Mobile station location using hybrid GPS and a wireless network

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce an integration method of Global Positioning System (GPS) pseudorange and time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements from a pilot signal of a wireless communication network to solve the navigation problem in the case that the number of visible GPS satellites is not sufficient. TDOA measurements are known to have poor accuracy due to technical limitations of a communication system and propagation environments. The major error source of TDOA is the non-line-of-sight (NLOS). To estimate the TDOA error in a cellular network, we propose a method using a Kalman filter for each TDOA channel. In addition, a method to measure TDOA errors is proposed. Some simulations and real tests are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed methods. Real experiments are conducted near the city center of Seoul. Using a commercial cellular phone and a GPS receiver, pseudorange of GPS and TDOAs are measured. Test results show that the proposed methods continuously provide subscribers a reasonably accurate location in the case that GPS data are occasionally insufficient.