman within a building, the determination of location within a few hundred feet may not be sufficiently accurate, especially where the entire building may only be a few hundred feet on a side. Accordingly, a need exists for a method of locating public service or military radios that is more accurate than prior methods.
Many radios today use frequency synthesizers. Frequency selection in a frequency synthesizer may be accomplished via a control signal that may be either analog or digital. When the control signal (as a voltage source) is applied to a voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) (or is changed), the VCO moves from a first frequency to the programmed frequency. However the frequency change is not immediate and, in fact, occurs over a short period of time creating what is commonly referred to as chirp. As used herein, a chirp signal is an RF signal with a ramped frequency of relatively short duration (e.g., 22 microseconds). In one embodiment, the VCO is termed a broadband VCO since it can be tuned over an RF bandwidth large enough to generate the chirp signal described herein.
In the past, spurious emissions outside of an assigned frequency range have been suppressed. Chirp caused by frequency change of a frequency synthesizer was one of the signals that conventional wisdom taught should be suppressed.
However, it has occurred to the inventors of the instant application that chirp could also be used as a frequency locator signal if used in the proper manner. For example, a radio that would otherwise operate on a conventional narrowband channel (e.g., Frequency Modulation (FM)) can also be used to generate a chirp signal as a locator beacon. As used herein, a narrowband channel is any channel that is not a spread spectrum channel.
It should be noted in this regard that since a chirp signal may be generated across a number of frequency bands, the chirp signal could be thought of as a spread spectrum signal. However, spread spectrum signals operate in frequency bands that are assigned for such purpose and therefore the chirp signal discussed herein is not a conventional spread spectrum signal.
Returning now to
The base stations 14, 16, 18 may be interconnected via a hardwired connection 20 or via telemetry. It may also be noted that the base stations 14, 16, 18 may be fixed or mobile (e.g. a portable base station). For example, one or more of the base stations 14, 16, 18 may be a radio frequency repeater located in a police squad car.
During normal operation, the transceiver 12 may exchange a narrowband voice and/or data signal (e.g., FM) 22 with a base station 14. The voice and/or data signal 22 may be exchanged with supervisory personnel located a supervisory terminal 26 or with a database within the supervisory terminal 26.
In addition to exchanging the voice and/or data signal or in place of the voice and/or data signal 22, the transceiver 12 may also transmit a chirp signal 24. The chirp 24 may be transmitted under a time base provided from within the transceiver 12 or the chirp 24 may be transmitted in response to a synchronization signal 28 from one of the base stations 14, 16, 18. In addition, the transceiver 12 may be remotely controlled to transmit or not transmit the chirp signals 24 via a control command 30 transmitted from one of the base stations 14, 16, 18.
The chirp 24 may be generated in any of a number of different frequency bands. For example, the VHF, UHF and 700/800 MHz frequency bands have been found to be especially effective for multi-path mitigation. In this regard, different materials used in building construction have radio frequency (RF) attenuation and reflection characteristics that vary with frequency. The use of a low-bandwidth chirp has been found to work, but at reduced accuracy due to degradations in signal reception due to attenuations (i.e., caused by absorption) and reflections (i.e., caused by multi-path propagation). Introducing frequency diversity across bands has been found to reduce the interference and absorption effects and to increase accuracy. In one particular embodiment, a chirp 24 having a frequency range greater than 10 MHz (e.g., 15 MHz) and a duration of less than 100 microseconds (e.g., 22 microseconds) has been found to be particularly effective.
In general, the chirp signal 24 is generated within a function (chirp) generator 37. The chirp 24 may be represented by Eqn. 1.0 below where f is the carrier (or IF) frequency, k is the chirp slope and the function represents the pulse shape of the signal.
The chirp signals 24 may be detected within a matched filter 32. Distance from each base station 14, 16, 18 may be determined by a difference in time of arrival of the chirp 24 at each base station 14, 16, 18. The actual location of the transceiver 12 is then determined by triangulation within a triangulation processor 34.
The response of the matched filter 32 may be as shown in Eqn. 1.1, where delta (Δ) represents the FM change in frequency within the pulse and D is the time-bandwidth (B*T of
The complex signal can be represented in more standard form by breaking down the exponential function into its sine and cosine functions. Eqn. 1.2 is a more familiar form with the exception of the complex number in front of the cosine function.
By adding a quarter wave phase shift and taking the real part of Eqn. 1.2, Eqn. 1.2 can be converted to the form of Eqn. 1.4.
The power response of Eqn. 1.4 is determined by taking the square of the real voltage and plotting it.
