Patent Application
20070124824
This invention generally relates to geolocation equipment, and relates more particularly to a system and method for distributed networking of geolocation equipment.
Geolocation involves the process of identifying the location of an unknown radio transmitter on Earth using space-based satellites and Earth-based receiving stations. Geolocation is frequently used to locate emergency signals transmitted by ships or airplanes. Geolocation has also been employed to identify the location of unknown transmitters on Earth emitting signals interfering with satellite communications. The signal from the unknown transmitter is detected by at least two geostationary satellites. The satellites retransmit the unknown signal to a receiver at a known location. Since the unknown signal travels along different paths to the satellites, the retransmitted unknown signals arrive at the known receiver at different times. Geolocation uses this time delay and other measurements to determine the location of the unknown transmitter.
A prior art system for geolocation is shown in
The satellite communications industry is experiencing a surge in demand for accurate, reliable, inexpensive, and flexible geolocation services. A number of factors are causing this increase in demand. First, the global demand for satellite-based communications is growing at a rapid pace. Coupled with the increase in the demand for satellite-based communications is the increase in the various ancillary services supporting satellite communications, including geolocation. Second, due to numerous technological advancements, the price for powerful ground-based transmitters has decreased markedly in recent years. As a result, the number and distribution of such ground-based transmitters has increased dramatically. Each ground-based transmitter has the capability and potential to transmit an interfering signal that needs to be geolocated. The global war on terror is also playing a role in the demand for geolocation services.
The prohibitive cost of geolocation equipment is a significant issue and weighs heavily against the growing demand for geolocation services. Geolocation equipment is highly complex and difficult to manufacture. As a result, each installation of geolocation equipment is extremely expensive, sometimes running as high as a million dollars per installation.
A customer in need of geolocation services gains access to such services typically in one of two ways. The customer may decide that its need for geolocation services is sufficiently great to warrant paying the substantial cost of the geolocation equipment. In this instance, the customer will purchase one or more installations of an entire geolocation system from a geolocation equipment manufacturer. At that point, as the owner of the geolocation system, the customer can geolocate with its purchased geolocation system without restriction. The obvious downside to this scenario is the substantial cost of the geolocation system.
Alternatively, the customer for geolocation services may determine that its need for geolocation services does not warrant purchasing an entire geolocation system. In this case, the customer will seek out the services of a geolocation service provider. A geolocation service provider typically owns and operates a geolocation system. The geolocation service provider sells geolocation services on an as-needed basis to any customer in need of geolocation services. There is a number of disadvantages associated with the use of a conventional geolocation service provider. First, the cost of purchasing geolocation services from a conventional geolocation service provider is still extremely expensive when considered in context. In addition, geolocation service providers typically charge the customer whether or not the attempt to geolocate was successful. Thus, a customer can make a significant expenditure on geolocation services and walk away without the geolocation information sought. Finally, because the geolocation service provider relies on its own installations of geolocation equipment, its ability to effectively geolocate is limited by the quality and location of its geolocation systems.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for geolocation that provides accurate, reliable, inexpensive, and flexible geolocation services.
It is an advantage of the present invention to widely distribute and interconnect a plurality of individual installations of geolocation equipment so that geolocation services can be provided accurately on a global basis.
It is another advantage of the present invention to allow a geolocation service provider access to a plurality of individual installations of geolocation equipment over a network.
It is another advantage of the present invention to allow dynamic assignment of geolocation equipment over a network to perform specific geolocation services.
It is another advantage of the present invention to lower the cost of providing geolocation services to customers without degrading the quality of the provided services.
It is another advantage of the present invention to decrease the failure rate of any specific geolocation to allow the geolocation service provider to charge for geolocation services only when a search has been successful and not charge when the search is unsuccessful.
These and other advantages are achieved by the present invention. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a system for geolocation using a distributed network of geolocation equipment is provided, including a plurality of sites having geolocation equipment, each instance of geolocation equipment being coupled to a network, and a geolocation network controller operated by a service provider coupled to the network. Each instance of geolocation equipment is configured to both operate independently and operate as part of the network of geolocation equipment. In exchange for ownership and use of geolocation equipment provided by the service provider, a customer allows the service provider to access the geolocation equipment over the network for use in locating unknown transmitters. The service provider uses the distributed network of geolocation equipment to provide geolocation services to customers that do not have their own geolocation equipment, or to customers who have their own geolocation equipment but elect to engage the service provider to locate an unknown transmitter.
The present invention will now be described with reference to
The present invention contemplates establishing a large number of interconnected installations of geolocation equipment widely dispersed throughout the globe. The plurality of installations of geolocation equipment would be interconnected over a wide area network and accessible remotely by a geolocation service provider. To achieve this system in a cost effective manner, the present invention changes the manner in which geolocation equipment is provided to customers of geolocation services. Rather than selling geolocation equipment to the customers of geolocation services at the fair market value of the geolocation equipment, the geolocation equipment is provided to customers at a significantly reduced cost or even for free. At such a reduced cost, it is felt that the demand for geolocation equipment will increase significantly, thereby causing increased sales of geolocation equipment throughout the globe.
