In a multilateration system based on an absolute distance measurement and a multilateration method using the multilateration system, the multilateration system is configured to obtain spatial coordinates of an object moving in a space. The system includes a tracking unit having a plurality of tracking devices, and a control calculation part having a dead path estimation part and a tracking device position calculation part. The tracking devices are positioned differently with each other and each of the tracking devices measures a distance to the object. The dead path estimation part is configured to pre-estimate a dead path which is a distance between a measurement reference surface of each tracking device and a central position of each tracking device. The tracking device position calculation part is configured to calculate the central position of each tracking device via nonlinear optimization.

Systems and methods directed to determining the distance between two devices are disclosed. The systems and methods utilize a Bluetooth connection between a first device, such as a smartphone with an acoustic transducer, and a second device, such as an earbud with an embedded microphone, and the audio capturing capabilities of the second device to determine a distance between the two devices. The first device plays audio via the acoustic transducer. This audio is captured by a microphone of the second device. The second device transmits data including the captured audio back to the first device via the Bluetooth connection. The first device calculates a time delay from the playing of the audio to the reception of the data over the Bluetooth connection. The first device then calculates the distance based on the time delay, the latency constant, and the speed of sound.

A method of operating a wireless device in a wireless communication network includes receiving a first reference signal at a first reception time from a first network node, receiving a second reference signal at a second reception time from a second network node, receiving a first indication of a first reference time, receiving a second indication of a second reference time, and transmitting a report to a serving network node. The indications of the first and second reference times indicate timings of frame structures of the first and second network nodes, respectively. The report is based on a first representation of a difference between the first reception time and the second reception time. The first representation is further based on the indications of the first and second reference times. Also provided are related devices and methods.

In an embodiment a method includes emitting at least one group of at least N+1 mutually temporally asynchronous synchronization signals from at least N+1 fixed emitting locations in a space, receiving the synchronization signals of the group by a mobile device and at at least one fixed receiving location in the space, determining a reception moment of each synchronization signal of the at least one group by the mobile device in a time base specific to the mobile device, determining a reception moment of the synchronization signals of the at least one group at the at least one receiving location in a time base specific to each receiving location, and determining a position of the mobile device in the space at a given moment based on the reception moments determined at the at least one receiving location, the reception moments determined by the mobile device, coordinates of the emitting locations in the space and a distance between each emitting location and the at least one receiving location.

A method for location determination in a wireless communications system solves a minimization problem using estimated time-of-arrivals (TOAs) of reference signals [108, 110, 112] received by a receiving node [100] from transmitting nodes [102, 104, 106] and predetermined locations of the transmitting nodes, to produce an estimate of unknown receiving node location and/or an estimate of an unknown time of transmission (t) of the reference signals. The minimization problem is defined in terms of a theoretical system model of time-of-arrivals (TOAs), linearized globally as a function of the unknown receiving node location, the unknown time of transmission (t) of the reference signals, and an additional intermediate variable (u) that defines a non-linear quadratic constraint over position coordinates of the unknown receiving node location and the time of transmission (t) of the reference signals, wherein the minimization problem optimizes the additional intermediate variable (u). The method may also be implemented with the roles of transmitters and receivers interchanged.

Systems and methods of collaborative localization for a vehicle are provided. In particular, one or more vehicles that are able to localize themselves with high accuracy may transmit timestamped localization information (i.e. localization packets) to a nearby vehicles which lack high-accuracy localization sensors. Each localization packet may include the location of the transmitting vehicle with respect to a global reference frame. Upon receiving the localization packets, a vehicle may use radiolocation techniques to estimate its location relative to the transmitting vehicle(s). Based on this estimation and the information in the localization packets, the vehicle may then estimate its location with respect to the global reference frame with a high degree of accuracy.

A method and system for phase shift based time of arrival (TOA) reporting in passive location ranging is herein provided. According to one embodiment, a method includes measuring, by a responder station (RSTA), a first phase shift time of arrival (PS-TOA); measuring, by an initiator station (ISTA), a second PS-TOA; reporting, by the RSTA, the first PS-TOA, reporting, by the ISTA, the second PS-TOA; broadcasting, by the RSTA, time stamps; and determining, by a passive station (PSTA), a differential distance between the PSTA and a pair of the RSTA and ISTA based on the first PS-TOA, the second PS-TOA, and the broadcast time stamps.

Disclosed in the present application are an information transmission method and device, for use in implementing integrity monitoring of a downlink 3GPP RAT-dependent positioning network, so as to eliminate the influence of factors such as time offset of a base station, transmitter failure of the base station, a multipath channel, and a non-line-of-sight path channel. The information transmission method provided by the present application comprises: obtaining downlink positioning reference signal (PRS) parameter configuration information; measuring a downlink PRS from a base station on the basis of the downlink PRS parameter configuration information, and generating an error correction parameter ECP; and sending the ECP.

An apparatus including multiple antennas and means for converting measurements of time of arrival of a positioning reference signal at the multiple antennas to a compensation value and using the compensation value to produce a compensated time of arrival measurement for the positioning reference signal. The apparatus also includes means for providing compensated time of arrival measurements for a plurality of positioning reference signals from different reference points to enable positioning of the apparatus.

There is described a method of verifying a time-of-flight based ranging result in a UWB ranging device, the method comprising: exchanging a sequence of messages between the UWB ranging device and a further UWB ranging device as part of a double-sided ranging process to obtain round times and response times at both the UWB ranging device and the further UWB ranging device; estimating a time-of-flight value based on the round times and response times; and verifying the ranging result by performing a consistency check based on the estimated time-of-flight value and one or more predetermined parameter values. Furthermore, a UWB ranging device and a UWB ranging system are described.