Accuracy and performance of a hybrid positioning system

1. A method for determining the position of a WLAN positioning system (WPS) and satellite positioning system (SPS) enabled device comprising:

determining an initial WPS position of the device using WPS;

calculating an error region around the initial WPS position of the device;

dividing the error region into a plurality of points;

obtaining satellite measurements from at least two satellites in view of the device;

determining a variation in a receiver clock bias for each point within the error region based on the satellite measurements from at least two satellites;

selecting the point with the lowest variation in the receiver clock bias; and

determining whether or not to use the point with the lowest variation in receiver clock bias to refine the initial WPS position of the device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the variation in the receiver clock bias is calculated according to the following formula:

τ

_

rms

=

1

N

⁢

∑

i

=

1

N

⁢

(

τ

i

-

τ

_

)

2

where

⁢

⁢

τ

_

=

1

N

⁢

∑

i

=

1

N

⁢

τ

i

is an unbiased sample mean of the receiver clock bias and τ i is the receiver clock bias for the ith satellite.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether or not to use the point with the lowest variation in receiver clock bias to refine the initial WPS position of the device comprises rejecting the point with the lowest receiver clock bias variation if the point is located on an edge of the error region.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether or not to use the point with the lowest variation in receiver clock bias to refine the initial WPS position of the device comprises rejecting the satellite measurements if the region displays monotonicity.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether or not to use the point with the lowest variation in receiver clock bias to refine the initial WPS position of the device comprises rejecting a point having a large variation in receiver clock bias.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a large variation in receiver clock bias comprises 20 and greater.

7. The method of claim 5 comprising evaluating the accuracy of individual satellite measurements in order to lower the variation in the receiver clock bias for a set of satellites, wherein the number of satellites is greater than two.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein evaluating the accuracy of individual satellite measurements comprises:

grouping the satellites into sub-groups of two or more satellites;

determining a variation in receiver clock bias for each of the sub-groups;

comparing the variation of receiver clock bias in the sub-groups to select a sub-group with a minimum SPS receiver clock bias variation; and

determining an individual satellite measurement with an inaccurate receiver clock bias estimate as the satellite which was excluded from the sub-group selected in the previous step.

9. The method of claim 7 comprising:

determining a minimum value of the receiver clock bias;

determining a maximum value of the receiver clock bias;

determining a median value of the receiver clock bias;

comparing the difference between the minimum value and median and maximum value and median and selecting the larger of these two differences; and

determining an individual satellite measurement with an inaccurate receiver clock bias estimate as the satellite which corresponded to the larger selected value in the previous step.

10. The method of claim 7 comprising discarding satellite measurements from satellites that have inaccurate receiver clock bias estimates.

11. The method of claim 1 , determining whether or not to use the point with the lowest variation in receiver clock bias as a refined estimate of the initial WPS position of the device comprises accepting a point having a small receiver clock bias.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein a small variation comprises a value between 0 and 5.

13. The method of claim 1 comprising determining that the WPS position is a final location of the device if no minimum of receiver clock bias variation exists in the error region.

14. The method of claim 1 comprising determining that the WPS position is a final location of the device if value of SPS receiver clock bias was large.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the satellite measurements are obtained from at least three satellites.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the satellite measurements are obtained from more than three satellites.

17. A method for determining the position of a WLAN positioning system (WPS) and satellite positioning system (SPS) enabled device comprising:

determining an initial WPS position of the device using WPS;

calculating an error region around the initial WPS position of the device;

dividing the error region into a plurality of points;

obtaining satellite measurements from at least two satellites in view of the device;

determining a variation of a SPS receiver clock bias for each point within the error region based on the satellite measurements from at least two satellites;

selecting a group of points with the lowest variation in the receiver clock bias; and

determining a new refined position based on the group of points.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the refined location is computed as an average of all the group of points using the following equations:

X

t

=

1

N

⁢

∑

i

=

1

N

⁢

X

i

Y

t

=

1

N

⁢

∑

i

=

1

N

⁢

Y

i

Z

t

=

1

N

⁢

∑

i

=

1

N

⁢

Z

i

(

X

i

,

Y

i

,

Z

i

)

∈

R

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the refined location is computed as a weighted average of all the aggregate points.