Providing global positioning system timing signals to remote cellular base stations
AssigneeAirvana, Inc.
InventorsMichael Pollman, Theodore Grosch
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a cellular network, a GPS receiver includes circuitry that modulates a global positioning system (GPS) timing pulse signal with a carrier signal and transmits the modulated signal to one or more remote base stations. When the modulated timing pulse signal is received at a remote base station it is demodulated and a timing pulse signal corresponding to the GPS timing pulse signal is recovered. The remote base station may be configured to transmit a reply signal back to the GPS receiver, which can then be used to estimate a propagation delay between the GPS receiver and the remote base station.
Claims50
A method comprising:
- generating a oscillating signal and a timing pulse signal having a fixed frequency from received global positioning system signals at a first location;
- modulating the oscillating signal with the timing pulse signal;
- and
- transmitting the modulated signal to a device located at a second location through a communications channel.
Apparatus comprising:
- a global positioning receiver configured to receive signals from a constellation of global positioning satellites and produce a timing pulse signal having a fixed frequency;
- a pseudorandom noise code generator configured to generate a pseudorandom noise code of symbols that repeats over time at a frequency of no greater than the fixed frequency of the timing pulse signal, wherein for each instance of the pseudorandom noise code of symbols, the occurrence of a pulse in the timing pulse signal is aligned with a predetermined position of one of the symbols in the code;
- and
- a transmitter configured to transmit the pseudorandom code of symbols to a remote device.
A base station for use in a cellular communication network, the base station comprising:
- an input configured to receive a modulated timing pulse signal derived from a timing pulse signal having a fixed frequency generated by a remote global position system receiver;
- and
- a demodulation circuit operably connected to the input and configured to demodulate the modulated timing pulse signal to derive a timing pulse signal corresponding to the timing pulse signal of the global positioning system receiver.
A method for providing timing information to a base station in a cellular network, the method comprising:
- receiving global positioning signals from a constellation of global positioning satellites;
- generating a timing pulse signal having a series of timing pulses occurring at a fixed frequency from the received global positioning signals;
- modulating at a first location the timing pulse signal with a carrier signal;
- and
- transmitting the modulated signal to a base station located at a second location, wherein the second location is remote from the first location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.