Patent US20040162084A1 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
US20040162084A1
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Positioning with wireless local area networks and WLAN-aided global positioning systems
Assignee: Qualcomm Inc
•
Filing: 2003-02-14
•
Granted: —
•
Expires: 2023-02-14
Abstract
Abstract Accurate position capability can be quickly provided using a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). When associated with a WLAN, a wireless device can quickly determine its relative and/or coordinate position based on information provided by an access point in the WLAN. Before a wireless device disassociates with the access point, the WLAN can periodically provide time, location, and decoded GPS data to the wireless device. In this manner, the wireless device can significantly reduce the time to acquire the necessary GPS satellite data (i.e. on the order of seconds instead of minutes) to determine its coordinate position.
Inventors
- 👤 Yi-Hsiu Wang
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-08 12:56
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04W; H04W64/00; G; G01; G01S; G01S19/00; G01S19/01; G01S19/03; G01S19/05; G01S19/06; G01S19/13; G01S19/24; G01S19/25; G01S19/252; G01S19/28; G01S19/29; G01S19/38; G01S19/39; G01S19/42; G01S19/48; G01S5/00; G01S5/02; G01S5/12; G01S5/14; H04B; H04B7/00; H04B7/14; H04B7/15; H04B7/185; H04B7/1851; H04W4/00; H04W4/02; H04W84/00; H04W84/02; H04W84/10; H04W84/12; H04W88/00; H04W88/08
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 31
Claim 1
Independent Claim
50 words
1 . A method of determining a position of a wireless device, the method including: identifying a first access point having a first known location and a predetermined radio propagation range of r, wherein the position of the wireless device is the first known location with an uncertainty of r.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
50 words
1 . A method of determining a position of a wireless device, the method including: identifying a first access point having a first known location and a predetermined radio propagation range of r, wherein the position of the wireless device is the first known location with an uncertainty of r.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
52 words
2 . The method of claim 1 , further including: determining a first radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) of the first access point; and correlating the first RSSI to a first stored distance, wherein the first stored distance represents a first relative distance from the first access point to the wireless device.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
27 words
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein correlating includes accessing a lookup table that correlates a plurality of RSSI values to their respective stored distances.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
133 words
4 . The method of claim 2 , further including: identifying a second access point and a third access point having a second known location and a third known location, respectively; determining a second RSSI and a third RSSI of the second access point and the third access point, respectively; correlating the second RSSI and the third RSSI to a second stored distance and a third stored distance, respectively, wherein the second stored distance represents a second relative distance from the second access point to the wireless device, and wherein the third stored distance represents a third relative distance from the third access point to the wireless device; and computing a coordinate position of the wireless device using the first, second, and third known positions and the first, second, and third relative distances.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
220 words
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the first known position is (x 1 , y 1 , z 1 ) and the first relative position is r 1 , wherein the second known position is (x 2 , y 2 , z 2 ) and the second relative position is r 2 , wherein the third known position is (x 3 , y 3 , z 3 ) and the third relative position is r 3 , wherein the coordinate position of the wireless device is (x 0 , y 0 , z 0 ) and wherein computing the coordinate position includes using a set of equations: x 0 =( w 1 * x 1 )+( w 2 * x 2 )+( w 3 * x 3 ), y 0 =( w 1 * y 1 )+( w 2 * y 2 )+( w 3 * y 3 ), and z 0 =( w 1 * z 1 )+( w 2 * z 2 )+( w 3 * z 3 ),wherein w 1 =(1 /r 1 )/(1 /r 1 +1 /r 2 +1 /r 3 ), w 2 =(1 /r 2 )/(1 /r 1 +1 /r 2 +1 /r 3 ), and w 3 =(1 /r 3 )/(1 /r 1 +1 /r 2 +1 /r 3 ).
