Facilitating mobile station location using a ground-based cellular network

1. A method of facilitating locating a wireless communication mobile station, comprising the steps of:

communicating at least one first signal from a base station transceiver that is also used for other wireless communication with the mobile station, the first signal including information regarding a location of the base station transceiver;

communicating a plurality of second signals from a corresponding plurality of ranging beacon transmitters, the second signals each including information regarding a location of the corresponding ranging beacon transmitter; and

using the first and second signals to facilitate locating a mobile station;

receiving previously transmitted first signals at one of the plurality of ranging beacon transmitters;

determining a timing of transmission of the first signal from the base station transceiver based on the received previously transmitted first signals; and

synchronizing a timing for transmitting the second signal from the one of the ranging beacon transmitters with the timing of transmission of the first signal based on the determined timing; and

wherein the at least one first signal is transmitted from the base station transceiver simultaneously with the second signal transmitted from the one of the plurality of ranging beacon transmitters.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising

receiving the at least one first signal and the second signals at the mobile station; and

determining the location of the mobile station based on the information included in the received signals.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising

determining received signal timing information comprising at least one of (i) a time of arrival of the received signals, (ii) a time-difference-of-arrival of the received signals or (iii) a round trip time of arrival of the received signals; and

using the determined received signal timing information for determining the location of the mobile station.

4. The method of claim 2 , comprising

receiving at least four signals including the at least one first signal and the plurality of second signals, wherein the received signals are all transmitted simultaneously.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising

transmitting the at least one first signal from the base station transceiver simultaneously with transmitting the plurality of second signals from the corresponding plurality of ranging beacon transmitters.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising

transmitting the first signal from the base station transceiver during a first interval; and

transmitting signals from the base station transceiver comprising user traffic during a second, different interval.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first and second intervals are repeated such that the base station transceiver periodically transmits the first signal.

8. The method of claim 6 , comprising

transmitting the second signal from at least one of the ranging beacon transmitters only during the first interval.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first and second signals each comprises a pilot signal portion and a source location portion.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein a bandwidth used for communicating the first and second signals is divided into a plurality of tones and the method comprises

using each of the tones, respectively, for one of

(i) the first signal or

(ii) one of the plurality of second signals.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein a bandwidth used for communicating the first and second signals is divided into a plurality of tones and an interval for communicating the first and second signals is divided into a plurality of segments and wherein the method comprises

using each of the segments, respectively, for

(i) one of the first signal or

(ii) one of the plurality of second signals; and

using all of the tones during the corresponding segment for the

(i) one of the first signal or

(ii) the one of the plurality of second signals.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first signal comprises a pilot channel ranging signal and the information regarding the base station transceiver location is communicated on a broadcast channel.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the ranging beacon transmitters are assigned long spreading codes.

14. The method of claim 1 , comprising

communicating downlink packets including the first signal in at least one packet that contains a known pilot burst; and

broadcasting the base station transceiver location information on a broadcast channel.

15. A wireless communication system, comprising

at least one base station transceiver that transmits a first signal including information regarding a location of the base station transceiver during a first interval and transmits signals comprising user traffic during a second interval; and

a plurality of ranging beacon transmitters that each transmit a second signal including information regarding a location of the corresponding ranging beacon transmitter during the first interval;

wherein a location of a receiver of the first signal and the second signals can be determined from the first and second signals;

wherein the base station transceiver and the plurality of ranging beacon transmitters simultaneously transmit the first and second signals; and

wherein the ranging beacon transmitters learn a timing of the first signal by at least receiving the first signal from the base station transceiver, the ranging beacon transmitters automatically synchronizing a timing of the second signals with the timing of the first signal.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one base station transceiver receives a signal from a mobile station and each of the plurality of ranging beacon transmitters receive the signal from the mobile station and a location of the mobile station is determined from the signal received by the base station transceiver and the ranging beacon transmitters.

17. A mobile station device, comprising

a receiver that is configured to receive a first signal from a base station transceiver that includes information regarding a location of the base station transceiver, the receiver also being configured to receive other wireless communication signals from the base station transceiver, the receiver also being configured to receive a plurality of second signals from a corresponding plurality of ranging beacon transmitters, the second signals each including information regarding a location of the corresponding ranging beacon transmitter; and

a locator module that determines a location of the mobile station device based upon received first and second signals;

the ranging beacon transmitters having learned a timing of the first signal by at least receiving the first signal from the base station transceiver, the ranging beacon transmitters automatically synchronizing a timing of the second signals with the timing of the first signal such that the base station transceiver and the plurality of ranging beacon transmitters simultaneously transmit the first and second signals.