Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Macro-network location determination, local-oscillator stabilization, and frame-start synchronization based on nearby FM radio signals
-
Application No.: US15001946Application Date: 2016-01-20
-
Publication No.: US09756589B2Publication Date: 2017-09-05
- Inventor: Walter Rausch , Durga Prasad Satapathy
- Applicant: Sprint Spectrum L.P.
- Applicant Address: US KS Overland Park
- Assignee: Sprint Spectrum L.P.
- Current Assignee: Sprint Spectrum L.P.
- Current Assignee Address: US KS Overland Park
- Main IPC: H04W56/00
- IPC: H04W56/00 ; G01S5/02 ; G01S5/08 ; H04B17/318 ; H04W88/08

Abstract:
Exemplary methods and systems may generally be implemented to allow a macro-network base station without access to a GPS reference signal to provide some or all of the functionality for which existing macro-network base stations typically rely on GPS. In a first aspect, an exemplary macro-network base station may determine its location using a location-determination technique that is based upon the angles of arrival of FM radio signals from nearby FM stations. In a second aspect, an exemplary macro-network base station may stabilize its local oscillator by phase-locking its local oscillator to an FM radio signal, and periodically adjusting its local oscillator to account for phase drift of the FM radio signal. And in a third aspect, an exemplary macro-network base station may synchronize its frame-start timing with a nearby base station using a frame-start timing signal that the base station has synchronized to frame transmissions from the nearby base station during a setup routine.
Public/Granted literature
Information query