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
93 words
6 . The method of claim 1 , further including: determining whether the first access point uses multiple antennas; if so, then determining a radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) associated with each of the multiple antennas; identifying a signal path of the antenna associated with a highest RSSI; correlating the highest RSSI to a stored distance, wherein the stored distance represents a relative distance from the first access point to the wireless device; and using angles of the signal path and the relative distance to compute a coordinate position of the wireless device.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
49 words
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the angles include an angle θ, which is measured taken from an x-axis to the signal path, and an angle Φ, which is measured from the signal path to a path connecting the wireless device and the first access point.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
87 words
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the coordinate position of the wireless device is (x 4 , y 4 , z 4 ), wherein the relative position is r 4 , and wherein using angles of the signal path and the relative position to compute the coordinate position includes using a set of equations: x 4 = x 5 +( r 4 *cos(Φ)*cos(θ)), y 4 = y 5 +( r 4 *cos(Φ)*sin( 74 )), and z 4 = z 5 +( r 4 *sin(Φ)).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
49 words
9 . A method of determining a position of a device having wireless networking capability, the method including: identifying a fixed position of an access point accessible by the device; and computing the position of the device using short radio wave propagation between the access point and the device.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
49 words
9 . A method of determining a position of a device having wireless networking capability, the method including: identifying a fixed position of an access point accessible by the device; and computing the position of the device using short radio wave propagation between the access point and the device.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
47 words
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein computing the position includes: determining a radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) of the access point; and correlating the RSSI to a stored distance, wherein the stored distance represents a relative distance from the access point to the device.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
65 words
11 . The method of claim 10 , further including: identifying fixed positions of multiple access points accessible by the device; determining RSSIs of the multiple access points; correlating the RSSIs to stored distances, wherein the stored distances represent relative distances from the multiple access points to the device; and computing a coordinate position of the device using the fixed positions and the relative distances.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
89 words
12 . The method of claim 10 , further including: determining whether the access point uses multiple antennas; if so, then determining a radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) associated with each of the multiple antennas; identifying a signal path of the antenna associated with a highest RSSI; correlating the highest RSSI to a stored distance, wherein the stored distance represents a relative distance from the access point to the device; and using angles of the signal path and the relative distance to compute a coordinate position of the device.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
47 words
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the angles include an angle θ, which is measured taken from an x-axis to the signal path, and an angle Φ, which is measured from the signal path to a path connecting the device and the access point.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
37 words
14 . A method of determining a position of a device having wireless networking capability, the method including: providing information from a wireless local area network (WLAN) to facilitate the determining using a global positioning system (GPS).
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
37 words
14 . A method of determining a position of a device having wireless networking capability, the method including: providing information from a wireless local area network (WLAN) to facilitate the determining using a global positioning system (GPS).
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
33 words
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the information from the WLAN includes decoded GPS data, a current time, and a recent position provided one of via and by the WLAN.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
32 words
16 . The method of claim 15 , further including: using the information from the WLAN, computing a first GPS satellite having a highest elevation angle from a set of GPS satellites.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
19 words
17 . The method of claim 16 , further including: searching for the first GPS satellite with multiple correlators.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
18 words
18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein searching includes partitioning the multiple correlators into correlator pairs.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
19 words
19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein searching includes partitioning the multiple correlators into correlator tracking sets.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
25 words
20 . The method of claim 17 , wherein searching includes using a time offset and a frequency offset to find the first GPS satellite.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
34 words
21 . The method of claim 20 , further including: deriving time offsets and frequency offsets for additional GPS satellites using the time offset and the frequency offset that found the first GPS satellite.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
67 words
22 . A method of determining a new common position of a first device and a second device, the first and second devices having wireless networking capability, the method including: exchanging information between the first device and the second device in an ad hoc communication mode, wherein the shared information includes last positions of the first and second devices and update times associated with the last positions.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
67 words
22 . A method of determining a new common position of a first device and a second device, the first and second devices having wireless networking capability, the method including: exchanging information between the first device and the second device in an ad hoc communication mode, wherein the shared information includes last positions of the first and second devices and update times associated with the last positions.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
29 words
23 . The method of claim 22 , wherein the last positions and the update times are provided by access points previously associated with the first and second devices.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
141 words
24 . The method of claim 23 , wherein the first client has a last position (x 11 , y 11 , z 11 ), which was updated t 1 seconds ago, and wherein the second client has a last position (x 12 , y 12 , z 12 ), which was updated t 2 seconds ago, and further including: computing the new common position (x, y, z) using a set of equations: x=w 1 * x 11 + w 2 * x 12 y=w 1 * y 11 + w 2 * y 12 z=w 1 * z 11 + w 2 * z 12 wherein weighting factors w 1 and w 2 are defined as: w 1 =(1 /t 1 )/(1 /t 1 +1 /t 2 ) w 2 =(1 /t 2 )/(1 /t 1 +1 /t 2 ).
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
78 words
25 . A wireless local area network (WLAN) system for facilitating providing a global positioning system (GPS) position of a client, the system including: analog means for associating with the client, the analog means including a frequency synthesizer receiving one of a first signal associated with WLAN baseband operation and a second signal associated with GPS baseband operation; an analog to digital conversion means; and digital means for providing the WLAN baseband operation and the GPS baseband operation.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
78 words
25 . A wireless local area network (WLAN) system for facilitating providing a global positioning system (GPS) position of a client, the system including: analog means for associating with the client, the analog means including a frequency synthesizer receiving one of a first signal associated with WLAN baseband operation and a second signal associated with GPS baseband operation; an analog to digital conversion means; and digital means for providing the WLAN baseband operation and the GPS baseband operation.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
28 words
26 . The WLAN system of claim 25 , further including: means for providing decoded GPS data to the client preceding disassociation of the client to the WLAN.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
Maintenance schedule is calculated for granted US utility patents.