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Method for a space-efficient gps receiver

Method for a space-efficient gps receiver description/claims

This application is a Continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/368,917, filed Apr. 8, 2008, U.S. Pat. No. 7,355,551, issued Apr. 8, 2008, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to global positioning system (GPS) technology. In particular, the present invention relates to a design of a GPS receiver.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

GPS is a satellite-based radio navigation system. Each GPS satellite, also called a space vehicle (SV), broadcasts time-tagged ranging signals and navigation data, providing signal transmit time, ephemeris (i.e., the SV's orbital parameters) and almanac (i.e., reduced-precision orbital parameters of all SV's in the GPS constellation) to GPS receivers. Each SV is identified by a unique pseudo-random noise (PRN) code that is embedded in its transmitted signal.

A GPS receiver extracts the signal transmit time from each of the satellites it tracks. For each satellite, the difference between the time the satellite's signal is received, as determined by the receiver's clock, and the time the signal is transmitted from the satellite is the apparent transit time. The apparent distance between the satellite and the GPS receiver (“pseudorange”) is the product of this apparent transit time and the speed of light in a vacuum. An accurate position of the satellite can be calculated based on a valid ephemeris broadcast by the satellite. When there are four or more satellites in view of the GPS receiver, the GPS receiver can determine a 3-dimensional receiver position and the receiver clock bias relative to the GPS Time (GPST).

The GPS receiver uses ephemeredes and almanac data to search for visible GPS satellites. Typically, in a GPS receiver implemented on one or more integrated circuits, ephemeredes and almanac data are stored in a non-volatile memory circuit in one of the GPS receiver integrated circuits. Typically, an ephemeris contains a set of ephemeris parameters—valid over a short period of time (e.g., 4 hours)—that enable calculating the satellite's positions and velocities as a function of GPS time. Each GPS satellite broadcasts its own ephemeris as 16 Keplerian parameters as follows: (a) “toe”, which is the reference time of the ephemeris; (b) “Mo”, which is the mean anomaly at the reference time of the orbit; (c) “Δn”, which is the mean motion correction from a computed orbit, (d) “e”, which is the eccentricity of the orbit, (f) “A1/2”, which is the square root of the semi-major axis of the orbit, (g) “ΩO”, which is a longitude of an ascending node of the orbit plane at a weekly epoch, (h) “io”, which is an inclination angle at reference time, (i) “ω”, which is an argument of the perigee of the orbit, (j) “{dot over (Ω)}” (“Omega-dot”), which is a rate of change of a right ascension, (k) “İ” (“I-dot”), which is a rate of change of an inclination angle, and (1) “Cuc”, “Cus”, “Crc”, “Crs”, “Cic”, and “Cis”, which are amplitudes of various harmonic corrections. In addition, an identifying number, called “IODE” (“Issue of Data (ephemeris)”), is assigned to each ephemeris.

Each satellite broadcasts a new ephemeris parameter set every two hours or so. An ephemeris parameter set is regarded as current, valid, or unexpired typically within the time window of ±2 hours of its reference time. Beyond this time window, the accuracies of the satellite's position and velocity, as calculated from this ephemeris, decrease. Thus, the ephemeris is typically regarded as expired outside of the time window.

Each satellite also broadcasts an almanac that gives ephemeris data at reduced precision for all satellites in the constellation (32) of GPS satellites. The time required for a satellite to transmit and for a GPS receiver to receive a complete set of almanac is 12.5 minutes. The almanac data for each satellite includes the following 8 parameters: (a) “toa”, which is reference time of the almanac, (b) “MO”, which is the mean anomaly at reference time of the satellite orbit, (c) “e”, which is the eccentricity of the orbit, (d) “A1/2”, which is the square root of the semi-major axis of the orbit, (e) “di”, which is a value that equals IO-0.3π, (f) “ω”, which is an argument of perigee, and (g) “{dot over (Ω)}”(“Omega-dot”), which is a rate of change of a right ascension. A satellite's position and velocity that are calculated from almanac data are less accurate than those calculated from an ephemeris received from the satellite. However, almanac data is typically regarded as valid for a much longer time than ephemeris data. In fact, almanac data that is up to 2 years old can still be used to determine a satellite's visibility. Typically, a week number is often attached to an almanac or ephemeris parameter set. This week number is often used to help determine whether or not the almanac or ephemeris is current (i.e., unexpired).

A GPS receiver can use ephemeris or almanac data to determine approximately when a satellite would rise above the horizon, given an approximate user position and time. When ephemeredes are unavailable or have expired, almanac data is often used to initiate a search list of possible visible satellites. The rough satellite positions and velocities calculated from almanac or ephemeris data reduce the time-to-first-fix (TTFF), as the GPS receiver starts up.

To meet demands of a GPS receiver starting under different conditions, the GPS receiver typically saves both ephemeredes and almanac data from the satellites in its on-chip non-volatile memory (e.g., an battery backed-up SRAM). So that, whenever the GPS receiver powers up from a previous shut-down, either an unexpired ephemeris or a valid almanac is available to estimate each satellite's position, so as to generate a list of visible satellites to search for.

In an advanced GPS receiver, information provided to a GPS receiver to assist it to acquire satellites is often also saved on the same non-volatile memory, which has become a scarce resource. In some designs, it may become necessary to restructure the GPS receiver hardware to obtain more space in the non-volatile memory. A space-efficient design is highly desirable.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method in a GPS receiver saves non-volatile memory space by not storing almanac data for those satellites for which an up-to-date ephemeris is already available in the GPS receiver. That is, a method of the present invention saves on-chip non-volatile memory space by storing in the non-volatile memory, for each satellite, either an up-to-date ephemeris of each satellite, or up-to-date almanac data, but not both.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when more up-to-date ephemeris or almanac data for a satellite becomes available, the data is stored onto the GPS receiver's non-volatile memory. When the GPS receiver computes a satellite's position to estimate the satellite's visibility, the more up-to-date ephemeris or almanac of the satellite is used. Ephemeredes and almanacs are typically provided to the GPS receiver from satellite live signals, a source on an assisted GPS network, or some other data source.

A method according to one embodiment of the present invention includes: (a) when the GPS receiver has only an ephemeris of a satellite and does not have almanac data for that satellite, the ephemeris—whether current or not—is selected; (b) when the GPS receiver has only almanac data for a satellite and does not have an ephemeris for that satellite, the almanac data is selected; (c) when the GPS receiver has a current or unexpired ephemeris, the ephemeris is selected; (d) when the GPS receiver has both an expired ephemeris and almanac data for a satellite, the GPS receiver compare values for their week number values and selects (1) the almanac data, when the ephemeris and almanac data have the same week number value; and (2) the data with the larger week number value, when the week number values are different. In comparing the week number values, the “rollover” event for the week number is considered. Typically, a larger week number value denotes a more recent date.

In one embodiment of the present invention, data in an expired ephemeris of a satellite is used to create almanac data for the satellite, which can then be used to estimate the position and velocity of the satellite, so as to determine the satellite's visibility. The present invention provides the method to transform ephemeris parameters into almanac parameters.

The present invention is better understood upon consideration of the detailed description below and the accompanying drawings.

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