Method and apparatus for locating mobile multimedia multicast system capable wireless devices

1. A method of estimating a current location of a receiver in a mobile multimedia multicast system comprising said receiver, at least three transmitters, and a wireless network, said method comprising:

receiving digital signals comprising a mobile multimedia multicast system superframe comprising orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols;

performing slot 3 processing of each medium access control (MAC) time unit of a data channel to identify a transmitter identity (TxID) of each transmitter;

identifying corresponding geographical coordinates of each TxID;

regenerating said digital signals for each of said transmitters using a local-area differentiator (LID) and a wide-area differentiator (WID) of said transmitters;

dividing said digital signals received from said transmitters by the corresponding regenerated transmitted signal to obtain channel estimates between said receiver and the corresponding transmitters;

detecting a first peak in said channel estimates to determine a distance between said receiver and said corresponding transmitters, wherein the detecting comprises:

measuring a noise level at slot 5 of said MAC time unit;

measuring a signal level of the remaining slots of said MAC time unit;

obtaining a level of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of said digital signals; and

setting a threshold level to detect each peak in said channel estimates;

calculating a time difference of arrival of said digital signals emitted from said transmitters; and

estimating a current location of said receiver by determining said time difference of arrival associated with geographical coordinates of said receiver.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said slot 3 comprises 21 bits of information, wherein 18 bits represents said TxID and 3 bits represents a number of succeeding position pilot channel (PPC) MAC time units allocated to the transmitter transmitting said slot 3 .

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying said corresponding geographical coordinates of each TxID comprises:

receiving a map of the locations of said transmitters and the identifiers of said transmitters broadcasted by said wireless network;

storing said map into a memory component of said receiver; and

translating the identified TxID of said transmitters to said locations of said transmitters.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

receiving a version number of said map within a control information; and

updating said map for any modifications.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

connecting said receiver to the Internet; and

updating said map for modifications.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calculating of time difference of arrival comprises determining a difference between a time difference of arrival corresponding to a first transmitter and a time difference of arrival corresponding to a second transmitter, and a difference between a time difference of arrival corresponding to said first transmitter and a time difference of arrival corresponding to a third transmitter.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the estimating of current location of said receiver comprises:

transmitting the values of the time difference of arrival corresponding to the first, second, and third transmitters to said wireless network; and

receiving the resulting coordinates indicating said current location of said receiver.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving of digital signals comprises receiving a bit to indicate whether slot 3 contains any of a transmitter location and said TxID.

9. A program storage device readable by computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform an operation of estimating a current location of a receiver in a mobile multimedia multicast system comprising said receiver, at least three transmitters, and a wireless network, said operation comprising:

receiving digital signals comprising a mobile multimedia multicast system superframe comprising orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols;

performing slot 3 processing of each medium access control (MAC) time unit of a data channel to identify a transmitter identity (TxID) of each transmitter;

identifying corresponding geographical coordinates of each TxID;

regenerating said digital signals for each of said transmitters using a local-area differentiator (LID) and a wide-area differentiator (WID) of said transmitters;

dividing said digital signals received from said transmitters by the corresponding regenerated transmitted signal to obtain channel estimates between said receiver and the corresponding transmitters;

detecting a first peak in said channel estimates to determine a distance between said receiver and said corresponding transmitters, wherein the detecting comprises:

measuring a noise level at slot 5 of said MAC time unit;

measuring a signal level of the remaining slots of said MAC time unit;

obtaining a level of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of said digital signals; and

setting a threshold level to detect each peak in said channel estimates;

calculating a time difference of arrival of said digital signals emitted from said transmitters; and

estimating a current location of said receiver by determining said time difference of arrival associated with geographical coordinates of said receiver.

10. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein said slot 3 comprises 21 bits of information, wherein 18 bits represents said TxID and 3 bits represents a number of succeeding position pilot channel (PPC) MAC time units allocated to the transmitter transmitting said slot 3 .

11. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein identifying said corresponding geographical coordinates of each TxID comprises:

receiving a map of the locations of said transmitters and the identifiers of said transmitters broadcasted by said wireless network;

storing said map into a memory component of said receiver; and

translating the identified TxID of said transmitters to said locations of said transmitters.

12. The program storage device of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving a version number of said map within a control information; and

updating said map for any modifications.

13. The program storage device of claim 11 , further comprising:

connecting said receiver to the Internet; and

updating said map for modifications.

14. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein the calculating of time difference of arrival comprises determining a difference between a time difference of arrival corresponding to a first transmitter and a time difference of arrival corresponding to a second transmitter, and a difference between a time difference of arrival corresponding to said first transmitter and a time difference of arrival corresponding to a third transmitter.

15. The program storage device of claim 14 , wherein the estimating of current location of said receiver comprises:

transmitting the values of the time difference of arrival corresponding to the first, second, and third transmitters to said wireless network; and

receiving the resulting coordinates indicating said current location of said receiver.

16. The program storage device of claim 9 , wherein the receiving of digital signals comprises receiving a bit to indicate whether slot 3 contains any of a transmitter location and said TxID.

17. An apparatus for estimating a current location of a wireless device in a mobile multimedia multicast system comprising at least three transmitters in a wireless network, said apparatus comprising:

a receiver that receives digital signals comprising a mobile multimedia multicast system superframe comprising orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; and

a processor that:

performs slot 3 processing of each medium access control (MAC) time unit of a data channel to identify a transmitter identity (TxID) of each transmitter;

identifies corresponding geographical coordinates of each TxID;

regenerates said digital signals for each of said transmitters using a local-area differentiator (LID) and a wide-area differentiator (WID) of said transmitters;

divides said digital signals received from said transmitters by the corresponding regenerated transmitted signal to obtain channel estimates between said receiver and the corresponding transmitters;

detects a first peak in said channel estimates to determine a distance between said receiver and said corresponding transmitters, wherein the detecting comprises:

measuring a noise level at slot 5 of said MAC time unit;

measuring a signal level of the remaining slots of said MAC time unit;

obtaining a level of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of said digital signals; and

setting a threshold level to detect each peak in said channel estimates;

calculates a time difference of arrival of said digital signals emitted from said transmitters; and

estimates a current location of said receiver by determining said time difference of arrival associated with geographical coordinates of said receiver.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein said slot 3 comprises 21 bits of information, wherein 18 bits represents said TxID and 3 bits represents a number of succeeding position pilot channel (PPC) MAC time units allocated to the transmitter transmitting said slot 3 , and wherein said processor receives a map of the locations of said transmitters and the identifiers of said transmitters broadcasted by said wireless network, stores said map into a memory component of said receiver, and translates the identified TxID of said transmitters to said locations of said transmitters.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the calculating of a time difference of arrival comprises said processor determining a difference between a time difference of arrival corresponding to a first transmitter and a time difference of arrival corresponding to a second transmitter, and a difference between a time difference of arrival corresponding to said first transmitter and a time difference of arrival corresponding to a third transmitter.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the estimating of a current location of said receiver comprises said processor:

transmitting the values of the time difference of arrival corresponding to the first, second, and third transmitters to said wireless network; and

receiving the resulting coordinates indicating said current location of said receiver.