In exchange for providing the geolocation equipment at the significantly reduced cost, the equipment manufacturer or its agent would negotiate with the customers of the geolocation equipment the right to connect to the geolocation equipment through a network and the right to use the geolocation equipment over the network. Thus would be established the large number of interconnected installations of geolocation equipment widely dispersed throughout the globe. The equipment manufacturer or its agent can then use its access to the globally dispersed network of geolocation equipment to sell highly accurate, reliable, inexpensive, and flexible geolocation services.
Geolocation service provider 210 can provide geolocation services by accessing geolocation equipment 234 via network 214 using geolocation network controller 212. Geolocation network controller 212 is configured to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 over network 214. Geolocation network controller 212 is able to select one or more of geolocation sites 220, 222, or 224 that will provide the best performance for the requested geolocation service, and to control the operation of the selected geolocation equipment 234 via network 214.
Each instance of geolocation equipment 234 is controlled by an operator (an individual or legal entity) other than geolocation service provider 210. In one embodiment, the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 purchase, lease, or otherwise obtain control over an instance of geolocation equipment 234 from a vendor of geolocation equipment. The vendor of geolocation equipment may be geolocation service provider 210 or some other party. Each operator of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 enters into an access agreement with geolocation service provider 210 in which geolocation service provider 210 is allowed to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 via network 214 while the operator maintains some control over operating geolocation equipment 234.
In one embodiment, geolocation service provider 210 provides geolocation equipment 234 to the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 at a less than fair market price. For example, geolocation service provider 210 may provide geolocation equipment 234 to the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 at 100%, 50%, or 25% of the cost of geolocation equipment 234 or for free. In consideration of receiving geolocation equipment 234 at a less than fair market price, each of the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 enters into an access agreement with geolocation service provider 210 that allows geolocation network controller 212 to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 via network 214 for little or no cost, while each operator maintains some control over geolocation equipment 234.
In one embodiment, the access agreement between geolocation service provider 210 and each of the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 allows geolocation network controller 212 to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 at specified times for a specified duration. For example, an access agreement between geolocation service provider 210 and the operator of geolocation site 220 allows geolocation network controller 212 to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 every day at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm for a period of 1 hour.
In another embodiment, the access agreement between geolocation service provider 210 and each of the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 allows geolocation network controller 212 to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 for a specified amount of time over a certain number of days. For example, an access agreement between geolocation service provider 210 and the operator of geolocation site 222 allows geolocation network controller 212 to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 at any time for a total of 12 hours every month.. Alternatively, geolocation network controller 212 may be allowed to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 for a total of 5 hours every week.
In another embodiment, the access agreement between geolocation service provider 210 and each of the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 allows geolocation network controller 212 to access and operate geolocation equipment 234 only after approval of a request for access. For example, the access agreement between geolocation service provider 210 and the operator of geolocation site 224 requires geolocation network controller 212 to send a request for access to geolocation site 224 and the request to be approved by geolocation site 224 before geolocation network controller 212 is allowed to access and operate geolocation equipment 234. The request for access may be sent via network 214 to geolocation equipment 234, which is configured to determine whether to approve or reject the request based on a set of criteria. In one embodiment, this set of criteria includes a current load on geolocation equipment 234 and network congestion.
Geolocation service provider 210 may have a different type of access agreement with each of the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 or may have a standard access agreement that it enters into with all operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, 224. The type of access agreement may depend on whether the operators of geolocation sites 220, 222, and 224 obtained geolocation equipment 234 from geolocation service provider 210 or some other vendor.
In step 418, geolocation network controller 212 gains operational control over the one or more geolocation sites that accepted the request for access, and performs the requested geolocation service. In step 420, geolocation network controller 212 determines whether the unknown transmitter (TX) has been located. If the unknown transmitter has been located, then in step 422 geolocation service provider 210 provides the location of the unknown transmitter to the service requester. If the unknown transmitter has not been located, then the method returns to step 412 where geolocation network controller 212 notes that the previously selected geolocation sites did not provide the requested location, and re-selects one or more geolocation sites.
Although this invention has been disclosed in the context of certain preferred embodiments and examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention extends beyond the specifically-disclosed embodiments to other alternative embodiments and/or uses of the invention and obvious modifications and equivalents thereof. In addition, while a number of variations have been shown and described in detail, other modifications, which are within the scope of this invention, will be readily apparent to those of skill in the art based upon this disclosure. It is also contemplated that various combinations or subcombinations of the specific features and aspects of the embodiments may be made and still fall within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that various features and aspects of the disclosed embodiments can be combined with or substituted for one another in order to form varying modes of the disclosed system and method. Thus, it is intended that the scope of the present invention should not be limited by the particular disclosed embodiments described above, but should be determined only by a fair reading of the claims that follow.
