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US 9,960,901 B2Granted
Clock synchronization using sferic signals
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsJustin Gorgen, Lee Lemay
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method involve using sferic signals to synchronize clocks and/or determine relative receiver positions within a communications network. A sferic signal is detected, encoded, and then identified. A time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) for the sferic signal is then calculated. A clock error estimate is determined from the TDOA. The clock error estimate is then used to synchronize clocks and/or determine relative receiver positions.
Claims16
A method comprising the steps of:
- detecting a sferic signal at a first receiver and at a second receiver, wherein the first receiver and the second receiver are in a communications network;
- sending information about the detected sferic signal from the first receiver to the second receiver;
- using the second receiver to identify that the same sferic signal was detected by both the first receiver and the second receiver by comparing the information about the detected sferic signal received from the first receiver to the sferic signal detected by the second receiver;
- calculating one or more time-difference-of-arrivals (TDOAs) for the detected sferic signal;
- determining one or more clock error estimates from the one or more TDOAs by finding the best fit of the determined one or more TDOAs to a multi-dimensional surface and using parameters of the multi-dimensional surface to determine a clock error estimate between the first receiver and the second receiver;
- and
- using the clock error estimates to synchronize one or more clocks contained within the first receiver with one or more clocks contained within the second receiver.
4 more elements
A method comprising the steps of:
- detecting one or more sferic signals at a first receiver and at a second receiver, wherein the first receiver and the second receiver are in a communications network;
- sending information about the detected one or more sferic signals from the first receiver to the second receiver;
- using the second receiver to identify that the same one or more sferic signals were detected by both the first receiver and the second receiver by comparing the information about the detected one or more sferic signals received from the first receiver to the one or more sferic signals detected by the second receiver;
- calculating one or more time-difference-of-arrivals (TDOAs) for the one or more sferic signals;
- determining one or more clock error estimates from the one or more TDOAs by finding the best fit of the one or more TDOAs to a multi-dimensional surface;
- using parameters of the multi-dimensional surface to determine one or more clock error estimates between the first receiver and the second receiver;
- using the one or more clock error estimates to synchronize clocks contained within the first receiver and the second receiver;
- and
- using the one or more clock error estimates to determine at least one of relative positions of the first receiver and the second receiver and to determine angles of arrival of the one or more sferic signals.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.