Any of a number of different hardware architectures may be used within the transceiver 12 to transmit both the narrow band voice and/or data signal and also the chirp signal (e.g., the Motorola Tomahawk IC in a multi-band frequency generation unit (FGU)). The Motorola Tomahawk IC (
In order to achieve the rapid frequency sweep response shown in
It may be noticed that the FM sweep of
The other effect of the non-linearity is actually a benefit. Because of the phase variation in the signal, a matched filter 32 can be developed that optimizes the energy compression and that can uniquely identify the transceiver 12 over other transceivers. Therefore a unique signature can be formed for each transceiver 12 based upon the specific phase variation and later used to identify that transceiver 12 based upon its unique signature. It has also been found possible to purposefully perform this task so that incoming signals can be more readily processed. This can be accomplished by replacing the kt2/2 term in Eqn. 1.0 with a θ (t) function that can be measured during manufacture.
The frequency response of the FM chirp 24 may be described using the following equations.
If D (time-bandwidth product) is always greater than 100, then 98-99% of the energy of the chirp signal is confined between fo−Δ/2 and fo+Δ/2. From the information of
To encode information into the chirp signal 24, the synthesizer of
In general, the locating system 10 may be used under any of a number of different modes. Under a first operating mode, a chirp function 36 within the transceiver 12 may periodically (e.g., every 10 ms) instruct the chirp generator 37 to send a chirp signal 24 to the base stations 14, 16, 18.
Base stations 14, 16, 18 may operate under a common time base provided by a time base controller 38. As each base station 14, 16, 18 receives the chirp signal 24, the base station 14, 16, 18 records a time of arrival at the base station 14, 16, 18. The base station 14, 16, 18 may also determine an identity of the transceiver 12 based upon the content, e.g. signature, of the chirp signal 24 saved in a memory 40.
The time of arrival and identity of the transceiver 12 may be transferred to a triangulation processor 34. Within the triangulation processor 34, the differences in time of arrival of the chirp signals 24 may be used to triangulate a location of the transceiver 12 within a building 11.
Alternatively, the time base controller 38 may periodically transmit a synchronization signal 28 to the transceiver 12. In response, the transceiver 12 may transmit one or more chirp signals 24.
In either of the above scenarios, a user of the transceiver 12 may continue to exchange voice and/or data with supervisory personnel or database at supervisory terminal 26 (e.g. via a transceiver function of the transceiver coupled to the chirp function) during transmission of the chirps 24. As such, the transceiver 12 may alternate transmission of narrowband signals and chirped signals. In this regard, the identification of location of the transceiver 12 would be completely transparent to the user of the transceiver 12.
In another embodiment of the invention, a control processor 42 within the supervisory terminal 26 may function to remotely turn the chirp function 36 on or off. For example, if a fireman were to become lost or lose consciousness within a burning building, then a supervisor working through the supervisor terminal 26 may activate the chirp function 36 by transmitting a control command 30 to the transceiver 12. Once activated, the chirp function 36 would periodically generate chirps 24 that would be detected by the base stations 14, 16, 18. Based upon the detected chirps 24, the triangulation processor 34 would determine a location of the transceiver 12.
In another embodiment of the invention, one or more of the base stations 14, 16, 18 may have a vertical directional capability. Such directional capability may be used to identify the floor in a multi-story building where the transceiver 12 is located.
Under another embodiment, a single mobile base station 14, 16, 18 may be used to simulate the activity of the three base stations 14, 16, 18. In this case, the mobile base station 14, 16, 18 may take measurements from a number of different positions surrounding the building 11 and triangulate the location of the transceiver 12 based upon those measurements. The single mobile base station 14, 16, 18 may, or may not, transmit a synchronization signal to further resolve location.
In the case of a mobile base station 14, 16, 18, the mobile base station may use GPS to determine the relative location of each reading by the base station before triangulating. In this way the mobile base station 14, 16, 18 could generate a map coordinate of the transceiver 12. However, if the mobile base station 14, 16, 18 were in a police car, the officer could simply enter a street address to provide the same information. Alternatively, the coordinates of the transceiver 12 may simply be a relative value from the signal measurement points.
A specific embodiment of radio frequency locating system has been described for the purpose of illustrating the manner in which the invention is made and used. It should be understood that the implementation of other variations and modifications of the invention and its various aspects will be apparent to one skilled in the art, and that the invention is not limited by the specific embodiments described. Therefore, it is contemplated to cover the present invention and any and all modifications, variations, or equivalents that fall within the true spirit and scope of the basic underlying principles disclosed and claimed herein.