Third party device location estimation in wireless communication networks

A wireless communication device comprising:

• a processing unit;
• a network interface coupled to the processing unit;
• and
• a position calculation unit operable to:
• determine a distance between the wireless communication device and a reference communication device of a wireless local area network (WLAN);
• determine a distance between the wireless communication device and a target wireless communication device of the WLAN;
• detect an exchange of messages between the target wireless communication device and the reference communication device;
• determine timing information associated with the messages exchanged between the target wireless communication device and the reference communication device;
• and
• determine a distance between the target wireless communication device and the reference communication device based, at least in part, on the distance between the wireless communication device and the reference communication device, the distance between the wireless communication device and the target wireless communication device, and the timing information associated with the messages exchanged between the target wireless communication device and the reference communication device.

One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media, having instructions stored therein, which, when executed by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform operations that comprise:

• determining a distance between an observing communication device and a reference communication device of a wireless local area network (WLAN);
• determining a distance between the observing communication device and a target communication device of the WLAN;
• detecting, at the observing communication device, an exchange of messages between the target communication device and the reference communication device;
• determining, at the observing communication device, timing information associated with the messages exchanged between the target communication device and the reference communication device;
• and
• determining, at the observing communication device, a distance between the target communication device and the reference communication device based, at least in part, on the distance between the observing communication device and the reference communication device, the distance between the observing communication device and the target communication device, and the timing information associated with the messages exchanged between the target communication device and the reference communication device.

A method comprising:

• observing, at an observing communication device of a wireless local area network (WLAN), an exchange of messages between a target communication device of the WLAN and a reference communication device of the WLAN;
• and
• determining, at the observing communication device, a distance between the target communication device and the reference communication device based at least in part upon
• a determined distance between the observing communication device and the target communication device,
• a determined distance between the observing communication device and the reference communication device, and
• timing information associated with the observed messages exchanged between the target communication device and the reference communication device.