Coherent Time Difference of Arrival Estimation Techniques for Frequency Hopping GSM Mobile Radio Signals

In this work, coherent techniques for time difference of arrival estimation for frequency hopping GSM signals are introduced. The techniques provide significant improvements in accuracy compared to state-of-the-art techniques and are ideally suited for highly accurate localization of GSM mobile phones. The key inventive concept is based on the interpretation of a frequency hopping GSM signal as a wideband signal. Thus, the applicable bandwidth for time difference of arrival estimation can be increased from 200 kHz for the narrowband burst signal to the full uplink bandwidth of the corresponding GSM standard. For E-GSM 900 systems, up to 35 MHz of bandwidth can be employed. Consequently, a localization accuracy in the scale of 5 - 10m is achievable. The presented coherent techniques for time difference of arrival estimation permit novel applications with increased accuracy requirements such as highly accurate localization in search and rescue scenarios. Furthermore, the coherent estimation concept can also be adapted to any frequency hopping signal source such as TETRA, DECT, IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) and IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth) devices.

Autorentext

Dr.-Ing. Alexander Gerald Götz studied Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Information Technology at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany and graduated as Dipl.-Ing. Univ. in May 2008. Subsequently he was engaged as research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Institute for Electronics Engineering (Prof. R. Weigel) at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany and graduated as Dr.-Ing. in September 2012. At the Institute for Electronics Engineering he conducted research in the area of GSM mobile phone localization in search and rescue scenarios. His main research interests are in the field of communication engineering, localization and radar technology, digital signal processing, radio frequency engineering as well as analog and digital circuit design.